Disclaimer: I do not own the flock or their ravenous eating habits. I do own the OCs and did not, contrary to popular belief, steal the name Jasper from Twilight. I stole it from someone who recommended it to me.
A man with dark hair was standing with his back to them. His clothing was ragged and dusty, as though he'd come from close to the ruin. He turned around and opened his mouth, but Fang cut him off.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
The man laughed easily, but his hand went to his pocket, where Fang could see the handle of a gun.
"Don't get yourselves all worked up," said the man steadily. But they'd made enough noise by now to gain someone else's attention.
A door leading into the kitchen opened, and Cat stood there looking thoroughly tired and not very happy. When she saw the man, her eyes flashed with recognition.
"Jasper," she said, smiling in a rather twisted fashion. "What are you doing here?"
I tightened with suspicion at her words. How did Cat know this man, and more importantly, why was he pulling a gun on us?
Jasper frowned. "I live here," he said. Fang and I exchanged glances. "Or at least, I used to live here," he continued, shooting a knowing glare at Fang and me. He turned back to Cat. "Looks like you've kicked me out already."
Cat raised her chin. "I told you, if you didn't pay…"
"Cat, I'll get the money, I just…" His voice was less confident now; it had adopted a slightly pleading tone. His dusty hand reached out to grab Cat's. Her eyes softened for a second. "I'll pay you," he said again.
Cat suddenly seemed to realize that she and Jasper were not the only people in the room. She snatched her hand away, agitated again. "Too late," she snapped, pointing at Fang and me. "Meet my new tenants…" Her hand gesticulated in the air, asking us to fill the silence.
"Max," I said, disgusted at the slight shake in my otherwise steely voice.
"Fang." He had apparently abandoned his alter ego, Nick. I remembered how Iggy had teased him and swallowed hard.
"Max and Fang," Cat reiterated, turning back to Jasper, who had adopted a face showing only a hint of hurt. "And don't shoot them just yet, they have the money." Jasper winced at the remark, but slowly slid his hand off his gun.
I breathed a sigh of relief and realized that I was dizzy. Fang was still holding my arm. Colors swam at the edge of my vision. No. Go away. I can't fall apart now.
Cat cleared her throat. "I think you should leave," she told Jasper. He gave a strained sigh and ran a hand through his hair, releasing a sprinkling of black dust. Dust. Death. Hold it together.
"Cat-" Jasper began.
"Now," she said, her tone harsh and biting. He stared at her for a moment, and I watched the silent communication between their glassy eyes. Fang still seemed frozen in place, absorbing as much of the scene as he could. Finally, Jasper blinked and turned away, then shuffled around the wooden table and towards the hall, brushing against me in the process. He left a trail of dust down my tattered sleeve, and I suppressed at shudder at the thought of what it might represent.
Everyone stood still in the kitchen until we heard the door slam. Cat let out a deep breath and raised her shielded eyes to meet ours. "Sorry about that," she said lightly. "I didn't think he'd be back so soon."
"Is he dangerous?" I asked, thinking of the flock, asleep in our room.
Cat looked thoughtful. "Jasper? Not… really." She twisted a lock of hair between two fingers, revealing nails bitten to the quick. Her response was not reassuring.
Fang moved his hand so that it rested just under my neck, between my wings. "I hope you lock the doors," he told Cat in a low voice. She nodded gravely and walked down the hall, her footsteps creaking on the floorboards. When we heard the clink of the lock, Fang and I retreated back down the hall and paused by the door of our room to let Cat pass. Her eyes met mine in the darkness and they were empty, almost black. I shivered, feeling Fang's warm hand on my back.
The flock was still sound asleep as we passed back through the door. Gazzy had rolled over and twisted in his blankets, while Nudge had kicked hers off altogether. Angel was lying exactly where we had left her, and I watched her chest rise and fall with a sense of relief.
"So," I whispered to Fang, as we stepped carefully over their sleeping bodies to reach the empty wall, "what do you think?"
"Not good," he muttered. "Seems kind of unstable. And resents us for taking his place."
"And she wasn't all that convincing when she said he wasn't dangerous." I sunk back into a sitting position, grateful for the solidity of the wall against my back. The world was still spinning, and colors were invading the otherwise black surroundings.
Fang sighed, sitting down next to me. "All in all, not the best of situations." There was a pause. I listened to my flock, breathing in and out. "You okay?" Fang said softly.
"Yeah." I watched the world spin, knowing that it was turning on its axis. The rest of them were crazy not to see it.
When Nudge woke up, she was hungry. She tried to remember the last time she has eaten, but her memories of the days since the explosion were so blurred together that it was hard to make out individual events. All Nudge knew was that she needed to eat before her stomach lost patience and ate itself. So she opened her eyes.
The room was just as she remembered it: tiny and closed in with yellowing white walls and a creaky floor. Gazzy was awake- she could tell from his breathing- but pretending to sleep. Fang's eyes were darting back and forth, ever protective and alert. Max's eyes, on the other hand, looked almost gray and sunken in. But what surprised Nudge was Angel, who was positioned sitting up, leaning against the wall with her head raised and blue eyes open.
Nudge decided there was no point in delaying her need. "I'm hungry," she said.
Max's eyes closed for a second, then snapped open again. "Okay," she said, her voice scratchy and tired. Gazzy sat up suddenly and nodded his agreement. Even Angel's eyes flickered in recognition. Me too, she said, in their heads.
"Okay," Max sighed, sliding her hand up the wall as she rose to a standing position. "Let's go see how much she charges for food."
They made quite a group, trooping into the kitchen like casualties of some brutal war. Fang was still carrying Angel slung over his shoulder, but now she had her head raised and was looking around. Gazzy seemed to be limping; Nudge hadn't noticed that before.
A woman was sitting at this kitchen table, her legs crossed under her on the straight-backed chair. Nudge thought that she had been pretty once, but now she looked more haunted than beautiful. Her blond hair was the consistency of straw with a bit of dust. Her arms seemed almost too long and gangly to belong to this mature person, and when she stood up, her legs were skinny too. She was maybe an inch taller than Max.
"I'm Cassy," she said, surveying the lot of them with a surprised smile. "I heard you guys come in yesterday. Excuse me for not coming out, but I'd only just gotten back in the morning."
Max listed out the name of each flock member, pointing to each of them in turn. Nudge wondered why she wasn't bothering to make up false names, like the other times they'd ventured into civilization. Using their real names made it feel as though this was their last time passing through, their last hope. Added to the rest of the helpless atmosphere, it made Nudge wonder if this was the end.
Her primal instincts overtook these darker thoughts and Nudge shot a quick glance at the refrigerator, imagining it heaping with mouthwatering food. Cassy's brown eyes noticed this action, and she said, "You can get food out of the bottom of the fridge. The stuff on the door is Cat's. As long as you don't eat too much, she won't make you pay extra."
Max nodded and Nudge made a beeline for the fridge, pulling open the white door with anticipation. To her disappointment, most of the food seemed to be either processed or preserved. Cassy laughed, but it wasn't a judgmental action. With movements Nudge would normally associate with a stick figure, the woman walked to another door and twisted the handle, pulling it open and removing several boxes of dried cereal. Nudge's mouth watered.
Cassy set the boxes on the table along with a few plastic bowls. She laughed again as Nudge and Gazzy dove in the table's direction, pulled to the food as though by a magnetic force. The laugh seemed too full and thick to be coming from such a thin person, but Nudge dismissed this thought in favor of more primal ones concerning eating as much cereal as she could in as short a time as possible.
"Thank you," Max told the woman, in one of the humblest tones Nudge had ever heard out of their leader's mouth. Fang set Angel on his lap and poured a bowl for her. Nudge hoped that Angel's motor control had improved enough to chew cereal, but the girl seemed to be improving in leaps and bounds lately. Maybe, Nudge thought, as she returned to stuffing her face, just maybe, things were starting to look up.
Author's Note: Unfortunately for poor little optimistic Nudge, things are not looking up. They are looking down a deep black pit of despair. But more about that later.
I apologize for my absence and for this chapter. I don't like this chapter, but I feel it was necessary. If things go as planned, I will be starting the next chapter very soon because I don't want to leave you with this one for a long period of time. I have plenty of excuses about taking so long, but I don't feel like listing them out any more than you feel like reading them.
If I have not already updated Betrayal, I plan to do so in the very immediate future, so check that out if you've got time. Thanks for reading, sorry about this chapter and how long it took.
Thanks to these people for their reviews: Someone aka Me, Kristin, disneydork, GoonlaLagoon, therealme1123, Jayde3, senoritasophia13, Darkth Atkid, DarkAngels0014, kaylormonkey, Queen of the Mary Sue, 14rosestar15, Lion8520(x2), bbaluver3, and stewie-for-govenor.