Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. That's James Patterson's job
A/N: After you have read this, whether you like it or you don't, please review so I know how to make it better or just to see whether you did like it or just plain hated it
I dropped like a rock, my head in searing pain. My wings folded themselves together, and it was like I just couldn't stop. I held my head in my hands, waiting for death to come. I bet it would feel good right now. And then the Voice interrupted me: You know you don't want to die.
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I looked into Nudge's and Angel's room to see that they were both already up, quietly talking to one another. I leaned myself against the door frame until I knew Angel could read my thoughts and know I was there. She turned her head my way and smiled.
"Max!" she cried, and jumped off Nudge's bed, just to gather me in a hug. As much as she was my favorite, I just couldn't handle a hug every moment, especially when my body was still sore from the bomb at Itex. Then, as quickly as she had come, Angel backed off and sat on the bed again, almost sitting on Nudge. "Sorry. I should have known you were still hurting."
I laughed lightly and started to turn away. "Its okay, honey. Why don't you come to that tiny kitchenette thing for breakfast? Iggy should be up soon, and if he isn't, don't expect a wonderful breakfast meal." I laughed again and started down the rest of the motel's hallway.
After the explosion at Itex, the six of us – me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel – have once again been on the run, but lately, for a couple days, we've been resting up at this motel. And, luckily, my Voice hasn't been interrupting me as much lately. Sometimes, I felt a little lonely since it usually talks all the time.
Before I reached the Gasman's bedroom, Total came and barked at my feet. I rubbed my hand along his head and knocked on Gazzy's door. "Mmmm," he groaned, louder than I had expected. I opened the door a couple inches and peeked my head in to see him just getting out of bed. I guess I woke him up.
"C'mon, Gaz. Get up. Breakfast and then we're leaving." I closed the door again and strolled into the tiny kitchenette. Fang and Iggy were already up, I saw, and as I walked in, Total – Angel's small, talking dog – gave Fang a great lick on his cheek. I laughed at Fang's face and sank myself down into the overly, comfortable couch in front of the old television.
"Thanks, laugh at the wounded, winged kid." Fang dropped Total back onto the carpet and stood up from the kitchen table.
"You're not wounded," growled Iggy as he took out the container of eggs from the refrigerator. It was weird how the blind kid could cook better than I could. At that moment when Iggy turned on the gas stove, Nudge, Angel, and the Gasman padded into the living room, plopping down onto the couch all around me. I bet they could just feel how uncomfortable this was, all four of us squished onto the couch. I stood up and walked toward the motel doorway.
I sighed and turned to Fang. "Um, I'm going to go out for a fly," I said, a little quicker than I meant to. "If anything happens while I'm gone, come for me okay?" I gave him a quick smile and then headed out of the door.
Once outside, I did a quick 360 to make sure that no one was watching me, then I took off, glad to feel the air under my wings. I flew higher and higher until I was above the white-blue clouds. I got a little wet as I flew up, but up this high, it didn't matter.
Glad you're having fun, Max. Great, my Voice was back. Of course I'm back, Max. It's not like I'm going to leave you.
Why not?
I'm here to help you, Max. Just listen to me. That's why I'm here.
But now I just couldn't stand the Voice any more. I swooped down below the fluffy clouds and stumbled onto the beach. I knew I told Fang I wouldn't do this, but once again I found the sharpest rock I could find. If Fang came now, I bet he would be furious. But I would be too. Its just that… I just knew that the Voice was coming from the chip, and I wanted it out, out, out!
The first swipe of the rock on my skin only brought blood and tears. And then in the next cut I knew I had cut something that shouldn't have been cut; maybe a muscle, or a tendon. But I didn't care. That chip – and the voice – needed to go.
Another swipe of the rock, then another, until I was so surrounded by blood I was sure I was going to faint soon, either from how gory this all looked or from blood loss. And then something swooped down below next to me, and gathered me in his arms. Fang.
By what he was doing, I could tell that he wasn't worried about all the blood covering him, just by what I was doing. A moment later, before he was completely covered with my blood, he dumped things out of his pockets: gauze, band-aids, lotions, antiseptic, a sling. He took care of the deep gash – deeper than even last time I had done this – until it was stinging so much that it didn't feel like it was feeling any better.
When Fang was finished, he gathered me in his arms again. I looked up into his face to see that it was ghost white, proving how much I had scared him. But he pressed my head against his chest again, pulling my closer to him.
A couple minutes later, Fang finally let go and looked down at all the blood that had rained onto the sand. His face was still the whitest I had ever seen it. Then he sat himself down onto sand, pulling his knees up to his chin and pulling me down with him. Although I knew he was now looking at me, I looked down onto the sand.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled into my own knees. "I know I had promised not to do that, but I did it anyway." I could feel the tears start to leak from my eyes, almost blinding me against anything else.
"Again you scared me, Max." He skipped a stone across the sand, not even reaching the water of the river we were by. "Why?" He looked at me again and this time, I looked back.
"The Voice. It was bugging me again; I just couldn't take it." The tears down my face were growing even stronger as I talked. Fang wiped a few across my cheeks with his thumb, grabbing and turning my shoulders so I was facing him more.
"You know you can talk to me about it."
I sighed. I knew that. And the crazy thing was, Fang leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine, wrapping his hands around my waist. He stood up, pulling me up with him. That was when the problem started. He pulled back slightly and looked down at me. For most of our lives we had been the same height, but in the past two years he had shot past me. Now, I was stuck staring at his shoulders. His looped his arms around the small of my back and picked me up. I untucked my wings a little bit, feeling them brush against Fang's strong arms, and leaned in to kiss him again, remembering the incident at the black beach, and the time when he had kissed the Red-Haired Wonder.
Now I pulled back and he dropped me a little so my feet were resting on the sand. I rested my head against his chest, pulling my arms up so they were in between us as well. "What about the Red-Haired Wonder?" I just needed to know how he felt about that.
He smiled slightly and sighed. "I don't really care about her. I barely know her. I know you, so that makes you special." And before I was allowed to say anything else, he kissed me again.
A/N: R & R please and I will love you forever! The next chapter will be up soon, I hope.