Wings

Chapter One - You're Mine Now

The car started to drive off, Maddie's window was down, although it was only forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit outside. I knew why it was, though. It was so I could say goodbye to my lifetime best friend for a month for her to go to France.

"Goodbye, Mads!" I shouted towards the blonde.

"Bye, Lyla!" She shouted back, enunciating the name I had loathed my entire life. I rolled my eyes and smiled as the glass slowly rose.

You're never alone... My eyes widened when I heard the male voice in my subconscious. You'll always have me... It was a mature voice. A somewhat comforting voice, as if consoling me over my best friend. How I had imagined a male's voice in my mind, I do not know. My mother had not permitted me to so much as look at a male my age, let alone talk to one. The next thing I heard startled me more than what I had heard first.

You're mine now.

The voice was now claiming me. Unlike the other things it had said, this time it sounded certain. No, I had to be imagining this. There was no way it could be happening. I hurriedly ran to my house that was down the block and slammed the door shut behind me. My little brother Jaxon stared up at me with curious eyes. I ruffled his curly, black hair. He smiled and asked me something in such a quiet voice that I could barely hear, but I knew what it was. He wanted food, something my mother had deprived us of our entire lives, only giving us small crumbs of her stuffed-way-too-much sandwiches. But those were only so we could survive.

I told the four year old all of the events of my day as I did every day whilst I made him and I a small pizza to share. We sat down and ate it as I continued with my recollection: Uneventful day at school, walking Maddie to her house, watching NASCAR with Maddie and her father, Maddie leaving, the voices, my walk home.  Jaxon listened very intently and ate half of the small pizza. From being starved for three years of his life until I learned to cook pizzas Jaxon became a big eater. I could only eat two small slices and packed the rest up in a bag and stuffed it to the back of the freezer, behind my mother's gelato.

Jaxon walked to the reading nook in the corner of the room. That was his bed. It sickened me how my mother had upgraded me to a bedroom, yet left him downstairs to cry himself to sleep. I kissed his forehead and told him to go to sleep, that it would be better in the morning. It was only 6:30 PM, so I don't know why I was putting him to bed, but I knew that if my mother got home and he wasn't asleep, we'd both be beat tonight. I walked up to my room and sat down on my bed. I turned on my Ipod Maddie had risked getting me and giving to me at school. I turned on some random song on YouTube, but it seemed distorted. I didn't understand at first, I knew it wasn't a different version of the song, I had checked to make sure. During one of the instrumentals which seemed like at least a minute and a half, it turned to complete static. Through the white noise I could hear a demonic voice.

She's never coming back, you know. But don't worry, I'll always be with you.

I wanted to let out a scream but I heard the door slam. My mother was home from the bar. I quickly threw my Ipod under my air mattress. The drunken woman ran up the stairs and opened my door. I currently lay reading a Stephen King book.

"G-Get up..." I had gotten used to her drunken slur. I did as she told and put a bookmark in my book and threw it at the wall behind me. I had plenty of experience throwing knives as Maddie's older sister had taught me, so the book landed right on the windowsill. To my surprise, there was no blow sent my way. Not even a snarky remark. This scared me. I hadn't even cleaned the living room and she was being so indifferent to the mess of my bedroom. The thing that happened next alarmed me more than the first swing I had ever felt connect with my jaw.

Her arms were wrapped around me, but not my throat. They were wrapped around my torso, as if she was hugging me. She couldn't have been. No, she was just tricking me. Or maybe I was imagining this? Maybe I imagined the entire day? Maybe I was never even born? Maybe all of this was just my imagination? Yeah, I liked to think of it that way. All of this was just a nightmare I had. I was never beat by my mother, was I? No, she loved me all along. My father would be walking up the stairs any minute, wouldn't he?

It was at that moment that I felt my left shoulder gain weight and become moist. My mother was crying. I had never seen the drunken woman begin to cry. Of course, this had to just be part of my imagination as well, right? I heard the sobs coming from the woman I so dearly wished loved me, but I didn't feel anything. I showed no sympathy. All my face showed was a grim smirk. My reflection startled even I. My curly red hair was like a mop on the top of my head, my skin was like porcelain, my light green eyes had turned darker. It was almost like I had been possessed, like I had become someone else. A homeless child on the streets, perhaps. I recognized this face I saw. This was the one my grandfather had showed me a picture of many times. I looked exactly like my father, except I had longer hair. This was also the face that the male version of it had gotten killed over. A look of shock spread across my face. I was turning into the monster that was my father, the monster I was destined to be. 

I let out a sob of my own as I lay my own head on my mother's shoulder. I didn't want this comfort for both of us to ever end, but I knew it had to. I heard her trying to say something.

"What is it, mother?" I held her up off of me so her face was no longer smothered by my shoulder.

"I-I love you, don't you dare forget that. If you hate me, I understand it. I never wanted it to be this way. I never wanted to be this monster. I became this way because of your father, whom you're beginning to resemble in not only looks but in personality. Please, forgive me for my sins. I have looked up to you for so long. You are all that I am not, please understand... I love you, Delyla. You're the best daughter a woman could have." She collapsed to the ground.

I stood there, stunned by the sudden speech.

She must die now, she knows you're mine.