Author's note: My first short story about the bird girl Max found at the end of the Angel Experiment. If there are any details that do not match up with The Angel Experiment, please let me know in the comments below.
Something shifted in the shadows. It was a girl, with blond hair and brown eyes. She was very skinny and looked like she could use some more water, too. Then I saw the girl had wings!
The winged girl had no name. She was released from her prison by a blond haired winged girl who broke into her lab. After leaving that place, she just roamed the streets getting food by night and sleep by day. She never talked to anyone, never encountered anyone, until she met me.
Her hair wasn't really blond. It was more a silver color. And her eyes weren't really brown. They were more orange. Her wings were also a vague color. They shined a different color in the sun than in the shadows, so even she didn't know. I think they were a more black-blue color in the shade and a more black-purple color in the sun.
She hid from society mostly to avoid capture. After the blond winged girl freed her, she didn't ever want to see a person in a lab coat or smell the antiseptic smell of a lab. I don't have a lab coat; I don't even know any science past high school, so she didn't hate me. She probably would now.
I decided that evil scientists' making winged people was an unlikely but plausible idea; she decided that trusting some random man from the street was a safe idea. So I gave her food and found better places for her to hide. She couldn't really talk well, but I sort of understood her. She was really sweet.
I don't really know what happened, or how it happened. I was only gone for a week, but she really missed me. I brought bread and jam with me.
"Scott, pass bread please?" She croaked.
"Okay. Would you like me to read you a story?" I always read her a story before I left for the day.
She nodded. "Quick. Sun up."
She told me she wanted me to read her The Lightning Thief using excessive pointing and nodding. The sun was coming up so read her one chapter. I still remember what it was. I read her the chapter "A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers" and she laughed. I'll never forget her laugh.
The day was normal. She's not really in my day life. I have a job, and I don't do anything special, but as I left work I could feel there was something wrong. I had to visit my sister though, so I ignored my premonition and didn't go back until the sun had long set.
"Help," I heard her whimper. "Scott? Helpie?" She said when I came into her view.
There were feathers strewn across the floor of the cave. When I shined my flashlight on her, I saw she had a bad cut on her arm and her eye was swollen shut. She was shivering, curled up into a ball.
"What happened?" I asked, almost in a whisper.
"They came," she said. "Attacking. Hurt me. I don't go back. They cut, hit. I kick."
I basically took that as the people who made her found her and tried to take her, but she fought back, so they injured her. That meant they were coming back.
"Let's move," I suggested. "If we leave, they'll take longer to find you again."
"No, no no no," she whined. "Find me again." She moved the collar on her jacket. There was a necklace I'd never seen before. It had a red blinking light, like a tracking device.
"Darn. Let's move anyway," I said. "It'll confuse them." I tried to get her to stand up. She didn't.
"What's wrong?" I asked. She shook her head and lay there. "Is there something wrong with your legs?"
I touched her left leg and she yelped. I gently rubbed it, and it felt broken. That was going to be a problem. She weighed nearly half of what I did. I tried to pick her up, but she whimpered.
"No no," she pleaded. "Hurtie."
"Okay," I decided. "I'll stay. No work tomorrow."
I gave her a ham sandwich and tried my best to clean her cut and fix her leg to a more comfortable position. I read her more of the Lightning Thief that night. Finally, I brought out my sleeping bag and got ready to sleep.
"Everything's going to be alright." I looked at her. "Stay here. I'll go to sleep. If you see anyone, wake me up, okay?" She nodded.
"Night, night." She whispered. Wrapping the sleeping bag around me to block out the November chill, I fell asleep almost instantly.
I woke up before dawn, the cold dew waking me from my sleep. The next day was normal. The sun came up and she got ready to go to bed.
"I'll bring you some food when you wake up," I told her. "Sleep tight."
"You stay?" She asked. I nodded and she flashed me one of her rare smiles. It brightened my world.
She was a fast sleeper.
Her face was serene, thoughtful when she slept. I thought about all the time I'd spent with her. She looked almost fifteen and had an angelically soft voice. Her grammar and vocabulary were a bit off, but I did my best to teach her. She loved hearing me read books, and I loved spending time with her. I hoped the lab people wouldn't find her and she'd be safe with me.
I stroked her beautiful wings for a bit and then left to get more supplies from my apartment. I also got some lunch for myself at the KFC and got some for her. When I came back, she was awake.
"Hi, my girl," I greeted. "What're you doing up so early?" She opened her wings. They were shining purple-black in the light.
"Wanna fly," she responded. She pointed to her leg.
"Oh," I remembered. "I have something to fix that."
Out of my backpack came a wooden stick and duct tape. In a few minutes, I made her a makeshift cast and crutches. She sat up and I helped her awkwardly stand. She stretched her wings wide, determination lighting in her orange eyes.
"You're going to fly?" I asked. She nodded.
She motioned for me to come over and I launched her into the air, watching her wings swoop down and catch the air. It was magnificent, watching her fly. She was so graceful, like a dolphin in the air.
She finally landed in a heap as the sun started to set. "Owie!" She hissed when she hit her bad leg. I steadied her as we walked back to the cave. She was tired after her long flight.
"You want some food?" I asked her. She nodded. She seemed to like the fried chicken.
She settled into her blankets and I wrapped some more around her. I read the rest of the Lightning Thief and called it a night.
"I'm going to bed now," I told her as I crawled into my sleeping bag.
"Night night," she responded. It took a while to sleep this time, but my dreams were erratic. I saw her like she was yesterday, hurt, helpless, and vulnerable.
I sleep like that for about two hours before she woke me up.
"They coming," was all she said. I was immediately on guard.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"They coming. I gonna die. I gonna die!" She yelled and then burst into tears.
I hugged her warm body, kissed her silver hair, tried to soothe her. "No, you aren't. I'm right here. You're going to be fine." I stroked her powerful feathers and tried to hold her as she shivered from fear.
She shook her head, tears running down her face. "No. I see futures. This is it." My blood ran cold. "I love you," she said. My heart hurt. I loved her so much.
"I love you, too," I whispered, and kissed her wet lips.
We waited a few minutes, shivering in the dark and cold together. Then they came. Hairy wolf men attacked us. We fought back, as hard as we could. But with her injuries and my untrained moves, we were destined to fail.
One of the wolfmen threw me out of the cave. I tried to get back in, but another wolfman pushed me back. I heard her last screech before silence. I hid behind a bush as they carried her once beautiful, but now lifeless, body to a black Ford SUV. They drove off with her, and I sat there, silently cursing and crying at the same time. I loved her so much; she was so beautiful, vibrant, kind.
The sun finally rose, a new day without her. The sun was warm on my face as I walked back to my apartment. I then remembered it was my 21st birthday. All the fun of legally allowed to drink. But it wasn't the same. It's like life was in color when she was still alive, and now it's black and white. But I'll never forget her. Never.
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