"Drop the gun!"
Now here they were. Trying to reminisce about that one night, but failing to avert their eyes from the body lying lifelessly next to the distressed man.
"DROP THE FUCKING GUN!" He yelled loud enough for Max to snap out of her mind and look back up. To look into the barrel of a loaded Glock pistol. His eyes were piercing and his hands were shaking, but did his best to hold firmly onto the weapon he had in his right hand. Never had Max managed to analyze so many details in just a split-second. The creaking the trees made when a hard wind passed by. The blood slowly escaping the wound of the body, painting the grass red next to him. The open area they were standing, bringing a sense of Agoraphobia. She could even see Chloe who stood to her left, but failed to hear a single word from her. Never had the silence from her blue-haired friend made her more nervous. It was a struggle to let go of the only protection she felt she had, but she finally managed to let loose her grip around the revolver and let it drop to the ground before her. Max could see that the man reacted, but kept pointing his own gun at eyesight with Max. He was shaking more than before while standing several feet away from Max and Chloe. These factors made the possibility of him missing somewhat considerable if he dared to take the shoot, but it was a risk not worth taking.
"I never meant for this to happen…" Chloe eventually whispered out with a shaking in her voice, yet her body remained ever so still. She was numb from the fear, or perhaps from seeing the consequences that these immediate actions had caused.
"We know, Chloe! But guess what? It's not over!" The man quickly aimed the gun at Chloe, but within the very second, he just as quickly pointed it back to Max, giving away what he believed to be the biggest threat. It was not gun… he knew about Max's abilities. About her power to rewind time. He did not want to take any risks.
"Ethan…" Max tried to speak out in hope of calming the young man, but other than his name, there were no words that came out. Instead, she looked precautionary into his eyes. It was difficult to tell that he had brown eyes, as his pupils were dilated to an exceptional amount, and if that was due to the lack of light in the cold evening or because his body was in a panic state, was hard to tell. Ethan noticed Max looking at him and decided to open his eyes slightly more, sending a look of concern and regret. He seemed just as scared as Max and Chloe, but did a better job at hiding it. It was inevitable that Max's eyes began watering. However, just as they did, Ethan blinked once, ripping away his look of concern and replacing it with a look of anger. He stared dead at Max with one of his eye being partly hidden by his messy, dark-brown hair.
"Why did you shoot him? Huh? Was he a threat?" Ethan attempted to speak out with a calm voice, refusing to advert his eyes. He looked tired, with small bags under his eyes and the dark stubble across his face.
Max slowly looked to her left, seeing Chloe's right hand that had a drip of blood working its way down her index finger, twitching every time she took a breath. Her black shirt was nearly spotted as a pattern of dirt had dried into the fabric. Her blue-hair looked faded in the brim light shining down upon them and her face was pale– almost completely white- with her lips showing a bright blue color. She could see she was about to break free from her numbness; a scenario Max silently begged not to happen, but it could not be stopped.
"Why the fuck do you think?! It was either him or us!" Chloe yelled out angrily, with small amounts of saliva escaping her mouth. She moved her head forward, almost threatening the man who was holding a gun.
"Did I fucking ask you!?" Ethan responded with hostility, but managed not to make the same mistake twice and kept aiming the gun at Max.
"There was no attempt to kill either of you! There never was!" He continued yelling.
"It was not either you!... or him," Ethan's voice nearly faded away.
"You laid out the options! Just because we chose something you didn't plan for, doesn't mean that it wasn't your own fault!" Chloe was quick to respond, but it was a mistake to lay out these harsh words at the given time.
If Max's mind wasn't racing, she would have begged for Chloe to keep quiet. Hell, she would have demanded it with no hesitation- the situation was dangerous as is; provoking Ethan would only make it worse.
"Something I didn't plan for," Ethan whispered to himself as his lower lip was twitching.
"The mysterious time traveler on the phone," he spoke quietly until he tensed his left fist and shook his head once, making his bangs pan to the left.
"I still have control," Ethan finally snapped back into the real world and paid close attention to Max.
Reaching his hand into his back pocket, he looked away for a single second, but neither of the girls dared to seize the opportunity.
"Unless you both want to fall to the ground with a bullet carved into your fucking skulls," Ethan continued with an aggressive tone as he pulled out something from his pocket.
"You're going to go back in time," he paused as he held a photograph out in front of him, showing it to Max.
"With the help of this photo," his hands were shaking and even though it was dark, Max could quickly recognize the photo he was holding in his hand. A picture showing Max, standing outside in the afternoon with stars in the background. The picture Chloe had taken of Max three days ago, before all of this had started.
"You must be used to seeing these now, huh?"
The chorus of a song that represented the last three days would always be "He knew too much."
It was obvious what he asked of Max and every single rushing mind in the area knew it, but with a shaking in her voice, Max swayed to the right and let out a question. "What do you mean?"
Chloe silently supported Max's bluff, but even she knew that it wouldn't pass.
"You know damn well what I mean," his voice rose slightly.
"Use the picture to go back these 3 days… make it as if nothing had happened, so we can start over." Ethan presented the image more vigorously, signaling that he wanted Max to grab it.
There was no reason to act ignorant; Ethan knew everything there was to know about Max's abilities. He might even have known more than Max knew herself.
"What will happen then?" She hesitated to take a step forward, feeling as if the grass around her was holding her in place. The air had become denser, thick with suspense, making it a struggle to take a single breath.
"I have no reason to answer that. You have no right to ask that!" Ethan yelled in frustration, only wanting to redo his failures.
"She has every right to ask that!" Chloe suddenly broke in, but kept her ground.
"You stalked us for over three days! You threatened Max several times and played these psychotic mind games with us, all because you are scared of Max's powers! Why should we believe that all that, wouldn't repeat itself?" She finally paused, but at the very moment Chloe could see Ethan was about to respond, she continued, "You're fucked up! YOU have the power to rewind time, just as Max do! Maybe you can't travel through images or whatever-the-fuck, but what makes her a threat to you, when you're are in the exact same situation as her?!" Not even a second passed before Ethan quickly looked to his right, staring into Chloe's eyes, but kept the gun aimed at Max.
"I WASN'T THE ONE TO KILL AN ENTIRE POPULATION!" Ethan nearly screamed, twitching his finger around the trigger of the gun.
"I am NOT in the same situation as her! I've been smart enough to not fuck around with my powers. Least of all change people's fate. For who gives the right to change people's lives so drastically, huh?! Can't you imagine how terrified people would be if they found out their fate was in the hands of a fucking teenage girl?! And they very well should be. Just look at you! Look at what you've done! You are terrifying, Max! I'm not scared of the power to rewind time, I'm scared of the person having these powers and not knowing how to use them. Not being able to make the proper choices. Max's inability to do so, have resulted in hundreds of deaths, and it will not stop… Hell, JUST LOOK AT MY FUCKING BROTHER LYING DEAD BESIDE ME!" Not a single force on earth could stop the trembling of his arms and hands. Max almost jumped up every other second, seeing as the trigger kept getting pushed inwards.
"Why don't you just fucking shoot her then, huh?! If she is such a danger to the world because of her powers, then why don't you just end it now and pull the fucking trigger?!" Chloe responded with a fierce voice, lifting up her arm.
"For fucks sake, Chloe!" Max interrupted as she could almost feel the ghostly bullet passing through her.
Ethan looked back at Max and stared at her for a good 5 seconds, as if he was considering it.
"You'll know soon. You'll know exactly why Max needs to stay alive for just a couple more days." He shook his head with vivid movements before walking forwards towards Max with quick steps.
"Besides, it's not a matter of her using or not using her powers; it's a matter of HOW she uses her powers! You cannot ignore that she has the gift to save lives. She can prevent traumatizing events, making a family fall apart… but so far, she has only fucked everything up. So unless the last thing you want to hear is a bullet being fired from the barrel of a gun," he said with an aggressive tone of voice.
"I suggest you BOTH shut up and do as I say. You don't have any options here, you're only stalling and I am SICK of it!"
When Ethan was eventually only a few feet in front of Max, she looked at the collar of his black jacket, if only to keep her mind somewhat occupied.
"Take it," he said with a quiet voice whilst showing the picture in his left hand.
Max quickly looked upwards, trying to interpret his facial expressions. His lips were dry and he was sweating to the point of his bangs sticking to his forehead, but most importantly, his eyes were closed for some reason. Only a second after, Max looked down at the picture presented in his hand. She felt as if she reached out to grab it, but neither of her arms moved. She was locked in place, her body unwilling to move.
"Don't do it, Max…" Chloe said when she picked up on Max's signals of worry.
"This fucker is too scared to shoot anyone. Let's just get out of here," she continued with a confident voice while Ethan kept his eyes closed, barely moving an inch. Chloe had managed to catch Max's attention, as she looked into the eyes of her blue-haired friend.
"We'll go back to my place and my grandad will reheat some pizza, and we'll watch a marathon of crappy movies. Like we used to do," Unfortunately, the last sentence revealed a tremble in her voice.
The scenario was easy to imagine and was close to bringing Max to a state of serenity, but it was unlikely that any of that would happen now and they were both well aware of it. As Max took her attention away from her friend, she noticed that Ethan had silently stretched out his right arm, now aiming the gun directly at Chloe. His fingers were slowly pressing down the trigger, so much so that it was unbelievable that a shot hadn't been fired yet.
"I'll do it!" Max hurried to say as she could almost hear the future sound of a gun being fired.
"Shit!" She let out involuntarily while pressing her eyelids close.
No one said a word as Ethan took a few seconds to lower his right hand, before Max managed to take a hold of the photograph. She studied it for a brief moment, paying special attention the stars in the background as she remembered Chloe saying something about her name being spelled in the stars. However, she still failed to see it, but what she did see was the smile she was wearing in the picture. It was odd, but Max felt as if her facial expression revealed that she was looking down on Chloe. A subtle blush, hazy eyes and just… everything.
"I don't care what you do after you've traveled back," Ethan broke the silence.
"But it will not be over. You cannot hide from this, Max. And you will realize that. Trust me," he finished with a confident, yet angry tone.
A chilling wind passed by as Max looked at the gun Ethan was holding.
"I can't focus when there is a gun so close to me," she let out, subtly requesting for him to take a few steps back, but the response she got was not what she expected.
"Look at Chloe," Ethan responded with a quiet, yet demanding voice.
"Why?" Max automatically asked.
"She calms you down," Ethan said as if he knew this for a fact; his voice was confident and sincere. Nevertheless, he was not mistaken and she eventually did as she was told. She looked to her left and was met with two blue eyes looking back at her. Max emptied her mind as she kept her focus on those eyes, feeling the anxiety slowly being brought down.
"Tell the past me everything… she will help you out," Chloe made a sorrowful smile as she said this.
Max kept silent, but sent a subtle nod before turning her attention back towards the photograph and began focusing. Though her body was still showed signals of fear– remembering how long it had been since she had used her powers- it wasn't long before the image began shaking slightly while the colors began being blurred out. The feeling was familiar but less welcoming. A drowned out snap passed through her ears, just as everything went white. …
"Come on, don't be such a dikfor," a female voice sounded as Max kept her eyes closed for a couple of seconds.
A few shuffling sounds were heard as she noticed the short-lasting headache was gone, making her open up her eyes. Everything seemed bright, but it was luckily dark so it didn't take a strain on her. The first thing she noticed was two street-lights standing close by each other, lightning up the side-walk and most of the cemented road.
"A dikfor is the worst," she repeated the word, trying to make Max question the peculiar sentence.
Unfortunately, she was still in a state of chock and failed to amuse her friend by falling into the trap once more.
"Chloe…" Max whispered out as she looked to her right, seeing her blue-haired friend looking carefree with a smile. However, at the moment Chloe laid eyes upon Max's worried face, her smile faded.
"You alright?" She asked, gently placing her left hand on Max's back.
"No," She responded in an instant with a flat voice.
"Tummy ache or time-travel business?" Chloe questioned, quickly picking up the signals.
It was quite outstanding how well Chloe could read Max's face; granted, there had been similar situations in the past, but it was still a surprise that she was able to guess the source of the problem in mere seconds.
"The latter," Max answered with a downhearted voice trying to make a crooked smile but failed.
Chloe looked at her for a few seconds with slightly tilted eyebrows and a serious expression, all while she kept her hand on Max's back, slowly stroking it with her thumb.
"Let's go back," Chloe suggested rather hastily, but she knew well enough that something was wrong.
Just as Max opened her mouth to respond, sounds of footsteps passed through the wide road with an echo. Max heard it before Chloe did, but only because she was expecting it. For the very same reason, she kept her focus on the ground. Neither Chloe nor Max said a word as a man walked past them both on the opposite sidewalk. It was with the feeling of irritation and anger that Max briefly looked up to take a look. He looked back, holding his shoulders close to his head with both his hand in separate pockets. This would be the first time in this dimension that Max would see Ethan. A quick rush of gripping sensations passed through her, making her tense her body; unwillingly sending the man a look of fury. Ethan paid close attention to Max's expression and simply smiled crookedly as he pulled out something from his right pocket, but before Max could see what the item was, he had walked too far ahead and faintly disappeared in the dark.
"Take my hand," Chloe requested, seeing how Max was still shaking.
It was hardly necessary, but Max made no attempt to deny the request as she slowly placed her hand on the hand Chloe presented. With the perfect amount of pressure, Chloe began squeezing Max's palm before she began pulling gently. Max took a breath as she took a step forward so she could follow her friend closely.
"Was it bad?" Chloe asked without looking back as she continued to lead her friend back home.
In the first couple of seconds, there was no response. All the sounds had been shut out and Chloe's footsteps were so light that not even the comfort of the trampling could soothe her. A nerve in Max's neck felt as if it was bending down, making her eyes water. She tried her best to hold it in, but an involuntary weep was pushed out. Chloe didn't say anything, neither did she look back at her, instead she pulled a little harder, dragging her close as she turned around, leading Max directly into the embrace of her friend. Chloe's free hand was quick to be placed on the back of Max's head, gently placing it into the top of her shoulder. It was almost as a bubble was created around them, blocking out sounds and the cold wind as Max lashed her left arm around Chloe and began sobbing.
