The ground was cold and everything was a blur.

*Click*

Max didn't know where she was or what was going on but she was beginning to stir. *Click*

Okay time out Max, what is the last thing you remember? I was at the vortex club party looking for Nathan, nobody had seen him or knew where he was. Then there was that text, he knew we had found Rachel, he was going to move her body to hide the evidence. I was in the junkyard with Chloe, I felt a prick in my neck, and then Chloe was shot.

*Click*

"…Chloe…" Max tried to mumble as she began to stir.

*Click*

Her arms felt heavy and her legs felt weak, almost as if she was being held down by an immovable object. She tried to move again but got no response from her weary limbs, so instead she opened her eyes. Even a simple act such as that seemed to be a chore.

*Click*

Immediately she was greeted with a white light and a shadowy figure. As the room came into focus it looked eerily familiar. Max had been here before, but her mind was still in a stupor, she couldn't piece everything together. That's when she recognized the figure who stood before her with a camera.

*Click*

Oh my god, Jefferson! It was Jefferson the whole time! He drugged Kate and took pictures of her, just like me. I saw him kill Chloe, shot right through the head. She never had a chance, just like me. Oh no oh no oh no oh god no. Tears began to flow down her face and her entire body began to shake. He is going to kill me too. I am going to die.

*Click*

"Perfect, just perfect. The tears that are flowing right now capture exactly the moment I've wanted to show!" Jefferson whispered, seemingly to himself.

*Click* *Click* *Click* *Click* *Click*

The severity of the situation that Max realized she was in gave her a boost of energy. Max began thrashing around as violently as she could to try to get up but made no progress. This only made her flail even more, she was in full on panic mode.

I can't move! I'm bound to the ground!

*Click*

"Max you bitch you messed up my shot!" An angry voice suddenly yelled at her.

Max stopped moving at this outburst. She got a good look at Jefferson and his setup. There were two lights pointed right at Max, slightly hurting her eyes at the brightness. Jefferson stood behind the lights, directly in front of her, behind a tripod with a camera mounted to it. Her photography idol, the reason she went to Blackwell, had killed Chloe and drugged her just to take sick photos of her.

"It was you all along? The dark room is yours. Why? Why are you doing this? How could you?" Max said, her voice barely staying level through her fear.

Jefferson looked up from his camera and smiled at her. "Is that what you call this place?" He gestured around the room "I call it: The Studio. But that doesn't matter right now, why am I doing this? Now that is question every artist must ask himself. What inspires my work? How can I capture the pure essence of my art form?"

Now Jefferson began pacing around the room gesturing with his hands as he continued. "You see Max, I am interested in capturing the exact moment when innocence is lost, when the realization that the world is a dark and cruel place dawns upon my subjects, we are all vulnerable."

Max just couldn't believe what she was hearing, the fact that is was Jefferson all along still freaked her out, but now hearing his motivation for his actions had struck a chord in her. It reminded her about the lecture Jefferson gave in class on the day she got her time travel powers.

"These pieces of time can frame us in our glory and our sorrow; from light to shadow; from color to chiaroscuro... I could frame any one of you in a dark corner, and capture you in a moment of desperation. And any one of you could do that to me."

She started to shake uncontrollably with fear again. I should have paid more attention in classes she thought as Jefferson quickly moved back behind his camera. How could I have been so stupid? He practically told us all that day.

*Click*

"Another perfect image." Jefferson said. "You know, I've never had a subject regain consciousness enough to be coherent. I just get my photos and dump them off so they can return to their lives, forever changed. With you however, you already knew too much, saw too much, so I took a risk not giving you another dose just to see the kind of images I could get."

Jefferson removed his camera from the tripod and began to walk out of sight, but as he reached the doorway he stopped and looked back at Max one last time. "You are my greatest subject Max, the photographs that I have taken of you… I will cherish forever, no other session I will have may ever produce photos so pure."

Before Jefferson left the room, Max spotted her journal on the shelf to her left. If I could just get to my journal, I can use a picture to go back and stop this from happening, stop Chloe from getting shot.

"Y-you took my journal" She said without thinking. This caused him to pause and walk over to it.

"Ah yes, your journal. A collection of your pathetic selfies. It's a shame Max, you have- had… so much talent, yet you constantly refused to put yourself out there and instead took these worthless photos." He said as he took out a selfie and frowned. "Hey, I actually recognize this one. You took it during my class on Monday while you should have been paying attention to the lecture. What a shame. Maybe if you had been paying attention you would have seen this coming."

Jefferson then tossed the photo to Max and left to print out the pictures on his camera. Max got lucky, it landed face up right in front of her so that she wouldn't have any issue focusing on the photo.

Perfect she thought. Now all I have to do is go back to the lecture and I can stop all of this from happening.

So Max focused on the picture, just like she had with the picture of her and Chloe that William took on that fateful day. She focused and focused but nothing changed.

Uh, shouldn't something have happened now? Why am I not able to go back!? Okay Max calm down, deep breaths. I just need a clear head and then I'll be back in class in no time.

Once she was seemingly calm enough and had a clear mind she focused on the picture again. Minutes passed and nothing happened, Max just couldn't use her powers to go back in time anymore.

Shit shit shit what do I do know? I've got to think of something quick before he-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Jefferson returned to the room again. Although this time he had gloves on and a syringe. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen now.

"I'm afraid our session is over Max." Jefferson began.

"No no no no no!" Max began to frantically scream. "You can't do this!"

"Normally I wouldn't, but like I said, you know too much, you've seen too much."

Max's entire world was crashing down around her as she faced her impending doom. Is this how Rachel felt in her last moments?

"Is that what you and Nathan told Rachel?"

Surprisingly this gave Jefferson pause. "Rachel Amber, now that is the real tragedy. She was loved by everyone, the model student, the popular girl. I had no intentions to frame her in my image because she was already impure. So no, I never told Rachel that, she would've been fine if it were up to me, but Nathan had other ideas. That fuck up Nathan tried to imitate my style but killed her with an overdose and I was the one who had to cover it up to keep my little operation going." He smiled at Max "Don't you worry, Nathan is already taken care of, and you are the last loose end I need to tie up."

Just then, Max's phone vibrated from her pocket. "Oh? What do we have here?" Jefferson said as he took the phone from her pocket and looked at it. "It seems Kate is calling you right now. Hmm, maybe I'll pay her another visit." He stroked his goatee and appeared to be deep in thought. "You were the one who saved her from committing suicide. Showing her what I've done to her savior will just ruin her now wouldn't it? Those pictures could rival even yours, and even if I didn't kill her she would probably do it for me." His face lit up with the smuggest look imaginable "Yes, I'll pay her a visit after I've dealt with you."

"No please! You've already got her pictures, please don't, please…" With this Max began to sob, not only was she about to die at the hands of Jefferson, but she would die knowing she couldn't save Kate again or Chloe.

"Don't worry Max, you've already played your part in this." He said as he knelt down next to Max. "I promise you, this final dose won't hurt."

A commotion coming from the other room interrupted Jefferson just as he was about to give Max a fatal dose of the drug. He left her and ran right next to the entrance to the dark room as if he was planning an ambush.

This could be my chance she thought.

"Help! Help! He's going to kill me! He's around the corner on the left!" She shouted.

Just as she finished up alerting her (hopefully) rescuer to the danger ahead, David Madsen himself stepped through the doorway looking to the left and spotted Jefferson. As they began to fight, Max tried to free herself from the bonds she was currently in. When Max freed her left leg she looked up to notice Jefferson running past her towards his gun on the shelf. Reacting quickly, she reached out her leg towards him to try to slow him down. She succeeded, because Jefferson actually tripped over her leg and fell on the ground, allowing Madsen to get to him on the ground. In the struggle, Madsen knocked out Jefferson and handcuffed him.

"Oh my god Max, are you okay, did he hurt you?" Madsen asked as he rushed over to Max to help her out of the remaining three bonds. Max was still in shock by everything that had happened to her that she didn't even respond. When she was freed she immediately got up and hugged him (and received a somewhat awkward hug in return from him).

"Thank you thank you thank you. I thought I was going to die, he was about to kill me." She quickly said while she was crying somewhat. After their hug ended she took a few steps back.

"It's okay Max, it's all over now. I'm sorry, I should have seen this coming." David replied "I spent so much of my time chasing the wrong people, suspecting everybody who were actually victims in this, like you and Kate."

Max didn't respond, instead she was just looking straight ahead with a blank stare. Chloe is dead and I can't go back to change it, not this time. Why the fuck did I get these powers just to lose them right at the end when I need it the most?

"Max, do you need any help?" David asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"He killed her." Was all Max said in voice of disbelief.

"Killed? Who did he kill?"

"Chloe"

Silence fell upon the two of them for about ten seconds. Max's expression filled with horror, and David's with barely contained seething rage. David calmly walked over to Jefferson in stark contrast of his facial expression.

"You killed my stepdaughter you son of a Bitch!" He yelled as he began to kick Jefferson who was still unconscious on the ground. "You ruined my family! I told Joyce I would protect them both!"

As David was beating Jefferson, Max had retrieved the gun that was still on the shelf and picked it up. She then aimed the gun right at Jefferson's head with shaky hands and only one thought on her mind. Now who is the vulnerable one you monster? If I could just stop shaking long enough to...

"Max don't! It's over now, he can't hurt anyone anymore. Trust me, you don't want to shoot this sorry ass excuse of a man." David yelled at her.

"He needs to die. Just like Chloe, shot through the head." She said

"Please, give me the gun, I'll make sure he rots away in jail forever for this. Don't do this."

David's pleas were enough to snap Max out of her murderous thoughts. "R-right, you're right. Jail forever." She stated as David took her gun away.

"Come on Max, I think you should wait outside I'll call the cops and they can sort out this mess with you and "His voice broke and he took a breath to compose himself "with you and Chloe".

"Okay, let me get my stuff and I'll go." Max replied.

She collected her bag and her journal, as well as the selfie that she took in Jefferson's class. This picture holds the key to everything, I need to find a way to get my powers back. She looked up and saw the cabinet with all of the binders of pictures Jefferson had took. Without thinking, and making sure David was occupied with Jefferson and calling the police to the scene, she picked up three binders and put them into her bag I'll make sure nobody ever sees these, not even the police for evidence. They were labeled Rachel, Kate, and Max.