Chapter 31: Angels And Angel
Max PoV
Ouch.
What happened? Where am I? Who am I- Nah just kidding. I know who I am. It's just the other two I wasn't certain of.
The one thing that I was sure of, whatever had happened, wherever I was, whoever I was, I was in severe pain- so I was either alive or in hell. Or the general public's idea of heaven couldn't have been more off.
I opened my eyes nervously, not convinced I wanted to know whether I was dead or not.
The eyes that met mine told me I was not in heaven. Yes, they lived in a face fit for an angel. But that face belonged to Alice- most definitely not an angel.
Something in her flawless features immediately caused me to worry.
"What is it? What happened? Why am I not dead?"
The vampire smiled weakly at me. "They're coming. We don't have much time. We need to move or they'll get too close. I'll explain after."
Nodding, I tried to stand, moving out of Alice's cold arms to do so. A sharp pain erupted across the back of my legs, just above my knees. Glancing down, I did a double take. There was a cracker of a bruise across the back of my knees. It looked like someone had taken a metal pole and smacked me repeatedly with it- I would know.
"You caught me?" I asked Alice, incredulous.
She shrugged. "You'll have another one across your back." She answered mildly.
I stared at her for a few seconds longer, before shaking my head and getting back to business.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "I need to go find...." I trailed off, realizing exactly what she was doing here.
Her aggrieved, weary expression confirmed it.
Alice was going to take me to the Volturi. She was leading me to my death.
Without a word I nodded to her, and without a word she set off, her feet making no sound on the dead leaves littering her path.
After taking a deep breath I followed her.
What would the Volturi do to me once I had killed their leader?
They'll probably rip me into pieces and drink me dry. Actually they'll most likely torture me first. They'll want revenge. What if they go after the Flock afterwards, to get revenge?
I shook my head violently, trying to get rid of such distressing thoughts.
Happy thoughts Max, happy thoughts.
Um...
I'll never have to smell one of the Gasman's...skills....again. That's good, right? But I won't see Gazzy ever ag-
I'll never have to eat desert rat again. That's good. But it was so fun, all of us sitting around the fire, laughing together. We used to laugh at the most random things. Like there was this time when Iggy...
Never mind.
Good thoughts, happy thoughts...
I'll never have that damned nightmare again. Although I didn't have it last night, when me and Fang slept on the porch. I don't think I dreamt at all. I was so comfortable and felt so safe in F-
I'm so not good at this. It's like my entire world revolved around the Flock.
Well that's a fair point actually.
It's not just the Flock though; it's Mom and Ella as well. Oh God. They get here tomorrow!
But maybe they'll be happy to see me gone. Maybe they all will.
I'm probably just a nuisance to them. When I'm gone Angel will be free to use her mind control. Nudge will be free to go to school. Iggy and Gazzy will be able to make bombs as they please, and Fang will be free to go out with whoever he wants without me interfering.
They probably won't miss me at all.
"Max." Alice said, pulling me out of my morbidly down-spiralling train of thoughts.
"Hmm." I felt like I would cry if I spoke.
"You're going to die, you know that right?" She sounded matter of fact, but my ears- used to dealing with Fang- caught an edge to her voice.
"Yep." Great. Now I sound like Fa-
We continued in for another few minutes, the only noise my feet gently crunching through the fallen leaves. I concentrated on that, not wanting my mind to wander again.
"Max." Alice said again.
"Hmm." What was it this time?
"I'm sorry."
I stopped dead in my tracks. "What?"
"I could have stopped this from happening, but I was too selfish. I should have warned you what I saw. Instead I sat by and watched it happen. And now I'm leading you to your death. It's-" I cut off her hysterical babbling.
"Alice! This is entirely my fault." I took her frozen hands into mine. Looking into her amber eyes, I saw that this age-old vampire was terrified that I would hate her for what she was doing. Terrified that it would make her like the Volturi. "I want to do this. I need to do this. Think about it Alice. If we weren't doing this then everyone in Forks would be hurt. Bella would be killed! Do you really want that? Of course not! That's why you didn't stop me. That's why you are leading me in the right direction. It's because you're a good person. Because you don't want people to die. You're helping me because you're against innocent people being hurt. So come on, let's get going. Let's go save Forks."
The small pixie girl looked up at me with wide eyes, before nodding and continuing on, never letting go of my hand.
