Here's chapter three. Don't kill me please.
Jeb laid Fang down on a lab table in one of the rooms in the remodeled house and started hooking him up to and IV. I looked away. The flock was staring at Fang like he was diseased. I wondered what was wrong with him, trying to find a bullet wound. I couldn't find any. Then I saw the blood. It was mingled with the hair on the back of his head. Oh, God.
Was Fang going to make it? Jeb's brow was furrowed as he looked at some readouts. "I'll need you guys to leave the room while I operate. Don't worry, Fang will be ok," The last part was directed at me.The flock and i shuffled out the door. I gave a quick backward glance and my eyes met Jeb's. They were glazed with worry.
When we were waiting, Angel tugged on my sleeve.
"Max, is Fang going to be ok?" She asked.
"Yes, sweetie. I'm sure he'll pull through," But i wasn't sure. Part of me thought he was going to die. The other part was undecided.
"Max, I'm scared," Nudge walked up to me and sat in my lap. We were sitting in couches in Jeb's living room. I stroked her hair.
"Don't worry, sweetie. Fang's going to be fine."
My voice cracked on the last word. As if I didn't quite beleive it myself.
"But what if he's not fine, I mean, he got hit in the back of the head. That could cause serieous dammage. He could be braindead for the rest of his life. We wouldn't want to have a braindead Fang. Would we? I mean, he couldn't fight or anything and he'd probably forget to fly..." I put my hand over her mouth.
Then, I took an injury check of the rest of my flock. Gazzy's hair was singed and his face blackened by the soot from his and Iggy's explosives. Nudge was nursing a sprained wrist and her face was full of scratches. Angel had a large purple and blue lump on her forehead and the usual array of scrapes and scratches. Iggy seemed winded, but otherwise fine. I had many small bruises on my arms and some bleeding scratches on my face but I would be fine soon enough. Fang on the other hand, wasn't doing so great. In fact, I had no clue how horrible he was doing. It bugged me, not knowing. I sighed deeply.
Iggy patted the back of my hand. He was seated next to me. "I'm sure you're right. Fang will tough this out. He always does, no matter how many times someone, or something, tries to kill him."
I nodded, somewhat reassured.
"Yeah," Angel said, smiling weakly.
I couldn't imagine what she must have been going through. Suffering though everyone else's misery and upsetting thoughts while bearing her own at the same time. She regularly amazed me. I held out my hand to her. She got up from a squishy relciner and sat next to me, letting me put my arm around her and snuggling close. A tear ran down the side of Gazzy's face and he sat on the other side of her, in Iggy's lap.
Angel sniffed.
We all jumped when the door to the living room opened and Jeb walked out, head hanging. He shuffled to stand in front of us, not meeting my eyes. "I have some bad news." He started and Angel gave a sob. I fought the tears that were welling up in my eyes. Nudge began to cry and Iggy hugged Gazzy tighter as he too began to shake and hiccup.
"Fang's well..."
I waited for him to utter the one word that I never wanted to hear in a million years. I wanted to run from that room, preferable throwing a hard punch at Jeb first. I wanted to run until I reached the porch, then I would fly until I literally fell from the sky. Then I wanted to curl up and die.
"Fang's lost his mind." Jeb stated, his voice cracking as he looked into my eyes.
We all sat in shock for a few seconds and then I shoved Nudge off of me and stood up.
"I want to see him." I stated bravely.
"Max..." Jeb began.
"No! Let me see him," I ground out.
"Ok," Jeb made a worried face and led me into his lab.
Fang sat on the stainless steel table, smiling vacantly. It was almost too much to bear. He looked up when we entered the room.
"Hi." He said. "Who are you?"
I swallowed my tears and held out my hand.
"I'm Max."
He looked at it vacantly and held out his own. I took it and shook it up and down. Something seemed to click in his head and he shook back. I could hardly stand it. I pulled my hand away and Fang left his hanging in the air before following suit. "And, uh, wh-who am I?" he asked.
"You're...You're Fang." I said. I wanted to shout at him to shake him by the shoulders until he remembered. I wanted to cry, to run, to fly until i dropped from the sky. But instead I swallowed again and waited for him to answer. "That's a funny name." He laughed.
"You picked it for yourself." I stated calmly.
"Really? What was I thinking?" He chuckled again.
"So, where are we?" He asked.
"We're in a man named Jeb's house. He's my father. You are kind of like my brother." I couldn't beleive this was actually happening.
"Oh, ok. So you guys live here?" He asked pleasanly.
I finally cracked. Running from the room, I slammed the door, hearing a "What did I say?" on the wind as I rushed to the front hall, throwing open the double doors and racing into the pouring rain and snapping out my wings. I threw my now soggy sweatshirt to the ground and took a running start, jumping into the air.
I don't know how long I was flying. It slowly got dark, but the rain didn't let up. The droplets pelted my face and stung like needles or pebbles flying at me at 100 miles an hour. Eventually, when I had cried myself out. I found a Max sized hollow in the forest and dropped. Landing heavily and collapsing on the spot.
Well, that's longer. Not really long but longer. Please don't hunt me down and kill me. It will all work out I swear.
