I was glad everyone was okay, things had settled down a bit. Of course that was until everyone learned the that Dylan had brought back that flash drive. Theo wanted to know immediately what is was and Chespin was equally excited. We waited to open it though, we didn't do anything until Anakin said we could see Dylan.
He was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, his yellow eyes blinking open and closed, Icie was talking to him, but she stopped when we walked in, Theo, Chespin, and me.
"Hey Justin, what's up?" She asked.
I smiled sheepishly as Dylan sat up. "Well, we figured with all that work you put into getting the bloody thing, you might as well be present when we try to open it."
Dylan look surprised. "Oh, thanks."
Anakin shrugged, sitting down in a chair across from the bed, and a cup of coffee floated towards him. "Go ahead."
Chespin handed Dylan the laptop, hoping up on the bed, I stood to the side, Theo in the back, Icie wanted to see to as Dylan opened it up. I handed him the flash drive Will had given me earlier.
"So how does this work? Do I just plug it or..." Dylan asked quietly.
"Yeah, I'll handle everything afterwords but you should be the one to do it." Chespin explained, Dylan followed his advice.
A friendly looking square popped up, and loading bar, it looked like it would take a few minutes.
"So how are you doing Dylan?" Theo asked.
Dylan shrugged, getting quiet all of a sudden. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Icie glance warily at Dylan.
"He'll be okay, minor injuries are scrapes and minor burns. He told me he took one of the serums there, I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it kind of latched on to all of the wolf cells and...burnt them out I guess? Anyway it was way to much, no more transforming. Since you're one of the earlier tests of this whole 'light sensitive changing thing' it was bound to hit a few bumps, although I'm sure you're probably happier with the outcome." Anakin cracked grin.
"So you two were pretty lucky then?" I sighed, feeling relatively relieved.
Anakin's smile faded. "Not...exactly, from what I heard from Will, some parts of the ceiling and support beams fell on top of him and damaged his spinal cord, he's paraplegic. Thankfully it was pretty low and not close to his head or neck."
"What does that mean?" Theo inquired, because I'm sure no one in that room understood what Anakin was saying.
"It means I'm never walking again." Dylan sighed, his voice cracking slightly.
Anakin brushed aside a loose lock of his chocolate hair, and coughed. "Well, through therapy there's always a chance of nerve regrowth, even if the chance is pretty slim."
"Yeah, whatever. I'm fine." Dylan tried to make it look it didn't bother him.
"Hey look!" Chespin interrupted the awkward silence.
The laptop beeped, and a page filled with notes popped up. I peered closely and it seemed like a bunch of gibberish, but Chespin gasped excitedly.
"Ohmygoshohmygosh!" He squeaked. "This is so cool."
"What is it?" I asked, kind of dying to know as well.
"It's a recipe for a some sort of medicine, I don't know what, but it looks like it might something used to clean the body." He said. "Can I take this and look at it back at my Lab? I think I might be able to pull the rest of it through if I just..."
Theo ruffled his hair. "Sure kiddo, knock yourself out."
He snatched the Laptop and ran off muttering under his breath. After he was gone Icie turned to us and start ushering the two us out.
"Alright, time's up, Dylan needs his rest, he can't do that with you two nerds jabbering away." She insisted.
"Iceland." Dylan groaned. "You realize I have literally done nothing but rest this whole time, if you want to keep me all to yourself that's fine..."
Their voices trailed off as I walked out of earshot. I sighed, and looked around for something to eat when all of a sudden I heard a very familiar voice scream my name. A very angry, very tired sounding voice.
"JUSTIN CEASAR WALES." My uncle screamed from outside the wooden gate.
I winced and tripped on my own feet, just managing to catch myself before I tasted dirt. Then I waited, just making sure I just imagined that.
"I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE." He yelled again, I suddenly felt very guilty.
Several faces had started to peek out and see what was going on. Will flapped violently down from his tree, carrying Genny. They landed roughly and walked up to me with confused faces.
"Is that-?" Will started.
"JUSTIN LET ME IN."
"Yep, that's Mr. Wales." Genny winced.
"We should probably let him in." I suggest, however hesitant.
I pushed open the door, heaving with all my might. I sheepishly peeked out to see a very red faced, very angry looking uncle.
"Long time no see?" I squeaked, holding up my hands in surrender.
He grabbed the back of my shirt, and yanked me outside. Then he planted me on the ground and started grilling me like a hamburger.
"Do you know how worried I was? I woke up to find not only you, but four more of my students missing! I thought you had been kidnapped by that mysterious bounty hunter person, or worse, killed-!"
I held up my finger. "We're actually great friends now she's very nice."
He made a noise similar to a horse snorting. "I don't care! You can't just sneaking off like that! If I wasn't worried enough Wi and Ryan find their way back, telling me they don't know where you all are, and that you tried to rescue your friends from the Lab! Do you know how stupid that is? Look me in the eye, in all my years I have never heard of a better plan to get you all killed."
I was about to interrupt him him when I realized, yeah, it had been a pretty idiotic plan.
"Do you know how long I have been looking for you? The two kids you brought with you refused to say a word! I had to threaten to expel them before they would give up the location. Then I come here, to find the place is burned to the ground! If I had't stumbled upon this place I might have never found you again!"
He turned around and ran a hand through his stringy, unwashed hair and sigh. I braced myself as he started crying.
"Justin I just don't know what I'd do without you." He sobbed, squeezing me tight.
"Well you wouldn't be an uncle for starters, you'd probably have a few less gray hairs." I joked, feeling relieved at he let me go.
I saw his face stiffen as I said that, and my smile faded. What was he hiding from me?
"Ah, yeah. About that. Happy Birthday." He fumbled around in his back pocket a bit before handing me a crumpled, very old looking letter.
I felt the heat rush to my cheeks as I slapped my forehead. "My birthday! How could I forget? I'm sixteen today."
I took the piece of paper as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, I'm not ready for you to grow up yet. You sure you don't want to live at Gifted for college?"
I shrugged, I hadn't exactly made up my mind about what I wanted to do. I turned the letter over, expecting a cheesy card from Uncle Rich like I got every year. Until I saw the handwriting on the other side. It said one word, Justin, but the handwriting was familiar. It was the shaky, yet smooth and tall alphabet I remember staring at so often when I was kid.
It was my father's handwriting.
"What is this?" I asked, my voice shaky, as I realized my hands were following suit.
Uncle Rich smiled. "A few weeks before they died, they each wrote you two letters, one for your sixteenth birthday, and one for your eighteenth. Your mother of course wrote the next one, but you'll have to wait a bit for that."
I felt strangely possessive. I barely thought about my parents, they were murdered when I was eight. Now, I felt different, I wanted both letters now, I craved greedily to hear from my mother, to learn more about two people I scarcely remember.
"You should probably sit down before you read it." He coughed. "I want to see the inside of this place to if you don't mind."
I nodded, I couldn't really feel my hands so I didn't trust myself to speak. I led him inside, and sat down on one of the picnic tables. There was no one else around, partly because it was sunset, in the summer the days lasted longer. Some of the younger kids were already in bed.
He sat down across from me. "I'll get the tour later, you'll want to read that now and you'll have questions."
"Okay." I replied, turning it around again and opening it slowly.
The old and brittle paper cracked easily open, but I didn't want to ruin it so I was careful. There was a folded piece of paper inside, fancy paper that was meant to last a long time. I took a hesitant breath as I unfolded it.
To my one and only son.
If you're reading this, it means my brother was true to his word. Which is good because the guy has the memory of a dead goldfish. I still love him all the same, you would probably understand to some extent, I dunno. Sadly it also means I'm probably not around to give this you, I don't know what'll happen in the next few weeks but know we love you so much, and I can't believe you're sixteen. Think about it, two more years and you'll be off to college! That is, if you go to college, your mother is looking over my shoulder as I write this and she says she'd rather you get a real education. Whatever it is you end up doing I bet it's awesome, at least that's what you keep saying as you run around the house in your underwear.
Alright, jokes aside, truth is you've been thrown into a tough world, regular people will have a hard time accepting us for who we are. You're physically different from a lot of you're playground friends, as you've noticed, but I hope the world you're living grows to accept other people with strange powers and abnormalities. Once word gets around there's an organization experimenting on children, someone will rise up to defend us, and that force will only grow. It may seem hard at first but you have to push through because I know you'll make it through. You're a natural born leader Justin, anyone can see that. Hiding your gift will not only cause you pain, but with the lab spreading it will soon become impossible for all of us to stay underground and in the dark, especially since it's genetic, your kids will likely inherit something as you did. That is if you have kids, oh geese okay I'm getting ahead of myself I'll let your mother lecture you on that.
To sum it up, stay strong, I know you're probably the most amazing young man ever and we love you, so much.
Your Dad.
P.S. Take care of your sister for us, will you?
I nearly gagged as I read the last sentence. I yanked my head up and stared at my Uncle in shock. The world was starting to twist around me and I wanted to get off this ride.
"I have a sister?" I chocked out, my voice still weak from the fact I almost started crying halfway through.
Uncle Rich winced. "Yeah, you did. She was a sweet little thing too."
I nearly throttled him. "What happened to her?"
The corners of his mouth twitched sadly. "I had taken both of you in, just a few days after the funeral she disappeared in the middle of the night. I searched everywhere for her but I never saw her again, she was only about a year old."
I meditated solemnly on that news. He reached over and rubbed my shoulder.
"Look in the envelope." He suggested, pushing it towards me.
I reached over and discovered it wasn't empty. It was full of pictures, and there was another note, much shorter this time.
I thought you might like these, sooner than later.
It was my mother's swirly handwriting, in her fancy calligraphy pens she loved to use. It was all coming back to me as I looked at the photos. Most of them were of me, when I was young and had curly hair. I laughed softly at some of them, until I came across one in particular.
It was of me, in a hospital room, holding a small wrapped up bundle, there was a baby inside. She had a small lock of the same brown hair as my mother, and her eyes, they were a pale purple color. My heart beat faster and faster in my chest as I started at the picture.
I recognized those eyes.
"No way." I breathed. "Uncle Rich...what...what was her name?"
He grinned nostalgically. "If your parents had a favorite book, it was The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales, and when your sister was born, that's what they named her, Josie Wales."
"Hey that's my name." I felt a tug on my shirt and looked down to see Josie, crawling up onto the bench.
I stared at her, she blinked her pale purple eyes at me innocently. Then she looked over at Uncle Rich, who's jaw dropped.
"Wait...?" He stared at her for a few long moments.
We looked each other in the eye for a few seconds, then Uncle Rich started laughing. I couldn't help but join in, until I was crying.
Josie giggled. "What is it?"
I hugged her, wrapping my arms around her as she laughed uncertainly.
"Did you know that you were my sister?" I inquired, taken aback.
"Since I first saw you." She replied, like it was obvious.
I broke out into another short fit of laughter. "You knew the whole time and you never said anything?"
She frowned but was still laughing. "I thought you knew!"
The eight-year old sat next to me and showed me a flower she had found. Uncle Rich glanced between the two of us obviously confused.
"But how does she know?" He asked.
I waved him off. "It's her thing, she just knows."
"Hey, what's going on, who is this Justin? Or are you going to be mysteriously vague again?" Sabine walked up, brushing aside a lock of her multicolored hair.
I grinned and patted the spot next to me. "Come meet my family."
________________________
2530 words
Are you proud of me
in the midst of all this Dylan remember the title guys, The Fairy Boy
Have some Justin development
One more chapter left are you ready for this
Also there's probably a ton of typos it's nearly midnight but I'll definitely edit this in the morning