The Angel Experiment

Cheshirepet

I watch the way the vet moves very carefully as we follow him back to a big x-ray room. He seems pretty trustworthy, but his calmness makes me uneasy. I look at Nikki and she smiles softly, making me feel a little better.

"Will the rest of you please wait out here?" He asks. All twelve of them nod.

As soon as we step inside, I get straight to business. "I need you to make sure none of us have any trackers in us. If we do, they need to be disposed of carefully. They will explode after they've been removed." I tell him. He nods and quickly gets to work.

As he brings the x-ray to my chest, he gasps. "Extraordinary!" He looks closely at my lungs and how thin my bones are. "You, Miss, are a beautiful creature." He stares intently, studying me.

"Thank you, sir. But I really do need you to speed up this process." I tap my foot impatiently. He nods.

"Of course. Call me Dr. West" He takes a few pictures of my wings and looks through them. "You're clean."

"Okay. Good. Now I need you to check the rest of us."

"H-How many are there of you?"

I have to take a moment to think about how many of us could have trackers. "Including me, nine of us could have trackers. Eight of us are . . . Angels." I sigh.

He nods, then pulls me out of the room, taking Gemma with him next. She ends up being clean, as well as Harry. They must not have had enough time to give them trackers. I cringe as Harry's band mates stare with wide open mouths at his wings.

"We will talk about this, later." Liam grumbles.

Shaunda is next. I listen carefully as she speaks to him, trying to use her intelligent, sweet, bubbly personality to make him comfortable around her.

He looks at the x-ray photos for a moment and gasps. "You have one." He tells her.

She nods. "Take it out. But first, we'll need something that can't explode." She says, standing and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Uh . . . Will this work?" He asks, picking up a metal trash can.

"I think so, but there's only one way to find out. And put some water in there, too." She says. He nods and does as she commands, then gets to work on cutting the tracker out of her wing. "Don't numb it. We'll need to fly soon."

Within about ten minutes, the tracker is out and put in the bin. We all wait for it to explode, but it doesn't. "Huh." I stare at the trash can, disgruntled.

"Darcey is next." I say. We bring her into the room and take the x-ray. No tracker. Good. I didn't want her to have to deal with that, anyway.

The rest of the girls go in, all of them ending up with trackers like me and Shaunda. After they're all taken care of and we're all stitched up, I hear a noise. A rumble. As fast as I can, I take the trash can and throw it out the back door of the veterinarian office. It explodes as soon as it hits the ground.

"Alina!" I'm yanked back into the building. Harry holds me tightly in his arms, making sure I didn't get hurt.

"I'm okay, Harry. I'm fine." I reassure him.

"Dr. West, thank you very much for your time and help." I smile softly at him.

"You're quite welcome." He stands from the table he was sitting on, and walks over to me to give me a hug, which I happily return.

"How much do we owe you?" Zayn says, pulling out his wallet.

"Nothing. You don't owe me anything. I just got to work on angels. No charge at all." He grins.

"Thank you again, Dr. West." We smile at him.

"You're welcome." He nods solemnly, then waves us good bye.

We all get in the bus and take off. It doesn't take long before we reach a two-story, tan house with a pretty, little garden on the side. Harry smiles, but then frowns as if he's realizing something. "Alina, this is my childhood house."

"It's beautiful!" I grin, pulling him out of the bus and to the front door. I make sure to tuck in my wings as much as possible.

"I-I don't know what to tell Mum." He looks downward.

"Don't worry. It'll be okay. I'm sure she'll understand." Gemma says, leaning over and knocking on the door. A woman with dark hair and familiar green eyes opens up the door.

"Gemma! Harry!" She gasps, pulling them into a big, motherly hug. My heart quenches. "And who is this?" She grins at me.

"I'm Alina." I return a happy smile to her and lift my hand to shake hers.

"She's Harry's girlfriend." My sensitive hearing picks up on Gemma's whisper and I'm guessing Harry heard her too, since he's glaring at her so viscously. Girlfriend? Is that what I am?

"Oh my goodness!" The woman squeals. "I'm Anne, Harry's mum. It's so wonderful to meet you!" She pulls me into a big hug. My eyes widen as I realize my wings aren't covered by a jacket. They're only folded in.

"Honey, what are you wearing?" Anne asks. "It's so soft."

"Uh . . ." I look at Harry and then Gemma for help.

"Mum, we have some very big things to tell you. You probably need to sit down." Gemma grabs Anne's arm and pulls her to the couch - in their beautifully designed and organized living room - with a straight face and an unreadable expression.

"Honey, what is it?" Anne looks fully concerned. She places her hand on Gemma's arm. I wish I remembered my mom. I wonder if she did those things . . .

"Well, first off, my job that I got was not what I thought it was. Instead of being a medical emergency department, it ended up being an experimentation lab."

"What do you mean? Experimentation for what?" Anne's eyes are very wide.

"It was an experimentation on people. They created angels. I was trying to get out, but then I realized . . . " Gemma begins tearing up as she looks at her brother.

"Oh, sweety . . . What's wrong?"

"They kidnapped Harry." She sobs.

"Well he's okay. He's right here isn't he? Calm down, love. It's okay." She pulls her daughter into a hug.

"Mum, I didn't find out on time!" Gemma cries, and Anne stiffens, pulling back. She looks at Harry.

For the second time, I see his eyes glossed over with tears. "I'm an angel, now, Mum."

"What? That's impossible. You don't look any different to me." Anne frowns.

Harry let's out a sigh. I jump at the sudden movement as Harry snaps his jet-black wings outward, spanning about ten feet on each side, so he has to keep them a little bent.

I wince, waiting for Harry's mother's reaction. She surprises me as she widens her eyes and after her confusion, a little smile appears. "Beautifully unique as always, my son." She grins and I see the relief in Harry's eyes as he pulls her into a hug.