Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 3

By this time, I have gotten onto the roof. And my instincts had been right. There were people at the back door. There were more, though. My house was entirely surrounded by about five S.W.A.T. teams.

Frank Briscoe held a megaphone to his mouth and cars began to stop as my neighbors began to gape at me on the roof, surrounded by guns. “Miss Abelard, we do not want to hurt you. We just want to talk! Won’t you come down?”

“Why’d you bring guns if all you wanted to do was talk? I thought people could talk without guns!” I backed against the outer walls, realizing that they had taken the window too.

“The guns were a reassurance, in case something went wrong. I’m from an agency above the FBI, dedicated to finding people with “special gifts” and helping them help humanity. I was assigned to get you to join this group.”

I felt my wings shift nervously in their bindings. “Why?” I called out.

“Because there is an evil in this world, and it is too much for some of us to handle,” Frank answered.

“You’re telling me,” I muttered under my breath. “So, how’d you find me?” I said a little louder.

“The real Faith Abelard died from a chromosomal mix up. She’s just an alias. But, I will give you this, the fake records you created of the rest of her would-be life are very nearly realistic. However, you forgot about her parents.” I shifted uncomfortably as half the town seemed to be watching what was happening.

“I didn’t forget, I just put them in with the other wildcards of my lifetime. Don’t you think I haven’t been through something like this before? Don’t you think I’ve thought of every possibility and created a plan to escape from something?” I rocked back on the balls of my feet, towards the guns held by the men that had taken my window. I held back a smirk when I found that the guns were shaking. They were afraid of me. Of course, I would be afraid of me too, if I were them.

“Well, you aren’t stupid, I’ll give you that. But how in the world do you plan on escaping an entire S.W.A.T. teams that have loaded guns?” Frank asked.

“The S.W.A.T. team may be armed, but are their guns?” I retorted. Frank nodded briskly. “Well, maybe you should check, you know, give me proof.” Frank muttered something to one of the S.W.A.T. team members.

I watched as the member unloaded the gun and emptied the bullet chamber, only to find sand spilling from the small compartments. “What the. . .” Frank muttered, the sound carrying to my ears.

“Oops, my bad!” I called out. The team was stunned by this revelation, so I only had a few seconds. There was a tree in my yard, and if I could reach that, I had a chance of escape. Freedom. Was it worth the risk? Definitely!!!