Chapter 4

David Madsen stood in a dark corridor that reminded him of Blackwell Academy. Why was he dreaming about Blackwell? That place was shut down because of the Prescotts. And how was he conscious enough to know this was a dream? Normally, dreams were so immersive that they made the person not even imagine that they were dreaming. But David was fully aware that this had to be a dream. Posters were slathered all over the walls. Each one featured a picture of a man holding a book. He'd never heard of them, much less seen them before. Why were all these posters of this person here?

As David pondered this, he heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. As they came closer, he braced himself to be ready for anything. Out of the darkness walked a man who looked identical to the person in the posters.

"Who are you?" David asked. As if this was the signal they'd all been waiting for, the posters started coming to life. As David watched with a horrified expression fixed his face, the copies of the man in the posters started clawing their way out. They shredded through the paper walls containing them as they all stepped into the corridor. By the time the last one had stepped into the corridor, the first one had reached David. He grabbed him roughly by the shoulders, causing a black fire to run down his arms and over David. The copies all joined in, trapping him down as David writhed in immense pain.

"Say hello to dear, sweet little Maxine for us, won't you?" one of them asked. "Actually, don't bother. We'll do it ourselves."

"Oh, god..."

"Really David, must you resort to such ostentatious verbiage?" another of the copies asked. "In no way do any of us fit the description of a god. 'Jefferson' will do just fine." The black flames encased David as he writhed and screamed. Suddenly his eyes flew open to the sun beating down on him. He sat up sharply, wondering where the hell he was. After a second, he realised he was back at home. But he couldn't quite remember... It was like his brain was misfiring.

"David, are you okay?" Joyce walked over, seeing the wild and panicked look in his eyes.

"It was just a bad dream." David shrugged, getting up and walking inside. He opened the fridge and rummaged around for a beer. He never usually touched the stuff after an incident when he was just about to come home from service. He got too tipsy and talked down to his CO. The beating he got put him in the hospital for three weeks, two of which saw him eating meals through a straw. He pulled a beer from the fridge and looked around, trying to find the bottle opener. Just then, the sound of shattering glass snapped him out of his reverie. He looked down to see blood running from his hand and the beer bottle in pieces on the floor. The neck must have shattered in his grip, causing the bottle to drop from his hand.

'That bottle was as weak as Max!' David thought to himself, before realising what he'd just thought. 'Why did I think that?' he wondered. As if speaking of the devil, she, Chloe and Rachel all walked in. They were gossiping about various things that had happened while Max was away, blissfully unaware of the mess David had just made. It irritated him no end. Yet he didn't know why.

"So, shall we head upstairs and get to the real talk?" Chloe grinned. The girls headed upstairs to Chloe's old room before sitting down. Max noticed the absence of her bed, as well as all of her other stuff. It was literally just a bare room. Chloe sat cross-legged on the floor. Max and Rachel joined her as she addressed the elephant in the room. "Okay, so you probably noticed that Rachel and I moved in together and got an apartment, so none of my stuff is here." Chloe stated the obvious.

"Yeah, Joyce mentioned it." Max shrugged. "I think it's great that you both took that step."

"Okay, so tell us everything that happened while you were away." Rachel said to Max.

"That's what we need to talk about." Max took a deep breath. "Okay, so the first thing I remember is being dropped into the desert..."

"Hang on; you said that was the last place you went to." Chloe spotted the plot hole in Max's story.

"Yeah, I'll get to that." Max nodded. "First off, does the name Mark Jefferson sound familiar to either of you?" Chloe and Rachel swapped confused looks.

"No, that name doesn't ring a bell." Rachel shrugged. Max breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay then, here we go..." Max slowly walked them through everything. How she died in her original reality, created a new one where Rachel was still alive, died in that reality and ended up in the desert. Explaining everything in a nutshell took about three quarters of an hour, with Chloe and Rachel looking genuinely scared.

"Max... I don't know what to..." Chloe was at a loss for words.

"You guys believe me, right?" Max asked.

"Of course we believe you, Max." Chloe assured her. "It's just... You're saying you're not the Max we know, you're from a totally different reality?"

"I'm still the Max you know, Chloe." Max said. "There is absolutely nothing different about me. But yes, I'm from a different reality. Somehow when I died fighting Jefferson, my consciousness was transferred into the Max in this reality who at that present second was in the desert. The question is now, what actually happened here?"

"Well for a start, there was a period where you were really ill." Chloe began.

"Did I end up in hospital?" Max asked.

"No, but my Uncle Ian came and checked on you." Chloe told her. You were getting bad migraines and occasionally throwing up, but he didn't see the need for a hospital. He just blamed it on stress since Blackwell got shut down."

"Wait... Blackwell got shut down?" Max mentally flashed back to the conversation with Joyce. She'd mentioned something about a text from Chloe.

"Didn't you get my message?" Chloe asked.

"When I was dropped into the desert, my phone was just a burned out husk." Max told her. "I told Joyce that it happened shortly after I left, but I actually have no clue."

"You know, you really had Chloe worried when you stopped answering her texts." Rachel grinned.

"I can't imagine what must have been going through your mind." Max laughed.

"Well, considering you fell out of contact so suddenly I don't think it was too unreasonable to think you were dead." Chloe shrugged.

"Chloe, I've died twice now." Max said seriously. "Like Ellie said, I'd rather not make it third time unlucky." Max instantly felt a hit of sadness at the mention of Ellie's name.

"Was Ellie one of the ones you said...?"

"Yeah, she didn't make it." Max felt ready to burst into tears. Suddenly, she felt Chloe's arms around her. Rachel joined in as well as Max hugged them both closer.

"So, did you get any great photos while you were away?" Chloe asked.

"I only remember getting this one." Max reached into the pocket of her bag that she kept her photos in. She pulled out the one she took of the desert sand glowing like a rainbow. Chloe and Rachel couldn't help but look amazed.

"Okay, that's just awesome." Chloe nodded.

"How did you manage to get that?" Rachel asked.

"When I was in the desert, Dom and Rae showed me this great view." Max told them. "At a certain time each day, the sun moves into perfect position to make the sand glow all sorts of different colours."

"I'm putting that view on my bucket list." Rachel grinned.

"You have a bucket list?" Chloe looked over in surprise.

"You didn't know?" Rachel met her gaze. "I thought I told you." She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a red book. She turned to the back page and opened it out. Taped into the back page were about three sheets of paper which rolled out when she turned it sideways. The top one said 'Bucket List' and said list took up the rest of all three pages.

"You clearly have a lot you want to do." Max couldn't believe the size of the list.

"Life is too short not to appreciate." Rachel shrugged. I've done a few things on it already, but I'm just waiting for the day I get that surge of inspiration to do the rest."

"So, what sort of stuff have you got on there?" Max asked, looking the list over. There were several things Max saw that would be easy to do. Some of them were quite difficult like 'Smuggle a case of weed through airport customs undetected', but most of them Max felt would be quite simple such as 'Compete in a driving contest against Chloe and one other'.

"What about that one?" Max asked, pointing to it. "We could do that one easily."

"I was actually meaning to ask Chloe about doing that one." Rachel shrugged. Chloe leaned over and looked at the one Max was pointing out.

"Okay, I instantly have so many ideas." Chloe had a visibly eager expression on her face. Grinning, she turned to Rachel. "If you want a driving contest, we'll give you one. First thing tomorrow, I'm going to raid a ninety-nine cent store."

"What are you raiding a dollar store for?" Max asked, curious.

"You'll see tomorrow night." Chloe winked. "Also, I might have a word with David, see if he can't call in a favour and get us a place to do this." Without even thinking, Chloe got up and headed downstairs. David visibly groaned as Chloe approached.

"What is it, Chloe?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you can help me with something." Chloe put on her best sweet-and-innocent face that wouldn't fool a two year old. "Rachel wants to have a driving contest with Max and I. I was wondering if you could maybe give me a hand finding a place to do it."

"Well, I know a military training ground somewhere near here." David shrugged. If I tell the CO that I'm ex forces and I'm teaching my stepdaughter's girlfriend to drive, that's sure to get us the place. It just means that Rachel's going to have to put L plates on her car and I'll ride up with her. I'll do it under the condition you all let me be the referee." Chloe was surprised. David helping her get somewhere had been a long shot. She never imagined that he'd actually want to take part in some way.

"That would be great." Chloe couldn't keep the smile off her face. Neither could David. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that it was going to be a good day.

Author's Note: Okay, I'm so sorry this has taken so long. College has been hell. If I'm honest, I'm rapidly considering other options. I get that being a student doing a foundation degree is difficult but it shouldn't be to the point that literally everything makes you unhappy. Anyway, I'm going to try and get back into writing this since I haven't worked on it recently and this upload takes me below what I call the 'safety zone'. Basically, I write a few chapters well in advance so that I can upload as frequently as possible and once it's all written I can upload at my own pace.

Hope everyone is doing okay and enjoying the story so far. Please feel free to leave a review. Feedback is appreciated. Thanks to all of you who stuck with me over my unplanned and slightly extended break.