Two weeks in jail.
With no visitors.
At all.
Ever.
Why?
Does no one care for me? Does Iggy want to stay in bed with Nudge instead of visit his baby sister in jail?
...Okay, scratch that, he probably does.
But do Ella, Angel, and Gazzy not want to see me? Me, who took care of them as my own children with their parents died or bailed?
Or Jeb and Val? They were like me second set of parents. Why didn't they visit, if not to just see how I was doing, but to fire me officially?
Or... or Fang. I loved him, still do, yet no visit. We were happy together, up until the last couple minutes, but I thought the happiness we shared was enough to make him want to see me again.
I guess I was wrong.
Shannon bopped me on my head and I looked up at her from my notebook. I raised my eyebrow at her. "Erase it. Erase it all." She pointed to the page I was writing on. "I didn't get Richard to buy a notebook and pencil for you to just write your miserable thoughts in. I made him buy you one so you could write your poetry." She placed her hands on the edge of my bed, resting her chin on them, smiling at me. Her voice lowered. "I liked that one poem, If We Ever Meet Again, it was pretty. Sad, though."
I rolled my eyes. Richard was Shannon's husband and he visited her every day at the same time, right before noon, bringing their children with and food for both of us now. He had visited for both of us so I could get some extra company and see fresher faces. "Shannon, I don't write poetry, I write songs. Besides, it's my notebook now, I can write what I want," I grumbled.
She gasped slowly, almost a sigh of ecstasy. "A song," She mused, twirling. "I love songs!" She faced me and smiled at me, showing her surprisingly pearly white teeth. "Sing me one?"
I chuckled, shaking my head. "No, Shannon. I'm not going to sing,"
"Max!" She whined, dragging herself back over to the beds, placing her arms and chin back onto my mattress since I had the top bunk. "You were a choir teacher! Don't tell me you were the kind of teacher that taught the subject but has no idea what to do with it."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "I can too sing, if that's what you're implying,"
She shrugged. "I didn't say that- you came up with that all on your own," She winked. "But, yes, I was implying that," She placed her own journal on her mattress before backing up against the wall opposite the beds. "Now sing!"
I sighed and set my notebook by my side, putting the pencil between pages. "If I could write you a song to make you fall in love I'd already have you up under my arm I used up all of my tricks I hope that you like this but you probably won't you think you're cooler than me."
Shannon bopped me on the head again to make me shut up. I glared.
"You know, that's really annoying," I informed her, rubbing my head.
She shrugged. "Tough nuts," I raised an eyebrow at her. "Sing something meant for a girl that's actually singing. Cooler Than Me is mainly speaking and a guy sings it,"
I groaned and skimmed through songs in my head. "When I was younger I saw my daddy cry And curse at the wind He broke his own heart And I watched As he tried to reassemble it And my momma swore that She would never let herself forget And that was the day that I promised I'd never sing of love If it does not exist But darling, You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception Maybe I know, somewhere Deep in my soul That love never lasts And we've got to find other ways To make it alone Keep a straight face."
As I sang, other jailmates crowded around the entrance to the small single cell that Shannon and I were cooped up in. I smiled, seeing their contentment.
"And I've always lived like this Keeping a comfortable, distance And up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm Content with loneliness Because none of it was ever worth the risk Well, You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception I've got a tight grip on reality But I can't Let go of what's in front of me here I know you're leaving In the morning, when you wake up Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream Ohh- You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception You, are, the only exception And I'm on my way to believing Oh, And I'm on my way to believing." {The Only Exception [Glee version]}
I wiped at my eyes as the girls clapped, trying to hide my tears. Other girls were crying too, openly.
Why couldn't Fang just visit me?
Fang punched his pillow again, letting his anger out. He didn't know what to do, how to get Max out of jail. He tried visiting her but Officer Varner didn't allow him. He knew something was up, he just knew. Yet, he was helpless.
Everyone was.
No one was allowed to visit Max. Except one man but no one knew who was visiting her.
Ella shuffled out of her room, in her pajamas and slippers, and stood at the end of the couch. "Fang," She called softly.
Fang turned his self-hate-filled eyes toward her, instantly softening his gaze as he observed how upset she was. He opened his arms as he sat up, flinging his legs over the edge of the couch.
She leapt at the chance and hugged him tightly, reminding him of when she was little and had a nightmare the nights he babysat her. She sniffled, a sob wracking through her body. "Why did they have to take her from us?"
Fang sighed, running his fingers through her hair. "I don't know,"
She scrubbed at her eyes, looking up at him. "Did you try to visit her too?"
He nodded. "Yes."
Ella paused before asking, praying, hoping, for a positive answer. "And?"
"Everyone's prohibited from visiting her,"
Ella spun quickly, punching the same pillow Fang had not so long before. She jumped to her feet, furiously pacing the living room. "This is unfair! They can't do that! They can't deny her the right of visitors!"
Fang stood, grabbing Ella by the shoulders, stopping her from continuing her pattern. "I know. Ella, I know. You're not the only one worried here,"
"Really? Because it sure does seem like it! No one else is trying to figure out a way to get in! All of you are just wallowing and being depressed! Me? I've been going through every law book I know at the library, going every single day, as long as I'm allowed inside, and I haven't found anything to help us! Not anything at all! I have a right to be worried because I'm the one trying and I'm the one failing! I'm not worried about not being able to get in, like all of you!" She screeched, effectively scaring Fang into retrieving his hands from her shoulders, half-believing she would bite him if she had the chance. "I'm worried I won't be able to get her out," She whispered the last part before covering her mouth, hiding her sobs, entrapping them before they escaped.
Fang pulled her to his chest, hugging her tightly, comforting her. "Ella, I just don't know what to do. There's nothing to prove that she's innocent-" Fang stopped himself, turning over his words in his mind. "That's it," He murmured, letting Ella go. "That's it!" He ran to his and Max's room, pausing as he held the doorknob.
"What's it, Fang?" Ella asked, wiping her eyes as she walked over to his side.
Fang looked at her over his shoulder, smirking. "I'm not too sure myself. I just hope I'm right," He opened the door and turned on the light.
The bed was still unmade and left as it had been the morning she was taken. His and Max's clothing were strewn across the floor, leading toward the bed, showing the obvious actions taken place on it. The closet was open, a box tucked in the corner. Fang walked over and grabbed two clean shirts from the dresser before picking it up, using the shirts to keep his fingerprints off of it.
"What's that?" Ella asked as he walked past, into the kitchen.
He set the box on the table. "It might be what we were looking for," He nodded over to the cabinets. "Can you grab rubber gloves from the emergency kit? I don't want to taint evidence,
if that's what we can call it."
Ella grabbed two sets of gloves, a pair for her and a pair for Fang. They opened the box and Ella scrunched her nose at the smell, Fang grimacing.
"Ugh!" She groaned, pinching her nose. "What the hell is that smell?"
"That," Fang shuddered, utterly repulsed. "is the smell of William,"
"Who's that? A dead rabbit?" Ella stepped back a few steps to suck in a couple gasps of fresh air before re-approaching the box.
"William was Max's ex that visited a while back, he ruined the journal you restored."
"Oh," Ella blinked. "Damn, Max had bad taste,"
Fang chuckled bitterly. "You don't say," He started digging through the box.
Ella picked up a shirt from inside, laying it on the table so she could see the shape. "Oh, what a shame," She pouted. "That was a nice shirt. Could have been used as a nightshirt. It looks like something you'd wear actually," Ella looked up from the shirt to Fang.
Fang glanced at the shirt and back at the box before doing a doubletake. Wait a second...
The torn shirt was black and short-sleeved. The edges of the sleeves, the neckline, and the hem at the bottom were worn with age, being a slightly different shade of black, lighter, and ripped from use. He laid out the slashed areas on the shirt to see the design, closing the rips with his fingers. When he saw the design on the front, he recognized Jimi Hendrix's face fading in from the surrounding black, almost like a ghostly shadow.
He could see Max wearing the shirt, waking up in the morning, her hair a mess, her eyes groggy and half-asleep, the shirt ending mid-thigh, and her stretching with the shirt riding higher. He could see her turning onto her stomach, her unruly hair falling around her face as she climbed closer to the head of the bed, toward his smiling face and awaiting arms.
"Fang?" Ella softly placed her hand on his upper arm, worried, her concern showing on her face.
Fang looked at her and realized he had started crying silently while he had been staring at the shirt. His devastation showed in his eyes as he stared back down at the destroyed shirt.
"That was yours, wasn't it?" Ella asked, already knowing the answer. She didn't expect a response.
He nodded, wiping his eyes with his arm. "I gave it to her after having been together for a month," He sighed. "It had been my favorite shirt and hers so I knew she'd love it. I guess Will didn't seem to like it at all,"
He folded it carefully and placed it to the side, taking out other things. He came across a box of photos. Most had Max's face cut out, others just had pen scribbled over to hide her. In all the photos, William was the main part of it. He was always in the middle of the frame, Max either half-behind him or at his side, half cut off. And in each and every one, Max's stance showed that she wasn't happy, her arms crossed, posture slouched and hunched. And leaning away from William, always leaning away.
There were some other photos that were obviously taken by William, his arm on the edge of the photo, showing he was holding it up to face himself. Fang was disgusted and handed them to Ella so he could look through more.
"Fang," Ella nudged Fang's arm as she stared at the photos, eyes wide. Fang looked over at her and, seeing her expression, looked at the photos. His eyes widened and he snatched them from her hands.
"Oh my God," He murmured, covering Ella's eyes with his free hand. She was shivering.
Because in Fang's hand were pictures of Max and William in the bedroom. Because in Fang's hand were pictures of Max asleep on the bed while William was awake.
Because in Fang's hand were pictures of Max in her bedroom in her apartment-
The apartment where Fang and Ella were standing in that very moment.
Max wasn't just asleep in the photos- William was in the frame as well, having taken the photos himself, his arm was cut off by the side, and he was choking her. Or cutting her.
Each and every photo, one after another, all different days, Max was asleep, without knowledge of a crazy, abusive ex hovering over her, hurting her.
Fang thought back to the day he met William. He and Ella had tagged along to Max and Iggy's apartment to hang out, Nudge included. He remembered walking up to the apartment complex's door before stopping, seeing Max halt in front of him.
He held a key in his hand and there was a box by his feet. He hadn't known Max had been at the school late for the concert. He had been about to go up, drop the box off, and hurt her more.
Fang threw the photos on the table and faced Ella, uncovering her eyes. He knew why she was shaking.
If William had been hurting her while he snuck into the apartment, what else would he have been doing?
"Ella," He forced her to look at his face and not at the table where the photographs laid strewn across the wood. "Go to Iggy and Nudge's and call the cops. Make sure you ask that
Officer Varner and his partner do not come along," he nudged her to the door. "Go, now!"
Ella ran to the door, thrusting it open before screaming, seeing a man standing before her.
Iggy whipped his head to his right to stare over at Nudge, eyes wide.
Nudge stood, eyes worried. "Ella," she breathed.
Iggy and Nudge ran for the door to their apartment, almost tearing it down as they ripped it open. Ella stood in the doorway to her apartment, hands over her mouth, chest heaving with deep breaths, eyes wide, like a deer caught in the headlights. She was shivering.
Fang was at her side, glaring at the man in the hallway. Iggy and Nudge were standing at his back.
Ella weakly swatted at Fang, making sure he didn't kill the guy. "He didn't do anything- he just startled me, that's all," Her voice wavered and was rough from the blood curddling scream. "After what I saw earlier... Just startled me, that's all,"
Iggy and Nudge went over to Ella's side, Nudge holding her to her side, making sure she would fall should she faint. Iggy was by Fang, ready to back him up in case of a fight.
"I'm- I'm sorry. Um, I just... That is, I didn't mean to... Are you Fang Wolf?" The man addressed Fang.
Fang nodded. "Yes." He trailed his eyes up and down his character, seeing what he might have to deal with.
The man was tall, a little taller than Fang. British. His hair was long and black, tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His eyes were bright blue, almost like ice. His skin was pale, almost ghostly so. He wore a dark blue V-neck shirt and black slacks with a black leather trench coat on. He wore simple black hightops on his feet.
"Again, I'm sorry about that. And that I'm visiting so late," His voice was smooth, light, yet too matured to be a twenty-six-year-old's. It sounded... old, and worn, at the same time young and lively. "My name is Richard. I'm a friend of Max's. She sent me,"
Iggy went limp, not believing what he was hearing. This man... This man was sent by Max? No, he couldn't have been. Max wasn't allowed any visitors. Iggy shook his head.
Nudge was the same. She didn't believe the man one bit. After what happened, after all she tried to get to see Max- there was no way this stranger would have been able to see Max and not be known by all her friends.
Fang stared. Just stared. Why did this man seem familiar? How did he know Max exactly? Why would she send a stranger to them? Better yet, how was she able to send someone when she wasn't allowed to see anyone?
Ah... Of course. No one was allowed to visit Max. Except one man but no one knew who was visiting her. "You're the one visitor," Fang stated.
Richard nodded. "Yes. Um- may I come in, if I'm not being too bold?"
Fang nodded his head back and stepped away from the doorway. Nudge slugged Ella over to the kitchen for a glass of water so she could calm down faster. Iggy eyed Fang's gloved hands as he closed the door after Richard entered.
"Fang," Iggy murmured, pointedly staring at his hands.
"I was going through the box William left that one time he visited. He came here every night- he had a key. He hurt Max while she was asleep," Fang hurriedly whispered to him. "There's pictures," he took off the gloves, directing Richard to sit on the couch, walking over to the kitchen table with Iggy. "You keep going through the stuff, see what else you can find. Try to find something that can lead to her being let free."
Iggy nodded and put the gloves on, looking at the shirt on the table. "Hey, wasn't that-?" He stopped his question, seeing the sad look in Fang's eyes. "Right, look through the stuff, set Max free," He raised a hand to his forehead in a salute. "Aye, aye, Cap'n Crunch," He smirked at Fang before turning to the box.
Fang went over to Richard. "Now," he sat across from him, on the coffee table. "Why did Max send you?"
Shannon poked my side as I hummed and wrote. I glanced over at her. "Yes, Miss Annoying?"
She chuckled. "I did something," She smiled at me, showing pride in her actions.
I rolled my eyes. "Poking me isn't an accomplishment, Shannon," I sat next to her on her bunk.
"Not that! Something else," She suddenly turned timid and sheepish so I paid close attention, worried for both her and me. "Richard visited yesterday."
I nodded. "Yes, like every other day," And like every other day, no one visits me.
"Yes. Right. Of course like every other day. But I did something last time. I told him something. Something important."
I swear to God Shannon must be ADD.
I blinked. "And you're telling me because...?" What exactly was her point to all this?
She nodded once to herself before looking from me to the wall across from us. "When Mum was fifteen, she wasn't ready for kids," Her British accent slipped through. That's one thing I loved about Shannon, she had the humor of a Southern trucker but she was British class when it came to manners. "She wasn't ready mentally but someone thought she was ready physically. Right before she turned sixteen, she put her baby up for adoption when it was born."
What was she talking about? Why was this relevant to Richard and me?
"After a couple years, when she was done with school, she got married- I think she was twenty-two when she and Dad got married. But she didn't have another child until she was thirty-four. The child she had put up for adoption was nineteen when her second was born. Another girl. The adoption plans had been open but restricted. They didn't send pictures until she asked and she didn't need to see her. Mum made sure she was safe and happy with her adopted family, despite her adopted parents having a son so much younger than her. Not a day went by did she regret giving up Marian and keeping little half-blind Shannon." She smiled at me sadly.
I stared at her. Oh my God... My roommate is Marian's biological sister? Marian... Marian as in Fang's adopted sister Marian? I thought of the age difference. Marian died two years ago when she was forty-one. Fang had been twenty-two. Forty-one minus twenty-two is nineteen years difference and Fang was born when Marian was nineteen. Oh my God!
Marian was British?
I blinked at Shannon. "Shannon, um, how did you know-?"
"Mum tells me things. She told me of Fang, Marian's new little brother- well, I guess he's not new nor little anymore. But she also told me about a Maximum Ride and her brother Ignius Ride. How they loved Marian so. How they were her true family, despite the age difference. She told me of Marian's death two years ago too." She smiled. "At least she's happy and safe now. She's not in pain, she's looking out for us, Max," She whispered, looking into my eyes.
I knew the sea green eyes looked familiar to me. One was duller but still just as beautiful as the other, just as beautiful as Marian's. Her hair was pale brown, sort of a dishwater blonde. She had freckles across her cheekbones right under her eyes. If her hair had been longer and her skin darker, she would have been a dead-ringer for Marian. With this new knowledge, I felt tears spring to my eyes. I held them back, I didn't want Shannon seeing me cry.
"Marian is looking out for us, keeping us safe, Max," She kept whispering. "She'll save us. She'll save us from ourselves."
"What do you mean?" I questioned. I was sick and tired of all this trivia. I just wanted a straight answer.
"Marian will keep us together, keep us as ourselves. She's making sure we won't forget who we are or who she was. She loves us, Max. She loves us." She smiled at me, wiping at her eyes. She, too, had tears in her eyes. "But none of that now," She restored her voice to normal. "I sent Richard to Fang." She looked back at me, looking almost like a normal person again. No red, puffy eyes; no sad, wistful smile. Just a smirking twenty-four year old who looked cocky beyond reason. "I knew Fang wouldn't remember him either so I told him that you sent him. I do hope you don't mind but I knew Fang wouldn't listen unless the message was, essentially, from you."
I shrugged. "How do you-?"
"It'd be the same thing as Richard. We're very similar, Max. Choosing men who only trust those close to them. Being wary about everyone, being protective of those they love." She smiled at me again. "I bet they're both agressive too. I'm sure Fang is- I know Richard is," She laughed, winking at me.
I smirked. "Actually, Fang is gentle," What? It wasn't a total lie. He was gentle- after a while, at least...
"No wonder you don't have kids yet," She laughed loudly. She sighed loudly too, almost seeming to go into the past, her eyes afar. "Just wait till you're both married,"
"I don't know if it'll go that far," I smiled sadly. Not at the fact that we had fought before I was arrested, but because of the distance between us. If I couldn't get out of jail, nothing would happen between us.
"Oh, I have faith, Max," Shannon bumped my shoulder with hers. "I have faith."
I smiled at her and hugged her, showing my appreciation.
She placed a hand on my stomach when we broke apart. She bent down a bit as though to talk to it. "I have faith in this little one," She looked up at me.
My eyes went wide. "Shannon, I'm not pregnant," I was shocked, to say the least. Was I... Did I look that fat?
"Are you sure?" She sat straight, her hand never straying from my stomach.
"P-positive! Shannon, am-" I lowered my voice. "Am I fat?" I looked at my stomach. It didn't seem any different, didn't seem chunky at all.
Shannon's head tilted to the side a bit. "Huh, I could have sworn... Your aura was..." Shannon had told me before that she could read people's auras, the energy around a person. "It was light... golden... mature."
"That's because I'm an adult, I have to be mature..." I mumbled.
Shannon scanned around me, as though looking as fine cloth as a seamstress. "Mature as in maternal." She looked at my face again with her one dead eye and one lively eye. "Perhaps it was a trick of your feelings. Homesick for your younger family?"
I nodded. "Yes," Shannon slowly removed her hand from my stomach. "I want to know what you told Richard to tell Fang." I told her straight out, changing the subject back. "Will you tell me?"
Shannon was quiet, staring at me, almost trying to figure out how I would react if she told me. I tried to be calm but she smiled widely, filling me with dread. I knew that smile... Marian used that every time she said-
"Now where's the fun in that?"
Yeah, she was Marian's sister alright...
Hey, everyone! I'm back! Again! So, I loved, loved, loved all my reviews! I'm glad I still have readers and new readers. For those of you who have been dragged along through the year (Two years?), thank you for sticking with! I truly appreciate it. And for those of you who are new to the story, thank you for putting this on your alerts! :3 I was shocked by some of the reviewers- as I read the names of those of you who reviewed, I was surprised at some of them. A couple of you, I'm a fan of yours so I felt honored that you like my stories! :) My updates will come sooner, I hope. When I saw that I got way more reviews than I asked for, I simply had to update for you all. It was very sweet so you deserve to have the next chapter. :) I hope this chapter is good. And, to let you all in on a secret, I just thought of Shannon being related to Marian when I created her (aka four days ago) lol. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, I hope no one was OOC... And with William- OhMahGawd, I had gone back to reread some of the stuff and realized, as I read about him, that he shouldn't have had the key if he and Max weren't together. So I'm like, "Well, I'm not going back to fix that so I'll write it in," Which was surprising since I was gonna have him break in as part of the plot before I even thought of/remembered the key lol.
Anyway, I'm gonna be a review-whore now and ask for fifteen reviews again, otherwise, I'll update slower. (Lol, I really am a review-whore, Sirius, haha. I crave reviews ;3)