Max

Run. Get away from this place. The stench of sweat and blood still linger in the air while you're here.

Run away, that's right, I argued with myself. You're weak. You can't even fight off a mere human.

You can't do anything right. Just lie down here and die. If you go back to the others and they find out…

They won't believe you. No one would do that to you. They'll all laugh at you.

You're Maximum Ride, fearless leader of the flock. You can't live up to that name. You let him do that to you and you did nothing. What am I going to do?

I was huddled in a ball under the shadow of a dark pine amidst a dense wood of some sort. It was eerily silent, which was ironic seeing as earlier when he was here, sounds suddenly seemed to be ten times louder than they used to be.

Get up, I told myself. But I stayed, huddled underneath the pine tree, afraid to come out of my stupor and face reality. Get up! This time, I got up, swaying on the spot for a while. I glanced down and inwardly groaned. My clothes were bloody and ripped. Not that that was much of a difference to how they usually were. It was just that I suddenly felt dirty, filthy and covered in some foreign, disgusting substance that I had to go wash off immediately.

I decided to fly back to the hotel the flock and I was staying in at the current moment in time and have a long, long shower. I slowly unfurled my wings and took off.

The cold night air blew across my face, but I felt nothing. I felt numb, like I had been put in the freezer for a couple of hours, and then taken out to be defrosted.

In fact, the only place I could really feel anything was in between my legs. A subtle soreness ached there, but I could handle it. I glided down and landed on the railing of the balcony of our room. I quietly snuck into the room and glanced over at the sleeping bodies on the couch. Gazzy and Iggy were sprawled in an awkward fashion across the couch, as if someone had flung their dead bodies there. Loud snores emitted from Gazzy and Iggy (especially Gazzy). I smiled slightly. My smile quickly faded away when I thought of what they would think of me if they knew.

I snuck into the bathroom, passing the bedroom where I presumed the rest of the flock were. I took off my dirt-encrusted clothes and chucked them on the floor. I was about to go into the shower when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

Angry red marks crawled around my back and front. Hmmm. Interesting. I turned on the shower and got in. Oh, crud! The water was cold. It was one of those showers where you had to wait for a while before it got warm.

Why couldn't anything go right for once in my life? Why did everything turn bad? I slowly slid down and sat on the shower floor, letting the water run down me.

As the water ran down my arms, a stinging sensation caused me to look down at them. Crescent shaped imprints ran down both my arms, some deep enough to draw blood, other too shallow to be noticeable. I wonder how that got there, I thought dryly. I found a bar of soap on the floor and rubbed in over my body, ignoring the smart when it got into open flesh. I just wanted to be clean. I felt so filthy, like no matter how much I scrubbed, I would still be covered in dirt and grime.

I wanted to tell someone about what had happened, but no one would understand. They'd just laugh at me. Especially Fang. After what I did to him, he'd probably laugh the hardest…

Angel had (once again) displayed her utterly mind-blowing ability to convince a certain hotel owner to let us stay in a room for the night; free of charge!

Sometimes I just wanted to give her a huge bear hug, so tight that it shattered all her bones and I would gaze upon her twisted remains and laugh with the evil laugh I've been working on. At the moment, it went something like this: Mwahahaha! I really think I could improve on it though, it's a little too cliché, don't you think? Maybe something more authentic like this: Har-har-snort-bacon-hee-ho-ho-the-dark-lord-chuckles-the-silly-piggy-leg-of-ham-hoo-hoo-ahh-ha-ha.

Sorry, I got off track. What was I talking about? Hey, did you know that I have a mild case of ADHD? Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: Max, how could you possibly have ADHD when you obviously pay attention to absolutely positively everything there is to pay attention to? And then I would say: Well, I'm not sure, but apparently I've got some of the symptoms like impulsivity and/or hyperactivity and the inability to pay attention to what I'm doing or talking abou- Oooh, look! A squirrel! It just ran past me! It was sooo cute! It's gone now, like in a tree or something but I swear on the life of my secret fluffy toy bunny (that I keep in supreme secretness (not even a real word) because the flock would tease me if they ever found out) that I totally saw a squirrel running past on its itty-bitty legs…

Oops, I did it again! Hey, that's they title of a song where they all wear really tight clothing… Sorry. I refuse to get off topic again. Anyway, so as I was saying, Angel got us a room in some random hotel for free. Pretty sweet, huh? So we went inside and raided the little mini fridge that resides there. And when that was finished, we bombarded room service with order after order of the finest varieties of junk foods money (grins) could buy. All of the sugar made me do that hyperactive thing I do, and now I'm talking like a drunken person (giggles). After we all were overflowing to the brim with food, we all finally passed out on the couch and beds provided. I was the last one awake, so I snuck outside onto the balcony and started ogling at the moon. The moon caused me to think of cheese, and the cheese caused me to think of all the cheese and crackers we ate today, and the cheese and crackers caused me to think of food in general, and food in general caused me to-

"Hey,"

A familiar voice jerked me back from my thoughts and I randomly blurted out, "I didn't do it."

"…" Fang remained silent and stared at me incredulously for what seemed like forever and I stared back. Oooh, his eyes are soooo shiny and pretty and, and dark and full of weird emotions and-

"Do you mind if I hang with you for awhile?"

"Okey-doke." I said nonchalantly. Man, I thought to myself. I really need to lay off the sugar. We stared at the moon and stuff for a bit, and then I got bored. I turned to Fang and caught him staring at me. His cheeks reddened slightly. Awww, he's soooo cute! Damn you infernal sugar, tomorrow I will be sober and shall be able to cope with life once again.

"Now what?" I said, cocking my head to one side like a Total does sometimes.

Suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, Fang's lips crashed down on mine and I realised a few things.

One: I was on a sugar high.

Two: Fang was on a sugar high.

Three: My pupils were dilating like there was no tomorrow.

Four: Fang was kissing me.

Five: I like cheese.

Six: It feels…nice.

The most important on that list are four and six, by the way. My brain finally comprehended what was happening and I pushed Fang off. I wiped my mouth with my sleeve childishly and took a step backwards.

"Max-" Fang started to say, but I didn't hear the rest. The wind was whistling too loudly in my ears.

I flew as fast as I could, my thoughts chasing each other around my head. I didn't pay attention to where I was going or when I would come back; all that mattered was getting away. I was afraid. Why was I afraid?

The moment, when Fang…

Let me restart.

When Fang and I…

Um…

When he…

Arrrgh! Okay! When he and me smooched, kissed, snogged, pashed-whatever you want to call it, it felt…weird. Like in a good way, but.

Perfect.

Ecstasy.

Mind-boggling

KA-BOOM! (Cue gigantic mushroom explosion)

It was too perfect to be true. I'm just so confused. One minute were together naked in a kiddie pool and the next (EXPLOSION).

I finally came to my senses and landed smack bang in a pine wood/ forest/ thing. A cool breeze swept across the trees, rustling the leaves gently and I shivered. A crack, like a twig breaking underfoot made me twist around and look behind me.

A heavy arm draped around my neck and a clammy hand clamped my mouth shut. Another hand was shoved under my nose and I inhaled because my mouth was obviously in no position to do so. The stench of sweat and stale alcohol was pushed up my nose, as well as some powdery substance that tickled. As soon as I had inhaled, the arm let me go, and I was shoved to the ground. I coughed and spluttered looked up at the dark figure standing ofver me. I tried to get back up and fight him, but suddenly my extremities felt heavy, as if someone had super-glued a couple of anvils to my arms and legs and my head started feeling fuzzy and everything seemed to be moving.

"You better be grateful." Growled a voice that sounded like he had swallowed a box of thumbtacks, "That was my last bit of dope I had on me. You just better be worth it"

The man leaned over me, his face almost touching mine, blowing breath that smelt like beer and stale sandwiches on me…

A man leaned over a pale girl, his jeans dangling by his ankles; the buckle dangling and hitting the ground with a muffled rhythmic jingle.

Sounds she no longer heard. She heard nothing but silence.

Her blank eyes stared aimlessly into the black sky, her body motionless beneath him.

It was too late. Time could not be taken back. The moment had passed.

He's inside you now. It's all over.

A loud cry jolted her and she was again in her own body...

The man pulled up his jeans and dusted himself off. I looked up at him and snarled, "I'm going to tell the police, you know." I shakily stood up, still not completely sober. I'll tell them what you did to me, you filthy bastard!"

Instead of fear, like I'd hoped, a smirk crossed his face. "Really?" he said. "Do you really think that anyone would want to rape you? No one would! You're hideous! You're nothing! No one would want to have sex with you, you worthless piece of shit!"

And then he left.

My eyes started to prickle, but I angrily wiped my eyes with my arm. What would the flock say if they knew I was crying? That's right, I said to myself. Go and cry like a baby. You're weak. You can't cope. You're hopeless.

I got up, and turned off the shower. As soon as the water stopped flowing, cleansing me, I started to feel really filthy again. I wasn't sure why though. I dried myself with a towel and picked up my blood-encrusted clothes. My hands felt like a bazillion germs had started crawling off the clothes and up my arms. That was it. I had to get rid of them. I stood on the closed toilet seat and chucked the repulsive things out the small toilet window.

I stood on the toilet for a moment, before a wet, slimy trickle crawled down my leg. I climbed off the toilet and looked down at my leg. A deep crimson trail was dribbling down from my inner thigh.

Strange.

Wonder how that got there.

I grabbed one of those fluffy towels that you can only ever get at hotels and searched fleetingly for any clothes that might have magically materialised on the bathroom floor.

Crap.

There were no clothes in sight. I had to go get some from my bag in the room I shared with Angel.

I crossed my fingers and hoped she was asleep. I crept out of the bathroom and slowly slunk into the bedroom. I glanced at the sleeping form of Angel in her bed and sighed internally in relief.

I grabbed some clothes, not caring if they matched; just that they were clean. I didn't want to feel dirty again, being in stylish, filthy clothes I just wanted to feel clean again.

I climbed into the other single bed and cried to sleep, just like those cry babies I hate, and was slowly becoming.

Dear reader,

This is more or less my first fanfiction that I have written.

If you have the time, please direct your mouse into the area of the review button located at the bottom of this page and click.

I would like to know if my story is too random or has too many D 'n' M's in it or if it sucked completely and utterly times infinity.

This will probably turn out to be a two-shot, but I can't be certain. It depends if anyone is interested in this. Have a suitable day/night...

Regards,

Necrophobia :)