Fly Away With Me

“Thought you’d never join us” Zach says.
Zach is on the end of a bench. On his left is Zoe then beside her is Holley. Christian sits where the benches join at a forty-five degree angle than Blake is on his belly occupying a whole bench.
“Shove over” I tell Blake and he quickly scrambles into a sitting position.
Much to my discomfort he moves to the end of the bench forcing me to sit between him and Christian.
“Did you want me to have you all to myself?” Blake asks “I thought it would be more polite to share with Christian”
I murmur a curse under my breath and hit his shoulder.
“Me arm!” Blake exclaims clutching it as if I had just hit it with a sledge hammer.
“Get over it” I tell him rolling my eyes.
I sit down on the green bench.
“I want some explanations” I tell Christian glaring into his green eyes.
I notice his eyes are the same colour as his fringe. They’re dark but wonderful. Just like Zach’s eyes I find them drawing me in. Holding me in place.
“Christian” Zoe snaps.
He blinks and I seize my chance of escaping the depths of his dark green forest. What is wrong with these people?
“What is going on?!” I exclaim loudly drawing the attention of a few passing students.
They look at me with a curled lip. I immediately read it as a mix of contempt and disgust.
“Lovely to see you too!” I yell at one girl who is glaring at me.
Apparently I have ruined her day by speaking too loudly. Oops!
“Wow, what has gotten into you?” Blake asks.
“Yeah, what crawled up your butt?” Zach joins in.
“You” I spit out the word as if it is a rotten fruit.
Zach holds up his hands and leans back.
“What did I do?” He asks as if he is innocent.
“Destroyed my life” I reply before turning on Christian “Explain everything about you and what we are”
I avoid looking too long in their eyes. Never again to I want to feel so powerless and trapped in anyone’s eyes. I especially avoid Zach’s eyes. Those deep seas in his head may be calming when I am around him but afterwards reality threatens to crush as it hits me all at once.
“What do you want to know?” Christian asks.
“I just told you, now start explaining” I say in a huff.
Zach starts to get up.
“Sit down!” I snap at him.
“I just thought you needed a good hug” Zach responds.
“If you touch me I shall shove my foot where it hurts” I threaten and will definitely follow through with that threat.
Zach realises this and relaxing back into his seat.
“Well all of us here have wings, I was the first in this town and as others like me arrived I invited them to join my group” Christian explains quietly.
I refuse to look into his eyes. How do they know about me?
“First Holley joined the school than Zach, Blake and Zoe arrived in the same year and finally you arrived. We didn’t know what you were which is strange.” Christian says.
“Why is that strange?” I ask cutting in.
“Holley is able to sense others like us but you didn’t seem to set off any alarm bells” Zach explains.
“Can just any of us sense others?” I ask intrigued.
“No, it is my ability. I control air and because we are of the air I can sense you” Holley explains flicking her hair back.
I snort not believing her.
“Psh, abilities? Yeah right” I say sarcastically.
“You must have noticed something strange about us and I don’t just mean Holley’s hair” Blake says.
Outrage crosses Holley’s face and she opens her mouth to give Blake a good ol’ tongue lashing but Christian steps in. He whispers in her ear and pats her knee. Whatever he said must have been good because she smiles and ignores Blake’s comment.
“Yes but that is only because you are all freaks of nature, like me” I say
“Why do you hate our kind?” Zoe asks curiously.
“Because we are all monsters, we should be killed”
Everyone’s’ jaws hit the floor.
“What?” They chorus in a mix of outrage and disbelief.
“You heard me, we are hated by all the humans that know of us” I say arguing.
“Who in God’s name told you that lie?!” Holley erupts.
“Doesn’t matter, all that matters is they must be right because they wouldn’t have taken such drastic measures otherwise” I yell back.
I have known her for less than a day but I am already clashing with Holley.
“That is a lie” Christian says sternly.
It is as if he is ordering the group to disregard what I said. Why should he hold such power over them? They aren’t sheep.
“What is your power?” I ask Christian.
“Does it matter?” He asks trying to brush it off.
“Yes” I tell him.
“I can conjure fire” Blake says happily.
This whole group is following Christian like he is some sort of God. It isn’t right. He needs a distraction so Blake steps in. Ridiculous.
“Want to guess my power?” Zach asks me.
“Uhm… you can make people feel depressed?” I ask in all seriousness.
“What?” Zach asks.
“Whenever I go near you I come away feeling terrible” I tell him.
“I specialise in persuasion” Zach informs me wiggling his eyebrows at me deviously.
“Don’t you mean you crush a person’s ability to think?” I ask hardly joking.
“What?” Zach exclaims “I don’t do anything like that! I simply help them make a decision they were already leaning towards.”
“We aren’t some evil beasts” Blake tells me sincerely.
“That is yet to be proven” I respond.
The group sinks into silence then Lucien walks past. His eyes dart to me and irritated expression crosses his features. He walks up to us not seeming to notice the uncomfortable silence or air of tension surrounding us.
“I thought you had somewhere genuinely important to be” Lucien tells me looking, hurt?
“I needed to talk to them” I answer as if I really owe him an explanation.
“I thought you were different then the other students, I thought you didn’t care what others thought about you, I respected that trait in you, I admired you” Lucien says quickly, growing more irritated and upset.
The group sits silently watching this unfold. Lucien scans his eyes over them, spares me one last hurt look then walks away with his head down. That has happened a lot to him today, I guess it is my turn to be walked away from.
“Lucien wait!” I call trying to stand up and chase him but Christian wraps his arm around my shoulder.
Lucien turns willing to talk to me but sees Christian’s arm around me. I try to fight off Christian but I make the mistake of looking into his eyes. Once his eyes catch mine they refuse to let me go. I start to feel tired. First it feels like a small amount of my energy leeches away then whoosh all my strength is gone. I become too exhausted to support myself. If it weren’t for Christian holding me I would slide down to the ground. I lean into him. Out of the corner of my eye I see Lucien’s hurt expression. I have to explain it to him! I want so desperately to move but I can hardly keep myself awake. Sleep reaches out to me. It starts to become to tiresome to pull in that next breath of air. I feel desperate for oxygen but I am too fatigued. It feels like my body is shutting down. I’m folding in on myself until I become nothing at all. Lucien leaves my sight entirely but I’m still stuck against Christian. I want to knock his block off. Every horrible experience I have ever had starts to invade my thoughts. The memories of the day my family were lost escapes the box I had managed to lock it in. I’m too worn out to keep the slow trickle of tears from leaking down my cheeks. It starts to play out in my head has I feel my body slowly give in too the blackness. My heart starts to slow. I loose the sound of blood rushing in my ears. What is happening to me? What is Christian doing? My panicked thoughts loose meaning as they float to a soft buzz in my head. Everything around me becomes distant. I find myself feeling such distance from myself. It feels like I am now watching another girl lay helpless in Christian’s arms. She looks so sad and weak. Her colour is draining from her skin. She starts to close her eyes. She’s giving in. From somewhere far away I hear Zoë’s voice even though she is now hovering over the girl.
“Christian” Zoe snaps.
Zoe lays a gentle hand on my neck searching for a pulse.
“She’s dieing” Zoe hisses at Christian.
Christian looks down at the girl connecting with her eyes. A wave of strength fills me and I am back. I struggle internally to lock away my memories but the images a freshly burned against my eyelids. My strength is returning much slower than it left. I try to push away from Christian but he remains holding me.
“Why would you do that?” Zoe snaps at him.
“I couldn’t just let her go, I didn’t mean to take so much” Christian replies “I’m sorry but I haven’t tasted such strength”
They are talking about me as if I’m not there. He was the one who stole my energy! Most my mind wants to deny that it is possible, but I just experienced it. Somehow he took my energy, apparently. He nearly KILLED me! I am going to kill him! Let me at him! Despite my drive to kill Christian I am still too weak to bat him away from me. He still supports me.
“Control yourself” Zoe hisses then hits his shoulder.
Christian snaps. I see his eyes blaze a deadly green colour. Their colour reminds me of the green that animators use in every kids cartoon to symbolise poison. Christian stands up quickly seeming to forget me hanging limply in his hold. I am released and very nearly hit the ground but Blake dives forward and rescues me. He holds me securely as Christian glares at Zoe.
“You forget your place” He says in a deep commanding voice.
I watch Zoe. She holds her stance for a moment. Zoe has the will to stand up to him, or so it seemed. Like the rest of them I see her give in to him.
“Sorry, I was just concerned” Zoe apologises “Please forgive my rash actions”
I can’t believe this! We are only sixteen year old kids but this guy thinks he is some sort of king.
“Watch yourself” Christian snarls then sits down again.
“You’re freezing” Blake says to me as my strength slowly returns.
Is Christian going to apologise to me? I gather every ounce of strength I have so far to feed my anger.
“Where’s my sorry?” I snap at Christian giving him my best death glare.
“For what?” Christian responds.
“You self centred asshole!” I yell at him.
That’s the last of my energy. I can’t fight will him properly. If he has another comeback I have lost this argument. Christian eyes me with contempt.
“How dare you call him that!” Holley pipes up bristling like a porcupine.
I roll my eyes trying to seem tough but it is hard considering I can’t even sit up on my own.
“Holley, let her recover” Zoe says.
“You’re siding with her?” Holley demands “She just insulted Christian”
“She nearly just lost her life!” Zoë yells back “She has a right to be angry at Christian”
“She nearly left the group to join that pathetic boy, we all know he is up to no good!” Holley argues.
Christian watches the girls fight with a smirk. He is happy he has that effect? I want so badly to wipe that smirk off his face. Suddenly the girls back and forth shouting match turns more serious. Zoe’s head snaps to the side as a red mark appears on her face. Holley hadn’t lifted a finger but from the satisfied gleam in her eyes I could see she had somehow caused it.
“You cow!” Zoe shrieks “You don’t deserve your abilities!”
Holley reacts as if she had been slapped.
“Enough” Zach says stepping between both of them. Brave move.
“Problem with this Zach?” Christian asks Zach with an agitated tone.
Christian had been enjoying that?! Sick, sick kid!
“I just don’t think we want to spend the afternoon in the principle’s office” Zach replies calmly.
“Fair enough” Christian shrugs.
Holley and Zoe glare at each other over Zach’s shoulder. Poor Zach will soon melt under the heat of both those glares. I now have enough strength to support myself, I think. Blake allows me to raise myself from him. I sway for a second and lean against the back of the bench for support. All eyes turn to me. Holley glares at me. Zoe looks at me worriedly. Zach’s gaze is more apologetic. Christian however, eyes me as I would expect a lion to look at a gazelle. Whatever he ‘tasted’ has made him hungry for more. Blake holds his hand out for a minute ready to catch me if I fall. His eyes hold the same concern Zoe’s eyes held for me.

“That was interesting” Holley says after we had all stayed as still as statues for nearly ten minutes.
I was starting to feel back to my normal self finally.
“How so?” Christian asks curiously.
“She smelt like us when she was weak” Holley says.
Smelt like them? What does that mean? Zoe notices my confusion and explains.
“Holley means she could sense that you were like us, she describes the sensation she gets from our kind as kind of a smell they give off” Zoe says.
“So what does that mean for me? After Christian had defiled my psyche you could, smell me?” I ask barely saying the word smell.
“He didn’t defile you, get over yourself” Holley snaps at me before answering my question “Just means when you are charged with the natural energy everybody holds you can hide yourself from me”
“So you are the only one who can sense others?” I ask.
“Yes, I am just powerful” Holley says proudly.
I could imagine her as a bird. Her hair is bright enough to be a tropical bird. She strokes her feathers and now pompously parades them.
“Not really, it is common to be able to sense others even some humans are able to” Zoe tells me completely deflating Holley.
Holley obviously knows this because she doesn’t deny it she simply flicks her hair back and turns up her nose.
“What are we?” I ask noticing when they talk about people they say humans as if we aren’t human.
“There are many theories but no one really knows, some say we are angles sent to guard people, others say we are a version of werewolves but we were once able to morph into birds until wings became a natural feature” Zach explains.
“What is your own theory?” I ask wanting to know what this group thought of themselves.
“Well, I believe my family were given this gift by God generations ago for a heroic deed my ancestor performed” Zach says.
“Aren’t angles descended from heaven demons? Lucifer for example” I question popping a hole in their beliefs.
I watch them each internally scramble for an excuse. They each want to find some way to prove they aren’t demons.
“That is only those angles who turned their backs on God, others were sent to Earth as guardians” Christian explains when he sees his followers are unable to answer me.
They each agree with him smiling, as if they are a flock of sheep. It’s sickening to see.