Saved or Stolen?

Chapter 2

I sat on the mattress, staring at the floor, my head in my hands. My thoughts swam only in grief, a churning feeling overtaking my stomach.

Just then, a knock came from the door. A quiet voice emanated from the solid metal.

"Hey, can I come in?"

"Yeah," I called. The door slid open and shut behind the figure that emerged. They had short, thick black hair that was combed back. Though, their most prominent features were their fins. They had gils in their neck, and fins on their head, arms, and legs. They were wearing much the same of what I had, except instead of the pants, they were wearing swim trunks.

"Hi, I'm Jaedyn," they said, sticking out a webbed hand for a handshake. I took their hand opened my mouth, a question sitting on my tongue for a few seconds. "Yeah?" Jaedyn smiled.

"Um, is Jaedyn a girl name or boy name?" I asked sheepishly. Jaedyn thought for a second and smiled.

"Yeah, I understand. Right now I'd say girl," she said.

"Wait, right now?" I didn't really understand. "Isn't it like permanent?" Jaedyn's expression darkened for a second.

"Nobody told you about this kinda thing in the-" She paused, observing my wings. "Angelic District?" I shook my head. "I'm something called genderfluid. Sometimes I'm a boy, sometimes I'm a girl, sometimes I'm neither. Right now I'm a girl. If you don't like that, too bad." A grin split my face.

"That. Is so cool! I didn't know people could do that!" I exclaimed. At the last few words, Jaedyn took on a sad smile. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"You called me a person. See, here, in the lab, we're not people. We're experiments. We have numbers and classifications. I just hate them. Mine is Ray 312, but if you call me that I'll knock your lights out," she threatened.

"What's mine then?" I wrapped one wing around my front and fiddled with one of the feathers that was slightly out of place. Jaedyn walked outside, looked at the wall, and went back in.

"Funny thing is, Angel, you don't have a classification. You're 'unknown 1'."

"Wait, what? Unknown? I'm an angelic! Isn't it obvious," I gaped.

"Hey kid, if you have a name just tell me so I don't have to call you one. Because I got assigned to show you around the lab. And yes, you look like an angelic but I heard talk about this halfling thing that looks angelic." Jaedyn smirked. "I hear things around."

"I'm Daedalus, and yes, I am an angelic, there's no way you can tell me otherwise! I'd know if I wasn't!" I growled.

"The kid that was dragged in here did not have bird wings Daedalus," Jaedyn spat. She folded her arms and glared at me. My face fell as I stared at her expression. The kindness had completely drained and left only hostility. I bowed my head.

"I'm sorry Jaedyn, just," I sighed and looked back up at her, "what happened?" Jaedyn's eyes softened and grabbed my bare arm, leading me to the mattress.

"Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that they're going to come in here and ask you about one article of clothing you favor. I chose these," she said, gesturing to her swimming trunks. "They always have your symbol on there, but I'm not sure what they'll do for you. Angelics have a small grey-white feather, I don't know what they'll do for you. I got a little bubble on my shirt though."

"What happened though?" I questioned.

"Oh, yeah. So I'm in the room across from this one, you know, 'cause that's where I sleep and it's past curfew. Then I hear the door lock. Like, they never do that because usually they don't lock it unless you're new and they expect you to leave. Then the intercom comes on in my room and I'm really spooked. This thing like, barely ever works. And then when they come on and I can just hear 'sector seventeen is on lockdown' and I'm really freaked out now because they like never have a lockdown unless everything's really super dangerous and I'm like typing on the keyboard right inside my door and turn it transparent so I can, ya know, see what's up." Jaedyn shot a look at the small interface by my door. It was blank, but I assumed that I could eventually use it to control things inside the room. "So they're like logging this kid on a stretcher and I can hear they're talking about some draconic thing, I don't know what the heck that means but it was you." Jaedyn shut her eyes. "You looked way different but I can remember your face looked the same. Your hair was like, super dark purple, and you had red horns jutting outta your skull, and you didn't have these nice white wings, you had literal giant bat wings that were like red with black webbing." She then held up her fingers, displaying the webbing between her fingers that I assumed made it easier to swim. "It was super frickin creepy man, your eyes opened like once and they were like blood red." Jaedyn shivered, looking into my now light purpley-pink eyes. Silence screamed between us, begging to be broken.

It felt like a half hour before I mumbled a stunned, "oh."

"Yeah," Jaedyn mumbled. She stood up and began to walk out. "Come on kid, I gotta show you around." I gingerly stood up and fanned out my wings, then comfortably tucked them back against my body. "Also, we gotta get you a shirt," she said, eyeing my bare chest.

"Yeah, we probably do," I sighed and followed Jaedyn.