Phoenix

“Um, hi,” I heard a voice say beside me. I opened my eyes, only to see that the hole in the top of the truck showed a red glow. Red meant daytime. We never were awake during daytime. Who had spoken?

I turned to see a new face beside me. There was a new cage next to me, and a boy about my age in it. I sighed. Another person in our group. Since Cathy had died, this must be her replacement. “Hello,” I said. I leaned closer to see the boy’s face. He had stripes like a tiger’s on his face and arms. No question as to what his mutation was.

“Who are you?” he asked me.

“Phoenix,” I said. “Most people call me Nix. But the question is; who are you?”

“Evan,” he said simply. “I can’t believe they caught me again,” he sighed, slouching against the side of his cage.

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?” I asked him, not understanding what he meant.

He looked at me and chuckled. “I had been free. I escaped this horror of a place, once. I was free, but then a man I thought I could trust turned me in,” he said. “They took me to the pound, where I was branded.” He held out his hand, showing a shiny red M burnt into his skin.

I took his hand and looked at the scar in the red light. It looked like it would’ve hurt a lot. “How did you escape?” I asked him, letting his hand go.

He shrugged. “A Guard was lazy, didn’t hold me down as strong as he should’ve. I fought, and ran. I escaped,” he said simply.

How could it be that simple? I sighed. It would never work like that for me if I tried to escape. The Guards never let go of me, they knew I was too strong for just one person, and I wasn’t a fast runner. I was only good at flying, and I couldn’t fly with the braces. They only took the braces off when I was chained to the stage, so I could never be able to fly away. “I’ve been trying to escape since I was four. How could it be that easy for you to escape?” I asked him.

“I don’t know, okay? I just did. I ran and I never looked back,” he said, sounding angry with me.

My eyes widened. “You just left everyone else in your Show?” I asked him, shocked. I don’t know why, but I had assumed that he at least tried to take people with him.

Evan looked at me sharply. “I couldn’t have gone back for them, I could have been captured. It was a choice I had to make,” he said coldly.

I turned away from him. “If I ever escaped, I’d take everyone with me,” I said, closing my eyes.

“That’s your choice,” Evan said, and those were the last words I heard before I fell asleep again.

***

When I next awoke, we were at the venue for the Show. The Third Guard was moving our cages out from the truck, to the side of the stage. “I hope no one dies tonight,” he muttered as he moved my cage. The next cage he moved was Evan’s cage. Evan spat at the Third Guard.

“What the hell?” the Third Guard asked Evan, wiping the spit off of his face. “I understand doing that to someone who’s bullying you, but I didn’t do anything to you,” he said angrily.

Evan shrugged. “You’re a Guard. Do I need more of a reason to disrespect you?” he asked, his voice level.

The Third Guard just shook his head, walking away from Evan.

“He’s different than the other Guards,” I told Evan. “He’s not as cruel,” I tried to convince him.

He looked at me with a look of disgust. “How can you defend someone like that?! He’s one of the bastards that keep us here, and torture us,” he said.

I shook my head. The Third Guard wasn’t like that. Suddenly, my cage was opened, and I was thrown onto the stage.

The Ringmaster sneered at me as I was chained down to the stage, and my wings exposed. The First Guard handed him a thorny vine.

I stayed strong as the Ringmaster ran the vine down my back, the thorns being pushed into deep into the skin. It hurt, but I didn’t give the Ringmaster the satisfaction of knowing that it hurt me.

He ran the vine over my skin twice more, and the stinging sensation made it feel as though my back were on fire. I feel a tear go down my cheek, but I bit my lip and didn’t sob or make any noise.

After realizing that I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hurting me, he let the guards take me back to the cage, locking me inside.

I crouched down and waited, waited for the Show to be over, and for the Third Guard to come and help me and the others get the thorns out of our skin.