Chapter 1

Max woke up in a cold sweat with her heart jumping out of her chest. She gasped for air as she sat upright to help her breathing. Her heartbeat was a deafening drum in the silence of the room. Blue night time light poured in through the windows casting trapezoids of light on the hardwood floors. A sliver of light shone through and appeared directly over Max's eyes. She winced and rubbed her eyes, waiting for them to adjust from her interrupted sleep.

As she opened her eyes and waited for that sense of disorientation to fade away, she realized that it wasn't going away. Her environment was vaguely familiar but still foreign enough to set her on edge. She took a few deep breaths to make sure she wasn't still in her nightmare. Looking at her hands and watching her fingers clench in and out perfectly under her control made her certain she was lucid. When she looked down she also saw she was on a mattress on the floor, and had a sleeping bag instead of bedsheets. The moonlight that came though the windows created strange sections of amorphous shadowy blobs in the room, making it difficult to point out distinguishable details. But when she looked to her side, she saw what was clearly a bed. So, a sleepover?

But that would mean...

She got up slowly and peeked over the top of the bed to find the one face that would always assure her that things were okay, no matter what universe she had stumbled into. Chloe Price lay soundly asleep in her bed. But as much as she was overjoyed to see Chloe, she immediately began to panic.

Not a single strand of blue hair was to be seen and she was clearly no older than 13.

At that revelation, she threw the sleeping bag off herself and ran to the mirror. Max staggered back in shock when she saw the reflection. A young teenage Max stared back at her, bearing the same horrified expression, on the other side of the mirror.

"No... It can't be..." Max murmured as she looked around the room frantically. "What's happening?"

"What?" A groggy voice asked from behind her.

Max whirled around and saw Chloe rubbing her eyes and sitting up. Shit, shit, shit. Chloe had heard her. Could she tell Chloe about her powers? The functional part of her brain said no, of course not, because who knows how real this dream is and how it could affect the future if she starts blabbing to Chloe about time travel years before she discovers it? Her gut however was a different matter. Her gut told her that this was still a dream, that she would wake from it and it would go how all dreams go: no matter how real it feels you always wake up and realize how fake it was.

"What're you doing? Checking yourself out?" Chloe asked with a snicker.

"I'm not-!" Max stopped short as her voice sounded so weird in her own ears. She sighed. Max glanced around the room before quietly making her way back to her bed. "Sorry Chloe, I didn't mean to wake you up," she apologized.

Chloe groaned something incomprehensible and rolled back over, pulling the sheets over her head. She waited for Chloe's steady breathing to resume before tip toeing over to her desk. Max was no stranger to vivid dreams, but even in those dreams it was difficult to make out details and sensations up close. Kind of like impressionist paintings. But here looking over the cluttered mess, Max was able to distinguish incredible detail in everything she held. The cassette player had a nice heft to it and its aluminum exterior was cool to the touch. She could even make out the label of her own pirate mixtape inside. She could clearly read the text on various homework papers scattered across its surface. She could even read…

…the calendar.

A calendar hung over Chloe's desk, which Max quickly took down. The month it was flipped to said February, but judging by the warmth of the room it felt more like summer. Chloe probably just hadn't changed it. The year might be a clue though. She flipped to the front cover and it sent a chill down her spine.

2008.

How the hell had she come to the year 2008? Was she stuck here? Was this actually a dream or would her actions pile up consequences like they had before? Were her powers still active?

Questions piled upon questions and suddenly Max's vision blurred. An intense feeling of drowsiness came over her and she dropped the calendar, stumbling back to her bed. She passed out before her head hit the pillow.

Max woke as quickly as she had fallen asleep, her heart pounding like it was before. Bright light streamed in from the windows, heralding the morning. She sat up quickly in bed as everything came rushing back. She was greeted with the sight of her familiar Blackwell dorm room. She rolled over to retrieve her phone from her nightstand. With a click it told her the current date.

January 3, 2014

Max let out a relieved sigh. She was in her own bed, in her own room. What the hell was that dream?

Following her adventures with Chloe almost 3 months ago, Max's academic performance had slipped as did her mental well-being. Her conscience wrestled with itself in a never-ending battle that couldn't reconcile either consequence of saving the town or saving her best friend. Guilt gripped her mind every single time she walked into the classroom and saw the faces of the people she had almost sacrificed. If she was called upon to answer a question she would freeze up and panic, thinking that her words would speak into existence another tornado. The very fiber of her being was locked in constant turmoil.

How is it that you can regret saving countless lives?

Frost crept up at the edges of the window, and Max opened the blinds. The snow outside was immensely pretty and shone brightly in the clear morning light. She just hoped the paths were cleared so she wouldn't have to worry as much about slipping.

She stepped over piles of clothes to get to her mirror. She calmed down a bit as she saw her more familiar high school face looking back at her. Even though it was her own face, she somehow still didn't recognize herself. She looked much sadder in her reflection than she thought she should have looked. She was getting thin, but not in a healthy way, more of a "you haven't eaten properly in weeks" way. She could tell by the way her neck looked as it protruded awkwardly from the collar of her shirt. A well-placed scarf will do the trick. It's cold outside anyway. Did she always look like that? Maybe she did. God, she looked awful.

Her room was an absolute mess. She would worry about it later.

Max opened her eyes to bright sunlight and unpleasantly warm air. She was almost sweating beneath this insulating sleeping bag and she quickly threw it off. When she looked down at herself she realized her clothes had changed. More than that, her surroundings had changed. She was back in Chloe's room.

She rose to her feet and briefly surveyed the room before realizing Chloe wasn't there. A messy pile of sheets on her bed showed her that she at least was here. In the mirror she determined she was about the same age as she was in the previous dream. If it actually was a dream, that is. Max went to the desk once more to check the calendar. To her surprise the calendar she had pulled off to observe was still off its hook, sprawled messily atop the pile of clutter on Chloe's desk. It was right where she had left it, and the year was still 2008.

I'm sure I was the one who moved the calendar. If my actions in the previous dream affected this one, maybe these aren't dreams. I should be careful.

The door to the room was wide open, and given the vacant bed it was likely Chloe had gotten up to get ready for the day. Max peeked out the doorway slowly and found the bathroom door was closed. Hopefully Chloe's absence would be long enough for Max to pick out some clue as to what she was doing here.

Max looked over once more at the room, now in better lighting than the previous night. Chloe's unmistakable decorating touches were all over the walls, in taped up pictures, comics, and hand-drawn movie posters. In half of these things Max could even pick out her own handwriting and artwork. Every scrap of paper plastered on the walls should've helped Max remember what she was doing here, but none of it helped. They were all just reminders of a long gone past, a friendship now dead.

Everything is so real. I'm not sure if I'm actually dreaming or not.

A loud voice called from downstairs.

"Max! Breakfast!"

Though she was much younger, it was definitely Chloe's voice. Max grew nervous as she began her slow descent down the stairs. Whatever she was doing here, if her actions affected the future, she would be putting everyone in serious jeopardy all over again. She had to be careful in how she proceeded with the day.

Just go with the flow.

Max realized she was going at a snail's pace down the stairs and sped up as she reached the bottom as to not arouse suspicion. The glorious smell from the kitchen did nothing to impede her. She rounded the corner and her eyes widened much more than she wanted.

Joyce was in the kitchen, cooking up a storm, and William was at the counter, collecting his things before work.

Chloe waved at her, fork in hand, to get her attention. "G'Morning, sleepyhead. Grab some food before I eat this all by myself."

Joyce turned around at the mention of Max and also greeted her. "Hey, Max! You hungry?"

"Y-yeah…" Max stammered. Chloe was too busy eating to notice her hesitation, which Max was thankful for.

"Good morning, Max. Sleep alright?" William asked cheerily.

"Yeah! Uh huh." Max was much quicker in responding properly this time.

William moved over to kiss Chloe on the cheek. Chloe tried to squirm out of it while saying something like "Eww, Dad! I'm eating!" She finally relented as William ruffled her hair, which only bothered her more.

William went to the garage and Joyce finished plating the rest of the food. While grabbing her own things, she turned to Max. "Alright, Max, William and I will be out doing some shopping. That leaves you to take care of Chloe, okay? Make sure she doesn't burn the house down." she said with a smirk.

"Hey! You know I'm older than her right, Mom?" Chloe whined back.

Joyce didn't reply, but simply waved as she followed William to the garage. Chloe huffed and went back to her food, but Max saw she was smiling too. During this whole exchange Max stood awkwardly to the side, almost in the hallway like she was ready to make a hasty exit. Chloe finally noticed and motioned for Max to come sit with her.

Max tried to make her movements as fluid as possible but the thought of engaging in conversation with Chloe terrified her. Here she was, a younger version of the moody volatile girl she had spent a week with in the real time. Watching her so carefree and happy was eerie. Max feared that the moment she opened her mouth to speak would be the moment she gave up her true origin, causing some massive chain reaction that would destroy Arcadia Bay.

She shuddered as she realized all her recent thoughts about her situation were going to the absolute extremes. Maybe she needed to calm down.

Max felt a growling in her belly. She took a plate and helped herself to some food, hoping that her hunger would provide a natural fluidity to her movements. Her hands moved to take some eggs and bacon but the rest of her body felt like it would explode into a panic attack. Her throat began to constrict as her heart moved up in her chest. She felt like she was going to throw up.

"Why so tense, Max? It's just breakfast," Chloe said between bites.

She's noticing. Just breathe. Calm down.

Max forced herself to smile as she replied, "Sorry. I'm just…really hungry, you know?"

"Tell me about it. Mom's cooking is the best," Chloe replied enthusiastically.

Good, she bought it.

"Are you excited for today?" Chloe asked gleefully.

Max knew she couldn't be specific, so she replied, "Super."

Chloe reached into her pocket and slid a worn brass key across the table. Max looked at it curiously, but had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Chloe frowned as it became apparent Max didn't understand.

"I found it! I finally got it! Aren't you surprised?"

Max faltered but caught herself quickly. "I-uh, yeah! I mean, how did you get it?"

Chloe grinned mischievously and pocketed the key. "I snuck into their room while they were down here cooking. It was just lying there on his night stand! Can you believe it was that easy?"

"No, that's…crazy." Max paused as she took a bite of food to occupy herself.

Chloe put her elbows up on the table and rested her chin in her hand, acting like some sort of wise seer. She dramatically gazed into Max's eyes. Max quickly looked away and returned to her food.

"You okay, Max? You're acting kinda weird right now. You're not thinking about backing out, are you?"

Max had no idea what Chloe was referring to, but hastily replied, "No, no, of course not! It's just…I had a weird dream last night."

"Gotcha. Is that why you were up last night?"

"Yeah. Couldn't sleep well."

"Waking up from dreams is like, the worst. What were you dreaming about?"

Max's mouth ran dry so she quickly took a swig of milk. "Uh, well I think…well the details are kinda hazy now, but I remember there was…snow." She paused. "It was snowing," she repeated herself.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Snow? That's it?"

"Well I can't remember all of it now!" Max snapped.

Chloe just shrugged. "Whatever. One thing's for sure though. No snow on the Fourth of July!"

Fourth of July? So it really is summer.

Max finished her food while using ambiguous replies to dodge Chloe's questions. The longer Max held conversation with her, the more natural everything seemed to be. It wasn't long before she was able to quietly slip into the character of her younger self. Things started to feel normal again. She just hoped she wouldn't let her guard down too much and accidentally say more than she should have.

Max learned the key Chloe had slid across the table earlier was for a storage cabinet in the garage. Since it was the Fourth of July, Chloe, or rather, the two of them, had planned to sneak into the cabinet and steal some of the fireworks William had bought for the occasion. Even though Adult Max thought that this was irresponsible, Kid Max had to go along with the plan. As Chloe kept reminding her, she agreed to this.

They stood in front of the tall cabinet with rusted hinges. Max held her breath as Chloe turned the key. The doors squeaked open and the pair's eyes lit up. Chloe looked like a kid in a candy store, except the candy was fireworks, and Max looked like the mom chasing after the kid in the candy store, except those candies were also fireworks.

"Hoooly shit! Look at all of this!" Chloe exclaimed.

Max was almost speechless. "That's…a lot of fireworks…Like, a lot."

"Boom, goes the dynamite, am I right?" Chloe said gleefully. Too gleefully.

She instantly reached for the biggest box but Max quickly stopped her.

"Whoa, hold on. We can't just go for the biggest box. Your dad's definitely going to find out. Let's just take a handful from the small box to try them out first, don't you think?"

Chloe frowned but saw the sensibility in Max's plan. "I guess you're right. I would've just taken the biggest fireworks there are and set them off right here! Good thing you're here to keep me from making a mess, huh?"

"Yeah," Max said absently. "Good thing."

They pulled a few from one of the smaller boxes and put everything back as they found it. Chloe dragged Max by the hand out to the backyard, laughing with excitement the whole way. Once outside she unwrapped one of the fireworks and stuck it in the grass. She pulled out a lighter, but not before Max stopped her again.

"Wait! Right here in the grass? Aren't you worried about starting a fire?" she said worriedly.

Chloe gave a disappointed groan. "Why'd you always have to go and be the responsible one?"

"Your mom did tell me to not let you burn the house down," Max said with a smirk.

Chloe waved a hand dismissively. "Psh, whatever. Where else can we put it, then? I'm not going to hold it, if that's what you're thinking."

Max looked around the backyard and spotted the barbeque grill. The two of them looked at each other with excitement without even saying a word. They both knew what the other was thinking.

Max pulled out the grill from along the wall while Chloe uncovered the lid and began to position the sparkler on the grilltop. The grill was perfect because the pile of ash and used up charcoal at the bottom could hold the stick in place. Once it was decently vertical, Chloe reached in with a lighter.

She took a deep breath. "Here goes."

The fuse on the firework sparked and fizzled as it crept up toward the main body. Max and Chloe jumped a few steps back and waited as the fuse disappeared. A gentle crackling began as little balls of light shot out of the sides of the firework. A few moments later and the crackling got a little more intense, but not by much. Chloe frowned and stepped closer. Truthfully, it was a little underwhelming.

"What a let down."

Sharp pops and pings resounded at once as sparks shot straight up and exploded, raining embers down on the backyard. Even in the afternoon, the yellows and reds and greens were intense and visible against the warm setting sun. Sparks continued to fly 10 feet into the air, and Chloe stepped out into the middle of everything, arms reached skyward.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" she said with a huge grin.

Suddenly the garage door hummed and creaked. Chloe looked toward the house in a panic.

"They're home! We have to hide this!" she cried.

But the fireworks were still going, and didn't show signs of stopping soon. Max ran to the grill lid and quickly smothered the popper. Unfortunately it didn't do much to stop the actual firework. Instead it only made the loud popping sound dull out into an echoing pong as the fireworks bounced around the hollow inside of the grill. She exchanged a horrified glance with Chloe as they realized she had just turned the sparkler into a large echo chamber where sparks were likely zipping around the inside of the grill.

Before either one of them could do anything, William appeared in the patio doorway.

"Hi, you two."

Max and Chloe instantly whirled around and closed ranks to hide the grill behind them.

"Hi!" they said in nervous unison.

Slightly confused by their reaction, William continued slowly, "So…do anything fun today?"

"Nope!" they replied in unison again. Max almost smacked her forehead with her palm after that response. Beside her she was sure that Chloe was mentally kicking herself too.

William raised an eyebrow. "No, you didn't do anything fun today?

He was suppressing a look that said "yeah, I totally believe you" but instead settled for what looked like a relieved sigh. "Well, I'm about to get dinner going, so get cleaned up, alright?"

Chloe nodded enthusiastically. "Sure thing, Dad."

Right before William went back inside, the cursed firework let out a single pop that sounded like a balloon exploded inside the grill. Both girls flinched as William noticed the sound and looked around the yard to look for the source of the noise. Max was certain William had connected the poorly concealed grill to the loud popping noise, but was surprised when William responded only with, "I'm going to need that grill in a few minutes," before calmly walking back inside.

Chloe breathed a huge sigh of relief and swiftly stomped out the remainder of the firework. Max was surprised by William's obvious mercy towards the two of them, but remembered again why Chloe loved him so much. Sometimes Chloe was just a girl looking for fun, and William was simply okay with that.

Oh, God. The accident.

The realization hit her in the face like a pile of emotionally-laden bricks. The year was 2008, the same year William died. In a little over 2 months, William would be gone and Chloe's life would never be the same. Max had disappeared into the character of her younger self without giving much thought to the how's and why's of her appearance in this time. Is this just a vivid memory that won't have effects on the future? Or am I actually changing the future right now? And if it turns out this is some strange extension of my powers, will I have to face the same choice to save William again?

Her gut twisted horribly, either from guilt or something else. A cold sweat began to appear on the back of her neck as her heart jumped uncontrollably. The details of this world were starting to darken and blur as she could only focus on her ability to breathe, as if her body had somehow forgotten.

When her vision returned focus, she realized she was still standing outside in the backyard and it was suddenly night. There was a small fire pit in the middle of a handful of chairs. The warm orange glow and the heat it provided was of some comfort to Max, who had nothing to anchor herself to this world except her senses.

Chloe returned from inside the house, going to Max. Joyce and William followed. As Chloe approached the fire pit, the light gently illuminated the features of her face.

"Hey, take this!" she said, thrusting what felt like a long barbeque skewer into her hand.

"What is this?" Max asked.

Chloe answered by taking her own stick and placing it into the fire. The end glowed and immediately began to spark, spraying bits of blue light out the end.

"It's a sparkler. Now, come on! Dad's going to take a picture!"

Max timidly dipped the end of the stick into the flames which lapped at the sparkler. It began to spark like Chloe's, and Max looked at it in wonderment. William walked up to the two of them, Polaroid camera in hand. Max looked at the camera warily as she remembered its future role in her time-traveling adventures. She didn't have much time to be worried though, as Chloe promptly pulled her close and pointed at the camera with her sparkler.

"Alright, girls. On three! One…two…"

The camera flash blinded Max who definitely blinked as the picture was being taken. She rubbed her eyes and apologized.

"Sorry, I think I blinked…"

When she opened them Chloe, Joyce, and William were gone. So was the house, and the fire pit, and the sparkler in her hand. She was in her room, facing the wall of Polaroids she had strung up. There was one picture that was directly at eye level for her. She pulled it off its clothespin and her breath hitched.

It was a picture of her and Chloe laughing as they held sparklers in the dark. At the bottom of the Polaroid a date was scribbled.

7/4/08

The details quickly came flooding back. Somehow this event had burned itself into Max's memory, probably because it was one of her last memorable moments with both Chloe and her father. Max was certain now. It was no dream, it was a memory.

She held up her phone and took a picture of the Polaroid. Her thumb swiped down the contacts list in her phone until she reached the "Add New Contact" option. She entered Chloe's number from memory and set the contact picture. Her phone chirped happily.

Saved new contact as Chloe Price.

...