Sang was caught in a blizzard. Everything was blindingly white. With the swirling snowflakes and dense fog, she couldn't even see her own hands, swollen stiff, waving in front of her face. Harsh and biking wind whipped her hair around to smack against her cheeks and stick to the snot running out of her nostrils. The dripping fluid from her nose was already half frozen.
She yelled out, calling, crying for help. She was going to freeze to death. The wind and snow swallowed her voice.
"Sang," Nathan's voice woke her from her nightmare. Even as her eyes cracked open, she was still shivering.
"Nathan?" she croaked, voice scratchy from sleep.
"Jesus, Peanut. You're as cold as ice." His hands rubbed vigorously over the bare skin of her arms, eliciting goosebumps.
As awareness slowly crept into her, Sang realized she was lying atop Nathan in his bed. Their legs were tangled together. She curled herself against his bare chest, nestling a knee high up in between his legs, to try and syphon some of his body heat into herself.
Nathan grunted and pushed lightly at her thigh, guiding her leg to not cuddle quite so close. "As much as I like having a Sang-blanket to keep my toasty, where did the real blanket go?" he asked.
"You must have kicked it off," Sang replied while rolling off of him. She clutched his bicep as she did so, trying to get him to roll with her. It was Nathan's turn to be the blanket. She wanted to be sandwiched between the mattress and him to trap the heat all to herself.
Nathan chuckled sleepily as he draped himself over her tiny frame. "I'm not the one who steals blankets. That's you."
"Nuh uh," she whined through a yawn. "You have me mistaken for someone else."
"You're right," Nathan said as he buried his face into the crook of her neck. His voice came out muffled through her hair. "Luke is the one who does that."
"Why does everyone always blame Luke?" Sang asked.
Nathan didn't answer. Instead, he planted a loud and sloppy kiss on her pulse point before shoving himself into a pushup. In the blink of an eye, he was on his knees and looking around his darkened bedroom.
Sang's teeth chattered as her skin became exposed to the cold, nighttime air again.
"My blanket is gone," Nathan said.
Sang rolled over once more toward the edge of the bed and peered over the side. There was just enough illumination from twilight outside to show an empty floor.
Nathan leaned over the other side, then the foot of the bed to continue the search. "It's not here."
Where could it have gone? Blankets didn't just walk away in the middle of the night. Maybe Luke snuck in while they were sleeping and played a joke.
Sang rolled her eyes at her thoughts. Now she was blaming Luke for things that probably weren't his fault.
"We need to check on Max," Nathan said in a firm and serious tone. He had switched to protective Academy mode in an instant.
Sang had forgotten about Max until Nathan mentioned the dog-person's name. The night prior, they tucked Max in to Nathan's dad's bed in the master bedroom. They both made sure Max understood he was to wake them if he needed anything.
The poor man was distraught at being separated from the Lee Family and spending the night away from his home, but Sang didn't know what to do to comfort him. On a whim, she taught Max how to make a Facetime call to Kota, then stuck around to supervise. The few minutes seeing his master's face confused Max since he wasn't able to smell Kota as they spoke. However, the call did manage to calm his nerves a bit. Sang bid them goodnight after reclaiming her phone.
Nathan quickly shoved his legs into a pair of gym shorts before padding through the house. Sang followed close on his heels, anxious to see if Max was okay.
The door to the master bedroom was purposefully left open so Max would not feel isolated. It remained open this morning, allowing the teens through to see this bed also without blankets. Even the pillows and sheets were missing. So was Max.
"Call Kota," Nathan ordered. "We need to search the rest of the house, but maybe Max snuck off to Kota's house." He moved further into the bedroom to start his security sweep in the adjoining bathroom, followed by the closet.
"But why would all the bedding be gone?" Sang asked.
"I don't know," Nathan's voice traveled from the closet, where he was shoving clothes on hangers to the sides. "But we're going to find out. Call Kota."
Sang rushed back to Nathan's room on light feet, eyes scanning for signs of Max on the way. To her disappointment, no clues jumped out at her.
She snatched up her pink-cased phone, opened up the app with the calculator icon, and then mashed the black button. Her knees pressed into each other in an attempt to quell the sensations her body was trying to signal; she had yet to answer Mother Nature's call that morning. The urge could wait a couple more minutes. Other matters were more pressing.
"Sang?" Kota's voice said through the cellphone.
"Is Max over there by chance?" she asked a little too quickly, exposing her anxiety.
"No. He's not. What's happening?"
Sang paced in the bedroom for a couple laps before spilling out into the hallway. "Max isn't where we left him. Nathan and I are looking through the house."
"I'm on my way. You two stay there," Kota commanded before the call abruptly disconnected.
Sang heard Nathan in the kitchen, opening all the cabinet doors and searching the pantry in a thorough sweep for Max. Not able to ignore her bladder for much longer, she figured she could spare the minute to take care of her need before joining her friend.
Switching on the bathroom light, she whirled around and sat on the toilet after lowering her sleep shorts and panties to her knees. She froze the moment her business was done, for the sound of movement within the shower stall beside her put her on full alert.
"Sang. Girlfriend," a scratchy voice echoed off the tilework. A head poked out and around the stone-tiled half wall at the level of her shins. The head yawned and blinked at her.
She tried to screech, but her voice choked up. The head yelped and hid behind the shower wall again as Sang lurched for the door and crashed into it. Her hands tried to simultaneously pull her clothes back up and turn the knob. In her panic, however, the multitasking didn't go so well. Her mind prioritized safety over modesty, enabling her to successfully open the door and tumble out into the hallway in a heap.
Nathan heard the commotion and ran up a second later. He paused upon finding Sang, confused by her partial state of undress paired with wide-eyed distress. "What's going on?" he asked as he took her hands and helped her standing, doing his best not to let his eyes linger over places a gentleman wasn't supposed to look.
Once on her feet again, Sang pulled her clothes back up, using the second of time to also unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth. "I think I found Max."
The toilet flushed, and Max stepped out of the bathroom, turning off the light on the way. The t-shirt and gym shorts he wore were rumpled and wrinkled from sleep. His orange-blonde hair was in a similar state.
"Bad, Sang," he said as he booped her nose with a fingertip. It caught her by surprise and made her flinch. "Luke said to always flush after going potty."
Sang and Nathan were dumbstruck. They stood still next to each other with mouths hanging open as Max's arms reached over his head in a stretch.
The sound of the front door opening and closing had all three looking to the front of the house. The moment Kota came into view, Max bolted. He glomped Kota in a full force, flying tackle hug. It sent Kota reeling and falling on his back to the floor.
"Kota!" Max exclaimed in glee as he sat on Kota's legs. "I missed you!" He attacked Kota's face with excited licks. Kota turned his head one way to hide his cheek from Max's over enthusiastic attention, but the man-dog would only start lapping at the other cheek.
"Okay there, Tiger," Nathan said, as he looped his arms under Max's armpits and dragged him off Kota.
Max looked over his shoulder to Nathan. "I am not a tiger. I'm a man."
Nathan chuckled. Kota sat up and wiped the drool off his face with his hands. "I see you found Max."
"Sang did," Nathan said, giving the credit where it was due.
"That doesn't solve the mystery of the missing blankets, though," Sang said as she tugged on Kota's hand to help him back up to standing.
Kota blinked down at her once he was up. "Blankets?"
"I know where the blankets are!" Max cheered as he took off for the bathroom. The three teens followed and filed into the small room after him.
Max was bent over within the shower stall, his butt the only thing visible around the half-wall from Sang's perspective. After a couple seconds, Max started tossing out pillows and blankets into the floor at their feet.
Kota cracked up laughing. "I should have accounted for this," he said in between peals of laughter. "He usually sleeps in his crate at night. He wanted a confined space to feel comfortable."
"He made a nest in the shower with all the blankets…" Nathan muttered, shaking his head back and forth.
Over breakfast, Kota caught the rest up with the situation at his house. "I told Mom and Jessica that I mistakenly put your collar in the wrong notch after giving you a bath yesterday," he said to Max. "The collar was too loose, and you managed to slip out of it while on your lead in the yard to go chase a squirrel. They think we've been looking for you in the woods all afternoon."
Max was crestfallen. It was obvious he missed Erica and Jessica.
"Mom left messages at the local animal shelters to keep a lookout for you and your chip number," Kota continued. "Mr. Blackbourne wants to come over later this morning to discuss a cover story to introduce you as a man, and to come up with living arrangements and plans for the future."
"When is Mr. B showing up?" Nathan asked.
"Closer to lunchtime," Kota answered.
"Do we have any plans until then?" Nathan inquired.
Kota replied as he gathered up empty breakfast plates. "I was hoping to teach Max how to read."
The next few hours, everyone helped teach Max the alphabet. He picked up the ABC song quickly, though his singing skills were a bit lacking. Monotone, really. Poor Max was tone deaf.
Every time Max did something right, he was rewarded with shelled peanuts. His handwriting steadily improved, from jagged lightning bolts to shaky straight lines drawn by ballpoint pen. When the boys weren't looking, Sang taught Max how to draw a heart. She couldn't help but giggle after he learned how to write his own name along with Kota's. Three whole sheets of paper got devoted to messily scribbled, "MAX KOTA," front and back.
"Is it supposed to rain today?" Nathan asked as he looked out a window. Dark clouds were rolling in and blocking the sun.
"Yeah," Kota answered. "Chance of isolated thunderstorms."
Sang noticed Max getting antsy. Even with the positive reinforcement peanuts, keeping him focused on the differences between capital letters and lowercase was becoming more difficult. Was he nervous about the rain? Doubtful. The first night they met was in the rain, and Max was fine then. "What's the matter?" she asked him.
"Mail time," he answered with the undertones of a growl. His feet were tapping incessantly on the floor as he forgot about his literacy lessons.
Nathan noticed and heard too. He glanced at a wall clock. "Did anyone teach Max how to read time? Because he's right. Now is about the time the mail gets delivered."
Kota shook his head. "He's always been good with keeping time. He knows when meals are served and when Jessica has to get up for school. His internal clock is spot on."
Max caught all three teens by surprise when he shot up out of his chair and charged out the front door. "Bad man!" he shouted as he sprinted down the driveway and along the street toward the Lee house.
"Damn!" Nathan cursed as they gave chase. "Not this again!"
To their horror, they found Max practically wrapped around the mailman's arm as it stuck out the side window of the boxy white Jeep. Max was snarling madly. The mailman frantically screamed and thudded his other fist down onto Max's shoulder blades.
The first raindrops fell as Kota shouted commands for Max to release and heel. The orders went unheeded. Instead, Max uncurled himself and sprinted through Kota's back yard, heading for the arch of trees into the woods. A brown-wrapped package smaller than a shoe box was cradled into his arms like a football.
"He fucking bit me!" The mailman wailed as he crawled out of the jeep, waving around his arm where blood was starting to trickle out from the back of his hand.
Sang stood in the street, pressing her lip to her teeth as she watched, not knowing what to do and getting nervous about the rain starting to steadily become heavier. Kota looked back and forth from the postal worker, the same one from yesterday, and towards the woods. He wanted to apologize and tend to the wounds of the mailman, but he also needed to find Max.
"Take care of things here," he barked at Nathan before jogging to the back yard.
"Bring that back!" the mailman yelled in the direction where Max disappeared. "It's not for you, you damned schizo!"
Nathan did his best to placate the man and try to inspect the bite marks. "I'm very sorry for our friend's behavior, sir. No need to press federal charges for stealing mail. He belongs to this house."
He looked up to find the mailman's eyes glaring with a furious blaze. "I'm not talking about a federal offense, you dimwit! That's a fucking bomb, and it's not intended for that pill popper!"
Nathan and Sang blanched ghostly white at his words. Jessica opening up the front door of Kota's house and poking her head out snapped them out of their stupor. "What's going on?" she asked curiously.
Nathan whirled and subdued the postal worker with flawless jiu jitsu technique. The mailman kissed the street with a grunt. "Go get Jessica and lock yourselves in!" he yelled to Sang. She instantly jumped into action. "Call Mr. Blackbourne and tell him to hurry his ass up!"
Sang made it in in the front door, slammed it shut, and flipped all the locks just as the rain became a downpour. She guided Jessica further into the house by the shoulders as she pulled out her phone and disobeyed Nathan's command. She dialed Kota first, holding up a finger to signal to Jessica that she had to wait for her questions.
"Kota?" she said into the phone once it picked up. Her voice was shaky. "It's a bomb."
"What?!" Jessica and Kota said simultaneously.
Sang gulped. "He's carrying a bomb. Be careful." She hit end and opened up the app with the violin icon. Tears were running down her face. Jessica was in a panic. Right as Sang's thumb touched the green button, thunder rattled the windows.
Sang sank to her knees. She knew that wasn't thunder.