“Damn it Mike! Get him off of you, we have to get out of here now!”

“A little help would be appreciated Warren! This kid’s tougher than he looks.”

Warren dumps Liz into the dark hole of the trunk and goes to the aide of his partner. He strikes an unsuspecting Max with the butt of his gun in the back of the head. Max raises his head and looks in to the uncaring eyes of the man responsible for the blackness seeping into his vision, rendering him unconscious. Mike rolls Max to his side and stands to join warren who has headed to the car. Both men climb in and silently drive into the night.

The same bloody moon bathes Max in a pool of slivery light, as he awakens he wonders if the crimson haze invading his vision is from the blow to the head or if it’s a symbol of something else; perhaps a premonition of death. _______________________________________________________________________

Numbness. Both in my heart and in my head. My body is still unfeeling but at least the syringe is no longer there.

Max. I saw you when you pulled up. My head flopped to the side like a rag doll and I saw you running towards me. Then I saw nothing but the black. It was the kind of black that reminds me of a coffin, of death. I wonder if you’ll save me, I wonder if you’ll come?

I’ve been struck down, and I’m afraid I wont have the strength to get back up.

They’ve started their testing. They didn’t even bother to ask any questions. Their type of questions couldn’t be answered with words, but rather with drugs and knifes…surgical knifes. At least I can say I didn’t feel it when they sliced open my stomach, or when they stitched it back together.

They are done for now, at least I hope they are. I have been alone in this room for what seems like hours but I can’t tell. Time goes by so slowly and yet it can do so much. You know what this is like. You have been here. I can hear your voice, calling out my name. I close my eyes and share this dream with you.

Save me Max, come on and save me. I’ll be waiting here. ______________________________________________________________________

Max lay motionless in his bed. Maria, Isabel, Michael, Alex, Kyle and Tess all standing around him waiting for him to awaken and tell them something, anything about Liz. He was in the middle of dream walking her.

I’m right by your side. I whisper in your ear that we will get you back. You show me no emotion. You only lift your shirt and show me your stomach. The long row of ugly black stitches is enough to make me sick. They disfigured you, they butchered you, and then they left you carelessly sewn up on a table. You don’t deserve this, no matter how much pain you might have caused me. No one deserves this.

Liz and Kyle. They flash into my mind, breaking the connection abruptly. I wonder why it is that your heart cries as your love lies and yet your heart sighs as your love cries.

I wont ask how and I wont ask why but maybe if I’d loved you a little bit longer or a little bit stronger…maybe. But what’s done is done. Life can be strange, such joy and such pain.

But I’m awake now and their faces stare down at me, concern and worry creasing their brows. I tell them that I talked with you; I leave out what you showed me. I know we don’t have the time we need. They ask how we are going to find you, I don’t know how but I can feel you. That’s our only chance, my instincts. That scares me. ______________________________________________________________________

I can’t hide in my mind anymore. They have come back and are trying to wake me up.

I didn’t know if you would come because of what I had done to you. But you told me that you were coming, so why am I still dying inside?

I think the time has come for me to say goodbye. They are still trying to wake me, but like I have said, I’ve been struck down and I don’t think I can get back up this time. It’s ironic, all the pain I have caused you and the suffering I have gone through, if I die now what was it for. I had to fall to lose it all but in the end it doesn’t even matter.