Chapter 2: we meet again

I started at the picture in disbelief. I wasn't looking at a picture of Fang. He was captured and they killed him. They killed him? No. I don't know that. When he was captured I just assumed that. He never came back. When I think about it, none of them came back after they were captured.

The train stopped and the doors opened. I walked out into what looked like an indoor street. The train left down the tracks and I was alone. The indoor street was dark except for a lamp light that did little to help the darkness.

I flipped the picture over in my hands and saw that there was a number on the back. 151. I walked until I started to read numbers on doors. I was half way down the hall before I reach the 140. 142,146,149,150 the next room was Fang's room. My heart was beating so fast I felt that it would rip itself out of my chest. I knocked on the door and just waited. I heard footsteps and impossibly my heart beat faster.

The door opened and my heart stopped. There he was, in the flesh and well. He was equally as stunned to see me. We stood there staring at each other. I was the first to move. I reached my hand out to touch his face. I had to. I didn't know if he was real or just another one of my taunting dreams. My fingers touched his face and it scared me. I cupped his cheek and started to cry. Fangs as always was motionless but I could tell that he was happy to see me because his mouth twitched at the corners.

I cried because I hadn't seen him in about a year in a half. He was the first to go. I thought he was dead. Now he was here right in front of me.

"Stop crying." He said. I cried harder. I hadn't heard his voice in so long I was starting to forget. Little by little things were escaping me and how I remembered he look do no justice to him. He looked older and more mature then I remembered.

"Stop crying please." I hugged him. He just stepped back with me still hugging him and shut the door.

"You're still weird." He said laughing a little. He hugged me back so tight that it hurt. I didn't care. I don't know how long we stood there but when we finally moved my legs had gone to sleep.

"Fang I thought that you were dead."

"I'm not, of course." He said with a crooked smile.

"Why haven't you've gotten out?" I had to ask. Fang was notorious for escaping even the most hardest of traps.

"Truth is I didn't want to. Even if I did there is no way out. It would take to long to figure out the tunnels and they have video cameras. Besides, they don't mistreat you here. You just live here and you get what you want while they get what they want."

"What do you mean by 'they get what they want'?"

"Max all they want us to do is to have kids so they can run test on them and they don't hurt them either."

I almost burst into tears again. They brain washed Fang and he was now institutionalized.

"Fang what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I saw an organic child and all they did was give it its shots and took a few samples. After that they gave the child back to its parents. When I saw that I knew that this place isn't bad. I mean some of our rights are being disrespected but I can live with this." He sat down on the bed staring at his hands.

I don't know but something in me believed Fang. Our conversation so far felt as if we picked up where we left off. He looked up at me.

"I don't know what they did to me but looking at that kid made me think that there is hope."

No, Fang may have not been institutionalized but I was sure they were doing something to him. I decided to put that in the back of my head. Now wasn't

Fanged started to look at me all goofy.

"What are you looking at?" I asked feeling the air get lighter.

"You." Only Fang himself would give such a direct and honest answer.

"Why?"

"Just think about it? What are the chances of me and you being the ones to share a room with each other? What are the chances of us being matched?"

"Yeah, it is kind of odd." I agreed a smile working itself onto my face.

"It's good for reassurance." Is what I thought I heard him say. He said it under his breath.

I looked in the drawer Fang pointed out and found some pajamas. I went in the bathroom and got dressed and put my clothes in a hamper that had a sticky note over it that said "Dirty clothes". I did all the things I do before I go to bed like brush my hair and braid it, brush my teeth, and washing my face.

When I finally came out the light was out so I just slipped into the bed. I turned myself away from Fang. Sleeping in the same bed as him felt so weird. We were friends for so long and now we are being forced to be lovers. Never in a million years would I have thought that this could ever happen.

Fang wrapped his arm around my stomach and pulled me into him. It scared me and I tensed up.

"Go to sleep." He said as if he hadn't just done something out of the ordinary of our friendship. I still did just that. I felt safe like just like that in his arms. Maybe this program wasn't a bad thing.

In truth I had so many questions to ask Fang but they would have to wait until tomorrow considering the soft snoring above my head.

The next Fang woke me up half dressed in his black jeans.

"Get up, I got a surprise for you, but you have to hurry."

"How much time to I have."

"About an hour before we would be rushing."

"Wow thanks for taking in the consideration for a Lady."

"Naw, you just take a long time to get ready unless we are running for our lives." He said smiling crooked again.

I took a shower and got dressed in a tank and jeans. The tank didn't have a back.

"Fang way to all my clothes not have backs."

"You're a girl."

"Yeah but the shirt I wore yesterday had slits."

"They say because your wings are softer and more flexible they are a little more fragile and so sliding them through the slits can damage them or be bad for you health."

I arched an eyebrow. That sounded so stupid.

"Alright can I wear one of your shirts?"

"I don't mind but the programmers might be mad."

I put on one of Fang's long sleeved shirts which was too big.

"Max that shirt is too big and you should just wear your shirt."

"I don't like it."

"Look don't worry about it you look cute with you back out anyway."

I started to blush but then I realized what was going on.

"Nice try, but this won't help us out of the door."

Fang stopped what he was doing and looked at me. He walked towards me stopping only a couple of feet from me. He looked at me in the eyes and some how I felt hypnotized.

"Max you to look cute with your back out. I would never lie to you just to get a gain from it."

I put the shirt back on but it was only with great dislike.

"I still don't like this shirt." I mumbled under my breath.

I blow dried my hair and brushed my teeth, washed my face, and found a jacket to put on which luckily had slits. Fang took my hand and we walked out to the indoor street. There was a small crowd and we stood on the edge. I started down at the tracks feeling the eyes of Fang's neighbors on me.

Fang started talking to someone but I didn't look up until I heard my presence being brought up.

"So you've finally been matched." A female voice asked. I looked up then.

"Yeah." Fang answered.

"Do you know her?"

"Yeah Max has been a good friend of mine for as long as I can remember."

"You've probably already had the hots for her. Statistics show that most of the people who are matched together knew each other pretty well on the outside. I can see why she's pretty."

The girl talking was short. She was also small. She had dark brown hair and her small features were complimented greatly by it. She wore all black and she was holding the hand of a large man who also wore all black. She smiled at me.

Her expression changed quickly and she throws a punch at me. I caught it just in time before she hit me in the nose. I was so shocked I couldn't move. She had a mischievous smile again. She withdrew her fist.

"It's good to see that Fang has someone on his level. He needs someone who can hold him down, literally."

This girl sort of interested me because who throws a punch at someone when you first meet them. The train arrived not soon after our little greeting. Fang and I were the first to get on and now I knew why we had to get here early. There were only a few seats but there were a lot more people then when we first got here. The seats in the train were weird looking at first I didn't under stand them until Fang picked me up by the waist and sat me on the top seat. He sat under me and told me to put my seatbelt on. Basically he sat between my legs like I was going to do his hair of something. I thought the arrangement was kind of funny.

"Fang, why do I have to sit up here?"

"Max you're sitting up there because you are the girl in our match. I can't sit up there because I'm too heavy."

"Even in here the put women in a passive role." The girl said.

"Yeah, hey I didn't catch your name."

"Alice."

"Max."

We tried to shake hands put the space was too big in the end we settled with a smile.

When the train stopped we were right beside other train who were unloading. Fang grabbed my hand again and lead me to a table inside the place we stopped at.

"Wait and see, I know your going to like the surprise."

I did just as I was told and almost cried. There were four people walking towards me. They looked so much older now, Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy. They enveloped me in a hug. Angel slipped between them and hugged me again. She still wasn't very tall yet, her arms just reached above my waist.

They all sat at the table staring at me. I was so happy, almost so happy I didn't notice how close Gazzy and Nudge were. I decided not to say anything about it, I mean why? I just saw them for the first time in 3 years. Maybe it is not what I thought it was.

Someone had brought us plates. For breakfast it seemed that we were having French toast sticks and a glass of orange juice. I just looked at it.

"I know it doesn't look like much but it's backed full of calories and carbohydrates." Fang said. My only response was a arched eyebrow.

"We only ate so much because we needed the energy. Like this the food doesn't weigh us down and lessens the chance of injury or ingesting too much of something that can hurt us." Fang said reassuring.

"How do you know so much?" I asked clearly interesting in the subject.

"All of us once we get out school have a chance to get a job if we want extra. Because I am a trusty I was given the job of sorting information. One of the things I sorted was what they send to THE KITCHEN for them to do our food."

This job sounded like a good thing. It makes it a little harder for something to go down without us knowing it but then again Fang was a trusty which meant that he was probably under oath not to tell everybody about what he sees and reads inside of his job.

Even though THE PROGRAM wasn't much a threat that I knew of, I still had the feeling of wanting to get away. They had all the answers here and it troubled me to know that. What else did they know about me? Did they really tell me the truth about what the whole thing was about? I never remembered them telling what they were going to do with us once they matched everyone and an offspring was developed.

I decided to put all my questions in the back of my mind and just breathe. This was something that wasn't easy for me to do but I joked and played with my now again complete family.

After while Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel went to classes which they preferred to call them instead of school. Iggy had some other business he had to tend to that he said was a catch up school for him because they were teaching him how to read Brail. Fang and I went outside to walk.

There where other people outside everywhere. Fang and I chose to walk on the path. The path looked like it went on forever but we started on it anyway. I immediately asked him about the stuff that was going on with me.

"Fang why are Nudge and Gazzy so close together?"

"Isn't it obvious? They've been matched."

My eyes widened into the realization that they were matched.

"What?" I said breathlessly. I mean could you imagine how old I felt because I thought that it wouldn't be long before they would but my little Angel with someone.

"Calm down. It's very seldom that they match someone before the age of 21. They don't because the personality is still changing and even in here we are still trying to find our identity but Gazzy and Nudge's results were 96% perfect."

"How do you know how much?"

"My job, remember?"

"Do you know about us?" I looked at Fang and there was a little smile on his lips.

"You just got here yesterday, how would I know?"

"Will you tell me when you can?"

"I will tell you when I get home from work tonight."

He brought me into him and held me close. I didn't understand Fang like I thought I did.

"Fang what's your issue?" I said breathing in his scent.

His wings wrapped around us isolating us from the outside world. It was black everywhere and I didn't like the dark much but I didn't mind this black enveloping me. This black made me feel safe and calm.

"Max you don't know how long I've waited to do that. Truth is Alice is right. I've always liked you and now knowing that you may have been here for me is oddly reassuring." He said with smoldering eyes that seemed to be looking not at me but at my soul. I could see Fang's too. It was so black that it was blue but it shined so bright.

"Alright Fang, I get I get it. Stop looking at me like that." I rested my head on his chest and he lifted us both up just a little bit over the trees. Yes I could be in this black forever with my dark angel.