Max POV
"Max! Come on- You have to- Please!"
My head is pounding. It sounds like a freight train's tearing through town. I can only catch bits and pieces of what Chloe's saying. Her urgent message comes through in chunks that rise above the static before dropping back down into the sea of my awareness.
"Max! I can't- You're too heavy- I know you're- You have to try!"
I'm reaching for her. Her features are hazy and I attempt to focus on her. But which Chloe is it? Am I trying to go to "now" or "then?" I don't know which direction I'm headed anymore.
"That's good, Max, just like that! Keep- Almost there!"
The lighthouse. The lighthouse. It's unbelievably bright but I think I can get my eyelids to cooperate if I try just a little bit harder. Someone's talking me. Someone other than Chloe. Unless Chloe suddenly got a man's voice. Let's be honest, I'll believe anything this week.
"For he did not know. That beyond the lake he called home. Lies a deeper darker ocean green. Where waves are both wilder and more serene. To its ports I've been. To its ports I've been. Do you understand?"
I've heard this somewhere before. Where have I heard this?
"No! I don't!"
I'm screaming but my lips are still pressed tightly together. The giant bulb on top of the lighthouse has stopped spinning. Where did it go? I try to will it back but it's not working. Everything is getting darker and I'm falling. I hear Chloe scream. As my consciousness slips away I realize this is it. Every migraine, every nosebleed was a harbinger.
I'm finally dying.
It's quiet. Chloe's screams are like a little whisper.
I'm sorry, Chlo.
I feel like I'm being rocked. Like when I was a baby. "Death is like being born only backwards."
At least she's safe. I let go and hear a shutter snap.
It's daytime? Why the fuck am I on a ferry?!