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Chapter Twenty Five

Being tied up sucks.

I tried to wiggle my fingers, tried to loosen the ropes around my wrists, to get the circulation to my hands flowing again. But no luck.

I was sitting in a chair, with my arms tied behind the back of it. The typical hostage position. The chair was placed in an empty airplane hanger, a room big enough to store at least three planes.

My hands began to go numb, reminding me of my sucky situation. I didn't know where my flock was, which sucked. I didn't know where my mom or Jeb was, which sucked. I was all alone, with no clue where in the airport I was, and I had already tried loosening the ropes holding me, and hadn't gotten anywhere, which -you guessed it- sucked!

And to top it all off, a bit in front of me, in the center of the airplane hanger, was a circle of unlit candles. This, of course, raised a whole heap of questions.

In the middle of the circle of candles was a picture frame, but it was propped up to face away from me, so I couldn't see if there was any picture in it.

I began to get pins and needles up my arms. I sighed. I could only think of one thing to do now, and I was really dreading it.

I can't believe I'm about to do this. I thought to myself, and took a deep breathe. Voice? You there? I mentally called.

I'm always here, Maximum.

Well, you think you could make yourself useful and finally give me some help?

But I have been helping you, Max. It said.

What! I thought, outraged. I haven't heard from you in weeks!

Haven't you?

Ugh! Enough fortune cookie crap! Are you going to help me or not?

There was a long silence, as if the Voice was thinking it through. But after a few more moments I sighed, accepting that I wasn't going to get an answer.

I will. It finally replied.

Great! So, what do I do? I asked.

Silence.

Oh, that's just great. Tell me you're going to help me, then go on mute mode. Thanks for that.

I heard a door open and close behind me, and then footsteps. I twisted to see Dr. Hans walking towards me.

"Good evening Max!" He exclaimed, cheery as ever. He came to stand in front of me, with his back to the circle of candles. I narrowed my eyes at him, but said nothing.

"I've been wanting to talk to you, Max. And I have a few questions, if you wouldn't mind answering them." He beamed at me.

"I have a few questions of my own. For one," I motioned behind him. "What's that?"

Dr. Hans glanced behind him at the candles.

"Oh." He waved his hand dismissively. "That's just for Fang."

I tensed up. I didn't know exactly what a circle of candles and a picture frame could do to a ghost, but I knew anything that Dr. Hans had for Fang wasn't good.

"Now, Max. I wanted to talk to you about your options here. I'm willing to offer you-"

"Yo." Fang suddenly materialized behind me. I jumped slightly in surprise, but luckily, Dr. Hans didn't notice, and kept on talking.

Fang showed me a sharp piece of glass he was holding. He smirked at me, then began to saw at the rope holding my wrists.

Dr. Hans was prattling on, not even looking at me as he slowly paced in front of me. I drowned out his pompous voice, only catching a word here and there. But I got the gist of it.

"Blah blah blah team up, blah blah blah unlimited power."

Same old crap, as usual. I focused on Fang, who continued to cut at my restraints.

Suddenly, the door Dr. Hans had come through burst open, revealing a very pissed looking Dylan. I worried for a second that he would notice my half-sawed ropes, but for once, he wasn't paying that much attention to me.

"The flock is loose." He spat, and relief flooded through me. "I have everyone we have looking for them, but I thought I'd warn you, in case they show up here." He glanced at me.

"I should also warn you," He went on. "That Fang is snooping around. And he's…strong."

It was only now that I realized Dylan was cradling his arm, which was at a weird angle.

"Oh dear." Dr. Hans said, sounding only half worried.

"You're free." Fang said. "Now go. I'll hold them back."

I wasted no time. I jumped up, wheeled round and ran for the door. Dr. Hans reached out to grab me as I passed, but Fang sent the chair flying into his stomach.

"Go after her!" Dr. Hans wheezed, doubled over.

In another second I was out the door, racing down a wide hallway. I quickly measured the width, seeing if it was wide enough. Realizing it was, I jumped into the air and extended my wings. I went into warp-drive then, knowing they wouldn't be able to catch me.

Now all I have to do is find the flock and my mom-

Something bid hit my back, forcing me to hit the ground and do, what I'm pretty sure was, the most painful face-plant in history.

I skidded across the floor and rolled to a stop. I looked behind me to see Dylan skidding to a stop on his feet, a lot more gracefully than me.

I remembered what Dylan had mentioned weeks ago about him being able to fly really fast, and cursed myself for not thinking of it.

Dylan was up in no time. He strode over to me and wrapped his good arm around me, hoisting me up and holding me close to him. I struggled, but his arm was wrapped completely around me, trapping my arms against my sides.

"Max, don't you see?" Dylan asked, a lot more gentler than I would have imagined. "I care about you. I was made for you."

I made the mistake of making eye contact with him. I instantly stopped struggling, and stood there, frozen. Again!

"We can be happy together." He said softly. "You just have to give me a chance." He gave me a hesitant smile.

Looking into his eyes, all I could see was gentleness, sincerity, and love. I realized that he could be perfect for me. If I just gave him…a chance.

I smiled tentatively up at him, and his own smile turned more affectionate. I relaxed my muscles and he loosened his hold on me, moving his hand to the base of my spine. I raised my hand to his face and stroked his cheek.

Then I drew my hand back…and I punched him.

There was a loud crack and a second later blood started gushing from Dylan's nose. I went low, shot my leg out, and knocked Dylan's feet from under him.

I straightened up and was about to continue down the hall, when I noticed a soft, flickering glow coming form the room I had just come from. The candles?

My eyes widened. Fang!

I leapt over Dylan, who was moaning on the floor, and raced back.

I burst through the door and immediately saw Dr. Hans finish lighting the candles. I looked around for Fang.

"He's not here." Dr. Hans said, his back turned away from me. "He knew what I was doing and his instincts told him to get away from the candles." Dr. Hans turned to me. "But he'll be back. Ghosts have to come when they're called."

"I'm not going to call him for you." I told him.

"Oh, you won't have to." Dr. Hans assured me. "Not when I have this." He bent down and picked up the picture frame, turning it toward me.

My mouth fell open. It was a picture of Fang. How had he gotten…?

Then I remembered Nudge's stash of pictures that Fang had told me about.

"A picture of the spirit in question is all you need to summon them. Once the exorcism has begun, Fang will be dragged here, no matter where he is, and trapped within the circle of candles. Fascinating, isn't it?" He asked, placing the frame back on the floor.

He straightened up and sighed, suddenly looking regretful.

"This all could have been avoided, Max. This exorcism wouldn't be necessary if you had just let go."

I started towards Dr. Hans. I had to get that picture. If he didn't have the picture, then he couldn't call Fang.

Something struck the side of my head, knocking me to the ground. I felt a boot on my neck, keeping me down.

"I don't think we can have you interfering, Max. And the way I see it," Dylan sneered down at me, his nose and mouth covered in blood. "If I can't have you, at least I can help get rid of Fang."

The door behind me opened again.

"I see you're playing with dangerous things again, Gunther." A familiar voice said to Dr. Hans.

"What-what are you doing here?" Dr. Hans spluttered.

"I'm here to stop you killing yourself, and everyone in this room." The Sangoma said, coming into my line of vision.

"You have no business being here!" Hans said, outraged. "Leave immediately, before I call security and have you arrested."

"Your 'security' is out on a wild goose chase that the flock set up. Now, if you've run out of threats, can we move on?"

Dr. Hans could only continue to splutter. For once, I had to agree with him. What was the Sangoma doing here? How had she gotten here?

"Do you have any idea how dangerous exorcisms are?" She asked Hans calmly.

Dylan had loosened his hold on me, and I scrambled up. Now, we stood side by side, watching the exchange between the two elders.

"Now, see here-"

"I'll see nothing." The Sangoma interrupted him. "After you killed my nephew five years ago, the least you could do is hear me out."

My mouth dropped open. "You killed Darren?"

"That has nothing to do with anything!" Dr. Hans argued.

"You tricked him into working for you-" The Sangoma said.

"It was entirely his choice." Hans said indignantly.

"You needed his knowledge of magic. The knowledge that he learned from me."

I noticed now that the Sangoma was only distracting him, drawing his thoughts away from the exorcism. If Dr. Hans thought he had to deal with her first, it would give me time to get the picture.

"He was a willing subject in a well planned experiment."

"And even after that went horribly wrong, still, you insist on messing with things you do not understand."

"Enough!" Dr. Hans yelled. He quickly bent down and lit one final candle I hadn't noticed before.

Fang instantly materialized within the circle, but before I could react at all, a huge gust of air came from the circle, knocking everyone backwards. The ground trembled beneath me.

I looked up to see a huge hole appear above Fang's head, filled with black, swirling smoke. Horror filled me, and I staggered to my feet as the ground trembled again, more violently this time.

I made my way over to Fang as the walls began to shake. The hole above Fang widened, and the black smoke began spiralling down from it, making a low sort of thundering noise as it did so.

I reached out toward Fang, but my hand hit an invisible wall that seemed to go around Fang and the candles.

I was panicking now, trying to think of some way to get Fang out of there, as long tendrils of smoke wrapped around him.

The whole room was constantly shaking now, pitching back and forth, as if the ground beneath it was really ocean waves. Bits of the ceiling were falling to the floor, filling the room with rubble and dust.

I began coughing, still trying to get to Fang.

He tried fighting the thick smoke that had wrapped around his arms and legs, but they only became tighter. He looked up at the snowing ceiling, and looked back at me.

"Go." He mouthed, although I couldn't hear him over the thundering noise coming from the hole.

"Go." He mouthed again, more urgently this time. I shook my head.

I heard someone calling my name, but whether it was Dr. Hans, the Sangoma, or someone else, I didn't care. Not until I got Fang out of there.

The ground shook more violently now, causing me to lose my balance and fall to the ground. I tried to get up, but was forced to roll to the side, away from Fang, to avoid a huge piece of plaster that fell from the ceiling.

I jumped up and started coughing again. I could see shapes through the dust-filled air, people running around the room. But whether they were friend or enemy I couldn't tell.

I looked around, and only barely spotted Fang. The thick smoke had encased him almost fully. The ground shook again, and again, I stumbled to the ground.

I looked up as thunder clapped overhead.

Just before the smoke completely engulfed Fang, he stopped struggling and met my eyes.

Then, a huge rafter fell from the ceiling, cutting off my view of Fang.

And then there was silence.

3rd person POV:

Max scrambled to her feet and raced toward the rafter.

The thunder had stopped, along with the room's shaking, and the black hole had disappeared. But Max knew that meant nothing. If she could just climb over the rafter, she could reach Fang and pull him away from the candles. Everything would be fine.

"FANG!" Max yelled. "FANG!"

Max heard voices and people running towards her, but it was just meaningless noise.

She reached the rafter, and was about to jump over, when someone grabbed her around the chest, holding her back.

"There's nothing you can do, Max." Jeb said. "We have to get out of here-"

"Get him, pull him away from there! He's only on the other side!"

Max vaguely noticed the flock and her mom in the room, watching her as the dust began to settle. She kept struggling. Why were they just standing there?

"It too late, Max-"

"We can still get him-" Max struggled hard and viciously, but Jeb would not let go.

"There's nothing you can do, Max…nothing…he's gone."

That last part is in 3rd person cause I thought it was more dramatic. Hopefully it didn't ruin it.

REVIEW! Tell me your thoughts. Should that be the end of Fang? Should Max move on?