I screamed. I've never screamed like this before but it hurt. It hurts so much. I've never felt this pain before. What's going on my lower back and head hurts so much. It feels like my back is being pulled apart. I hunch over in pain and what feels like forever the pain finally subsides. I feel a weight pulling me down slightly as I stop hunching over. I look in the mirror to see on my back just above my waist a pair of feathered wings? And why are their feathers behind my ears???
“Mama!!” I screamed desperately hoping she's back home but no one responded.
“What do I do? I can't go around looking like a bird gone..wrong." The wings aren't big thankfully but still would be hard to hide. I panic about what to do with wings and how it's not genetically or physically possible for this to happen.
I hear the front door open and run to the living room.
“Mama! Something is wrong!” I watch as mother's face goes from worried to shock to anger in a matter of seconds. I've never seen that look on my mothers face in my life.
“You! What did you do!” Mama is so angry and for what? I didn't do anything wrong. I don't know what's happening!
“Mama, I swear I don't know what happened! I just felt pain suddenly mama you got to believe me!” The anger fades for a moment but comes right back.
“Leave.” I freeze, not processing what my mother said.
“What?” Mother points to my room then my door.
“Pack your stuff and leave my house, you're not welcome in my house ever again.” She speaks in a harsh voice and I hesitate for a minute. I go to my room and start packing things despite my confusion and everything I start to cry. I didn't do anything wrong. Why am I being kicked out? Why wouldn't my mother let me stay?
“Mother I... Can I at least have some money?” Although I knew the answer will be no, I ask anyway.
“Why would I give someone like you money…I never thought my child of all people would become one of them..pests” she said that with so much disdain.
“Leave my house now. I won’t ask again.”
I slowly leave the house and look back when I reach the sidewalk. I see my mother close the curtains which hurt me more than when I got these stupid wings. But I continue to walk down the sidewalk to see people avoid me to even throw trash out their car window at me. I check my phone to see that it’s 10 p.m which means nowhere is open so I have to find a park bench or something. I manage to find a bench at a park a few blocks from my house. The bench is in no way comfortable and these wings are making it hard to lay in a more comfortable position.
“I wish I never grew these stupid wings. I just wanna lay in my bed…why? Why did this happen to me?” I speak as if I'm talking to some invisible presence of some sort. What? I don't know but maybe I'm going crazy. I lay there looking at the stars still not being able to fall asleep and I look at the time. It's 1:30 a.m. That means I've been out here for a couple hours.
I stand up and stretch and decide to walk around the area, maybe somewhere open. Maybe I'll get some luck. I walk for what feels forever even though it hasn't been that long. But with these wings it's as if I've added on a few pounds. Not a lot but enough to feel it and tire me faster. I suddenly see lights in the distance…is that a Walmart? Strange. I don't remember one on this street let alone having one anywhere within a 10 mile radius. But it's open. Maybe I could steal some snacks or something. I mean I'll take anything. I walk in to see no one?
“Weird.” I decide to explore and sneak some food into my bag where cameras aren't pointing. But still no one… where are the people? Is this all just a messed up fever dream? Am I just going insane? But I guess it'll be easier to steal this food. I go down aisle after aisle, everything is stocked and clean. But still no people. But I suddenly heard a shift behind me and before I could turn around nothing….I black out with a sudden pain to the back of my neck.
I wake up in a room of people. Something is weird about them. They all have different animal-like features, but look shabby and slightly unclean. Almost as if they haven't showered in a couple weeks. They don't really stink, though. That's at least something, because I hate smells. I've always been very sensitive to them. But the real question is who are these people? And, where the hell am I???
“Hello young one," says a lady with scales all over her arms, neck, and legs in patches. “I hope the sleep aid didn't mess with you too much. I'm still working on perfecting it, you see.”
I stare at her in confusion. The lady also tends to hold out her s’s longer than needed which is slightly annoying. “I'm sorry, what? Who the heck are you guys?”
The lady pauses for a minute and seems to snap out of her thinking about whatever this sleep aid she was talking about was.“I'm sorry I forgot to introduce us. I'm alive and we are all what people call Crueler’s. But don't get too taken with the name. We aren't bad people.”
“Cruelers? I'm sorry, that name is confusing."
The lady laughs slightly at that. “We didn't choose it, it was given to us. The name is meant to be an insult to us with gifts. And I can see that you are one of us.”
I look confused. What the hell does this lady mean? How am I this thing that I don't even know what it is?
“I see you are still confused. Let me try to explain this with easier terms. Cruelerss are people who at the age of fifteen develop abnormalities. These abnormalities come in many different forms, for example your wings and those feathers or my scales. They are basically parts of different animals that represent our souls and desires."
I continue to look confused, because I didn't even think it was possible for humans to have such abnormalities. I mean it shouldn't be biologically possible for this to happen right? “It's okay if you don't get it right away, darling. Everyone here was just as equally confused.”
I'm still quite wary about everyone here but it's not like I have anywhere to go. I might as well see what else I can find out about this weird abnormality. “Could you at least tell me where this is? I mean, seeing as you guys knocked me out. Which is very rude! I mean, I'm sorry about trying to steal food from Walmart, but knocking someone out is not cool."
The lady looks sorry about the whole knocking me out thing for a moment. “Ah yes. Well, we are still in the Walmart, we are just in the back. This is where we stay most of the time because we have nowhere else to go. I'm assuming you've been kicked out like the rest of us? I mean, why else would you be stealing food at this time of day?”
She's not wrong that I was kicked out, but so was everyone else here? That calmed me down, knowing that I was not the only one kicked out onto the streets due to these stupid abnormalities.
“Dear, why don't I start introducing you to some people here and find you a place to sleep? You look tired even after that sleep aid, it wasn't supposed to last long anyway.”
I follow her as she introduces me to some of the other Cruelers. Some of them are really nice while others are indifferent and don't talk much. But everything just seems off. I mean, this is absurd! Humans shouldn't just be able to grow random mutations like this. You don't even have to be a doctor to know that! But none the less, I guess this is my life now. I have to live like... like a freak.