Silent Birdie Chapter 11: All To Blame, a maximum ride fanfic

(A/N) So to be honest, I've had this written since last Thursday. I've just been too busy to type it up. That is...until Monday...when we got a snow day. I've been out of school since Monday, but I had an honors essay that's going to be due soon, and I couldn't in good conscious do this first. SO now that I've worked on my honors essays a bit. Ta-da!

I'm not sure if I like this one very much. I don't know if I want Max to be this violent, but I figured that when she finally let her anger out, then it would probably be really potent. She keeps tossing the blame around because she's upset and can't think clearly.

ANYWAY! Disclaimer: I don't own it.

I didn't realize that I'd slammed the door. Or that I'd backed away from it, with my hand pressed to my mouth in shock and disgust. I didn't register the angry shrieking and pounding coming from the other side.

All I registered in my mind, was that I had punched another person out of anger. He'd done it. At long last, Walter had turned me into a violent monster just like him. Just like him. I'd even enjoyed hitting him.

For an irrational moment, I wanted to open the door and strike him again for what he'd turned me into. I wanted to slap him for changing me into this horrible beast. It took another second to realize that I had allowed myself to be turned into this monster.

My knees trembled. Would I always be this way now? Would I push Angel the next time she tried to sing "The Song That Never Ends" for two hours? Would I slap Camy around the next time she cursed in front of Fang's Mom?

"Max?" I whirled on the attacker, but he shoved my blow aside with ease. I was standing face to face with Fang. "Max, it's okay. I'm going to call the police and mom, okay?"

Another rush of anger swept through me. He was the one who let this happen to me. He left me there with Walter, left me to rot into this sickening thing I became. Then, he tried to act like he was my friend and not the deserter he really was. If that weren't so, why did he forget about me for so long? Why did he let me suffer and change for so long? He forgot about me. This was all his fault.

"Max," he said it sympathetically, which was a lie in itself coming from him. It was his fault I was just like Walter now. He deserved to bear the brunt of the violence. He deserved a taste of his own medicine. Boiling fury washed over me again. I shoved him before he could explain himself.

Shock passed over his face, which for Fang was a perceptible widening of his eyes. He stumbled backward and tripped ungracefully over his own feet. The look of hurt that crossed his face as he tumbled to the ground in an awkward heap finally broke through my trance.

"What is your problem?"

I didn't answer him. I took an uncomfortable step back toward the door. Reality hit me like a two ton slab of unbreakable concrete.

I'd done it again.

I took another uncomfortable step towards the door. A look of comprehension dawned on Fang's face. I wasn't sure what he comprehended exactly. How could he possibly know what was going on in my head right now?

"I know you're scared, Max, but it's okay. I promise he isn't going to get in." Scared? I wasn't scared. I didn't have time to try and understand his reasoning before the furious beating on the door came to an abrupt stop. "See? He's already leaving."

This statement was punctuated by the sound of smashing glass.

"Oh, Max dear?" Walter cried maniacally fro his place behind the now open window. "You forgot to finish your chores!"

Seriously? I wanted to ask. You couldn't come up with something better than that? It sounds like a cartoon super villain. Completely incompetent and over the top. Have you been watching 'Codename: Kids Next Door' again, Walter? Apparently, Fang felt the same. We shared a look and I risked rolling my eyes.

"You have got to be kidding me." Fang mumbled sarcastically.

Walter didn't answer. He was struggling to get into the living room without injuring himself on broken glass. I didn't see a weapon to be used to smash the window, so I assumed he did it with his foot. One leg hung over the edge of the windowsill, so that he was straddling the short expanse of wall between the window and Mrs. Knight's pink carpeting.

His cropped dark hair had tiny shards of glass in them, and his green eyes were as cold as ice. He had uncomfortably thin lips and his whiskers gave him a hard unfeeling look. His white tanktop was loose, sweat-stained, and it looked like he'd spilled food on himself.

I glanced around for an item to throw at him, and found the living room surprisingly barren. Something caught the corner of my eye as something small and blond barreled past me. I didn't have enough reaction time to reach out and stop her.

I'd forgotten Angel was upstairs. She must have heard the commotion coming from the living room. I looked at her now. The excited face she'd worn earlier was replaced with tear-streaked fury. I couldn't tell what she was brandishing in her small angry right fist, but she was using it to beat Walter mercilessly around the head. I couldn't tell was she was saying at first, but after a few seconds I could finally make it out.

"Stop it! Leave Max alone! What did she ever do to you? You bad man! You...I hate you! I hate you! Just leave us alone!" Angel's steady stream of attacks faltered as her voice broke.

As she slumped into an almost defeated heap, Walter brought his arms cautiously away from his face. He wasn't doing so well, I noticed in the brief silence. He had a bloody nose from where I'd punched him, and he had scratches and a funny shaped forming bruise from whatever Angel had hit him with, all around his face and arms.

He lurched forward suddenly, bringing himself completely into Fang's living room. He grabbed one of Angel's arms and dragged her roughly to her feet. My heart dropped. Not my baby.

As if the weather gods had witnessed the entire scene, lightning flashed and rain began to fall from the sky. Water poured into Fang's living room, darkening the pink carpeting until it resembled blood pooling across the floor.

I ran forward, shoving Walter aside and snagging my baby from his vice-like grip. She bore deep red marks where his fingers had grasped her. The marks shone like a beacon in contrast to her pale pink skin.

Blood red seeped into the edges of my vision. He hurt my baby, and he would regret it.

Cliff says he doesn't like it when you all hate him. He says he tries, but you all hate him so much. He wants to feel love, just like everyone else. Isn't that right Mr. Hanger?

Cliff: Yep, that's right.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked it. I'm still pretty busy, but I have a bit of the next chapter started, so I'm hoping to finish and get it typed up within the next week.

............................................................................................-YourMoosyFate

Please review.

................................................................l

...............................................................V