Yeehaw, we're gettin tense in chapter 32! R&R and enjoy!

P.S. To those of you who have said this book is getting long, I'm afraid to say I'm not anywhere close to done as of now. In fact, I plan on this book being as long as my other novels (original) that I've written, all of which are around 200 pages on Microsoft Word. Soooo I'll give a few options, and you can give me your thoughts. a) I'll end the book short, and make up a quicker ending in a few chapters. (pleeeease don't make me do this!) b) I'll continue on my merry way with the book and finish when I feel like it. or c) I'll continue the book in a "book 2" type thing, which I'd rather not do, but it really doesn't matter to me. Anyway, take a vote, and I'll be back with the next chapter soon!

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32

Ella was tied to a chair in the center of the house's living room. Duct tape had been used to tie her legs and arms to a small wooden chair, and a strip of fabric had been stretched across her mouth. She wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. I prayed she was only sleeping.

"Max, I can't believe you're back!" Dr. Martinez called, running down the center hall of the house. "Please help me get Ella!" The doctor had a scratch mark on the side of her face, and blood stained the front of her white lab coat.

"What happened here?" I asked, moving slowly towards Ella. I was suspicious as to why the Erasers would tie up Ella and leave, without even bothering Dr. Martinez. But I figured I would question the doctor first, see what she knew, and judge everything from there.

"I'm not sure exactly. I was asleep in the cellar, and suddenly a pack of Erasers just flew in and attacked! They tied Ella to the chair and sedated her, but I was able to call the police before that. As you saw though, even the police weren't a match for them." Dr. Martinez was near tears at this point. "I'm just so glad you came back to us. Now please, help me get Ella." The doctor was standing right behind Ella now, pulling the fabric out of the girl's mouth.

What was Roland talking about? He apparently must have lost his mind more than I thought when he told me Dr. Martinez was the one to blame for all this. I laughed in my mind and moved towards Ella. I was a few feet away before something clicked in my mind.

"Dr. Martinez," I said quietly, backing off just a bit, "how…how exactly did you know what Erasers were?" I bit my bottom lip, hoping I was wrong, hoping Roland was wrong, hoping my suspicions were wrong.

"Well…you told me about them, don't you remember?"

I shook my head and stepped back more, unfurling my wings, ready for action at any moment. "I don't recall saying anything about Erasers to you."

Silence filled the air, as did an ominous tension that threatened to explode in my head as I waited. The flock was behind me, also opening their own wings. Dr. Martinez suddenly dropped her head, and immediately she stopped crying. Fake crying, I mean. Actually, she began laughing as she reached into her right coat pocket and pulled out a small pocketknife. "Max, Max. I knew you would catch on sooner or later. I guess Roland ended up being a better experiment than I thought."

"What are you saying?" I shouted, my face turning red with fury. "He was your husband! How could you do such a thing?" My stomach churned as I thought of how much I had hated Roland, how much I now understood his anger.

"He was hardly human, even after I married him! He was the perfect subject for my tests, and that's all he ever was!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. This woman, whom I had loved like a mother, was now showing her true colors. It was crazy, and I wished I would suddenly wake up from this horrible nightmare. But I knew it was a reality. "Why?" I finally choked out, after another dreadful silence. "Why are you doing this? All of this?"

Dr. Martinez laughed again. "Because I can. Because I have the power and brains to do so. I will save this world by creating perfect beings. I will be God!"