"I really appreciate you.
You've seen every side of me.
You can tolerate me.
You know how to calm me down, cheer me up, keep me smiling.
Better yet, you didn't walk out on me when I know
other people would have."
~ Unknown

________________

[t h r e e]

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

I leaned against the counter, shivering uncontrollably as the crowd of people tried to escape from the shock that was totally suffocating them. In fact, the only two people in the room who really seemed to have their heads screwed on were Stella and the lifeless man on the floor.

"What did you do?" The voice belonged to a woman in her late thirties, who was clutching her child against her legs, staring at me with the worst expression I have ever seen.

My mouth moved, trying to get the words to leave my lips, but they wouldn't comply. I hadn't yet gotten over the fact that I had killed an innocent man, and the effects were both mental and physical. "I - I..."

"You're a monster," the woman sneered, her eyes narrowing into slits. Stella, who had gotten up off the floor to begin walking slowly towards me, stopped abruptly and listened in to what the woman was saying. "Can't you see what you've done? You've killed an innocent man, for Heaven's sake! You think that this is okay? Just going around town shooting people with your storm cloud bolts? You better figure out what the heck is going on with you, Lady, before I decide to call the police for murder!"

The woman's brown eyes flashed as she whipped out her cell and began to dial the number. My eyes widened in fear. If she called me in and the police found who I was and what I had done, I'd be on a one way ticket back to heck and locked up in a cell for the rest of my life. I was too young to go to prison!

On instinct, I ripped myself off of the counter, and scrambled towards the woman, snatching her phone from her just as she had pressed call and dumped it into a glass of tea. We watched in silence as the phone sparkled and sizzled, the liquid seeping into its high tech construction layout and destroying it. The woman snapped her gaze from her wrecked phone to my shaking image.

"Who the heck do you think you are?" She snarled, baring her slightly yellow teeth. Her child cowered behind her, watching as the rest of the crowd of people swarmed through a newfound hole in the entrance and began running towards the nearest police station.

My heart rate sped up, and my eyes began to flutter. I had to get out of there before they found me. I had to. Getting caught wasn't an option.

A sudden loud slur of beeping began to ring out across the street, mimicking the sound of police sirens, making all of us jump slightly. My hands started shaking as I quickly slipped my gloves back on over my turquoise tipped hands before Stella suddenly reached forward and snatched my arm, dragging me with her behind the cash register and through the kitchen. The woman yelled at us, threats spilling out of her mouth, but Stella kept pushing me forward despite my slight muscle spasms.

The brunette dragged me through the tiled area, and lead me to a giant back door with a red sign above that read EXIT. When we paused for a moment, I couldn't help but stare at the bulge on her back as she fumbled to work the door open.

I watched as she pushed open the door with her shoulder, the police sirens getting louder and louder behind us, blue and red lights flashing all across the streets. Holding in a scream, Stella grabbed my arm again and dragged me out the door and into a back alleyway. I let out a small gasp as the foul scents hit my nose when we raced by the series of abandoned dumpsters.

"Where are you taking me?" I had to yell over the screeching of the sirens and police officers yelling out to us. Stella glanced at me quickly, but ignored my question, gently pushing me out of the way and onto an empty street, pressing me back against the corner of a building and checking behind us.

When she was satisfied, she turned back to me for a moment, and grabbed my hand, ripping off the glove and turning my hand over, inspecting the blue pigment dusting my skin. "I'm helping you, alright?" She asked, handing me back the glove and checking behind us once more.

I tilted my head to the side like a confused puppy, sliding my hand back into the glove. "Helping me? With what?"

"You've got the questions, and I'm not yet telling you the answers," she said.

I was about to say something else, but got interrupted by her dragging me across the street again and pushing me in front of a fire escape. I shot her a look but she only pushed me against the metal, pulling down the metal ladder and holding it for me. "Climb." She ordered, her eyes darting back and forth around the street.

"Why?" I asked.

Stella bit her lip, gripping the metal so hard her knuckles turned white. "Just climb, Shinedown. Do you seriously want to get locked up in an asylum?" Her brown hair whipped across her face from the sudden wind that had picked up.

"No..." I replied, letting out a small sigh as I hooked my foot through the bottom step of the ladder and began to climb up the creaky metal. Despite Stella's firm grip on the bottom, it still wobbled a little, not being used to people climbing it. I let out a soft shriek as I pressed my frame against the metal out of habit.

Suddenly, a loud siren screeched through the air, much louder than the ones near the shop. I glanced down at Stella, noticing the sudden fear glazing over her eyes. "They found us," I caught her mumble more to herself than me.

I took this is a sign to keep climbing. Putting one gloved hand up after the other, I quickly made my way up the rungs and landed on the clanky landing. My pulse thumped rapidly against my throat, giving me a slight discomfort as I waited for Stella to climb up after me. She did so in hardly any time at all, the peculiar elevation on her back moving along with her until she reached the top and clutched my hand.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded.

Stella tried to drag me with her across the landing to an open window, but I planted my feet in the ground. I hardly even knew this girl.

She clenched her jaw and turned to face me, never letting go of my gloved hand. Flashing police lights highlighted her features as she stared at me. "I'm saving you." She hissed. With a final tug, she yanked me out of my standing position, and tossed both of us through the open window.

I did a sort of somersault through the window, landing on my behind first before my legs came crashing down on the carpeted flooring. I let out a soft cry as a sharp pain shot through my knees. Stella, on the other hand, simply landed on her feet, and in a swift movement, closed the window behind us, drawing the blinds.

"Where are we?" I asked in awe, my eyes scouring the room before me.

It looked like some sort of luxury suite you'd find at a hotel. There was a giant queen sized bed with silky white drapes over on the far end of the room with a wooden drawer sitting next to it, a thick copy of the Bible resting on top. To the far left of the room were two elegant red couches and a thick, three legged table in the middle. A glass of what I assumed to be some sort of liquor was sitting on it. Surrounding the room were shelves and shelves of books of all sorts. And finally, a giant chandelier was hanging from the ceiling.

My eyes widened at the beautiful room. A sudden throbbing started near my wrists, shocking my fingertips hidden beneath the gloves. Not wanting to make the girl behind me worry, I simply ignored the sudden throbbing sensation.

"Why did you bring me here?"  I asked Stella. She turned around from her spot near the window to stare at me with pursed lips.

"I saw," she started, her voice cracking a little to my surprise. "I saw what you did today."

"Yeah," I scoffed. "I killed an innocent man." Just the mention of it brought a sudden spring of warm tears to my eyes.

"That's not quite what I meant, Shinedown," she said. "I saw your potentials, your powers."

"Yeah, I'm a monster." I scoffed.

"No," her brown locks bounced as she shook her head. "You're not a monster. You're a mutant, like me." My eyes widened at her words. Is that why she had that weird thing on her back? Is that why she's helping me, why she brought me here?

"I'll just show you." She mumbled. I watched as she unbuttoned her navy blazer and tossed it to the side, revealing her hot pink tank top. Her eyes closed in concentration as something big, white, and fluffy emerged from her back and shoulders, spreading out to the sides of her lean figure to reveal an enormous pair of angel wings. My jaw dropped open at the sight. But she wasn't finished yet, I realized, as a dark ring began to form near the crown of her head, pushing against her skin until a thin halo slipped out and began to hover over her head, changing to a light green hue.

Finally, she opened her eyes again and looked at me with a smile. "You're not alone, Shinedown," she said softly, making her wings start to flap.

"Is this why you decided to help me?" I questioned. "Because you're... Like me?"

She nodded. "I thought that maybe since I don't really have any family, or anyone really, maybe we could stick together?" She asked. "I've seen what they've done and what they can do to mutants like us."

I pressed my lips together. According to her, she didn't have anyone out here either. Maybe she was thrown in my way for a reason. My thoughts zoomed back to when I had been at the store, seeing that innocent man writhing in pain that I had inflicted upon him. I was dangerous. I thought back to the night of my birthday. I hadn't thought about that dreadful day in quite some time, for it was unknown to me as to why I was thinking about that now in a situation like this.

The terrifying dead unicorn masks zoomed through my vision. Those faces were one of the things that had haunted and kept me awake through the night. Taking a deep breath, I looked Stella right in the eye.

"I'm guessing we need each other, right?" I asked.

She nodded, her light green halo bouncing with her. "They'll come for us. They'll come for you. They saw what you did, and I know you didn't mean to, but they'll be looking for you, Shinedown," she told me. "We need to get out of here."

"Where do you propose we go?" I asked.

She turned to face the window again, her angel wings facing me as she stood in thought for a moment.

"We're going to England!"

..................

I know that this might be going a little bit slow at first and I'm sorry for that, but in the next chapter there will be a time skip to Stella and Shinedown getting their jobs and all of that fun stuff. And hey, maybe next chapter they'll get to meet Professor and Magneto? Who knows?

Just kidding. But it'll come soon, I promise.

Don't forget to comment and vote!

Love ya,

Danalpswolf