The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

94. Goodbye Caroline

I didn’t speak. I knew who was on the other line. What I didn’t know was what the hell my mother wanted. Didn’t she know I was busy? Couldn’t she see the giant metal creature parading through downtown? Did she see me on television? Holy hell! Was I on TV?

“Juliana, please,” my mother said quietly. If I didn’t know her, I would say she was worried, afraid. I had to keep myself from scoffing. My mother never worried, at least not about me. I could go missing for a week and a half, and she wouldn’t even blink. 

You’d think that me fighting a giant metal wolf wouldn’t even faze her.

“Please stop,” she pleaded. “Please come down. Run away from that thing. Leave it to the police.”

“They can’t handle this,” I never remembered telling my lips to move. “No one can handle this except for us.”

“Then let those other… let them handle it!” Caroline Davis begged. “Please, just come home to where you’re safe.”

“You think I’m safe at home?” Was my blood supposed to feel like ice in my veins? I’m pretty sure that that isn’t healthy. “You think I’m safe with a mother who sold my soul to the devil?” 

“Juliana…” 

“Don’t call me that!” I finally broke. Angry tears stung my eyes, and I couldn’t stop them. Just like when I fought with my brothers. Just like when I fought with Tony. “You have been calling me by the wrong name for seven years, you asshole! You’ve neglected me, humiliated me, and as if that isn’t bad enough, you sold me to a lab. They tortured me and hurt me and turned me into a freak but you don’t care because your four boys all get to go to fucking college now. Fuck you, Caroline. You’re not my mother, you’re a monster.”

“I had to make a choice,” she sounded indignant now. The crocodile tears of hers were gone. “I had to make sacrifices.”

“It’s not a sacrifice if someone else is the one suffering,” I said quietly, staring over the edge at the wolf. He paced the street, nose to the air. He was hunting, searching for his prey.

Searching for me.

“Please Jul… Lia. Please. Leave this for the other freaks to fight.”

“Shut up,” I growled. “Don’t call them freaks. Those freaks are my only real friends.”

“You’re my daughter,” she whispered. “I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”

“Really?” I had to laugh, but the laughter was full of anger, and hurt. “You couldn’t stand for anything to happen to me? That’s kinda funny, seeing as how you gave consent for me to be tortured for a week and a half.”

“I…” Caroline, the woman who was once my mother, was at a loss for words, and I was proud.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Caroline.” I began, shifting my weight toward the edge of the building. “You no longer have the right to call yourself my mother. As soon as I’m done here, I’m going to take you to the police, and I’m going to fight for custody of Lucy. I think that if you’re willing to let one of your daughters be tortured, you’re not really fit to take care of the other. You think that you know me, that you understand me but you don’t understand anything. I’m not ashamed of what you did to me, what Aaron’s science buddies did to me. I’m fine with what I am, and I’ve come to terms with it. 

“But the fact that you sold me away makes you the worst mother I’ve ever heard of. So stop calling me your daughter, because I’m not anymore. You sold me out, Caroline. You’re the reason that this whole mess started. It’s your fault that theres a killer robot-wolf parading downtown. I’m just cleaning up your mess.” Without even bothering to hang up, I dropped the phone over the edge of the building. It clattered against the metal wolf’s head. It looked up at and growled at me, and I growled back.

And then I fell towards gaping jaws.

I could almost imagine my mother screaming from wherever she was watching.

But then I extended my wings, and levelled out quickly.

I had to forget Caroline. I had to forget her selfishness, and wrongful righteousness. I had to forget my anger at the woman who called herself my mother.

There were hundreds of thousands of lives at stake, and a city to save.

And I was just the freak to save it