Taylor

            I had only been able to sleep for about an hour before the guard returned to get the trays. He did not say anything to us as he took them and left. It was as if we did not exist now. Sighing, I flew up and sat on the edge of the cage I woke up in. As comfortable as it was sitting on Esme’s thorax, it felt a little awkward.

            “What are you thinking about Ashley?” Esme asked as she looked up at me. Part of me did not want to answer as just thinking about how much I missed my sister hurt. But I could tell that she was genuinely concerned about me.

            “I’m thinking about my sister. I miss her so much, and I do not know what happened to her. You see, after our parents kicked me out, I couldn’t find my sister anywhere.” I said with a sigh. She nodded before looking at Arron.

            “I don’t know what I would do if Arron and I had been separated. He has been my rock for a long time. Before that storm….we were homeless. Our parents died in a car wreck when we were little, and we went from foster home to foster home.” She said before going quiet. I guess I could understand how she felt as I was now homeless.

“When our last foster parents thought it would be fun to use us as punching bags, I took Esme, and we escaped in the middle of the night. It has been three months. We have had to do some things that I am not proud of to survive.” Arron said without looking up. And here I was, coming from a wealthy family. These two had nothing but misery, and I complained when dad would not buy me the latest clothes or the most expensive phone.

I was about to say something when we heard a door open. Then the Doc was there at the glass.

“Well, it seems someone escaped their cage. No matter, it is not like you can escape this room. Now then, I want you all to know that I will take the utmost care in my experiments. I want to see what makes you tick. And perhaps, if you all prove useful, I may even keep you to help me with studying others just like yourselves.” Doc said.

As he ran his fingers through his greying hair, he went over to the door to this room. After a few seconds, he opened the door, and Arron tried to rush him, only to find a taser in his side. He fell to the ground in pain.

“Now that was not very productive, was it. If you cannot cooperate, then I will have no reason to keep you around. As I am sure you know, there are other disgusting creatures like you outside these walls.  I am sure I can find one to replace you.” Doc said with a smug smile on his face. Esme started to move toward them, but Doc pulled out a gun.

            “My dear, did you not learn from what just happened to this creature. Do I really need to make an example of you,” Doc said as he pointed the gun at her head? Trembling, she shook her head and laid her body on the ground.

            “Please, do not hurt him. He is my brother and the only family I have.” She said as tears began to well up in her eyes. Doc seemed unmoved by her plea as he instead pointed the gun at Arron.

            “This is your last warning, any attempts to attack me or escape, and all three of you will die,” Doc said before holstering his gun. “Now that we have an understanding, we can begin.”

            He sat at the table and then motioned for Esme to come to the table. She reluctantly obeyed, laying her body down in front of him, her eyes going to her brother, who was still writhing in pain.

            “Now, it is obvious that you are a part spider, and you can make spider silk. Is it safe to assume that you can climb walls as well?” Doc asked as he pulled out a notebook and a pen. Esme, she nodded in agreement.

            “Do you have any other abilities that I should know about? Any powers that you are keeping from me?” he asked. Esme shook her head. Doc seemed displeased in this but did not say anything more about it. Instead, he turned to me. A chill ran down my spine as his cold, piercing eyes seemed to penetrate my fragile skin. “And what about you? Do you do anything other than glow and fly?” he asked.

            “I don’t know. I have not done anything out of the ordinary, but then again, I did not think to try.” I said. It was true. With all the running and hiding I did the past two days, I did not have time to try magic tricks.

“So, neither of you have much that is special about you. And you are not even good for even the smallest of tasks. Lucky for you, I am a patient man and will wait to see what powers you could possess. Even if that means forcing them out.” He said with a more sinister smile than he had had the entire time that he was in the room with us.

“Well, that just leaves our demon friend here. I am guessing that you were the one who helped our little fairy friend here escape. So, you can use fire, I am guessing by the look of the lock.” He said, looking at Arron. Arron just sat there. He did not say anything. “Not talking is not going to save you.”

“You will not keep us here,” Arron said, looking at him with fire in his eyes, burning the table as he gripped it. In a split second, he grabbed Doc, throwing him against the wall. Before Doc could pull his gun out, Arron picked him back up and slammed him against the glass. “Esme, Ashley, get out of here. I will keep him here until you are gone.” He said

Esme looked like she was going to argue, but Arron just gave her a cold stare. Reluctantly, she picked me up and opened the door running through it. As we started heading down the hall, the sound of an alarm went off. Somehow the Doc was able to set it off. What did that mean for Arron?

“Somethings wrong, we have to go back,” Esme said as she came to a stop. She was about to turn around when we heard voices coming from behind us.

“We can’t stay here, Esme; Arron wouldn’t like it if we were captured again. He did this so you could escape. We have to go,” I said as I flew out of her hands and tried dragging her. Being so small made it challenging to do many things. I did not even have the strength to pull her.

“He could be dead, or worse. We have to save him.” She argued, but just as she was about to go, the Docs guards were behind us. Without another word, she started running down the hall.

“I promise Esme, we will come back for your brother. We will find people who can help.” I said as I flew beside her. I know that I was just talking because who would want to help us. We were already being chased around like freaks. But she needed to hear it so we could get out of here. I was not going to let Arron’s sacrifice be in vain.

As we turned the corner, we both had to come to a stop. Standing in front of us was more of the Docs guards. We were being boxed in. Fear ran through me as the inevitable capture approached. For a moment, only the thought of my sister crossed my mind. As the guards got closer, a surge of energy coursed through me. In the blink of an eye, there was what looked like a tear in the air. It was a black void spinning in thin air.

“Oh my god. That looks like a wormhole. I know this sounds crazy, Ashley, but I think we should jump through it.” Esme said before jumping in. I wanted to disagree with her, but as the guards running at me, I threw all caution to the wind and jumped in it. It felt like I was on the fastest rollercoaster in the world. I could not even breathe. Just as it felt like I was going to suffocate, I was falling onto a hard floor.

As I stood up and dusted myself off, I noticed that quite a few people looked at me, including…

“TAYLOR, OH MY GOD, YOUR ALIVE,” I screamed as tears fell down my cheeks.”