I don't know how long I was on the floor. Five minutes, ten, fifteen … maybe only a minuscule amount of time. Or maybe the exact opposite; oh I don't know. The result either way would be the same. I felt a ray of warm sunlight hit me on the cheek and I looked up and saw something that made me gasp aloud.
I was no longer in the snow globe. I wasn't even in Chloe's living room anymore or in her house at all for that matter. I was in a diner … Joyce's! The same silver counter with stools, the booths, the windows that looked out over the street near the bay, even though there was a crazy amount of sunlight coming in from the outside that it seemed to make anything beyond fifty feet of the windows impossible to see, the tiled floor, the cake stand, it was all here! How the hell did I end up in this place?! Where else am I going to next!
It was then, probably by my senses turning back on completely, that I noticed I wasn't alone. There were people scattered all around the diner. I got up from the floor, staring at them in disbelief. W-what?! H-how? Why? Weren't they all dead or running and hiding from the tornado? They had to be! They-wait!
I look around me and see that the entire place is … is … all intact. It was completely intact as if nothing had happened. Everything was fine, it was like some normal day for Arcadia Bay. I looked outside and remembered the sunlight; it was so clear and bright as if it were a normal summer's day. Now I was really confused. Where was the tornado? Where was all the destruction and death and wind and rain? Where was it all?
Did I do something? I ask myself. I mean, how could it have happened? Unless … oh great, another nightmare trip. I glance around me and mentally comment to myself: Well, this is strange for a nightmare. There's no darkness or people searching for me or weird flashbacks like before.
Shaking my head a little to snap myself out of my thoughts, I resume taking in the faces of those around me. All of them were recognisable. To my right was Diane; directly in front of me sitting in one of the booths was Nathan and behind him was Victoria, both of them sitting across from some other girl I didn't recognise; Frank was on their right whilst on their left was Warren. To my left was the truck driver and the police officer I spoke to the other day was sitting next to him. What really stood out about them was their faces.
I walked over to Diane and gently waved my hand in front of her blank face. "D-Diane?" I asked softly, a tinge of nervousness in my voice.
No response. Nothing at all, not even any movement from her eyes in my direction. I just stared at her, bewildered. What is going on?
I looked over at Nathan and Victoria and rushed over to them, doing the same to them. Nothing. As with Diane, they didn't even look at me or my hand, they just stared ahead blankly as if they couldn't see me. It was like I was a ghost to them. If so, then why weren't they moving? Neither of them, or anyone else in the diner for that matter was moving. It was as if they were frozen it time, statues of the last happy memories of Arcadia Bay before its apocalyptic destruction at the hands of Mother Nature.
What another poetic way to look at all this, Max I mentally say to myself brusquely. Seriously, though, I probably will become a poet who writes this sort of stuff when all this is over.
I move on past them, glancing at all the people standing or sitting completely still around the diner, blank looks on their faces as they seemed to stare ahead into nothing. Man, I was really starting to get creeped out by this. I felt like Will Smith in I am legend when he's in that movie store and all of those mannequin humans are standing around the shop to act as if they're real. Man, that part of the movie was creepy as hell but really gave the audience an insight into his mentality when he's the only human left alive in New York. As I said, I felt a little like him, only there was this feeling of hope that I could fix all this. I mean, I had to. If I didn't, then everything would fall apart for Arcadia Bay and everyone in it, including me.
It was when I was about half-way down the diner that I noticed two more people standing behind the counter. I looked at them and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw it was Joyce and David. They were embracing each other tightly with a look of terror on her face whilst David had an expression of regret on it, as if he had done something and immediately wanted to go back in time to prevent it. You can gladly have mine, Dave. No interest or fee, just take it! I stared at them apologetically, once again saying to myself; Why did you have to do this?
Haven't I ruined enough lives at the moment?
"They can't speak to you, moron!"
I swiftly turned my head in the direction of the voice and once again gasped in shock, almost falling over myself as my eyes made contact with those of the person who spoke.
It was … it was me! Not a younger me like I had seen in the snow globe in Chloe's house or some kind of older me. No, this was literally me! The same hair style, hoodie, top, jeans, shoes, bag over the shoulder. The same face that looked exactly like mine, the same mouth, nose and … the eyes, the ones that people say are a window into a person's soul and character. I could tell by looking at her, I mean me at once that it was exactly who I just said it was.
The other me, sitting in a booth, the same one me and Chloe had sat in a few days earlier just before we'd gone to the junkyard, rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed groan.
"Seriously, if you're gonna stare at me, just take a damn selfie!" she said irritably.
Shit, she even sounded like me! I swallowed hard and, tentatively, walked over to her, looking at her with a mixed expression of shock and awe, as funny as that would be. In a rather comical way, I felt like I was someone who spent their life drooling over a celebrity of some kind and that person had finally appeared in front of me in all their beauty and glory. Wow, I'm a celebrity now. Looks I will be President after all!
"W-who are you?" I asked the other me, which sounded like the world's stupidest question given the circumstance.
She rolled her eyes, issuing another groan of annoyance. "Seriously, are you for real?!" she snapped at me. "I'm you, dumbass. Or, correction, one of the many Maxes you've left behind."
Now that was a surprise. One of the many Maxes? What was she talking about?!
"W-what do you mean?" I asked her. "In fact, no I don't care! Can you get me out of here?" I asked her in a pleading voice.
I didn't care anymore, I didn't care about this power of mine. Curse more like it. I wanted to go home, back to Arcadia Bay, the real one I mean, not one that's twisted by fate and time or whatever and where I'm not responsible for it being torn in two by a tornado or having my mentality and consciousness collapse all around me.
The other Max scoffed as if I had just made a joke. "Oh, you want help now?" her voice the started to turn mocking. "Awwww, 'Miss Superhero Max' needs help." Then it went back to normal. "Thought you could control everybody and everyone, huh?"
I just stared at her, at a loss for words. A part of me wanted to argue back, saying that I wasn't trying to do something like that. I couldn't even if I tried! Nothing I did would allow me to! Who the hell does she think I am, God?
But … another part of me wanted to strangle myself because … Because she was right. Over the last few days since I first obtained this power, I tried to do everything I could to stop all of these bad things from happening. I-I tried, I really did! I tried going back to save Chloe, twice, if not more! I went back to save Alyssa from the football and being splashed outside the diner or falling into the pool at the Vortex Party. I tried to stop William from dying. I tried to save Kate. I wanted everything to be okay! I had to do it because I had the power and I didn't want anyone to suffer when I could have helped them.
No! I wasn't going to let this bitch me emotionally bully or blackmail me. I narrowed my eyes at her a little and she did the same as if she were my reflection in a mirror.
"I tried to help, I tried to do the right thing! That's all I wanted to do!" I told her.
She just shook her head, giving me a disgusted glare as if I were a child that had been caught lying to their parent. "No, you only wanted to be popular," she replied icily. "And the moment you got these 'amazing powers'-" she raised her hands and wiggled her fingers for emphasis for a moment before lowering them. "-your big plan was to trick people, all these people-" She waved her arm at those around us and I looked, my eyes resting on Victoria, Warren, Nathan, Joyce, David, Diane, Kate and Daniel (both of whom were sitting in the booth behind the one the other me was in) and everyone else I knew. "Your only goal was to trick them into thinking you actually cared about them!" the bitch me finished. You try to think you're a hero, you're nothing of the sort!"
Those words pierced my heart like a knife going into me. I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes. "I-I do care!" I cried. "That's why I wanted to make friends, I tried to help people!"
"By telling them what they wanted to hear?" she mercilessly attacked me and gave a light chuckle. "You were just looking for a shortcut because you can't make friends on your own!" She paused to let those words sink into my breaking heart and then went on, each word only beating me down further. "You think you're doing good with them but you've left nothing but a trail of death and suffering behind you! You're more of a goddamn hypocrite than anything else!"
Her words … I-I just couldn't hold myself together anymore. The tears began to fall down my face whilst a series of sobs escaped my throat. As much as I wanted to deny it, something inside me kept telling me, no it was literally screaming at me: She's right! Look at what you've done! It's all your fault!
"And all for your stupid punk ass Chloe!" she carried on disgustedly. "Let me ask you something, Max," she added a snide tone on my name her face giving an expression that reflected that kind of tone. "Do you really think she's worth it?"
That made me go from sad to angry in the blink of an eye. Even though I was still crying, my eyes narrowed and my teeth and fists clenched as hard as they would go.
"Shut up!" I hissed at her. "She's my best friend. Our best friend, how can you even say that about her?!"
Upon hearing these words, my nasty self burst out laughing, slamming her hand onto the table several times and leaning back against the seat as she tried to control herself.
"Oh … Oh my God!" she gasped between breaths of laughter. "Seriously, are you that stupid?!" she asked me with a rhetorical tone as she looked back up at me, still breaking out into fits of giggles as she looked up at my furious face. "You think she's your best friend but you ignored her for five years whilst she went through hell. Ha! Some friend you are, Max!" she finished, adding another snide tone on my name again.
Oh, I wanted to punch her in the face. "Y'know, you're nothing but a bitch! Chloe does a better job of guilt-tripping me than you do!" I pointed a finger at her.
"That's because you let her bully you! It's called 'Stockholm Syndrome', stupid! Wake up! Do you honestly think she's our friend?" she asked me, though I noticed that this time her tone was one of someone asking a real question rather than rhetorical. She even waited for me to respond. "Seriously? Between her and Jefferson, I'd be more worried about her killing us!"
The sound of the diner door opening cut me off from replying as we looked at that direction to see someone enter. I heard the bitch me say: "Oh, speak of the devil!" but my heart was leaping with joy.
Chloe!
She walked over to us, giving me a comforting smile and a look that told me: "Don't worry, I'm with you, no matter what," and sat down across the other me, glaring at her dangerously.
"Dude, do not even fuck with her head!" she snapped at her, leaning close in an intimidating way akin to a predator trying to warn off another predator by making itself as large as possible. "You don't know what we've been through this week! There's no way you can break up out team!"
The bitch me just stared at her at a loss for words, her mouth hanging open as she tried to string together a few words but her voice box seemed to disobey her. She had met her match. In the space of a few seconds, she had gone from being the harasser to the harassed, in a good way that is.
I found myself crying, but this time with joy because Chloe … oh, Chloe was defending me from myself. Yes, she was reassuring me and stamping out all of the doubt and hatred I had for myself. Everything bad that had happened this week, it-it didn't matter anymore! Oh, I felt so relieved.
Would it be overdoing it to say that I felt like a princess being saved by her 'prince charming'? I mentally asked myself. Probably but right now I don't care.
I watched as Chloe continued to give her lip in defence of me. It was so exhilarating to see and hear that things were starting to look up a little.
As much as Chloe had been a bit of a pain and maybe even the cause for this nightmare, maybe she was here to get me out of it.
I wouldn't stop her, not as long as we were partners in time.