Chapter 1: Taken

Hey! BirdKidKirby here. So, I think it's going to become pretty obvious pretty fast what fairy tale I'm redoing, but keep reading. I promise, this won't be cliché. At least I'll try to promise that as best I can. I think I did a pretty good job of making it more Maximum Ride and less cliché Maximum Ride fanfic. In fact, just read. The beginning isn't too great, but it gets better after a few chapters.

Ages:

Max: 20

Fang: 21*

Iggy: 20*

Nudge: 17*

Angel: 7*

Gazzy: 10*

Ella: 17

Dylan: 22

*=Age appearance, the actual number is too big to write.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.

Ella POV:

"Go on, go on!" Ryan urged. "You're smart and brave. You'll make it back." He gave me a gorgeous smile. I wanted to go out with Ryan Bernoth more than anything. He was by far the hottest guy in school, and yesterday he had offered to take me out to dinner. He asked me. On one condition.

See, there's this huge old mansion about twenty miles outside of town. It's about an hour long drive through this forest, and then you walk up this dirt path to a huge wrought iron gate. Like, a twenty foot tall one. Behind the gate was this expensive-looking manor that was like a billion years old. But it was abandoned. Or so people thought.

Actually, the majority of our suburban town and the ones around it think the house is haunted or cursed. Tons of adventurous teens had tried to get inside and succeeded. Then they vanished and were never heard from again.

A demented howling could usually be heard around here, but everyone new these woods were infested with wolves. That's why Ryan brought one of the hunting rifles he uses when his dad and older brother take him out hunting. What a masculine pastime….

Anyway, Ryan Bernoth had come up to me yesterday and asked if I wanted to catch a movie and some dinner with him this weekend. Um, duh! Of course I agreed. Then he said first he wanted me to prove myself to him. He and some of his gang (yeah, he was that badass of a guy) were going to the Mansion this Friday, and he wanted to know if I wanted to tag along and help out. I jumped on the chance.

Now here I was, staring up at all twenty tall, menacing feet of the metal front gate. Ryan's right-hand-man John went over the plan again with me. "You go inside and tell us what you see. Then you text us if the coast is all clear and we come in with Ryan's gun and take some pics for the internet. Anything dangerous gets shot."

I nodded weakly. "Okay," I managed.

"You're not scared, are you?" The other member of our party, a guy named Alex, asked tauntingly. "We thought you were brave enough to go out with the school's toughest badass."

I gave him a small smile. "No way. Of course, I'm not the one who had to ask a girl to lead the way."

Alex thought about it. "Whatever, you're disposable. Now quit stalling and go!" I ignored the "disposable" comment. Everyone in school knew Alex Jimmers was an asshole. Ryan smiled at me and motioned with one hand. Go ahead. His eyes said. Aww…I could tell what he was thinking just from his eyes! We were going to be perfect together.

I took a deep breath and pushed on the gate. It swung open with an ominous creaking sound. I steeled my nerves and started walking down the stone path. I pushed open the solid oak doors with the wolf-head-shaped brass knockers. They weren't even locked.

Once inside, I was immediately aware of how pitch-black it was. The front door slammed shut behind me. I hadn't touched it, and there was no wind. I was terrified now. But the thought of a date and kissing Ryan Bernoth kept me going.

My eyes adjusted after a moment. The place was full of old furniture and knickknacks. The weird part was, it didn't look abandoned. There were no cobwebs in sight and dust seemed nonexistent. Not only did it look inhabited, it looked like whoever, or whatever, lived here was very neat.

Suddenly, I heard breathing behind me. I turned just in time to see a dark shadow vanish through an archway to the next room. However, it might have just been my imagination.

My hands shaking, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Time to text Ryan. If anything was here, he had a gun. Ryan could protect me. I wrote a simple text.

coast clr. come on. its drk.

I hit "Send". A second later, a message popped up on the screen. No service. Message cancelled. What did it mean no service? I tried to call Ryan instead. It rang for a minute, then a monotonous, robotic voice said, "Unable to connect. Service unavailable." I started to panic. What the H-E-double golf clubs was going on?

I turned to go out the front door and shout for Ryan and the others to come on, but something blocked the way. I couldn't tell what it was. Suddenly, a dim light turned on. I shrieked. It was an African American girl, about my age, with huge wings extending from her back. A young blonde boy with gray wings flew over to join her. "Don't you people ever learn?" The boy asked.

"Yeah, like, we're not stupid," The girl backed him up. "We have a cell phone jammer. We knew you were coming, like, half an hour ago."

"Who-who a-a-are you?" I was struggling to control my voice. My whole body was shaking.

"That's of no importance to you," A voice said from the shadows next to the winged kids. A new figure emerged and I stifled another shriek. This girl had brown hair and yellow eyes, slitted like a cat's. She had a yellow spotted tail and matching fur down her arms and legs and face. Thorn-sharp black claws were extended from each of her fingers. I backed away.

"I'm sure the master will be very pleased to have a new prisoner. It's been so…quiet," She purred. I focused on not hyperventilating. "The others are outside scaring off your friends." As soon as she finished her sentence, I heard terrified screams and a car starting and rolling away. "Naughty, naughty, bringing a gun. Master won't be pleased." I heard a deep growling behind me and the clack-clack of claws on marble. Hot breath stirred my hair. "Why, here's the Master now," She said delightedly. I slowly turned around. This time I couldn't hold it in. I screamed as loud as I could.

A monster. A werewolf. A beast. Those were the thoughts that swirled in my head as I looked at the creature in front of me. He (I think it was a he) would easily be seven feet tall standing upright on his hind legs, but he was down on all fours. He had long claws extending from the end of each finger (his front paws looked more like hands than actual paws), and he had a tail twitching irritably behind him. He had black fur covering every inch of his monstrous body and his face looked like a wolf's, with a long, pointed snout and curved white incisors. "Well, well, a new victim." He snarled. I noticed that the only things that didn't match the "wolf" description were his eyes. Instead of yellow, they were such a deep black that I could barely see them against his fur. I noticed his back paws actually looked like paws instead of feet.

"Wha-wha-what do you w-want," I stammered.

"Why, just to teach you a lesson of course. Normally, I just have one of my servants wipe intruders memories completely before I send them somewhere completely exotic. They're never heard from again."

"Can we keep her?" The winged girl asked. "I need a new model for my clothes. And I need a human face besides mine to make over. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have a new palette for Iggy to feed. We have that spare room in the dungeon. She can stay for a few weeks, right?" The "Master" tilted his head, thinking about it.

"Fine," He said, "Lock her away." The girls grabbed my arms and dragged me kicking and screaming to the dungeon. I wished Max were here. She could have gotten me out of this. But my sister wouldn't be back from college for another three days. I could only hope she would come after me then.

I was roughly slammed into cold, hard stone. "Stay in here and chill out. I'll be back tomorrow to dress you like a princess! Lots of pinching and squeezing to make the clothes fit, of course. And some of the make-up I test might burn." The winged girl laughed and my captors headed back upstairs.

I cried myself to sleep against the cold concrete floor of my cell. All of this for a date with a cute guy? Definitely not worth it. Not even for Ryan Bernoth.

Nudge POV:

"Good work," I giggled to Eliza as we headed upstairs to meet up with the others. We high-fived. When we got there Iggy, Angel, Gazzy, Owen, and Jennifer were all looking at Fang, the Master.

"She's all locked up Fang," I said cheerfully.

Fang snarled, "You will refer to me as "Master" while we have prisoner. These hallways carry sound." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off. "You will call me Master!" He roared. I felt his leadership-control-power-thing press against my mind.

"Yes, master," I said meekly. The Master turned to Angel.

"What is the prisoner thinking?" He demanded of her. Angel could read minds, a very handy power for warding off intruders. She would tell us they were coming and we would scare the crap out of them to make them leave. Or Angel would erase their memories and the Master would have me and Gazzy fly them somewhere far away. It depended on how much they saw.

"She's hoping her sister will come get her in a few days," Angel reported. "And all this trouble wasn't worth a date with one of those guys outside with the gun."

"Hell no," I muttered.

Fang nodded. "Good work. You know the drill, keep her alive, give her no information. We'll just have to wait and see if this sister shows up." He stalked away upstairs.

"He's so cheery," Jennifer said, rolling her eyes.

Iggy turned his sightless eyes back to us. "You guys hungry? We'll eat, then bring the prisoner some leftovers." We nodded and headed to the kitchen. I couldn't help wondering if the girl's sister would come. It would certainly liven up our week. Things get awful boring after being cursed for three-hundred years.

There it is. I hope it wasn't too terrible. Max will be in the next chapter. Once again, I promise this won't be very cliché. There's a twist coming in a few chapters, one that's not in any other versions! (That I've read or seen.)

Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot.

Review please! I'll give you metaphorical bacon! Or at least fast updates.