6Iggy woke up in a mood.
He had that dream again, he hadn't had it since he escaped from the School. No, it was more like a nightmare. A nightmare of that fateful day which changed his life completely.
Only, it wasn't a nightmare.
It was just like any other day at the School. He was sitting in his dog-crate which was quickly becoming too small for him. He jumped as the heavy metal doors to his right opened with a loud buzz. A Whitecoat was wheeling in a dog-crate much like his own, but smaller. He watched was the dog-crate was wheeled past his and disappear from view as it turned a corner. I hope she's alright, he thought. He'd watched the same dog-crate wheel past him earlier that morning, and the girl inside it had cast a pleading look his way, as if he could do something to save her from inside his own cage. All he could do was return her look with a sympathizing smile, hoping to ease her fear. But as the crate was wheeled back, all Iggy could see was the girl lying unconscious in the crate, her back facing him.
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice another Whitecoat approaching his crate. He jumped for the second time that day as the Whitecoat kicked the metal-grill doors of his crate before unlocking it and sneer at him through his wire-rimmed glasses.
'Your turn, Experiment 7, and don't make a fuss'
What? Him again so soon? It was just a week ago when he had been yanked out of his crate for an examination where they tinkered with him here and there and had attached wires to his head and shone a light in his eyes and other mad-scientist stuff before returning him to his crate. He wondered what it was this time, and allowed himself to be pulled out of his crate and dumped unceremoniously into a transporting one.
What happened after that, he could hardly remember, but on that same day, he'd woken up in his own crate to total blackness. At first, he thought the lights were out, but as he made his way to the metal-grill of his crate and looked to the right, he saw nothing but blackness. Impossible, he thought, the neon-green Exit sign was always on even during bedtime where the lights were off. He held his hand right in front of his face, nothing.?
"Hey" Iggy heard a voice from across him. "Hey, bird-kid, you doing fine?"
"Wh-what happened? Why is it all dark?" He knew that voice belonged to the kid just around his age who was also in a dog-crate just across him. The kid had a long furry tail and a pair of too-large amber coloured eyes.
The kid seemed to hesitate before answering, "Nothing happened with the lights if that's what you're asking. I think something happened to you. I heard those Whitecoats talking. Apparently, whatever they tried to do to you, failed."
"Failed...? No…" He whispered.
It then dawned on him what the Whitecoats had done to him. He'd heard them talk about trying to enhance his night-vision during the last examination, and they had failed. Leaving him with no vision whatsoever. Crawling to the back of his cage and curling himself into a ball, a million thoughts ran through his mind, So I'm blind now? What's going to happen to me? What are the Whitecoats going to do with me, an Experiment which they deemed as 'Failed'? I'm blind now... Iggy wrapped his gray wings around himself and cried himself to sleep.
"Damn nightmares" Iggy muttered under his breath and squeezed his temples between his fingers. He could feel a headache building up. Why was he having this dream, this nightmare now? He'd long accepted the fact that the Whitecoats had screwed up and lost him his sight, hell, he even joked about his blindness from time to time, but he didn't need a reminder of how he'd lost his sight. It made him remember things that he'd buried deep inside himself and he didn't want to go there.
Just then, a loud clang rang out from downstairs. Iggy cocked his head and listened, the sound had come from the kitchen, and the loud clang could only have been made by a pan hitting the linoleum floor. And something else, Iggy listened harder and heard the familiar voice of their flock leader, Max. Her voice was slightly higher-pitched than usual, which told Iggy that she was on edge about something. And given the situation, it was most likely breakfast. Max + Kitchen + Pan = Not good.
Iggy sighed and dragged himself out of bed. If Max had been so desperate as to start pulling out the pan, it means that everyone else was up and hungry. No one would trust Max five feet from the stove as she has as much cooking skills as he had sight. Usually, in this situation he would have hurried downstairs and offered to cook breakfast to save the house from being burnt down, and piss Max off by making snarky remarks about her almighty cooking prowess. But this morning, he was not in the mood.
So, he took his time getting dressed and slowly made his way downstairs, counting the steps in his head as he went. As he approached the kitchen, he could hear the usual morning Nudge-channel and over that, Max's voice rang out, "Where is that Iggy? He should be up by now. I shouldn't even be trying to make breakfast. I'm going up there and-"
"And?" Iggy leaned on the door frame and narrowed his eyes in the general direction of which Max was standing.
"Oh, you're finally up you pig. I was just about to go kick your lazy ass out of bed. Today's pancakes day. Flock's hungry, get cooking." Max bossed. Though he couldn't see it, Iggy knew that she had her fists on her hips.
"Oh yeah, pancakes!" Gazzy chimed. He was ever the morning person.
"I'd like mine with some chocolate chips, please."
"Total, you're a dog, chocolate could kill you." Angel.
"And a very good morning to you too. It's nice to know I'm good for something. I feel so loved." Iggy rolled his unseeing blue eyes. It came out a little more sharply than he had intended but then again, he felt the world owed him something that morning.
Nevertheless, he made his way around the dining table and towards the cupboard where the pancake mix was kept, no time(or mood) to start from scratch this morning. "What happened to the pan? I heard it drop."
"Uhh, about that... The kids were getting hungry, so I was about to make eggs and I kinda dropped it and, uh, the handle kinda broke off?"
Iggy turned around slowly to face Max. "The handle broke off." He repeated.
"Yeah... I'm sorry Ig, it just slipped from my hands."
"Oh it slipped? Really? And did you know that was our only pan? And you still want me to make pancakes. How do you expect me to make PANcakes without a pan." He was practically shouting now, and he stopped beating the pancake mix that he'd been preparing, and threw it onto the counter top.
"What's wrong with you this morning? It's just a pan, Iggy, we can easily replace it" Max answered. He knew she was probably surprised at his outburst and he could sense that everyone else was staring at him. Even Total, who had been slurping his milk noisily from his seat at the table.
Iggy, frustrated, pushed his strawberry-blonde bangs out of his eyes and let out a slow breath. The headache was here now, and it did nothing but fuel his already-foul mood.
"Yeah," he said sarcastically "and God knows what else can be easily replaced when it's broken, Max. I'm outta here, I need some air." Before any one could say anything, he stormed out of the kitchen through the back door, jogged a few feet, unfurled his wings and took to the sky.
As bad as he didn't want to admit it, Max was right, what was wrong with him this morning? He usually had better control of his emotions than this. He always tried not to let his emotions be written all over his face- because being blind, he could only tell what others' were feeling by listening to the tone of their voices and he wasn't about to let everyone else know his feelings that easily- and back in the kitchen he knew he had.
As he rose up above the Martinez's house which they were currently staying in, his thoughts went back to that nightmare that had caused all this drama.
Yes, he made jokes and allowed the flock to make jokes about his blindness, but sometimes it still bothered him, it hurt. There were countless things that he missed out on because of it. He was always the last to know things and that drives him crazy, he was would be lost when they went to new places and he had to follow closely behind Gazzy to get his bearings. That was the worst thing, he felt, about being blind, having to depend on someone. He hated that. And he could only sit back and listen while Gazzy and Fang had all the fun, punching the buttons on Halo.
Circling above the house, he felt his head clear a little. Flying always made him feel better. It didn't make him feel so damn handicapped. Up in the sky, he could fly freely without worrying he'll bump into something or trip over dumb things like a misplaced book.
He heard a rustling of wings below him and stopped his circling, hovering in the air, beating his powerful fifteen-foot long wings. Judging by the way it was getting louder, something was flying towards him. Couldn't be a bird. Birds usually avoided then, according to Angel, they thought they would eat them. So it must be one of the flock then. Or an Eraser. He listened harder, "Nudge."
"Someday, I'm going to find out how you do that." Nudge commented as she leveled with him.
-Pause-
"Hey, Iggy. You alright?" She reached out and poked him gently on the arm.
Typical, Nudge, always there to ask if you're feeling alright.
"Yeah, guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Sorry for that drama back there." He said, gesturing at the direction of the house.
"Don't worry about it, everyone has their bad days. And to be honest, I thought Max was being a little insensitive. I mean, she didn't even give you time to mourn over your broken pan and she still wanted you to make pancakes."
That cracked a smile on Iggy's face. "Yeah, that was my favourite pan. May you rest in pieces."
"That was your only pan, Iggy." Nudge always knew the right thing to say. He felt better already. "You cool Igs? I don't mean to be pushy and all, but we're all hungry. And Total is driving us up the wall with all his complaining about his 'poor empty tummy'."
"Alright, alright." Laughed Iggy, descending, all traces of his bad mood gone.
"What would you guys do without me?"
Thanks for reading, guys! I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review if you liked it, I wanna know what you think. :)
Iggy: Aww, you wrote a fanfic about me. That's so sweet!
Me: Ugh, shut it, pyro, don't flatter yourself. I was extremely bored, so.
Iggy: *stares with narrowed eyes*
Me: What? Stop that look.
Iggy: You know I'm your favourite character, just admit it. I am awesome.
Me: Oh really? You know what else is awesome? Heh, if only you know what ideas I have in stored for you... *evil cackle*
Iggy: The heck? Did you just cackle? What ideas, tell me.
Me: *singsong voice* Yooou'll seee... *more evil cackling*
Iggy: Oh God, what have I gotten myself into.