And here is the FINAL installment of the plot twist! Here is Charlie, and yes, I will be adding him as a character! I will eventually post for Sebastian, but right now, here is Charlie and where we are living now! Hope you enjoy! Charlie is an interesting sort! :D
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Charlie
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Fire. Tears. Anger. A house. A man with a black lab coat. A gun. A man younger than me, wrapped in chains; Cyrus. And a bird. A single black crow. It was beautiful, really. The crow's wings were in perfect alignment with its body but its beak was disgusting, just like the man underneath my hand, being forced down by my weight and anger, and by my fingers clasped around his throat.
"Charlie."
I heard Akira rush into the fire. I heard Griffin comforting his tied up brother, who was in front of the house. It was most likely one of these... disgusting animals in black lab coats, maybe even this one that was under my hands, that inserted a chip into Cyrus. I knew it because of my own scanner. He showed up, popped up on my scanner, and we hurry back to find him tied up in front of a burning house. I find a man running away, wearing a black lab coat. Who knew how long Cyrus had been there? Could’ve been days, weeks, until they decided to pull the trigger and make the chip activate. God, I was so freaking-
“Charlie!” I jumped and looked around and smiled.
“Hi, honey,” I smiled, completely ignoring the man in my hands, who was finally starting to not struggle anymore.
“Let go and give him to your mother,” Christina said with a commanding voice. Oh come on, not that voice... I hate that voice.
“But-” She gave me the look. Shit.
“Fine,” I told her as I let go of his throat and he started to gasp for air. I picked him with a slight of ease and flung him over my shoulder once I was standing. I walked around the crying Griffin and Cyrus and the burning Akira to my mother, who was off in the distance, in the open, staring at the house she once lived in and loved.
“Hi, Mommy,” I called with a smile and she looked back at me with a sweet smile. It was pain filled though. Aww.
“Who’s that, honey?” Mom asked and I smiled.
“A nice little prisoner for you for down in the your caves,” I smiled and she chuckled.
“Have Christina keep him busy as I go and get some rope to tie him up. Go be with your sister, Charlie,” Mom told me and I nodded.
“Okay,” I said with a smile as I turned to Christina, who happily took my gun that I forgot about that was in my pants pocket, and pointed it at the scientist as Mom walked off and I walked over to Akira, who was now outside of the burning house, panting.
She was holding a box and I recognized it immediately. It was Dad’s box, the one I remembered constantly seeing him hold and clutch when I was a child. Akira was, at that time, too young to remember, but at least she knew it was important.
Some of her clothes were burnt from the fire and there were some embers leftover on her jacket. A lot of her hair was burned on the ends as well. She was coughing slightly from the inhalation of the smoke, but I knew her better than that. She was holding her breath, choking back tears. She was probably the one closest to the fire so I walked over to her and grabbed her hand. She jumped when I did so but she got up once she was able and followed me away from the fire. Griffin was too busy talking to Cyrus, along with a few others questioning him and avoiding the fact that the house was burning, but the rest were trying to put out the fire. At least they were trying, but it was all in vain. They were not going to succeed, not with this much damage.
“Sissy?” I called to Akira as she collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were glassy and tear filled. She was in shock. She was barely moving and hardly moving her eyes about. She wouldn’t look at me though.
“Sissy?” I repeated as I shook her a bit. This helped a little because after a few minutes, she looked up and the tears finally came.
“Charlie?” She collapsed in my arms this time, crying her eyes out. Nobody was paying attention to us as I hugged her and she cried into my chest, my clothes getting soaked. Ew.
I turned my head towards Christina and saw that she was still holding the gun to the man’s head as I saw my mother come out the shadows. Akira moved slightly to see what I was seeing and her expression didn’t change. She was in disarray; in complete and total breakdown. She was broken, like father had warned.
“Who’s that? Is that-”
“Yes, it is, Sissy. It’s Mom,” I told her, looking back at her and Akira’s expression dropped. I think she thought it was her, but probably hoped it was not. I don’t blame her. Mom had never been there for Akira, only for me. She left Akira at a very young age, leaving her to my father and I, and that didn’t help things go along at all. Akira hated her. She hated her for the very same reason everyone else did. She always abandoned those she loved. It was a horrible habit and trait, but it was true. Akira didn’t know Mom. Mom wasn’t there for her, not even in the most troubling of times, like over this past year, when Akira started up the M.C.C. and started to find out the truth about Xenogenesis Laboratories. Mom knew everything. She could’ve shown up but she didn’t, because that’s exactly how she was.
Before Akira was to really take into account that the woman off in the distance was her mother, sirens down the street started to wail and I cringed. I hated all wailing noises, no matter what they were. Sirens, alarms, children. I hated it all. I just love being autistic.
“Everyone, please!” Everyone’s heads whipped towards my mother. “Please, come with me! I can get you all to safety!” Everyone was skeptical. Most probably didn’t think much of the wailing, but I had to guarantee that most of them were probably police and not firetrucks.
“Go with her! It is useless to try and save the house! Go! Now!” I yelled at them all and at first, they all hesitated, but they eventually started to hurry over to my mother and follow her deeper into the woods.
I helped Akira up as she stayed quiet and had her start to walk over to where everyone else was walking, but her eyes drifted to Griffin and Cyrus, who were still on the ground. Griffin was trying to help him up but with no success. Without saying a word, Akira walked over to them and I followed her for some stupid reason.
“Here, let me, Griffin,” Akira spoke in a hard voice. It was probably the best she could do at the moment. I watched Griffin as he handed her the chains that bound Cyrus.
“I do not think you can-” Griffin started but Akira ended it with a snap of the chains breaking in half and dropping loosely to the ground. Her strength scared even me. What had X.L. done to her? Made my sister into... well... the answer was obvious.
“Corners? Akira Corners?” were the first words out of Cyrus’s mouth, or at least, the first words that Akira and I heard. Akira stared. Oh great. Cyrus got a hold of the files.
“How the hell do you know my name?” She demanded and I was about to say something to stop her but I stopped myself. I had a feeling nothing would work now.
“Extraordinary. You are just extraordinary, Miss Corners,” Cyrus said in amazement as the sirens got closer.
“I said, how the hell do you know my name?” Akira demanded once more and Griffin narrowed his eyes at Akira.
“Why wouldn’t I? You were the perfect test subject, and you turned out very well.” I facepalmed. Good job, Cyrus. Good job.
The moment I heard movement in Akira’s feet was the moment Griffin moved to stop her from choking Cyrus. Akira wasn’t in the right mind, and I had a feeling, Cyrus knew that just as well as I did.
“Stop Akira. He is my brother. You will not attack him,” Griffin said in a powerful voice and I think this even shocked Akira.
“Excuse me? I’m not going to what?” She hissed at Griffin and Griffin was about to retort back when I actually decided to step in between them, pushing them back from each other.
“Now, now. Let’s just get to shelter so that we all don’t get killed, shall we?” I asked with a smile and Akira narrowed her eyes at me, still livid, while Griffin calmed down and followed me over to the forest that thankfully wasn’t on fire. Akira sauntered behind, staying silent, but her eyes laid on one thing, as did mine most of the trip.
The metal wings on Cyrus’s back. They were hideous and disgusting. Personally, I don’t think he should’ve ever experimented on himself, but hey, it was his choice.
“Do I know you?” Cyrus called to me as Griffin helped him along the obvious pathway to the trapdoor. I could tell it was a trapdoor because the squeaking of the hinges was extremely loud, at least in my ears, and I could hear chatter not too far away from here. I turned my head back to him with a smile.
“Charlie Corners, I.Q. 198, Autistic, son of Christopher Charlie Corners, brother of Akira Corners, Werewolf. I have never understood why you had me experimented on, Cyrus,” I said with a slight frown and Cyrus sighed.
“They just took your whole family, from what it seems like. You are very smart, though. I thought you would have figured it out, Charlie,” Cyrus said and I chuckled. “Do you hate me for what happened?” I shook my head.
“No, of course not. I learned from it, in my own way that is.”
“But your eye-” I held up a hand to stop him.
“Do not worry about that. It was just a mistake,” I sighed and we were quiet for a few more minutes until I remembered something from a long time ago.
“Cyrus, do you remember, many years ago, the Nobel Prize Awards in Sweden where I had gotten an award and you got many?” I asked. “We met each other that day.” It took Cyrus merely a second.
“Of course. That was a glorious day. I remember you, Charlie,” Cyrus said. Griffin and Akira were staring at us both, confused.
“I still look up to you, Cyrus, no matter what has happened over the years. I do not blame you for anything. You just have a great mind is all,” I told him and I didn’t see a change in emotion at all, not a flicker in response. All I saw was pain.
“As do you,” Cyrus said and he was about to say more when Akira interrupted quite abruptly.
“Yes, you’re both pretty and handsome and gay. Can we get a damn move on?” Akira said, her voice cold. It made me feel cold, right down to my very bones. Well, there goes happy time.
“Sure,” I said with a smile as we came upon the trapdoor. It was wooden and it was wide open, waiting for us to go down the railing that was on the side of the wall. It was just like a sewer drain, except it was rectangular. Off in the distance, I could hear doors being shut and doors being forced open. Well, I think our cars were found quite easily.
“Ladies first,” I said with a smile and Akira narrowed her eyes at me before walking forward, bending down to the railing, attaching herself to it and then sliding all the way down it, not bothering to use the stairs on it at all. Well, she didn’t want to climb.
“You two can go ahead. I have to make sure everything is secure up here on the ground level,” I told both Griffin and Cyrus and they both nodded and once Griffin got Cyrus securely on his back, they headed down, though I stayed standing there, beside the trapdoor for some time.
I thought back to Germany. I expected all of this to happen. X.L.’s moves were predictable, especially when I had Sam working for me. That little boy was merely just a helpful pawn. He played the pieces well when he was with his father in the labs, and throughout the rest of the time being when he was texting that woman named Ela, a woman who he had deep feelings for, or at least, that’s what I gathered. Sam had contacted me right when he found my mother out in the forest. He wasn’t just doing research up in his room on all of those in the club.
Once he came in contact with my mother, he contacted me, and told me what was to happen. He had gained friends among those who were in X.L.. He did not want to lose them. I hired him and told him exactly what to do and exactly how to do it and he followed orders perfectly. He put on the perfect face while Akira and her friends were captured. He did everything to a T. Of course, once he had gotten away from his father and those maniacal idiots, he traveled to Germany, where he had stayed at my house, contacting Ela and hiring a boy named Tommy, who was related to this Ela. He used Tommy to his advantage just as much as I used Sam.
What I had planned though did spin out of control once Akira got into Munich, Germany, with her friends. A few men and woman appeared from the building of X.L. that I had managed to destroy and their intention was to kill me but that obviously didn’t happen. I had used my gun to shoot our their tires and they died once their cars hit each other and flipped over. Minutes later, those cars exploded and Christina and I were away from the scene, making sure our tracks were covered and nothing could be linked to us. We gave the club a week only to make sure things were calm again. Of course, calm indicated to me when I was experimenting on myself once more to test out some odd results X.L. had gotten in their labs. It wasn’t pleasant, but I couldn’t have cared less. I had only destroyed that building of X.L. in Germany for a reason and that was to hide evidence. They were the only building in Germany that was X.L. and I had only gone there to get information after I had gotten out of that facility. I had blown it up instead. It was a good and fun feeling.
Once the club had gotten to my house, I had explained to them thoroughly what was wrong with them, what X.L. was, and why we were this way. Of course, I didn’t say who the man behind it all really was, or else Cyrus would be dead right now, and so would Griffin, only because he was Cyrus’s brother. I didn’t mention either how X.L. consisted of the leader’s of the world’s governments, because that would’ve led to a lot of... most likely anarchy.
I would have to explain soon though, because they would be wondering why that man was in front of the burning building when they first arrived there, why he was so attached to Griffin, and why he knew everything about every single one of them.
Once I had finished explaining, we all ate, even though most did not, and I talked to Akira and Griffin for some time, knowing exactly who Griffin was, but pretending I didn’t until my scanner went off in my pocket and there stood Cyrus on the map, and only then, did I show Griffin and warn him of what was to come. I was not sure if he listened though.
“Charlie? You coming?” I heard Christina call from down the hole and I shook myself out of my thoughts.
“Yes, honey!” I called down to her as I moved over to the stairs and closed the trap door down on me. Once that was secure, I started to head down the stairs until I came upon Cyrus, Griffin, Akira, and Christina. The rest of the club was in the room to the left, which was a gathering room that was filled with blankets and pillows and had a stage up at the front of the room.
What my mother had done to this underground tunnel system was amazing. First of all, she made an underground tunnel for the reason of being that she had to hide herself down here or else she was to be killed. She found out about X.L. a lot earlier than any of us did and that’s why she disappeared. She had also done a few illegal things before that as well, hence her hiding. Father had known and occasionally, things would go missing in the library, only because there was a hidden door in the library that opened up to a door, that when opened, had a set of staircases leading downwards into the tunnels. He would visit her once in awhile, but either way, she could’ve hidden herself well just within the mansion itself. She could’ve stayed in Akira’s life.
Anyways, I’m guessing for as long as she’s been down here, occasionally leaving to get food or visit father’s grave, she was able to do some renovating. From here, I couldn’t see where the tunnel ended, or where it even divided off. The walls and ceiling were covered in metal plating but the ground, instead of being dirt, was wooden. There were multiple rooms down this single tunnel/hallway, all leading off to something different. I know for a fact one of these rooms was a complete garden, filled with vegetables and fruits of all kinds. One was also a containment room, and I knew that was where the scientist was. It would soon turn into an interrogation room. The walls were blank. There were no photos, no paintings, nothing. It was blank, except for lanterns and wiring that was connected to the lights on the ceiling.
We were lucky that being underground intercepted the signal of the chips in everyone’s brains so that Xenogenesis Labs wouldn’t be able to find us. At most, they would just know that we were in Virginia. A big yellow dot on the whole state of Virginia. Yep.
I could hear Mom taking care of everyone inside of the gathering room, handing people bags of their things that she had managed to save before the mansion was lit on fire. Once we got into the room, I directed Cyrus and Griffin to the stage, where there were seats to sit upon and had Akira stay with me.
The floor in this room was littered with carpet and rugs galore, what with there being multiple colors and odd designs upon the whole thing. The walls of course, were empty, and there were a few lights hanging from the ceiling. It was cold as well, hence why Mom was draping everyone in blankets. She was trying to make them welcome. Some of it was working, some of it wasn’t. I couldn’t blame them. Their only home that they had felt welcome in was now doused in fire. I could only imagine what Akira felt. Personally, I wasn’t too attached to the house, but Akira... she was a lot more than I was.
Mom was beautiful, I had to admit. She had blond hair like mine, was just a little hefty but in a good way, and was about in her mid-40s. She was wearing simple clothing, just a sweatshirt and some jeans with some snow boots, along with some makeup as well. Mom always did like the appearances.
Once she walked over to us, she gave me a hug first, but when she turned to Akira, she was at a loss for words. There was no bag in her hands for Akira. Everybody else had gotten one, even Griffin, but not Akira.
“I don’t have a bag for you, I’m-” Mom started, her voice partly filled with sorrow but I could tell that there was unease, uncertainty, regret, and not caring in it as well.
“Of course you didn’t,” Akira muttered as she shoved past Mom and went up to the stage, figuring out that she should be up there. She wasn’t in the right mind. She wouldn’t be for a long time.
“Charlie-” I stopped her by holding up a hand.
“It’s fine, Mom. Don’t worry about her right now. Just come along with me to the stage,” I told her and after a mere hesitation, she nodded and followed me to the stage. We both grabbed a seat and eventually, everybody stopped talking and turned their attention to us, expecting us to speak.
Well, this wasn’t going to be fun, one way or another.
“First, I want to tell you all that while we are down here, hiding from X.L., I will be needing to take out your chips from either your brains or wherever they may be in your body.” There started to be protests. “Look, it’s not ideal, but I’m very good at my job. My fiancee helps me during operations. She took mine out because I can’t exactly operate on my own brain. Do you all really want to be attacked again by X.L. by tracking you by your chips?” There were murmurs of agreement there. I could still tell some were uneasy, but most of them seemed okay. “Hopefully, by the time we possibly decide to attack X.L. after all of the chips are out, they will think that we are all dead. Also, I can remove any appendages that you may not want on you, or additions, and if need be, I will try to replace parts to make you look human, like you were before you were experimented on and hopefully, by the time we get to that, Nodin’s parents will be here to help us all out. Now, any questions?” Out of everyone, I hoped to take the chip out of Akira first.
One girl raised her hand, and I looked at her and nodded. If I remembered right, this was Violette and the man beside her was her brother, Locke.
“Who is he?” She asked, pointing at Cyrus and I looked at Cyrus, who didn’t bother to look at me. He just stared with a mix of awe and horror at the crowd that was filled with his creations. Instead of me answering, Griffin decided to answer instead.
“This is my brother, Cyrus,” He said with a sad smile and Akira’s eyes darted to Griffin and Cyrus that was filled with anger and uncertainty.
“Why is he here? Why was he in front of the mansion as it was burning down? Is it his fault or something?” Someone else cried out and it took me a few seconds to find that it was Dante.
"No, it is not his fault. X.L. burned down the house, not Cyrus. Cyrus is here, I assume, for a completely different reason. I suspect as well that he has a chip in him as well," I said calmly and that’s when I saw Cyrus’s head pop out and stare at me.
God, to not be autistic was hard. Right now, I wanted to go and do something else than this, whatever it was, dance even. Anything but this.
“Anyways-” I cleared my throat, and looked back at the group, who seemed unsettled. “-Cyrus is a genius. Yeah, I’ll guess I’ll start it off like that.” I cleared my throat once more, getting nervous at what the results would be. People leaned in curiously. Even Akira did. “He had this... idea.” I started to twiddle my thumbs and move my hands around in nervousness. “He had this idea that humans could be strong with different DNA in them than their own. That humans could be modified, become what they truly wanted to be, whether it be mythical... or something else.” I swallowed and I looked up at the crowd and their eyes darted to Cyrus. I think they all got the idea, but the first to say so was Akira, standing up as she did. Her eyes danced with fire and her hands were twitching. All of her porcupine quills were sticking straight up. Never in my life had I ever been afraid of my sister. Seeing her like this, as this... monster, scared me.
“Charlie... are you saying he created... that he created Xenogenesis Laboratories?” And that’s when everything erupted into yells and screams from the whole crowd, but not Akira. Akira watched instead, as Griffin defended Cyrus, as he walked away slightly to defend his brother against his accusers, but he made the mistake there.
Akira picked Cyrus up by the throat and rammed him against the wall, and Griffin heard the thud. The whole crowd did and what Griffin did surprised us all.
And pissed me off.
Griffin literally pulled her off of his brother and maybe threw, because him throwing her was the only thing I saw, and threw her a short distance across the stage.
Everybody grew silent.
I stood up, ready to kick his sorry ass, but Christina stopped me, throwing her arm across my chest. All Akira did was stare, tears in her eyes but not falling, and she took a breath. She stood up and looked at him straight in the eye. She looked weak. Weaker than I had ever seen her.
“And here I thought you chose me,” was the only thing that came out of her mouth before she walked away and got off the stage.
“Akira-” She was already out the door and slammed it behind her before Griffin could continue his sentence. I could hear her sobs. We all could. It died as we heard her take off on all fours.
Akira was gone.
Nobody spoke. All eyes were on Griffin and Cyrus. All except for two people. Karin and Sebastian had their eyes on me, because one, I was fuming, and two, I had no idea.
“Ms. Corners?” Sebastian broke the silence and all eyes went to him. Mom stood up.
“Yes, honey?” She said in a soft voice.
“May you show us to our rooms, or at least, show us around? I don’t think many of us can handle this information right now.” Tears were down his face. That’s when I noticed everyone was. Some were sobbing. All I was doing was paying attention to their eyes, not their face.
“Yes, of course. If everyone will follow me,” Mom said softly and everyone slowly got up and followed her out of the room. Once everyone was out of the room, I decided to finally look at Griffin.
His face was filled with confusion and shock. Hurt as well, but that was all I could tell from his face. He wasn’t expecting Akira to say that because of his actions. Maybe he didn’t even really know what he just did.
I didn’t care.
I got up and strode over to Griffin, and once my fingers were clenched around his throat, I rammed him up against the wall. He started to choke and pull at my hand, struggling as he did so. He wasn’t expecting me to be stronger than him.
“This is a warning,” I hissed and Christina got up and tried to pull me off Griffin. Griffin’s eyes were on me. “You hurt my sister. You threw her to the GROUND to protect your brother. You’re lucky I like your brother, or else he would be dead right now,” I spat and Cyrus stared, still rubbing his throat from earlier. “You are on my bad side, and when somebody gets on my bad side, it’s very hard to get off, so either you deal with Akira or I will deal with you,” I hissed as I dropped him to the ground and he clenched his throat as he gasped for breath.
“I did not-”
“You didn’t know she would react that way?” I yelled as tears came to my eyes. “She is BROKEN. What you didn’t realize is how BROKEN she is right now. Her house is burned down, she just learned about the existence of her mother, she just learned about the existence of herself and the chip in her brain. You don’t think she wants to kill your brother? THEY ALL DO,” I yelled and this made him jump. “I know what Cyrus did. I know his intentions, but they do not. My sister does not. Even if my sister found out, I don’t know if she would ever be able to forgive him like you can. If she could even look at him the same way, or even you the same way she did. You will be lucky if she even talks. I don’t know if she’ll even come back here. It’ll be a miracle if she does, but if she does, you talk to her, you deal with her, unless you want me to deal with you, and that’s final.”
And I walked away. I walked away from it all. I left the room and went down to the room my mother usually kept for me. I avoided the crowd. My fiancee followed me and closed the door behind her.
I swear I could still hear that crow’s cawing. I wish I could fly away like it did. This was something I expected to happen, but expected not to happen. This was going to play out however it would play out. Akira was not going to be right for a long time, and there was no denying that.
I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry. I wanted to explode with information and explain everything. This was what it was like being autistic. I was trapped in my own head.
I wanted to escape like that bird. It was a beautiful bird, and it was an ugly one.
But I still wanted to escape. I wanted to fix my sister.
But we all knew that wasn’t possible.
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POSTING IS OPEN! PLEASE POST AND TELL US YOUR CHARACTERS THOUGHTS ON ALL OF THIS NEW STUFF.
