Isn't it hard to believe that 2010 is half over? It seems like it should just be beginning! And the summer is over in a month, *sob*. I don't want to end this story!

Journal NOT a Diary!

Max's Journal

June 30, 2010

We've come to a conclusion: Screaming does nothing but hurt our ears. Cindy only brings us a loaf of bread and a few juice boxes every three days or so, so we're starving! Mary Lou is getting worse and worse every day, blaming herself for us being stuck in this dungeon.

But today, the wall opened (okay, THAT sounded weird) and Cindy came in with our bread and juice boxes. "Congrats, you have another cellmate." Somehow, that didn't make me feel better. She pulled in a woman by the collar of her shirt, like she did Petunia, and walked down the stairs, the wall closing behind her.

I recognized the woman. MaryEllen McCoy. She shoved MaryEllen to the ground and threw the bread in juice boxes in front of us, but none of us tried to get it like we normally do. "Why are you doing this to us?" I asked.

"I promised myself I'd get revenge on you. And this is how I plan to do it. But your little friend here got in the way of that."

"But you used me!" Mary Lou said. "Why? I thought we were in this together! But you split me and my son!"

"I had to get to Max. But you don't care what happens to Maximum. You only care what happens to your precious Fang, or as you call him, William."

I remembered how she would always check on Fang's safety before she gave a lick of attention to me. I was like background music that didn't fit the movie scene. You're focused on the scene before you ever pay attention to the music.

Mary Lou gasped. "I care for Maximum! How could you say that?"

"Common sense. But the only reason you're in here is because you'd know what happened to Max. And you'd feel bad about 'William' and how unhappy he was, and so you'd take him to her. So I had to get you out of the picture."

"Then let my daughter go!"

Cindy looked at Analie. She was so skinny now you could see her ribs and her cheekbones, like everyone else. She hugged her mother's leg. "I thought that there was always the possibility that she knew something about this room, but looking back, it was a stupid move. Too late now!"

"So you've got us here," I said. "And what exactly do you plan to do with us?"

She smiled greedily. "You'll see, Max. You'll see." She turned and walked out, the wall opening at her touch.

I hate her so much! I shook my head. "MaryEllen, this is Mary Lou." Wow, that was weird to say. "Her daughter Analie, and -"

"Cindy's daughter," MaryEllen finished. "I know. How are you, Petunia?"

"Okay," Petunia said. "But me and Mom will never be the same again."

"MaryEllen," Angel said. "Why are you here? I thought you and Cindy were friends!"

MaryEllen hissed under her breath. "Never. I was the one who first reported on Cindy's prison time. And I took her place. We were friends, before that. See, I knew Cindy had escaped from her cell. I just didn't know where she was. Something told me to come to New York, I know my hunches are usually right. So I came!"

"And Cindy found you?"

"Yep. And threw me in here. So what's happening here?"

Petunia explained what happened while we ate the bread and sipped on juice boxes. All the food had been removed from the backpacks, I guess Cindy thought this was just another book, and probably only saw blank pages in the back. Our packs were almost empty, just thin blankets inside them.

I sat against the metal wall, looking around, thinking back. I remembered Cindy's goons, one with a scar above his right eye, and another with a tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon. I wonder if the police have ever found them. And if Fang had never taken me to that cliff to tell me -

To tell me that he sees the future in his sleep. Did that mean he saw us being kidnapped? He went to sleep right after I saw Petunia and the candy shop. Maybe he saw us kidnapped, or Cindy and Petunia explaining everything. But I had to make sure he did. How?

A few hours later, the wall opened again. Cindy. And she held a DVD player. She walked over to me and put it in my hands. "The cameras record and transfer the data onto DVDs. Here's a little look on Fang." Everyone scrambled over to look over my shoulder as Cindy pressed play.

I saw Fang the morning he woke up on the couch, when we had woke up taped to chairs. Fang sat up and rubbed his eyes. The image flickered to the kitchen, where he walked in and looked around. "Mom?" It flicked to Mary Lou's room, her bed unmade and empty. He opened the door and looked inside. His eyes widened. "Mom? Max? Angel?"

The image flicked to every room in the house, seeing him open the door and call our names. He ran outside and around the house. "Oh, no!" he said. He popped open his wings and took off. Petunia and Mary Lou gasped, since it was the first time they'd seen our wings.

Then the date at the bottom showed it was the next morning. Fang woke up in his guest room and looked around the room. Then he jumped up and slammed his fist into the wall. "Where are you, Max?" he asked, so low I could barely hear him. It changed to him sitting at the kitchen table, a bowl of uneaten cereal in front on him. He sat back with his arms crossed over his chest. "I'll find them," he promised himself. He stood up and grabbed his windbreaker before running out the front door and taking off.

It changed again, and the date at the bottom showed this morning, probably just a few minutes ago. Fang sat in his room, on his bed, his head against the wall. He looked horrible. His hair was uncombed, clothes torn. There was a red scratch under his eye. He slowly opened his eyes, and stared at the ceiling. "Max," he whispered. He blinked again. "Where are you?" He sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed.

It showed him in the kitchen, lazily walking in. There was a pound against the wall, probably were Gazzy was beating the top of the stairs this morning. He ran over and felt up and down the wall, probably looking for rat holes. He stopped at the bottom of the wall, where there was a small hole. "That's what it is," he murmured. "Mice." He banged his head against the wall and the image faded.

Cindy pressed the stop button. "You're precious Fang is looking for you."

My hands balled into fists. I looked over my shoulder and saw Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel getting ready for a fight as well. "Uh oh, looks like you don't have your goons to protect you."

"What do you mean?" She was backing up, and we were stepping forward. She turned and ran up the stairs. We couldn't stop her. The wall opened and she slid through.

But at least I knew Fang wasn't going to give up on me. He was determined to find me. I sat back against the wall and hugged my knees, a smile creeping on my lips. But it immediately faded. Fang isn't that great of an actor. From the way he talked at the end of the video, he didn't know where we were.

So how did all of Fang's visions happen? Maybe...maybe something had to happen for them to appear in his dreams. That was logical, right? When he saw Cindy breaking into Mom's house, with the guns, our family's lives were threatened. When he saw her court hearing, and killed the judge, promising that I would die, my life was threatened...

Maybe one of our lives had to be threatened for him to see. But what about when he saw our interview with MaryEllen? No one's life was threatened, or were they?

"MaryEllen," I called. She looked over her shoulder from her conversation with Mary Lou and walked to me, sitting cross-legged across from me. "No one's life was threatened during our interview, right?" I swallowed, almost scared for her answer.

She frowned. "That's an odd question." She looked to the side. "Actually, yes. Cindy had threatened anyone who dared to get information from you with their life. And, yours as well. She didn't want a brodcast of you without her being responsible for it. You didn't notice how tense I was? I was worried that Cindy was going to bust in at any moment, but I also wanted her to see this. Show her that no one's scared of her."

"Thanks, MaryEllen." I smiled. "I think I know how to save us."

"Okay then. Do it quick, I already smell like a sweat sock." She stood up and walked back to MaryEllen.

All his visions threatened someone's life. And every one of them threatened someone he cared about. And the first time he saw it, when all of us were being threatened, it was stronger. The more of his loved of that were threatened, the stronger the signal was. So if all of us, Mary Lou, Analie, Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, and I were all threatened, he would definitely see it.

But how do I get our lives threatened, without us being killed? Cindy had promised revenge on all of us. Maybe in time, Cindy will try to kill us. Then Fang will see it. Yes. All I had to do was wait, and when we were about to be killed, I could contact Fang.

-Maximum