Stasis
"Just wait… It'll come to you eventually."
"I have no idea what I'm doing, Max."
Max Caulfield sighed and laid back on the grass. She looked up at the trees, just starting to show signs of autumn, and took a deep breath. "It's just a picture, Chloe," she said endearingly.
Chloe turned around and set the camera down carefully. "But I want to take good pictures, Max. Like you."
"Please, I just… I get lucky, I guess."
"Nah girl," she poked her in the side, making her jump. "You got hella skills."
Max laughed, "I guess I do."
Chloe lied down beside her. The two of them gazed up into the sky at the clouds.
"They're so… poofy."
"Max, they're clouds."
A moment of silence.
"Poof, poof…"
They both broke out into laughter.
"You're such a weird person, Maxine."
"Don't call me that!" she fake pouted.
"Correction, you're my weird person."
They both laughed and Max scooted a little closer to Chloe. The sun disappeared behind a cloud and the sky darkened. Chloe got up and shivered. "Jesus, it's cold."
The wind picked up pace. The once passive and peaceful breeze to turn into a chilling gust. Rain started falling. Max sprang up and quickly grabbed the camera, shoving it into her bag, "Are you cereal right now? The forecast said no rain."
"Cereal?"
"Shut up and hold this, dork."
"I'm not the dork, you're the dork."
"You're at least two times the dork."
"Well, I am taller than you," she smirked.
"CAN YOU JUST HOLD THIS PLEASE," Max half laughed, half shouted.
The pair of them retreated into the school building, now soaked in rain. Max was shivering from head to toe, clutching the camera bag in an attempt to shield the precious cargo from harm. Chloe sat herself down in one of the chairs outside the main office.
"Wow, it's really coming down out there," Max said, looking out the glass doors. The rain was now a torrential downpour and the trees were shaking violently.
This is weird… this is the same kind of weather as -
"Max? Max why did you kill me," Chloe asked, suddenly hysterical. "Why did you betray me!"
Max jumped at the sudden question. The harshness in Chloe's voice threw her off. She suddenly felt scared for really no reason.
Chloe stood up out of her chair, approaching Max menacingly, fists balled.
"You told me to, Chloe!" Max shouted, backing up. "I'm so, so sorry, I-I"
"You were just waiting to get rid of me, weren't you? That's why you left all those years ago!" Chloe screamed. She grabbed Max's shoulders and shook her.
Tears were streaming down Max's face. "No! I swear! What is even going on, I-"
"Max!" A deep voice called, filled with sophistication and knowledge. "I'm still waiting on that photo entry," Mr. Jefferson smiled at her from the other side of the hallway, holding up a syringe and flicking the needle. "After all, you are my prized student."
"Max! Answer me!" Chloe screamed, shaking her more.
"Answer her, Max!"
"Max!"
Max sat up with a jolt, tears still streaming freely. Another yell came from the doorway of her dorm followed by muffled footsteps.
"Max! Wake up! Are you okay?" Kate Marsh was shaking her by the shoulders. "You were crying… I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Oh, Kate. I-I'm just. I had a bad dream."
"Must have been one heck of a bad dream, Max. I'm here if you ever want to talk about it."
"Okay, thanks Kate."
"Oh, that reminds me, we're going to be late to class. We have a new prof and I don't want to be in her bad books already. You'd better get ready, I'll see you in class, okay?" And with that, she fled the room, letting the door close behind her.
What just happened? I dreamt I was with Chloe… and then… and then it was over? I mean, I've been having nightmares about Chloe for a little while, but nothing like this… This is weird. It felt so real. Could it have been? Well, Chloe wouldn't yell at me like that. At least, I hope she wouldn't. And Mr. Jefferson wouldn't have been there. Hell, anything could be possible now, but I went back in time. I fixed everything! No storm came to Arcadia Bay, and Chloe was shot by Nathan Prescott, I know that for a fact. I went to her funeral… Definitely just a dream, Max.
Max slid out of bed and gazed at herself in the mirror. There were heavy bags under her eyes, which were puffy from the nightmare. I guess you just can't get over losing a loved one that easily. She walked over to her closet and got dressed.
No time for a shower, I need to get to class.
She grabbed her satchel and her camera and left.
The air outside was cool, and the trees were showing the first signs of autumn.
That's… familiar…
"Hey, Max!" a voice called to her. She turned around and was met by Warren Graham. "Max, I was looking for you."
"Shouldn't you be in class, Warren?" she crossed her arms.
"Shouldn't you?"
"Touché," she admitted. "I'm running a little late. Something held me up. Sorry, Warren, but I really have to get to class. I have a new prof, gotta make a good first impression."
"Oh, well I'll catch you later, okay? I'll call you! This is just really, really-"
"I'm actually really sorry Warren, I just have to go. I'll call you if you don't call me, alright?" She gave him a weak smile.
I'm pathetic. Warren deserves a better friend than I. God, I'm such a loser.
Max gingerly opened the door to her classroom, the same one that Mark Jefferson used to teach in. The memories she had of that man will never let her rest. Sometimes she can't stop thinking about the way he looked at her. The way he saw her as nothing more than one of his prized subjects. But then again, who else would know that Max was captured by Mr. Jefferson? After all, as far as people in this time were concerned, that had never happened.
A dark skinned woman with short hair turned to face the door from where she was standing, clipboard in hand. She vaguely reminded Max of Mrs. Grant.
"Ah, and this would be…"
"Max. Max Caulfield."
"Ah yes, Maxine Caulfield."
"Max Caulfield. I'm sorry I'm late."
"Oh, It's no big deal. Mondays are always a little hectic, right?" she chuckled. Max could already tell that this professor was going to be a straight upgrade from Mr. Jefferson. Although she wasn't famous, anyone who doesn't abduct young women and photograph them after drugging them was a straight upgrade from someone who does.
She walked over to her usual spot in the classroom and was relieved that nobody was sitting there. All of her usual classmates were present, even Victoria, whom, as only Max would recall, should be dead.
"So, the hippie lives!" Victoria joked."How are you doing?"
Max rolled her eyes. "I'm doing fine, Victoria. To be honest, it's kind of weird when you're… nice to me." She pulled the chair out and sat.
"Look, I'm really sorry about all that shit I said to you… or anybody, for that matter," Victoria spoke softly. "I guess I'm just a huge asshole to people."
"You're not and it's okay. I'm just glad you're being nice now," Max laughed. "It's great that-"
"Maxine?"
"What?"
The new professor, Ms. Rye, was staring directly at her.
"Do you care to answer?"
"Answer… what?"
"I'm s-sorry. I didn't hear the question."
"Is that where you're going to sit?" Ms. Rye asked, politely, yet obviously slightly upset about being ignored.
"Oh, yes, sorry Ms. Rye. I didn't mean to ignore you. Also, I go by Max."
"Sorry, Ms. Rye. I was distracting her," Victoria spoke up.
Ms. Rye gave Victoria a strange look. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Max. I'm horrible with names, so I'm sorry if I botch yours a couple of times before I get it."
Maxine to Max isn't that hard of a transition…
Max pulled out her journal and all of her class supplies. She set her camera on the desk, careful not to place it in any perilous positions, and set her retro pencil case next to it.
The wind caused the trees to dance, drawing Max's attention to the outside world. The lecture that Ms. Rye had started was already a part of the background, melting away like a leaf in the wind.
Is… Is Chloe alive somewhere? Is there some sort of alternate reality where she's alive and Arcadia Bay is safe?
This question was daunting and Max had thought about it before. If there was some time, some decision somewhere that Max could make differently that ended up with Chloe being alive and Arcadia Bay being safe, Max would take the option any day, but no such option was available. She'd wasted countless nights of sleep going over and over in her head, could I have done something differently? Is there anything I could've done to save everyone?
Yet, time and time again, she was met with the grim fact that fate is not to be messed with. Destiny will always find its way.
One of the nice things about being in school again was that Kate was no longer her gloomy self. Apparently, she didn't go into super emo mode after that video of her was posted, instead she used it as an inspiration. A reason to be better and happier than ever before, to prove to everybody that she was not what the video depicted, which Max was grateful for. Of course, having Jefferson exposed as the man behind the drugging of Kate Marsh, made it easy to coax forgiveness out of her family and they looked at her less like a criminal and more like a victim. Which, of course, she was.
"Hey, Max," Kate spoke softly from next to her. "What did you get for number seven?"
Max looked down at the worksheet.
Blank.
"I uh… I haven't gotten there yet, sorry Kate."
"Oh, that's alright. Hey, is everything okay? You seem a little down," Kate probed cautiously.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Kate took a deep breath, as if to steel herself. "Is it… is it about Chloe?"
Max almost physically grimaced at the mention of her name. She steeled herself as well before responding, "Yeah. I guess."
"I feel horrible for telling you this, but you were screaming her name this morning. You were telling her to stop."
"I was?"
"It was quite scary. I was really worried about you." Kate rested her hand on Max's. "So do you want to talk about it?"
There was a moment of silence.
Do I talk to her? I mean, if there's anybody here I can trust here besides Warren, it's Kate. But does she really need to know all of my baggage? I mean, honestly, what are the chances that she'd actually believe me. Who am I to tell her that there was this whole series of catastrophic events and alternate universe scenarios? And then to tell her I went back and made it so that none of it ever happened? Or did it all happen and I'm the only one to remember?
Max cleared her throat.
"The answer to number seven is Ansel Adams. Born 1902 and died 1984."
Kate withdrew her hand. "Oh. O-okay, thanks, Max." She shifted over to her side of the table.
God damn it, now I seem like an asshole. Good going, Max.
Finally the class came to an end and Ms. Rye bid all of the students farewell until next meeting. The afternoon autumn sun cascaded from the heavens into the usually dull classroom through the open windows, causing phones and reflective surfaces alike to create little diamonds of light everywhere.
Max approached Kate solemnly.
"Look, Kate, I'm sorry about earlier. It's not that I don't trust you or anything, I just-"
Kate wrapped her into a hug. "It's okay, Max. You don't have to apologize to me, silly. You've been through a lot what with your best friend getting m-" she paused and relinquished the hug. "Passing away…"
Murdered.
Although she had not spoke it, the word still found its way into Max's mind.
Murdered.
Nathan Prescott, Blackwell Academy's star child, murdered Chloe Price.
In cold blood.
The very mention of the word brought up fresh emotions and without warning and before she realized it, fresh tears trickled down Max's face.
"Oh, Max! I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up," Kate hugged her tighter.
Max sniffed, burying her face in Kate's shoulder and returned the hug. It was a great relief that someone around here cared. That someone knew.
"No, it's okay, Kate. I guess I've just been bottling up all of my feelings."
And for good reason, my feelings are invalid and useless and only make things worse.
"Why don't you come with me to my room? It's not good for you to be alone right now. Or maybe being alone is what you need and, gosh, I'm just not good at helping people, I'm sorry."
She's apologizing to me?
"No," Max laughed through the tears. "You don't have to be sorry, why are you sorry?"
"I don't know, it's just what I say when I have nothing else to say," she shrugged.
The two of them broke apart.
"So, tea at my place?"
"For sure," Max smiled.
They departed the classroom, now empty, save Ms. Rye, and filling with golden sunset light.
Max dunked her tea bag into the steaming water. She was sitting on the sofa, basking in the dying sunlight.
I'm like a little lizard.
…
I see why Chloe called me weird.
Kate was sitting next to her, quietly sipping away. Her violin was resting in its stand on the other side of the couch. All of Kate's cute, little drawings were pinned onto a bulletin board across the room.
It's nice to be around a happy Kate.
"Kate?"
"Yes, Max?"
"Can I… Can I tell you something?"
Oh, God, am I actually doing this?
"Of course, Max. You can tell me anything. What are friends for?" She smiled warmly, taking another sip of tea.
"Okay…" She took a deep breath and set her teacup down on the nearby coffee table. "This is going to sound really, really, odd, but…"
Just say it. You've gotten this far.
"But…?"
"I…"
"Max if you're going to tell me you're gay, I already know."
Max choked on her tea, sending her into a coughing fit.
"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry!"
"It's fine, it's fine," Max said between coughs. She recovered and continued, "No, that's not…"
"I don't think it's bad, Max. People love who people love, I'm not going to step in between-"
"Kate!" Max almost shouted, making her jump. "That's not what I was going to say," she laughed nervously.
"Oh… Sorry for assuming then, gosh, this makes me look horrible-"
"I mean, I am, but that's not what I was going to tell you."
"Wait, you are?"
"I… I don't really know, I don't think I care either, ANYWAYS," Max took yet another deep breath. "I… I can control time, Kate."
Silence.
"You… what?"
Max sighed. "I can control time. I can reverse it, I can speed it up… I can… change it."
Kate chuckled a little. "Max… you-"
"-'re sure you're okay?"
"Ho-"
"-w did you know I was going to say that?"
"Okay, st-"
"-op that, it's freaking me out Max!"
"M-"
"-ax!"
Silence.
Kate stared at Max, squinting at her like she was some immortal being.
"Ch-"
"-eeseburger!"
Kate looked at the ground, shocked.
"Sorry," Max said, smiling a little. "I'll stop now."
"What was that?"
"I told you, I can control time."
"I mean, but… how did you?"
"How did I know what you were going to say? I've been through this experience before and I just remembered what you said, and repeated it to you."
"That's… that's amazing, Max," Kate said, dumbfounded.
"So... you believe me?"
"Anything is possible in God's world, Max," she shrugged. "Maybe your purpose was to do his work."
"Well if that's true, God's a terrible person…" Max mumbled, mostly to herself.
"What?"
"Nothing, sorry."
"H-how long have you been able to do this?"
"For about a month."
"Wait, so why are you telling me this, Max? Tell me everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
Max leaned forward and took a huge swig of her tea.
"Okay."
The two of them sat on the sofa for the remainder of the evening, every once in a while pausing to refill on tea. Kate occasionally asking a question, and Max filling her in with more of an answer than Kate wanted.
Eventually, the light that once streamed through the windows was replaced by moonlight.
"So you… Sacrificed Chloe for Arcadia Bay? For all of us?"
Max nodded.
"That's… unbelievable."
"You don't believe me?"
"No, I do. Even a grade 'A' author couldn't make up a story like that in one sitting. It's unbelievable that you'd sacrifice her for all of us. Apparently in that world everyone was mean to you," Kate said glumly.
"Actually, that's not true. You were really nice to me."
"And in that world… I almost…" Kate breathed.
"Yeah."
"Thank you for stopping me, Max. That means so much, even though I don't remember any of it."
"It's a good thing you don't. You just weren't yourself after the video."
"The video wasn't my fault."
"Not in that world. Jefferson never got busted."
"He didn't?"
"No, I told you that, right?"
"Max, it was a lot to take in."
"Yeah, sorry…" Max took a sip of her tea. "I miss her."
"Chloe?"
"Yeah."
"She sounds great. A little wild, I guess, but still great."
They sat in silence, Kate still trying to process what she was being told.
"Wait, so if… if Jefferson shot Chloe, how did you sacrifice her to save the Bay?"
"That was before I went back to warn her not to go to the junkyard."
"But then shouldn't you have not ended up in the Dark Room?"
"I… I still don't know about that one."
"And after you got there the second time, Jefferson burned all your photos so you couldn't go back to anywhere else."
"Yeah."
"Sorry, Max, I don't mean to make you relive memories, I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this."
"I know. I didn't expect you to get it all at once."
The wind howled outside, and Max took another sip of tea, finishing off the cup.
She's taking this rather well, I wasn't expecting her to actually believe me.
"So that dream this morning, when you were yelling at Chloe, what was she doing?"
The question caught Max off guard. "Oh. Well, I don't know. I don't really remember. All I remember is that is was really rainy… and there was thunder and lightning… a huge storm too."
"Oh, I see."
Why am I lying to her.
Max sighed. "Actually, she was shaking me. She was… she was yelling at me. It's still freaking me out, to be honest."
"What was she saying?"
"She-" Max's voice caught in her throat. "She was asking why I… why I killed her." Fresh tears rolled down her cheek.
"Oh my gosh, Max!" Kate gasped, setting down her teacup and reaching over to wrap up Max in a hug. "That's… harsh."
"Just a little bit," she whimpered. "I just… I can't stop thinking about it. As much as I try."
"Well, I mean, it happened this morning, so."
"No, Kate. I meant about how I… How I killed her."
"You didn't kill her, Max. Nathan did."
"But I could've stopped it, Kate!" Max sobbed freely now. "I could've saved her!"
Kate squeezed her tighter. "Didn't you just go over with me about how this is the right choice and how Chloe would've wanted this? Didn't you just tell me about how it needed to be this way or everyone including myself would be… Dead?"
"But what if I'm wrong, Kate?" Max broke free from her tight embrace. "What if I'm wrong about everything, and I can save her and Arcadia Bay!" She flung her arms in frustration and collapsed into the sofa, defeated, tears painting her face. She put her face in her hands. "I don't know everything, Kate. I thought I could help people. I thought I could be a hero and save people, but all I've done is bring pain and suffering to everyone, including myself. I thought I was finally worth something."
"Oh, Max…" Kate put a hand on her shoulder. "You're worth a lot. You're sweet, and kind, and an amazing photographer and I'm sure you would've won the Everyday Heroes contest if you had entered, and you're a great friend, and-"
It was Max's turn to hug Kate. "Thank you, Kate. Sorry for freaking out on you. I just don't understand why God, if he really is up there, would give me these powers. I've been trying to figure it out since the day I discovered I had them and still I'm not one step closer to finding the truth. I'm starting to think I'll never know. Obviously I'm not supposed to save people, because I saved Chloe and look how that turned out."
"Maybe you didn't save Chloe, but you learned from the experience, didn't you?"
"I guess so."
"Then maybe that was only the beginning. Maybe everything from that week was to teach you how to use your powers and what your limits were."
"When did you become and expert on time traveling superheroes?" Max joked.
"I'm not," Kate laughed. "But you came to me to talk to me, so I'm talking."
"Fair enough," Max sighed, wiping the last of her tears out of her eyes. She pulled out her phone to check the time.
1:42 AM… and 4 missed calls from Warren. Damn, I forgot I put my phone on silent. I really am a horrible friend. Sorry, Warren.
"Jeez, I didn't mean to keep you up so late," Max said solemnly.
"It's okay," Kate responded, pausing to let out a yawn. "I always enjoy the company of a good friend. Plus I learned a couple of interesting things about you today," she winked.
"I'd better get going," Max gathered her things and started towards the door. She took a look around Kate's room and was glad that it was now a place of happiness. She paused in the open doorway. "Thank you so much for listening to me rant. It means a lot."
"Of course, you can always come to me to talk if you want. I'll always have tea too," Kate giggled.
"Alright, see you!" she flashed her a smile.
"And Max?"
Max turned to face Kate.
"About your powers, I think if you just wait, it'll come to you eventually," she smiled softly.
"Just like a photo?"
"Just like a photo."
Max smiled again, then turned and entered the dark hallway beyond, letting the heavy door close with a soft click behind her.