OMG! Before I added all this, this chapter was exactly 400 words long! 8D Anyway, Happy Hallowe'en, all! Make it last!

Chapter Five

Max

"Max," a familiar voice called out of the shadows. I turned toward it.

"Fang?" I called, pushing through overgrown foliage.

"Max!" he called again, more urgently. I began running, stumbling over hidden roots and uneven ground. I knew it was him. It had to be. I was so desperate to see him, to feel his body against mine again.

"Fang! Fang, where were you!" I hollered in the direction of his voice. He called my name again, and I followed the sound. He continuously repeated my name, and I kept following his voice, until it was so close it was like he was standing right in front of me. I hurried forward, but lost my footing and was sucked into a hole in the ground.

I tried to fly back out, but I couldn't move my wings. So I fell and fell, for what felt like years, and eventually gave up hope that there was a bottom for me to hit and have my legs go up through my brain, ergo killing me and ending all this torture forever.

Please, I thought. If there was a loving, caring God, let him kill me right now. I'm so done.

I think I finally landed, but there was no slamming of my legs into my brain. I just landed in a large dog crate. There were Whitecoats everywhere, holding big syringes filled with different coloured liquids.

Then, I felt something drip on my head. It dripped again. And again. Finally, I looked up.

And Fang was dangling limply from the ceiling, attached to a thick rope.

I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs.

My door burst open and the whole flock and Dylan burst into my room. Nudge instantly saw the rare look of terror in my eyes and rushed over, wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back and tried to hold back tears, failing miserably.

That nightmare had all my worst fears rolled up in one:

Falling and not being able to fly up.

Being stuck in a dog crate. Again.

Whitecoats.

Whitecoats putting things in my body that didn't belong there.

Fang being brutally murdered and left for me to see.

I didn't knew how much longer I'd be able to survive away from Fang without my head exploding.

I wondered how he was surviving without me.