Project Songbird

Chapter 27

Man, it's so warm and soft. Why do I feel so comfortable? Is that a ceiling above me? Am I in a building?
It takes a few seconds for my vision to completely come back to me. The ceiling above me was some kind of wood grain. I shift my head and gaze around the room. It looked like a typical bedroom. There's a bag sitting on the dresser on the left side of the room. It looks kind of familiar but I can't place where I have seen it before.
Where am I? Was that a nightmare?? I bring my hands up and carefully wiggle my fingers. I can move so I must be awake, right? I look down at myself. I'm tucked comfortably into the bed that I am laying in. It's not a hospital bed, but it's not my bed either. There's a toilet flush followed by water running. I look towards the sound to see a light coming from a smaller room. There's a bathroom in this bedroom? That's kind of fancy. The light turns off and out steps a woman. She has light brown hair that's cut in this short bob. She had a couple of dangling earrings. Her shirt is an off white turtleneck and she's wearing denim jeans. She turns to me.
"...Mother-?"
Her head jerks up at the sound of my voice and her eyes widen with shock, "You're awake!" She immediately steps out of the room, "Doctor! He's awake!" And then hurries back over with my father in tow. Mother already begins to tear up as she wiggles her arms behind my back and hugs me as tightly as she could manage. She shakes slightly almost like I could disappear if she let go.
"Mother? Dad?"
"It's good to see your awake, Son." My father states as he pries Mother off of me so I can breathe. She brushes my hair out of my face and then gives me a soft smile, tears of joy in her eyes.
"What's happening?"
"You've been out for a while." Dad starts to fill me in. "The doctor said we needed to monitor you while your body was fighting off the infection."
What about Tyler? And the others, it wasn't just some coma dream, was it??
"What are you doing here?"
"Well-" Dad started when Amy walked in and I felt relieved to see her. It wasn't a dream. "How are you doing Ethan?" She asks as she pushes past my parents and begins to take my pulse.
"Confused." I answered her honestly.
"I mean physically." She clarified.
"Uh?" I look at myself again. I hadn't really noticed any issues. "I'm kind of hungry."
She chuckles, "We can work on getting you something to eat."
"Can you explain where we are and why my parents are here??"
"Oh, I can explain that." Amy nods her head. "During the fight, I brought everyone here to that village we had been talking about previously. After the end of the fight, Felix, Jack and Tyler attempted to cauterize your wound. They aren't doctors so they did the best they could. You lost consciousness at the pain and Tyler carried you back here. You've been fighting off an infection so you have been out for a couple of weeks; in the meantime Felix took charge of tracking down the person behind our pain. He found them and forced them to erase everything about us. Paperwork and all. None of us exist anymore. Jack suggested making a connection with the families to give them closure, some families did not want to reconnect with their missing family members but some did. Those that did were brought here to be reunited. Some left with their parents, others stayed. Your parents have been waiting for you to wake up."
I listened to Amy and then glanced at both of my parents. I wasn't sure how to feel. I was no longer their sweet little boy who dreamed of being a musician. I had been tainted by the corrupt hands of the government. Mother and Dad patiently waited for Amy to finish her checkup and then watched her leave to gather food for me. I shifted enough to sit up in bed, stuffing some pillows behind my back.
"I'm so sorry." Mother whispers and I frown, "Sorry??"
"We should have checked up on you more frequently, we might have been able to start a search for you had we known you were missing." She explains, messing with her wedding ring.
"It's fine Ma, I don't blame you guys. There is no way you could've known that the government was tracking me." I shrug my shoulders. "They had been kidnapping people for years. You probably would have ended up like all the other families."
"But we can make up for it when we get home." Mom makes her way over to her purse, beginning to dig through it.
"Home?"
She stops and turns to me, "Yes, home."
Home? What a strangely familiar yet foreign word. What is home? Where is home? I felt confused. I didn't know what else to say to her about the topic.
"What all did they tell you?"
"They told us everything." Dad chimes in, "All the experimental testing. It was hard to believe at first but they did show us proof. It's still strange to wrap one's head around it all."
"How long have you guys been here?"
"It's been a couple of weeks since your friends contacted us." Dad shuffles his feet. Something he did when he was nervous. "Why are you shuffling?"
He looks up from his feet, "Huh?"
"I asked why you are shuffling around, what's on your mind?"
He shuffles a bit more and then looks at Mother, like he's trying to piece together what he is supposed to say to me. Mother isn't paying attention. She's still digging through her purse for something.
"Are either of you going to answer me?"
Again, they both ignore me. I roll my eyes and fold my arms over my chest. Perfect, not only am I in bed speaking with my parents, they don't want to tell me everything.
"Ethan."
We all turn to the door to see Felix. He looks cleanly shaven. His hair was back to its shiny nature and he was wearing an open white blouse, it had frilly cuffs. And black leather pants; tight.
"Yeah?" I ask him.
"How are you doing?" He doesn't step in the room. He gives a weary glance at my parents before his eyes return to me.
"I'm alright. You don't have to stand at the door."
He gives another glance at my parents before he shakes his head no, "I have other duties to take care of. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright after being asleep for so long."
Why is he acting so distant? Do my parents make him nervous??
"As far as I can tell, I'm quite alright." I smile. He raises a brow, "You're taking the news better than I'd hoped."
"News?"
"Yeah." He nods his head and then glances around the room as the air changes a bit. He crosses his arms over his chest, "So they didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
Mother and Dad start shuffling around again and it begins to irritate me.
"We couldn't save your leg. The way we cauterized the wound fried your nerves, you lost most of your function, you can probably gain some of it back with physical therapy but you're going to limp for the rest of your life." Felix cuts to the chase. I pull the blankets off of me and look at my leg. It didn't look too much different other than the burnt skin. I touch it. There wasn't exactly a feeling. I frowned a bit. I can wiggle my right toes but my left stays still. They don't move no matter how hard I try to get them to. "At least I'm still alive. Thank you for trying." I look back at Felix, giving him a gentle smile. For a brief moment he flashes a very small smile. "I have other duties." He excuses himself and leaves the doorway.
Mother huffs, "How dare that man just dump that information on you like that!"
"Like what??" I look at her.
"Just so bluntly." She turns to me.
"I don't like him." Dad grumbles.
"Felix has always been blunt." I replied, "It's no biggie."
"No biggie? You could have been thrown into shock!"
"I really don't think so." I roll my eyes.
There's a knock from the door and we, again, turn to the door. There stands both Jack and Mark. All clean.
They weren't as dressy as Felix. Both wore tshirts and regular denim jeans.
Jack wore a green shirt and Mark wore a red shirt; they looked like the first day I met them. Jack's face had a rosy look to it now that Mark was up and against his side. They looked well.
Mark grins, "I hope we aren't interrupting."
"Ye-"
"Not at all." I interrupt my mother.
"We just heard from Amy that you had awakened and wanted to check on you." Jack continues. "Also that Bob and Wade would like to stop by but they are busy with going through some final paperwork with the government."
"That's okay, it's the thought that counts." I smile.
"I also wanted to thank you personally for giving us all a kick in the rear." Mark chuckles, "If it wasn't for you being so stubborn, we would probably be government dogs."
"You don't have to thank me, Mark, we all worked together to get here." I didn't want everything placed on my shoulders.
"And Rose has set up some physical therapy for you whenever you're ready." Jack informs me. He, too, gives my parents a weary look.
"After I eat, I was thinking about making my way around and checking out everything for myself." I inform them.
"We'll send Tyler to escort you." Mark smiles warmly.
"How's your wings?" I remember that he couldn't join the fight.
"Better, I still cannot fly yet, but I can move them." Mark sighs, "It's a little frustrating. Other than that I made a full recovery from the gunshot."
I can hear Mother gasp under her breath.
"I'm glad you're doing better and Jack, you look great!" I give him a thumbs up.
He mutters a 'yeah right' before a smile creeps onto his face. "Come on Jack, let us leave them to get reacquainted." Mark wraps his arm around Jack's shoulder. Jack nods his head, "See you later Ethan." They both wave and then turn to make their way down the hallway.
"Shot? That man was shot!?" Mother seems really upset with this information.
"Yeah, it's when we were trying to rescue him from the auction along with Felix and Tyler." I answer her, "There's nothing to be upset about. He made almost a full recovery."
"An auction!" My dad questions.
"Yeah, the government was trying to sell us." I answer, "Why is this news to you?"
"All they told us was kidnappings and experiments. There was nothing about people being shot and sold!" Mother starts, "I think we should just take you home now! This place is ridiculous!"
"Ma, calm down." I start.
"Calm down! Calm down!!" She turns to me, clearly frustrated.
"Yes, calm down. You're blowing up over things that don't need to be a big deal. These people are my friends, they helped me while we were trapped there."
"I don't like any of these people." She crosses her arms over her chest.
"Why?"
"I just don't." She grumbles and then goes back to her purse, digging through it. I look at Dad, hoping to make sense of why Mother was so upset. He doesn't make eye contact with me. He actually turns away and stares at his feet. What the hell is wrong with these two?? Why are they so upset?
Another knock on the door and I look over to see Tyler. I smile, feeling better.
He's holding a tray. On that tray is a bowl, it's steaming. And a glass of water and a small cup of orange juice next to it. "Is it alright if I step in?"
I gesture him to come inside, "You're always welcome."
He was wearing a low white v-neck shirt. It hugged his chiseled body. His curly hair was stuffed under a pink beanie. I guess he couldn't find a grey one. He wore grey sweats that would have hung loosely off of his hips if it wasn't for the tied drawstrings. He makes his way over to me and carefully places the tray down on my lap. "Wade made some hot bone broth."
"Smells wonderful." I take the spoon and dip it into the soup.
Tyler smiles, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm quite hungry." I chuckle.
He shakes his head slightly, "Well good thing I brought food."
I blow on the hot soup before I taste it, "Mm, compliments to the chef."
"Wade actually wanted to make something different but we don't have a lot of supplies right now." Tyler informs me.
"That's alright, it's better than nothing. Speaking of, how do we have running water?" I recall Mother coming out of the bathroom.
"It's something to do with the paperwork that Bob and Wade have been completing." Tyler shrugs. I guess they hadn't completely informed him.
"How are you adjusting?" I look up at him. He glances towards my parents before looking back at me. He doesn't open his mouth but just gives a so-so motion with his hand. I look back to my parents, they were focused on Tyler.
"Oh, I'm sorry about your leg." Tyler breaks the silence and I shrug, "It's alright, I'm just glad to be alive. Hey, you don't mind escorting me around after eating, do you?"
"I don't mind at all. Anything you need." He smiles slightly again, he lightly touches my shoulder and I feel warm again. "Is there anything you need while you eat your soup? Anything your parents need?" He glances at them.
I look at them as well, "Ma, Dad, do you guys need anything?"
Mother shakes her head yes, "Something cold to drink, please?" Dad just shrugs his shoulders a bit. He looks uncomfortable. Mother looks upset.
Tyler nods his head and takes his leave to get the drink she requested.
What is their problem? Is it because there is just so much to take in at once?
"What is wrong? And quit avoiding my questions."
"I just want to go home. We have been here for weeks waiting for you to wake up so we could go home." Mother states.
"Ma, you're not trapped here. I'm sure the guys wouldn't mind you coming back at a later time when you had enough time to wrap your head around all this information." I tell her.
"I don't want to leave and come back. I want you to return home with us, so we can put this mess behind us." She stresses.
"Mess?"
"Yes, this mess. These people are deranged." She gestures to the area.
"Deranged??" I echo her, "No one is, especially not Tyler." I frown.
"This is an absolute shit show. What is your grandfather going to think?" Mother asks and then I remember why I moved away. I had forgotten the family stress while I was with Tyler and the others.
"I don't care what that man has to think." I glare, "He's done nothing but make my life a living hell from the moment I told everyone I wanted to be a musician instead of taking on the family business like the rest of you!"
Mother shakes her finger at me, "Now you listen to me young man-"
"No you listen." I shift my legs to the edge of the bed, attempting to stand, "I will not be bullied or bossed around to go back with you. I am a grown man who is capable of making his own decisions. The only reason I was even able to move away was because I somehow convinced Grandfather of allowing me a chance to make myself worthy of my own dream. What kind of family does that?? I don't care how rich and powerful that man is. I'm not going back home with you to spend an insufferable amount of time with a family who doesn't give a damn about what their son thinks or does! I'd rather stay here with people who actually respect me."
Dad, again, just looked uncomfortable. I remember that he had always been under Mother's thumb. Always doting on her hand and foot.
"Marvin, you better get a good hold on that boy of yours!" She growls at my father. He looks meekly between both of us. It looks like it was tearing him apart on who to side with.
"You leave him outta this!" I wagged my finger at her, "We were doing just fine in life until you showed up!"
"How dare you, I am your mother!"
"You're not my mother! You're just the woman that manipulated my father into marrying!"
Her face begins to turn red in color as she gets angrier.