Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight by Andrews, C. (popular books to read .TXT) 📕

“You were rewarded,” I said excitedly. “How come?”

She looked at me with joyless eyes and then looked down at the math text.

“Let's just get this done,” Gia said, urging me to drop the subject.

She didn't need to. Robin's quick, subdued looks were enough. I understood. Whatever she was being rewarded for was not something she was happy to describe. What terrible things had been done to Robin and what had she given Dr. Foreman as a result? Was it something about me, something I had said? I ran back whatever I could remember saying, drawing in my thoughts and words like a fisherman reeling in fish. Many things would have angered Dr. Foreman, I thought, but from the way Robin looked, she wouldn't tell me even if she wanted to tell me. She looked the way I had felt right after I had given up Teal. I felt sure I was not the only one who betrayed.

And more important, perhaps, was what Dr. Foreman had been after right from the beginning. She would find ways to turn us against each other until all each of ushad was herself and Dr. Foreman. She was the spider I had envisioned out there. I and the others were trapped in her web now.

I quickly put my hand into my pocket to feel the stone.

Natani's words returned.

Think of the sky. See myself outside.

Yes, that would be my chant.

That was what would get me home, I thought, wherever home might be.

Broken Wings 2 - Midnight Flight

Group Therapy

A eal didn't return to the barracks for nearly four days. Every time I started to talk about her and wonder aloud what was happening to her, Gia came at me, telling me to stop asking and to mind my own business. I wanted to suggest that Teal was my business and should be hers, too. We should all be each other's business. Whom else did any of us have here? But neither Robin nor Mindy spoke up in support of me. They avoided my eyes, looked away, went about their work. Teal could be gone for good and none of them would have asked after her. It would be as if she had never existed, the same if I had never existed.

I began to wonder if Teal hadn't been sent away, maybe placed in a formal detention center or even a prison. I told myself she would be better off. We all would.

I mumbled this idea loud enough for Gia to hear, andfinally she fixed her dark, steely eyes on me and said, “Don't ever believe Dr. Foreman when she threatens to send us back. No one gets sent back. Dr. Foreman does not fail, does not give up. If one way doesn't work for her, she tries another and another. You either change to her liking or .. .”

“Or what?” I quickly countered.

“Or you don't, but you don't leave unless it's on her terms.”

“The buddies left.”

“Did they?” Gia tossed back at me. “They're still here, aren't they?”

“Because they want to be.”

She smiled at me as though I were a child.

“Well? Why else would they stay? What's here for them? Even if they enjoy torturing us, it's not enough. Don't they have boyfriends or want them?”

Gia was thoughtful for a moment. I could see that was something she had thought about, too.

“She has ways we don't even know exist,” she said. “She has ways of changing your head. Don't try to understand the buddies, why they are like they are. I don't want to even think about it. I just think about.. .”

“About what, Gia?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “I don't think about anything anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? It's like being in a prison cell with a window that looks out on the most beautiful place, a place you can't go to, but only see from behind bars. That's why. Do you understand me? Do you?” she shouted.

I just stared at her.

“You and your damn questions. Making us think,” she said, making it sound as if I were responsible for allher pain. Before I could protest, she walked away quickly.

Finally, one night after dinner, we returned and Teal was there, lying on her cot, which now, like the rest of ours, had a mattress, a pillow, and a blanket. She was in what I called our school uniform, too, only her hair, her hair had been cut down to where she was nearly bald, her beautiful hair was gone. She lay there with her eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling and looking even more drained and in shock than Robin had when she had been released from the Ice Room.

“Teal!” I cried, and hurried to her side. “How are you? What did she do to you?”

The others watched and listened but remained behind me.

“Are you okay? What happened to you? Where have you been all this time? What happened to your hair?”

She didn't answer for so long, I thought she wasn't going to say anything, but then she turned her head slowly and looked at me with eyes so cold and empty, they put a chill in my heart.

“My hair,” she said, “escaped.”

“What?”

“That's how we do it.” She propped herself up on her elbows so she could look past me at the others. She looked like the idea was exciting to her. “We escape in pieces. Maybe my teeth will be next or my ears. Right, Gia? Mindy? That's how it's done, isn't it?”

Neither replied. They ignored her and went to their own bunks.

“What are you talking about? You're not making any sense. Did you get far? What did you do?”

She stared at them a moment longer, then turned to me, her eyes as angry and dark as Gia's. “I would havemade it. I know I would have made it. I saw light in the distance, but I got stung by a scorpion.”

“A scorpion!” I stepped back as if it were still there and could sting me as well.

“That's what they said. It