Maximum Ride: Forevermore

Page Fourteen

Max

Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay.

So, for those of who haven't read my entire story so far, I'll sum up my relationship with Jeb in three words: Saviour, Traitor, Father. And then Traitor again. He freed Fang and I from the School when we were just kids and protected the Flock for years without anyone knowing where we were, even the Whitecoats.

But then he had suddenly disappeared and we had assumed he had died, only for him to make the most dramatic comeback OF THE DECADE a few years ago. After that our trust had dissolved, and now I hated him more then.. oh, I don't know... the apocalypse.

Oh, and then he'd revealed that he was my father. That too.

No one had confirmed if he'd died or not during the Split, and to be honest, we were all pretty happy going about our day to day business not pondering too much about whether he had lived or died. It sounds morbid and heartless, but when you've dealt with Jeb once, you realise that once is more, far more, than enough.

"How are you in my head?!" I growled, clencing at my skull with my fingers. Usually the pain subsided after a minute, but this time it was going on and on and on and -

"That doesn't matter," Jeb answered, when of course, it freaking did matter - it mattered a lot! "I have an important message for you."

I had so many thing I wanted to scream back, like oh, I dunno, ever heard of EMAIL? Or iMessage maybe? Skype even? You don't have to hack into something freaking head to deliver them a message, not in this day and age. But what can I say - Jeb was as old-fashioned as they come. Unless it comes to science - mann, he's miiiiiiles ahead on that front.

But, of course, the paralysing pain made speaking kind of difficult. Just a smidge.

"Come and see me," he said in a way that gave me bad shivers. "Come and fine me so we can talk."

"Where.. are... you?" I asked through gritted teeth. I stumbled forward, leaning against the hammock and trying to focus my breathing. The pain was beyond unbearable, and believe me, I've felt pain.

"The place where you died," he answered. Oooh, as if he couldn't get any freakier. "Oh, and Max? Come alone."

Great, so now I had to go meet my pyscho Dad, again, in a place I didn't even know existed, and go alone. Easy as pie.

Suddenly it was as if the link shattered. The pain stopped, but it gave one final pang that was so hard I fell backwards. I tumbled against the railing, and with that, the wood snapped.

And so, as if my evening wasn't going bad enough, I was free-falling upside into the jungle.