Aj: Hello there. Lately I've been thinking about reasons why joining the dark side is the correct choice. First off, the dark side has cookies. If that isn't enough, they're chocolate chip cookies, and as many as you want for life as long as you are still on the dark side. If you are greedy, like all fellow dark siders, then we can also have domination with kids and charge and nobody will be killed. Also, we can fly, read minds, teleport, and we're just plain awesome. Let's face it; we are so awesome that there's more. Join the dark side and you won't have any homework and the only things taught in school are the things you WANT to learn about. Joining is also good for your health and your loved ones' health. What does the good side have you ask? Only cookies, but it is the kind of cookies that matter. The good side has oatmeal raison cookies; the one's schools serve. Join the dark side. Thank you this has been an Aj service announcement.

Anika: They can't hear you; you don't have to say the words as you write them. And is that your Social Studies homework about your religion?

Aj: Whoops. The message is still clear though.

There was a faint whoosh as the elevator moved upwards without me pressing a button. It looked like Grey was calling the shots here. Perfect, he was the one person I could trust not to cut the elevator cord and let me fall to my death while my claustrophobia was acting up. Note the sarcasm. The ding that we had reached the floor drew me out of my worries, but the doors didn't open. The elevator was completely stopped though. I was bouncing on my heels to keep my head off of the tiny space that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Oh wait, it actually was.

The floor and ceiling were slowly moving towards me and would crush me in a few minutes. And there was no way out. I would not allow myself to die in a freaking elevator. It is so undramatic! It was almost as bad as threatening to be killed by a tattoo on my neck! That was ancient history though. This was now. I looked around me for some way out of this mess. So far I couldn't find one. The open door button didn't do anything and I couldn't pry open the elevator doors.

"Tick tock Maximum. If you just agree to join me I'll stop the elevator and you can join Dylan and Mathew." Grey offered from out of nowhere.

"Who the h is Mathew?" I asked him, as the wall scraped my arm.

"Your former family member. The blonde with the cowlick. It's his proper birth name." Grey explained, but then I noticed that I hadn't asked the question aloud. And that Grey's voice sounded a little machinelike, female, human, and male all at the same time. Grey was the voice that had bugged me for a year. Grey was the voice who had told me to ditch Fang and go after Dylan. Grey was the voice who knew my every move and thought better then Angel and 24/7. Grey was the voice who was the reason for erasers always finding us. Grey was the voice that harmed my flock more then a chip and it was all because of me.

I stood frozen in shock for a moment before I registered that the ceiling was a foot away from me, but then I saw it. A hatch that said, Emergency Escape Hatch. I smiled and pulled down as hard as I could on the handle. It swung down, narrowly missing my head as I was crouching and revealed the elevator shaft. I raised my arms vertically through the square and pushed myself up just as I saw the walls closing in on each other. I breathed a sigh of relief and started climbing the cord that held the suspending elevator because my wings couldn't expand.

I wrapped my right ankle in the cord and put the left on top of that one and pushed my self up, dragging my still entangled leg. I repeated this until I was two thirds of the way until the cord started to move upward, making me lose my grip and hang by one arm, my legs dangling. I could see the box of the elevator rushing up towards me and at the rate it was going it would catch me and crush me at the top of the building. Why was he testing my claustrophobia so much? The opening to the fifth floor was approaching so I had to get in fast before the elevator took me with it.

Before I had time to jump into the access, a hard surface crashed into me reminding me of my lung damage from my fight with Angel and the fifth floor was covered up. I looked underneath me and saw that I was on top of the elevator that would crush me. My back was slowly sagging into the hatch that I had opened and soon my upper torso and my head was hanging upside down in a yoga position while my right leg was being held up by something. I tried doing a sit up to get my body out of the opening, but the hatch was too small that ended up bumping my head on the ceiling that had somehow stretched out. I wiggled my arms out of the hatch and used them to propel myself from the hatch. My head popped up just in time to see that a pulley that worked the elevator was coming up soon and it was on the cord and very sharp. I also saw that my leg was still tangled up in the cord as well.

My reflexes kicked in and I started to try to untangle my leg with my hands, but it was too thick and refused to unravel. Within five seconds a tearing pain went through my leg as half of the skin was sliced off and some of the muscle as well. I screamed as loud as I could, but then regained myself so I could focus. Blood was flowing out of the wound and I took my sweatshirt off and tore a large strip off of it. I then wrapped it around my leg and looked up. There were two more floors left before I got crushed like a bug.

I stood up and my head went back in agony as weight was put on my bad leg. I panted heavily and put more weight on my good leg and leaning on the cord to regain my balance. I eased my way over to the edge of the elevator and saw the last opening before I was crushed. 1...2…Jump! I mentally counted I jumped into the opening and landed in a roll that would have gotten a ten just as I heard the boom as the elevator collided with the ceiling. Sparks showered me and I crouched with my head covered by my arms just as I heard a voice.

"Sorry Maximum. You aren't needed on this floor yet. Goodbye." Grey's cheery voice came from in front of me. Before I could ask him what he meant or curse him out the floor opened from beneath me and again and again until I came to the fifth floor and just as I expected to crash, the floor sunk like it was tar. I tried to get out of it, but it clung to my clothes.

"Hey Max." Another unwanted voice said. I looked up, anger radiating off me.

"What do you want traitor?" I spat.

"To ask you to give up. Grey won't just sit around and wait for you to join him as you just experienced," Dylan gestured to my leg.

"He will kill you. The flock too."

"We won't give in to the bad guy Dylan. Like you."

"I did it for Regan…"

"I know, but my half brother was brought back to life after I accidentally killed him and he wasn't 100 percent Ari. He was more of the little kid Ari that he was originally before he was turned into an eraser…eventually. The same thing will happen to Regan. She'll work for the bad guy and fall in love with Fang and won't give a rat's ass about you like she was supposed to. And that's if he keeps his end of the deal." I told him.

"You're wrong Max." He denied and then he ran off down the hallway. He seemed to be very unsure about it though.