My eyes snapped open as Alex lunged at me and my body seemed to act on its own accord as time seemed to slow down around me. I dove underneath her arm right before she reached me and I winced as her knife barely grazed my arm. I heard her snarl, frustrated that her prey had escaped, but I didn’t waste any time to look back. I scrambled to my feet and bolted out the door, narrowly avoiding a couple of tourists. I frantically looked around for my group, I could hide with them. Wait, no, she would hurt them. She is after me for some reason, but there’s no telling what she would do if other people got in the way.

BOOM!

What the-

I found myself laying flat on the floor. Achy and blurry-eyed I looked around to see what happened. A huge blast had knocked everyone in the vicinity down to the ground. I glanced behind me. There was Alex, emerging from a cloud of smoke, and the bathroom door had been completely blown off its hinges. Small fires had sparked everywhere the debris landed. I struggled to my feet as the fire alarms started blaring and the sprinklers went off. I heard screams and people rushed by me in a blur. The elevator! I could escape down the elevator!

I ran over but my hopes were crushed. The elevator was full of my classmates and there was only room for a few more.I almost ran in but I heard the cry of a small child and spotted a terrified family behind me. I looked around nervously but decided to let them go ahead of me. I looked into the elevator and saw Scott crammed in among all the others and our eyes locked. I could tell he was terrified and he mouthed something while he pointed behind me. I tried to think what he could mean as I gradually lost sight of him. Too late, I remembered what had caused the fires. Oh no. Times up.

I heard a whistle and hit the deck right before a fireball flew right past where my head just was. As I rolled over, trying to get back up, Alex stomped hard on my ribs.

“GAHHH!!” I yelled. I tried to drag myself away, clutching my side, and once again ended up with my back to a dead end. Alex casually walked over, twirling the still flaming knife in her hand. She kneeled down next to me as I struggled to sit up against the glass window overlooking the city. She grabbed my chin and tilted my head to the side. I winced.

“Do you know, Jack Hemming, how long it has taken for us to find you?” She asked, still in the eerie dual toned voice.

I glared at her. “No,” I managed to choke out, “But why would… You even want me? I’ve never done anything wrong.”

She laughed and the sound brought shivers down my spine. “Oh how ironic. You don’t know. Well, you won’t have to dwell on it too long,” she said as she raised the knife. I mentally prepared myself to die. At least I would be able to see Grace again. I just regretted not being able to say goodbye to my family.

She brought the knife down into my stomach. I grunted in pain, and everything exploded.

The next thing I knew I was falling. Somehow the glass window and protective railing had been shattered and I was falling. Falling from the Space Needle.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAHAHAHAHHAH!!!!!!! was pretty much my only thought to that.

I prepared myself for a splat. Hopefully I wouldn’t feel much. That was an optimistic lie, I would probably feel it all. I shut my eyes tight, hoping that it might hide me from the pain. It just made the gut feeling worse, but I was too scared to keep them open.

I hit sooner than I thought and intense pain flooded through my entire body. My bones seemed to break and snap into strange places and my skin tore. The feeling of falling stopped and a strange tingle started to spread from my chest to my toes. Was I dead?

I sneaked a peak, and my eyes widened in surprise. I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t falling anymore. I was flying.

The world below me looked so vibrant. I saw all the people, who had previously looked like little ants, and now I could see an old lady’s purse in perfect detail. The pigeons below scattered as I passed. I felt amazing and perfectly free for the first time in my life. I let out a whoop.

“SCREECH!!!”

Uhhh… that was not the noise I meant to make. I looked around, craning my neck, and I almost started to fall again when I saw that where my arms were… Where my arms were… there were a pair of large, black wings. I quickly scanned the rest of my body. Yep, it was impossible but it was true. I had somehow become a bird. No sooner had this thought actually processed in my mind, than I felt a sharp prick. In my peripheral I saw a feathered dart sticking out of my shoulder. Uh oh. My world turned gray and fuzzy and my muscles started to go limp. I fought to stay awake, but it was no use. I gave in and plummeted towards the ground.

***

Ugh… Somebody get me the number of that truck.

Wait…

I was falling…

But now I’m not…

Where am I?

I sat up quickly, my eyes snapping open. Ow, bad idea. I winced. Every muscle in my body was yelling at me. I slowly scanned my surroundings. A blank white room, devoid of any furniture or decoration except a mirror on one wall and a door on another. The ground, walls, and ceiling were all padded and covered in slashes. Stuffing was everywhere. It looked like a freaking tiger had gotten loose in here. I tried to get up, but my shaky legs gave out and I fell.

Someone opened the door and I raised my head. A tall, clean cut man in a gray suit to match his hair walked in. He smiled.

“Hello Jack,” he said.

I looked at him. How did he know my name?

“I understand this must all come off a bit strange to you,” he said, sitting down with me on the floor, “I’m Agent Sterling." He held out his hand.

I ignored it and asked, "Where am I?" It surprised me how raspy my voice was.

Sterling chuckled, "Well, let's just say that the exact location is classified, but we're still in Washington."

"What do you mean classified? I asked.

"Jack, do you understand what happened to you?" He asked. I noticed he didn't answer my question.

"What happened to-" I trailed off, trying to remember. The last thing I could recall was running… but from what? I tried to concentrate through the fog in my brain. I fingered my shirt. Wait- This wasn't the shirt I was wearing when I fell. When… I fell.

"I fell off of the Space Needle! And I'm still alive!" I yelled, finally realizing. But something else still nagged at me. What was it?

"Yes Jack. You survived something that shouldn't have been possible. But how? Are you able to remember anything else that happened?" Agent Sterling pressed,

"Ummm…" I strained my brain and shifted my position. I grimaced and touched my side. A flash, a memory of a sharp pain came back to me and I cried out.

"I was stabbed!" I lifted the new shirt and gazed in shock at the smooth, pale skin underneath. "There isn't even a mark," I whispered.

"That unmarred skin is proof Jack, that there is something not normal about you. You survived a stab to the kidney and a 600 foot fall.” He caught my blank stare. He muttered to himself and I heard him say “How do I put this bluntly?” He paused, thinking, then said, “You’re not human.”

Well that was pretty blunt. I almost laughed. “Of course I’m human. Do you think I’m like, a fish or a monkey or something?” I asked.

Sterling smiled. “No, but I would like you to watch this video, it should open your mind.” He pulled out a phone from his pocket. I leaned over to get a better look.

It was a social media video. Someone was filming the Seattle Space Needle from ground level. Everything seemed fine and even boring but then the screams started. A few minutes of chaos passed, people steaming out of the doors and bumping into the filmer. All was silent for a minute then the top of the tower exploded in a burst of green energy. Glass shattered and plummeted towards the bystanders. The video was shaky as the filmer ran away and the screen went black, but not before I saw a small human figure falling from the remains of what was the Space Needle. Squinting at the screen, I was shocked to see the figure morph into a bird and glide away. I slowly started to realize that the bird was me.

Agent Sterling was right. I didn’t know how it could’ve even been possible but I had turned into a bird. The blood drained from my face and I slumped back on the wall.

Sterling pocketed the phone. “I think that was pretty clear evidence,” he said, “but you needn’t be concerned about people seeing the footage. We edited out the last few seconds.”

“How is this even possible?” I whispered. This was too crazy. My life seemed to have flipped upside down in front of me; it was like I had been transported into a movie.

“Well, Jack, I’ve seen your records. You’re a smart kid. You take an interest in science, do you not?”

I nodded.

“Then you should know that there are mysteries to the universe that science is still trying to explain. Things that don’t make sense, things that hide from our sight. One of those things is what most people would dismiss, and foolishly might I add, as magic.”

I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “Magic?” I asked.

Sterling nodded then said, “Before you disbelieve, have you heard the term, ‘Magic is just things science can’t explain yet’?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Yeah, in, like, books and TV shows.” I said.

“It is completely true, and that is what we do here, we study the ins and outs of ‘magic’ and try to explain and protect people from it,” he said.

“Where is here?” I asked.

“We’re a small research facility, a branch of the government that split off a long time ago,” he explained, “Now we are just an independent corporation that mostly tries to find applicable uses for magic and ways to keep it from throwing the world into anarchy.”

“So it’s dangerous?” I asked.

His face darkened. “Yes. If not controlled, magic is a force of nature just like any other. Just like a hurricane or tornado, it would quickly take lives and destroy all humans have created.”

I looked at my hands. They looked like the same hands I’ve always had, but the feeling I had inside was different. A strange buzz inside my veins that seemed to confirm all that Sterling was saying. A strange, foreign power inside me that wanted to escape. A power that flamed the small spark of fear that was growing within me; the fear that deep down I was a monster, just like the one that had attacked me.

I looked up. “Agent Sterling… What am I?”

Sterling frowned and was silent for a moment then said, “We don’t know. We only found out about you after your doctor noticed something off in your blood work and posted it online. Our scanners were triggered and we tried to get to you before you could do any damage. Unfortunately we weren’t the first ones to take interest.”

I shuddered.

Sterling continued. “At first we thought you could have been a descendent of a uirapuru or maybe even a nagual, which are a rare form of bird shapeshifters, but the family history doesn’t match and then you shifted into a large cat while we had you in containment so we had to scrap that idea.”

My eyes widened and I stared at the gashes in the walls. I did those?! This. Uh, this was insane. I was dreaming, I had to be. This was all just another one of my crazy adventure dreams. The room started to spin and my breath quickened. I looked down at my hands and saw that they were shaking. I grabbed my arm to stop it, but it just got worse.

Sterling put his hand on my shoulder but quickly drew it back as if he had been shocked. “Jack,” he said softly, “you’re okay.”

No, I wasn’t okay! Couldn’t he see?! “Can’t…. Breath!” I gasped.

Sterling stood up and spoke into a walkie talkie he pulled out of his belt. “Jessica, he’s having a panic attack, assistance is required immediately.” He then left the room, leaving me alone and trapped.

My breath came in ragged bursts and my stomach rolled. I leaned over and gagged in between breaths, but nothing came up. I was exhausted and wanted to cry. The buzz of power in my body grew more intense and through my blurry eyes my hands seemed to morph into twisted shapes. Just then the door burst open and a woman dashed into the room.

She kneeled down next to me. “Jack,” she said calmly, looking into my eyes, “I’m going to give you a sedative now, is that alright? It won’t knock you out, just calm you.”

I nodded, still gasping for air and she plunged a needle into my arm. My muscles slowly started to relax and I slumped to the floor. I took a huge breath as my lungs opened back up. Now that the attack was over, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and go to sleep.

I laid there for a couple of minutes just breathing and staring up at the ceiling. This all seemed like a dream. Shapeshifters and fire demons. Secret government agencies. Magic was real. I didn’t think that I could ever manage to wrap my head around the concept. I slowly sat up and ran my hands through my hair.

“Are you alright now?” The woman asked. I looked over at her. I had totally forgotten she was there.

“Yeah, I think so,” I replied shakily. I laughed, almost hysterically, and shook my head. This was ridiculous.

The woman helped me up to my feet. I swayed and she steadied me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Sorry? You don’t have to be sorry at all, we’re used to dealing with these types of things,” she laughed, “and to be fair, Agent Sterling is not great at breaking stuff like this to people.” She smiled and stuck out her hand. “I’m Dr. Jessica Veroni, or Jessie if you like, head of the zoology department. Or I guess you could say mythozoology, but that just makes me seem crazy doesn’t it?”

I smiled back and shook her hand. “Yeah, it definitely does.” I noticed that the way she talked had a certain lilt to it, her i’s were like e’s and th’s like d’s. I guessed she probably didn’t grow up in the U.S.

“Would you like to be shown around?” Dr. Veroni asked. “Sterling wanted to wait until you were fully stable, but I think you are fine now.” She winked at me.

I grinned. I liked her.

“Wait, where did Agent Sterling go?” I asked.

“Who knows? That man is all over the place. Lots of stuff to do around here,” she shrugged and opened the door, motioning me to go ahead of her. As I passed I saw a glint of metal around her neck. Huh, that didn’t look like a necklace chain. She caught me looking at it and she smiled.

“You noticed this,” she said, pushing her long dark hair behind her.

“Sorry, I just noticed that it didn’t look much like a chain,” I explained, embarrassed, “What is it?” I asked. It would have passed for a thick silver choker except for a couple of blinking lights that went off every few seconds.

“You know how in myths silver is a deterrent against certain creatures, right?” she said.

“Yeah, like vampires and werewolves…” I replied. What did that have to do with the choker?

“Well a couple of years ago we found out that silver’s properties allow it to interfere with the inner workings of magical creatures. It tends to suppress violent tendencies and destructive powers, and in large quantities can kill a creature, but that really depends on the species,” she explained.

Wait… So did that mean?

“You’re not human.” I said.

She raised her eyebrows. “You caught on quick. And no, I am not human, but Jack you must realize that we are still people, no matter what others may tell you. We still have feelings and lives and hopes and dreams like any other human. We love… and hate like humans too, I'm afraid,” she said.

I didn’t like how she kept saying we. It was still weird for me to grasp that I wasn’t what I thought I was my entire life. I opened my mouth to ask what she was but she answered me before I could.

“And if you’re wondering what I am, I’m what most people think of as a vampire,” she said with a sad smile.

I unconsciously took a step back, then immediately felt bad. Dr. Veroni seemed very nice, not at all like a bloodthirsty monster.

“So, do you, uh, do you-”

“Drink human blood?” She cut me off. “No, vampires have a lot of similarities with bats, and most people only think of Desmodontinae, the vampire bats, but my family tree descends from a line that shares a diet with the family Pteropus.”

“Flying foxes?” I grinned.

“Yes,” she looked at me, shocked. “How in the world did you know that?”

“I’m kind of a nerd” I laughed, “but does that mean you drink, like, fruit juice?”

“Yep, I’m just a little addicted to pineapple,” she said as she started walking down the clean, white hallway. “Don’t fall behind!” she called over her shoulder. I jogged to catch up. I took note of the many identical doors to mine on each side. Huh, I wonder if there are any other people in them.

“Wait, so why do you wear the collar if you aren’t dangerous?” I asked her.

Her smile faltered a bit. After a moment she said, “Just because something is benevolent, doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous.”

Her tone left a foreboding silence in the air. I decided to not press it. We walked in the silence for a bit, until I finally made up my mind to ask her something else that had been bothering me.

“Dr. Veroni?”

“Yes”

“If I’m not human, does that mean that my family isn’t either? Because if my parents hid that from me-” I said.

“We actually looked into that. In America, all people with magical ancestry have to be registered with our system. It’s kind of like a social security number and helps protect humans and other creatures,” she explained, “Your family isn’t in the system.”

“Are they illegal immigrants or something?” I asked.

“No, we looked at a DNA analysis on both of your parents and they are completely human.”

“So tell me- How in the world did I turn into a freaking bird?!” I said.

Dr. Veroni ignored my change in tone and said, “We don’t know Jack. We thought you could have been in a type of changeling situation, but your DNA matches your parents and your file says you have a twin-”

“Had,” I interrupted.

“Sorry?”

“Had a twin,” I said.

“Oh, Jack,” her face donned the usual sympathetic expression given to those who have lost someone.

“It’s fine. Continue.”

She gave me a look but continued on anyway. “Changelings don’t ever usually have twins, due to the child being switched out, so we just don’t know what you are. We’re planning on doing a few tests today if you are alright with that.”

“That’s great. And then I could go home?” I asked hopefully.

“Well, uh,” Veroni hesitated, “we’d have to send you to training after and also… um, your family thinks, that uh, you’re dead.”

“What?!” I yelled. “Why?!”

“That video that Sterling showed you of the Needle blowing up is all over national television. People think that it’s a terrorist attack and unfortunately there were people killed in the explosion. Including, since you went missing and there was no body found, you.”

I stopped walking and stared at her in shock. “My family thinks I was blown up and you won’t tell them that I’m alive?” I said in disbelief.

She grimaced. “It’s hard to explain and, as you should know, this whole thing is hard for people to understand. Also, our whole organization relies on secrecy. If the public knew… Well, let's just say people can hardly handle differences in race let alone living with whole different species.”

I frowned. “So I can’t ever see my family again? That doesn’t seem right.”

“That’s not what I said. Just give it some time Jack. You’re still dangerous. You can’t control yourself. Give it some time, learn control, and you will be able to go back to them,” Veroni said.

That’s stupid, but fine, I’ll go along with your little game, I thought. “Alright,” was all I said to her. I think I decided to go along with her because deep down I was scared that I actually was dangerous. That I could hurt people. I remembered the room I had just been in. The padded walls torn apart by a monster. I shuddered to think what would happen if that had been a person.

We continued to walk down the hallway, making a few turns as we went. I spotted a large metal door to the right of us and noticed we were approaching it.

“Are we going in there?” I asked.

“More like out but yes,” said Veroni, pulling out a security card out of her pocket. I leaned around her to get a better look at the lock. Woah, that was intense. That thing looked unhackable. A fingerprint scanner, key card, and a digit code? They were definitely trying to keep things here from getting out.

There was a beep and the door clicked open. Veroni gestured for me to go through ahead of her and I was just about to before I heard something that made my head turn. Was that… humming?

“Jack, come one,” Veroni said.

“Just a sec,” I said, turning to investigate the source of the sound. “Do you hear that?” I asked her.

“No, I don’t, but Jack we need to get the-”

“I’m gonna go check it out,” I interrupted. I started to jog down the hallway to the left.

“Jack! You don’t want to go down that way!”

I ignored her.

As I continued along the sweet lilting buzz grew louder and I was soon able to pick out individual tunes within it. I almost stopped just to soak it in but it seemed to be drawing me nearer. I couldn’t describe it with any words other than beautiful. The music seemed to soak into my very being and carry all of my worries and fears with it and by the time I got to the door that the hum was emanating from my jog had become more of a wander. I considered opening it. I had no need to. I could just stand here and listen and nothing would be bad ever again. Then I heard the echoing footsteps of Dr. Veroni behind me and I realized that my curiosity would never be satisfied if I didn’t open the door right now. I grabbed the handle, identical to the one that was to my room, and pulled.

I would never be prepared for what I saw. A girl in a brown leather jacket, her back turned to me, but I would recognize her fiery red hair anywhere.

“Alex,” I whispered.