You know what? Chances are, I won't finish this. But ya know… I totally feel like writing some MR fanfiction. I started rereading the books on a whim. I first read them when I was… twelve maybe? And I still love them (:

I think this is just going to be basically set after book two… I can't stand the last two books, really. So… yeah.

Black Balloon
Prologue: Epiphany

"You know the lies they always told you and the love you never knew
What's the things they never showed you
That swallowed the light from the sun in your room?"
"Black Balloon" Goo Goo Dolls

Do you really want to know what I was doing? Because if I tell you, I'm sure you're going to run away, screaming, and stop reading. Which is arguably one of the last things I want you to do right now, because of that whole "don't put down this book or you're chum!" thing we've got going on… or was that your life depended on it or something?

Regardless.

Okay, okay… I guess I can tell you.

Remember that whole "let's drop off the radar and get an island!" moment? When Fang was like "here I go, having an epiphany" and stuff. So yeah. I actually… listened to him? Scary thing is, this isn't even the part where you run away yet.

So here I am, sitting, swinging in a hammock, and sipping lemonade from a tall glass with a bendy straw and a little umbrella in it.

Are you screaming yet?

I swear to God, that's what I was doing. With the umbrella and everything. Down to the last specific detail, I was relaxing. Literally relaxing. Not running from anything, or anyone, or any situation. The perfect life. Fang was reading a book, lying in the shadow of a plam tree, facing the sky – his long legs were vertical against the trunk of the tree. Nudge and Iggy were picking berries in a small berry patch maybe a few hundred yards down the beach, and Angel and Gazzy were playing in the water, splashing each other playfully in their brand new swimsuits.

This was usually about the time the skull-smashing agonyfest known as a brain explosion began.

Three… two… one…

A scream tore from my throat and my hands flew to my head, latching on and holding on for dear life, as if by squeezing my head tighter, it would smother the pain.

A soft, concerned voice was small in the back of my mind. "Max?" Fang. Possibly the only thing that would ever clink on all cylinders during a moment like this: Fang's name. He was here. The kids were here. But where was here? I couldn't remember. The pain was everywhere; I couldn't see anything else.

One specific image splashed across the backs of my eyelids, the most prominent thing of all, and it was possibly the one thing that scared me the most.

Bright, bloodred eyes, a dark figure in a shadowed room. "Max," it whispered, moving closer, a clawed hand extending from its body. "Max. You've finally found me." The voice was like molasses – slow moving and thick, some odd accent tinting it. It was deep and frightening – I screamed as loud as I could again out of pure fear, though I didn't know why. "Don't fear me, Max… and do not be angry. The death of your friends cannot be reversed, my dear. All you can do now is submit."

Another shout bubbled through my lips, but this one of emotional distress. The death of my friends? The death of my friends?

The scalding image of the dark creature without a name remained behind my eyelids, even as the pain ebbed away, slowly and thickly. I didn't move from my fetal position on the ground, didn't put effort in to stop shaking or crying, because of the terrifying premonition I'd just seen played before my eyelids.

Voice? I asked in my head, ignoring Fang's worried voice over everything else. Voice, what the hell was that?

There was a pause, a dreadful one.

That was your future, the Voice whispered.

Not well written, but I love the idea that just shot up. :D

Review! :)

Steph.