The Boy Named Fang

I was sitting on the love seat watching some old movie on the television, snacking on some potato chips while my parents were running errands around town. My chores were finished, for the most part, and I didn't really have anything better to do with school being out.

There was a really mushy scene on the television and I scowled in disgust right as a knock resounded from the door.

"Coming!" I called to the guest, turning the volume down and climbing off the couch.

As I walked down the stairs to the front door, I pushed my hair up to give it a messy look while yawning, looking highly unattractive expecting someone like a neighbor of a friend. When I opened the door though, I froze with my hand in my hair and my mouth hanging slightly open.

There was no friend at the front door, nor a neighbor, but there was the most attractive looking guy I had ever seen in my whole life even with all of the cuts, scrapes, and bruises that marred his face and arms.

He was tall, dark and handsome. His hair was matted, but the way it fell just above his shoulders to frame his face made the grime invisible. His skin was pale and his face was young, but he looked to be at least eighteen. His eyes were dark and shimmered with a faint hope, but there was fear, anxiety, and even sadness the dimmed the hope. The clothes he wore were dark just like his hair, but they played up his style perfectly.

I totally was crushing on the guy.

"U-Uh... Hi," I blushed, casually brushing my hair with my fingers. "Can I help you with anything?"

He stared at me in a calculating way before he opened his mouth to respond. "I'm looking for someone. This told me she lives here," the boy replied, handing me a torn sheet of paper that had scribbles all over it.

I took the paper and studied the part that wasn't drawn over and I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand.

The woman who used to live in the very house I lived in was smiling up at me from the photo on the sheet.

I looked between the boy and the photo and again gasped seeing how similar they looked. The boy stared at me, not understanding what was going on with me, but showing in his eyes that he knew I had recognized the woman on the page.

"You know her?" he asked me, hope dripping from his words faintly.

"I don't technically know her, but I know of her. She used to live here before my family moved in. She moved out a few years after her newborn son died in childbirth." I looked at the boy with a very faint smile, "But it seems he didn't die after all."

The handsome boy stayed silent, but his gaze dropped from mine for only a second.

"Come inside, won't you? You look exhausted and I'm sure it'd be more comfortable if we talked inside," I offered.

The boy eyed me suspiciously, like he expected me to transform or something, but eventually he stepped in through the door cautiously.

"My name is Sora, by the way," I smiled after shutting the front door behind him. I glanced at the paper he handed me, smiled some more and then gave it back to him.

He continued to stare at me silently and I chuckled.

"What's you're name, silly? I don't think you want me to call you by that number on that page and I'd rather not label you as a number."

"Fang," he replied, still staring at me.

I looked back at him, "Seems to suit you, Fang. Anyway, come on up. Let's get you cleaned up a bit, okay?"

He nodded and followed me up the stairs and into the hall where I asked him to stay for just a moment. While he waited, I went into my room and grabbed a large t-shirt of mine plus some baggy sweats. Then I went back to Fang and handed the clothes to him.

"Go take a shower, my parents won't mind, and change into these so we can clean the clothes you are wearing now when you're done, okay?" I smiled. "There are clean towels in the bathroom and plenty of shampoo and soap."

Fang glanced between the clothes I gave him and me, unsure of what to do. He still didn't seem to trust me.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh go on. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just being nice." I gently pushed his shoulder to make him nearer to the bathroom and then I just pushed on his back to force him into the room.

In a split second, I felt something unusual under his shirt and then Fang darted into the bathroom, shutting the door and locking it before I could inspect what I felt.

"Weird...

While the wonder of what Fang obviously didn't want me to see plagued me, I started to make various foods, most of which were snack type foods, so that when Fang got out of the shower he would have something to eat. The poor guy looked like he was starved!

I was in the middle of placing a microwaveable personal pan pizza on a plate for Fang when I turned only to be greeted by Fang who stood behind me, holding his dirty clothes to me.

"Lord have mercy you scared me," I replied, grabbing my shirt in shock and breathing heavily. "How are you so quiet?"

Fang didn't answer my question. "Thanks," he simply said.

I smiled, taking his dirty clothes, "No problem. Mi casa is tu casa."

He looked at me confused and I giggled as I walked passed him to run his clothes through the washer.

"That food is for you, by the way!" I called out before I disappeared into the basement.

When I came back up and into the kitchen, I was surprised to see every ounce of food that I made completely gone and Fang sitting at the table with an unusual innocent look.

"Wow... I didn't think you'd be that hungry... Do you, uh, want me to make more?"

Silently he nodded and I instantly went to work finding something quick and easy to make for him.

"What do you know about... my mom?" he asked, struggling a little to get out 'mom.'

I sighed, "Basically what I told you. She moved from here a few years after she thought you died and none of us have seen her since. No one knows where she went and she didn't leave alone though she lived by herself."

Fang looked down at the table in thought.

"Why would the doctor tell your mom you were dead even though he had to have known you were alive?" I asked, not knowing if he would know.

A dark aura surrounded Fang's being and I inwardly shrank away.

"Never mind," I quickly said, placing another pizza in the microwave.

An awkward silence surrounded us and I kept my back to Fang, afraid that I may have made him angry. I felt his gaze on me and that itself scared me.

"Can I trust you?" he suddenly asked me.

I quickly turned to look at Fang, "Of course! I have no intention of hurting you or doing anything to you that you might be thinking I would do. I promise."

His eyes never left my face as he let what I said settle in his mind and when his eyes said he believed me more than before, he stood.

"There is this place we call the Institute," he started. "Lots of kids are sent there or taken there for... experiments."

My eyes widened and I covered my mouth to hide my gasp at the images flying through my head.

Fang's eyes grew sad as he continued. "A lot of them don't live very long because they get turned into these disgusting creatures or just blobs with eyes. Only so many actually survive what they put us through."

"What... What did they do to you?"

Fang hesitated, "They... changed my DNA... Giving me 2% of avian DNA."

"So... you're like... a bird?"

"But I'm 98% human," he added.

I took in what he told me and remembered the odd deformity I felt when I pushed on his back earlier. I looked at him, realization in my eyes and I shifted my stance to be more relaxed.

"Do you have wings? I mean... now that I remember it there was something freaky going on when I pushed you into the bathroom. Not saying you're a freak or anything, but your reaction was kinda freaky."

He nodded and my eyes widened once again in shock.

"You mean you can actually fly around and all that cool stuff?!"

He nodded again.

"That is so cool! I mean, it's not cool that those evil people did that to you and all those other poor kids, but the fact you can fly?! Wow!"

The microwave beeped behind me, but I didn't move to take out the pizza.

"Can... Can I... see them?" I asked, now totally awkward and embarrassed for asking.

Fang didn't move or react.

"You don't have to if you don't want to because I know that there's an obvious reason why you don't walk around with them just hanging out the back of your shirt, but I was just curious and stuff..." I trailed off, realizing I was rambling too much.

"You won't show me off to anyone as the bird freak will you?" Fang asked.

I shook my head, "No way. I wouldn't do that. You're not a freak and who knows what those people out there will do when they see that you have wings. I wouldn't do that to you even though we've only just met. Like I've said, you can trust me."

"Do you have scissors?" Fang asked me after only a moment of silence.

"Yeah!" I replied quickly, pulling some scissors out of a drawer in the kitchen.

Fang took them and then left the kitchen. I wondered what he was doing, but when I heard the bathroom door shut, I understood what he was doing.

"Glad I don't wear that shirt anymore," I giggled, finally pulling the pizza out of the microwave and putting in another one.

I put the finished personal pizza on the table and turned only to be once again surprised by Fang, but this time he had extra appendages.