Nudge!

And, in case you haven't noticed, I was trying to go in order of age…but I'm having a lot of trouble with Iggy...so, he'll be next, since I already had Nudge's chapter. :) Thank you everyone!

What FacelessxAuthor Does Not Own: Seth Clearwater, Maximum Ride, Nudge, and any other characters mentioned in this chapter. Sad, sad, tear, tear. :(

Chapter Three – Nudge

.Then.
It was dark. Deathly, scarily dark. The world around me was completely black. I was stumbling around, the weight of the darkness pressing down so hard that I felt like I was being crushed into nothingness.

But how was I supposed to keep the darkness at bay? How was I supposed to escape?

Say something, the thought popped into my mind urgently. Anything. There was too much silence, making my breathing too loud. Every time I would crash into a wall, or get a jolt of shock—causing me to yelp—it was amplified. Much, much too loud.

What was the point of this, anyway? Why did I have to stumble around, bruising and injuring myself? And, why in the dark? It was utterly pointless…Suddenly, I understood what was going on.

They wanted to see how I would handle in this complete darkness; it had been the first time I had ever been in such…such blackness.

To be honest, it scared the living crap out of me.

And, now I had figured out what I had to do to help myself—maybe even help them. But, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered as long as I got out of this black hole.

I groped around in my mind, trying to find something to say. Anything. "Um…if…if you…whitecoats are listening…Um…" I racked my brain in a panic. I had to keep talking, because just those few words I had said already comforted me. I stopped walking for a moment; ignored the shock I got, then continued to walk slowly, finally finding something to talk about.

"I'm sure you guys already know this and all, but I really hate you, you know? I mean, I bet you guys are such monsters that you, like, kidnapped me or something. It's just wrong. I mean, I deserve a normal life as much as the next girl, right?! I know that sounds self-centered or whatever, but it's true! I've grown up in a stinkin' cage with whitecoats poking and prodding at me! I don't think any of you can even begin to…um…what's the word? Oh, right: you guys can even begin to comprehend how torturous my life is!

"Everyday, I'm forced into these stupid obstacle course. Everyday, I'm tested on! I'm only nine for God's sake! What kind of mindless monster does that to someone, let alone a kid?! Oh, right, you guys, because you're all…you're all morons!" I took a breath, and blurted out whatever would come to mind. Hey, it was anything.

Suddenly, lights flickered on. I didn't even stop to breath any sort of sigh of relief, I just kept talking…and talking…and talking.

I hadn't even noticed that I had already been led to my cage until I felt a nudge. My head snapped up and I felt my mouth clap shut.

"Argh, thank God." The whitecoat guy groaned. "Why wouldn't it stop talking?!" He called over his shoulder to another whitecoat guy.

Whitecoat Guy #2 just shrugged. "I dunno; ask Jeb, he helped create it."

Whitecoat Guy # 1 sighed, "Whatever. I just hope it doesn't get into the habit of talking to so much."

I resisted cackling evilly. They hoped I wouldn't get into the habit of talking? Ha, yeah right!

My cage was locked and the guys walked away. Even after the bolt to the door slid into place, I could still hear their voices. "Did you notice? The only way to get it to stop talking was to nudge it."

"Huh." The other guys said thoughtfully. "Maybe…maybe we've just made a new discovery!"

"You mean I did."

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

"I swear if you take credit for this…"

Their voices faded away. I breathed a sigh of relief (finally) and sat against the metal rods of the back of my cage. I shut my eyes, enjoying the feeling of being allowed to do nothing. I bit my lip, thinking of something…the only way to shut me up was to nudge me? Would that be a cool name?

"Hey, Nudge, what's up?" I murmured, testing it out. I grinned. That was so cool! Nudge was an original name, right? I'm sure no one else had a name like that. "Nudge, Nudge, Nudge!" I giggled.

Abruptly, there was a distinct shift in the atmosphere. I snapped my eyes open, only to be met with…nothing.

Complete darkness.

But, this time, it wasn't that big of a problem.

"Would other people think it would be weird? I mean, Nudge is a really weird name, but it's, like, really fitting…" I continued prattling on, giving no heed to the irritated groans from outside the metal door.

I wasn't completely alone now.

Now, I had a faithful companion.

*

.Now.
Everyone else was asleep, but I stayed awake, thinking back to the times of being in a cage, and thinking about how annoyed everyone got when I talked on and on…

I hadn't told anybody else about the…incident of what happened in the School. About why talked so much. But why had I continued?

Because darkness still lingered.

It haunted my brain, threatening to take over. So, I found that if I would just-just talk all the time, it would stay away. It would leave me alone.

Nudge? Angel's voice suddenly entered my mind and I jumped.

God, Angel why do you always do that? You can give me some sort of warning! I mean, really, I almost jumped into the fire and that would have been really bad, you know? I continued on while Angel waited patiently for me to get it all out. She was really the most patient out of the others. Well, other than Max, but I knew she was just pretending to listen half the time. That was okay, though, 'cause she was still kind of listening. –and we could name it Sean or something, right? 'Cause that'd be a really cool name for duck, or, maybe we should get a sheep! Like Sean the Sheep on Disney Channel—

Nudge. Angel interrupted my random mind ramblings. It's okay. You have us. We'll all protect you, because we're a Flock.

Yeah. I answered shortly. 'Cause we're a Flock and Max and Fang and Iggy are gonna take care of you, me, and Gazzy.

That's right, Nudge. She said.

I looked over to where she was laying down. Angel flashed be a gentle, innocent smile that would melt anyone's heart.

"Thank you." I whispered. "So much."

Don't really like the ending…oh, and .Now. refers to when they were all still sleeping in caves. No specific time, really.

Next: Iggy.
Update: Sometime this weekend…maybe Thursday even!

R&R, please!

Faceless.
Seth.
Lisa.