Disclaimer: I do not own MR.

…

It was already ten in the evening, but for him, it was quite early. He wanted to surprise his wife, who always complained of falling asleep all alone while he was busy completing his night shift. He was glad his boss had a change of heart once he had found out it was their anniversary, and he hoped that she would be just as happy once the bouquet of roses met her at the front door.

The girl on the bicycle was no older than twenty, nineteen, perhaps. She was probably from the nearby college, but judging by her work clothes, she was either going to start or had left her shift. Her eyes were alert, and she kept a steady grip on the handlebars.

The road was wide enough for two vehicles that were going opposite directions. He was positioned on the proper lane, while the girl was at the far end of hers. An accident between the two of them would be impossible. There were no pedestrians, and all the people they saw were inside the still-open stores. Surely they would both reach their destination without a single scratch.

But Fate, or possibly Mother Nature, seemed to change her mind.

The two of them made eye contact, the man surprised to see her eyes widen and a scared look take over her face. She let out a shriek, not that loud for the people inside the shops to take notice of, but loud enough for him to hear. He looked straight ahead, and saw the reason of the girl's cry: There was a dog, frozen in the middle of his path, staring straight at the headlights. He quickly swerved towards the sidewalk, and the creature ran in the other direction. He let out a sigh of relief.

That was before the girl let out another shriek, this time loud enough for the people inside to hear. He once again looked in front of him, just in time to see a boy get rammed by his car. He immediately got out of the vehicle, and she swiftly made her way towards the boy.

How could he not have seen him? There were so many streetlights, that it almost looked like it was daytime. He also did not see anyone come out of any of the closest stores. But he did remember focusing on the dog rather than the sidewalk, with the assumption that no one would be walking at this time in the evening.

"Is he okay?" The girl asked. The owner of a nearby diner and few of its patrons began forming a small crowd around the body, though no one dared to touch it. She made her way through the crowd, and he immediately followed.

The boy was around seventeen or eighteen, with a hard but handsome face. He looked fine, for someone who got hit. Nothing seemed broken, or crushed. But blood poured out not unlike sand in an hourglass, only at a slower pace, fortunately.

"Check his pockets." The diner's owner said. "He might have a phone."

He did, and found one in good condition. There was an unread message, but he did not read the name nor the text, and immediately called the sender.

"He doesn't have load." He said, and took out his own cellphone to try and call the number. "I don't have load, either."

"Give it to me, please." The girl said holding out her hand. "I'll try."

He immediately handed the gadget to her, and she took out her own. Someone volunteered to call an ambulance. The spectators began to depart one by one until the only ones left with him were the ambulance caller and the girl, who was still trying to contact someone.

"Is it picking up?" He asked.

"It's ringing." She replied, just before her eyes gave out a hopeful expression and her mouth opened, probably to talk. It was an obvious sign that someone answered. He could hear the tired voice of a girl through the phone's tiny speaker.

"Hello?"

Max

No one in their right mind would ever call in the middle of the night. And no one ever answers the phone in the middle of the night, unless they have caller ID. Even then, if the number was unknown, then there would be no way in hell a normal person would still answer it. If the call was made on your phone, there's a chance you might surrender. But if it's on your landline, then it certainly is one way to get a heart attack.

My first thought when the ringing on the phone woke me up: What is the effing time?

My thought when I realized that I fell asleep on the couch with a pillow and a blanket: Why did I sleep here again?

My thought when I realized it was one in the morning and the phone was still ringing: I do not remember watching anything related to The Ring.

Even though someone with a weird voice was probably going to warn me that I had a week left to live, my mom had somehow found a way to make the ringing really annoying, so that someone would get irritated and answer the phone immediately. I had no choice but to get up and pick up the receiver. Even if it was a girl crying (and not even the ones you hear in the horror movies), it was still spooky on so many levels.

Unknown caller ID? Check. Some girl I don't recognize, crying on the other end? Check. Weird sound coming from somewhere in the house? Check. This was now starting to look like a scene from some lame horror movie. I grabbed my phone and pressed a button so that the screen lit up, serving as my temporary light beam -slash- vampire incinerator.

Finally, the girl stopped crying. "Hello?" She asked. "It's Tess."

"Oh." I replied, wondering why the hell Fang's half-sister was calling me in the middle of the night while crying. We have called each other before, but we've done it on more reasonable hours. "You okay? Why are you crying? Or more importantly, why are you calling me in the middle of the night?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that, I've been calling pretty much everyone I know for the past two and a half hours, and, well, it's super complicated."

The weird sound was now getting nearer and louder. Actually, it wasn't a weird sound anymore. It sounded more like footsteps. I pointed my lit-up screen in various directions, hoping to catch the source.

"Listen." Tess said. "Something happened-"

"Oh shit." I accidentally said out loud. Too loud.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." I said, making a face at my mother who was decked out in eye-bags and nightwear, which I should mention is white and flowy. Like the kind ghosts are thought to wear, except that hers was shorter.

"Go to sleep. It's too early to be on the phone." She said right before retreating back to her bed.

"So… where were we?" I asked Tess.

"What's your blood type?"

I'm pretty sure no one ever asks about that at this time in the morning. "AB negative."

There was a pause. "Are you sure?"

No wonder other people didn't answer her. No one likes being questioned about their genes, especially for some undefined cause. "Yes. Now why are you asking about my blood type in the middle of the night? And on what kind of desperate measures are you calling on, anyway?"

"I'm in the hospital, Max. Something happened."

"Whoa. You okay?"

"Pretty much. Can you just please go here now? We really need the blood."

I checked the clock again. "You do know that it's one in the morning, right? And who else do you mean by 'we'?"

"Yes, I am fully aware of the time. I… I don't want to talk about this on the phone. Can you please go now?"

"Yeah." I replied, and Tess gave me the address of the hospital. I hung up, wondering why I just agreed to leaving the house in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. I tiptoed to my mother's bedroom, a part of me hoping that she would somehow approve.

My mom was definitely not a light sleeper, judging by the fact that it had been less than a minute since our last conversation. She was probably not going to forgive me for waking her up again in this hour (even if the first one wasn't on purpose).

"Mom," I whispered, shaking her shoulders gently.

"What is it again?" She asked grumpily.

"I need to go out."

"What? Like a dog?"

"No mom. I need to leave, as in go somewhere. The person on the phone was Tess. It's an emergency, and she needs me to go there."

"Max, do you know what time it is?"

"One-oh-three."

"Do you think I would allow you to get out of the house at this time?"

Well, she wouldn't, but it did feel stupid not escaping instead, like the last time when I went out to the clearing, which brought about certain memories. "No, I guess."

"Then no. Go to sleep."

"Mom…"

"Max, even I won't answer calls from my patients this early. This can wait later, when the rest of our time zone is awake."

I guess I'll have to stick to Plan B: escape.

I looked out the window to see if Gazzy's mountain bike was still chained at the front yard. It was, so I grabbed the keys from the kitchen and went upstairs.

Mom was right. It was too early, and it could wait for at least five hours or so. But I promised Tess I'd go there immediately, and I had a feeling that this was a real emergency. I went back to my room, put on the first clothes I found, which was shorts and a shirt, and threw my jacket on before quickly putting my hair up in a pony tail. There was no time to check for any eye bags or pillow creases. I then grabbed my sneakers and tossed them out the window. Once I made sure I had my phone, keys, and some cash, I opened the window and began to make my way down.

It would've probably been better if I took the bus, since chances were I wasn't awake enough. For now, the bicycle was my fastest way of getting there seeing as I had no idea about bus schedules in the middle of the night. As soon as the road was void of traffic, I took out my phone to check the time. It was almost a quarter to two.

For the time being, I had to focus on getting there on time, whatever the deadline was.

"Tess?"

The aforementioned person looked up. I may have woken up and rode a bike all the way in the middle of the night/early morning, but with her red eyes, and eye bags, Tess definitely won the "Most Tired Person" Award. And I definitely did not expect the winner of the said award to suddenly stand up and hug me.

"I thought you wouldn't come." She said. "No one was convinced someone would turn up in this hour."

"I had to pull a couple of strings. You're here alone?"

"No. My parents are at the room. They're fine. I just got out to wait for you, in case you came."

"Um, Tess, you're still not telling me-"

At that moment, a doctor approached us. "Ms. Giovanni, this is her?"

She nodded. The doctor then turned to look at me. "You do know you're going to have to donate plenty of blood, right?"

"I guess. But the question is, for whom?"

He looked weirdly at Tess. "Well, Max does need to know. Plus, she needs to check up on him, anyway." She said.

"It's for Iggy?" I guessed.

She shook her head. "It's for Fang."

"Hello?"

"Hey, mom."

"Maximum! Where on earth are you?"

"I'm at the hospital, because of the emergency I was talking about."

"Then please do enlighten me."

"Fang got in an accident, and he needed blood. I just so happened to have the same blood type as him."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"Because I only found out when I got here."

"Well, I'll follow in the morning. Be careful. Bye."

"Bye, mom."

Click.

When the two of us checked up on Fang, he was still a bit unconscious. Four adults, Tess' and Fang's parents, were guarding him, talking about options. The minute I entered, the latter's mother got up and hugged me. The doctor talked about the basic process of blood donation, and I readily agreed. My stomach, although, did not, and I was advised to go to the cafeteria and grab a bite. Tess went with me.

"I'm still not sure if coffee's the best option. But hey, it's way better than soda."

She had been acting all weird and jittery, but it made sense because a) she was also loaded up on caffeine, and b) she was nervous about Fang. Sometimes it felt like she was his girlfriend, since she worried about him a lot, but I would just be reminded that they were siblings.

"Thanks," I said, as Tess handed me my coffee and sandwich. There were few people in the cafeteria, and many of them were nursing their own cups of caffeine. "So do you mind telling me what happened to Fang?"

She explained that he spent the day at Iggy's, who was still in the first stage of the post-breakup. He was making his way back around ten, when a car hit him. The weird part was that he was walking and got hit on the sidewalk. But they learned from a witness that the driver was trying to avoid a dog and had no idea he was there.

"Um, excuse me, Ms. Ride?" A nurse who had approached us asked. "Are you ready for your donation?"

"How're you feeling?" I asked, pinning my phone between my ear and shoulder as I picked up dirty clothes all over the floor.

"Still feel crappy." He replied, chuckling a bit.

After the not-so-scary episode of getting some blood out of me, I stayed in Fang's hospital room for a bit, talking and cheering Tess up until I fell asleep. Fang was still unconscious the whole time. When I woke up the next morning, my mom and Tess' parents were talking. Fang's parents had gone back to get some things. And apparently, my mom and I were also leaving. Pissed as she was, she was still glad that I helped Fang out. They all said I was a really, really good friend. Like an almost best-friend.

Too bad I wished I'd be so much more than that.

"Are you even allowed to talk on the phone?"

"Eh, don't know. Parents are out, Tess is convincing Iggy to get out of his pod and visit me, and I'm in a hospital room with a phone."

"And out of all the people you chose to call me?"

"All other people whose numbers I know are busy convincing or getting convinced. I'm not interrupting you, am I?"

"No, just doing laundry. Mom made me do it after my little prison escape last night."

"Why?"

I never did tell Tess on how I got there immediately. My mom, on the other hand, was met with praises by Mr. and Mrs. Giovanni before she could chide me for breaking out. "So I could save your life." I said.

"How touching. I am eternally grateful."

"Very funny, Fang."

"No really. Even Iggy has never done something as dramatic and selfless as that."

"Well that's because it's your first time getting hit by a car in the middle of the night."

"True, true. Visit me?" he asked

"I'd love to." I said, trying to add sarcasm, because it would be weird if he actually knew that I actually wanted to visit him and was planning to even without invitation. "I'll go there a little later."

"Stay the night?"

"How demanding. I'll ask my mom."

"And if she won't, can you escape again?"

"Fang!"

"Please?"

"Fine. Bye now."

"Bye."

Click.

"Miss me?" I asked, putting down my overnight bag and sitting beside him on the bed.

He punched me on the shoulder. "Not completely. Tess is downstairs, getting some food."

"Yeah, I bumped into her."

"Did your mom allow you this time, or did you have to make a getaway again?" He teased.

"She allowed me, for your information."

"Ah. You mind giving me details about your escape?"

I did, and he kept laughing during the two and a half minutes it took. "Why didn't you just put on your sneakers first instead of having to throw it out the window and climbing down barefoot?" He asked.

"That was because they have a tendency to squeak whenever I try to get away."

"How about that time you went to the clearing, when it was raining?" He asked, slightly turning pink upon recollection of the "joyful" memories we shared.

"I did the same thing. They got wet, of course."

"Hey." Tess said as she entered the room with food. "He could hardly wait to see you."

Fang made a face. "What the hell?"

"It's true." She said, and turned to me. "He actually kept mentioning that you were going to stay for the night."

"You are going to stay here too, right?" I asked her.

"Of course; wouldn't want the guy to lose control." She replied, and dodged as Fang threw one of his slippers.

"Very funny, Tess." Fang said.

"Anyway," she said. "I have food with me, and it's getting a little late. We should eat."

"So, did you actually miss me?" I whispered. It was almost midnight, and while Tess was sleeping on the couch provided for visitors, I was sitting on a chair beside Fang's bed. Both of us couldn't sleep, as usual.

"To tell the truth? Sort of."

"When you got hit, you were making your way back from Iggy's, right?"

"Yeah. You wanna know how he is? He actually visited a little right after I called you."

"So, is he still upset?"

"He is. But not as much. He's starting to focus on other things."

"That's good."

"Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank You."

"It's cool. I'm pretty sure you would've done the same."

He subconsciously held my hand, and I resisted the urge to point it out and lose contact. "I feel like I can tell you everything."

Then can you please tell me if you like me or not?

"Prove it." I said, trying to keep up my Max Ride façade. Now was definitely not a good time to admit my feelings, especially since he was in a hospital bed and his sister was less than ten feet away. "Tell me something you haven't told anyone."

He leaned in closer until our foreheads were almost touching, and the only thing I could see in the dark was his eyes, which were even darker. "I like you a lot. More than you think." He said, and leaned in closer to kiss me. It was slow, but not as passionate as the ones people read in romance novels. But enough to turn me into a mellow freak.

This was too surreal.

Fang

It was stupid. Stupid and even more incredibly stupid.

I shouldn't have kissed her.

I could smell her hair; she was that close. The pillow on the bed was pretty large, so I edged it towards her so that she could sleep more comfortably.

She was still holding my hand.

In my usually lame and stupid fashion, I kissed her while I was in a hospital bed with my half-sister less than ten feet away. A very dim-witted move considering that she was my best friend's ex and that I was not supposed to ever tell that.

I could hear her breathing.

I hoped that she forgot. Because if she didn't, everything would be a disaster.

Everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to Part 4. Please take note of the following:

-Part 4 will be shorter. Eight chapters, if you don't count the epilogue.

-There might be drama. No complications, but probably drama that you may or may not be able to relate to (which means you can totally suggest anything which I shall run through my 'idea machine').

-It will be weird.

So, yeah, sorry for the very dramatic and surreal chapter. I guess I've been watching too many soap operas. Again. Just tell me if you want to change anything, and I'll try my best.

Review and tell me what you think =D.