39Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.
Warning: The rating for this story as a whole is T, but there are parts in this chapter that have vulgar language. It is not reccomended that people under the age of 13 read this.
I slammed the door behind me and threw myself onto my bed. "Just leave me alone!" I shouted through the walls, knowing he would hear me. The tears were clawing at my eyes, and then they just started rolling down my cheeks in a disorderly way. As much as I tried to stop them, they kept coming and coming, like a steady stream over my face.
Outside my room, I imagined Fang― eyes narrowed, sulking on the couch, arms crossed, feet propped up on the coffee table. We had gotten into a fight again, and it had been bad this time. Really bad. I didn't want to think about it, but my mind already started replaying the whole scene.
"Go to bed!" I shouted at the younger kids. They ran, wide-eyed, to their rooms. I turned to Iggy, and I glared at him, not that it would do much good.
Yet, he could sense my tension, hear my anger. "You don't have to tell me," he said, standing up. "I'm already gone." With that, he left the room, leaving me alone with him
He sat there on the couch calmly, his arms folded across his chest. "You didn't have to yell at them, you know," he mumbled half-heartedly.
"Who asked you?" I spat back. He shrugged, crossed his ankles over the small coffee table, and looked away. "This is your fault, you know that, right?" He didn't look, didn't move. So I kept going. "You just had to go public. You just had to blog about all of this. You just had to be the center of attention."
Now he stirred, but only the slightest bit. It wasn't nearly enough for me.
I stood in front of him, hands stiffly placed on my hips, my eyes flaming with anger and distaste. "And now we're under government surveillance," I said, accenting the words. "We're not allowed out of the house. We can't go anywhere without the feds up our alley. This is all your fault."
He shifted toward me, and I could finally see the fire in his dark eyes, though not clearly. This was making him furious, but he concealed it so well. "And the blame goes just to me?" he asked, his voice dripping with ice. "If I remember right, you were the one who went and got shot. Then to make it better, you went and asked that woman for help and her petty daughter."
"Leave Ella out of this," I snapped back. "Who was the one who wanted to go to a football game? Who was the one who got us caught on camera for the second time and made us national news?"
His feet were planted firmly on the ground now, getting ready to stand if necessary. "Are you blaming this on Gazzy too now? Because that's why we were in the New York paper."
"No," I shrieked, and I threw my hands in the air in frustration. "I'm blaming this on you and you only."
"Oh, just me?" he said. His voice was hard now. He sounded cold, mean, nasty. No one was scarier when he was like this, but I couldn't dwell on that now. "And you didn't have anything to do with this?"
"And what did I do wrong?" I shot back. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just trying to save our world from being turned into a utopia slave camp. God forbid I save us all from that horrible future."
His eyes narrowed, and he stood. He was a good four inches taller than I was, so we couldn't really see eye to eye, but that wasn't important. "I told you that you didn't have to do it! We could have walked away, let them destroy the planet. Who cares so long as we're still alive."
"Okay, fine, let's step aside, the apocalypse has happened and now what? We live off of dead radiation-filled grasses? I don't think so." Hadn't we already had this conversation? "Besides, half of the population will be gone, and what would you do? Your precious blog would be emptier than your damn head. No more worldly attention for you, and heaven knows that you'd probably die without your beloved blog readers patting you on the back."
"Don't get me started on attention, priss," he seethed. "I'd die without the attention? Ha, you'd probably go to hell and back four times over if you weren't in the center ring of this circus." He pointed a finger at me.
I glared at him, my mouth open for a brief moment in surprise. He did not just do that to me.
He laughed dryly, and I deepened my frown. "Yeah, right. You only feed off it, you self-centered bitch. You're an attention whore, and you know it."
All of a sudden, he grabbed my wrists and shoved me down onto the couch. He sat on top of me and held my arms cruelly on my chest at an uncomfortable angle.
"Get off of me, you bastard!" I hissed.
"See? Insults are your fallback. If everyone else knew what a flimsy leader you were, huh, you wouldn't be much a leader anymore, would you? You'd be lower than a pack scapegoat."
I glowered at him, and dug my nails into his wrist until the skin broke enough for the red tint to start to become more vibrant. He roared in anger and pain, and he threw me to the ground. For the first time, I saw his face clearly. His jaw was incredibly tight. His eyes were blazing with rage. His body was tense, and his hair was wild and untamed. He looked terrifying. At that moment, I feared for my safety.
"You're such a horrible person. You don't see what you're doing. You think about yourself too much and not enough about the rest of us, about them," he raged on. "You said that you cared about us― that you loved the flock, and you'd give anything for us. Well, what have you given? Your exceptional leadership skills and your sturdy emotions? Ha, yeah, right. You're an emotional roller coaster, a hazard. No wonder the School wanted us killed. With you as our leader, god knows how much better the lower ones are."
Then, like magic, I wasn't mad or scared any more. I didn't know what I felt. It was just there, this empty emotion. He was right. I was a wreck, a screw up, and an emotional hazard. A tear ran down the side of my face.
I stood up from the ground weakly. "Thanks," I mumbled, trying not to let my voice crack. "Thanks for reminding me why I should be dead." Before he could say anything, I turned and ran to my room with my hands over my face.
So, here I was, alone, sobbing in my room, face shoved deep into the pillow. His words cut me deep, like I was the one bleeding. I picked my head up just enough to see my reflection in the mirror. My hair was knotted and sticking to my forehead and my cheeks were tear-stained. I looked like the mess I was, like he said. A vision of shards of glass appeared in my mind, and at that point, it looked like a good escape. But the idea of spilling my own blood over my sheets was too strong.
I began to sob harder as I opened the lock on my window and stepped out. Who really cared if they caught me, the federal agents who were assigned to watch our every movement? If they shot me now, I'd be dead in less than a heartbeat. It'd be an easy escape, but would I rest in hell for an eternity like he had said just minutes ago? Before I could question it, I jumped off of the roof and opened my wings, silently soaring through the night sky.
I didn't know where I was going, but wherever it was it had to be better than the house. After flying for at least an hour, I landed on the top of a city skyscraper. Then, I allowed the tears to come out willingly.
"Oh, god, Fang!" I shouted with a sob choking in my throat. I punched the brickwork repeatedly until my knuckles were battered and bleeding. After that, I slid against the wall and let the tears fall and sting my wounds.
Well, this was a bit different for me. I don't remember where I got this idea, but hey, it's an idea. If I just left it at this, I'd probably get mobbed or something (lol). Don't worry, though, there's one or two more chapters to this. Think of it as a three-shot or a two-shot. I'll probably post the other chapter(s) within the next day or so, time permitting.
And no, I'm not trying to avoid Code Name Alpha, Midnight Morning, or the Here's the Number one-shot series. My laptop broke before Spring Break, so I couldn't type anything. But I did write a lot. That's the plus. I'll do my best to catch up, 'cause I know I've been slacking a lot lately.
Keep readin' and review!
- Saz