I wrote most of this during school, I was bored. R&R!

Chapter 9:

Title

Alex woke, and he hated himself for it. He had been dreaming. Dreaming of warm summer days horseback riding around the grounds of Sabina's home back in England, and of all the days they had spent lying on the fine white sand of the Californian beaches together and surfing in the Pacific. At one point he had been dreaming of the feel of the soft beach towel beneath him and the feel of the sun heating his skin to a comfortable degree, when a soft breeze began to blow raising goose bumps all over his body. He shivered and crossed his arms over his chest, as the wind got faster and colder. He searched for Sabina, so that they could leave and get out of the suddenly cold weather. He scanned the shoreline for her dark hair and slim figure, but as his eyes roved the area the scenery started to change, suddenly a thick fog rose up, the wind became still, and snow started to fall around him, he tried to cover himself as much as possible, seeing as he was still in his swim trunks and nothing else. Tall thin shapes began to appear around him, it took him a moment before he identified the shapes as trees. He wondered how he ended up in a forest when he heard his name being called, in the distance. He watched as a person began to appear out of the fog, this person was shaped strangely, with something protruding out of their back. Once the person was closer and clearer he realized that the strange protrusions were wings.

"Alex," the person's voice held a dreamlike quality, it echoed slightly, "Alex," again the voice called but this time it was as if the fog that had been around him had actually been in his ears and now it was slowly fading away, "ALEX!" That he heard clearly enough.

And that was when he woke to the sound of Max calling his name. "More like screaming," he mumbled to himself.

Now he knew why there had been snow in the dream, he was lying flat on his back on the bottom of what appeared to be a big dog kennel. The kennel was made completely of metal and the air conditioning seemed to be working to make his dream come true. "Ugh," he moaned as he slowly sat up feeling his muscles creek and complain as he moved. "Where are we?" He didn't ask what happened because he remembered that clearly enough.

"We're in the School, where else?" Max's voice was sarcastic and tired all at the same time.

"Where?" Alex asked. The name sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place it.

"My place of birth, remember, the evil place where the evil Whitecoats work doing evil things to innocent children and animals." Max put stress on all of the evils she used and her face gained more and more hate with each one.

"I take it you don't like this place?"

"Did you not hear how many times I used the word evil?"

"Sorry, my heads still a bit fuzzy, we can't all have super healing powers."

"Well forgive me for being genetically mutated as an infant!" Max was a little touchy being in the place of all her childhood trauma.

They both quieted when a door on the other side of the room opened. Two buff guys in scrubs lumbered in dragging a bloodied and unconscious Fang between them.

"Fang!" Max jumped forward and grabbed the bars on the far side of the cage. "What did you do to him?" she demanded with her famous steel edge in her voice.

The grunts just ignored her as they threw Fang into his own cage across the room, locked it and slammed the door shut behind them as they left.

"Fang," Max whispered the earlier steel replaced by worry. "Fang," she said more forcefully, she seemed to be trying to get as close to him as possible with her face smashed into the bars.

"Max, he's fine-"

"Fine!"

"Well not fine, but he's breathing, look." Alex pointed and Max looked back at Fang.

They both shut up then and just sat waiting for Fang to wake up, listening to his labored breathing. Not long after Fang was brought back the door opened again. The same two orderlies walked in but this time the person with them was wearing a white coat and had that evil scientist vibe that was the norm in this place.

"Hello children," he said, "Sleep well?"

"Ha," Max laughed sarcastically, looked up at the scientist and said, "Like a freakin' baby, and you?"

"Well actually no, I didn't, I was up all night thinking of all the things I'd like try with you and all the things we could use your friend here for." He said gesturing to Alex.

"I don't know he's a little too normal for your usual taste, are you sure you don't want to infuse him with rabbit genes or something first?" Max said in the tone she usually used when addressing adults.

"Now then, you don't have to be so bitter, we were just thinking about using him as a control in experiments instead of just relying of general knowledge like we usually do. How could we pass up such a rare opportunity? A perfectly healthy test subject delivered to our door." His smile seemed almost lustful when he looked at Alex.

"Oh my God, why don't you just make out with him and get it over with." The comment came from the cage that held Fang.

"Fang!" Max's attention moved from the scientist back to her dearest friend across the room. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I don't think anything's broken anyway." Fang's reply was a bit muffled from the blood that was still in his mouth. He spit out through the front of the kennel and leaned on the side of the cage, "You?"

"Yeah, we're both fine." Max replied the relief in her voice evident.

"Excuse me, are you done?" The scientist seemed a bit annoyed that his little rats were ignoring him.

"Sure, why did you have something to contribute?" Alex asked.

"Actually I was going to bring just you but now I think I'll bring the girl as well."

"I have a name you know." Max said glaring at the man outside her cage.

"Do you? That's strange we don't normally name our test subjects." He said with a mocking tone. He snapped his fingers and the two orderlies came around, unlocked Max's and Alex's cages, reached in and dragged them out.

"Let's get started." Fang watched as they were dragged out of the room, and when the door slammed shut behind them leaving Fang alone with only the sound of his own breathing and a lot of time to imagine what was happening to the girl he loved.