Happy late Valentine's Day! Time for a special chapter. I meant to put this up yesterday, but due to unfortunate circumstances, I was unable to. (Stupid little sister.) I really hope that you all enjoy this. So, read 'NeoFlock' by Talon666 and 'Dark Blue' and 'Maximum Ride: Wings vs. Wands' by Madeline Cullen. Well, like I said before, enjoy! Here's my new chapter.
Skye and I were holding hands, walking through town. Where were we exactly? Don't know, don't care. We were way too busy looking at each other. It was like we were both afraid that if we looked away for one second, the person standing next to us would disappear.
"Uh… Mel?" Skye asked me, swinging our arms back and forth. Neither of us had said anything for a very long time.
"Uh huh." I said, acknowledging that I was listening to him. "What is it?" I saw a glint in his perfect, ocean blue eyes. Man, I had missed looking at those and actually seeing some life. They'd been far too cold for far too long.
He let go of my hand for a moment and dug into his pocket, pulling out twenty dollars. He smirked when he saw my expression. "I know you have money for the stuff we need, but I thought I could treat you to some ice cream."
"Where'd you get it?" I asked suspiciously. I didn't know what he had done as an Eraser. For all I knew, he could have gone out on a mission for the Director, killed a guy, and then taken all his money. Okay, so maybe I have a bit of an overactive imagination.
"Relax." he told me, still smirking. "Stole it from Cory this morning before we left. He didn't even notice. The idiot. I figured I might find a use for it."
I laughed, actually amused. He was absolutely right. Cory was an idiot. He should've known better. He should've been way more careful. And he thought Skye was really stupid. Hah!
"So, you wanna?" he asked me playfully, grinning bigger. I didn't realize just how much I missed that smile. The last time he smiled like that at me he had been an Eraser and he had stomped on my arm. I liked these circumstances much better.
"Duh yeah." I told him happily. I had picked that phrase up from Nudge. I rarely used it, but it tended to crop up from time to time. "I'm surprised you didn't ask me sooner."
He chuckled. "I was trying to figure out what to do with you." he explained to me. "I wanted it to be special, fun, and inexpensive. A way to say that I'm really sorry about what happened." I saw pain flash across his face. Oh no. Bad thoughts.
I clutched his hand again, trying to reassure him. I wasn't mad anymore. Far from it. I understood now. "No, Skye. I'm sorry. I should've realized that you weren't in your right mind." I should've listened to Angel. She had been right all along. Oh, did I know a certain bird girl that was going to be disgustingly smug the next time I fell asleep.
"Oh, who cares who should be sorry." he said, shaking his head. "The point is that we are back together and that we completely trust each other." He wrapped an arm around me and I almost let out a squeal.
I sighed contentedly. This morning, things looked depressing. I didn't think Angel's big plan would actually work. I should've never doubted her. She knew what she was talking about. She always knew what she was talking about.
We walked along blissfully. I swear, it was almost like we were in the middle of some sappy chick-flick with a ton of crying. Except the crying part was over. Now the audience was cooing over how cute we were together.
It wasn't long before we ran into a Dairy Queen. What better place to get some ice cream?
We waltzed right inside the air conditioned restaurant and waited in line for a good ten minutes.
We kept getting disapproving looks from some of the other customers. I supposed we were pretty dirty. I'd have to remember to get us all washed up soon. Maybe a car wash could work. That was something to think about. I could always use my power to take the water out of our clothes.
We finally got to the front of the line and decided to order two vanilla cones to go. I don't think either of us wanted to sit in a room full of people who would stare at us and judge us the whole time. We had private things to discuss. Things that could be overheard if we stayed inside.
"So…" I said when we were back outside, walking along. How did I put this without saying something wrong? "When you turned into an Eraser… um…what… what…" Oh, how should I say this?
"What was I thinking?" Skye asked me, licking his ice cream. "Is that what you're trying to ask me?"
I nodded sheepishly and took a lick of my own ice cream. I wanted to understand what had actually been going on. How had Tanner been able to make Skye hate me and Jewel so quickly? How had he been able to make Skye hate us at all?
Skye sighed heavily. "Old memories came to me. Bad things. Some from when I was a kid. More from when we first met. I heard horrible things you said to me repeated over and over again. I got angry. I lost control. I hurt you. And… I was happy about it. 'Hurt her like she hurt you,' someone told me inside my head. I think it was Tanner. I can't be too sure though. I don't exactly remember all of it."
I nervously took a bite of ice cream. Did Tanner have powers like Angel? Could he really control Skye like that again? What would happen if he did? Would I loose him forever next time? Would I live through next time?
"It was different at night." Skye said after a minute of silence. I noticed his ice cream was gone. "I thought of you a lot. I wondered why I could think of you then and be okay, but when someone even did something that reminded me of you in the day, I went ballistic. It still doesn't make any sense to me." He paused for a moment, thinking.
Finally, he said, " My bad feelings to you also weren't as strong if I'd been away from Tanner for a while. Weird, huh?"
"Hmmm." I said thoughtfully. "That is weird." I took the last bite of my cone and wiped my sticky hands on my pants.
Skye glanced at me expectantly. "You have a theory don't you?"
I nodded. He knew me and my expressions way too well. "I think he might be able to control people's minds. Like Angel."
"Then how come he couldn't make you join him?" Skye asked.
"That's what I can't figure out." I explained. "Why not just control me in the first place? Why even bother with you? Why not make me destroy you? He hates you, you know."
We went back to silence, both contemplating Tanner's motives. Maybe it wasn't supposed to make any sense. Maybe it was supposed to distract us from what he was really up to.
We stopped off at a gas station that was almost completely empty. I grabbed some food, batteries for our flashlight, a couple more lighters, and some water bottles. I walked over to the counter to pay for all of it.
As I did so, I noticed two things. The first was that Skye was secretly taking money from a teenager that looked like he was on crack. The second was a newspaper with a very interesting front page. I added it to the things I was buying.
I quickly paid the creepy guy at the counter and then walked over to the entrance, where Skye was waiting for me.
"You know they'll have you taking that kid's money on camera, right?" I asked as we walked out.
He shrugged. "They'll never find us. Doesn't matter."
He had a point there, so I didn't press the matter any further. Why argue with him when we just got back together?
We got back onto that lonely road and then stopped to pack the backpack and ditch the plastic bag.
When we finished, I slung the bag over my back. I never really noticed how heavy a few bottles of water, a laptop, and all the other junk in that bag were.
Skye seemed to notice this and reached out his arm. "Come on, Mel. Stop trying to be the big, tough 'I have to do everything by myself' leader. Let me take the pack. I'm stronger. You know that."
I sighed and reluctantly handed over the backpack. Skye was right. I needed to stop putting everything on myself. Not even Max had done that. "Thanks." I whispered.
He smirked, pleased with himself. "You're welcome… Princess."
I felt myself blush. "Man. I thought you'd quit that." I said, pretending to whine. I was really annoyed that he was still going to call me that, but I did not whine. I was above just a stupid, childish act.
He chuckled. "Uh uh. Nope, you don't win that easily. You'll always be a Princess to me. Always." Was that supposed to be a compliment or something? I sure picked a strange one.
However, I decided to just let it be and continue walking along the road until we got far enough away from that town in who-knows-where. Once that goal was accomplished, we took off.
Man, were Jewel and Cory going to be in for many surprises when they got back. Some good, some bad. All shocking.
Okay, so that is finished with. I'm almost done with this fic, sadly. There isn't going to be too much more. The bulk will be filler junk that I'm writing to make the story longer and to drag it on for a while. Anyway, updating soon. I hope.
