Hey. I just spent over four hours trying to get this chapter right. Aye. Here's Chapter 4 for you:


Chapter 4

I was sitting across from Jeb, at a little white table. He looked troubled, but serious. I didn't wanna be there.

"Maximum, we need to talk."

"What do you mean we need to talk? I don't have anything to say to you."

"It's about your mission…"


I woke up with a start. I sat upright and looked down at my flock frantically to see if they were okay, feeling so stupid for letting myself fall asleep.

"They're all fine."

Fang appeared, sitting a few feet away from me. He had been invisible, and I jumped a little.

"What?" I mumbled.

"Everyone is fine. I've been watching them."

I was relieved, but I wasn't about to admit that to him.

"Why'd you fall asleep?" he asked, knowing I normally would have stayed awake, not taking my eyes off the flock.

"Well, I had to take my watch, plus someone else's watch." I glared at him accusingly, not mentioning the throbbing headache I'd had or the dream I'd just had, sitting there with Jeb for what seemed like hours and hours, discussing certain things. Hoping Jeb, the Voice, would hear me, I thought, So now you're invading my dreams, too?

No answer.

Fang shook his head, still watching the flock. The moon was bright overhead, and the faintest breeze was blowing through the trees. I figured I had been out for about an hour, and it was around two or three in the morning.

He said, "We-"

"Need to talk," I finished for him. "We need to stop fighting," I stated.

"We've always fought."

"Not like this."

He frowned slightly, still not looking my way. I could tell he was thinking through something. He finally said, "Why?"

That was a stupid question. Weren't there a bunch of obvious reasons? I started with the not-so-obvious reason. "I talked to Gazzy earlier, and he's really upset about it. I think everyone is. He's worried that-"

"So you don't actually want to stop fighting?" he interrupted, "You just think we need to because of something the Gasman said-"

"Don't be a jerk!" I interrupted back, not knowing why he insisted on being so ridiculous, "You know the answer to that, Fang."

"Maybe. I don't know a lot of things, Max. I don't even know you anymore."

No, he didn't speak much, but the few words he'd just spoken managed to pierce me like a knife.

I wanted to scream at him right then and maybe throw him off the rock, but I didn't want to wake everyone else up. I took off quickly, flying through the trees, hoping he would follow. He did.

I landed after we had flown far enough that the sound of my voice wouldn't carry to the flock's ears. As soon as he landed next to me, I shoved him backwards forcefully, into a tree. "Do you really think that I'm that stupid?" I yelled, "Do you think that after we fight, I go and have a barrel of laughs with myself? Is that what you really think? You think I enjoy the fact that the person who is supposed to have my back is looking straight through it every time I turn around?"

A bit of surprise played across his face, which almost never happened. But I was more than angry now. He had just made a huge mistake, and I was not going to let him get away with it.

"You were supposed to be my best friend, the person I could count on for anything! You were supposed to be the person I trusted with my life. You were the person who knew me better than anyone, and now you can just say with a straight face that you don't know me at all?" I paused, feeling venom starting to circulate through my body. I was giving him a chance to speak up, to tell me I was wrong, to say that he was still that person, to do something...

No response. He just stood there.

Just when I thought I couldn't get any angrier at him.

"We are not dividing those kids again, but we don't have to be friends or mean anything to each other if you want to be like that."

I paused again, thinking.

"You know what? The flock doesn't need to split. I just don't have to be a part of it. The Voice always told me saving the world was my job, so I guess I'll just do it myself!"

Glad to hear you actually listen once in a while, the Voice popped in for a second to say.

Still no response from Fang. He was sure choosing a heck of a time to stay silent. Here I was, threatening to leave him behind, threatening to leave the flock, saying I was going to save the world without them, and he still somehow found a way of not saying anything. I couldn't believe him. His blind cruelty was astonishingly terrible.

I found myself thinking, Who the heck is this person standing in front of me? Where the heck did Fang go?

"If you can stand there and tell me you don't know me, after all we've been through, while my blood is flowing through your veins… if you hate me that much, then you're not the Fang I've known all my life, and I don't want to know you!"

Stupid hot tears that felt like lava suddenly welled up in my eyes, and I cursed them in my mind. I had to get out of there. I spread my wings open and leaped upward. In the split second of my escape, he caught my right leg powerfully as I was rising in the air, nearly detaching it from my body.

"We promised we would never leave each other again," he reminded me, using his immense strength to hold me back.

Now you choose to say something?

What was that in his voice? I didn't recognize it. Hatred?

"Yeah? Well I guess I'm a liar, then. Let go," I said, rage filling my voice and choking me. I was resisting the urge to kick him in the face.

"No."

"I don't belong to your flock. I don't know you," I said, giving his words back to him, staring straight into his dark eyes that I had once seen something in, and to my surprise, he let go. I bolted off into the night, never wanting to see him again. I hated that he got to see those stupid tears in my eyes. Now they were streaming down my face as fury consumed my insides like acid.


I know they're acting different than usual, but know that I'm doing that on purpose.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Submit a review or message me.

Thanks,

-Skye