Me: Just reposting here, nothing to see.

Grimmjow: This is old.

Me: Old as balls.

FANG

4 months. It had been 4 months since Max had died. Angel told me that it was a fatal Eraser attack. And that's what everyone had thought, too.

I walked into Max's old room with a couple of moving boxes. I set the boxes in the middle of the room and made my way to her box of "Memoirs". That's where she kept all the pictures, gifts, and stuff from our travels. I opened up the box to find the ring that I had given her on our 15th birthday, the last brick from the last building of Itex when she saved the world, and stuff like that.

I decided to forage through that box later. I moved on to her bed. I pulled off the sheets and crumpled them up. Then I reached under the pillow. Huh. I pulled something out. It was a piece of paper.

It was addressed to no one, but something inside me made me open it up. Max's neat handwriting filled the page.

"Congratulations, you've gotten the letter. Now look in the box under my bed that's labeled 'Stuff'. You'll find 7 tapes wrapped up in bubble wrap. Pull them out. Press play. You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret is to press play." The letter read.

I did as the letter directed and I looked under the bed and pulled out the box. I dug out the tapes and unrolled the bubble wrap. The tapes clattered out.
Each was labeled with a number with black Sharpie.

I was genuinely scared. I left Max's room and walked to my room, tapes in hand and dug out a cassette player from my desk. I opened it up and popped the first one in.

Static filled the silence.

PLAY

Hello boys and girls. Maximum Ride here. Live in concert. I'm here to tell you the story of my life. Precisely, why my life ended. Thirteen reasons. Thirteen reasons were all it took. Now, I'm not saying that you should end your life for thirteen reasons. I'm not saying that you should even end your life. I'm not worthy of being a poster child.

PAUSE

She was supposed to be dead. Just 4 months ago, we found her in her room, dead and bloody. I pressed against the button until the tape resumed unraveling the story thread by thread.

PLAY

Are you here to listen why I ended my life or are you here to find out how you contribute to my death? Listen and you'll find out. You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret is to press play.

Max paused. Then she continued.

Imagine a sweet little girl. Cute, with bouncy blond curls and innocent blue eyes. Now imagine her in a pink party dress, her hair in a bow and she's pointing a gun at you. A gun. Who in their right mind would give a 7-year-old a gun? No one. It was no one. She had acquired it by herself.

Who is this psychotic bipolar? Is it the little girl next door? The head cheerleader's maniacal sister? The creeper down the street's creepo-in-training? No, no and no. It's Angel. You started out as a 4-month-old with goofy chicken wings. You couldn't fend for yourself. When Jeb had left, I was in charge. I took care of you as if you were my baby. Mine. Angel, your name doesn't fit you.

Remember when Dr. Martinez got kidnapped? How you grew gills? Then you started to get fresh. You started acting up. I didn't think it was that bad. Until the day when you kicked me out of the flock. When you did, I ran away and cried. I kept crying. Then, I left. You thought that everything would be all right. Well, Angel, dear, you're wrong. Again. Then the day when you held…a…gun up to me.

Max took a shuddering breath, as if she were remembering the event. Man, when Angel pointed the gun at Max, I was so scared. Would Angel actually have the guts to pull the trigger?

Angel, I have one question to ask you. Would you have pulled the trigger? The shot that would've killed me and get rid of all your troubles and you could be leader? Would you kill the one who had brought you up and cared for you?

So what do you think? Reviews are love.

~A