Feathers That Won't Fly

Chapter XI Harley Quinn

"Rudy, she needs to go outside sooner or later. If she doesn't die from that, she'll die in here," Ana Harland announced.

A long, grunting sigh escaped from the mouth of Rudolf Harland, and he plowed his large hands through his face. Lines of hard work threatened to show themselves on his young looking face because science is not easy. Science gets you into trouble if you dig too deep, and that's exactly what the Harland's did, only their daughter didn't know it. How could she, when Rudolf and Ana were so good at covering their tracks?

"You know we can't do that." Rudolf sighed. He half wished they hadn't been prepared for this, then they would have died and maybe be in heaven instead of this hell. Well, whatever is there, it's got to be better than this.

Ana Harland, who didn't take kindly to an American pronunciation of her name, placed a firm hand on the fake wood grains of the three little bear's dining table. "She's starting to get headaches. She needs sunlight."

"They might be out there!" Rudolf screamed, his fist banging on the table. If there had been anything on it, it might have flown and hit a wall.

"Mutter, Vater," Quinn walked into the kitchen, swaying side by side. Washing her face had no point to it, because sweat was making its way out her pores and down her pale little face. "It hurts." She cried. And Miss Harland was not one to sob. She didn't cry because it hurt, she cried because Mutter and Vater would never believe what she was hearing.

"Come here liebling. But what headache could bring you such distress?" Ana Harland called to her daughter. An outstretched arm beckoned for her intelligent in no area'd daughter to come close.

"Mutter. The voice I hear. It's there. I'm crazy aren't I? Oh it's pounding like Vater's large hands are squeezing my itty-bitty brain. Get her out Mama!" Quinn didn't understand anything, but that she was in fact, insane. It was worse to feel a fantasy than feel a million daggers enter your body at once.

Instead of comforting lies, the German scientists looked at each other. They weren't thinking, What's wrong with our daughter? But rather, We need to get it out.

"Listen to it," Ana told her daughter. It surprised young Quinn, but she obeyed.

What was the girl saying?

Help me.

Oh, please won't you listen to me?

Help me! I'm inside you! I can't get out!

I can't get back in my own body. My body might die! Please! Get me out!

"Answer it," Ana demanded.

"How can I help you?" Quinn asked. Swallowing dry spit.

I don't know. This hasn't happened before!

"Mutter, she is stuck. A girl is stuck and she can't leave my body. She doesn't know how to get out," Quinn said, her face was contorted, her arms trying to hold it together.

"Rudy, she has to leave!" Ana screamed.

"Mutter...?"

"It's too dangerous!" Rudolf yelled back.

"Vater are you sending me off? Do you think I am crazy? But don't you see what the world has come to? Can't you believe me as well?"

Rudolf and Ana had tuned out their daughter, as they could only focus on each other. They screamed back and forth, each gripping the small table and spitting into each other's mouths, each taking a different side of defense for their daughter. Rudy claiming that Quinn would be eaten alive should she set a dainty little foot in the sunlight, and Ana claiming that their daughter would die of lack of necessary nutrition down here. All the while poor Quinny was screaming her head off louder than the two quarrelers, only for her voice to be muted by large, quite annoying, mental remotes. Quinn was a smart child who, as noted before, was intelligent in the field of nothing, but had simple expectations of herself. She decided that being muted was as good as being absent, and she ran off to her room.

Grabbing her phone off her nightstand, Quinn shoved her earbuds into her ears. Maybe music could swallow the voice of that girl. As she selected a song, her eyes wondered to the top of the screen. Then something weird happened. Connection. She had connection. Why? She didn't know, but she did know how amazing it was. A smile snuck its way onto her face, accompanied by an idea. Now, this idea could be marked as either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart. Nonetheless, it was an idea all the way.

Quinn copied all her contacts into a single text message, her heart thumping wildly in her ears. In the text box she wrote three simple words: "Anybody out there?" She pressed the send button, but held her finger on for a whole minute, wondering if this would even be worth it, but she let go, giving benefit to the doubt. It sent. The message sent. No errors. Nothing. Now she just had to wait and see if anyone was still alive. But Ms. Angelica Quinn Harland waited, staring at her screen for hours, listening to music over the sound of screams from her parents, and scraping screams from that stupid girl who got herself trapped inside of her.

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It had been a whole 24 hours since the screams had started. Quinn couldn't hear them this morning. At first, she was so happy, her cheeks boiled despite the clammy, freezing atmosphere of her home, tears streamed out her eyes, and her face was stuck in a smile, but then she realized something: she couldn't hear anything.

Fear forced itself in welts of red all over Quinn's body. The tears turned hot and full of anger and horrified thoughts. She was deaf. She was broken. Deaf and broken.

Her phone buzzed and alarmed, but of course she couldn't hear. So of course she didn't get to see that someone named Oliver had replied to a text she sent yesterday via the phone that belonged to her best friend Azlyn.