Cheating Death – Chapter 11

By MyNameIsCAL

Guns, knives, or just weapons in general, we never liked them. Things were better, even fairer, if you could do everything hand to hand. I made an exception for bombs though, at least the ones Gazzy and Iggy made.

"Alright, this'll damage the house," Iggy told me. "We'll put one in the garage and start a fire and one in the basement. The explosion won't be big, but the fire definitely destroy the car and the basement. They don't keep much down there anyway. Once the fire gets going, Gazzy will ding dong ditch the neighbor so they can call the fire department."

I stared at Iggy. "I don't know what I'm getting us into."

It's the only way, Angel replied.

"I don't either," Iggy sighed. "But we gotta get going. Max will be back soon and I should be home."

"Then go home," Iggy said. "We can do this ourselves."

I hesitated. "Okay."

"Don't worry," Gazzy said, a small smile on his lips. "We got this."

I settled down onto the couch, trying to relax. Every now and then I would flip to the news, wondering if Iggy and Gazzy had carried out their plan yet. Max would be coming in the door any minute now and I still felt like I had just gotten here. After a few minutes, I rose from the couch and started to pace.

The door opened some time later, Max coming in.

"Are you okay?" she asked me.

I stood in front of her, trying to take in a deep breath.

"Fang, sit down," she forced me to sit down on the couch.

I leaned back, closing my eyes.

"Jeez, Fang, just breathe." I felt her hand slip into mine. "What's gotten into you these past few weeks?"

I could finally feel the air getting back into my lungs. She rubbed my arm, trying to get me to relax.

"How is Ella?" I asked between breaths.

"She's gonna be fine," Max told me.

I pulled Max into a hug and she looked surprised as her arms came around me. After a while, she relaxed, her chin on my shoulder. I didn't have to say anything for her to know that I felt something was wrong. Well, I knew something was wrong, but she didn't need to know what or why.

It wasn't long before the phone rang. Even across the room from Max, I could hear Mom's panicked voice from the phone.

"I gotta go to Mom's place. There was a fire. Stay here," Max said, grabbing her keys.

I stood and went after her. "No, I'm coming."

We touched down at Mom's house a few minutes later. Gazzy was gone, but Iggy and Nudge were here, trying to comfort Mom. Most of the blaze had been put out. The damage from the outside didn't look too bad.

"Holy crap, what happened?" Max asked.

Iggy and Nudge looked away as we approached them. The fire trucks had cleared an circle around the house and we stood at the line of tape.

"They say it's arson," Mom shook her head, eyes red from not crying or crying too much before.

Max moved towards Mom, telling her words of comfort softly. Iggy tapped me on the shoulder and I followed him away from them.

"Things went as planned," he muttered. "I can't stay here and listen to Mom be like this. It's…heartbreaking."

I nodded and then he unfurled his wings, taking off, Nudge following closely behind. When I returned to Max and Mom, Max was trying to convince Mom that things would be okay.

"You can stay at our house," I suggested.

Max looked up at me and then nodded. "It might be safer. I don't think Ella getting hurt and this happening is a coincidence."

Mom nodded, unable to speak.

"And Ella is going to be okay," Max added. "That's all that matters."

Mom nodded again. I had to look away. The urge to get out of here took over and I started to run. My wings shot out and I took off.

Fang, you can't run from this.

"I can try!" I snarled at Angel.

Max is going to start thinking there's something wrong with you. Keep yourself together!

"I can barely keep everyone else from falling apart!" I wanted to hurt someone or break something. As I got closer to the house, I started my descent, fast, hurling right towards the pavement, my wings tucked behind me.

FANG!

My wings shot out and I landed on the grass.

Don't do that, Angel actually sounded scared.

"I need quiet," I grumbled. "Leave me alone."

Angel said nothing after that.

PAGE BREAK!

It was a long time before Max came home. Needless to say she wasn't very happy either. She opened her mouth to say something, but I pulled her into a hug, hoping she wouldn't be as angry after that.

Her arms settled around me and I felt her head on my chest.

"Fang, I don't understand," she whispered. "I feel like everything is just falling apart. I don't know what's gotten into you. Gazzy is just so afraid to leave his house now, and now Ella and Mom's house just got destroyed and Ella…she's…"

"Shhh, Max," I whispered.

"And you just took off today!" Max dropped her arms and broke my embrace. "I needed you to be there. So please tell me what's gotten into you!"

Don't tell her anything, Fang! Angel seemed to be shouting inside of my head. I wanted her to go away, to leave me alone. I wanted to be angry at her, to let go of everything, but it wouldn't do any good, not for Max, and not for the rest of the flock.

"I can't stand to watch things fall apart," I murmured. It was the truth, but not the entire reason why I've felt like running the past few days.

"Why are you lying to me, Fang?"

I closed my eyes, the room spinning around me. Max grabbed me by the arm, but I was somewhere else, unable to respond to her shouting…

"Don't you dare tell her anything!"

I blinked. This wasn't some kind of vision of what could happen in the future, this was Angel standing in front of me being angry.

"She knows I'm lying!" I shouted. "And Max knows be better than anyone else! You think I can just go around lying to her forever? This needs to stop, Angel. There has to be a way out of this without any of us getting killed or hurt more!"

Angel walked towards me, grabbing the front of my shirt. "I could have died and just let all of you suffer the same fate. You have to help me out, tough it out with me."

"I can't."

"Since when are you a quitter, Fang?"

I looked away and she let go of me.

"You'll thank me later. When you wake up, you'll be in the hospital. Good thing you haven't eaten today. That'll be the cause for you fainting and acting strangely," Angel said quietly. "I don't like intervening like this, but I had to."

"You didn't have to."

"I did because your thoughts were screaming I'm going to tell Max," Angel hissed. "Goodbye, Fang. I'll talk to you later when your head is clear."

"It's never clear."

Angel rolled her eyes and darkness consumed me…