Blood streaked down the cracked windows as birds continued to collide with the glass. Max started to feel like she was losing her mind. Nobody even cares, she noted to herself in disbelief as the blood tainted the window and bathed the room in a rose-coloured hue. Some sort of horrific stained glass mural. Do I even care? Max found herself wondering as her eyes drifted over the spiderwebbing cracks before settling blankly back on Mr. Jefferson. No, she realized as the class bell screamed, and everyone vanished, I actually don't care.
Apathetic or not, Max knew she had to get back to Chloe. She had to. If this wasn't some sort of sick time loop, then she had to shake herself out of this.. this reality. This nightmare, daydream.. hellscape.
"I see you Max Caulfield."
"You would...," she growled under her breath, her fingers curling into biting fists. Nightmare or not, she seemed to have a very real, very physical form, and she would not deny herself for one second the pleasure of punching his lights out.
"Don't even think about leaving this room until you hand in your photo."
It wasn't the horrible familiarity of those words that caused her to tune him out, nor her seething hatred. It was the deer. Standing outside. Past the clean slate glass, the windows suddenly healed of their scars. "Rachel?" Max called out as she tripped over herself to press against the glass. She wasn't even sure if the damn thing could hear her or not but... if it was Rachel, then she would always find a way to respond.
The deer dipped its head, and Max felt her heart swell. "Are you here to help me?"
It didn't move.
"I see you Max Caulfield."
This time, Max felt herself yanked around, as if on puppet strings. Thoughts of Rachel slipped from her mind as a soothing haze fell over her mind, her gaze settling on the man before her. "I just.. wanted to know if you wanted to spend the rest of your life in my dark room," he murmured, his voice washing over her like silk, eroding her earlier anger.
Chloe, something distant in her mind screamed, but it didn't sound like her own voice. You have to save Chloe, Max! Save her for me, please!
Rachel Amber, was it.. could it -?
Yes, Max, please you have to listen to me-
"We could be so happy together... I can give you portraiture," he crooned, and the haze returned.
"It's our dark room, Mark," she whispered back, gazing up at him with half-lidded eyes, her lips moving of their own volition. But Max found that she didn't mind. She loved this man. Always had. "It's where I'm safe. But only because you're there. With me."
"We will be so happy together in the dark, Maxine," he said gently, and he lifted a hand slowly, as if he was about to reach out and touch, but then thought better of it. "Just make sure you stay pure. A newborn fawn loses its innocence once it's defiled with a broken heart."
Then he was gone.
And just like that, Max had control of her mind once more. She pulled in a great, shuddering gasp, her whole frame rattling in an effort to not collapse into a hyperventilative state. Max. Max, you can't lose yourself. Not now. Not after everything.
Think about Chloe, Max! the voice called out in her head again. Keep going... please. For Chloe. Be there for her the way I couldn't be.
"I.. Rachel- you.. you gotta help me, I can't do this on my own! I'm not strong enough, I've never been, I-"
The deer materialized at her right hand, nuzzling into her side, pushing its soft nose into Max's cheek. It didn't open it's mouth, but rather continued projecting Rachel's thoughts directly into Max's mind. I've been watching over you Max. You and Chloe. And you are brave. Your love for Chloe makes you so. It also makes you strong.
"You will help me though, wont you?" Max asked, her voice, though stronger from Rachel's gentle words, was still shaky.
The deer just pushed further into Max's side in response. Taking in another, final shaky breath, Max briefly ran her hand over the deer's wiry fur before pushing her way out of the classroom to confront the terrors of her mind.
Why didn't you let the girl die, Max?
"Kate was.. no, no Kate, she.. she is my friend. I saved her because I couldn't lose her," Max shook her head vehemently, frantically trying to ignore the fact that Kate had just jumped into nothingness in front of her once more. Just a nightmare. She didn't jump, she's safe. She's safe because you saved her.
Just like Chloe couldn't lose me?
"Rachel, what are you – hey, wait! You said you wouldn't leave me!" Max cried as the deer phased through the door Kate had fallen from and disappeared from view. "Rachel?!"
Come find me Max. Like you need to find Chloe. If Chloe wants to be found by you, that is.
"Rachel, what the hell-" Max demanded, storming through the door marked with Kate's number, only to find herself right back where she started at the beginning of the hall.
Not that door, Rachel told her, and Max could swear that she heard a tinkling sort of musical laugh accompanying the words.
Chloe would've known where to go. We're connected like that.
"Well Chloe's not here!" Max screamed, grabbing fistfuls of her hair in either hand and tugging in desperation. "Chloe's out there somewhere, and she's without me, that's why I need to find -"
Aw, Maxie. Don't do that to your hair. Chloe won't be happy if you came back to her looking like that. Here, a door on the left side of the door swung open, and Max rushed through it. I told you I was going to help you, wasn't I?
"Here I am," Rachel grinned, opening her arms wide, the deer nowhere to be seen. "And hey, look," she gestured to Max's outfit, causing her to glance down, "We match."
"Rachel...," Max gaped, momentarily stunned.
"In the flesh," she smirked, then considered for a moment as she shoved her hand through Max's chest, wiggling her fingers behind Max's back. "Well, almost."
"Okay, uh, this is great, seeing you and all, but-"
"We need to find Chloe," Rachel nodded once in affirmation as she started to draw her arm back through Max's breast, before stopping suddenly. "I know," she finished as something cold clenched around Max's heart. Max let out a gasp as she tore her gaze up from Rachel's arm to lock eyes with her. Her face hadn't changed, but something was horribly, terrifyingly wrong.
"She's already with us, don't you see?"
"Don't you see?"
"Don't you?"
With us.
"You see, don't you?" Rachel purred as she startled to circle around Max, pacing around the ruins of the junkyard now. Specifically, the part of the junkyard where they found Rachel's body.
"Ah.. so you do recognize where I've brought us. Very good," she grinned, her voice slick like oil, dripping from her lips and coating her tongue. "That will make this next part of the demonstration much... easier."
"N-no!" Max yelled, trying to trip backwards, to fall, anything to get her out of this. "We.. I.. I need to f-find-"
"Don't you see?" Rachel asked again, gesturing back to herself, seizing Max's face with iron claws when Max was forcing herself to look anywhere, just anywhere, else. "You don't need to find Chloe. You don't need to go, anywhere, Super Max.Chloe's already here."
Max blinked, and in that instant, Chloe appeared in front of her. Chloe's face, Chloe's body, Chloe's everything.
"Stop! This.. this isn't real! Chloe's.. you're not Chloe. You're not, this isn't real, it's all a lie!" Max cried as she reached up an tried to pry Chlo- Rachel's grip off of her.
"Oh, but it's really not," it crooned, "No more a lie than when I tried to turn you into Rachel. That day after the pool, when you wanted to be a thrasher so bad and you were so desperate to please that you jumped at the chance to get a piece of this action."
"No, stop... please," Max crumpled, her will to fight falling with each word like a hammer blow.
"Didn't you know, you didn't realize? You really are hipster niave bullshit," Chloe scoffed, following as Max's weakened knees took her to the ground, into Rachel's grave. "I dared you because you looked like her, and I fucking missed her, okay? You had nothing to do with it. It was all her. It's always been her."
Max just silently shook her head back and forth weakly, too terrified for words.
"Oh.. don't be like that," Chloe began again, and her voice was unexpectedly soft. Max looked up hopefully, the surface suddenly much farther away than to begin with. "We can all be together, can't we? We're all here together now, right? Just look," Chloe pointed down to where Max was curled up beside Rachel's corpse. "You've already met Rachel."
"Rachel...," Max murmured, reaching out to stroke the somehow impossibly golden strands of hair that were fanned out in front of her.
Rachel's eyes snapped open, her gold eyes like solid marbles sunken deep into her decayed face. Her jaw fell open like she was about to speak, but there was no muscles, no sinew, no flesh to perpetuate the motions of speech. A pure golden butterfly rose up from the skull and drifted up towards the tiny speck of light where Chloe was before disappearing out of sight.
As before, Rachel's words reverberated directly into Max's mind, their tone haunting and dense now. Why did you let the girl die, Max? Why did you let her die? Why did you let me die? Why did you let us die?!
You let us die, Max, you let us all die!
"I'm sorry, Max," Chloe's voice echoed down to where they were slowly sinking, slowly being swallowed by the earth. "I guess I can't join you just yet. Someday soon, maybe. But I've got a life to live. A life without you in it."
"Ch-Chloe... please, no...," Max begged, "After everything we've been through, all I've done for you?"
"Yes, even after everything Max," Chloe responded softly, reaching out to cup Max's face as they stood together by the lighthouse. "Look... the golden hour. It's almost over," she gestured vaguely out to an ocean that was too calm, too still.
"Let me stay with you," Max lurched forward, latching desperately onto Chloe's jacket, "Please. I.. I need you."
"That's not enough," Chloe turned and looked down at Max, resting her hands on top of Max's shaking fists. Tears leaked out from the corners of her eyes, and they stained her cheeks with gold as she shook her head sadly. As if she had expected better. "Goodbye Max Caulfield," Chloe whispered as she let go of Max's wrists, sending her tilting backwards over the cliff, back down into Rachel's grave.
It was filled with sticky gold. Amber, Max realized distantly.
Hardening sap, actually, Rachel scolded inside her head, You really don't know anything, do you Maxine?
Oh well, she continued lightly as Chloe's tears continued to fill the pit, engulfing them both in choking pain and heartbreak. You'll have an eternity to learn, I guess.