By foot it’s taking forever to catch up with the Kadaj and Axel. I can’t believe Kei wouldn’t let us borrow Kiara, it would’ve been so much faster, but then again she wouldn’t be able to carry all of us.
“How much farther, this is taking forever.” I whine. Kiera punches me right in the face.
“Shut up!” She continues like nothing happened. “That was like the hundredth time you complained. You need to suck it up and be a man.” I sigh, and catch up with her rubbing my cheek where she punched me. Everyone has been so grumpy lately.
“We left yesterday, early in the morning. I’m not exactly the fittest person here, so of course it would be hard for me to travel all this way.” I complain.
“We don’t have much farther to go, so shut up for the rest of the way.” She replies back. I look over at her, and she seems so tense. I’ve never seen her like this, everyone seems this way too. I guess I was the only one not taking it so seriously.
“We can stop here for the night, we’ll start again early in the morning.” Jasmine says. She’s been acting like the leader the whole way. I’m not really sure if she is or not, but I honestly don’t care. As long as I don’t have to make the decisions, all is good.
I slump up against a tree, my hands behind my head, and my eyes closed. I am so ready for a good night’s rest. I feel a bag impact into my stomach, which isn’t the greatest feeling. I sit up and look right into Kiera’s eyes. Her eyes are still serious. They haven’t changed the whole way here. I really wish I could make it change, make them sparkle like I usually can. I have a feeling it won’t work this time though. This matter is just too serious for that.
“You’re to go out and find food for the night. Any kind of meat or berries.” I don’t complain or sigh, I just grab the bag and head out into the woods. It actually surprises her that I leave quietly.
I come back later with a bog full of berries and surprisingly a dear. Everyone else is already back and gathered around a fire. I walk into view, but no one says anything. I get a few glances but that’s about it.
“Whoa guys, settle down. All I did was bring the food to help you survive the night.” All the glances turn into glares now. I guess it wasn’t the right time to be joking. I sit down in the circle. “Man why is everyone so grumpy and such.” No one answers. I shift my position and continue speaking. “We just need to learn about each other, and just talk. That always helps at times like this. So let’s start with me. I’ll give my background about my life before I was taken in by the government and we go on from there taking turns sharing, OK?”
“Would you just shut up?” Alice says, but I turn to her with a stern look.
“I will not shut up. I hate it when everyone is always down and not talking, it bothers me that I can’t help and right now this is all that I can do to help.” Everyone looks at me now. “I want you all to be happy and not worry. I know it may seem like I don’t care or worry about anything, but I’m just trying to forget about all the bad things and make life more fun. Sure it doesn’t always work, but I can at least try, and I want my friends to try to.” Everybody is silent.
“I knew I loved you for a reason.” Kiera says. She puts her head on my shoulder/ “Continue honey, tell us all about your past.” I take a deep breath and start telling the story.
“When I was taken in I was about ten years old. Before I was taken, life was not the best for me. I had six other siblings, we were poor, and I was the youngest. My parents left me behind, along with the triplets who were only a year older than me at the time, when they fled the region to escape the government, but instead of killing us they took me in and experimented. The other three didn’t survive though considering how weak we all were. How I survived I don’t know. I loved my oldest brother though. He was always telling me I was born for a reason, that someone wished for me to be in this world and that’s why I’m here. He told me not to worry and just enjoy life at the fullest before its too late, that I should always talk about issues I was having, so I would always follow that advice. So far it’s worked. He was always there though, to listen and help me. He was the one who made me feel wanted.” I look down into the fire the whole time I tell the story. I was hoping people were listening and I wasn’t just boring them.
“Shall I go next?” Kiera asks.
“Go ahead my beloved.” I say in reply.
“To start off, I was only two when I was taken in. I had a younger brother and an older sister, and that’s all. We life was pretty good like it should be for any two year old. All I really remember though is that I was following my sister down the road because we were shopping for groceries. We were heading home and there were these scary guys in black clothing following us. I didn’t really plat attention to it, but my sister pointed it out a lot. We were almost home, when one of them grabbed me as the other one knocked out my sister after she kicked him and bit him. She was trying to protect me, but she wasn’t able. I have no idea what happened to my family though during the clearance of the region.” She looks around to everybody else. “Anybody wanna go next? It actually helps. Trying to remember and telling someone about it.”
“I guess I can.” Alice says. She has had her head on Dan’s lap this whole time listening. I was sure she was asleep. “I was three when I was taken in. It was just me and my parents. We would always have fun together. One day though the people came to the door and asked for my custody. Without an argument or anything, my parents gave me to them. They told me it was for the best. To this day, I still don’t know why they gave me up. I loved them so much, and they told me they loved me too every night.” I can hear her shakily breath in. I think she’s started to cry. Dan starts to stroke her head to calm her, to reassure her. “That’s all I guess. You go next Danny.” He sighs, probably not wanting to speak.
“If I really must.” He looks off into the distance, still stroking her head. “Well it’s actually funny how old I was. I was four, so I was a year older than Alice, and she was a year older than Kiera. Anyway, I don’t really remember that much about my past. All I do know is that when I was two my mom died from cancer. My dad was devastated and went on a rampage. He became so abusive. He would beat me almost every day just to get his anger out. I eventually got sick and tired of it so I ran away. I had no idea where I was going, or how I was going to survive, but I didn’t care. All I knew is that I wanted to get away. I made my way into the woods, and that’s where the guys came and got me. I was surprised to see people, it’s like they tracked me down or something.” He looks around. “Sorry if it’s too much of a sob story, but that’s how life went for me. I’m use to solitude and relying on myself and that’s why I don’t talk much.” I sit here and stare at him. I know we kind of forced him to, but this is the most I’ve ever heard him talk.
“That only leaves Jasmine.” We all turn to her, but she’s already asleep. I laugh, “I guess it doesn’t really matter.”
“Well us girls already know her back story, so it’s OK.” Kiera says. “Let’s just get to bed foe now. We need to get up early.” We all agree with no argument. I think we all wanted to sleep, we haven’t slept in days with all the worry we built up inside. I think that I actually helped a little bit though. Everyone was able to tell who they were and what happened. I’m not quite sure how it helped, but it made us all feel better. And exhausted.
I make my way over by the tree where I was earlier, and lay down. Kiera also comes over and cuddles with me.
“I love you, you know that right? No matter how much you beat me up, or tell me I’m annoying, you’ll always be mine and I’ll never let that change.” I can hear her sigh in contempt.
“I love you too.” She says, but after that she falls asleep. I wrap my arms around her tighter. If anything comes in the night to destroy us or anything, I would be here to protect her.
No matter how weak I am.
YOU ARE READING
Tainted Wings
Fantasy[Written in 2009] Skylar was born with wings, which was a plus, until she was kidnapped by Christopher, a scientist with plans to create a new species. He took her from her friends what family she had, copied her DNA, erased her memory all to make h...
