63It had been two weeks since that deserting scum-bag had left me and the flock and still the realisation hadn't sunken in. Fang was gone. I still wake up in the morning thinking I can feel his hot breath next to me on my neck. Only when I turn around, its total panting over the thought of bacon for breakfast.
All I wanted to do was sleep. But every time I tried I had nightmares.
I would wake up with sweat pouring down my face, my sheets hot and damp from the sweat. And when I was awake, I would daydream that he was still here or where he might be. I begin to play over everything in my head, wondering if I could have done something different. Thinking it should have been me instead.
"Max, are you getting up at all today? Breakfast is served." I heard Nudge say down the hall. That girl sure could shout when she wanted to.
I glared around my room. What to wear? What to wear?
I found the jeans I had on yesterday and a top my sister had given me and threw them on. I quickly put a brush through my hair and made myself look half way decent before heading downstairs for breakfast.
"Horray, she lives." Gazzy joked as I walked into the kitchen.
"Heres some juice Max." Angel said smiling up at me and handing me a glass of fresh orange juice. I might have lost Fang, but at least I still had Angel and the flock.
"Tuck in Max." Iggy said handing me a plate of egg, bacon, sausages, beans and toast. I would have given anything to be able to have an amazing Iggy breakfast every morning, but recently my heart just wasn't in it. Whatever food the flock had we ate without hesitation. But lately with me, i've been eating less than normal.
"Max you'll need to keep up your strength, encase of an attack, you know." A familiar voice said from across the table. It was Dylan. His thick, dark blonde hair which was usually carelessly tossed back from his face was now neatly hanging down in front of his eyes. He looked alot different, almost older. 20 maybe?
"Yeah I know." I managed to say looking down at my half eaten food. The flock stared at me and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. How long was I going to have to go on like this. 20 years, like Fang said? in 20 years I won't need to baby the flock, we would have survived an apocolypse and perhaps me and him could finally be together.
"Don't kid yourself, Max." The voice echoed nearly making me jump out of my seat.
Don't kid myself? What the heck is that supposed to mean? I practically yelled inside my head. I wonder if its possible to yell too loud?
"You will see Fang again. But not anytime soon. The sooner you realise he is not coming back the better. In the mean time why don't you take the flock someplace nice. The beach perhaps."
The beach? You want me to go to the beach? And no maybe I don't want to forget Fang left. He was my rock, my best friend, my lover and I needed him. More than anyone realises.
"I realise that, but you and Fang are not going to be together. Your not supposed to be together. Why don't you take the flock to the beach and get to know Dylan a little bit better. It will proove useful. Trust me." The voice finished before it fell silent.
"So...Who wants to go to the beach?" I said giving in to the idea of going to the beach. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. The flock would get a kick out of it and it would be my way of saying sorry for being so moody lately.
"Its okay Max." Angel said sweetly in my head. "It sounds like a great idea, and, i forgive you." She finished giving me one of her sweetest angelic smiles she could possibly give.
The rest of the flock were bouncing around with joy.
"Have you ever been to the beach before, Dylan?" I asked wondering if Dr. G.H had time to show Dylan some of the more nicer places of the world.
"No, I haven't. Is it nice?" He asked brushing a strand of hair of his tanned complextion.
"Its amaaaazing!" Nudge sqeaked running around packing her bag with towels, snacks and anything else relevant she could find.
"Whats going on in here then?" Jeb said walking in with a book in his hand.
"I'm taking them to the beach, nearest one is a quarter of a mile. You coming or staying?" I asked him.
"I will stay. Enjoy yourselves. I'm glad your getting out of the house Max." Jeb smiled at me.
Don't get me wrong, it felt great to be out in the open skies again. The feeling you get when your doing 50 miles an hour with nothing but emptiness around you is breathtaking. But first things first, the beach wasn't my favourite place to go, seeing as its hard for us to hide our wings in bathing suits. Secondly, I would just be sitting there and I wasn't really looking forward to 'getting to know' Dylan a bit better. I can't say that was at the top of my 'to do list' right now.
"Don't be so skeptical Max. If there is one person you can trust, it is me. I can guarantee you this will proove very useful and worthwhile. One day, you will thank me." The voice spoke again. I knew I was already going crazy, talking to a voice inside my head but trusting it? One day I will thank it? I laughed silently to myself and expected to hear a snide comment in reply. But I didn't.
"Hey look there it is." Nudge pointed out.
"It looks really nice and empty." Gazzy said.
"I can't see if there is anyone else on the other side of that cliff though." Angel said.
"Neither can I." Iggy joked. We all gave a small laugh and landed next to some rocks where we wouldn't be spotted.
"You guys stay here, I'll go and check if the coast is clear." I said without realising I had just made a joke.
"Haha, coast, good one Max." Gazzy laughed giving me and air high five.
I came back and gave the flock an all clear thumbs up sign and they came racing out in their costumes straight for the sea. The sun was beating down as hot as an oven so I set up an umbrella and a deck chair and instantly relaxed all my tense muscles.
"May I join you?" Dylan said motioning to the other deck chair. The one Fang used to sit in when we came to the beach with the flock.
"Sure, I guess." I said and watched as he sat in Fangs chair.
"This place is really nice. Im surprised we are the only ones here." Dylan said looking around. He smiled when he saw the flock having a huge water fight in the sea.
"They look happy too." He said. Then he looked at me. I felt his eyes burrowing into me, like they were going to drill holes straight through me. It was like my dream when I found it hard to pull my glance away from his.
"Don't you want to join them?" Dylan asked breaking the long awkward silence between us.
"No why do you?" I said back quickly evading my eyes from his.
"I would like to yeah." He said sounding hopeful.
"Well then you have my permission." I said and gave him a quick reassuring smile and continued to watch the flock.
"Well, I was kinda hoping that you would come with me. It could be good fun." He trailed off.
"I agree. It could be good fun." The annoying voice chimed in once more.
"Not my kinda thing really." I said disappointing them both. "Go on without me, you'll have fun with the others."
"Now is not the time to be stubborn Max. Go with Dylan. Or you'll regret it."
"Please Max, we need 6 people to play. You can be on my team. I'm pretty good with sports." He said motioning over to the flock who were playing what looked like volleyball in the sea.
"I'm sure you are Dylan. But I don't play sports."I said now sounding like a total looser.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." My voice muttered. I took no notice as usual and watched as Dylan left my side and went to join the others in the sea. I gazed around. No immediate danger, noone in sight. I leaned my head back and rested it on the chair and closed my eyes.
"Look again." The voice suddenly said making me alarmed. I brought my head back up and began searching around for any signs of danger. Nothing in the sky, nothing on the beach. Everything seemed fine. My heart rate slowly began to drop back to normal and I sat back down.
Suddenly an ear splitting scream punctured my ears. I opened my eyes and saw that the screams had come from me. A huge long hairy arm had wrapped itself around me tightly and didn't seem like it was wanted to give me a friendly hug. Its claws dug into my arm and began dragging me backwards off the chair. I saw the flock in the distance, staring over at me with terrified faces. They were too far away to help me now. I was continuously dragged backwards, across the sand and pebbles, scraping my wings and peeling off my sun burn I had recieved just the othe day. I tried to cry out in agony but even my captor wouldn't let me do that. One hand over my mouth and another stretched out across my body and arms stopped me from getting away. I kicked out like mad trying to stop myself but I only cut my feet on sharp rocks as I did so.
"It didn't have to be like this. You should have listened to me." The voice broke in over my muffled screams.
Tears began to blurr my vision and part of me almost wanted to be taken away. Part of me almost felt like dying. My life wasn't the same without Fang.
"If only you would have gone with Dylan. This would have never happened." The voice continued making me feel even worse.
My arms, legs and wings were cut and dripping with blood by the time I had stopped moving. I cleared my vision and saw I was in a small cave opening, not far from the beach. It was an eraser who attacked me. But why?
I heard the voices of the flock nearby calling my name. I saw the stinking eraser standing over me snarling and snorting like a pig. I sent a mental note to Angel to find me. She replied back and told Dylan to come get me, as he was strongest.
I could kick this erasers butt, but something was telling me to wait.
He leaned over at me and began slashing his claws in my direction. I'm glad I didn't decide to wear shorts today.
He slashed his claws at my legs and towards my upper torso. My arms felt like they were being ripped to shreds by the erasers long and sharp claws. I howled out in pain trying to punch and kick the eraser off me. Luckily I didn't have to, when all of a sudden the eraser stopped slashing and fell to the floor. Behind him Dylan was standing, holding a huge rock which he just used to knock the eraser to the floor. He came rushing over to my side and began to inspect my wounds.
"God Max, you should have come in the water with me." Dylan said putting his spit on my cuts and healing them almost instantly. After I was done healing I managed to stand up and wipe the tears that had been welling up in the corner of my eyes. He held me up carefully putting one arm around my waist ans smiled warmly at me. If that had been Fang I would have collapsed into his arms and kissed him as my way of saying thank you for saving my life. Although if that had been Fang he would probably be shaking his head at me for being so stubborn and stupid. But Dylan didn't. He just held me and smiled.
"I guess thanks is in order. You saved my life." I said trying to sound grateful.
"Its okay Max. It wasn't your fault. You didn't know." Dylan said in a soft tone making me almost drop my frown and smile.
"I'm just glad your okay." He said holding on tighter to me as though I would just collapse if he didn't. I sighed as for once I didn't know what to say or do, so I pulled myself away from his grip and slowly began making my way out of the cave.
I joined back with the flock and they all hugged me like that hadn't seen me in a week. Dylan was strolling behind me with his hands in his shorts pockets acting cool and normal.
"Maybe this time you'll come play a game with us?" Angel said with her bambi eyes.
"Yeah sure, why not." I smiled and followed the flock back towards the sea.
"What about the eraser?" Iggy asked as though he had just caught up.
"I'll take care of him." Dylan said heading back towards the cave. Not moments later he returned and said all done. I didn't want to know what exactly he had done, so I smiled and we walked back to the sea where I played on Dylan's team with Nudge against Angel, Gazzy and Iggy. It wouldn't have been too bad if I didn't have to go into the sea with just my boxers on. Dylan was the only one who paid any attention which bothered me for some reason. I nearly lost the game because I was too busy looking into his glossy turquoise eyes.
"Max you have a nice ass." Nudge suddenly said making me feel red with embarrassment.
"Yeah she does." Angel agreed. "Doesn't she Dylan?" Angel giggled and high fived Nudge. Dylan looked over at me again and laughed.
"Of course she does." He smiled showing a row of pearly white teeth. I would have normally felt embarrassed even more and thrown back a comment or two but I was too taken back but what Dylan had said.
Fang would have never agreed with Angel and Nudge on something like that. He would fall silent and smile or hide his face with his stupid perfect long hair.
"You guys are gross." Gazzy said scoring a point while we were all distracted.
Nudge scored another goal which was now putting us in a tie. It was Dylan who took the last shot and one us the game.
"Come on guys time to be heading back to the house." I said and was the first to get out of the water. I turned around to see if the flock was coming when Dylan was the next to get out. The salty sea water dripped off his muscular torso and the sun gleamed down making his body look shiny like diamonds.
"Take a picture, it will last longer." He smiled widely walking right passed me.
"Max whatever you do don't turn around." The voice suddenly bellowed urgently. My heartbeat began to beat faster and faster and dread filled my entire body. More erasers? I quickly spun around only to see just about a naked Dylan getting dressed behind the umbrella where nobody could see. The flock couldn't see because they were still struggling to get out of the water. Voice..you have really outdone yourself this time!
"I figure you would look if I told you not to. You always do the opposite to what I say." The voice laughed. He continued to laugh when I realised why he was laughing. I was stil staring at Dylan! But thats not the worst thing.. he was staring back!
My face turned red and I started to find it hard to breath. He was smiling and I quickly turned around to face the flock just getting out of the sea, shaking their feathers dry.
Dylan walked over with just his ripped jeans on and motioned for the flock to come over and get ready.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." He repeated standing next to me with his arms across his chest grinning proudly to himself. I on the other hand was speechless.
"Hey Max whats wrong? You look like you've seen something." Nudge said drying her long brown hair off with a towel.
"That's because she did." Dylan smiled.
"Yeah it was this.. poor..animal..over there and..it was..." I began when Dylan interrupted.
"Huge." He finished. I looked over at him and saw a grin across his face. I felt my cheeks buring red and not because of the sun.
"Awww okay then well I'm going to get ready now" She said leaving me and Dylan alone again.
I walked off to pack some of the things away and to get away from him.
Sadly, I knew I wasn't going to be able to escape him forever.
Heyy, tell me what you think. Let me know if I should write more if you wanna hear more :)