Wings in Alabama

Chapter 10

My vision was blurry, so I thought it might have been possible I was hallucinating. I awoke on a cold metal floor. I rubbed my eyes and gasped. I wasn't in the bedroom.

I looked around wildly. A cage. I was in a freaking cage! I panted hard and wiped my hair away from my face. I looked at my arm and shrieked. I was wearing a white jumpsuit. I checked my feet; bare-footed. Just a dream, only a dream. I squeezed my flesh with my finger nails as hard as I could before a tiny pinprick of blood appeared. It's not a dream.

I jumped up, or at least, tried to. My head hit the top of the cage, hard, and I rubbed it sorely. I bent back down into a sitting position and observed the lab.

It was just like I'd seen it in the dream. White walls, the kids, the cages, everything.

"You're new?" An unfamiliar voice asked me. "I can tell. You're not morphing yet."

I tracked the voice down to a girl with long blond hair that reached to the middle of her back. She had green eyes, and I wondered if it was Lucy. No, it wasn't her, she didn't glare at me as much. "Wha... wha?"

She rolled her eyes and her fingers wrapped around the small bars of her cage. "What's your name?"

"Rylee," I answered cautiously. I slowly backed away from the girl. I wasn't really a making-new-friends-instantly kind of person, though it didn't qualify with Ashton.

"Anne. I've been here for a while."

"How long, exactly?"

"Um... ah... not too sure. No windows to tell if it's day or night, but they do occasionally turn the lights off, so almost a month."

"A month!!!" I exclaimed. What if I was here for a month? What if my family left me and went back to Michigan without me? No, no they wouldn't do that, my conscience told me, they'd find you eventually. "Do they let you out eventually? Has anyone ever found you guys?"

"Nah, and you must be from the north. It's 'ya'll' down here, kay," she clarified. The way she'd said "nah" made me tremble, like she didn't want to get out, or if she even cared. I slammed my body against the cage back and forth, trying to bust this thing open.

"It's no use," Anne said. She lowered her head. "I've tried. Not gonna get you anywhere near out of here."

I shot her a glare and pushed. It fell over, and I saw a small latch on the bottom. I pulled it up and quickly jumped out. I smirked in Anne's direction and started running for a door. Before I could get to it, a kid about a year or two older than me stepped out.

"Move!" I shouted. Apparently, he didn't get it. He stayed still for a few more moments until I decided to run forward. He stepped in front of me and growled. His eyes flashed red and I tried to push past him. He grabbed my face in his hands. I screamed out in pain as his burning hands held my face. I'm serious, it's like his hands were made of fire.

"Ignis-diabolus!" Anne cried out. I think she was speaking Latin. I recognized "fire-devil," which was a pretty good name for el creepy. Then English. "Let her go you-"

I had to stop there, because she started cursing in Latin. The fact that I recognized a few did not help. Stupid mom for making me take Latin last summer. Stupid Mrs. Le-strange.

He dropped me and I collapsed on the ground. I held my face tenderly and was amazed to find that there were no burns. He grabbed me roughly by my arm and pushed me into a new cage. He slammed the door in my face and ran a finger against my cheek. The pain was unbearable.

I screamed again, but not as loud, and backed up against the back of the cage. He snickered and exited the room. I panted and looked at Anne with wide eyes. She bit her lip. I think she was either trying to come up with something smart to say or trying to make a joke. Either way, I didn't want ant of the two. I wanted normality. I wanted to go home.

˙·٠•●♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥●•٠·˙

I was pretty sure a day had passed in the laboratory. I was positive my family had noticed and were now looking for me.

Then, disrupting my thoughts, my dream was repeated. I saw a scientist coming towards me while all of the other children were injected with syringes. I backed up against the cage when the syringe neared me. And, cue the drop and gasp, I thought.

Right on time, I lunged forward on my hands and groaned painfully. My shoulder-blades ached and I heard the gasp and clatter of the syringe. The gasp was echoed all around the room. Yes, yes, I get it, okay! What ever is on my back is making me a freak show.

I took the opporuntity to look behind me and see what all the fuss was. Then, it was my own turn to gasp. Two, pure white, feathery objects jutted out from my shoulder blades. I wasn't stupid. I knew exactly what they were.

I had wings.