Strange Thoughts

Part Three-Chapter Four-Jay

Cody will not leave me alone about Aubrey/Cheshire. I'm not really sure what to call her now. Whenever I see her signature fanged smile, I look past the fangs, and see sweetness behind it. She has both people in her.

Callum is looking up at me. "Can I see you shift? We've never seen you shift." I don't like to shift. It gives me this unnatural feeling of power, and I don't really like power very much. I like being in the background, living a simple life, although that is the opposite of what life has given me.

I give into Callum's pleas. Everybody watches me, Aubrey too, as I begin to shrink into my Blue Jay form.

I look up at the group, ruffling one of my blue feathered wings. I squawk. Cody picks me up in his hands, and begins cooing. I squawk indignantly. I was not expecting this.

Aubrey gives Cody a look. She raises her eyebrows at me, picks me up, and then drops me. I spread my wings out and begin soaring.

I perch on Cody's head, and dig my tiny bird feet into his scalp, he lets out a yelp of pain. Gray begins to snigger, and I smile as best as by bird beak will let me.

"You get what you deserve!" I say, my deep voice still human. Cody glares at me, but soon breaks into a smile. He begins to laugh. I laugh along with him. Despite how much he annoys me, and the two year age difference, I think we're becoming friends.

I shift back into my human form, and everyone gives me a round of applause.

Aubrey pulls me to the side. "You should tell them." she says. Her voice is edged with worry.

"We are going to leave this place. I think we should all go. This place may have brought us together, but it is dangerous. You are all too young to face this kind of stuff. So are Aubrey and I." Aleya looks up as soon as I say Aubrey's name. A little smile appears on her face.

Cody is clinging to his broken arm, which is in a cast. Gray is narrowing his eyes. Mimi and Callum both look pleased with the idea, and are whispering about it with each other. Aleya seems happy, this is what I think she wanted from the start.

"I'm staying." Gray says. "I have nothing to go back to." The rest chorus, "I'm leaving." Gray looks down at the ground. "Gray, you have us."

"But do I? I could become so much more here. Cody and Aleya cheated on me, I barely know Mimi, and you and Aubrey sent me into an arena to fight. I don't think I'm friends with anyone, except maybe Callum, but I'm not close enough to him to leave."

All that Gray is saying makes sense to me, I kind of agree that he should stay. I think he fits in better here than he would traveling with us, trying to get away from the grasps of Lion and Dr. Claire.

"Plus," Gray adds. "My real mother is here, and I think I would like to get to know her." Aleya gasps.

"I thought you would want to go back to your parents." "I don't," Gray says. "Life is better for me here. I don't need you, or anyone, but I would like to get to know Dr. Claire."

"What's going to happen when we leave?" Mimi asks. Her voice is shaky, something I wouldn't expect from such a calm person.

"They are trying to turn us into power hungry monsters here. To turn the next generation into killers, so they can use us to model the world into what they want."

"Who's they?" Cody asks. "Lion, Dr. Claire, and many more. Don't trust them, no matter what they tell you or what they offer you." I explain. Aubrey walks over to Aleya and Cody and fidgets with their metal chokers. They fall off. Aubrey stamps on them, trying to destroy them as much as she can.

"Let's go now, before they find out we are doing this." I turn to Gray. "Come with us or don't come. It's entirely up to you."

I run my hand through my short dark curls, and shift into a bird. "I'm going to fly down to the exit and see if there are guards there. There's probably none, because no one has ever tried to get out before. They do a good job of manipulating kids to think that the best thing for them is to stay here."

"Be careful." Aubrey says. She pets one of my wings. Cody makes a heart with his hands, still keeping his annoying sense of humor even in these scary times.

I fly out of the room, soaring through the drafts coming from the vents. I go down the hallways, until I find the exit. There is nobody there, it is left alone.

I peek out the window, looking at the people going on their everyday life outside. People are so oblivious about what goes on here. Anyone who decides to explore the buildings normally stays and becomes one of them. It's a pretty unbreakable system.

Most people don't go in because it's a pretty small building on the outside, but there is a lot built underground. The arena is underground, as well as most of the living accommodations, and the lunch hall. Also, no adults come looking for their children because they are sent a letter that they are dead. It's horrible, but most of the kids think that their parents would want them to take the opportunity to come here.

I fly back as fast as I can, which isn't that fast because of how tiny I am. When I get back to Aubrey and the others, I shift back into a human.

"It's all clear." "We better go fast." Aubrey murmurs. "Gray went to find his mother."

We all run out of the door, shooting each other nervous glances. We have become our own family, and I want Gray to be a part of it, but he made his own decision. Maybe he will have a good life here.

We run down the winding hallways, Aubrey in her form of a panther so she can push away anyone who gets in our way.

A man, Brute stops us. "I forgot about you." Aubrey says. "That's because I was gone. Lion recruited me for some other work." He is still wearing an eyepatch over his scarred eye socket.

"Let us pass," Aubrey growls. "Or I'll make you. I'm not afraid, and I am much more powerful than you. You have experienced it first hand." Brute stands still for a second.

"We don't have time for this." Aubrey says, exasperated. She charges past him and the rest of us follow. We run until we get to the exit.

Aubrey shifts back into a human and pushes the door. We run out after her, I hold open the door and count heads. Everyone is here, except Gray. We run as fast and as far as we can, until Cody and Callum both collapse on the ground.

"I'm sorry!" They both shout out. "It's okay, guys. You both have the worst injuries out of everyone here. I take off a backpack that I had grabbed after I had shifted back into a human. I take out some granola bars.

We hide behind a big abandoned building, a place where Lion and Dr. Claire are most likely not to look for us.

"What do we do now?" Callum asks. I shrug my shoulders. I don't really know. I go and sit beside Aubrey. She puts her head on my shoulder, and closes her eyes. We are all pretty lost right now.