Cheating Death – Chapter 8

By MyNameIsCAL

Mom/Ella attacked?

I was back at the college again, standing from a different view. Those two guys I had seen before were farther away, still having their same conversation. Again, I was invisible to the people around me. One of them, a girl, walked right past through me.

The explosion happened as I had seen before and then the shooting started again, but there was something about her, something that I recognized. Soon enough, the shooter ran through me, after the girl, and fired more shots. She fell to the ground.

"I know you," I whispered, but of course, I was invisible, and she couldn't here me.

"Help!" she screamed, clutching at her stomach, where she had been shot. "Somebody help me!"

I sat up, looking around the room. Max, who had been leaning against me, was now stirring from her sleep.

"What's wrong?" she muttered, rolling to her other side.

"Nothing," I insisted, lying back down.

She leaned back against me, half asleep. "Just a dream, Fang. Sleep, now."

And I tried to.

The next morning, I woke and turned on the news.

"Jeez," I muttered, staring at the TV. There it was, the explosion, the sound of gunfire. Someone had caught it on their camera phone. My vision, it had come true, and I could have stopped it, I could have, but I didn't even know where that was, or how it related to me.

The phone started to ring.

Fang, you should answer that before Max does, Angel roused.

I stood, hurrying towards the phone. The caller ID wasn't from anyone in the flock, but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I cleared my throat.

"Fang, is that you?" The voice, familiar, but I couldn't remember the name. And then, "It's Dr. Martinez."

Max's mom. We hadn't seen her in a long time. As close as we lived to them, Max decided we would part ways to protect them, especially since Jeb had pulled another disappearing act on us. It had been years and years since we had even talked to her, or Ella, Max's half sister. The only thing that ever happened was an exchange of a letter when we relocated, changed numbers, or something like that.

"Yes, hi, it's Fang," I stuttered.

And then, it sounded like Dr. M was crying. "Is…is Max around?"

"She's asleep," I said slowly. "But I can wake her."

"No…no, that's alright," Dr. M insisted. "Just…If you could, I know Max might think it's dangerous, or something, but could she come to the hospital…"

My heart sank. "The hospital?"

"Yes," Dr. M said, trying to take in deep breaths. "I know Max wants to protect us, but we need her."

I closed my eyes. Why did I get the feeling this related to what I was seeing? "I'll wake her."

"Thank you, Fang."

And as she hung up, I realized that the girl I had seen in my dream was Ella.

We went to the hospital, like Dr. M had begged. It was a tearful reunion, and even Dr. M gave me a hug.

"Did you hear about that shooting?" Dr. M asked through her tears.

"Shooting?" Max shook her head, wiping her eyes.

"No…"

Max's eyes met mine.

"I saw it on the news…Ella…Ella wasn't there, was she?" I asked, trying to keep myself composed.

Dr. M nodded.

"No…" I didn't know what to say.

"She's…she's struggling," Dr. M said quietly. "The doctors…they aren't hopeful. I just wanted her to see you again, Max, in case…in case…"

"Shh, don't say that." Max closed her eyes. "She's going to be fine."

I waited outside the hospital room as Dr. M and Max went in. Part of me couldn't bear to see Ella, and maybe that made me a coward, but I just couldn't go in there and face her, to think that I could have saved her.

And now my cell phone was ringing.

"Why aren't you home?" It was Iggy.

"Because I'm at the hospital, with Max and we're with Dr. M and Ella."

"It has to do with what you saw yesterday?" Nudge must have told Iggy.

"Yeah," I sighed.

It took a long time for him to respond. "Well, call us when you've got news."

"Alright, bye."

Max came out crying, but the only thing I could bring myself to do was wrap my arms around her, letting her cry into my chest.

"It's bad, Fang," she said through her sobs.

"We should have been there to protect them."

Max was angry now as she paced our bedroom back and forth. "It was a mistake to shut them out of our lives."

"There was no way you could have known they were going to get hurt." No, I could have saved Ella, if only I knew it was her.

She took a seat on the bed, leaning against me.

"We'll go see Ella again tomorrow, if you want," I told her. Angel, tell me Ella will be okay.

"Alright." Max lay back, pulling me down with her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Angel responded a few minutes later. I don't know, Fang. I really don't.

Alright, I'm halfway across the world now, with a 12 hour time difference, so lots of hours to write being jet lagged and all. Updates should be plentiful this week. Then next week, I might be taking a break because I'll unfortunately be without a computer for like 5 days. Anyways, thanks for reading!