Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or anything else .

Fang

I'm running and I don't know what from. I know that if it catches me I will die, so I keep running. The problem is I'm running to slow and there is nowhere to go. I am running through a gray hallway, there are no turns or doors, just a light at the end of the hallway. That is where I need to go. I am so slow, my enemy is so fast. I can feel it, whatever it is, breathing down my back as I run. I have been running for so long and I have not gotten any closer to the end. I am tired, maybe it would be okay to take a small break. I falter for a moment, but it is a moment long enough for the monster to curl a whithered hand around my elbow and pull me close. "Hello," it coos, and then it picks me up as easily as if I were a ragdoll, and drops me delicately into it's mouth. I have a moment to think, wow, being eaten by a monster sucks, before everything goes black.

When I wake up my thoughts are flood through my mind all at once without focus.

Have to run.

Can't breathe.

It was just a dream.

Breathe.

You're awake now.

"Sleep,"The voice whispers softly. I comply, or atleast I try to. I close my eyes and try to slow my breaths. "Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep," the voice hums.

"I'm trying," I hiss as I roll onto my side. Sometimes I wish the voice would just leave, but it wont. I know this. The voice hasn't left since the moment it had first settled in my head.

I open my eyes and my alarm clock is there blinking the time at me. 8:45AM. Something tugs in my mind, a strong feeling that there is something I should be doing. "Sleep," the voice insists, I sigh.

I can't figure it out, why the voice has so much control over me. I don't even know why the voice is here . It wasn't as if I'd woken up one day and boom! I'm hearing things. No, it had started small, nothing but a small "what if" in the back of my mind when I was trying to do something. Then slowly it grew, it grew until it had wrapped itself tightly around my head , until it seemed that the voice was it's own being. Now it is always there, whispering to me almost nonstop and making my mind a very loud place.

I'm debating whether I should get up or let the voice win when there is a knock at my bedroom door. That settles it, I think as I push my covers away, stand up, and move to unlock my door. I'm not supposed to lock my door, as it worries mom, but I feel a whole lot safer when I do.

"Angel," I say, as the door swings open to reveal a little girl with curly blonde hair and wide blue eyes.

"Good morning, Fang." My little sister replies cheerfully and smiles up at me.

"Hmm" I say in response as I catch sight of something, I crouch down so that I am at eye level with the four year old. Angel narrows her eyes at me, "What?"

"Hm," I say again, and scratch my head for effect. Angel, who has always been a curious child, looks like she is about to explode from the meer feeling of not knowing what her brother is "hm-ing" about. "Are you missing a tooth?" I ask, deciding it best to let her off the hook.

Angel smiles again, showing off a white toothed grin that is in fact missing a front tooth. "Uh huh," she nods, and her curls bob around her face, "I lost it earlier today. Mom says if I put it under my pillow the tooth fairy will come and leave money." She tells me in a matter- of- fact tone.

"She will," I agree.

Angel smiles again, and then her expression turns serious. "Max, is here," she explains, "She's waiting for you downstairs."

Thats it! I think, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. Breakfast with Max.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Angel accuses. Sometimes it's as if the kid can read minds, the way she catches on to things so fast.

I nod, there's no use in lying to Angel, she is the equivalent of a lie detector. "You forget everything," she tells me.

"I do not," I state firmly. Sure my memory isn't exactly photographic, but I definitely do not forget everything.

Angel just shrugs and shakes her head, seemingly not in the mood to argue, "I'll go tell, Max, that you'll be down soon." She turns and skips off down the hallway leaving me to get ready. I turn around and I can barely supress a groan of frustration as I face the catastrophe that is my room. I don't understand how it got so messy, as all I do in my room is sit on my bed with my laptop. Yet, there are clothes strewn across the floor and a variety of wrappers peeking out from under them. I really have to get around to cleaning it.

I pick my way through the mess until I've found a black sweater that I can probably pass as clean, and my favorite pair of jeans. After I'm dressed I debate brushing my hair, but the debate is brief as the voice reminds me that I am already keeping Max waiting. "Alright, alright," I grumble and exit my room, closing the door behind me.

I find Max sitting at the kitchen table, staring intensely at my little brother, Gazzy, who sits across the table from her. Gazzy is leaning over the table and squinting at Max. Neither of the two aknowledge me, instead I'm greeted by Angel tugging at the sleeve of my sweater. "It's a staring contest," Angel explains.

The staring contest lasts for maybe 10 seconds before Gazzy blinks his blue eyes at Max." Dang it," Gazzy cries, and lowers his head in defeat.

"Ha!" Max responds triumphantly. "Hey, Fang."

I wave at her, "Sorry for the wait."

Max shakes her head,"It's fine, gave me time beat, Gazzy, 3 times." At that comment Gazzy jumps up in his seat and bangs a fist against the table, "You only beat me three times because you cheated the first time!"

Max snorts, stands up, and gives a little shrug like so? "You didn't specify any rules."

Gazzy scoffs, and sits back down in his chair, folding his arms and muttering an insult that only a fellow six year old could take offense to.

"Uh," I start, not sure if I should be interrupting the situation, "Are you ready to go, Max?"

Max nods and starts to walk towards the door. I'm thinking we're going to get away without trouble when Angel calls out, "Can we come?"

"Nah, He won't let us go. He wants to be alone with, Max, because he likes her." Gazzy interjects cheerfully. Angel giggles and nods like Gazzy's statement makes all the sense in the world.

Max doesn't miss a beat, she's used to Gazzy and Angel's teasing on this matter. "Of course he likes me! I mean, have you met me? I'm pretty damn fabulous." Gazzy scowls at her, not used to having his jokes thrown back at him.

I, however, can't even defend myself from their teasing because, well, I do infact have a crush on Max. Infact, this is my second crush on Max. Granted, my first crush on her had bloomed when we where 13 and had been more of a realization that, holy crap! Max has boobs! That crush had lasted about a month as I came to realize that a whole lot of girls had boobs. This second crush, was more of a real crush. Or atleast I think so.

It seems though that Max doesn't return these feelings and why would she? As the voice is always reminding me, she is way out of my league.

"Right, well let's go," I urge, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Coffee!" Max shouts an hour later as she holds her Starbucks cup out lion king style, "Beautiful coffee." She brings the cup to her lips and takes a large gulp.

We'd finished eating our breakfasts at a local cafe, and then Max had suggested Starbucks. Now we're walking around the town without a goal in mind. It is something we do often as Max claims that she enjoys the concept of freedom it brings.

I frown at her, "You know, maybe if you didn't drink so much of that stuff you wouldn't be so jittery in class."

Max laughs and slaps her mouth over her mouth as if to prevent coffee from spewing out."Did you just say jittery?"

My frown grows and I can feel my forhead wrinkle, this always happens when I'm with Max. I always say something stupid and end up feeling embarrassed. Max elbows me to let me know she's just joking around with me."Besides, Coffee does not make me jittery, it makes me warm," Then she shivers and takes another sip of her coffee as if to punctuate her point.

I shrug, seeing no reason to disagree. It is cold, especially at this time of year with winter just around the corner.

"Wanna go to the beach?" Max asks.

"We can't swim. To cold."

"So? We can throw rocks at it or something," Max shrugs.

I nod, it isn't like we had anything else to do anyways. The beach isn't really a beach, it is, by definition, a lake. Max had just decided that calling it a lake was just unfair. "The lake can be a beach if it wants," she'd decided when they'd first found it, and so to us it is a beach.

"So I've been thinking about, you know, the future," Max says casually as we sit on the bank of the "beach". I resist the urge to wince, I absolutely hate thinking about the future. It's like this big black whole on the outskirts of my mind that I really did not want to venture into."And well, I think I've figured out what I'm going to do, after highschool and stuff."

"Really? We're only 16."

Max laughs, it's a nice sound. Not like wind chimes or any of that other stuff books like to compare laughs to, it's just a nice laugh."Right, I know that. It's just, I don't want to get to my last year of highschool and be like, what the hell do I do next? Then I'll spend the time that I could be working towards an actual goal just being completely lost" She smirks and pokes me in the ribs, "From the sound of it that's where you're heading."

Max's remark shouldn't bother me. It was a joke. I should just brush it off and forget about it. It shouldn't bother me, but it does."Why, Fang? Why don't you have this figured out?"the voice asks,"Max is right, you're not going to be anything."I try to ignore it, try to listen to whatever Max is trying to tell me now, but I can't. My stomach is churning and my thoughts are floating around my head, one after the other. The voice is relentless, screaming that I need to leave, need to figure out my future. "Shutup," I hiss. I don't realize I've said it outloud until Max gives me a look that is a mix of hurt and confusion and says, "Oh, okay. Sorry."

I smack my hand against my forhead, "No, not you."

"Are you okay?" Her confused look has turned to one of concern.

I sigh and nod, "Yeah, fine." I look over at the water and the urge hits me. Swimming makes me feel calm, why not swim? I take off my coat and set it down beside Max, shivering slightly as the cold air goes straight through my sweater. "I'll be right back," I tell her, and stand up.

"What are you doing?" She asks, "Fang, what's wrong?" She lets her feelings of worry creep into her voice.

"I'm just going in the water," I murmur. She may have said something like "wow, Fang, you're nuts the water is freezing," but I'm not listening anymore. All I hear is the voice.

I kick my shoes off and step into the water. The cold cuts into my legs and I continue to walk into the water until it is up to my waist. I am freezing and I love it. For a moment the voice is quiet, like it is in shock from the sudden cold. I wrap my arms around myself and my teeth chatter as the chill seeps into my body. I don't care though, I can think in this cold. I can hear Max yelling at me to come back, and I still don't care. Before I know what I'm doing I'm dipping my head under the water. Max's voice is gone, my voice is gone, it is so quiet under here. I go back up for air and find myself gasping, my ears feel like they are going to freeze right off and my head is starting to ache. I disregard this, craving the peacefulness being under the water had brought, I go back under. I stay there longer this time, even when my lungs start begging for air I stay under. I'm not cold anymore, there is a strange warmth flowing through me and it feels so good. My vision starts to blur and I'm thinking maybe I should just take a nap when something grabs my shoulder and tugs me up. My ears are ringing now, my head is pounding, my lungs are frozen, and I am so tired. The voice isn't there though, and that is all that matters. I barely register Max pulling me to shore whispering "Shit, Fang, what are you doing?" through chattering teeth.

I want to tell her about the voice, how the cold made it go quiet, but my body feels heavy and I just want to sleep. I am awake long enough to see Max dig her cellphone out of her coat pocket, and then I can't keep my eyes open any longer. I sleep.

An: I was just writing random stuff and this happened and I kind of liked it and kind of want to continue with it.