Disclaimer: All goes to James Patterson and Motomi Kousuke
R E V I E W ! :D
Chalk dust flew up in the air, ruining everyone's air supply. Nudge squealed.
End of school. And cleanup was still needed. What was this, elementary school?
Classmate scurried around, doing their assigned jobs. I continued patting the board erasers, sending up another cloud. Nudge squealed again.
"Max!" Nudge called out.
I waved her off.
This moment was when the class was kind of quiet. There was some chatter, but otherwise it was pretty much silent.
Pat pat.
A couple of coughs. Some guys broke the silence.
"You take out the trash."
The rest was annoying babble I refused to listen to. Let's just say it went on for a while now.
Pat pat.
"You do it!"
Pissed, I turned toward them. "Hey!"
They ignored me.
I threw one of the erasers at their heads.
"OW!"
"Shut up! Fang can take out the trash," I said.
The class blew up into another gossip round. "Who's Fang?"
I pointed to Fang, who was now picking up the trash basket, bored expression on his face. "The dumpsters behind the building," I explained to him. He nodded and walked out.
Right after he left and went down the stairs, a huge crowd of people came toward me.
"Max, you're amazing! How did you tame the beast?"
"Tell me his weakness!"
I shoved them aside, half helped by Nudge who pulled me out of the terrorizing crowd.
"He's not like that. He's just the same as you guys. Don't be stupid," I said, heading over to the windows.
The little crowd followed me.
"But, I heard that he might have caused that fight yesterday. The one with the gang members nearly half dead from the damage!" One guy called.
"Where'd you get that?" I said, smacking him upside the head.
I turned my back against them, growing silent while watching the pale blue sky mingling with a few clouds.
Come to think of it, he was covered in blood when I met him yesterday…
That can't be true, right?
"I also heard because of that, a bunch of the boss members of different gangs are looking for him all over town," another quipped.
I didn't feel good about this.
Spinning on my heel, I sprinted out the door.
"Hey."
Fang turned toward the voice. I crouched even further down in my hiding spot. Stepping forward, the male voice turned out to be THE Boss of the neighborhood. People just call him Boss. He's just freakin scary. But, he's actually a good guy in thought. Most people know him. I did.
"It's you isn't it? The rumored transfer student," Boss asked, looking superior with two other different bosses flanking him. Fang stepped back; his eyes were back to that glare just like yesterday.
"I see you're giving me that look. Come here for a moment."
I ran out of my hiding spot toward them.
"Wait-" I froze right next to Boss.
Fang was nowhere in sight, trashcan set aside with all three bosses looking up at a tree.
"Hey, come down here! Did I say something to make you mad?" they called out. I walked over to Boss.
"Hey Boss, something wrong?" I questioned.
He turned to me. "Oh hey. No, it's just that the new transfer student's weird. He just climbed up the tree without a word."
Rustles of the tree got everyone to look back up. Fang's head was sticking out of the leaves. "Oh, hey Max."
"Come down, they're good people," I called out. "They just need to talk."
Two minutes later, we were sitting in a circle with three bosses crying over Fang's story of explanation. How fun.
Boss started, "I see…You've gone through a lot…because of your eyes…people judge you by your appearance-how mean." He sniffed, wiping away tears.
"You guys are always the same…" I muttered.
"Damn, they really are nice…" Fang muttered next to me.
"So, you've never really picked a fight with that gang yesterday?" Boss asked.
"I've never really fought. I used to fight illegal animal hunters when we were in the wild, and at times I also fought animals. There was a time when I was attacked by a leopard and almost killed." He said all that with a bored expression. "And then yesterday, I ran into some scary guys. I was wandering the streets, when I saw them in the alley. I decided to ignore them, but they dragged me into some conversation I couldn't understand."
We all grew silent. I knew what he meant, nearly forgetting how to be human. Of course he wouldn't understand.
Fang rubbed his arm where there was a white bandage wrapped around it tightly. "They stabbed me with a knife, and after I started bleeding, my mind kind of went blank. Like I wasn't myself anymore. I didn't remember what happened after that. When I came to, I was on top of a tree."
On top of a tree? Then that time…
"You didn't remember? What do you mean by that?" Boss asked, eyebrow arching.
Fang's voice grew soft; we all kind of had to lean in. I could hear the silence of our breathing. "It like, whenever I'm attacked, and see blood, something inside me just takes over. I can't remember any of it either. Like that time when the leopard attacked me. When I came back to my senses, its throat was torn out and I was still alive."
A group of delinquents half dead…
Before Fang could say anymore, Boss cut in. His face was serious. "Either way, they started it. It's all right. Just watch out for them." He patted Fang on the shoulder. He smiled. "If you run into them again, call us."
Fang dipped his head low, staring at the ground. I nodded for him.
After they left, we finished dumping the trash and headed back upstairs. "Max," Fang called out. I turned. "I'm sorry. That I can't tell you what happened yesterday. Truth is, I'm scared of myself."
I wanted Fang to just forget about the gang. Hug him close and say its okay. "Fang-"
"MAX! FANG!" We both snapped out heads up toward the staircase railing were someone was hanging over. It was Sam, class pres. He was a frantic and sweaty. "You can't go back into the classroom. A bunch of scary looking guys came from another school and are looking for Fang! Go to the rooftop, you'll be safe there until we call a teacher down!"
Throwing the bin to the side, Fang, Sam, and I bolted upstairs to the roof at top speed. Right after we stepped into the cool breeze of the building, Sam locked the doors. Sam let out a sigh, "Christ, they were all over the room and were like, scaring everyone. They kept talking about getting back for yesterday."
Sam leant his head on the door.
"Good thinking. We can stay here for now. The rest of the class left for home right?" I quipped, thinking of Nudge. Sam nodded.
"You're right. It is a good idea to stay here." Sam said. I stopped breathing. His tone was…
"If you guys were a bit smarter," Sam said, "You would've realized that I lied."
And just like that, Fang fell to his knees with a guy looming over him with a wooden bar.
"Fang!" My legs went forward…and then back.
I was caught with an arm around my neck and hand behind my back. I struggled for nothing.
I watched helplessly as a member with dead look on his face went over and grabbed a fistful of Fang's hair and lifted his head up. He looked at him straight in the eye. "There's no mistaking it. This is him."
I glared at Sam. "Why?"
He looked at me plainly. "Why? Cause. Whenever I give them info about the police information, they give me money. Easy as that."
Something snapped inside me. Heat flooded my head.
My eyes snapped back to Fang. I saw blood trickling down the side of his face.
"When I'm attacked, and see blood…"
Long streams glided down, down, down…
Sam turned to Fang. "Ha, you think you can pull off the same thing from yesterday?"
"When I was attacked by that leopard…"
I struggled again. His eyes shone with a hunger. Memories from yesterday flashed in my head. Eyes of a predator. Fear for survival.
"Its throat…was torn out…"
I found my voice. "Get away!"
Sam scoffed. "What are you talking about? He can't get away. We locked the doors and its seven stories off the ground."
"And I couldn't remember anything."
"I'M TALKING TO YOU GUYS!"
In the next second, Fang lost it.
Everyone watching him, he took out the gang members around him before heading to the next.
"It's like I'm not myself…"
Members scattered around, shocked. I stood there, still trapped watching blood stain the white concrete roof. Sam turned himself, shaking. "What's with this guy?"
Fang was crouched, still clenched onto ones throat with his hand. Blood was everywhere. Voices swarmed everywhere. Bodies flew around.
He then shot forward, toward Sam. I heard screams. I bet those were his. Sam twisted back to run. Too late.
Fang had him by the shoulder. They both collapsed to the ground.
"Truth is, I'm scared of myself."
I got the voice in my mind to shut up and switched myself to my own thoughts.
My legs pitched forward, ignoring the small amount of curiosity that wondered where my captor was.
With my feet pounding against the concrete, I came closer.
The future results were practically in front of me.
I flew forward, adrenaline sharply running through my body. I saw fangs.
Fang closed in.
Sam screamed.
I jumped.
