I am sleeping with my pink elephant with purple polka dots, Bilbo. A loud thump, the door swings open fast. Not like mommy opens it. The feet sound like when daddy has more than two glasses of the special juice with no ice that only is for daddies. It goes black. The next thing I knew, I was in a cage for the next 18 years of my life.

This black abyss has secluded me from the beauty of the outside, afterwards I am punished by more needles and knives prodding my body. At night I remember when I was able to fly the sky in the night, watching over the clusters of lights from the city with the wind rushing in my face. Those didn’t last long until the white coats marched in and ripped me from my parents. The first thing they did was remove my wings. I still wonder to this day if I would still be alive if it weren’t for a little voice inside my head. These monsters stab me with long needles extracting blood, bone marrow, and other samples they need, all while being awake stretched across a metal table.

“Test subject 503, stay still!” One of the white coats demand.

“No! I don’t want to do this! Leave me alone!” I tried talking to the whitecoats.

“Subject 503, you need to stay still. We need to extract some spinal fluid for the next test.”

“NO. Get away from me!” I try to struggle for freedom, but multiple hands hold me down restricting my movements while they try to strap me down to the table. “Get. Off. Of. Me.”

“Test subject 503, you must stay still.  It will all be over in a moment.”

“No. I don’t want this.” Tears pour from my face from the pain of the needle piercing my skin. I hear another whitecoat whisper, “We need to remove her wings. They are almost big enough for her to fly.”

“I agree, we should remove them tomorrow. No tests scheduled and it will be great to take a closer look at them.” Another whitecoat agreed.

Slowly the whitecoats pull the needle out, unlatch the straps and carry my limp body back to my cage of solitude.

Kira...Kira...Kira are you there?

What. Sniff, Sniff.

What did they do to you?

They took another test and I heard someone say that they were going to take my wings off again. I can't go through that again. I need to get out of here. I can’t take this anymore. I just want to have normal life. Come save me.

I would if I could, but need to know where you are. I can’t help you if I don’t know where you are.
I told you there are no windows, I am always surrounded in darkness, and I there is not one to talk to.
You need to try something. Anything.

The door slams open and the connection is cut. “503, your food is served. Try and get it if you can.” The whitecoats sets the tray down next to the cage, just out of the reach of my arms. It looks like leftovers that have been picked cleans by crows. The man, pleased to see me struggle gets bored and kicks over the tray while spilling the little food scraps.

The whitecoat starts to walk to the door. “Please, I need food.” I inch forward to edge of the cage, into the light flooding from the door. He takes a second glance at the test subject. “You must earn the food.”

“I have no money, nothing to give. How can I ever pay you?”

“There is always a way to pay with a body like yours.”

I don’t know what he means, but knowing that he is a white coat it can never be good. The man turns back to the door, shuts it, locks both of us in the room, and turns on a small light from his phone and walks towards the cage. “You want the food?” asks the man. I quickly nod my head, peering into his eyes while he is standing right next to me. He turns off the light and a slight jingle comes from his keys. The the cage door opens and he quickly locks both of us in the cell. Something doesn't feel right. The man backs me into a corner and comes uncomfortably close to me. His hands run, around my shoulders through my wings, down my back, and around my waist. I try to push him off of me but he has already firmly gripped the bars behind me.

“Sir, can you please stop?” My quiet voice is drowned out by his heavy breathing. “Sir?”  I struggle to get loose from this man, but his lips are nipping at my neck. I have to get out of here. My hands are moving frantically trying to get hold of something. The next thing I know my hands are cupped around the man's neck. His hands unlatch from the cage behind me, trying to tear my arms off of his body, but my strong hold on his neck never lets go. The life from his body slowly leaves, while he crumbles to the floor. I listen for his raspy breathing, and realize it has escaped his body.

I am considered a killer. The whitecoats will kill me if they find out. I really need to get out of here.

Kira...Kira...Kira… What’s wrong? Your breathing is heavy.

I-I-I just killed a man. He came close to me. He wouldn’t let go. Then he started biting my neck. I didn’t know what to do. My hands grabbed his neck, and they wouldn’t let go.

Calm down, it will be ok. This man that is in a cage with you, does he have keys with him? They will probably be on in his pockets.

Ok, I found them what next?

Reach outside of the cage and use the keys to unlatch the door. Can you figure out how to do that?
I… I.. think so. 

My hands fumble through the keys to try and find the right one. Finally, I hear the keys click into the keyhole and turn the keys.

Kira, did you get it?

Silence filled the room once again. I was finally free.

Kira….

What?

What can you see?

I am out of the cage but the room is still dark and I can’t see anything still. But the man who came into the cage had a light from a phone I think.

Kira that’s great! Grab the phone from the man and turn on the light. 

How do I do that?

There is probably a button in the middle of the phone on the bottom, press it then light should come on.
I followed the instructions coming from my head.

This is so cool, are there more of these? Can I get one? What do they do?

Chill out, Kira, we need to get you out of here. Try finding another key to unlock the next door.

Once again I fumble for the keys, almost dropping them on the cement floor. After a few moments of trying multiple keys I hear another click of freedom. 

Ok what next….. Hello? The connection was cut.

I slowly open the door to the new world that awaited me. All of the lights were turned off, with the exception of a few red glowing lights that said EXIT. I figured that everyone probably went home. I tiptoed through a maze of white hallways until I heard a rustling sound coming from a side room. At first I thought it was a whitecoat working, but it sounded like whimpering, then it came again. Still overwhelmed, I opened the door and peered into the room. I didn’t know what to expect. In the back right corner there was another cage.  Another malnourished body lay on the ground, crying for answers. I quietly close the door behind me. A quiet click comes from the door and the crying stops. I turn on the light from the phone “Hello, what is your name?” I ask.

A small mumble comes from the boy, “Dylan”.

“Hi, Dylan.” I whisper quietly while trying to unlock the cage, “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know, I think about a year.” Another click comes from the cage and the door is unlocked.

“Can you stand?” I ask.

“I think, I can.” I wait for Dylan to get to his feet, it feels like an eternity watching him struggle to stand. Once he starts to walk I quickly go to support him, wrapping my arm underneath his. I adjust my arm and realize there are two indentations on his back like fresh wounds in the same places where my wings were removed.
I wait for a moment. “Dylan, did you use to have wings like me?

“Yes, I did, but the people here hacked them off.”

“Come with me. This is not a place for either of us.”

Kira… Kira.. You there?

Thank the lord you are here! I have been trying to find a way out. Also, I found someone else, his wings were just clipped and he needs help. You need to come and find us before the white coats do.

Kira, I have a plan. It will take me at least 30 minutes to get to you. I was able to hack into the phone that you are carrying around and found your location. You need to stay safe and out of sight until I come an get you.
...I think I can do that.

“Dylan.. Dylan… Dylan…” I shake Dylan awake. “Dylan, you need to stay with me bud.”

Groans come his mouth. “Ok.”

Slowly I help Dylan stumble out of the room and into a chair in an office nearby.

“Dylan, Dylan, you need to stay awake. Keep talking to me.”

I look around for something to occupy my time with, in front of me was a flat electronical device. I squinted my eyes looking at the foreign object hoping it would do something.

“Are you just going to stare at the computer?” Dylan asks.

“The what?”

“Here, let me try.” He slides the computer towards him, opens the box and the screen changes from pitch black to a swirl of colors.  “What do you want to find out?”

“I want to know who I am.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Dylan asks “You might find out something that you don’t want to know.”
It took me a while to think of a reason to not find information that I have wanted for my whole entire life. I didn’t see any harm. “Yes” I answered.

While Dylan was slowly punching in the keys, he asked, “I have been meaning to ask, since you know mine, what’s your name?”

I quickly answered, “Subject 503… wait... actually it’s Kira.”

Dylan gasps in shock.

“What is so funny?” I ask.

“If I remember correctly my parents once said that I had a twin sister.” A tear streamed down his face. “It’s too much of a coincidence that we look alike and we both have wings.”

I never realized because we were in a rush, same dirty brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and same chucky nose. “Wait, I have a twin brother?” I took a moment to let it sink in.

Tears continued to flow from Dylan's eyes “We never saw each other because we were seperated at birth. I was born prematurely and had to be hospitalized. You on the other hand got to spend a few years with our mother and father while I was in intensive care. It’s going to be a bit before I find the information you want. I will take the first watch, we can talk about family later.”

I didn’t object. I could already feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier. I pick myself up and head to the corner of the room. Before I knew it I was out cold.

“Kira! Kira! I really need you to wake up!” Dylan arms vigorously shake my body.  “Do you have a plan to get out of here?”

Red sirens jolt me awake and Dylan lets go of me. “We need to follow the exit signs. It should lead to the outside. Once we get there, there should be someone waiting for us. Follow me!”

While running I ask, “Dylan, what did you do?”

“I might have opened a few files that lead to information that we weren’t supposed to know!”

Footsteps follow and people are yelling everywhere, I knew we were going to get trapped. “Kira, you keep going straight and I will draw the whitecoats away from you.”

“No, Dylan you need to stay with me! I can’t lose you again!”

“Kira, it’s ok. I am going to make sure these people will never do anything like this again to people like us! Keep running and don’t look back.” My eyes water thinking I might never see my brother again. “Kira, go!” I turn around and start to run following the red lights.

I find a glass door leading to the outside. The moonlight lights the hallway, and I run as fast as I can to get ot here. Right as my hand touches the door a loud bang resonates through the hallways. A part of me disappears. I know I will never see Dylan again. Before I could scream and cry out his name, a pair of warm sturdy hands cover my mouth and picks me up. I thought I had experienced the worst pain, but losing a family member was the worst pain I have ever felt. Once again I struggle to free myself, reality setting in, I hear another familiar voice.

Kira...Kira...Kira.. It’s me. You need to settle down. We need to leave.

It took me a while to know who I was talking to. The arms that were once holding me loosened up and turned me around. “Kira, I am your older brother Travis. Dylan and I have been working together to find you.”
I couldn’t do anything. My breath escaped. Before I fell to the ground, Travis scooped me up and placed me in his car. Watching as we pulled out onto the road I saw the beauty of the world around me. The beauty the way the leaves rustle. The fresh air that I once felt when I soared the skies. The gracefulness of the wings on the small tiny birds. I realized that not everything in the world is horrible.