an eternity with wings

Turned

My dad was out of state, and my sisters and brothers were with the other foster parents for a short time. The houses swap my siblings out to keep it easy on both sides, but I stay here alone sometimes since I'm old enough. Dad wouldn't be back until tomorrow, and neither would the kids, so I was alone in the house.
More time by myself to ponder and overthink. I went to my room and sat on the tiny twin bed. My dad's mom said she would be donating a queen bed soon, and I hoped she really meant it. I wouldn't even mind sharing with one of the little twits if it meant getting some leg space. I hated small beds. There was just no room.
I got up and walked over to my desk where countless Polaroid pictures were scattered around, I picked out a few and sat back down on the bed.
The only reason I was even able to have a camera was because people sometimes donate their old stuff to foster kids like me and my "siblings". I would only pretend to like some of the children to keep our dad happy. Of course I wasn't really related to anyone in this house, but I sometimes pretended that I was. To get a feel of what it's like... even if my looks match literally no one's in this house.
I focused on the photos again. There were pictures of me doing dumb stuff that I had planned for the picture, and candid photos of my dad, and two pictures of my friend Jenna.
Jenna hated to have to have her picture taken. I never really knew why. She was beautiful. Her dad is white and her mom is from Mexico. They got together and the result was Jenna, who has curly dark hair and perfect, toffee skin. Though she almost never wears her natural hair, more often than not- it's straightened.
The two pictures I had of her were taken right before she screamed at me and said never to do it again, but I had done it anyway.
I set the pictures back down on my desk, and picked up a book from the floor. "Secrets of the Undead" was the title. Probably one of the boys books. I had never really believed in fairytales like zombies or vampires, but I liked to read about them. It let me see other people's perspectives on the creatures. I started reading the first paragraph, then got distracted and looked out of my window.
It was starting to get dark. Oddly, it wasn't too humid outside.
No fog on the window.
We live in Texas, so a winter night still gets as hot as 75 degrees outside. But after checking the weather on my phone I discovered it was 68 outside. Cool and crisp.
I stared at my longboard leaning against the wall. Next to it were some old toys that none of us played with anymore. The youngest kid here is eight, so you could imagine why.
Since my dad wasn't here, he couldn't tell me not to, so I went out to go longboarding. I loved to board. Just feeling the wind on my face as I glided on the road was better than anything. I walked barefoot down our rough street until it started to get smoother, and hopped on.
Before I shoved off, I looked back at the old, beat up two story house where I lived.
It was only big enough to accommodate a family of maybe five, but somehow, eleven of us reside there, including me and our "dad". Six boys and four girls.
I'm the oldest out of everyone.
I breathed in and whipped my head forward, not bothering to think about what went on inside those century-old walls. I pushed until I was going fast enough for my liking, and started to head towards my favorite hill nearby. The wind slowly blew my worries from my shoulders. As I was gliding, I heard voices, then heard someone yell,
"Selene!"
Jenna. She was with some other people, too. I boarded towards the street they were walking on, went up to them and stepped off. She was with Barry, Mitch, and a few girls. I walked closer to Jenna so we could do our handshake.
"Sup guys."
A bunch of 'Hey dudes' followed.

"Where are y'all going?"

"Oh we don't really know." 

Jenna replied for me. I decided to join them wherever they ended up. We started walking down some streets, and eventually started to play truth or dare. 

Jenna dared Mitch to do a backflip off of a tractor, and he said he knew where one was. He led us to an old barn I'd been to a couple times before with Jenna.
Last time we came, we found old beakers and flasks, and a dead possum. We were convinced it was an old meth lab that had been busted. There were lights, but when we came, we went home before we tried them out. The ceiling had lots of plastic skylights that were covered in leaves. The barn itself was huge but mostly cluttered with neat old stuff, it was really a cool place.
When we found the light switches, we flipped them and a few seconds later, lights sputtered to life. We pushed a lot of the stuff back to reveal a huge tire swing I hadn't noticed before, it looked like it was made from a tractor wheel. It could easily hold three or four people. Soon we made a bunch of cool seats out of the old farming supplies. A little later I got on the swing and people started pushing me.
I held onto the rope as they slowly got it swinging high off the ground. It had to be hard work because this thing was heavy. This was another one of my pleasures- swinging. I guess the wind in my face, whipping my hair really just makes me happy.
My swinging was later interrupted by Barry jumping on with me. I'd known Barry for a long time. He used to date one of my friends, but they only lasted for about a week.
He was nice but I had never really gotten to know him.
He was pretty handsome actually, he had light hair- cropped shorter since I'd last seen it, and his teeth looked a little straighter, too. Weird. He couldn't be older than about eighteen, I wasn't sure, though.
"What's up Selene?"  
"The opposite of down"
I always do  that when someone asks me. He laughed.
"Man, the last time I came to this dump it was actually a pretty nice place."
After he spoke, Mitch yelled
"3..2...1!"
And did a backflip- no two backflips off of a tractor. Everyone cheered. I did too. Later, I striked up the conversation again, huffed out a laugh and said, 
"Huh, how long ago was that?"
He looked around, squinted his eyes and said
"Eh about forty years or so, give or take. Mitch and I used to come here and- "
I whipped my head up at him and interrupted him.
"What?"
When he realized I was really clueless, the color drained from his face as he fumbled for words and said,
"You're not- wait- You didn't know? Oh."
I just looked at him and choked out,
"Wait, what do you mean? What is it?"
People stopped talking. When we looked just as clueless as they were- they started again.
I began to feel uneasy, and I was still very confused. My heart sped up. Barry looked at me and whispered
"Hold on, just- ah. Ok let me show you. Come on."
We hopped off the swing and walked towards the door.
I was starting to freak out.
What did he mean, forty years ago?
"Barry, can you just tell me?"
"Not here- with everyone."
I had no idea what was going on. He couldn't be over fifty years old.
Mitch either.
He opened the door and shoved me through, then led me to the back of the barn and shoved me into a wall.
"What the hell are you doing, Barry?"
His hands were still on my shoulders as he looked around, there wasn't much to see, it was dark- but it was light enough to see outlines.
He looked at me. He knew I was pissed.
"Selene listen. Please. I thought Jenna would have told you by now, but- damn- I suck at explaining, but I'm gonna give you a choice, because I know you're gonna tell someone about this."
I would tell someone.
Now.
I tried to shove him off and run, but when I pushed him, he didn't budge. At all. I would be better off shoving a boulder. I started panicking.
"What the shit? Barry I'm not playing. What are you doing?"
My arms fumbled around, trying to grab on to him, do anything to try to shove him away.