Max Caulfield buried her head in her arms and wept. It had been about three months since Chloe Price died and Max would still break down crying over it sometimes. Of course, nobody would be able to get over the death of their best friend in a mere three months, but Max still hated the tears. She hated the weakness. She hated the guilt and grief. She hated the regret and shame. She hated how gross crying made her feel, both on a physical and emotional level. Along with being a literal pain, every tear she shed reminded her of how easily the whole situation could've been diverted if only she hadn't just up and left Chloe when she and her family moved out of Arcadia Bay all those years ago. If she had made any effort at all to maintain their friendship, Chloe might still be alive…
Max continued to grieve, weeping alone in her Blackwell Academy dorm room, the door firmly shut and locked. During her cry, however, her phone went off. Max pulled her head away from her arms to scowl at the little black device angrily. She mentally cussed it out, yelling at it for interrupting her alone time. When she leaned over to read the name on the screen, however, her face softened. It was her father, Ryan Caulfield. No matter how mad or sad Max felt, she could never deny a call from family. So with a sad smile, the girl picked up her phone and answered the call.
"Dad?" Max forced herself to sound as happy as she could.
"Max?" Ryan asked back, sounding incredibly relieved. In the back of her mind, Max wondered why he sounded like this, but she said nothing. Instead, she chose only to bask in his voice as they exchanged pleasantries. But of course, such casual conversation couldn't last forever. In time, after the superficial and customary greetings had been exchanged, Ryan's tone turned urgent and serious.
"I am afraid we may need to delay our spring break plans," he said at last, cutting to the chase.
"What? Why?" Max asked. She couldn't help but feel like there was something more that he wasn't telling her, but she wasn't going to press him on it just yet. Instead, she let him spin his own story first.
"It's kind of complicated," he began. "But your mother and I are having some issues getting everything arranged and some other small problems have just come up and we need to deal with them first. It's only a small thing, though, so we should still be able to bring you home. It'll just be on a date later than expected," he explained.
"Oh, ok," Max sighed in disappointment as her father finished his story.
"I really am very sorry sweetheart," Ryan grimaced. He could hear the sadness in Max's voice and he hated knowing that he had caused it.
"Oh, I'm not mad about having to delay coming home," Max said. "I'm mad that you aren't telling me the truth."
There was silence on the other end of the call before Ryan cleared his throat.
"What do you mean, honey?" he asked, trying to sound entirely innocent. It failed miserably. Ryan had never been good at lying.
"Come on, Dad, I know there's something you aren't telling me," the young woman said boldly. "I can hear it in your voice that this 'small problem' of yours is something far bigger and I think I have a right to know."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ryan insisted. It was a really lame counterargument.
"Look, Dad, you either tell me what the problem is, or I'm going to assume it's not that bad at all and I'll just have one of my friends drive me home instead if you can't come to get me," she said. It was a bluff, but she knew her father would fall for it. She was correct.
"No, wait, wait, honey! Wait!" Ryan pleaded.
"I'm listening," Max replied. She knew she was being needlessly cruel and bossy, but she figured that she did have a right to know what might be going on in her family. Besides, Chloe's death, and her hand in it, had instilled a new sense of cynicism and aggression in Max that didn't always used to be there. She was still pretty meek, but she no longer feared pulling out a harsher side of herself if it was necessary.
"It's just really complicated and serious and I don't want you in the crossfire," Ryan sighed. Max could hear the pain in his voice.
"I'll be ok, Dad," Max's soft voice returned. "I promise. Just please tell me. You can't keep me in the dark forever."
"I know, sweetheart, believe me, I know," Ryan replied. Max heard him laugh weakly before he finally conceded to tell her the story.
Max had a paternal cousin named Lauren Caulfield. She was the daughter of Ryan's older brother, Reagan. Lauren was about three years older than Max and she lived up in Canada on the very southern tip of Alberta right near the Rockies. She and Max had been very close as children despite the distance between them and, even as the years rolled by and Max and her family moved farther south, the two cousins remained close. Then, through Lauren, Max had met another girl named Kate. Kate was Lauren's age and, according to Lauren, the couple had been friends since they were five. Max didn't know Kate nearly as well as she knew Lauren, but she knew enough about Kate to at least be on friendly terms with the girl. The reason this information was important was because the problem Ryan was facing dealt with Lauren and Kate. Apparently, just a few days ago, both of them had gone missing.
"Missing?" Max couldn't believe it. This had to be a joke! This couldn't be real! Right?
"Yes," Ryan replied grimly. "Just a few days ago, Lauren went up to visit Kate, but then she never came home. Her father, your Uncle Reagan, went up there personally to go see what was wrong..." Ryan trailed off.
"And did he find anything?" Max pressed.
"Yes and no," Ryan admitted slowly. "He found no trace of either of the girls, nor did he find any clues as to where they might've gone, but he did find a mess waiting for him once he got into Kate's house. Apparently, the whole place was in shambles, furniture overturned, objects smashed and broken, various electrical appliances nonfunctional, certain doors and windows thrown wide open... A general mess over all! But apparently, the strangest thing about all of it were the drawings..."
"Drawings?" Max echoed. Ok. This was getting really weird. A missing cousin? And a trashed house? Had there been an abduction?
"Yes. Drawings," Ryan confirmed. "Scattered all around the house, written on the walls and on scraps of paper, written in marker and, in one place, blood, were all of these crude and almost psychotic sketches of a man. A tall, thin man in a suit with no face. Sometimes this man had tentacles..." Ryan trailed off again. "I know it sounds crazy," he continued when Max said nothing. "But it's true! The house is a mess, every room lined with these strange and creepy drawings of that tall man, but no one can figure out what on earth could have caused all of it! We've since called the cops and they can't find any DNA that doesn't belong to Kate or Lauren, and since nothing in the house is missing or stolen, they're ruling out abduction or theft. The girls must've done this themselves, but we have no clue why, or where they are now," Ryan continued.
"Strange," Max muttered, gears turning. Suddenly, the air in her room felt much colder.
"It is," Ryan agreed. Then he continued to explain. Apparently, not long after the cops got involved trying to find Lauren and Kate, it was discovered that a third young adult had gone missing around the same time and place as Kate and Lauren had. This one was a man named Carl Ross. It sounded like he was a close friend of Kate's, though Max was sure she'd never heard Lauren speak of him before.
So not only did this mean that there were three teenagers gone, but the fact that they all went missing at the same time in the same place and they all knew each other seemed highly suspect. The cops tried to investigate the area further, going as far as the nearby Oakside Park, but nothing turned up. They did manage to find swatches of all three teenagers' DNA around the gates to Oakside, but then the trail went cold again.
"So I'm assuming you're up there now, helping out?" asked Max once the grim tale was over. From the way her father had been talking, she was certain he had seen Kate's chaotic house for himself.
"Yes," Ryan replied. "Your mother and I came up just a day ago and your aunt and uncle are both nervous wrecks. That's why I think we'll have to postpone your spring break. I am so sorry this has to happen, but I can't leave Reagan yet and I don't want you to have to see any of this," Ryan sounded so hurt and sad and scared that Max felt a wave of pain and empathy wash over her.
"It's ok, Dad. I understand, of course you should stay up there!" she assured him. This desire to comfort and care for the people around him was something innate within Ryan and it had passed down to Max as well. She now understood what torment her father was going through and she didn't want to make things worse. It was probably why he had sounded so relieved when she answered his call. It was the selfish delight of realizing that his child was still ok even after hearing that his brother's was not.
"Yeah, listen, honey, I've got to go," Ryan said, sounding rueful. "The cops are back and your mother and I are needed for emotional support. I can call later, if you want?" he offered.
"No, that's ok," Max replied. "Uncle Reagan needs you more. But thank you, Dad. I love you."
"I love you too, sweetheart," Ryan replied. "Now I'll talk to you soon, ok?" then he hung up.
Max sat back with a sigh as she tossed her phone away again. She rubbed her puffy red eyes tiredly.
"Could life get any worse?" she asked aloud. She would come to regret asking such a question very soon. That night, in fact, Max had a strange and terrifying dream. She was walking through a dark forest full of black trees whose branches twisted and spiraled off into the smoggy, starless night sky. As she walked through this creepy forest, she ended up noticing something bright white upon one of the trees. The sharp contrast drew her over and she realized that it was a piece of paper, taped on the trunk of the gnarled, old tree. She reached out for it, taking it off the tree.
"Always watches, no eyes?" she read the paper aloud. The moment she turned away from the tree, still studying the odd piece of paper, a horrible screeching sound filled her ears. It sounded human, animal, digital and monstrous all at once, but before Max could even scream out her surprise and fright, the very darkness itself seemed to swarm over Max like a massive wave of blackness. It engulfed her body, swallowing her whole. She tried to cry out then, but the shadows had totally smothered her. Her scream was drowned in her throat as masses of something long and slick slithered around her, entombing her within their grasp and squeezing her tighter and tighter and tighter...
"LET GO!" Max shot up in her bed, screaming. She looked all around herself wildly, in a blind panic, arms waving wildly as she tried to find this unseen attacker. As she continued to squirm, however, she finally came to her senses and realized that she was back, safe and sound, in her own dorm room, nothing out of place at all. This sight slowly soothed her, calming her speeding heart. At last, she managed to steady herself long enough to shake her own head in confusion and disbelief. What on earth had that been? But when no answer came to her, it only took Max all of five minutes to fall back asleep despite her terror. The rest of the night was totally dreamless.
But the same could not be said for the next day. On the contrary, she began to be plagued by chronic blackouts, just fainting for no reason. It really scared her, but not for the reasons one would think. Back when Chloe was still alive, Max found out she had the power to reverse time, but all through the week that she had had those powers, she would sometimes get strange premonitions and fainting spells. These blackouts would precede her time travel usage, so she began to associate the two. Of course, she hadn't had those time travel powers since Chloe died those few months ago, but this round of fainting spells sure felt like the ones she used to get when she did still have those powers.
"What is going on?" she asked herself softly after blacking out for the third time in one day. It was a record. What scared Max more than having the blackouts, though, was what she saw in them. All three times, she was back at that awful, evil forest, but now there was someone else with her. Another girl about her age. The girl Max saw was bloody, bruised and broken and she looked haggard and hungry, limping as quickly as she could through the trees. Max could feel terror and illness and exhaustion rolling off her in waves and Max felt her insides churn upon seeing how badly the poor girl had been tortured. But clearly, it was far from over. Why else would this girl, weak and wounded as she was, still look so bent upon escape? Her eyes were wide and never still as she slipped through the beaten paths of the forest, in and out of the trees and shrubbery. Max followed her silently on as she limp-ran, gasping and whimpering through her pain and terror. She didn't appear to be able to see Max.
But on the fifth vision, on the fifth time Max had been forced into this nightmare of a forest, she came to realize something even more horrific than it or the girl's predicament combined. The moonlight managed to catch the girl's face in such a way that Max finally got to see it clearly and what she saw was quickly seared into her memory. It was her own face. This girl was Max in the future.
"I don't want these powers!" Max had howled in injustice and despair once she woke up from this fifth vision. She was back in her dorm room, lying face down on her bed and screaming miserably into her pillow. "I don't want these powers!" but she remained unheard and unanswered, left alone with nothing but three more visions to keep her company, though this was nothing new to her. But then, on Vision Eight, Max finally got some real answers...
Vision Eight began just as normally as all other ones before it had, except this time, her future self finally seemed to be running to some place in particular. As Max would come to see, this particular place was an abandoned mine, titled: "Kullman Mines". It didn't exactly look like a safe place to be, but given what Max had seen of this place already, it couldn't be any worse than the forest itself. So she, silently and obediently, followed her future self into the heart of the Kullman Mines and ran deeper and deeper inside until they were far away from everything else.
Then that was when the change began. Future Max looked right into the eyes of Present Max and Present Max suddenly realized that this was no future vision. This was a dream! But at the same time, it wasn't just a dream either. It was some kind of special, magic communication between her and this other girl. (Oh, give her a break, stranger things had happened to her before!) Then, at the same time as Max realized this, she realized that the girl was not her future self either. It was her cousin Lauren Caulfield.
Max's jaw dropped in horror as she realized that this brutalized woman standing before her now was living in real-time and that it was her own cousin. It wasn't just some shady future vision of herself, it was actually happening right now and it was happening to her missing cousin who was, for all intents and purposes, still technically missing. It was almost surreal to think that technically, Max knew exactly where Lauren was despite not being involved in the search while those involved, like her dad, mom, aunt and uncle, still hadn't had a clue. But there wasn't time for Max to muse on the irony of that. Clearly, Lauren had something she needed to say, and she didn't have much time to say it.
"Alright Lauren, what is it?" Max asked at once. Her words might've sounded blunt, but her voice indicated the kind of resignation that came with agreeing to do anything somebody said if it meant helping them out. Lauren detected this underlying surrender and gave a bruised, messy smile in relief, tense body loosing just slightly, causing blood to gush from some of her wounds as her body changed its position. She took Max's willingness as consent to skip long intros and she began to explain right away.
"I don't have a lot of time so you'll have to save your questions and I need you to believe every word I say," she said.
"Go," Max replied. Lauren gave her another relieved smile and she then explained.
Nobody was sure when His arrival was, but speculation said that He had come from Germany. Or more specifically, a large forest in Germany, where He had preyed upon all the children who were foolish enough to travel into His realm. For centuries, He spread this evil influence across the globe before managing to reach the place right around where Kate lived. After that, He began to haunt the entire family, stalking them from generation to generation until he finally attacked one particular family of three, the Mathesons: Charles, Diane and Charlie Jr. He kidnapped the son which drove the wife to leave the husband, never to return, which drove the husband to suicide. From then on, He and the boy remained as master and slave in a nearby forest that would someday become Oakside Park. The boy was imprisoned within his own, abandoned home, a cruel torture from a cruel and nightmarish monster of a master.
Charlie and his evil master stayed that way for years before one foolish girl reopened the curse. That girl was Kate. She was a good girl, but she loved ghost stories and those stories would bring about her demise. She and her best friend, CR, often hunted Oakside Park for ghosts and, on one specific trip, they finally found a ghost. They found Him. From then on, from high school through college, He stalked them both and made their lives a living Hell. In the end, CR suffered Charles' fate while Kate suffered Charlie's, and all of this transpired a mere few hours before Lauren stepped onto the scene, finally uncovering all of these secrets that had been hidden so well for so long. She had taken it upon herself, then, to try and rescue her two friends, but she arrived far too late. CR was dead and Kate was nothing but a mindless proxy, slave to this horrible creature. And now that brought everyone back to the present, Lauren still desperately on the run from Kate and this creature, still trying to find her way out of this nightmarish forest and back home.
"You, Max! You are my ticket out of here!" Lauren cried at last, almost delirious at this point. She gestured psychotically to Max, giving an insane little laugh as she did so. Max could only stare agape. Ok. She was used to strange and weird, but this was freaking insane. But at the same time, Max couldn't deny her belief in Lauren's story. Mad and fantastical as it was, it all added up. Without even meaning to, Max found herself believing every single word Lauren said. Lauren could sense this belief from Max and the relief of it was starting to tug at her sanity.
"I know about your time travel powers," Lauren continued desperately. "And I'm begging you to come out here and use them to save me! We can try to escape the forest together and, maybe, you can use your powers to find us a safe path out of here! And if anything goes wrong, you can just use your powers to bring us back to safety! It'll be like a checkpoint in a videogame!" Lauren gave another unhinged laugh again while Max could only stare, mouth moving, but no sound escaping. At last, however, she was finally able to form a coherent sentence.
"But Lauren," she finally began, voice hoarse. "This isn't a videogame..." Ok, so perhaps that wasn't the best reply, but it was all she had while the rest of her brain tried to understand this crazy nightmare scenario that Lauren was presenting to her.
"I know it's not! But your powers can help it act like one!" Lauren cried frantically as she sensed Max's waning belief.
"But my powers… They don't work anymore. And how could you possibly know about them?" Max pleaded next.
"They may not work now, but it's only because they're in an inactive state! Your powers were only the result of a curse. All we need is for you to return to the magical source for your powers to return and I know this because they're from Him!" Lauren wailed. "Please believe me!"
"Him?" Max gasped. Lauren nodded so hard that Max thought her head would fall off.
"Over the past few days, I've been doing research!" Lauren hissed desperately. "I know that after that foolish family summoned Him over, He began to stalk their bloodlines, killing them off one by one, but always leaving at least one person alive in order to propagate the rest of the family."
"And I'm guessing Kate is a descendant of this line?" Max asked.
"Yes!" Lauren began to nod frantically again. "That was why He took her! And now me, being in the crossfire, makes me another potential food source, and that includes you too because you're my cousin!"
"But that's insane!" Max cried in denial, though she believed every word Lauren was saying.
"It's not!" Lauren argued, close to hysteria. "I know exactly what happened because I found it all here in the books and junk scattered around this evil forest! How else would that be possible if it weren't true?"
"What do you mean you know everything that happened?" Max pressed, almost as hysterical.
"I know about you and Chloe and the time travel and all the mysteries and murders you solved!" Lauren cried. Max felt her heart begin to ache as Lauren reeled off exactly what Max had been up to after all this time. It was terrifying to hear it because it was all totally accurate. Lauren was able to correctly recall every time travel adventure that Max, and Chloe, had ever had together. That shouldn't have been possible... But it was!
"I know about the storm and your final choice and about your powers seeming to die with Chloe!" Lauren finished in a last attempt at getting Max to believe her. An agonized look crossed Max's face at the memory, but Lauren ignored it. "It was all because of Him! He was testing and tormenting you and now I'm asking you now to come to me! I want you to save me and help me put an end to all of this! Before he ends you! We can bring your powers back just this once and you can save me! Maybe we can even make Him pay for what He did. To Kate and Chloe and all of us!" Lauren's sanity was clearly slipping again so Max quickly reached out to touch her face.
"Ok, ok, ok! Shhhh! I believe you! I really do! And of course I'll come help! But you've got to tell me how exactly and you've got to give me at least a bit of time to… adjust to all of this," Max pleaded as she gripped Lauren's face hard. Something in Max's agreement and tough grip brought Lauren back from her little slip and she shut her mouth at once, nodding and fighting hard against totally losing it.
"Ok, ok, thank you," Lauren rasped, shaking violently but growing quiet again. "Here's what you need to do…"
Lauren finished her instruction just in time to see His arrival into the Kullman Mines.
"He's here!" Lauren rasped, horror and terror unlike anything Max had ever known seeping into every inch of her body. Suddenly, Lauren was cowering and wild, breath as ragged as her body and clothes. It was an awful transformation, but Max could only watch.
"Oh, please! Come quickly, Max! Now you know what to do! Come find me! Find me, Max!" then the dream went dark.
When Max woke the next morning, all she could see was Lauren's beaten and terrified face watching her, still pleading for her to come up to Canada and help out. For the whole day she felt Lauren's desperate ghost, hounding her, until it all became too much. During lunch, Max finally made a run for it, deciding to answer the call. She ended up tricking one of her friends into borrowing his car and then, without any regrets or remorse, she drove off. She didn't care that it was nearly a day's drive away or that it was so short notice. If what Lauren said was true, Max didn't have time to feel sorry. Not if she wanted to save a life. Time was of the essence, according to Lauren, and even a second of regret could mean an entire life lost. Nobody had much time, even with time travel powers on their side. Besides, Lauren had spoken of Chloe. Any chance to hear more about what had happened and any chance to possibly exact vengeance against the one responsible for it was a chance Max was more than willing to take. For the first time in a long time, Max's blood began to rush again and she felt alive once more after so very long, though this time, she was driven by a motive of vengeance instead of a motive of justice...
Max made her arrival to Kate's mansion early the next morning, 18 hours after she had first began her journey, fleeing Blackwell. She was sure somebody would've noticed and called her parents by now, but she couldn't be distracted by that. She had far more important things to do now, even though she wasn't sure where to begin or how long she'd even survive given that she still didn't have her powers and, as far as she knew, she had a demon straight from Hell chasing her now because of her ties with Lauren. But despite all this, Max couldn't help but almost… anticipate what was coming next. Perhaps because it finally offered distraction from the quiet cycle of mourning she'd been stuck in. Or perhaps a small part of her liked to think this was her chance to avenge Chloe or die trying. Saving Lauren was a side quest to her.
But side quest or not, Max still had obligations, so she entered Kate's house with every intent of trying to cause herself another blackout or dream in which Lauren could respond. As Max entered Kate's house, she gave a grim smile. It was just as violent and chaotic as Ryan had said it would be. It almost looked like a massive storm had been through it… Max shook her head and strode in bravely, ignoring the flickering lights and insane drawings that covered every overturned piece of furniture throughout the house. Instead, she focused on reaching Kate's room, knowing exactly where it was despite having not hung out with Kate since middle school.
"Right on time," she whispered with morbid satisfaction as she felt a wooziness overcome her a mere two seconds after stepping into Kate's room. Then she blacked out.
When next Max woke, it was morning, and she was still alive and in one piece.
"I suppose that's a good thing," she said bitterly to herself, sitting up from Kate's floor. Despite how scary Kate's room was, there was something about the morning light that made it less unnerving and Max felt that it was a good day, no, a good time, to start her journey. After freshening up, grabbing some nourishment and supplies, the girl left Kate's mansion for Oakside Park. Max was about to make a very strange arrival.
