CHAPTER THIRTEEN

13

I ran into something hard. Again. I liked being scared, but I hated this Haunted House. I kept getting hurt. I know I signed a waiver, but I thought that it was just part of an act. Then, circus music starts playing from out of nowhere. I hear a loud click and another spotlight shines on a girl.

Someone who’s been missing for years.

Someone I hoped I would never see again.

She was wearing a pink shirt, It had claw marks on the stomach. Then, to my astonishment, a white tiger comes out. A big one. It looked like . . . Muffin! She was growling and hissing at me. Bearing her fangs and drawing her claws. 

And she could talk.

“Hello, Phoenix,” The Muffin looking tiger said to me. 

“Muffin,” I said squinting my eyes, “Is that you? AND YOU CAN TALK?!”

“Yes, I believe you remember my owner . . . Lizzy?”

My eyes grew wide. Sure the talking cat was flabbergasting but seeing Elizabeth after almost two years was . . . it flared up so many emotions for me. Anger, resentment, pain, rage, so many bittersweet memories of her, with her, popped up in my head. 

Then, Muffin just . . . vanished.

I quickly glanced over and noticed the disappearance of my once docile cat friend. I chose to ignore it.

“Hello, Elizabeth.” I crossed my arms and glared at her.

She looked at me bitterly. “Phoenix . . .” she angrily hissed my name. She was the one who was saying my name as I was falling. I thought to myself.

“Yes dearie, I was,” She said to me in a familiar voice, one that didn’t belong to her. She smiled viciously. Could she read my thoughts? Was she the old voice I heard when I first entered this horrible Haunted House?

I narrowed my eyes at her, “What are you smiling about, Elizabeth?”

“Yes, Phoenix, I can read your mind, I can hear your thoughts, and,” her hair started to turn grey and grow long and thin, her skin started to lose color and turn wrinkly. Right in front of my eyes, “I was the voice you heard when you came into the Haunted House.” she said in a frail old lady voice.

“They upgraded me,” she said, her voice getting deeper. “They made me better.” Her voice started getting distorted. “They made me superior!” Fire shot out of her feet and she started to fly slightly off the ground.

“HUH?” She had super freaking powers! “I don’t understand. Who? Who made you like this?”

“The Haunted Housers.”

“What?!” This made no sense to me.

She started blasting fire out of her hands at me. I ran all around and tried avoiding the fire. The good news is, it lit up the room a little, so I could barely see, the bad news is . . . it hurt. Bad. One piece of fire hit my right ankle, with me resulting in a cry of pain. But the weirdest part, the fire was cold, and hard like ice, it was like Icy Hot, it was so cold, that it was hot. The room was on fire, glowing and slightly lit up. 

I wondered if this was just a lucid dream, then I remembered you can’t get hurt in dreams. 

Remember in the beginning, I told you my mother named me Phoenix after someone . . . related to Max? Short story, Max is a person with bird wings on her back that she can control, they came from avian DNA implanted in her when she was a fetus, they were her sixth limbs. 

I closed my eyes, thought about that, and hoped something would happen. Hoped that in this twisted, messed up place that something in here would go my way for once. And then wings shot out powerfully from my back.

I couldn’t spare time being amazed by the fact that I had just grown wings, so I flapped a little, trying to get used to my new wings. “Elizabeth, this is the last time I’m going to fight you,” I growled at her. “so I better make it count!” I flapped up to her, and threw a right jab, hitting her in the nose. A few drops of blood fell out of her nose, and her hands quickly flew up to cover it. “Looks like they didn’t make you indestructible.” My smile was sinister. I continued to throw lightning-fast punches giving her everything Danny taught me, again, and hopefully for the last time. I even tried a spinning kick in the air. I kinda spun outta control, which allowed Elizabeth to get a good jab in, making my ears ring. I felt my body vibrate as I continued to thrash her. I clapped my hands against her ears, making her eyes grow wide and returning the favor for when she made my ears ring earlier. I felt adrenaline course through my veins as I punched her, hearing only her groans, my heart beating, and my breathing, it was like everything was going in slow motion.

I had no idea that Danny was right below me screaming my name.

I hit her with my left-wing, which was a powerful hit. Causing her flame to spark, and eventually go out.

She started falling from at least a hundred yards in the air. 

And she was headed straight for Danny. I looked down and saw him, I must have the raptor vision that Max had too, cause I could see him clearly. Her momentum was increasing, and fast. Danny’s eyes were big and he was stuck in place, it looked like he tried moving his legs but it was like he was stuck in something. Giant gum? I don’t know, but it didn’t matter. My best friend was in trouble, and I needed to save him, and fast. 

I swooped down and grabbed him from the torso. When I wished up these wings, I must have wished up the intense strength with them, ‘cause Danny weighed two hundred and thirty pounds (in mostly muscle) but when I picked him up, it was like picking up a seventeen-pound dog. Incredibly easy. 

“Whoa, Brownie,” He looked up at me, “When did you grow wings?” 

I flew us back into the mendacious “fairyland” trying to find a way out. My face was set and determined to get out of there ASAP, “A few minutes ago, I think that if you close your eyes and think about something you really want, very very hard, it’ll happen.” He looked down and freaked out a little. His legs dangling below us. “Uh, Phe?”

My face was fierce with a little blood from where Elizabeth hit me, “Yeah?”

“Did you forget that I was afraid of heights?”

“Oh, yeah,” I folded in my wings and headed for the ground, just like I remember Max doing in the book. Danny screamed on the way down, I snickered a little under my breath. His scream sounded like a seven-year-old girl getting her braids pulled. He continued to scream when we got close to the ground, and at the last second, I opened my wings back up. Letting them fill with air before we hit the ground. Then, I set Danny down on the ground, told him to stay there and I took off. Playing with my wings a little longer before I returned to reality, or whatever you would call this distorted version of Haunted House reality. My wings were bright white, like an angel’s wings, and so beautiful. It looked like I had a fifteen-foot wingspan. I felt like the real Maximum Ride. I felt like the Phoenix I was meant to be. Flowing and banking just like in the books, feeling the air run through my hair and feathers as I flew through the oddly open Haunted House air was exhilarating.

Then my wings disappeared. I was left falling from a hundred feet in the air.