Switched

Twenty Three

Vanoss

Children scream around me, playfully. My eyes open to a playground. Thank god it’s not a gorey dream. I notice Delirious sitting on the bench next to me. He smiles and points at something on the playground. I turn just in time to watch Delphinium go down the slide. He’s got to be at least 4 years old. “Did you see me Daddy?!” He shouts from the end of the slide. Delirious chuckles, “We both did baby!” I laugh along with my boyfriend. In the dream Delirious grabs my hand and or fingers intertwine. Something clinks when we do. I look down and notice a silver band on each of our fingers. Excuse me, we aren’t boyfriends, we’re husbands. I wonder when we got married, and who proposed. Probably Delirious.

In our calm sitting a sudden scream rips from one of the children. Everyone runs away from the cause. Delirious sprints over to the situation. I follow close behind him, grabbing onto his hand. At the same time we see our little boy freaking out at the objects appearing on his arms. Little feathers pop out of his skin. They’re a beautiful gray color. When he gets older they’ll be pitch black. Delphinium starts crying. I scoop him up into my arms. “What’s going on?” Delirious panics, but the dream slowly goes black before I answer.

Delirious

Vanoss’s eyes flutter open just as the pilot announces the landing. Thankfully we had baby wipes in Delphinium’s bag to clean up his bloody nose.

“What was it about?” Is the first question that automatically pops out of my mouth. He looks out the window and then slowly back at me. He looks super exhausted, maybe I shouldn’t have asked him. “It wasn’t bad,” he says and holds my hand, his arm easily resting over the baby. “It was about Delphinium.” The name of our child sounded beautiful in his mouth. It was almost like a sweet hum when he said it. I loved it. I love him.

Moo

“Should we even try going back to the apartment?” Wildcat questions. It seemed like we were lost without Vanoss and Delirious, mainly Vanoss though, because he was our leader.

“What are we doing Moo?” Nogla asks. I step back, “No, I’m not taking over.”

“You should,” Wildcat agrees. “Yeah!” Lui chimes in. They all look at me. They needed a leader, we needed a leader. “Maybe I should ask Vanoss-”

“Moo! He’s not here! You don’t need his permission, it was never official anyway,” Wildcat raises his voice at me.

“We all want you to be the leader Moo!” Nogla shouts.

“Early Bird! Early Bird! Early Bird!” Lui cheers while jumping on the small loveseat in the small townhouse.

Why not Moo? What could go wrong? You’ve known Vanoss forever, you could do this.

“Fine!” My heart beats terribly fast and hard. I can hear it in my ears. You can do this Moo! I can do this!

“So, Moo, are we going back to the apartment?” Wildcat questions once again.

“Should we? There’s probably Humane Labs thrown everywhere around there,” I warn. Wildcat groans, “You’re right. Well we can’t restart our group in a small ass townhouse.”

“True,” I agree, and then a marvelous idea hits me in the head.

“You know how some of the bikers have powers?” I smirk and the rest of them slowly nod.

“Well, we can move our headquarters there and sell the apartment there. We can also use the money for extra things. Like bigger and stronger cars, weapons, anything.” After my small burst the other guys look at each other and then smirk, “I love our new leader.” Wildcat crosses his arms and agrees with Nogla.

Vanoss

“So how much work does this place need done?” I question while Delirious drives us to our new place. “I mean it’s a project for us to work on as a family.” Delirious smiles and parks the car in a long driveway connected to a aged, two story house.

I get Delphinium out of the car and carry him to the front steps of the house. Delirious comes up the stairs behind us. He walks in front of us and reaches for the door knob, “Welcome to our new home.”

The interior of the house smelled very old, but it wasn’t too old. It was probably a middle class family home in the 80s. “We better go shopping,” says Delirious. I squeeze his hand and laugh, “Yeah, most definitely.”

We start walking around the house, seeing what things needed work on. I had Del out of his carseat and cradled in my arms. The living room had a beautiful view from a big window. It was a little dirty, but nothing a good cleaning couldn’t do.

“So, when are we going to get started?” I ask. Delirious turns to me and smiles, “As soon as possible.”

Delirious

Vanoss takes Delphinium and goes to the car to wait. I look around some more and find any more things that needed work on. In the kitchen I spot a wooden door that seems to be cracked open and leading into a downward staircase. I make my way down the stairs and hear a slight scratching noise, like the sound of someone trying to start a fire. I move quicker and get closer to the noise.

A little fort is built in the basement. Two chairs covered by a pink blanket. A light flickers from underneath. I easily lift up the blanket to a little girl. About the age of 3. Dragging her finger across the concrete floor and causing a little flame. She looks up at me, “Mama?” I shake my head and get down to her level, “No sweetie, no mama. Do you know where she is?”

The little girl shakes her head and starts to cry. “Shh, it’ll be okay. I’ll take care of you.”

I reach for her and pick her up. Suddenly she bursts into flames. I wince at the slight pain and set her down. She fully cries this time.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize and pick her up again. The flames disappear and no mark is left on her small body. She was merely nervous. I carry her close to me and walk up the stairs. Vanoss and I had another addition to the family, and she was special. Just like us.

***