It all Started With Ari.

Prologue

Ari. I knew he was evil, but Max didn't. How could I continue to think that he was so completely bad when Max is in so much pain from his untimely death? I understand that she feels an obligation to him- having shared his father- but what if it was ME who died? Would she feel so obligated to morn? We weren't anywhere near being family and yet we've always been close- would she be so tore up if it was me in the coffin and not the creeper? Or was I wrong in leaving, for yelling, for accusing? Things could possibly be different at the moment, things could be so, so, different if I hadn't left, hadn't forced her into making a choice that clearly tore her into tiny shreds. I guess that if I had found out- or had been told – that our arch nemesis was my SISTER I would probably want to protect her, but I can't see my self warming up to anyone who has tried to kill Max.

"Fang! Get down here, please!"

Chapter One- Pay Close Attention.

I walked quietly down the stairs, listening for the problem. Silence. That wasn't good. When Max wanted me to hurry up, usually all hell and Hades broke loose. Not even a footstep, nor shift of clothing. No Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, or Angel…The tine was seven AM and no one was up? Was I hearing things? No, because I'd felt the words vibrate on the ground…or did I imagine that, too?

"Max?" I asked, jumping down the last four stairs in my panic. No one answered. I walked slowly to the kitchen, taking in every detail. No sign of a struggle, but something was off. Then I saw them. On the table were two sheets of paper- a ripped picture and a note. The picture was one I remembered so well - last summer Max and me at the beech soaking wet and laughing. But Max was gone, leaving me. The picture looked horrible with only me in it. The note was in Max's emergency script.

Fang,

I'm leaving. I can't stand it anymore. Sorry. Don't come looking for me. It will only get you into deep trouble with your School. I will tex t you if there is any trouble. DO not come looking for me- I will be at my mothers- don't call she will be in GERMANY. Things have changed.

Max

My entire body shook with shock. Things have changed? And what was with the misspellings and spaces and capitalizations? Didn't she…wait. Why is school capitalized? (I go to a near by high school.) Why is Dr. Martinez going to be in Germany…?
"Idiot!" I yelled at my self. School, not school. I tucked the note and the picture in my back pocket and ran up the stairs two at a time. 'Hold on, Fang. This could mean anything. As in the School has her, the School is gone; she joined the School; she went looking for the School. Anything. Think about this. And the picture. She didn't want you to have a picture of her. She truly just could have been angry and miss spelled some things in her rush to get out of the house. But what did you do? What made her so angry?' I thought, pausing. Maybe she was just leaving me and just didn't want me to have a picture of her…But she would have taken the picture from our room, which she didn't do. Or she just didn't want me to see her face while she left. With the entire flock. Thanks a lot, Max Ride… I walked BACK downstairs, looking for something to point me a little more in the direction she actually went. Something was wrong- different. The kitchen chair she always sits in was knocked over- in fact most of the chairs were toppled over and a plate was shattered on the floor. Why hadn't I heard any of this? So she did get captured.

Or so I thought until I noticed the laptop gone and the canned foods. And, of course, all of the first aid kits were gone. So maybe she DID leave on her own accord. What could I have done? It had been three years since I left with Iggy and Gazzy, so it certainly couldn't be that, could it? I'd apologized so many times and tried my damnedest to make it up to her in every way, but nothing made the flinch of betrayal that she showed every time I said I was going some where with the guys…No, I don't think Max would leave me for that, not after all I'd done to make it up to her. But what if she left because she read IT? Could she have thought I was being ungrateful to the dead, that I was still being selfish and uncaring? Because I was getting better, if not in self, then in writing… what can I do if she DID leave? I can't exactly go up to her moms' house and just kinda grin and say "well I thought you were captured because of your bad grammar so I came to check on you. By the way did you read anything of mine before you left?" No, I have a doubt about that plan. But I'll go with it anyways. So I got ready to leave with the usual essentials- pack, food, clothing. Possibly some home made bandages, considering Max so caringly took every last Hannah Montana one we had.

And then I was off, trying not to think of what memories I was leaving behind. Because if the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach was right, they would be the only good ones for a long time.