FREAK

Amber

     I looked at him. Tears filled my eyes. I had just beat the hell out of my husband. I let the tears loose. Crying became sobbing. Now I was gushing blood and tears in front of him.
     I barely noticed when he looked up at me. "You found me. I knew you'd figure it out at some point," his eyes closed after the statement. This made me let out the scream/sob that I had been holding in for all of those years. I continued crying. Until I felt arms around me.
     My blurred vision caught Noah behind me. I think he was crying too. But I wasn't able to hear anything over my own sobs. I swear it had been hours.
     I heard Noah faintly say, "Amber, what's happening to him?"
     I looked up at my late husband. He looked...strange. Things I hadn't noticed before started popping up. Or at least, I thought they were things I hadn't noticed before. But I quickly eradicated that plan when I noticed that the skin around his talons was...steaming up. Now sizzling. Now bubbling. Ew. But...now they were normal, human feet. The skin around his wings did the same. The wings detached from his body, leaving two scars in the shape of an eleven. The wings shriveled into dust.
     He was human. Fully human. But that wouldn't help me. He had to be ali-
     His eyes opened with a grunt. They were no longer black but their usual green.
     "Amb-" I encased him in a hug. Noah joined. We just stayed like that for a while.
     "How did it work?" Noah said to himself.
     "I don't know and I don't care," I responded through sobs.
     "We should probably go," Jackson said quietly, "they're looking for us by now."
     "I can't," I said, "I have to take down the monster that rests at the head of this program. "
     "We don't have anything to work with, Amber. Our weapon is just a knife," Noah held up the knife, still coated with the blood of my husband.
     "It doesn't matter, if I'm good enough, a knife will do," I said blankly.
     "Has she always been this stubborn?" I heard Noah whisper. I'm about one hundred percent sure that Jackson nodded.
     And so I made my way towards the office. Every step was another step closer to ending this dumb 'altercation' ploy. I continued until I was only a step away from the door. I opened it upon finding an old woman.
     "No need, girl," she said, "Dr, Greene has been taken care of."
     After a seconds worth of inspection of the room, I noticed a trail of blood leading to a metal door. There were also a few drops of red on the woman herself.
     "I hope you've taken good care of my son," she said, "I will take care of it from here on, girl. Go live the life you couldn't have."
     "Thank you," the confusion she left me with washed away when I met Noah and Jackson outside of the facility.
     We found our way throughout the city and onto the path back to the safe haven. Finally, Jackson asked the question.
     "So, who's the kid?"
     "Oh, that's Noah. He-" I was cut off by the Noah's quiet response.
     "Your son. I'm your son."
     I hesitated before smiling. "Yes, Jackson. He's our son."
     Jackson's eyes widened. He rested them on Noah, "I'm not a perfect dad. But I'll try to be a good one."
     He giggled.
     We arrived at the camp soon after. Jade greeted us with a huge hug and shouted something about the missing ingredient being something called norepinephrine and how it was found in tears.
     "We figured that out," I said while squeezing  Jackson's hand.
     "Oh my god..." she said while staring straight at him.
     "Um...hey,"he said.
     That seemed to set off a bomb. She screamed. Loud.
     We just walked off to the apartment building.
 

      The whole time, I couldn't help to think. We were the first man cured of altercation, a woman that had made a few mistakes in her past, and a boy who ran from his future.
 
     We're a family of freaks. I'm good with that.