Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

ONE ONE TWO

"Are you sure?" Max asked. He sounded powerful, his voice strong. But I thought I could hear stress lacing his voice with subtle vibration. The vibration that signaled his fear.

"-break her-," Tess continued, apparently oblivious to the discussion between Max and I.

Assuming that the question was aimed at me, I did a quick scan of my pounding head and could only give him a well-informed guess, "Yes."

"-like a twig," Tess continued, slurring the last word.

He came out of the shadows like a wild animal. He crossed the floor in front of me so suddenly, his contours blended into a blur. Tess was off her feet before I had a chance to react, lifted in the air by Max. He slammed her body up against the wall, her body limp, the sound of the back of her head hitting the wall echoing around them.

Adrenaline had instantly infused every corner of my body, making my heart throb so loudly in my chest that I could barely hear anything outside of the rushing sound of the blood in my ears.

I attempted to lift my head off the ground again, to be able to more fully see what was happening, but the light was still too dim and Max's actions were too quick for me to fully assess the situation.

When Max had rapidly crossed the floor to Tess, Isabel came to my side and was now trying to communicate with Max in a cautioning voice, "Max..."

I could only see the right side of him, his right hand underneath Tess' chin, pressing her head upwards. In a way it seemed as he was trying to hold her tired head up, but the distance between Tess' dangling feet and the floor, and the way the skin of her cheeks and the lower part of her chin crinkled in Max's grip, very clearly displayed how Max was cutting off her air supply.

Tess had played with my mind in a horrible way, making me believe that I had killed my father (I still wasn't entirely certain that it had been a mind manipulation, but I hoped so) and having me fear Max, but still it chilled me to see her petite frame being pressed up against the wall like that, too weak to even struggle against the man restraining her.

The lack of lighting was making it difficult for me to read Max - and I no longer had a mental connection to him - but I knew that he would never do this to another person unless he or the people he loved were being threatened.

This was a war, and a lot of people had already died. Still, it was horrible to watch Max attack someone that he had known, someone that he had - in a way - grown up with.

"Max..." Tess whimpered, her voice strained with the lack of air.

I saw the muscles of Max's arm tighten, the short pause making me suspect that he was hesitating.

"You're sick," he growled in her face.

A tremble moved through me at the darkness of his voice. He actually frightened me.

Isabel's hand softly touched mine, giving me a fright, whispering, "She's too dangerous." I hadn't consciously taken note of Isabel's close proximity until now. "If we don't stop her, she might hurt or kill someone else. She's not on anyone's side. She follows her own insane agenda, which makes her dangerous and unstable."

My conflicting emotions were confusing me. I hadn't fully started to understand what had happened to me. Maybe then I would be more inclined to cheer on this mission to 'stop' Tess. But right now I was reacting like any 17-year-old girl would; I didn't think a girl my age deserved to die. And I didn't want my boyfriend to be her murderer.

"If you hadn't gotten out of her mind manipulation, she would have either left you a vegetable for the rest of your life," Isabel continued, her voice remaining hushed, regretful even, "or dead."