ɪ ᴄᴀʀᴇ. (ᴀ ᴍᴀᴅᴡʜᴇᴇʟᴇʀ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 03~ ᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛ

"What did I tell you about them Maxine? What did I tell you!? I told you stay away... STAY AWAY!"

Dazed and somewhat confused, Max shot up, her body trembling with fear.

"You think this is funny? You think that this is some kind of sick joke?"

The petrified girl violently jerked her head to where the awful but all-too familiar voice was coming from. 

Suddenly, she could see it... But she really, really didn't want to believe it. A tall, bulky figure was striding towards her, its deep blue eyes saturated with fury. She recognized that terrifying, sadistic, expression anywhere. Billy.

The horrified readhead scrambled to her feet, taking shuddering breaths.

"B- Billy?" the quivering girl managed to whimper.

"Max... you disobeyed me..." the ghastly human-like creature hissed, shaking with rage.

"You know what happens when you disobey me... I BREAK THINGS!"  the gruesome, evil version of Billy roared, taking his last few steps to the frightened girl.

Max tried to scream, but not a sound came out of her mouth. Billy grabbed the poor girl by the throat, while laughing like some kind of maniac. 

"When will you learn to listen to others, Maxine?" her devilish step-brother uttered, in an uncomfortably sinister tone of voice. 

Max was choking. As she was hyperventilating, she could feel her airways closing. The alarmed teen panicked, flailing around in an attempt to free herself from Billy's grasp.

"Bil- plea- stop-" Max tried to say, coughing on her words. 

She painstakingly attempted to take another breath, thinking that it would be her last. 

Suddenly, Billy let go of the struggling girl's neck, throwing her six feet onto the hard ground. 

The last thing Max saw before losing conciousness was an ominous shadow looming over her, waiting for her to succumb into the darkness...

*~*

Everything was black. It was as if a dark hole had appeared out of nowhere, sucking every living thing into its menacing wrath. It was completely silent until... 

All of a sudden... 

An indistinctive voice could be heard.

"Max... Max?" the voice said, getting louder and louder.

"Max, please wake up! Come on! MAX!"

Max shot up with a gasp, frantically scanning the room, in a disoriented mess. Once she realized where she was, the disheveled girl began bawling.

"Max? W- what happened? Are you okay?!" the same anxious voice said. The sobbing girl turned her head and saw a panicked looking Mike.

Out of instinct, Max desperately grabbed the pale boy, clinging on to him for dear life. She didn't care that she was hugging the one and only Micheal Wheeler, she just needed comfort from another human being right now.

Surprised, Mike reluctantly hugged her back, eventually stroking her curly, auburn hair and gently rubbing her back in an attempt to calm the trembling girl down.