The Master of Jinx

Chapter 5: The Name

I wake up in the floor of what appears to be my living room, but you can never be sure.

I look up to see a, still pale, girl hovering over me. She just staring. Not saying a word. What is...

"Rahhhh" she yells in my face.

I dart up banging my head on the table top above me and a pain hits me in me chest. I pull my shirt down by the rip to look at the wound... There's nothing. There's nothing.

"What happened. I got shot. Didn't I?" I ask frantically.

"Yes you did, but it's ok. I'll take care of you." She says.

The thing is she replies to me in the calmest manner that anyone ever could reply to a sentence like that, almost reassuring. Almost.

"Thanks. But you really need to get going. And so do I. Thanks for... Whatever it is you did, but my sister needs me. So goodbye... Umm... I don't guess I ever caught your name."

"I don't really have a name." She says as her voice starts to crack.

"What do you mean, everyone has a name, you might not have been called anything. Recently at least, but think back, you must have a name." I say trying to help. It's not working.

She starts to cry and tries to speak. It doesn't work.

"Don't. No. Don't do that. Come on. It'll be okay." I say trying to convince her to stop crying.

"Why? I don't have a family. I don't have a name. I don't even have a home. This is the longest I have ever spent in one place. We'll there was this lab." She manages in between the sobs.

"Come on. They didn't call you anything there." I say. Then I realize that wasn't the right thing to say. She doesn't react.

"There was this girl, she said her name but I can't remember. She saw my wings and never asked my name so she called me Angela. Oh yeah, her name was Pru, I think."

My heart skips a beat. I can hear her talking in the back, but I don't pay attention to it. Pru. My Pru. Helped her escape. Escape from what.

Before I can think about what to do next instincts take over and we are back on the floor again. Her right shoulder in my left hand, her legs under my foot, and her wings pinched together in my right hand.

"Escape from where." I yell menacingly, only inches away from her face at this point.

She's still crying trying to tell me but it is indistinguishable from the sobs.

"I'm sorry, I didn't... I'm really not..." I say trying to convince her that I'm not the bad guy. So I did what everyone would do. I leave the situation. And as I step out the door. Think for a minute then I renter the situation.

I walk up close to her, throw my arms around her, and hug her. I never was big on words. But from the gratifying hug back, this was enough.

"I can't breathe" I murmur.

"Good" she says back, laughing playfully.

She let's go and I start my way out the door. As I look back,to my surprise, she's just staring at me shocked.

"What," I ask, "aren't you coming?"

She flashes a smile and walks out the door right past me. "I thought you were going to leave me, again" she says.