Switched

Nineteen

Vanoss

A light pain is starts in the lower pits of my stomach. I stir awake and flick on the light. I then flip the blanket over myself and- SCREAM!

“LUKE!” My stomach has grown since last night. What the fuck is going on? How?

Luke crashes through the door, “Vanoss! What’s wrong?”

“My stomach! It grew overnight!”

“Calm down! Calm down!” Luke grabs my hand and tries soothing me. He turns away and shouts, “Someone get the medic!” He turns back to me. He fails at soothing me. I want Delirious, where’s my Jonathan?

The medic comes in, a short girl with long black hair and dark skin. She removes the blanket all the way off of me and lifts my shirt. I lose even more of my shit. My stomach is an ugly black and blue. The girl looks at me worried and then at Luke. He nods and she takes out a stethoscope. I can feel the coldness of the object. She listens at every possible spot and frowns. Before I can scream Luke slams his hand to my forehead.

I stand in a field of different flowers. I look down and notice I’m a man again. It’s a miracle! I look around for my Delirious. I spot a tall man in a field of lavender. I run toward him, like in the movies, in slow motion I rush into his arms. The tall man is my boyfriend. I kiss him hard. This time both of us men. While we’re embracing each other a little movement is felt at my legs. I look down and see a little toddler with the darkest color of brown hair. It’s gelled up nice. He smiles and the first thing I notice are his different colored eyes. One is brown and another is blue. I look up at Delirious and a huge smile crosses his face. He lifts the little boy and throws him onto his shoulders.

We all run through the flowers as a family. I hand a dandelion to him and he blows it away. Delirious chuckles and picks out a blue flower and pushes it behind our child’s ear. He giggles and it sounds just like his father’s. I don’t even know his name yet and he’s my own son. The type of flower in his ear is a Blue Delphinium. I smile at our son and think about how our names in the group of friends are weird. “Delphinium,” I state and smile at Delirious. He cocks his head to the side, “Delphinium? I can barely say it!” I laugh and watch the little one blow away more dandelions, the flower still behind his ear. I turn to my love, “How about Del for short?”

“But that’s my nickname!”

“Who uses it?”

A childish frown comes across Batcoon’s face, “No one.”

“See?” I chuckle.

“We just named our son after a flower.”

“Yeah.” I laugh and lay my head on Delirious’s arm.

I better not get used to this happiness. This isn’t my ending… It must be Luke’s power; making people see things.

I awake from the sweet dream to Luke frowning, “Hey.”

“Hey! Thanks for that sweet ass dream to get my hopes up.”

“I’m sorry, but you were freaking the fuck out.”

I heavily sigh, “So what’s happening?” I try to avoid any contact with my stomach. Luke twiddles his thumbs, “Well, there’s no heartbeat.” Speaking of, mine fucking drops. I feel tears rising. Am I supposed to be sad or happy? Now I won’t die at least. I let the tears fall anyway. I lay back down.

Another dude in the gang comes in, “Boss, there’s a few people outside. This guy is super pissed and wants to talk with you.”

“Do you know who it is?” By his stance Luke seems pisses as well. The man shakes his head, “He did give me a name though.”

“Well, what the hell is it?”

“Batcoon.”

I nearly break my legs from jumping off the bed.

Delirious

I wait for the little motorcycle boy to come back. Instead of a little boy, I get a big man.

“Are you this so called Batcoon?”

“Yes.” His face looks so fucking familiar. Have I fought him before? He has the same look of confusion on his face. Does he remember me?

“What do you want?”

“I want my pregnant owl back please.”

“Your pregnant owl?”

“Yes. He’s my boyfriend.”

“Oh, so that’s why in his happy place…”

“His happy place?” Who the fuck is this guy?

“Yeah, my bad. Come in.” I nod toward the boys in the van and continue inside the clubhouse. Before I can walk in I’m attacked by a huge hug.

“EVAN!” I scream in happiness as I spin him around in my arms. His shirt was lifted up so I could see his growing belly. It was a nasty color. I set him down and ask about it. But once I start talking it starts to turn his skin color once again. Everyone in the club gasps. A chick runs over with a stethoscope and listens to the belly. She smiles and steps away, “There’s a heartbeat again.” The guy with the missing eye smirks, “So, if the baby isn’t near it’s other parent it just stops growing?”

“Yes.” Another voice appears, it’s Miranda.

“What the hell is a Humane Labs scientist doing here?”

“She’s with us.” I stand up for her. What’s with this guy?

“Oh, my bad, I’m sorry.” His voice sounds so familiar as well. I look at his biker jacket, “Luke?”

“Yes?”

“Why do I feel like I know you?” I step closer, still holding onto Vanoss’s hand.

“I feel like I know you as well.” Luke stares at me. He puts up his hands and tells everyone to go back to their business. He calls me back to a different room. In the room there’s tons of blankets on a bed. It looks like a nest. I nudge Vanoss in the arm and he chuckles, “Must be my owl instincts.” He made a nest to protect him and the baby.

Luke finally sits down, so I join him.

“What’s your real name?”

“Well, Delirious, but my birth name is Jonathan.”

Luke’s jaw drops, “We do know each other.”

Luke explains everything to me. It started when the boys and I just escaped Humane Labs as 4 year olds. Well the youngest of us being 4. We bumped into Luke and a few other people who were refugees from Humane labs, but they were a few years old than us. Luke was like the leader to them, because he was the oldest. For us we used the wisest, which is Vanoss.

I became close friends with Luke and another boy going by the name Ohm. Luke could make people see things; good or bad. Ohm could remove people’s memories.

When we were all around the age of 18 Luke wanted to show me how strong his power had gotten. His power was strong, too strong. He accidently showed me how our parents were killed before we were taken away as infants. I watched Vanoss’s mother get stabbed to death right after giving birth. Wildcat’s mother was thrown into a pit of fire. They were still in the gown. I finally saw my mother… she was thrown into a tank of water, and they drowned her. Funny I have a slight fear of drowning.

I flipped my shit afterward and Luke asked Ohm to try and remove the fact that I saw any of that. Ohm tried a little too hard, because he was being pressured by Luke. Ohm removed Luke and him from my memories, plus any of the other boys I met with them, but I remember Vanoss, Moo, Wildcat, and Lui.

Luke and I were friends.

I take a swig of my beer and breath heavily, “Holy fuck. So what happened with our dads then?”

“I have no idea,” Luke answers. We both laugh. It was okay, because we never met our fathers nor our mothers. And the same may go for Vanoss and Is’ baby.

***