Chapter 11
When consciousness returned to Max like a long forgotten friend, her eyes opened, only to be blinded by a white light. When her vision steadily adjusted to this brightness, she began to trace blurred outlines of where she was.
Her body was swaying on a moving surface, which meant that she had to be inside a vehicle. Blinking a bit more, she took note of the surroundings and could piece together what they were with the minimal details. She was lying inside an ambulance, being tended to by the medical team in white suits who had her hooked to all these machines to stabilize her. The rhythmic hissing she could hear was the sound of her own breaths inside an oxygen mask strapped to her mouth.
Her eyes shifted all around the room, hoping to spot traces of blue and black, only to find no such thing in here.
"C—Chl—Chloe…" Her first word since waking from her nightmare came out as a feeble moan. She wanted her so badly to be with her right now, not to be alone here with all these unknowns.
Max let her eyes close, as she printed the image of her glorious smile behind the shade of her eyelids. Soon enough, she was out again.
As soon as she was laid on the operating table, flooded under the surgical light, one nurse ran her scissors through the girl's shirt and bra to have it removed easily. But as soon as she exposed the young girl's chest, she reeled back, astounded by what she then saw.
"Doctor, you should come see this."
The doctor he motioned to, clearly entangled with partaking multiple tasks at once, nonetheless came over and paused mid-motion once he saw for himself what she was fussing over.
"Do you know how to… explain this?"
The doctor withheld his answer as he leaned closer to examine this rare spectacle. He instructed another nurse to dim the light just a little bit to get a better view.
There was an amber luminescence pulsating deep from within her chest in the shape of what was apparently her own heart.
Some of the others gather round to marvel as well, whilst looking to one another for answers, and then to the doctor leading this procedure.
"I can't explain this." He finally answered.
"So what should we do, then?"
"Proceed with what we can for now."
With that statement, the team dispersed once more to fulfill their respective roles.
The dark clouds had long cleared since the incident at the Two Whales, yet it didn't like the storm was yet behind them.
After Max was taken away, everyone was taken to a field hospital that was set up in the middle of an open grass field, also outside of town. A mass of medical tents were set up there just hours after the storm. One section was where they kept they held injured survivors while the other was where they contained all the recovered casualties.
In some morbid fascination, Chloe had wandered over to the latter section to look over all the dead bodies with her cigarette in hand to numb her nerves.
At the moment, she was observing a girl that she recognized to be Dana from a distance away, weeping over Juliet's unmoving form. From the way she always saw these two together during her time in Blackwell, she knew they were close.
Chloe coughed when she puffed out her next intake of smoke, something that rarely happened. She hadn't been able to focus nor relax for hours that felt like days. Her mind couldn't stop wrenching over Max, even though her life rested in the hands of the paramedics now. She regretted not getting into the ambulance with her when she had the chance, and now her friend was all alone, fighting for her life while she was here, chilling under the fresh air, alive but broken.
Tired of holding the little burning roll of paper between her fingers, she let it fall to the grass and stamped the embers out with her heel and moved on elsewhere; she had been walking aimlessly all over this camp just to let off steam, but clearly it wasn't helping as much as it should.
"Chloe?" The girl spun to find herself face to face with none other than her own mother. "I know this is difficult."
"Difficult?" Chloe scoffed. "More like un-fucking-bearable!"
"You can cut down on the language now, young lady." Joyce was stern for just a moment for she softened right again.
Chloe shook her head. "I'm sorry."
Joyce raised an eyebrow; Chloe being apologetic was a rare to witness these days, and she most likely had Max to thank for that.
From the way her mother stood pensively, Chloe had a feeling that she wasn't just here to check if her mood was improving. "I'm guessing you want the full story of what happened over this week, right?"
Joyce rolled her eyes in mid-thought, but then nodded. "That… would be very convenient."
Inside one of the lively tents, Chloe sat before her parents as she progressively filled in all the details for them.
Certain events she recalled had David crossing his arms over with a scowl. "So that night, it was you two who were sneaking around and broke into Principal Wells' office?"
"Yes." Chloe clenched her teeth nervously, but quickly raised her hands defensively. "But it was also where we discovered the first clues to Rachel's disappearance."
"Yet, you were willing to steal funds from the handicapped just to pay off this Frank." Joyce countered, her posture now mirroring David's.
Chloe sheepishly responded. "Max talked me out of it."
"That's not the point!"
"I know!" Fear of a looming onslaught was imminent. "But just let me finish first, for Max's sake. Besides, he wants nothing to do with me anymore."
"Good." They both said, dryly.
Chloe snorted and looked away, bitter that they were now ganging up on her.
The grown ups eventually eased on her as Chloe moved on to explain the rest of the story up until the point where they discovered Rachel's body, and how they went to the Vortex Club to try and lure Nathan out.
"Max suddenly came back from another timeline to warn me about the Art teacher, and how he was behind it all." Chloe swallowed. "In another timeline, he… killed me… and kidnapped Max." She then looked to David. "She also told me how you saved her."
David was perplexed. He had no such memory of that event, yet it gave him a weird sense of Déjà vu. He pieced together the rest of the story based on the memories of his own timeline. "And that's when she convinced you to come to me instead with the evidence."
Chloe nodded, but then her face darkened, eyes turning to her mother's. "That's not all."
Joyce waited questioningly for what she had to say.
"I don't know if I should be telling you this, Mom, but… screw it!" Chloe shuddered as she visualized her late father. "There was another occurrence where she… went back in time five years to…"
"Five years?" Joyce asked. "To when?"
"It was through a photo." Chloe continued. "The one that Dad took of us before he…"
Joyce realized straight away which day that was and lowered her head. David looked to her sadly. "The day of the accident." Joyce completed dreadfully.
Chloe sighed. "Her consciousness went back into her younger self, kinda like what we experienced back there." They recalled that astral sensation.
"One second, I was here with my family." David interjected. "The next, I was back in the war; I could feel myself being pulled back there." He then shook, realizing that he interrupted the story. "Sorry, go on."
"So… Max hid the car keys so he wouldn't be able to find them, which meant that he would instead have to take the bus." Chloe smiled bitterly, but dropped it and hung her head to her knees. "But what happened instead was that after he got me a car for my birthday, I got into an accident instead."
Joyce feared what she would hear next. "Did you…?"
"No." Chloe shook. "I survived, but I became quadriplegic as a result." Tears ran down both their faces. "Both of you got to live your lives just to support my broken ass. I even asked Max to end my life when she came to see me again, she said."
"So what happened?"
Chloe decided to spare her mother the answer and moved on the rest. "She found our photo again and travelled back to that day again, this time, to do nothing but let my dad go."
The look on Joyce's face was that of sorrow and acceptance as Chloe finished off.
"And so, the reality we live in right now was restored."
Sighing, Joyce got up and left the tent to get some air. Neither David nor Chloe knew what her thoughts about this could be. To be fair, it was a lot to take in. David turned back to Chloe and nodded to her before he followed her mother.
Chloe sat there, staring blankly to the ground. "Rachel, if you can hear me…"
Later that day, the family drove all the way back in David's car to discover what was left of their home.
There, the three stood before a landfill of bricks, beams, tiles, and cladding, sprinkled with pieces of glass from their windows.
"Yep, there goes our home." Chloe stated deadpan. "Bye, bye. Now what?"
"Good thing we got insurance." Said Joyce.
"Let's just… salvage what we can." David pointed out as started towards the debris first to begin just that, Joyce following suit. Chloe slumped miserably; she didn't feeling like doing this chore but knew she would have no say in the matter, so she had to drag herself.
"Why can't we just go to the hospital!?" Chloe yelled to the others far off.
She was idling over a pile of debris where her room roughly was, arms folded in annoyance. She had no clue what she was supposed to take from this mess.
"We'll do that in time, Chloe!" Joyce called after her. "Have you found anything yet?"
"No!" She responds aggressively. "There's nothing here that I want!"
Chloe wanted nothing more than to get away from these remains. She did just that as she lifted one foot after the other to make her way to a cleaner and more level area.
"We're wasting a hella lot of time." She slurred.
As she took out another smoke, something small but moving with grace was caught in the corner of her eye, and she shifted round to see a doe strolling over to her; it was an ordinary one this time. Despite being out of place, Chloe welcomed the presence of this animal. To her, it represented the spirit of both Rachel and Max.
Chloe pocketed her lighter before its flame could actually touch the end of her cigarette and squatted low enough for it to come closer. To her surprise, the doe seemed perfectly comfortable wit her as it nuzzled its nose into her chest.
For the first time in forever, Chloe lets out a chuckle, a real genuine chuckle as she ran her hands over its fur.
"Hey, Mom! Check this out!"
Joyce heard her daughter and shortly went over to see the adorable interaction. Her heart warmed from seeing a smile on Chloe's face again.
"Think I can keep it?"
Chloe laid in her own bed, in her sleeping shorts, soothed by the comfort of being in her room once more, arms and legs spread like an angel. Her pictures, furniture, and graffiti were all where they belonged.
But somehow, it felt artificial when knowing the real circumstances. Nevertheless, Chloe wanted to enjoy this fantasy while she could.
She then looked to both sides to discover that she had somehow grown a pair of blue butterfly wings that she could oscillate at will.
"Chloe…" A voice beckoned from above.
She turned to face the ceiling, only to instead be looking upon the bedridden form of Max in what appeared to be her hospital room. The brunette ironically looked as clean and delicate as ever as she looked straight back at her with a loving smile.
But that smile, Chloe didn't recognize was ever hers, nor the voice that uttered her name.
"Our doey-eyed hipster needs our blue butterfly." It was Rachel's voice that was coming out from Max's mouth. "I'm barely holding her together."
As Rachel extended Max's hand upwards to her, Chloe reached out to try and take it. The adjoining rooms worked as the walls shrunk until their fingers could touch.
"I'm here, Max."
Chloe awoke in the backseat of their car and took a moment to register that she was back in reality; she had managed to get some sleep while they travelled onwards again.
"Did you get a good sleep, honey?" Joyce asked, looking over as her stirring form.
Chloe pushed herself to a sitting position and simply moaned in response, which was a yes. "Are we there yet?" She then asked.
"Almost." David replied.
A few days had passed, but finally, there were en route to see Max at the hospital. None of them knew of her condition yet, other than that she was at least alive enough to have visitors.
"I'm coming, Super Max." Chloe said to herself deeply. "Please… hold on."
Author's Note: This is definitely one of the more quieter chapters. I'm basically slowing down the story a bit to give the characters and readers some time to breathe. This is more of a bridging chapter to the next event. Originally, I was going to leave it with the family finding Max in the hospital, but then decided to end it with them one the way. I plan to instead open the next chapter with their arrival, that way I can detail it instead of rushing it. I usually kinda rush my endings so that I can publish the chapter ASAP. Either way, I hope you all still enjoyed it. I pretty much have the endgame solid in my mind now, so I know where it's going to go now. Tune in to find out Max's condition. Thanks as always! ;)