Misfits (Original Version)

Chapter 4; Fake Professions

Mack's voice boomed through the house out of nowhere, "Uh- Shelby!"

I followed her noise, Jeremy close behind me. She was in my mom's
room. "Oh jeeze you didn't touch anything right? My mom would know
somethings up-"

"There's a ladder down here." She exclaimed confused, she was facing
the wall in the corner.

"Why would she hide a ladder?" I rolled over to see just what Mack
said. A hole in the floor with a ladder going down. "Well I can't go
down there."

"I could test it, to keep you safe Shelby. Make sure it isn't
dangerous, since I cam't get hurt-"

"Yeah, go ahead Mr.Bravery" Mack mumbled.

"I simply want to make sure nothing down there will explode or anything."

        Before Mack could respond, Jeremy was already climbing down the
ladder. When he got to the bottom, he shouted up towards us.

"I think you may want to see this!"

"I can't walk, let alone climb you dippy!" I yelled back.

        Mack sprung into action, her tentacles gently grabbed me and lifted
me out of the chair. She climbed down the ladder, bringing me with her
and making sure she didn't drop me. After almost double the time
Jeremy took die to cautiousness, we made it to the floor. Mack placed
me down, apparently forgetting I couldn't get up.

"Uh, hello, can't walk here-" I grinned, laughing a bit.

"How inconsiderate." Jeremy came over, picked me up, and continued to
carry me bridal style for however long we were down there.

"Like you'd know considerate." Mack muttered.

"I can at least take her handicap into account." He backlashed.

"Alright I don't wanna be stick in someones arms during a brawl, let's
just get going."  I hastily interrupted.

        The walls were a dark purple, and rough to the touch. The floor
looked like it was made of rocks, but was completely flat. The ceiling
had light everywhere, not a single speck of the room was dark. Inside
the enormous room, were huge rows of book shelves, most of which
looked dusty and the cases on the books were leather. With those
taking up an entire half of the room, the other half had indescribably
horrid things. Shelves and shelves of jarred body parts, none of which
looked human. To the left was a huge desk, with one of the hunkiest
computers I'd ever seen. To either side of the oversized keyboard were
open journals, written in with my mother's handwriting. To the right,
stood showcases of robot bodies that looked similar to Jeremy's, but
without the customization of his hair, clothes, and face. They were
terrifying to look at, but a confident hrrmph from Jeremy made me feel
less on edge about those things coming alive and attacking us. Mack
was closely observing the jars on the shelves, and Jeremy and I went
over to the bookcases.
        The books were all science related, about biology or robotics. Since
when was my mom a scientist? She's a night shift nurse.

"I have an unnerving theory about your mom..." Mack broke the silence.

"What is it?" I wasn't really prepared for what was about to come.

"I...I think she was one of the scientists from my unit..."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I recognize these body parts...they're mine."

"Wait...what?!" I motioned for Jeremy to go over to her, and he obeyed.

Mack was just blankly staring at the jars, "I could regrow my body
parts a long time ago, it was just a thing my species can do. I can't
anymore, because of the excessive tests..." She was silent for about a
minute, "I just know that these are mine."

"I...I'm so sorry-" I still couldn't believe her, but I could play
along with that. My mom wasn't a scientist, she couldn't even help me
with my environmental biology homework.

Jeremy's head was leaned towards the robot bodies to the right. "I do
have the uncanny feeling that those are quite alike my design."

"Feeling-" Mack started.

"Not now!" I stopped her.

        If they were right about this, I didn't want to be in here any
longer. Especially with how much time we wasted with Mack and Jeremy
just bickering, my mom was probably going to be home soon.
        I was right about that last statement. All of our heads rose to the
ladder doorway as we heard the main door open upstairs. Footsteps grew
louder as she headed closer and closer to where we were.

"We have to hide" Mack stammered.

"Put me under the desk" I ordered Jeremy, he followed the directions,
and hid in one of the empty robot showcases, looking like he was shit
down. Mack just shoved herself in between bookcases, hoping she
wouldn't be seen.

        We all listened, terrified, as my mother hummed whilst coming down
the ladder. She definitely wasn't making any effort to be quiet. She
made it to the floor, and headed straight over to her bookshelves. I
could just barely see Mack straighten and hold her breath, but mom had
her back facing her. My parent read over a few books, before deciding
on a bright green covered book, but to my dismay, she was coming to
the desk. I tucked my unmoving legs as far as they could go into my
chest, and I slid towards the corner to stay as far away as possible
from the opening. I knew my mom was a lefty, so she leaned on the
opposite side of the desk that I was hiding under. She wouldn't notice
me.
        As she rolled out her black chair and sat down, I held by breath for
as long as possible. She was just happily humming away and writing
things down in her journals. It was too tense, someone needed to do
something. Thankfully, my prayers were answered as Jeremy made eye
contact with me, and signaled that he was going to move. I decided
that when he moved and alerted my mom, Mack would grab me and head up
the ladder and we'd hide in my room, acting like nothing happened. I
mouthed the plan to Mack, and she nodded. Looking back over at Jeremy,
I nodded my head to make him know to move,
        He stepped out of the showcase, and moving as sharply as he could, he
walked over to my mom and grabbed her chair, causing her to jump up in
alarm.

"What the-?!" My mom half screamed.

        Mack burst out of the bookshelf, and stayed out of sight when she
grabbed me and went back up the ladder and to my room. I could only
imagine that Jeremy was doing alright down there. We had grabbed my
wheelchair as we headed back, to make sure my mom didn't become
suspicious.
        I was sitting on my bed, about to pretend to be asleep when Jeremy
burst my door open.

"We have to leave, now"

"Wait, what-" I was confused, what was he talking about.

"Now!" He picked me up and ran out the front door, Mack following
behind us with my wheelchair.

        Behind us, my mom was chasing, yelling things I couldn't make out,
but she looked mad. Not just mad, but furious. She definitely found
out, that we found out, about her secret profession.