Ugh. So sorry. Life just about dragged me into a dark alley and beat the crap out of me the past few weeks. Tests, musicals, drama, the whole deal. You don't want to hear my spiel. Ha, I rhymed. So, anyway, I hope you all forgive me for being a horrible updater. We have one more week of musical, but then I have to do lacrosse preseason, and then I'm going on a cruise (partayyy) for half of spring break. I'll try to write. I promise. PROMISE, I SAY!
Oh, hey. This totally isn't an advertisement for my deviantART. I'm totally not ordering you to read my poems and look at all my Iggy drawings. I'm totally not being sarcastic. (sarcasm yay).
Reviews=Love=Not feeling crappy=Funniness=Writing=Chocolate=Happiness=Beavers=Love=Reviews?
...Just review. I hate those things.
IGGY
I was up on my wobbly legs as soon as the crash reverberated through the forest. Surprisingly, the pounding in my head was gone. Not so surprisingly, I felt like I was going to throw up. About five seconds after I had stood up Fang and Max rushed to their feet. Them and their regular mutant hearing.
"What was that?" Max shouted. The sound began to grow in volume, almost like metal smashing the air with its fist. Which is weird and fairly improbable, if you think about it. I heard Fang run somewhere, and I grabbed the tree behind me with my hand shakily. Suddenly more crashes, well, crashed throughout the woods, exploding quite loudly and making my sensitive ears ring. I heard the faint whistle of something dropping and then Max screamed. I was thrown onto the ground, heat nearly cooking my body into a nice, medium rare Iggy steak. Which I really don't think would taste very good covered in snow and mud.
"Holy shizbiscuits!" I cried, rolling away. Dangerous heat followed me like a stalker, and I subconsciously realized that my shoe was burning. Fang cried out something extremely distasteful, which I cannot repeat under any circumstance. Nausea viciously attacked me and I slammed my palm into the bark of a tree (albeit it was probably on fire) and dry heaved, the puke not coming. Horror started to swallow me whole, and just like that, I somehow forgot everything that was happening. All I knew was that my skin felt strangely seared, and that we were in immense danger. Narwhals attacking the unicorns in the middle of Manhattan kind of danger. Holy-crap-we're-gonna-die-in-a-fire-y-pit-of-koalas kind of danger. That's some serious shit. My mind went into instinct mode. Go. Had to go. We needed to run. We needed to leave. I needed to run. Now.
Get smart and get out of there already, runt.
The clone. In my head. Max. Screaming my name. The sound. Taking my mind and practicing it's kung fu all over its ass. What a morning.
Had to run.
"M-Max!" I shrieked, struggling to my feet. The snow slipped out from under me. Fang tried to help me up, but I slapped him away, pulling myself up. Heat attacked me again, and I stumbled forward. "Max!"
"Iggy!" She replied, running up to me. Another explosion. Trees falling to the ground. Fire. Had to run. Why weren't we gone already? "Come on, we have to get out of here! Fang!"
"N-No!" I cried, but Max grabbed my wrist and began to tug me. The wrong way. "We-we have to go, we have to get away!"
"Iggy, run!" Max ordered, and I let her lead me through the flaming forest, Fang somewhere close by. I tried to pull away several times, but Max's grip was insanely strong. We leaped over trees and dodged weird deadly bomb things that would under normal circumstances filled my heart with joy, all the while dread filling every fiber of my being to the brim. And overflowing it. And drowning me. I was drowning, I was dying, I was going to die. My fear rose so much that I let out a terrified cry at one point, just leaving Max to just pull me harder. I was afraid my arm socket was going to pop out.
"Max, no!" I screamed. She didn't stop, she didn't even look back at me. Didn't she get it? "We're going the wrong way, we have to get away from them, they're coming!"
That's right, runt. Better run. Better hide.
Had to run. Had to hide.
Just like that, everything was gone. Vanished. The crashes stopped, the horrible air grinding sound dissolved. The only things I could hear were the pants of the three of us gasping for breath, and my own heart beating loudly in my ears. I ignored all of the snow already caked on my jeans, soaking me to the bone, and sunk to my knees, gasping. Sure, we can run faster than regular humans like the creepy-ass awesome Edward Cullen impersonators (or vice versa) we were, but try running couple miles through three-foot deep snow. It tires you out, you know. Max pressed her hand on my back, and the bile finally found it's way out of my mouth, burning my mouth and the snow it hit.
"You okay, Ig?" Fang asked, coming closer. He coughed thickly. "You look really sick, man."
An unexplainable, sudden rage boiled up inside me like the nausea, and I jerked my neck toward him, an angry glare taking over my features. I couldn't explain it, or even control it. It was blinding, no pun intended. "No shit, Sherlock."
The anger disappeared as I leaned over again, dry heaving once more. It wasn't a particularly pleasant pastime. Max knelt down beside me, trying to comfort me. I couldn't exactly hear her, because the terror was beginning to return full-force, making me want to run away like a little girl over another cliff. It made me want to scream like a little girl, too, but I didn't do that for many, masculinity-related reasons. Most hearing gave way to an urgent ringing in my ears, and I froze. The air was being sliced. Something was coming. Something big. Something bad.
"Iggy?" Max asked, as if in slow motion(or maybe that was my brain), and then everything snapped back into focus. My head jerked, and I became aware of Fang's hand tight on my shoulder. The rage snapped again in my brain and I jumped up, whipping around and slamming Fang's back into a tree trunk, wrapping his shirt in my fist and bringing my face close to his in one rage-filled, fluid movement. Angry bursts of breath shook out of me, and I was pretty sure my face was red with anger. Anger I didn't have.
"Don't. Touch. Me." I snarled, my voice barely sounding like my own. Fang's breath sputtered nervously, and I nearly felt the steam come out of my ears.
"Iggy?" Max's voice wasn't condescending, or scolding, or even warning. She sounded...like she was making sure I was me. Like she was afraid. Max didn't get scared. What was going on? We had to run. I dropped my hand, my head drooping slightly. I closed my eyes, my knees wobbling. What was wrong with me? Where did that anger come from? Why...
My eyes flashed open. I was kneeling on the ground. I swung my head around the black backdrop of my vision, my heart beating as though it was trying to launch out of my chest. I scrambled to my feet, stumbling. Max grabbed my arm.
"Iggy, listen to me." She stressed. Her grip tightened. "You hit your head, you're delusional right now, do you hear me? We're fine now, Fang's not going to hurt you. I'm fine, you're fine. Here." She placed my shaking hand on her jaw. "See? Fine. We're going to lie down now, okay?"
I blinked blankly, not listening to what she was saying. All I could pay attention to was the fear crawling up my throat and my heart, beating like it was about to burst...
"We have to leave." My voice cracked, and I flinched. I yanked my arm away violently. "Max, we have to leave."
Ready or not, here they come...
"What?" Max asked, incredulous. "Iggy, what do you mean we have to-"
"WE HAVE TO LEAVE!" I screamed at her, trembling like I had hypothermia. Max placed another hand on my arm. I winced and twitched away. "They're coming, Max...they're-they're coming..."
The beating became louder, mixing with the slicing noise until they were one. I jerked in Max's grip, trying to run, but she held me back. "Iggy, you are staying with me, do you hear me? You are not leaving without us."
"N-No, no, Max..." I whimpered, tugging at her. "They're coming, and-and I-we have to get away, we gotta go and they're gonna take us and I don't wanna die M-Max..."
"Listen to me! Iggy, do not leave." Max growled. The beating was so loud Max was shouting. I was sure she could hear it too. My throat hurt. My feet were thumping on the ground. I had to run away, or I was going to die. We were all going to die.
"Max!" Fang shouted. I rolled my neck, cracking it. My feet were twitching spasmodically. I couldn't stop it. "Helicopter, nine o'clock!"
Everything happened far too quickly. It was like watching an hour pass in thirty seconds. I couldn't think. Only react.
"Fang-" Her voice was cut off by a whizzing sound and a grunt of pain. I heard Fang fall to the ground. Max screamed, and her hold on me was released. She ran in the opposite direction of where we should have ran. We had to run the other way. Instinct took over all of my thoughts and I bolted, falling into the snow before clawing and sprinting through the forest, literally blind. Max shrieked my name, but I didn't stop. I could hear what was happening drain behind me.
"Fang!" Max screamed, desperation clearly coming through. "Iggy, no-Fang!"
I kept running. I couldn't stop. They would get me.
"Fang-no, FANG!"
Couldn't get me. Had to run.
"NO!"
I had to keep running. No time to turn back. No time.
"Don't touch him! Get AWAY! IGGY!"
A flash of what Max's terrified face must have looked like flashed in my brain, but I didn't stop. Fang screamed a horrible, pain-filled scream. I didn't stop.
"STOP!"
The helicopter was fading from my hearing, and that was saying a lot. Fang wasn't making a sound, but for some reason, I doubt he was even there at all. Somehow, I didn't care. That worried me. The fact they could still get me worried me more.
"NO, Fang!" Max's voice was shrill, all control lost. "No, don't take-Iggy, come back! Iggy, please!"
I didn't stop. Eventually Max's voice died away, and I managed to only run into a couple trees in my panic. It didn't ebb at all, and I kept sprinting. I wouldn't let me get them again. I couldn't.
"Iggy! Please, Iggy!" I heard a faint cry, but I couldn't be sure if it was real. Everything was beating about me, swirling things around very strangely, because I couldn't see the swirls. I was getting dizzy. Don't ask me about these weird blind-kid contradictions. My feet hit in time in the snow, crushing the ice layer on top so fast my feet didn't have time to sink into the white fluff of doom.
Doom.
My mind began to calm down before my body did; I finally began to realize what had happened, and what I had left behind. Something had happened to Fang, I was sure of it. I had to go back. I started to skid my tracks, but couldn't stop completely. My heart jumped, and then stopped.
Boo.
I shrieked as I fell, rolling and skipping off of my back. The ground broke beneath me, or I broke atop the ground, I wasn't sure which. Everything was upside down. Piercing cold met my skin and I screamed, my wings coming out of my shirt in a frantic fury. I beat them furiously, trying to get out of the freezing agony that was consuming my body. My wings slowed and froze over. I tried to breathe but failed, my throat instead burning horribly as my lungs rejected it. I thrashed and writhed, trying to get out of the pain. I sank down farther into the watery doom.
Doom.
"Max." I cried, but it came out as a gurgle. My chest ached like someone was setting a bomb off in there. It hurt, no matter how cool it was. I stopped moving for a second as I felt my limbs go into shock. My brain began to shut down. I couldn't think. My hand touched something slimy, and I gasped in more agony again. Survival. The word imprinted in my brain, and something sparked in the freezing depths of my body. I kicked out my legs, propelling myself upward. I reached out my frozen hands, colorful spots dancing around my black world. I screamed, the numbness drowning out the sound. My lungs filled higher with death. Tears were melting into the world around me. I had to breathe. Almost there. I gasped and stopped sinking limply for a moment before kicking out again. I had to breathe. Max. I had to get back to ears popped, and I prepared to break the surface. I pounding my fists out toward the top of the water, stretching out my arm, extending my hand-
And was met with a cold, solid, unforgiving ceiling of ice.
Now that I've left you all on like seven hundred cliffhangers, maybe now you can show the review button some love. It's been feeling quite depressed lately, since I haven't been writing, so it hasn't gotten the love it deserves. -sad Sarah McLachlan music begins playing- With your help, we can help FF authors with their writer's block.