Chapter 15 – This Just Keeps Getting Weirder

I was too wired up to go see Fang immediately after my conversation with the Voice. I mean, what would he think? How do people react when you say that you have a voice in your head? Will they call the loony bin on me? Or worse, would Fang laugh in my face? Normally I don't care about those kinds of things, but it was Fang. I get to boss him around on the farm, and if he thinks I'm insane – no comments from the peanut gallery, please – than he won't take me as seriously. Then again, why should I care what he thinks? If he knows I'm insane, then he should be afraid of me and be even more submissive.

I sighed. The Voice told me to trust him, but the real question was could I trust it?

This was going to take a lot of effort on my part, to open up to someone aside from my mom. She always was my rock, the person I depended on most. But what the Voice said early made me uneasy. I could trust her with this, couldn't I? What was worse was that I had a suspicion that it was right.

If I was actually going to do this, to tell Fang, I wanted to be as comfortable as possible. There was no way I was having him see me again in only my bathrobe. I pulled some shorts and a beater out of my drawer and slipped them on. My stomach felt as twisted as a pretzel, so I knew I couldn't eat anything right now. I took a sip of water, inhaled deeply, and walked out of my room.

His room was just below mine downstairs, so the walk itself only lasted a few seconds. I spotted Ella in the living room watching TV and Mom in the kitchen washing dishes. None of them seemed to notice me. I can do this, I encouraged myself as I stood outside his door. I can do it. Just knock… I lifted my fist.

Go on, Max, the Voice said.

I grimaced. Go away, I can do this alone.

Just be prepared, it advised.

Prepared for what? How I'm going to tell him that I'm crazy? Just leave me alone.

I was grateful when it didn't reply.

Okay, back to the plan. I took in a deep breath and knocked. It took a second before Fang said from the other side, "Who is it?"

'It's Max," I said quietly. I peered into the living room to see Ella's attention fully on some MTV show. That was good. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Come in," he said.

Good, now just go in. He'll be suspicious if you don't in the next to seconds. My body reacted before my mind could stop it and I twisted the knob. I peeked inside to see where Fang was, but the room was dark. The only light was from the lamp on the nightstand, which the bulb was going out so it casted a pretty dim glow. I opened to door further and stepped in.

"Fang?" I asked.

"What?"

That's when I really started to freak. I heard his voice, but I couldn't see him anywhere. Was he in the bathroom? I was about to turn around. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Are you in the bathroom?" I asked, but it was stupid of me wondering since the door was wide open and clearly no one was in it. "Or are we playing hide and seek? Isn't this childish?" I laughed a little plastically, trying to hide my discomfort.

"What are you talking about? I'm right here." I heard his voice from the bed, but I didn't see him. My heart pounded unsteadily.

"Stop trying to scare me." My voice shook. If he was pulling a prank, he would have to be prepared to face the wrath of Max. He would learn soon enough that you do not pull a fast one on me without facing the consequences.

"Max, I'm right here!" I still couldn't see him. The springs in his mattress creaked as if someone had gotten off of it, and I stared at it in utter distress. Oh, my God.

"What are you trying to pull?" his voice thundered from very close by.

"Aaaahhh!!!" I screamed as loud and high as a horribly petty girl in a bad horror movie. Fang was standing right in front of me, looking down with a hard, questioning gaze. I was so shocked that I fell backwards. It took a few seconds for me to compose myself before I realized how embarrassed I was to have screamed like that.

"What's going on?" Ella asked frantically, looking in his room. She looked extremely confused, seeing me on the floor with Fang standing over me. I'm sure it didn't look good from her perspective. There were two separate ways she could process what was going on, both of them bad for different reasons. I gulped.

"Uh, Fang just pulled a prank on me," I said a little unsteadily. I forced myself to laugh, but it sounded unnatural.

Ella looked toward Fang for a confirmation. "Yeah, uh, I wanted to scare her."

She laughed in disbelief. "Oh man, if there's one thing you learn in this house it's that you never scare Max. She's gonna get you big time for this." I smiled at her for knowing me so well.

He snorted. "Yeah, we'll see about that."

"Whatever, it's your head," she said with another laugh. She walked back to the living room to watch the rest of her show.

I looked at him tersely. "That was not funny," I said in a hushed whisper. "What the hell was that?"

"What do you mean?" he said just as steely. "I was on my bed the whole time. What the hell were you doing?"

"No you weren't. The first time I saw you was when I started screaming. You had to have been hiding behind the door or something." The more I rambled, the more I realized how stupid and pointless this was. It dawned on me with a cold realization that he wasn't lying.

I told you to be prepared, the Voice chimed in its annoying way.

"Shut up," I muttered.

Fang's eyebrows furrowed at me. "I didn't say anything," he said, looking really confused and a little afraid, if that were at all possible for him. "And I swear I was on my bed the whole time. I was reading Daniel X." He pointed to the nightstand and I saw the book resting beneath the lamp. "Maybe you're going blind."

"Obviously not if I can see you right now, idiot." He offered me a hand and I took it, not trusting my legs this time. My head still wasn't better and he nearly gave me a heart attack.

"So what does that mean?" he wondered as he closed the door and then led us to the bed. We sat down, feeling the springs lowering to accommodate our weight.

I scooted a couple inches away and fiddled with my hands so I could avoid his eyes. "I think…" I took a deep breath. "I think you were just invisible," I whispered. Right? I asked the Voice.

As expected, it didn't answer.

"Are you crazy?" For once, his voice wasn't impassive and flat. It sounded seriously puzzled and irritated and even a little… frightened? It's hard to tell with him. Whenever he does display emotions they sound unnatural. On him, anyway. "I wasn't invisible… was I?"

I sighed. "I think you were. I didn't see you at all, and then all of a sudden you showed up in front of me. There is no other explanation. And I was warned to be prepared for something –" I cut myself off before I said anything else.

"What?" he asked, desperate. "You knew this was going to happen?"

"Not exactly…" I began, looking at the floor. Okay, Max, just do it. You have to tell him anyway. "I was told that I should be prepared by… uh… my Voice."

My cheeks were splashed with pink. I couldn't believe I just said it, even though I knew I could trust him. It just makes me feel that much more insane to admit that I had a voice in my head, ya know?

He was silent for a few seconds, pondering what I said and how he's supposed to say something to it. "What?" he finally determined was the best response.

"I have a Voice in my head," I admitted, suddenly feeling very self conscious. This was it. I was letting him know of something that I didn't want to tell my mom. All because the freakin' Voice told me to. If having a voice is the first level of insanity, and talking back is the second, then listening to it must be off the charts as far as lunacy goes.

You're doing the right thing, it said.

I wanted to scream at it. Oh sure, now you pop up. Are you here for moral support when he starts cussing me out for being a lunatic?

Wait and see.

"A voice? In your head?" he said slowly. I wasn't looking at him, but I knew he was looking at the floor too. "Since when?"

That snapped my attention to him. "That's all you want to know? Since when????"

He shrugged and looked up to meet me glance. "Yeah, I was just thinking –"

"That what? That I'm psycho? I know you think I'm crazy! Just say it." I looked away from him, preparing for his assault.

What I wasn't prepared for was his rough hand gently caressing my chin, pulling my face in his direction. He waited till I looked him in the eye. When I did, all I saw in his black eyes were my reflection. "I was thinking... what if they're connected?" he said softly.

"What's connected?" I asked naively after a moment of silence.

He rolled his eyes. "My invisibility. Your Voice. They're connected somehow. Now all we need to do is figure it out. Do you have any idea about why this is happening?"

"No."

Yes you do, the Voice said. You just haven't put the pieces together.

What the heck are you talking about? Are you saying that Fang is right? Are you and the invisibility connected?

Everything that happens is a part of the big picture, Max.

"Thanks a lot," I grumbled.

"What?" Fang looked confused.

"Oh, uh, the Voice," I said, feeling my cheeks blush again.

"Oh, right."

Like I said last chapter, I think the next chapter will be a Fang one. I'm just not sure if it will take place just moments after this conversation or the next day at school. If anyone has an idea, let me know. Jacob Black Ooft. . .Phitt, that's kind of how my reaction would be. I would probably be more cool about it and say "Oh yeah, I have a voice in my head and you don't! hahaha". Rukiwolff95, you're welcome. I hope this makes you vereh happeh. ;) Turtle787, Mojo is strange, but he's my mojo and I love him (mojo: awww). Oooo, he's out! Must go capture him!!!

I need to go while mojo is still around! Pleaase review!!!!!!!!!