DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 6 - From the Ashes

Suddenly I stopped falling. The wind that was rushing by me had calmed down to something more like a gentle breeze. I was afraid to open my eyes. "Am I... Am I dead...?" I thought to myself. Then, another voice in my head answered. No.

It was the same voice that has told me to jump. Shocked, I opened my eyes, and found myself slowly drifting to the ground. "What the," I said to myself as I looked up, and there they were, the 8 ravens. They had grabbed me with their talons, and were gently lowering me to the ground. I either lost a ton of weight, or those were some damn strong birds.

"Thank you," I said, and they seemed to understand. I smiled, and as soon as they laid me down, they all scattered. I got up, and watched them all fly away in their respective directions. It was beautiful. "Where'd he go?" I heard the guards' deep monotonous voices from my window. I looked up, smirked, then limped to the street and got a taxi. Finally, I got to go home.

The blinding heat. An overwhelming blaze. I remember it, those moments were seared into my mind. It's one of the few things that stuck with me. "Sir! Sir! Should I call the fire department?" I was speechless. I slowly opened the door to the taxi and climbed out, not taking my eyes off the fire for a second. "I'm calling them!"

Before the cab driver got the chance to dial 911, you could hear the sirens blazing. Or at least I could. They would be here any second, but it was too late. Nothing could save my house now. Everything was gone. I slowly walked to edge of my yard, and stood there, watching. My life was literally going up in flames.

I thought to myself, "In one short month... One single month, I went from being a medical student, to being a homeless, jobless orphan running away from the world's largest growing corporation." I felt overwhelmingly depressed and hopeless, but soon my sorrow was replaced with anger.

I looked down, and saw a small piece of paper. I picked it up. It was a business card. "Druid Hill's Center for Corrector Research. Head Scientist and Genetic Engineer. Vaine Soran." I turned the card over, and my heart almost stopped. There was a message written in black pen on the back. "I was waiting for you at 3."

The next few moments felt like a dream, or rather, a nightmare. I was in my body, but I felt as if I had no control over myself. The firemen arrived along with a few police cars and an ambulance. One of the cops talked to me as he pulled me away. I couldn't tell what he was saying, I was in shock.

He sat me down on the back of the open ambulance. The doctors immediately began to check me and started to ask me questions about my wounds. I raised my head and looked at them, but I wasn't looking at them, only my eyes were. My mind wasn't with my body, it was lost in its own shadows. I felt my eyes start to roll back in my head and my breathing began to get heavy. My heart began to pound and race, and soon I found myself gasping for air again. The doctors began to force a mask onto me and then gave me a shot. I was out like a light.

I woke up laying on the floor of that ambulance. My mind was still in a haze, but at least now I was conscious. I heard the taxi driver talking to the police. "Yes sir. The house was already on fire by the time we got here. We only made it here minutes before you did." Then I heard doctors whispering to each other.

"This man has no injuries from the fire, but did you see that bullet wound on his left leg?"

"Yeah, I did. It's fresh. Poor guy. His house burned down, he's been shot, and the cops are probably going to hound him for this."

"Why would they do that? It's not his fault his house burned down, taxi driver says he wasn't even here. As for the wound, it's not like he shot someone, he seems to be the victim in both cases."

"I overheard the detectives talking to one another. They say the fire was no accident. Someone started it. With that and this mysterious bullet wound, this guy had better have some good answers or he might be in trouble." I began to feel sick. What was I supposed to say? The company that cured cancer is out to get me? They wouldn't believe that for a second.