Oops, only about a week late... Sorry!

XX

My first thought was to mentally scream to Angel. Would she hear me? She was asleep and far away, so I was no doubt out of mental range. My eyes flickered to Fang, who was still watching me intently, then back to the hateful eyes of Brent.

With the gun to my head, I dared not to make a noise, not even a pitiful whimper. I could feel blood slowly dripping from my nose, and it felt sore, but not broken. He probably punched me as my special morning wake-up call. Was it morning? If it was, the sun hadn't woken up yet to show it.

I silently growled at Brent, who was now gathering rope from his pack. I started to make a run for it when the gun withdrew from my head, but not before he kicked me really really hard on the side of my skull. Ouch! The world started spinning, and my head was throbbing. I instantly smelled blood. Tasted it, too.

I failed to notice that he was tying a gag to my mouth until I tasted the new flavor. I t was very sweet. Too sweet. I wanted to take if off, but I couldn't move my hands. I tried to think clearly, but everything felt sluggish. But when it all clicked, when I finally figured out what was happening, the sweet taste faded and I drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~

Max began to yell at everyone to get up, but Gazzy was already awake. He wanted to go back to Rose. Did she want to rejoin them, or was she still furious at Fang? He still couldn't believe the words Fang had hurled at her last night. So what if she didn't know how to fight yet? They'd teach her. Why was Fang being so mean to Rose? Nothing was wrong with her.

Max was now yelling orders, and Gazzy wasn't paying any attention. He had scrambled to a high branch, and was peering on into the depths of the forest. Max yelled at him, but he didn't budge from his position.

"I wanna go find Rose," Gazzy yelled back in reply. Fang silently appeared next to him and pointed to a huge tree. He didn't need to say anything before Gazzy nodded with a grin. He opened his wings and swooped down from the branch, flying towards the direction Fang was pointing. He heard Max sigh, then five pairs of wings unfolding. Moments later, the rest of the flock was following him.

It took a few minutes, but Gazzy located the tree Fang directed him to. He landed on one of the huge branches, and then looked around. He looked at the base of the tree- was that a backpack? He dove down, and noticed the sketchbook Rose was always using. He shuffled through the pages, examining the sketches. He gasped, seeing the amazing detailed sketches. There were pictures of him and Angel, some of Max, Nudge, Fang, and even one of Total. He looked at the last drawing- a sketch of him flashing his cute wide smile, then noticed the speckles of blood. Something happened to Rose.

"Rose?" He called. Then he called louder. "Rose!" He didn't hear a response, even though he already knew he wouldn't. Rose was missing. He gathered up the notebook and ran to Max. He showed her the bloody page. "Max, Rose isn't here. I think she was taken." Max looked at the page, then back at Gazzy.

"You have to admit, she has talent with art. That's got amazing detail," Max noted, nodding with appreciation.

"Ma-ax! We have to find Rose!" He took off without waiting for a response. He was leaving to find Rose, even though he had no idea what happened or where she went. He had to find her.

~*~*~*~

I slowly blinked against the blinding sun. Ugh. I felt horrible. My throat felt dry and scratchy, and I doubted I could use my voice if I tried. I was gagged and my hands and feet bound. Plus Brent was standing next to me, polishing his horrible gun. I noticed a small dagger hanging from his belt. Should I risk it? I looked up at him, and he still hadn't noticed me. I concentrated on the small knife, and it slowly left his belt and levitated towards me.

I quietly but quickly worked away at the binds holding my hands. Luckily, the rope wasn't too thick, so it cut away pretty quickly. Seconds went by, and my hands were finally free. I looked at Brent, who was still distracted by his shiny gun. I worked quickly on the binds holding my feet. I just cut through the rest of the binds and yanked off my gag when I noticed Brent had set his gun down against a tree. He reached towards his belt- right where the knife used to be. He noticed its absence, then whipped his head towards me and bared his sharp teeth.

Oh crud. Our eyes met, and he lunged towards his gun. But not before I dropped the knife, and grabbed the gun- with my mind of course. I pulled it out of his reach, but he continued to lunge for it. I had it floating by my head, and pointed it towards Brent. He stopped, and glared at me. I refused to touch the filthy weapon, but it was a little heavy to hold after my unconsciousness. It was slipping from my mental grip, and I struggled to keep it upright. Come on, come on, stay up! Stay, don't fall, don't fall… Come on…

All of a sudden, the gun went off, and I screamed.

HAHA, cliffie! I'm evil, I know... I demand reviews or no answers to this suspenseful cliffie! what will happen? Review, and find out! (holy cow that souded insanely corny)
I'll seriously try to update quickly, but school and life and tennis and everything's been hectic. But spring break is next week! Unfortunately, I'm going to somewhere in Texas for a family reunion thing, which means not a whole lot of time to fanfic and everything. But one can hope! :P

Review!