Ch. 12- Wings

Days Missing: 9      1:33:18 PM

Iris

I lie on my back, the wooden floor making me stiff. I press a pillow I’m holding deeper into my chest. Saxon sits beside me, cross-legged, hands on his knees. The others are laid out across the living room, resting from so many days of searching. Channing and Miren lie sprawled out on the floor playing some hand game. Zane’s stretched out on the couch, eyes fixed at a point on the wall, mind lost in some dream world. Lucas’s pacing the length of the living room, back and forth. Everyone’s reaching their tipping point. Especially Zane.

I find my mind wandering deeply, unable to pull myself free from the darkness that I’ve seemed to have fallen under. I’m stretched out to a thread, barely holding on. I’m tired of being strong. Alexandria was always the strong one, not me. I never needed to be. Not with her there to take care of me and make things better. Guess it was time to grow up.

I felt the pillow slip free of my grip as someone peeled it from my body. It’s Saxon. He positions it under his body, lying down beside me, peering at me cutely. I turn my head, looking back.

“I’m bored.” He whispers, a mischievous look in his eye.

“Well what do you want me to do about it?” I mumble, not sure I want to put up with his playful mood.

“Well,” he says, lowering his voice, aware of the others. “You always have ways of curing my boredom.” He drags a long finger up my arm, and the contact sends tingles through my body, causing goose bumps to rise. I look into his eyes, and they’re starting to dilate.

“Come on, baby.” He whines, drawing out the annoying pet name on a long, exaggerated string, making it hard for me to resist. His little demand was just above a whisper, and I look around, afraid the whole room heard his little desires. No one moves a muscle. Lucas had perched on the edge of a chair, fingers running through his hair.

“Shut up.” I mouth, widening my eyes threateningly.

“Please.” He drags that out too, the word hanging from his tongue.

His finger drags up my leg as he eyes me hungrily. “I know you’re just dying to get me in that room.”

My eyes catch Channing and Miren grinning at us, and I feel my cheeks begin to burn. I eye Saxon, telling him to ‘shut the f**k up’ through my eyes. He turns around to see what I was looking at, and sees Channing and Miren laughing. He smiles back, throwing up a thumbs-up, which sends the boys rolling onto their backs, laughing like maniacs.

I smack Saxon on his chest, who lets out a pathetic whimper from the blow. “Iris, calm down!” he says, laughing. “It’s not like they don’t know.” My jaw drops to the floor from shock, and I rise to a sitting position, planting my hands into the floor, glaring at this boy, unable to believe the amount of confidence he contained. I look back at the other two maniacs, who’ve stopped laughing long enough to look back at me. I stare at them, which sends them back into their fit of laughter.

I find myself giggling, even though I should be furious at Saxon for exploiting our sex life. But I guess there were more pressing matters to tend to.

I look around. Lucas had gotten up from his chair, and was pacing again, and Zane’s begun to squirm in his seat. Channing and Miren have gone back to lying on their stomachs, a glum look replacing their moment of joy.

I can’t help but feel so empty. Even though the house is full, it is completely empty, like a soul that abandoned a body, and it is now an empty carcass. Like a gear missing from a now dysfunctional clock. And it wouldn’t start working again until that gear was returned.

I rolled back onto my back, letting my head thud against the floor. My eyes glazed over as I stared blankly at the ceiling.

Nine days. That’s how long she’s been missing. It’s not like I want to keep count, but it was sort of automatic, like setting a clock to daylight savings time.

I was here at the house when Eneko and Zane stumbled through the door that day, bleeding all over the place. I was in my room when I heard them screaming, yelling that Alexandria had been taken. The moment I saw the look of despair on Zane’s face, my knees went weak, and I had to hold onto the door frame in order to keep from collapsing onto the ground.

I felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Zane fell to the ground, blood spilling from his head, tears flowing uncontrollably down his bruised face. Eneko grabbed at him, trying to hold him up as he fell to the floor. I reached them, wrapping my fingers around his arms, demanding what happened. He couldn’t answer me. He tried, but all that fell from his lips were violent sobs, racking his entire body. My chest began to shudder as my own sobs shattered my body.

I gasp as I pull myself out of the horrid memory. I run my fingers through my hair, pulling a little too hard so that it stung my scalp.

I try to avoid these thoughts that ran through my mind for so many days, but I couldn’t anymore. A horrid image of Alexandria pops up in my fogged mind. She’s all dirty, bruises running up and down her body, fear lacing her features. What were they doing to her? I mean, I’m not stupid. They can’t just be keeping her locked up somewhere. Monsters like this had to be doing things to her. But the thought of someone hurting my sister bit at my soul, like a rabid animal. It festered, turning into anger. The desire to protect her overcomes my body. I feel like it’s my turn to be the big sister. I had the sudden wish to sprout wings from my back and fly to her, rescuing her from whatever horrible place they were keeping her. To be her savior for once, like she was for me.

I push myself off the ground, still clutching the pillow to my chest. I wasn’t feeling social able anymore. I felt Saxon’s eyes on my back as I drifted to our room, shutting the door behind me. I nestle onto the bed, letting the pillows swallow me. They’re soft, like clouds. I close my eyes, letting myself imagine that I’m a bird, in the sky. I spread my wings to full length, letting the wind blow through my feathers, rustling them. I fly towards a place that Alexandria might be.

That sister connection thing is finally kicking in. I know she’s still alive. I can feel it.

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

I’m starting to wonder how many people live in his house? I think they are young people, but there’s never really anything that states that specifically. It strikes me as a kind of bizarre living situation at any rate.

You mention here that Zane came back to the house with some pretty bad injuries but that’s the first I’ve heard about it in this whole book. Feels like I should have known about before now. I don’t remember any reference from Zane’s perspective concerning bruises or gashes in his forehead or any injuries whatsoever. It strikes me as a little bit of a plot hole.

Overall, I’m still concerned that the plot, especially from the perspective of the people at the house is stagnating. I like the fact that Iris seems to have discovered some initiative. I look forward to seeing if and how she runs with it.

[JordanIsaacSmith]

Great description and great development of the characters. It's nice to see a flashback of how things happened when Alex was first taken as well. Great job.

[RainDancer1997]

Wow, this chapter is amazing! It shows the great sisterly connection. And I love that you showed what happened to Zane when he got home and how he was reacting and all:)