The girl took in a deep breath of the crisp forest air as she shuffled through the pine needles and debris towards the road. The storm had ended shortly after midnight and if it weren't for the entire town's worth of collateral damage being scattered across the landscape, you never would have known it had happened. She leapt over a trashed motorcycle and a downed spruce tree which were interconnected by splinters and force of impact. The forest had mostly been spared, to which the girl was grateful considering she had been hiking since before dawn, but still couldn't remove the feeling of guilt at standing by the destruction of the place that had been her home...
But it was too late to dwell on what couldn't be undone. She was too old to blame herself for destiny, much older than she'd ever known.
She stood in the shadow of a fallen tree just off to the side of the pavement, breathing in the clean smelling post-storm air. It was the cruelest form of irony that the city limits of Arcadia Bay was scented in Glade style air-after-the-rain after its destruction. Life is strange that way though. The girl knew that better than anyone by now. She waited awhile. She'd decided to step right out in front of the truck when they came, she was still a theater kid in her mortal heart and wanted her reappearance to be a showstopper.
She hadn't reprised her role as Rachel Amber in quite some time and like any actress feared she'd be ill-received by her biggest critics. But she knew this character well, so well she'd truly believed that's who she was for the first 19 years of her most recent life. Perhaps she really was her...or at least part of her.
Rachel missed being herself, as hella confusing as that even was to say. Hella...wow. She hadn't even thought that word in months. Months...months since she'd lived in her mortal form...since she'd been with Chloe Price. And now she'd finally get to meet Max too. She already liked her, but would Max like her?
Ready or not, here comes that American Rust classic. Fuck she'd missed the hella rickety purr of that motor. She had no fear about stepping out in front of the moving vehicle, because even if Chloe didn't stop in time, Max would just rewind and warn her that someone was about to step out in front of the truck.
Well, here's her ride. With a flourished step, she was in the center of the right lane. Into oncoming traffic.
"CHLOE STOP!" The screech of breaks and Max's shouting shattered the tranquility of the forest. The blue haired driver stared with a gaping mouth and her chin rested on the steering wheel while the doe-eyed passenger's lips quivered trying to make words but no sound would come out.
Rachel Amber allowed herself to grin.
"What? You didn't think I'd let you leave without me, did you?"
