Lauren woke suddenly to the sound of the terrified scream of her and her husband's six year old adopted daughter May. Beside her, her husband, Clark, shot up to a sitting position having also been woken by their daughter. He was a tall man, approaching six and a half feet, and was built like a mountain. His eyes were never the same color for more than a week; one day they would be brown, and the next day they would be almost orange or green. He had short brown hair that was so dark that it appeared black at first glance. He also had a very childlike face, or he would have if he shaved his equally dark beard like his wife, nearly every day, jokingly asked him to. However, Clark took great pride in his beard and was very nurturing of it. When she would poke fun about it, he would always say "growing a beard is a manly practice that has been so looked down upon by society that men have forgotten how to be men. If you did not want me to have a beard, you should have married a girly man or a woman." He wore his beard proudly even before they met, so her repeated attempts to convince him to shave it were motivated more by curiosity over what he would look like without his beard than a dislike for it. In fact, if he were to shave his beard, she was not entirely sure that she could sleep with him. It would be like sleeping with another man entirely.

But her husband's facial hair was the least of Lauren's worries as she and Clark leapt out of bed and dashed into May's room adjacent to theirs. Dashing in, they saw a lump protruding underneath the covers of May's bed. Clark pulled the covers away gently to find their weeping daughter curled up in the fetal position with a bony set of membrane-less bat-like wings protruding from her back. Both he and Lauren took a step back in surprise. They stood in shock for a moment before Clark, noticing that the wings moved in synch with May's movements, stepped up to comfort his daughter while carefully avoiding touching her wings. It was not long before her wails of fear were replaced by quiet crying. As she wept, Lauren took time to look more closely at the wings. At first she was simply shocked by their existence, but after looking closely, she was dumbfounded to find that they were attached to her back as though they had been there her whole life. There were two holes in the shirt where the base of the wings were. They sprouted from the bottom of her shoulder blades, and were much darker than May's skin. In fact, they were a shade of grey dark enough to be mistaken for black. Part of the wings, however, were almost neon green; the part she later Googled and found out to be essentially a thumb, but on a bat wing. The "thumb" jutted out of the dark grey "skin." The "thumb" appeared to be pointy, sharp even. Upon closer inspection, Lauren noticed that all of the "fingers" had similar pointed claws at the ends. Looking at May's bed, she realized that there were many holes and tears in the sheets. Those claws were as sharp as they looked.

"Is it gone?" She asked with a shaky voice barely above a whisper. Although her tears had stopped, her eyes were still glued shut.

"Is what gone darlin'?" He asked, hoping against hope that she was not referring to the wings on her back.

"That thing on my back." She said with the same uneven voice as before, although now it held the slightest hint of hope.

At this, Clark looked up pleadingly at his obviously concerned wife who was now sitting on the other side of their daughter. She looked back at him with concern and uncertainty in her large brown eyes. When she had her glasses on, here large eyes appeared larger, giving her an almost anime appearance. She was slightly shorter than most women at five-foot three-inches tall. Her jaw was pointed and her hair was an ashy light brown color. Because her hairline grew in a widow's peak, her face was heart shaped. Having a widow's peak was something that she complained about often when trying to find a new hair style, as many hairstyles looked different on someone with a widow's peak. While she was in high-school, she tried to pluck the hairs out, but, to her dismay, they grew back. She had a degenerative brain disease that caused her toHowever, Clark was not concerned about his wife's hair at the moment. He wanted to help his daughter. They both looked back to May, however Lauren was the first to speak.

"Sweetie, we are going to see uncle Matt today. Doesn't that sound fun?" Clark's brother, Matthew, was a chiropractor who ran his own business called Spine Care. They would have taken May to the hospital, but they were already struggling financially due to the economy. If there was a problem that could be fixed without paying for a hospital visit, doctor, or medication, they would fix it at home.

"Is it gone?" She asked again, this time the hope in her voice was replaced with panic.

This time Clark spoke up, but not before he sighed heavily. "Let's get you up and ready to go okay?"

After several minutes of comforting and convincing, they managed to get her out of bed with a nervous "Okay." Even though she knew the answer to her question, she felt safe enough with her parents there. They would not let anything happen to her. With enough of her fear gone, she got out of bed. She was just a few short inches shorter than her adoptive mother, and would likely be taller soon. She had light brown hair that reached just below her shoulders, and hazel eyes with large black limbal rings around her irises. Her low cheek bones and widow's beak gave her face a heart shape like that of her mother.

As Lauren got May dressed, Clark stepped out to call his older brother. He explained as much about the situation he could without sounding like he had gone mad, only saying that his daughter had a major back problem that needed to be looked at immediately. They agreed to meet at Spine Care so that they could use Matt's X-Ray machine.

When he returned, May was dressed. Lauren had cut holes in the back of an old shirt to accommodate May's new wings.

"Are y'all ready?" He asked.

"I guess so." Lauren replied with uncertainty.

The family of three stepped out into the night, loaded up into the car with great difficulty, which resulted in several new holes in the seats, and began the usually ten minute drive to spine care. They made it in five.