Kinsley

The cool breeze blows the girl’s raven hair around her head in swirls. She looks around anxiously for any signs of the other girl and her friends.

She has to find her!

The girl’s a threat to her whole life! She’ll ruin everything if she gets away! She and her friends are hazards, and they put the girl’s life in jeopardy.

They have to be eliminated.

She jumps off of the branch she’s on and drops fifty feet to the ground. She lands in a crouch and looks around again.

There’s nobody in sight.

She curses to herself. She’s lost the other girl and her stupid companions! She hears her troop members coming from behind her and she turns around.

“Where are they, Kinsley?” Jerome asks as he comes closer to her. His voice low and hoarse as always.

“They got away, they’re fast,” she mumbles.

Jerome yells in frustration, ranking his dirt covered fingers through his dirty brown hair. “Find them! These woods go on until Oregon's border! They’re still here!” He turns to the rest of the troop who’d just arrived. “Split up! Cover all angles! If you find them, you know what to do!” He growls.

The troop nods and sets off.

He turns back to her. “You let them escape! This is your problem now, you find them and you do what you have to! Got it?”

She looks into his blood red eyes. Her’s would be the same if she was Changed, but she isn’t, so her’s are just a dull gray.

“I got it,” she mumbles.

“Remember, you’ve got the most to lose out of all of us,” he adds in a low voice. He glares at her for a few more seconds, then runs to follow one of the flanks.

As if I don’t know that, Kinsley thinks.

She sighs and lifts off the ground.

She passes the tops of the tall trees and looks around beneath her. Her black wings beating at her sides.

Her wings are even darker than her hair.

She pities the other girl. She has white wings, white as snow, and that made it harder to hide. It was good for Kinsley, not so much for the other girl.

Kinsley flies over the trees looking for the snow white wings to show themselves. Then something catches her eye.

She banks to the right hard and sees a shadow moving about on the forest floor. A grin plasters itself on her face.

You won’t escape me now. She thinks to herself.

The other girl continues to run, unaware that she’s been found.

She glances around, searching for the other girl’s companions, but they were nowhere to be seen.

That’s okay though. This girl’s the only one she wants. Kinsley wants to capture her and rip her white wings right off her back.

She wants to feel the other girl’s warm blood on her hands. She wants to watch the light go out of her bright green eyes.

She smiles at the thought of it.

But you’ve got to first try to reason with her. She reminds herself. Reason, then if that doesn’t work, rip her apart.  

She dives down toward the earth—toward the girl.

Just as she reaches for her, the other girl whips around and slams her fist into her face. The force knocking her to the ground.

She curses and quickly gets up.

The other girl has her hands up in defensive positions. Kinsley sets her gray eyes on her opponent.

She folds her wings behind her back so they won’t get in the way and she grins. This is her chance.

“Well I would say that it’s nice to see your face again, but I have to admit it really isn’t,” the other girl says.

They’re circling each other now.

Kinsley spits blood on the ground and looks at the other girl. “Well, thanks for the honesty, though I’ve got to admit myself, I’m pretty psyched to see you again...Iris.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet, too bad you won’t be seeing anything soon,” Iris says mockingly.

“Now why’s that?”

“Because you can’t see anything if you’re dead,”she answers.

Right then Iris closes the distance between them and tackles Kinsley to the ground.

A blur of white was all she saw before she hits the ground with a thump, the other girl on top of her.

Kinsley struggles, she knows she’s stronger than Iris, but she was caught off guard and she’s easily overpowered. A knee on her right hand and her other leg pins her legs to the ground. Iris’ hand holds her left hand to the forest floor.  

“Don’t be ridiculous angel girl, you wouldn’t hurt a fly. You’re too pure hearted,” Kinsley mocks.

“Oh, you underestimate my abilities,” Iris responds. “One less of your kind and this world becomes safer every minute.”

Kinsley struggles again, but it’s useless. The other girl has the advantage.

“It would be a mistake if you killed me,” she  tells her. “You’d regret it.”

“I doubt that, but I’ll play along. Tell me. Why would I regret killing your sorry butt?” She asks pretending to look interested.

Kinsley smiles. “Because if I die, you and your friends will never get out of this forest alive.”

The other girl gives her a bored look. “Really? Because I think that it’s the other way around. If I kill you, then it’ll be one less monster hunting us.”

“If we’re monsters, then what are you?” She asks tilting her head to the side. “We’re the same‒”

Iris’ eyes are a green blaze. “We’re nothing like you!” She yells angrily. “You’re evil! The work of Satan! And‒”  

This time Kinsley cuts her off. “And what? You’re the work of God?”  She laughs. “Face it, we were made for the same purpose.”

“And what would that be?” Iris asks.

She lifts her head up and places her face closer to the other girl’s face. “To make a new dominant species on this planet. The humans have lived on Earth far too long! Haven’t you noticed that they’re killing their own home? They’re killing their own species too” Kinsley continues. “They’re wasting themselves away, killing each other off. If we take control, we can save this planet, even save the humans.”

Iris stares then shakes her head. “This will only lead to war, and there are many more of them, then you.” She responds.

“No you see, there are more of us. Around the world, there are more of us to be found. And if you fight with us, if we work together. We can save this planet from itself without a war.” She says.

Iris shakes her head again. “We would never join you. While you say that you plan to save this planet, you’re actually planning on reducing it to ash, and I’m not going to let that happen.”

It seems like they were done talking because Iris pulls her arm back and punches her across the face

Black engulfs Kinsley’s vision for a few moments. The weight on her chest lightens and she scrambles to her feet.

There was no one around her.

She’d gotten away again.

Jerome won’t be happy, but there were worst things she needed to worry about then Jerome being mad.

She had given her enemy the most important information there was. She had told the other girl that there were others like her.

She hopes that maybe the Iris won’t infer that there were others like her too. That there were other White Angels.

She yells in anger.

If Iris goes to find others like her, there will surely be a war between the two species. And even though Dark Angels are stronger, nobody knows how many White Angels there are on Earth.

Iris and her friends have to be eliminated. The White Angels themselves - as a species - have to be wiped out.

And Kinsley was going to start with Iris with her green eyes.

She lifts off the ground and flies away from the forest, away from Jerome and the others. She knew that if she returns to them empty handed that she probably won’t be alive for too much longer.

Instead she flies the direction towards the ocean.

There she will create a new plan. A plan to get rid of Iris and a plan to ruin the White Angels once and for all.

Iris

No, I wasn’t some mistake, mutant lab rat that escaped a top secret government lab.

I was born this way.

My name is Iris...though I don’t know what my real parents named me — if they even named me at all — but my adoptive parents, Jeremiah and Scarlett Cooper, named me Iris.

Now, I’m guessing you’re asking yourself, what happened to her real parents? Well, lets just say that having a child with wings was probably just too much for them to handle.

I’ve got wings if you didn’t catch that part.

How it happened? My guess is as good as yours. Maybe it was the work of some science experiment, or maybe it was just an accident. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter, I’m a sixteen year old girl with wings and I don’t care how it happened, it just did.

Anyway, as far as I know I’m the only one of my kind. There aren’t any groups of kids with wings on the news that I know of.

Jeremiah says that I need to hide myself. It’s not hard to hide my wings. I can tuck them onto my back pretty good and all I need is a sweatshirt to cover them.

We moved to the countryside about eleven years ago so that I could fly around and stretch my wings instead of being cooped up in a city apartment building.

I’ve always known how to fly. It wasn’t something I needed to learn how to do, it just came naturally.

Nobody knows my secret except Jeremiah, Scarlett, and my best friend, Payton. I had told her when we were thirteen.

I made her promise not to tell anyone, and she’s kept that promise so far. She thinks it’s totally awesome!

My wings are white. White as snow, and feathery. They grew with me as I grew up. When I got bigger, they got bigger. Now I’ve got about a thirteen foot wingspan.

When I was younger, they were harder to hide. My body was so small and skinny that it was hard to tuck the wings on my back. They’d just pop out at the sides.

Jeremiah actually had to tie them back a couple times.

Now though, I’m stronger around my waist. I’m able to keep my wings hidden along with the help of a hoodie.

Having wings — for me — is actually pretty normal. They’re kind of useless to me. I mean, when am I going to have to just fly away? When am I ever going to need to fly?

Though, I still couldn’t imagine life without them. I couldn’t stand not being able to fly. If you’ve ever been in an open cabin plane, then it’s kind of like that. Feeling the wind in my hair, feeling it on my wings—it’s just awesome.

I know what you’re asking, How the heck does she hide herself? She’s in high school!

To be honest, it was a little nerve racking in the beginning. I mean, more kids in one area, locker rooms! It was scary, but thanks to Jeremiah and Scarlett, I got out of gym and other things that included taking off a sweatshirt.

Even though the school I go to is huge, and full of kids, my only friend happens to be Payton.

Everyone else thinks I’m some freak who gets to get out of gym. Imagine what they’d say if they found out I’ve got wings!

Even though I’ve got wings, I’m still a regular teenager. My parents still treat me as if I’m a normal human being—meaning that I don’t get away with everything just because I’ve got wings.

Now that you’ve met me, let me warn you...my life isn’t very exciting, I mean...it’s pretty normal and bland.

Well that’s me, nice to meet you.

Kinsley

Her black wings flap soundlessly at her sides.

Being only seventeen, Kinsley still had about a fifteen foot wingspan. They weren’t hard to hide either. She only had to tuck them behind her back and none of the stupid humans suspected a thing.

She pities the humans.

They’re such mundanes. While they dream about flying, while they dream about lifting off the ground and gliding across the ocean, all Kinsley had to do was whip out her wings and go up.

“Kinsley!”

A voice cuts through her thoughts.

Jerome.

Jerome’s the leader of the troops. They’re all Dark Angels. Now they aren’t really angels. They just have wings, and the wings are black—that’s how the name came.

There aren’t just Dark Angels on Earth though.

Pretty much the opposite of Kinsley and her species...there’s another type like them. Another winged species.

White Angels.

White Angels live up to their name. As anyone could’ve guessed...they’ve got white wings.

The thing about the White Angels is...the Dark Angels hate them. Kinsley believes that it’s embedded into their genes.

She doesn’t know why she hates them...she just does. She’s got the hard urge to just find one of them and rip their precious white wings right off their back!

“Kinsley!” Jerome’s voice cuts off her thoughts again. “Are you hearing anything I’m saying?” He asks.

She glances at him. His red eyes shot through her like a bullet.

Kinsley hated Jerome’s eyes. And the thing that sucked the most was that all the Changed Dark Angels’ eyes eventually changed to be blood red.

The Change.

Another thing she hates.

The Change was like turning into an adult. Once you’ve Changed, you’re allowed to go onto missions.

What happens during the Change? They inject you with tons of needles, and tubes and you Change.

Your eyes go blood red, your wings grow up to an eighteen foot wingspan, and you basically become an anger issued bloody eyed monster.

Kinsley hated that she’d become one of those!

She likes being a Dark Angel, she likes having black wings instead of white wings, but she doesn’t want to become some big, freak creature. She’s mutant enough.

“Yes sir.” She says nodding.

Jerome’s red eyes set on her. “Then repeat it,” he growls.

Kinsley gulps. All eyes were on her. “Though the White Angels’ wings are smaller than ours, they’re incredibly fast and lethal. They can fit into small spaces better than we can and their numbers are unidentifiable, just as ours are.” She repeats his words, word by word.

He stares at her for a little while longer, then with no expression in his face whatsoever, he turns back to the group.

“Exactly.”

He continues on talking, but Kinsley stops listening. She’s heard it all before. In ten months she’d be eighteen, and she’d go through the Change. It wasn’t something she was looking forward to, but she couldn’t see any way out of it.

“That’s all for today’s lesson, go on back to your dorms and rest up, tomorrow’s going to be exciting for you all,” Jerome finishes.

Just as Kinsley was about to drop down with the rest of the group Jerome stops her. “Kinsley, I need to talk to you.”

A bomb goes off in her stomach. Is he going to yell at me? She asks herself in worry. Jerome usually doesn’t talk to the youths alone unless they were about to get their butt totally whipped.

Hesitating a little, she flies over to him.

“Uh...yes?” She asks cautiously.

“Kinsley.” He says her name as if he’d said it millions of times and is getting tired of it. “Kinsley, how old are you now? Sixteen? Seventeen?”

Kinsley stares at him. He knows exactly how old I am. “Uhmm...Seventeen sir.” She answers stiffly.

Jerome nods. “Ah, so in one year you’ll finally be one of us then?” His voice sounds so normal. If she didn’t really know him, she’d actually believe that he cared about her age.

But Jerome isn’t that kind of a guy. He’s always got strings attached. He always had a reason to talk to someone...and usually, that reason wasn’t very good for the other person.

“Yes sir, ten months.” She replies trying not to sound too nervous.

He nods and stares at her with his beady eyes. Then he takes a breath. “I think you’re ready for a mission,” he says suddenly.

Kinsley’s taken aback. What?

“Uh...uhm...what?” She stutters.

“A mission. You’re ready for one. You’re at the top of your troop, you’re extremely smart and can think on the spot,” he says simply.

Kinsley’s mouth drops. “Uh...thank you sir.” It was the only thing she could think of to say.

Jerome nods as if to accept her thanks, then he looks down at the ground. “Well, you’ll be called down later tonight for more details on the mission.” He then faces her, his face serious. “And don’t tell anyone about this mission.”

Kinsley nods. “Of course sir.”

He nods once more then dives toward the compound.

Kinsley stays where she is. Confusion, excitement, and more confusion races through her.

Her first mission! She’ll be the youngest Dark Angel to ever go on a mission! She’ll be famous!

Kinsley takes a breath to calm down. “Act professional.” She tells herself. “This is normal for you.”

She drops down to the ground and lands as softly as she can. “I’m going on a mission. I’m now an adult Dark Angel!”