Chapter 37 - Revelations

So normally after a huge, dramatic take-off scene like the one I had just taken part in would be the scene where said person would storm away in suit of her goal without looking back. But with this being me, and never being prepared as I should be, my initial thoughts from the moment I stepped outside were, Jeez, its freezing! In my total desire to find Fang and get away from my mom I completely forgot that it was freaking thirty degrees outside at the end of December. I'm totally noted for my genius in case you hadn't been paying attention the first 36 chapters of this story.

Shivering the entire way I crunched through the thin layer of snow that coated the backyard. At least I was wearing shoes, but even then those weren't appropriate for this weather. Whenever I return I'd probably have to be treated for frostbite.

I passed by the Pen and the barn, comforted that there were grunts and murmurs of animals instead of chaos caused by Erasers wanting a midnight snack. My thoughts were panicked and determined, on a one-track mission of finding Fang. I had no clue where he could have ventured through, no means of deciding which way he went. Before he left the house he had become invisible, at least I thought he left. Could you imagine the irony if he was hiding in our home? Oh, God, that would totally suck.

The first thing that could help me was turning on some floodlights. Why? Because maybe Mr. Invisible left some footprints in the snow. I guess that could be one flaw in the whole incognito plan, now wouldn't it? We kept some automatic lights along the barn for nighttime for if there was ever a time we had to attend to the animals in the dark. It came in handy during those times but was horrible if a squirrel tripped the alarms or something, in which case the lights could be bright enough to wake you up in the middle of the night if your room faced the backyard.

I ran along the side of the barn, causing the lights to pour into the white ground. At first it was blinding; I had to blink a few times as my eyes adjusted. Once I could see properly I scanned the snow, gauging for anything that could help. My footprints led from the back door to here, while I saw some unusually large ones creep from around my home up to the same spot. They were too large to be Fang's so I assumed they were from the Erasers. There were some that traveled from the home out to the forest.

I groaned. Of course this was another case where I wanted to go back inside and grab a flashlight… and a coat, and maybe some hot chocolate. If I went back, though, there was no way Mom would let me leave again. She'd just call the police and tell them to look for a missing kid. Fang would be just like all those other kids that had disappeared recently. His photo would be around, posted in the newspaper and on the Internet, but nothing would ever show up. Nothing had for years for the other parents. Not to mention that he was invisible, so they'd have an even harder time finding him.

Calculating the layout of my home I didn't think I could walk through the walls without someone seeing me. Mom kept everything in the kitchen and no doubt she was still in there watching me. I had to do this alone, with no leads, while opening myself up to hypothermia.

I followed the footprints out to the forest. The lights would only peer a little into the dead twigs, and they would go off soon anyway. I was basically blind, feeling my way through the small path that was still relatively clear. Snapping branches, scattering wildlife, and cracking snow were the only sounds I could hear besides my heavy breath, which puffed in front of me like smoke. That was the only thing I could see in this light. Yet I knew I wasn't completely hopeless yet.

I wasn't sure why, but I felt a force guide me, although I knew the path well. It was like a sixth sense, pulling me through the woods. My arms were held in front of me in case I ran into a tree or something, but so far I managed to find my way without a hitch.

My hand finally touched something, and when my fingers wrapped around it I immediately recognized the object with a frown. The wood was smooth and cylindrical, wobbling under my touch. I steadied it, not sure what I was going to do next. I still didn't know where Fang was; he could have gone anywhere in the forest. It would be impossible to follow him through the maze of trees, or even know where he went to. Erasers could be hiding anywhere. I could be mangled, minced, and put on the market before anyone realized what had happened. Why was I led to my favorite childhood hangout: the old tree house?

Taking a look around is good. Learn your surroundings to get a picture of the enemy.

Um, Voice, if I do go up in the tree house, how do you suppose I see? It's dark and I can't see my hands in front of me. Why the hell did you lead me here?

Not everything seems logical. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

I bit my lip to keep from screaming.

Fine, if the Voice wanted me up in the tree house, I'd make it happy. That'd be my last noble act; I was probably going to die soon from the cold anyway. Whoever the Voice was should go around telling people how much of a saint I was for trying to please it. Maybe death was a good thing though. There'd be no more Jeb which coincidently meant that I would hear no more 'Save the World' crapola. I felt a burden lifting already.

But if I was dead I couldn't find Fang, which was really the only reason why I was braving the cold. For him. Jeez, what's wrong with me?

Gritting my teeth, I climbed up the ladder, hoping it wouldn't break from the intense cold or under my weight, even though I wasn't that heavy. I doubted anyone used it anymore; I had no idea it was still in good condition. Who knows what the inside would look like? I reached the opening and crawled onto the wooden floor.

It really hadn't changed since my childhood. A winding oak curled along the east side, supporting the house underneath with two large branches. The sturdy trunk stuck through the wall, providing an excellent support to recline on. Windows lined each wall so that you could see the countryside for miles. It smelled of rotting wood but was still in good shape.

I leaned down to brush myself off, shivering as the cold reached my bones. When I straightened up I nearly passed out from shock.

"Max?" a voice said that I immediately recognized. It was the most surprised I had ever heard him speak. I couldn't tell if he was happy, confused, or just shocked. I, on the other hand, was extremely relieved.

Which was why I totally acted irrationally at the moment.

"Fang!" I shouted as I jumped toward the sound of his voice. I hit something human-shaped and hugged him tightly. He was totally unresponsive, and I could feel his tension and puzzlement by my reaction, but I was just so thankful that he was okay.

When I finally let go, I had to resist the urge to strangle him, mostly because I couldn't exactly see where he was. "How did you—" I began.

"Hold on," he mumbled, cutting me off. The sound of rustling fabric filled the air and then a small light exploded into the dark tree house. I blinked, and then I saw that it came from his iPod. Huh, that's handy.

I took a good look at him. He had some cuts on his face and the skin on his knuckles had peeled away. Despite the injuries from the fight he seemed fine. Something deep in his eyes those I couldn't detect. Almost an uneasy panic… I couldn't tell for sure.

"How did you know about the tree house?" I asked, suddenly realizing that the Voice had led me here. It actually did something useful for a change. But that was too easy, wasn't it? When in my life was getting my way easy? I was instantly on guard, afraid of what the implications of that epiphany would result in.

He sighed. "That day when I ran home from the vet, I passed by it."

I thought of something else. "Have you been coming here all this time? Whenever you walked into the woods?"

"Yeah, it's a good place to think," he said with a smirk. "Away from everything else, high above the world."

I laughed and he raised an eyebrow. I shook my head. "It's just that I always came here for the same reason when I was smaller." He nodded.

The light from the iPod dimmed and he touched the wheel so we could see.

I shivered. I was so overcome with the joy of finding Fang again that I had forgotten that I was freezing my butt off. He noticed and muttered, "Oh." He slipped a jacket off his shoulders and offered it to me.

"Thanks," I mumbled awkwardly through chattering teeth. I wrapped it around myself and inhaled, not even caring that his eyes were on me. It smelled nice, like how I would imagine an odor for comfort and protection to be. "When did you grab your jacket?"

"Right after I said I was leaving but before I actually left." He scanned me once. "You didn't seem as prepared," he noted.

"Yeah, I know, I was in a heat-of-the-moment kind of deal. I, uh, had an argument with my mom." I looked down, wondering what would happen when I got home. Would she be forgiving or grateful? Would Fang come back with me? The more I thought of it the more I realized how life at home would change. Would we ever be safe from another attack? So many "would" questions flitted through my head.

"What happened?"

"She was… well, when I called her home she was more concerned about me than she was for you." I paused, gauging his reaction.

"That's understandable, Max. You're her daughter."

"But you're family," I persisted, disgusted that he could consider himself any less than me or Ella in our home. "It doesn't matter that I'm really her daughter. She acted like you weren't even important. Ella and I were worried sick, and she hardly even gave a second thought about you."

There was silence, and then he said, "What did she say about the break in?"

"Well of course she was shocked and angry, but she was happy that I was okay…"

Knowing me as well as he did, he saw straight into the heart of the matter. "I know you're leaving something out. Tell me."

Was there any point in hiding it from him? He'd find out anyway when we got home. I sighed, knowing that it really wasn't worth trying. "My mom, uh, knew that we are… different. Well, at least she knew that I was different. She thought that the break in was for me, that the Erasers— I mean, wolf-men— were after me. She also said that she, well, made me… as in helped in making me different." My fists clenched and anger churned inside my stomach as I remembered how betrayed I'd felt.

"Holy shit," he whispered, clearly as dumfounded as I was with the new information. "Jesus. She created you? God, Max." He sucked in a hissing breath. "Did she know anything about me?" he asked cautiously, trying to hide the curiosity from his voice.

I shook my head. "No. When I told her that you were, uh, different too, that was the first time she heard of it."

"Huh."

We were quiet again for several agonizing moments that seemed to last for an eternity. There was nothing to say after that. We just sat facing each other, taking in what I had just told him. After a while he didn't even bother to keep his iPod on, so we were in total darkness. The only sounds in the still night were the blowing wind and our breathing. I readjusted the jacket, trying to warm myself up again. There was a shuffling sound and then a corded arm snaked around my shoulders, rubbing up and down briskly. I smiled but then remembered that he couldn't see it. "Thanks," I said.

After a while he finally spoke again. "Jeb seemed to know a lot about me."

That brought back the memory of something Mom had muttered earlier, when I was talking about Fang. She didn't know about him, but she had said Jeb's name. Of course he was responsible for everything. He was the one who had suggested Fang to be our foster brother…

As Fang would say, Holy shit!

"You know, he made sure that you got put in our home," I realized, putting the pieces together. "He had to have had a reason for wanting you to live with us. Does he know that we're different? What does it mean?"

"I don't know." He carefully chose his next words as he took a deep breath. "That first night, the one when I moved in, when I met with him in my room he confronted me about my past. He knew a lot about where I had been before and what my life had been like. I thought he was some sort of mind reader, but now it makes sense. He wants us together for a reason."

"I was thinking the same thing." I wondered exactly what the implications of his last sentence meant. "But what about James? He's like us, too. How does he fit in?"

"Who knows? Maybe he's a part of everything too."

The words 'the Big Picture' were floating around in my mind, and I shuddered, wondering if the Voice had put them there. If I ever knew who the Voice was I was going to kill it.

Something more pressing was bothering me, and it wasn't caused by the crazy voice inside my head. "What exactly did Jeb know about your past? You've been living with us for four months and you're a complete stranger to everyone. We hardly know you and I constantly wonder if it's that you're afraid to open up to us, or if it's just not in you're nature to tell, or even if you don't trust us—"

"Max, of course I trust you," he said as if it were obvious. "I just… wasn't ready."

I bit my lip. That was pretty much the most emotional-wise he had ever admitted to.

I was going to suggest about getting out of this frozen chamber — I mean, I was wearing his jacket; he had to be dying — and possibly ask about going home, when I was cut off by Fang's voice.

"But I think you deserve to know. It doesn't seem right that I should keep this from you."

"Keep what?" I asked stupidly. Jeez people, it was below the freezing point. How do you expect me to remember what he was talking about?

He sighed. "My past, I meant. I should have told you that one time but… I couldn't make myself do it."

"You're going to tell me now? In a tree house in the middle of a dead forest when it's thirty-something degrees outside? Can't we go home and talk about it?"

"So you don't want to know?"

"Of course I do! It's just, the timing and setting isn't exactly the greatest."

"Not to sound rude, but after what you told me I can't be sure if I trust saying anything personal at home. I don't know if I can rely on your mom to keep everything private."

I grimaced, but of course he was right. I didn't know if I could trust her anymore either. "I understand."

"I always knew that I was adopted; we looked nothing alike. It never mattered though, because she was my mom and she always was there for me. She was a pediatric doctor and I always got to go to work with her. It was really cool, being young and getting to work with your mom. Then…"

I couldn't see him, but I could tell it was really hard for him to finally admit this. The jerk in me was dying to roll my eyes and tell him to suck it up but hey, I can be sensitive occasionally. I tried patting his hand but I think I hit his knee. (Don't ask how my aim was that bad). "It's okay," I consoled.

"Yeah, I know," he sighed. "When I was about five or six, we were driving home from the hospital she worked at. Someone ran a red light and smashed right into the driver's side of the car. I was only banged up but it's impossible for anyone to survive an accident like that. The thing was that I saw everything." His voice had a twinge of melancholy in it.

"Oh, my God. Fang I'm so sorry." I knew she died but I didn't realize it had happened like that. "I didn't realize it happened like that."

"Sadly sorry doesn't change anything," he noted bitterly. "I spent the next few years bouncing around from home to home, but none of the houses ever felt right to me. There was something about the families that wasn't good. I never trusted anyone, at school or in my foster families. I couldn't bring myself to open up, and I guess that kind of changed me." I remembered seeing the pictures in his room of the happy, smiling child that he used to be. What would he have been like if he hadn't gone through the death of his mom and bounced in foster care?

"Eventually I started finding ways of getting out of my placement homes. I would act up to make them hate me or convince the social service workers that my home was unsuitable. I learned all the loopholes that would put me back into the orphanage to the point where they stopped placing me in homes. There was nothing exciting about living with tons of children, but I knew it was safer. It was easy to get into this self-sufficient mindset and I knew I didn't need a family to survive. I was an independent.

"But over the summer the social workers convinced me to try one more home. I wasn't really in the mood and I didn't expect much to come from it. They told me that I was recommended for this household and that it would be something new for me to do. The fact that I was suggested for a place made me curious. Of course I had to try even if I only thought I'd spend a couple months their max. Let me say, your home was different from all the others. I never worked on a farm before, never been around farm animals before either. It was strange when I actually started getting used to living with you guys."

I smiled, touched that Fang was (sort of) admitting that this was the first home he actually liked.

"It wasn't my intention at first, but somehow I saw myself staying with your family for a while. I never got too far into thinking about a future, but I figured that this was going to be the longest I spent with one family. I don't know about the long term but… I want to be here. It's the first time in a long time I've actually been…"

He couldn't find the right word but I knew what he was implying. I was dying to say a lot of things to him, mostly good, some bad and smart aleck-y, but I lost my tongue for the second time that night.

"When things started going weird at school at first I was concerned for myself. I'd spent so long being alone that I wanted to be safe. But as it kept going on I realized that there were others more important to me, that I didn't want to get involved… but it seems like that could never happen. What your mom said has shown that it isn't about me. There is something else. Someone else..."

A tense moment passed where, suddenly, I felt his breath very close to me. My senses were on hyper alert. What the heck was he doing? I was confused and guarded, not understanding where this was coming from.

Suddenly, and somehow miraculously in the dark, his lips were on mine, soft yet determined, and my mind shorted out.

All I could do was react to the feeling. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but the tingling in my stomach would affirm that suspicion according to most romance novels. If I were more in control I might have pushed him off, or maybe not. I just got lost in the moment of letting my lips move in sync with his.

Eventually I was able to think in staggered questions again. What did he mean by this? This was the moment every girl dreamed of, their first kiss, and to be honest I had never given much thought to how I'd want it to happen. I sure as hell didn't think it would take place in a tree house in the heart of winter. Did I ever think of sharing this moment with Fang? There had been all those signs... Oh God, I'm such an idiot. All the confusion and worry, but also the need and longing, made this experience a little too overwhelming. I wanted to jump out of here right now and fly away from everything.

It seemed like we had been kissing forever. Who knew how long it had actually been? Seconds? Hours? I could hardly process thoughts, much less time. But at some point mid-lip-locked I thought that the tree house had shaken violently. Or did it really do that?

Was this a revelation of love?

Thanks for all the understanding and encouraging words! I'm still not 100% better but I'm getting there. This weekend had been kind of hectic but fun, and I did work on the story. I spent today though really finishing it and getting into it, so I hope it wasn't too bad or awkward, even though I thought it was kind of OOC. I don't know if it was the greatest, but I don't think I butchered it too much either. I was kind of writing with zero experience to draw from. Haha, I'm a loser. :P

Kina Kalamari, yeah the musical is a lot different from the book. Fiyero didn't die, but was turned into the Scarecrow, and Elphaba didn't die either, but it was still really good. Also, yay for Vampire Kisses! Read the Manga's too because the artwork is incredible! The new one comes out at the end of the month! CloudNRain, no, Fang is soooo much better! :D

I'm gonna try balancing writing into the whole school thing, which I'm still trying to get used to again. I'll try to get to the other stories soon, too. Oh, also, I'm nominated for one award on the yolasite MR Awards, so please vote for me!!

Going for #500, who will get... uh... more virtual cookies! Or maybe virtual ice cream. :P
--biteoutoflife--