Swooped | ✓

Chapter 23: Running Around Like a Headless Chook

"Who the hell are you?!"the mum screamed, running from her kid to grab a large shovel leaning against a shed. "Liam, Sasha! Get behind me!" The little boy just stared at me, wide-eyed, his tears drying and his nose runny with snot. The teenage girl slowly walked off the porch, not running to her mother but instead trying to get a better image of me on her camera.

"Woah, amazing costume, dude," the girl said, zooming in even further, nodding appreciatively. "Those wings are so life-like."

"Thanks," I said, the girl's mum screaming again as I flapped my wings.

"Sasha! Call the police and get behind me! And you! You! Don't hurt my family!" the mum yelled, waving the shovel around.

"Oh my God, this is hilarious!" Geoff howled in my ear, and in the video chat screen in front of my eyes I could see him rolling around in a fit on the ground. Gia was lounging on a hot pink beanbag next to him, tears in her eyes. Milo just frowned at the screen, eyes narrowed at something.

"Uh, C? That girl is doing an insta live right now," Milo said, and I pressed a finger to my ear.

"What? She's live streaming?" I asked, the girl's gum smacking loudly as she zoomed in. I turned to her camera then, giving the phone a cheerful wave.

"Yeah, she's not exactly famous, but her friends are at least watching. Apparently they love your  halloween costume, but are wondering what the hell you're doing on their roof," Milo said, sending me a video of the girl's current feed.

"Oh, cool! Hi, people watching this live stream! I'm C- Black Dove," I said, standing up from my crouching position. I saw a series of shocked emojis and exclamation marks in the girl's live chat, and may or may not have spotted one eggplant emoji. "Uh, I'm not a creep, I promise! Just your friendly neighbourhood birdman? I came here to help!"

"BirdBOY," Geoff corrected, sounding out of breath after his laughing session.

Turning to Sasha's mother, I slowly pointed to the large tree behind her.

"Um, I saw your Facebook post, and you said that your cat's stuck up there?"

"Are you a stalker?!" the woman screamed, grabbing the back of her daughter's shirt, the girl cursing and saying that she's ruining the live stream. The boy had completely stopped crying now, and was looking at me with awe.

"Oh my God, she thinks you're such a creep!" Gia snorted, dabbing at the tears in her eyes, careful to not disturb her immaculate eye makeup.

"If anyone's the stalker here, it's Milo," I muttered quietly enough so only the Parliament could hear. Milo scoffed, giving me a cool look directly into the camera.

"Are you here to save Lulu?" the boy suddenly asked, and I assumed he was talking about his cat - I didn't scroll down far enough in the post to get to the cat's name.

"Yep!" I said, nodding. The boy's eyes lit up, and he pointed up the tree, hope radiating from his tiny body.

"Wow! Please save Lulu, Mr Superhero! I love Lulu!" the boy said, eyes beginning to water again.

"Liam! Stop talking to the crazy man!" the boy's mum yelled, her daughter rolling her eyes.

"Mum! You're embarrassing me in the live stream!" Sasha whispered, but the laughing emojis bursting in the chat made it clear that everyone could her her.

"Don't worry, Liam! I'll get Lulu for you," I said, the boy nodding. Leaping off the roof, I could hear Liam and Sasha both gasping, followed by the rapid pinging of people yelling in the chat. I easily soared through the air, hovering high up until I latched onto the branch the troublesome Lulu was perched on. The cat hissed, startled, and I slowly raised my hands out to try to calm her.