The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

97. I Can't Give Up

But the water that I hit wasn’t water.

As I grew closer and closer to the salty waves, the air around me grew colder. And when I extended my wings slightly and slowed my flight, I was smiling. I didn’t hit water, at least not in liquid form.

I touched down onto ice.

Wolfy growled, narrowing his blood red eyes at me, standing on a platform of ice in the middle of the Boston Bay. The screams cut off suddenly, and I smirked. 

Buster lowered his front legs, as if he was about to lunge at me. I lifted my foot, and slammed it down on the ice beneath me. Flowers of frost erupted across the metal joints and plates of its legs, freezing them solid and still.

I walked toward Fido, smiling so wide that my cheeks hurt. We had done it. I had done it. I had stopped a giant, murderous metal creature from killing my family. I had saved Boston from a monster.

It was probably because I had gotten hit very hard that I forgot about the head. Getting thrown into the air tends to rattle you a bit, so it’s completely understandable that I would forget certain things.

Like the wolfs head.

Teeth shot towards me, and I threw my hands up to protect my face. The wolf’s head wasn’t frozen so it could still kill me. Oh god I’m gonna die!

But no jaws clamped around me. No teeth bit through flesh and bone.

I opened my eyes.

A solid beam of ice connected from my platform to the wolf’s head, encircling the jaws, and holding him entirely still.

I could hear Benny crowing across the water.

And then the ice was rocking, and arms were tight around me. I rested my head against Simon’s chest gratefully. Gravity was dragging downward at me, urging me closer and closer to the ground. I slumped, letting my amazing boyfriend support my weight.

We had survived.

We were okay.

I grinned at the sky.

Emily and Mitchell stood over me, looking concerned. I didn’t notice it then, but their hands were entwined tightly. I didn’t even see them, really. The only person I saw was Simon.

“Simon…” My voice was hoarse, and my throat was sore.

“Hey,” he whispered, kneeling beside me. “Hey there, Jewel.”

“Don’t… call me Jewel…” I gasped out. “You douche.” Simon laughed.

“Alright, Jewel,” I nuzzled my shoulder against his leg. 

“How did you get here?” I wondered aloud.

“I carried them,” Mitchell replied, voice as loud as an explosion after Simon and my whispers. “And I jumped.”

“Oh,” how else could I respond? “Alright. Would you guys mind taking down Clifford? I’m kinda beat.”

“Alright,” Simon replied.

“Em, you stay here with Lia,” Mitchell instructed. Then he tossed Simon over his shoulder and leapt towards the wolf. Simon waved cheerfully.

I stared at the sky, listening to the boys pull the evil creature apart. Mitchell tore away chunks of metal with his bare hands, and Simon used his telekinesis. Huge pieces of metal crashed into the bay, cracking the ice around Wolfy.

I sat up a second too late.

“Splash,” Emily said, looking over at where the boys should be, on the wolf’s shoulders.

They weren’t.

Simon and Mitchell thrashed in the icy water, and this time I screamed and, without thinking, unfroze the water. I tried to heat it, to keep the boy I loved and his best friend from getting hypothermia.

And unfortunately, I freed the wolf.

He lunged at us, at Emily and I. Simon screamed again from the water, but I wasn’t afraid.

I was just tired.

I was so tired of fighting, of struggling day after day just to survive and have to live my life as a worthless freak. I was tired of getting up every day and having to hide the things that made me special.

I was so, so sick of life.

I was sick of my mother, and my family, minus Seth, Cody, and Lucy. I was sick of school, and the people who thought they were that they had the biggest problems. I was sick of having to correct people when they called me Juliana. I was sick of homework, and fighting, and swimming, and eating, and sleeping, and living. I was sick of being a freak. I wanted all of it, all of this useless anger and pain and hope, to end. 

I wanted to let Fido tear into me with his teeth. I wanted to die.

But that would be weak.

As the giant metal wolf flew towards me and Emily, I motioned upwards with one of my hands. A spear of ice shot upwards, through the bottom of it’s jaw and out the top of its head, right between the ears.

I stared into its eyes as the creature shut down.

Maybe I’m sick of life, I thought as I fell back against the ice. But that’s no reason to give up.