Hi, I'm Eboni. My parents put me and my brother up for adoption when I was little and only now am I receiving the consequences. My adoptive parents told me to hide, so I did. 

    But...they died. Somebody found out I was half angel and tipped off the demons that I was living there. So the demons killed my family when they lied and said they didn't know who I was.

     Now I'm on the run. Thievery isn't ideal, but's what I got. Speaking of...

***

     "Get back here, you thief!" The shopkeeper shouted after me as I darted away into an alley. I'd walked in calmly, taken a few baked goods (a rarity nowadays considering most Demons were carnivorous), and waltzed outta there. They wouldn't've noticed unless the counter to pay wasn't in front of the door. Which, of course, it was.

    There were loads of Demon officials out, so I was immediately pursued. Sticking a doughnut into my mouth and shoving the rest under my right arm, I jumped to the left, using my hand and foot to push off the wall onto somebody's balcony. Angry shouts sounded from underneath me, but I payed them no heed as I jumped again across the alley onto another balcony, repeating the process until I got above all the apartments onto the roof of the first apartment building.

     Breathing heavily, I paused, using my left hand to take the doughnut out of my mouth. I then proceeded to eat it. The cops would be on my tail, but most of them were burly, or would be tired by at least the fifteenth flight of stairs. I specifically chose to rest on the top of a building without an elevator.

     "Eboni!" The small voice of the youngest of my fellow runaways rang in my feather-covered ears. Pushing part of my black bangs out of my eyes, I ran, still holding the baked goods under one arm. "Coming!" I called back over our magic link as I jumped the space of the alley I had run down earlier.

     Without breaking stride, I kept running across the roof of this building as well, then the next and then next and...well, you get the idea. About twenty-five buildings later, I jumped off the roof and into a back alley that was rarely used anymore. Well, except for me and some runaways.

     "Hey guys!" I called softly, slowing down at what looked like the back of the alley but wasn't. "Eboni?" A male voice called from the other side of the carefully constructed barrier of boxes and cages. "I'm here Leo." I said, standing in front of the door-flap. On the other side, I heard shuffling, then somebody opening the door-flap. 

     "Eboni!" A small shape came barreling towards me, and then wrapped its arms around my waist. "Got the goods." I said, handing over the baked goods to my friends. "Hey, Carla." I said, ruffling the small girl's hair and walking into the fort-like structure and closing the door-flap behind me.

     The inside was dim, with blankets and pillows over the floor and scattered across the ground. There were also a few books laying open or piled up in the corners. Most of them were paperback, with torn or dog-eared pages. 

     Carla let go of me and ran over to Leo, looking up at him pleadingly. He was handing out some of the food I'd stolen. I walked over to the right corner along the back wall and sat down, crossing my legs and taking off my jacket to let my wings out. The feathers were cloudy grey - the shade of clouds filled with snow - and charred from fire in some places.

     "Hi." My younger brother, Crow said, sitting down next to me. From afar, we didn't look that related (or at least that's what I thought). Him with his pale blue wings and ear-feathers, me with my pale grey. Me with long, straight black hair with red streaks, him with short, slightly curly black hair. Him with his piercing, birdlike amber eyes and slit pupils, me with my soft blue eyes and vaguely heart-shaped pupils. But when compared side-by-side, you could tell we were siblings. We had the same eye shape, same hands, build, even ear structure - if you really payed attention to the way our feathers grew in.

     Though, he was 12, and I was 16. "Hey little bro." I said, hugging him. "How was your trip?" He asked, his eyes shining in the faint light filtering through the cracks in the boxes and cages above us, forming a roof of sorts. "Eh, the usual. Get in, get out. I got chased a bit today, but they can't jump up buildings like us." I said simply. "Did they follow you?"

     "Can't follow this." I waved a hand at myself. He chuckled, "Fair point." I smiled as he turned away and began reading a book Leo had stolen a while back. As if summoned by that, Leo himself came over. "Carla's asking if you can help her pronounce something." He said. I nodded, standing up and following him over to where our youngest member was  looking at a page in a book, her pointer finger underneath a word. 

     Carla was our youngest, yes. She was about 8...too young for one's parents to be torn away. Then there was Aidyn, who was 10, Darla, age 12, as well as my own brother, also 12, then Flint, either mute or hated speaking, at age 14. Of course, then we had Leo and myself, who were both 16, but I was proud to say that I was older than him by three months.

     "What is it?" I asked, kneeling down beside her. "This one." She said, picking up her finger and stabbing it back down again to point at the word. It was wisteria, a kind of flower that grew in...well as far as I knew, Japan, but I wasn't sure where else it grew. "Wisteria. Why-steer-ee-a." I said it once, then again, slower the second time so she could see how exactly I pronounced it. "Wisteria. Thank you Eboni!" I smiled and nodded, standing up again. "No problem."

     Leo put a hand on my shoulder and smiled thankfully. I nodded. Him and I'd always had a way of communicating without words, without the magic link Darla set up. How? I don't know. I stopped wondering.

     Picking my way through the books strewn across the floor, I walked back over to my brother, looking behind a few of the pillows to pull out a medium-sized box made from a Demonic material that shined in the light. Gingerly opening the lid, I could see the small items I'd collected from two years of running and stealing.

     There were small animal bones, pendants without chains, jewels, earrings (Leo liked to tell me about how pretty I looked wearing them but...I didn't believe him), and shards of crystal, sea glass, and stained glass with weathered edges. I placed a small braided leather bracelet into the box. I'd snagged it off someone's arm while running through the crowded streets towards the deserted alley I'd jumped up. It was dyed dark green and unadorned, strange for Demon jewelry.

     Somebody started humming. Looking over, it was Aidyn. Then Flint began drumming his fingernails on a piece of wood. Darla started drumming the heel of her hand against the floor. Crow tapped his foot against the floor, adding the missing noises into the melody (he had magic that let him do that). That left Leo, Carla, and I for the vocals (though Darla and Aidyn pitch in). I happened to be the one that got the rapping part...funny, how it made more sense coming from my mouth than from anyone else's here - even though it applied to most of us.

     It was a song called "Home" by Machine Gun Kelly, X Ambassadors, and Bebe Rexha. Although we knew the names of the creators, we never knew much beyond the names. Not even any other songs by them. They sang in English - one of the millions of languages of Humans, a race all but wiped out in this country - instead of Angelic or Demonic, the languages we and our oppressors spoke. So, naturally, we weren't allowed to listen to it. 

     The problem with that is they weren't thorough enough with their cleaning of the internet, so after some digging, Flint had found it while hacking into a museum security system at night. He'd had extra time waiting for us to get back, so he dug through the internet while keeping one eye on the cams.

     Anyway, enough with the explanations.

***

Leo: Home. A place where I can go. 

To take this off my shoulders.

Someone take me home.

Home. A place where I can go

Leo and Carla: To take this of my shoulders.

Someone take me home.

Someone take me -

Me: Look, I didn't power through the struggle just to let a little trouble

Knock me outta my position, and interrupt the vision

After everything I've witnessed, after all of these decisions

All these miles, feet, inches, they can't add up to the distance that I have been through

Just to get to a place where even if there's no closure, I'm still safe

I still ache from tryin' to keep pace, somebody give me a sign, I'm starting to lose faith

Me and Leo: Now tell me, how did all my dreams turn to nightmares

How did I lose it, when I was right there? 

Now I'm so far that it feels that it feels like it's all gone to pieces

Tell me why the never fights fair.

Me: I'm tryin' to find -

Leo: Home. A place where I can go.

To take this off my shoulders.

Someone take me home.

Home. A place where I can go.

Leo and Carla: To take this off my shoulders.

Someone take me home. 

Me: (It's been a long time comin')

Leo and Carla: Someone take me-

All: Home.

Ho-o-ome

Home.

Home.

Leo and Carla: Someone take me - 

All: Home.

Ho-o-ome

Home.

Home.

Me: Look, I've been through so much pain that it's hard to maintain any smile on my face 'cause there's madness on my brain.

So I gotta make it back, but my home ain't on the map, gotta follow what I'm feelin' to discover where it's at.

I need the - 

Leo: Memories.

Me: In case this fate is forever. Just to be sure these last days are better.

And if I have any -

Leo: Enemies.

Me: They give me the strength to look the devil in the face and make it home safe.

Me and Leo: Now tell me, how did all my dreams turn to nightmares

How did I lose it when I was right there?

Now I'm so far that it feels like it's all gone to pieces 

Tell me why the world never fights fair

Me: I'm tryin' to find - 

Leo: Home. 

Leo and Carla: A place where I can go.

To take this off my shoulders

Someone take me home.

Someone take me-

Carla: I found no cure for the loneliness, I found no cure for the sickness

Nothing here feels like home, crowded streets but I'm all alone.

Leo and Carla: I found no cure for the loneliness, I found no cure for the sickness

Nothing here feels like home

Carla: (Crowded streets but I'm all alone)

Me and Leo: Someone take me -

All: Home.

Ho-o-ome

Leo: (Take me home)

All: Home.

Leo and Carla (also with Aidyn): (Take me home)

All: Home.

Carla: Someone take me - 

All: Home.

Leo: (Help me I need - )

Aidyn and Darla: (Somebody. Somebody.)

All: Ho-o-ome

Leo: (There's no place like home)

All: Home.

Leo and Carla (also with Aidyn): (Take me home)

All: Home.

Me: Someone take me - 

     As with all music, it was loud. But Angels have magic. Well, some do. Darla's magic is relating to the mind, and as I explained, she set up our mind link. Crow's is relating to music, explaining why he could help with the music we can't create with what we had (like that underlying piano in there somewhere). And Leo's to shadows, as in cloaking. So...that explains why nobody ever found us even while we were singing.

      We all looked at each other with pride. "Nice job guys!" Darla said happily, beaming. Flint, despite not speaking, grinned back, saying everything he needed to with his eyes. The happiness lasted in our eyes and movements, even when we went back to doing what we'd initially been doing.

     But of course, sleep exists. Carla was first, head doing that nod thing where you fall asleep sitting up and then jerk your head back and wake up, until she finally gave in and put her book away, curling up with her wings tight against her. Flint fell asleep shortly after, drawing in a notebook before putting it under his head to sleep. Then Darla, head falling on her book. Aidyn had put his head on a pillow shortly after we finished the song, and he was staring at the ceiling until he'd fallen asleep. Per usual, Leo and I were the last ones awake when Crow finally fell asleep, head slipping onto my shoulder.

     I smiled softly, raising my eyebrows at Leo from across the room to say, guess we're the only ones left. He nodded, standing up and getting a blanket from Flint's feet and wrapping it over him. Gently, I slipped out from under my brother, shifting his weight over to a few pillows and placing a blanket over his legs. Leo pulled a blanket over Darla, but left Aidyn without one because he didn't like them, and left Carla to me.

     The soft teal feathers of her wings hid her strawberry-blonde hair, but I gently moved them away, pulling a blanket up to her chin and folding her wings into her back. Carla's ear-feathers twitched as I moved away, but she snuggled into her blanket anyway. I couldn't hide my small smile, she was so peaceful when she was asleep, and even though everyone was like my family, she was sort of like my adoptive little sister. She looked up to me, and wouldn't have anyone else teach her things she didn't know.

     "Done fawning over Carla yet?" Leo asked softly. I looked up at him and rolled my eyes, chuckling. "You biscuit." I said, hip-checking him when I stood back to look at everyone, before I walked over to get a blanket and sat down along the side wall. "Oh come on. We all know she's like a sister to you." He said, sitting down beside me. I chanced a glace at him. His sun-kissed skin, tanned to perfection, his sun-colored feathers, a few tipped in white, his sky blue eyes with larger-than-was-probably-normal pupils. In another life, he could've been my lover, my boyfriend. We were certainly close enough for that. 

     "Fine. As long as you admit Aidyn is more of brother to you than your step-brother ever was." Alas...we were more like siblings here. Playfully bantering here and there, taking care of our younger siblings together, able to communicate with just the twitch of an ear-feather. "Fine." But it was fun to imagine. Even if I harbored no romantic feelings for him, and he didn't harbor any for me.

    With a self satisfied smirk, I laid my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes and pulling the blanket over my shoulder. Just before I fell asleep, I felt someone's skin brush my cheek in a most affectionate manner. Something small inside me asked in a whisper, But does he really not feel for you?

    There was no time to ponder it, however, as I was already asleep.

(A/N): So. This was the first of my short stories. But, I have a lot. Not all of them have the lyrics to the songs they were based off in them. Well, most don't. But I thought it would be cool if this one did, considering it goes pretty well with the characters' situation.