© Jojo B 2018

All rights including those in copyright in the content of this story are owned by Jojo B. It's Illegal to steal and/or copy.

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Flaws and Feathers

Chapter 3

We were just about to get up and head out of the cabin, when we heard the crunching of footsteps from outside.

"Joe," Gwen and I shared a wide eyed look.

We both turned to Raphael, who sat there clueless, before quickly jumping to our feet.

"Raphael, you have to hide," Gwen whispered as she went to pull him up by the arm.

If Joe were to see him, he wouldn't let it rest until we told him exactly everything about Raphael and what was going on. Seeing as neither Gwen nor I actually knew those answers, it was best not to include Joe, as he would most likely deter Raphael from ever telling us the truth. Not to mention, if Joe didn't get his way, he could tell Mum.

Raphael was still sitting down, looking between us with a slightly confused frown. He was glancing at Gwen's hold on his arm, as if his mind was on other things. I didn't see how he could be daydreaming at a time like this. I could literally hear Joe getting closer to the front door of the cabin, and he wouldn't have needed keys to get in, because the door was unlocked.

"Get up!" I grabbed Raphael's other arm, trying to yank him to his feet, when Gwen wasn't.

The male finally stood up, and he slowly pulled his arm away from me, clearly not comfortable with contact. Though when Gwen started to push him towards our bedroom, Raphael didn't object.

"Who is Joe?" he was asking as he walked into our bedroom.

"Our brother," Gwen replied. "Raphael, hide under the bed. Please. If Joe sees you, things will get too complicated."

He looked down at her with gentle grey eyes, before giving her a nod, still standing there.

"Hurry up!" I sent him a wide eyed look.

"I am getting to it," Raphael cast me a flat look in return, before he got down on the wooden floor and slid underneath the bed.

Gwen let the covers fall back down, obscuring Raphael from view. We could hear the front door being opened, and we both headed out of the room casually, like nothing had happened.

"Is it just me, or does he like you more?" I whispered to my sister Gwen shut the bedroom door behind us.

She sent me a raised brow, "I doubt it. We've only known him a day."

"Hmm," I mumbled. "You're just oblivious. I bet you fancy him, that's why."

"What are you talking about?" Gwen stuttered over her words, shocked. "I don't fancy him, like I said, we barely know him."

"Yeah, yeah," I sent her a smirk, knowing I'd get that flustered reaction from her.

"Hey, boy," I greeted my brother like always. "What do you want?"

"What do you mean?" my brother frowned at me. "Mum's back."

"Already?" I gaped at him.

"It's been quite a while," he muttered as he was naturally drawn to the fridge like a magnet. "I said I would come and get you guys. I think we should stay here for a bit, that way we'll have less to do."

"Really, Joe?" Gwen looked at him dryly. "You're gonna leave Mum to clear the junk room all by herself? What a lazy bitch you are."

"It's not even laziness, it's pure bitch-ness," I added, making the two of them send me looks. Gwen's read 'you're not helping'.

"Let's just go," Gwen said, walking over to pluck the back of Joe's fleece and pulling him away from the fridge.

Gwen sent me a look, and I I knew she was referring to how we would have to tell Raphael we were going to be gone for a few hours.

"I'll catch up with you guys," I said, already turning to head back to the room.

"Hell no, you won't," Joe said, grabbing my arm. "You don't get to sit out of this one."

I grinned and let out a laugh, "Joe, I'm not trying to sit it out. I genuinely have to just grab my phone from the room real quick. It's charging."

"Hmm," he regarded me with those deep blue eyes of him, before letting go of my sleeve. "If you're taking too long, I'll come and get you myself."

"Whatever," I rolled my hazel eyes at him and Gwen sent me a smooth smile before she left with Joe.

I went back to the bedroom Gwen and I shared, walking right to the double bed.

"Raphael," I hissed, pulling the covers up and bending down to look underneath the bed. "You can come out."

Moments later, the male emerged, holding a scratched up aluminium baseball bat he must have found under my bed. I recognised it as the bat I used to hit against trees when I was fifteen, whenever my anger would reach uncontrollable levels. I hadn't had to use it for over a year now, and seeing it again made me smile fondly. Even though my parents had thought it was a bad way to deal with my anger, I had clearly made progress, I guessed.

"Gwen and I need to go and help our Mum," I explained to him. "Probably going to take hours, if I'm honest."

Raphael sat down on the edge of the bed and silently nodded, running his hand along the baseball bat and down again. The guy could never keep still. I could tell Raphael wasn't even going to reply to me, that he thought his nod was enough. Forcing myself to stay calm, I stepped a little closer.

"Why are you so mean to me?" I asked him impulsively.

Raphael looked up to meet my gaze, a hesitant expression falling across his face, "I am not."

"Yes you are," I didn't miss a beat.

He let out a sigh, "I do not know what you are talking about."

"You like Gwen, but you don't like me. And it's strange because we just met," I continued to insist what I was saying held some truth to it.

Raphael dropped his gaze from mine, his eyes on the baseball bat he was playing with in his hands. I was patient for the first five seconds, then I had to open my mouth to say something, apparently at the same time he did.

"It is just...difficult," the raven haired male admitted.

I raised my brows, not expecting an honest sounding answer. It made me soften a bit.

"What's difficult about it?" I questioned him quietly.

Raphael still didn't lift his head, "It is hard to explain, but if I am blunt with you, it is not intentional."

That made me frown lightly in confusion. So he was admitting he treated me different to how he treated Gwen, but claimed he didn't mean it. It had me more intrigued as to why that was. Did I remind him of someone he used to know?

"Raphael," a surprised look crossed my face.

He had been gripping my baseball bat with shaking hands, and when he heard my voice, Raphael slowly released his grip, revealing finger shaped dents in the metal. I blinked in shock, and Raphael looked just as taken aback. He probably hadn't intended to get so worked up, but even so, I had never seen anyone almost crush a baseball bat like that. Instead of asking him what would probably be a personal question, I nodded at the answer he had given and stepped back.

"Help yourself to whatever you can find, food wise. Me and Gwen will be back as soon as we can, without Joe or Mum suspecting anything, of course," I told him.

He nodded, letting out a small half smile, "I will be here."

"Cool," I replied and quickly reached out to ruffle his dark hair, knowing that he didn't like being touched. At least by me, that was.

Raphael's head shot up to send me a dark glare, and I grinned and ran to the door playfully. He didn't even attempt to get me back, but that was probably a good thing, seeing how strong he was.

***

Clearing out the junk room took the whole day.

It was surprising how much crap could build up in what looked like a small storage space. Turned out we needed to take multiple trips to the amenity tip, and by the end of it all, we were famished. Mum let us order takeaway, for once, and the four of us ate together in front of the TV - also quite rare. We usually stuck to the dining table.

As I ate my chicken chow mein, I couldn't help wonder how Raphael was doing. It was dark out, and there wasn't a great deal of food in the cabin. Whereas I was reluctant to trek through the woods in the night, Gwen wasn't. She said she couldn't sleep knowing Raphael was probably hungry. So she saved some Chinese for him, and took a few other food items with her, heading over to the cabin that night, as I went up to my bed.

I texted Gwen to see if she had gotten to the cabin safely, and she replied a minute later saying she was good and all was well. Sending her the thumbs up emoji, I proceeded to watch YouTube videos in my bed. I didn't really do social media, because I honestly didn't have friends, so there wasn't any point. Growing up, I used to be avoided by other kids, as I was known for my short temper and fighting at school. Kids were scared of me, I supposed. When I reached secondary school, I was more of a loner due to unpopularity more than anything. I never minded, I had my sister. And the times when I didn't have Gwen around, I had me, myself and I. In college, things were the same. The fact that I could wear my own clothes gave people reason to treat me more of an outcast. They didn't like my eccentric taste, their bad. People were fake, and I didn't want to waste my time with them. I could handle myself, always could and always would.

After hours of watching some pretty amusing videos, I decided to call it a night. Gwen had returned about an hour ago, and knowing her, she was already sleep. It was midnight and technically Sunday, meaning in the morning we would finally see the place Raphael was planning to take us. The place where he supposedly landed when he fell out of the sky. There were so many odd details about him, I actually expected something strange, I just wasn't sure how strange.

Plugging my phone I'm to charge for the night, I turned my bedside lamp off and lay down, snuggling between my sheets. Letting my eyes fall shut, I shifted positions a few times before finally starting to drift. It was short lived, however, as I heard my bedroom door being opened. It always made a very subtle brushing sound against the carpet, something I had long familiarised myself with.

Opening my eyes, I let out a sigh when I saw my brother Joe standing in the doorway.

"What now?" I grumbled.

When he didn't reply right away, I knew I was in for some drama.

"Get out my room," I muttered, letting out another tired sigh.

"It's cold in my room," he mumbled back.

"Put the heater on," I frowned at him.

"I have, but it's still cold. Like icy cold. Titanic iceberg shit."

"Joe," I said slowly. "I'm not in the mood, I'm trying to sleep."

"So am I," he insisted. "I can't sleep in my room. Can I just lie down here on the floor?"

I looked up to see him walking up to the side of my bed, his figure tall and shadowy. I reached across the bed to turn my lamp on, illuminating my brother. I could see the dazed look in his eyes that showed that he was sleepwalking. He did it a lot.

Groaning to myself, I knew I would have to get out of my warm bed if I were to get rid of my brother. Throwing the sheets back, I pushed myself out of bed, gripping Joe's arm and walking him towards my bedroom door.

Joe was wearing a long sleeve top, so he started to shrug himself out of it when he saw I was taking him back to his own room.

"Joe!" I hissed when he managed to slide out of his top and run back down the corridor.

I chased after him, knowing that if I wasn't fast enough, he would jump into my bed and there would be no getting him out. Even though I was older than him, he was stronger, for the most part.

"Stop running," I said through gritted teeth when I managed to catch him before he went back into my room.

I held onto him tightly, my fingers digging into his arm as I tried to keep him grounded. To my surprise, Joe was actually shivering, but that may have been because he had removed his shirt.

"Back to bed," I began to march him in the direction again.

"Gwen is calling me," Joe argued.

"No she's not, she's asleep."

"I just gotta check," he said as he stopped walking, pulling me to a stop too.

I was tempted to just let him do what he wanted, but there was chance he would come back and wake me up, as there was no lock on my bedroom door. As my mind was fixed on other things, Joe slipped out of my grip again and he raced for Gwen's room, bursting the door open and disappearing inside. Seconds later, I heard a scream, and I couldn't help but crack up laughing.

Following my brother into Gwen's bedroom, I was greeted with the sight of Joe sprawled out on top of my sister who was half asleep and very confused. She didn't have her glasses on, so she probably didn't immediately recognise Joe. Gwen was kicking him off and Joe was scrambling to stay on top, whilst I laughed all the more.

"Joe, please wake up," Gwen said, her breathing heavy as she finally gave up trying to force him off her bed.

She pushed her covers aside and tiredly got out of bed, taking a softer approach. Putting her glasses on, Gwen took hold of Joe's arm and gently pulled him upright.

"Let's go to sleep, shall we?" she spoke softly.

"Too cold in my room," he told her.

"Did you leave your window open?" she asked as she slowly started to guide him to his own room.

I followed them to Joe's room, just to see if it really was as cold as he claimed. Joe started to shiver as soon as we entered his bedroom and Gwen rubbed his back soothingly. I frowned lightly when I saw the window was only open a crack and the room was actually quite warm. My brother certainly was strange at times.

"That's it," Gwen said as she pulled a jumper over Joe's head. "Now lie down."

Joe actually did as she said, and as soon as his brown haired head touched the pillow, he fell asleep properly this time.

Gwen and I shared a look.

"It's not cold in here, is it?" she asked me as she pulled the sleeve of her pyjama top up.

"No," I shook my head.

Glancing down at our younger brother, Gwen gently touched his forehead, seeming satisfied.

"He's fine, just another sleepwalking episode."

"And time to go back to bed," I said.

***

The next morning, Gwen and I both woke early. We didn't even bother with breakfast, as we were planning not to get interrupted this time. Heading the cabin with a spring in my step, we greeted a docile looking Raphael who opened the door for us. He was already ready to take us to the place, leaving no time to waste. He must have been thinking about his friends. After all, the deal was: he tells us the truth, and we help him.

"Did you sleep well?" Gwen was asking him as they walked slightly ahead of me.

It was weird having someone else guide us through the place we knew like the backs of our hands. It got the point when I felt like we had been walking for ages, and still saw no proof of this fall Raphael had had. By this time, Gwen had trailed back a little to join me.

"Do you think he's lost his mind?" I whispered to Gwen as we trailed behind him.

Her eyes went to look at his broad back, checking if he had heard me or not. If he had heard me, Raphael gave no sign of it.

"He's probably trying to remember. It sounded like a traumatic experience," Gwen murmured back to me.

We continued through the undergrowth for a while longer. Being far off the main dirt path between the house and the cabin, was not an issue, as we would still know the way back. I was about to ask Raphael if he was lost, when he suddenly stopped walking. I almost bumped into him, and quickly caught myself.

Gwen and I moved from behind him and stood by his side. I stood in shock, and Gwen's eyes were round behind her glasses, as we stared at the large clearing in front of us. The two of us were well accustomed to the woods, and we both knew that the clearing was definitely new. It was like a crater had been formed in the ground, and everything around it had been decimated. The outer ring of trees, that managed to stay standing, were badly burnt.

"Wow," I was lost for words.

"This was definitely not from skydiving," Gwen breathed in disbelief.

"Now do you see?" Raphael said softly, his tone sad and quiet.

He took the first step into the shallow crater, and Gwen and I followed him, our steps slow and careful. The earth was cracked, as if the impact had forced shock waves through the ground. I was surprised that I hadn't felt any shakes, as we were only about fifteen minutes away from the house.

As we made it to the middle of the large, round pit, something caught my eye.

A large, light grey feather the length of my forearm. I bent down and gently picked it up, seeing what looked like white tendrils of smoke coming off it. It was definitely not from any bird that I knew.

Looking back at Raphael, who was staring at it wordlessly, I saw the feather matched the colour of his eyes perfectly. Gwen murmured quietly in disbelief beside me, as she took in the beautiful feather, that still seemed...alive, in some way.

I didn't ask him any questions. Handing him the feather, my mind was trying to come up with all sort of logical reasons for it. It couldn't possibly belong to him, yet I was giving it to him without a second thought. Even though the answers were practically staring me in the face, I didn't want to delve into it just yet. I knew there was no quick explanation for any of this.

"How do we know we can trust you?" I had one question for him, if we were to help him find his friends who were probably...like him. Whatever that even was.

Raphael looked at me with a straight face, and I felt the back of my neck warming up again, right where my tattoo of a feather was. Was it some sort of connection between us, somehow? I doubted it. I thought I saw Raphael looking over my shoulder and I almost turned around for a moment, before realising I was probably being paranoid again.

"You can trust me," he said. "I could never hurt you."

He was looking at Gwen when he said that, but I guessed it would be good enough. I strangely believed him, and hopefully I was right to do so.

"Let's find your friends, if they really are in danger," I said to him.

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What did you think of that chapter? Any favourite parts?

J

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