Life is Strange - Burning Horizon

by Steven Makrados

She reawakes in Jefferson's class just to find out that everything has amended. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't remember anything. She finds out, that she's a little petty element inside a bigger piece of a giant puzzle. Incrementally she is going to seek for the bigger pieces shattered alongside her new journey. The first event in 2013 changes everything. Suicide...

14. bh - devastated

Note:

- Original date of release - November 1st 2017 -

Well, well, well. I left barely nothing untouched on this weird chapter. Since so much time has passed and I had to earn my money, take care of my friends, hurdles before Christmas, studies of 3D Software and English (duh), I finally made it until Christmas Eve. I wish you a merry Christmas and a wonderful time in 2017's last days.

After facing many canonic problems in my own (very complex) story, I determined to shift many visions - and other brain racking details - into short stories. I posted another work here labeled with "Burning Horizon - Short Stories" where you may read letters, phone calls, thoughts and little dramatic events stuffed into a series. I'm currently working on three more of those short stories.

So much time has passend and yet I can't remember what I've changed except telling you that I literally rewrote almost every dialogue twice and checked the chapter's integrity more than four times.

Much love and a beautiful Christmastime! 3

WARNING!
THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE!
EXPLICIT CONTENT IS NOT ALLOWED ON THIS PAGE SO I HAD TO REMOVE THE CORRESPONDING PARAGRAPH!
IF YOU WANT TO READ THE ENTIRE UNCENSORED STORY I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO PROCEED TO THE OTHER FANFICTION WEBSITE.

Summary:

Finally, she understands everything. She found out all she has to know to improve her past. However, before getting back she has to face many painful truths nobody can avoid her to experience.

Chapter 14 – Devastated (Entirely reedited November 6th until December 24th)
Theme Song: Frames - Encounter

Magic Music Box, why have you stopped? Dad has just wound you up. I don't know, what to do. The plushy teddy in my arms starts fading. My hands can't hold him any longer. I hear the Real-Max's heartbeat exceeding 200bpm. The monitor's beep echoes through time to me into the past. I can't put an end to this. I can't erase myself. I'm too strong right now, I can't assist my other self at committing suicide via time traveling.

"FAST!" the Real-Max shouts through time. Yet, the aura around me gets somewhat bigger, teddy comes back into my arms. The disguise around me goes away. "You will finish this! Do it!" and I can't believe it. The Real-Max has trapped me here. Evil brat! She… she is still there and can rewind at will. If she doesn't like my decisions, she'll rewind. The key inside the lock rotates back, the stool moves back to the table and Dad comes back into my room, and puts the music box back into the wardrobe. This is the weirdest thing of all. Experiencing a rewind without doing it on my own.

Her heartbeat races way too high. I don't know, how it can increase on and on. Her rewind seems to affect her heartbeat. She might kill us if she rewinds further and over. "Miss Caulfield, can you hear me?" I hear Dr. Jacoby talking to her. Real-Max has interrupted the rewind, when Ryan wiggled the photo in the air to make the printed image dry faster. I can't hear 2015 any longer, I'm back in 1997 or eight… please Real-Max, don't worsen this again. Can she still read and listen to my thoughts? "Everything hunky-dory, Maxine?" Daddy asks me, because all this grief had seeped through time and caused my eyes to shed some tears of fear. God, I hate it, whenever he says hunky-dory.

"Want to go wiph you dad!" I try to say that I want to go with him. "C'mon kiddo, no more doing mischief," Ryan iterates the exact same sentence, grabs me under my arm pits and carries me back into the crib. "Mommy and I got you this super-nice bed. You're too old for this little cage, anyway. You will-," – "I want to be wiph you… forever!" I interrupt his sentence. Man, this lisp is lovely. I miss so much of this. All I see is my forgotten early childhood. If Real-Max gets a heart attack, I shouldn't swallow the button eye and die too… I'm not ready to end myself.

Ryan seems intrigued. If he'd only known that his little girl is possessed by her older self. I can't change it, dad, I'm so sorry. God, I've missed you so much! What have I done to my parents. I will hug them to death as soon as they show up at Arcadia Bay. "Maxine, you're looking so… pale…," Ryan brushes one little burning tear away from my soft cheek with his thumb. "Okay, you come to us for ten more minutes. Mommy will be happy," he finally carries me to mom. I'm not going to die alone, no matter what evil intentions Real-Max has. Rewinding whereas another alternative personality time travels at the same time. This can't be good. She should accept my existence, my choices.

The disguise comes a little closer. Regardless of how long I'll be with my parents, I had my last memory shared with them. And they will surely remember this event, since this is a working polaroid. I hug my daddy tightly, as the white aura narrows. "Ryan, what has happened?" Vanessa joins us in the corridor. I only hear her footsteps coming closer until she arrives out of the white disguise. My heartbeat pounds against dad's shoulder. He notices this. "My, what's wrong with you?" he looks down to me. I can't believe how small I've become. I'm smaller than his chest. I'm half of it, at most.

"You think, she's becoming ill?" mom wants to know. Dad fades – half a ghost. Close your eyes, Max. "NOOO!" the other me cries. A loud echo resounds… it's dark. I can't see a thing. The heartbeat rapidly pulses in my ears. "Calm her! Emergency, get ready to resuscitate her! … Her condition declines!" Dr. Jacoby tells someone and calls for help. "Fuck, she killing herself with… nothing!" he talks to himself infuriated. I'm his enigma he won't solve.

"One, two, three!" a medic screams. A defibrillator beeps loudly. It twinges within my chest. They revive her… me. My heart must've stopped. I will die on dad's shoulder. Surrounded by my parents, while the other part of me is surrounded by strangers and shrinks. I really pity her for this. She doesn't deserve that fate. Even I don't deserve to die inside this polaroid memory. "We lose her!" a voice shouts. "God, this can't happen to us…" another voice responds. "Make us some room here! I said, 'Make way!'" the other medic aggressively nudges someone away. The flatline… only remember its beep from movies, hospital soaps… but this one has an additional triplet, going off every second. Like an alarm going off.

The sound of a rewind occurs. Mom and dad, they both reappear, light illuminates, some sounds come back. My heartbeat pounds in reverse. Oxygenated and deoxygenated blood flows in reverse. I keep my eyes shut… "I love you… so much," I manage to say with my grown-up voice in 1997. They can't answer. A loud screech bellows upon us. Deep bass crashes through time. Something has changed. ?

Real-Max tried to rewind? She was paralyzed and her heart had stopped. Hence the world, I was currently in… became frozen. Don't open your eyes… keep them shut until it's over, I kept saying to myself! "Save me!" she said. What? Who? "I'm at your place, too. I'm looking at you from above… like a… a floating soul," my other self talked to me. "You are on dad's arms… you cried a little on his shoulder," she went on. Shut up! I wouldn't have ever considered killing myself.

"Don't kill yourself, I managed it on my own somehow…!" she stuttered almost with a joyful tone. "Please, you have to rewind… I've corrupted this polaroid image by rewinding outside of it. It's a time fragment, now. I should have let you… you… are our last rescue. Rewind and you can revive me… I won't rewind again, I swear," she cried at the end. I was mistaken. She didn't sound joyful at all. "Take your time… I'm sorry, okay? Please, don't be mad at me… for not believing in you. The kind of love you showed to my – our – parents is beyond anything that I've anticipated. I misjudged you! It is all my fault," she accused herself.

I opened my eyes. Oh my God… this time fragment, such a sight to behold. Colorful, shiny, power it was… "It's because you are inside one for the very first time. The second time you enter a time fragment, there'll be blood, grief and other uncountable cruel things combined. I'm begging you, please get us out of here! You have to rewind, because I can't!" she concluded. Sure, I felt the backshift of time, a typical sign for time fragments. My thoughts are all past oriented. Past tense, so to speak.

But, tell me where she was? The Real-Max, I meant. She had mentioned observing me from above. Where? "You can't see me, right, but I see you and teddy… and… how much I do miss him," she said and all of a sudden, both his button eye balls moved a little. An invisible imprint of a hand pushed into the plush. I startled and fell to the ground. My motor function worked like my grown-up, albeit I was still in my younger body.

"Sorry, forgot how he felt like," she apologized for touching teddy without mentioning it. Hey, I had reclaimed my normal adult abilities. Did that mean, I could be able to write? Write a letter to my parents? C'mon Teddy and Other-Max, we had to save everything. "Are you totally out of your mind? This polaroid memory has turned into a corrupted remnant. Anything you do, won't help us." she tried to reason with me. However, she was not capable of twisting time any longer, since she died in reality, right? Then, let's grab a crayon and write them a story, all time fragment convictions aside.

"You're wasting your time, this is a time fragment and nothing will change our fate. I destroyed this memory together with me," she tried restraining me from writing. All I sensed of her was despair and a broken heart. Nothing I considered to be death or anything alike.

We didn't need to hurry. Everything was frozen. Write Max, and ignore the ghost floating around you! "Well, I could remove the crayons or doodle on the sheets to make it impossible for you to write something, but I'll leave you alone. Do what you want, but please, rewind as far as you can – when you're ready –, so that I'll be alive and you can escape this fragment, okay?" she begged me.

Sure, I'd have an axe to grind with you, once I had been back in 2015. "Whatever you want, your actions have proved that you do the best you can," what a nice blessing she had turned into. What were they used to say? Beyond death, there's no suspension, no tension, no distress, but remorse. Yeah, that applied to the ghost flying around me.

"I'll look what you write. Eager to know, how you will use your words," she admitted. Easy! I couldn't concentrate when you kept up talking like that. "Try it with soliloquizes. They should remove the backshift within a fragment," she helped me. I talked to her, "So, shalt I ink them another letter of despair to thwart their plans. Moving to Seattle. Thou and I, shalt we collaborate hereafter?" man, that archaic mannerism was the worst. Ever seen a little girl at the age - at max - of two, talking like that? Possessed by two souls? "Stop talking bullshit and write," the Real-Max's soul qoth to us.

Then I wrote my parents the letter. Gosh, what had happened to my grammar? Watch out, what you'll compose. No backshift, write your wishes and desires and try to scare them. They should regret any thought to move away from Arcadia Bay. The music box was wound up again. What? "Oh, she works although time's frozen. How convenient…," the Real-Max said and dropped the music box. Einaudi's song played again. Great fuel for my letter to them.

Done! "Lemme see, lemme see!" Real-Max obviously had joined me. Invisible hands lift the paper letter. "Great, this…," she paused there to think, "… this might… work?" she didn't know what to think. "Okay, Real-Max. I was going to rewind… I meant… I will rewind, now, and revive you with that. You are not to rewind and everything will turn out right, you understand?" I was talking directly to the last position her voice echoed from. "Thank you," she just said from that very empty spot. I hoped my words sufficed. I grabbed the little letter and was about to rewind. I hoped it would work. "Smart…," the Real-Max talked to herself, maybe to us. Let's go!

I raised my tiny hand. My body motor function would return to a toddler's state, in a heartbeat, my diction and all the other elements, too. I rewind as far, as I could. The backshift is over, but I go further and further. Back to the flash from my father's camera. The flash occurs, the start point of the fragment has been reached.

Still holding the letter in my hand, reality turns back. "It fucking worked!" the Real-Max shouts via time. The heartbeat monitor is also audible during her shout. Resurrection accomplished. I can't believe that I'm inside a fragment of time, however managed to reverse the past feeling of it. Whatever, it's a fresh time fragment. Maybe it would've been worse, if I had tried to go here a second time, which I'm not planning at all. Hell no!

"Nice one Ryan. I think, you scared…," mom tries to talk to dad, but stops in a heartbeat. "What… Maxine, your nose, Ryan, I can't see blood," she holds my left shoulder. I remember her having problems seeing blood. She looks away to avoid throwing up. Me, I'm losing balance, concurrently the wet flow of blood running down to my upper lip tickles my skin. Warm blood under my nose, brushing my lips, touching my chin at the end… "Read my… phtory," I've managed to say while losing consciousness. Guess, I'll leave that fragment faster than anticipated. I pass out. A feeling that I'm became much used to.

Passing the next checkpoint, the rattling of a bell smarts in both my temples. A disgusting screech. I despise those moments, although I can't avoid them.

I'm awake. My lashes block the vision. Rubbing through my eyes with my bony thin fingers, I remove the blur and eye the Real-Max back inside her bed. Silent, calm, heartbeat calm, no distress, no agony, just wet cheeks which both glint in the bright light – alive. I turn around and spot Jacoby with another nurse. Both observing the situation. The nurse takes some notes. Doc Jacoby talks to him quietly, "Sudden raptures while sleeping…" and looks to the nurse. "Add, 'Sudden raptures during asleep!' …please? For crying out loud, do you listen?" he reacts peevishly, beats with his fist on the table. The clipboard almost slips out of the nurse's hands. Nervously he grabs the pen again and follows the doc's orders and scurries the pen all over the lined sheet.

Back to the normal world, right? "Right," the Real-Max chuckles. "And write that down, too, capiche?" Jacoby adds while clenching his fist in fury. An old-school asshole, he is. "Shut up," she chuckles wearily again, barely manages to pronounce the last word. Exhausted and… I got no words to describe her messed-up condition.

I raise my tunic until I see my belly. The scar is gone. The real Max smiles even more. Tears of joy. This time, I believe her. She's delighted, composed, appeased like I would've never expected her to be. I reversed her broken heart into something worth living. She laughs and removes her remaining tears. Finally, she looks out of the window and enjoys the view.

"The moment, I was flying around and not feeling my body, I wished having arms. I wanted to see them and hug you, mom and dad all at the same time," she looks me in the eyes. "Caulfield starts babbling with an entity," Jacoby dictates his nonsense to the poor nurse. "C'mere, we are awesome!" Real-Max raises her left hand. Her right is strapped to a metal bracket at the bed. She even tries to lift that hand, but the strap is, of course, sturdier. Well, that's a change of heart, I've gotta admit. I walk toward her bed and hug… me. "Embraces her-self…" – "God, can you shut up, please?" Real-Max shouts to him.

"What was that, Miss Caulfield?" Doc Jacoby's trashy chair squeaks. I have to say, never in my life, I ever had mused about seeing myself with my own eyes and embracing myself… a twin. I don't mean seeing oneself in a mirror – I mean, literally in the flesh. It's the craziest thing I've reached so far. But, I'm nervous that worse things might happen to her – us. "Okay, our round's finished. Clip those notes to the clipboard and follow me to the next patient… woe you lose 'em again!" Doc Jacoby puts the chair to the table and approaches the only Max he can see. "Your visitor will come in… just about two hours. If you keep up the… sensible behavior, we might loosen the right strap," he promises… asshole! "Thank you," Real-Max looks up to him. "All the best for your safety, Miss Caulfield." and he leaves. Asshole!

---

Well, fuck. I made a wide jump again. What happened? Definitely, this is just another bloody vision. Come on, Max, open your eyes. What was the last thing, you've seen? Embracing myself with my eyes sealed. Great, now what? I'm hearing my surroundings. Still, sounds like a hospital to me. The blur is back again. Might take a while to wear off. I'm back inside the psychiatry. Shit I'm confused. Where is the other Max – my counterpart I was embracing?

Is this a foreshadowing of some sorts or a jump into the past? God, what has my life turned into? All I do is ask myself questions. Well, positive aspects about this first. I can clearly see my diary on the table over there. There is no heartbeat monitor standing next to my sickbed. Welcome back to Portland, I'd say. More like, "This is the place you should rather be, dumbass!" The door's still opened. Okay, even my limbs aren't strapped to the bed, which is a relief.

My body looks okay, too. Not the worst vision, so far. Mostly, visions take me somewhere shortly in the future or in the past to reveal someone's thoughts or a series of actions that might occur. Although I wasn't able to change anything meaningful in 2013, up to this point. I'll leave my bed. Wow… my legs slipped through the duvet. I am still the ghost, albeit this is a vision. Looking back to the place, where I've been lying the past half-minute, there's no Max. Just a ghostly outline hiding beneath the blanket. Where is Michael, where are those dozens of people, running around the hallway.

"Intensive care – psychiatric ward, you're talking to Dr. Jacoby… hello Mister Prescott," a familiar voice echoes from somewhere out of the hallway. "She's… she's been better, sir," Dr. Jacoby concludes, though I can't hear Mister Prescott. I slowly walk outside my sickroom. At the same time, I notice that I might still be a ghost and invisible to others. Huh, strange. It's empty in this psychiatry. The only remaining soul is Jacoby on his mobile. That's why I couldn't hear his interlocutor at all.

"Yeah, I hear you. Back to Arcadia Bay? Really? No, sir, I can't let this happen. She's in good hands here…" the voice on his mobile interrupts him at the end. All I hear, is the crackle of this voice pushed against Jacoby's ear.

"Listen… I can't… Mister Prescott," he tries to explain by interrupting Mister Prescott back. "This is beyond anything you understand. I apologize for saying this, but you have no clue, what medicine she has to take. If you want to find out about her relation to your deceased son, I…," and obviously Mister Prescott interrupts him there again.

Relation to Nathan? What could've been? I'm bullied at Blackwell and the only person standing right beside me is Kate. Maybe Dana and Daniel, too, but I fobbed them off. Could be that they've turned their backs on me. So, what exactly does Dr. Jacoby mean?

"… as I wanted to tell you… yeah, if I can't observe her condition, and you push incoherent various medicine into her psyche, she might be less useless than she is right now… but she's not ready for a containment area by this week, do you even understand the extent of this?" he explains and leans against the wall. He pushes his left hand into his face and exhales out loud through the small gaps between his fingers.

Containment? What the hell are the Prescotts planning with me? I see, how Dr. Jacoby struggles against Mister Prescott's requests. It's pointless. Step one has had already been made. I'm in Arcadia Bay's hospital. Not the right place to stay. He looks nervous as he walks to and fro. Pacing forward and backward thrumming on his lips, he's grappling with his own conflicts while listening to Prescott's bullshit ramblings.

For the very first time I pity him. Somehow, I can feel the growth of despair in his mind. I believe him, that he just wants to help me. My relation to Nathan… I hated him. Even in my diary I mentioned my fright for his presence plus my hatred against Victoria. So, for exactly what answer is he pressing? "Listen, I know this sounds ghastly and whacky, but this girl is more than a mastermind and murderer of your son… she's more than that. I'm afraid, she knows more than all of us together. Two years… I've been trying for two years to get answers and I might be this close…," Mister Prescott on the other end shouts.

Jacoby looks pained all over his face. I can imagine all the problems, that emerged by dealing with Nathan's problems. "I understand. Can you arrange it? I'd die to help this poor girl… okay I collect my files and meet you in Arcadia Bay. Thank you, Mister Prescott," he hangs up at the end. "Asshole!" he shouts after putting his cellphone in his white robe's giant pocket. I guess, he could've shouted a lot more, since nobody will hear.

He turns around and heads somewhere. I must follow him. No matter how long I'm stuck inside this vision, I should use my abilities to find out more about this. And once I know the location of my medical file and have access to it, I should know, what they scrutinized and already found out about me. Jacoby enters the reception and takes another door behind the counter. Wonderful… I'm a ghost inside an already cleansed asylum with the only remaining soul – Jacoby.

Ah, so there it is. Jacoby's holy lair of sick files. Assumedly collected over decades of research and treatment. He fetches my files. Good, now I can rewind and take them away. I raise my hand to feel… nothing. Stupid… fuck! It's not working. Note: Time fragments, 2013 and 2015 – time travel works somehow. On the other hand, visions are things that want to fuck with me. Jacoby takes all the files he can find and throws them into his big brown briefcase.

Damn… what can I do? Can I nudge him away? I push my hand against his shoulder an see it slipping through his body. Cool… normally I'd take a picture, but this… dammit. Jacoby leaves his office and doesn't close the door behind. He darts out of the asylum. I hear him stumbling and shouting, "Excuse me!" apparently, he's seeing the people who'd normally stand there. Nurses, patients and such.

Fucking fantastic, I'm inside his big fucking office without the option to rewind time and or find out anything about me. Well, since I'm here, I should at least check out the rest of his office, as long as this vision abides. Opening a drawer, I find a couple of handheld dictating machines with their correlating tapes arbitrarily spread inside the wooden drawer.

2008 – Troy Parker
2014 – Michael DaCosta
2001 – Mark Tillerson
2013 – Nathan Prescott

Oh my God, what the hell am I finding here?

12/11/ 2008 – Nathan Prescott
2009 – Nathan Prescott
2010 – Nathan Prescott
2010_2 – Nathan Prescott
2011 – Nathan Prescott
2011_2 – Nathan Prescott
2011_3 – Nathan Prescott
2011_4 – Nathan Prescott

This goes on and on… oh there is a tape about me.

2013_corr. – Maxine Caulfield

Shit. Marked with a red exclamation point.

Can I still listen to it? Can I even touch objects? I wasn't able to move my blanket nor nudge Doctor Jacoby. Yes, it works. I insert the tape into the dictating machine and listen.

"-Cau-reco-A." Dammit it's more than broken. Maybe I can forward a bit. This thing is ancient, it almost reminds me of Chloe's old-school cassette player. I hit sesume,

"-a-out," fuck, it's pointless. I see something hiding inside the drawer.

2013_17b – Nathan Prescott

The last tape that had been recorded. I mean… if they are sure about an interconnection between Nathan Prescott and Maxine Caulfield, why not checking the last file, that I can find within my own vision.

"September 15th… Recording 17 – b. Nathan Prescott. Tape 'a' broke while recording because battery died," Jacoby clears his throat, "Nathan… haven't seen you this glad and… happy in years. Please, tell me your story," he almost sounds like a father when talking to him. Could it be that Jacoby is a relative? Don't think about that right now, Max. The tape briefly stops and starts again. I hear Nathan sniveling, "Okay, those definitely are tears for joy. Now, I'm very curios, haha. What has happened?" I can imagine a smile on Doc Jacoby's face. Damn I'm nearly at a point, where I'm sympathizing with him – them.

"I met someone. Someone special," Nathan answers without a straight voice. Every word sounds rough, his vocal chords are sore. The tape player interrupts and starts again. "Okay, Nathan… you seem flustered. Take all the time you need to describe your thoughts," Jacoby again tries to reassure him. The tape stops and starts when Nathan begins his answer, "She found my weak spot in a heartbeat. By just… looking at me, she was able to… oh God," Nathan cries and the tape recorder stops. It resumes after his fit of weeping.

"Nathan, I'd suggest we get outside for a walk and you… tell me everything, will you?" a chair squeaks. The tape doesn't stop, though. Nathan snivels again. Oh gee, I can't imagine how much Doctor Jacoby was obliged to struggle with Nathan's awesome demons. I literally mean awesome the way it's supposed to be used. Gosh, this is over five years of tape recordings inside this drawer. Over five years of treatment and bang, Nathan cleaves his brain. Unlike other visions, this one kind of teaches me about his sufferings. The tape goes on, a high white noise crackles out of the dictating machine,

"I'm in love with her – I love her. The way she looks right through me is nothing compared to you Lawrence," Nathan answers Doctor Jacoby. "What do you mean, Nathan? You found a nice girl at your academy?" he kindly asks him. Nathan struggles and fights against something. I hear his grumble and moans. The tape stops and resumes somewhat later, "I remember another girl that went missing. But she's new, different, smart, wise… I don't want to lose her too," Nathan answers. I hear clothes brushing over skin and rubbing over the seats. "She gave me a birthday present… because… it was my birthday. She apologized for the belated happy birthday. Haven't you forgotten about my birthday Lawrence?" Nathan is upset about it. "She healed so much in just a few days, which you can't. She took me away from… all this!" he shouts and apparently points around the room in which they're sitting.

"You mean your medicine? I can't risk yet another drug-holiday. I'm begging you to please continue the therapy," I can hear a clapping of hands. The tape stops and ends here. Lawrence Jacoby, huh. Guess I heard that name somewhere else before…

Someone enters the office. "Max?" Michael comes in and… my God I notice how creepy his hefty body can look in a pitched black office. He turns the light switch while I'm saying, "Hi," back to him. "Strange. Thought I've felt her presence… whatever," he talks to himself and approaches the opened drawer, in front of which I'm currently standing and holding the little dictating gadget.

He doesn't recognize me – the ghost –, who's obviously standing right next to him. He searches something inside the drawer and quickly looks back as he finds it. He sneaks to the door and peeks outside. After a few little glances to the left and right, he closes the door and scurries back to the drawer and grabs the tape with his name glued on it. He hides it in his trousers' pocket. Okay, that came unexpected, especially because I wasn't regarding him as a person who has something to hide.

He shuts the drawer and bolts back to the door. While leaving, he turns the light switch. But it became darker than before. I guess this vision is over. This weird and confusing vision.

---

It's darker than closed eyes at midnight, hiding under the blanket. An indication that I'll go back to the Real-Max again somewhere in 2015. Maybe the first time, I'm glad to go back to that nasty brat. After all, she had a change of heart… leap of faith. "You're back? Hell, thought you'd never wake up again," my voice speaks into my right ear. Where exactly am I? "You hugged me and fell asleep on me," she answers. Perspective, colors, it all returns. This vision was creepy. Visions altogether will occur a lot more often. And they'll expand and widen in the future. "Shit, speaking of which… I had a vision, too, but no time has passed here in this presence. But you were asleep for almost an hour. Luckily, they detached me from the strap around my right wrist," Real-Max talks a mile a minute. Cut me a break, please.

"No, we must talk as long as we can!" the Real-Max nudges me off her bed. Oh man, what now? "Listen, Dr. Jacoby had talked to me and after he left – boom, I had a vision, all of a sudden. After waking up from the vision, he was still standing right in front of me as if no time had passed. He was just about to leave the room. I had to pretend… pretend that my vision wasn't happening. But, you took your time…," she explains herself. Well, nice and… so, what happened in your vision?

"I was floating around like a ghost. Remember? Like when I had entered our previously generated fragment. An invisible spirit with no human attributes," she takes a breather there. Man, I want to know what she's about to tell me. "I was in Chloe's room. She was piss drunk. More than ten bottles of emptied beer lay on the bottom. Her arm draping over the brink of her bed. I thought about her. I thought about her name, how much I missed her… didn't say anything, but she heard… or maybe sensed my inner thoughts…," she shakes a little, no she's shivering. The window is still opened. Cold winds are pushing inside. I head to the window and close… I'm invisible and can't touch it. My hand moves through the window frame.

The Real-Max doesn't comment this embarrassing event. She goes on instead, "She shouted, I should fuck off. I said nothing, but my thoughts have reached her head in some way. She took the gun out and shot two times at my direction although I wasn't really there." What is this going to be? How can she assure that she'd never had a vision and now – all the sudden – she experienced one? Blatantly lying.

"Listen, I didn't come up with this crap. Chloe threatened me, that I had had to leave her alone or she would use the last bullet for herself. At the same time, I saw a cop car leaving the street with you sitting inside. The moment I realized that I was in your reality… she shot herself," that's interesting and disturbing all at once. Luckily, her vision was something out of the past and can't be changed.

"I don't know, how much time we have left, but you must get out of here. You are endangered," she tries to help me. "Once we are reunited, you will suffer from severe psychosis and many other mental illnesses. You will hear voices and other painful stuff. Listen, you must get back to Portland. Arcadia Bay isn't safe. Once you've successfully completed Tuesday and you return to the asylum on Wednesday, you must get rid of all the drugs I've deposited behind the loose tile in your sickroom," she almost beats me to death with new info. Whoa, hold up! My brain tries to adjust itself back to 2015. Later I must do the same for 2013. "It will take forever until you are back in 2013…" she says, but something cuts our bond.

The chime of a bell rattles. My head pounds due to all the vision-blacking-out-bullshit.

Damn, she had a plan. Now I'm back inside her body. Now what? I'm shivering, I'm cold, my feet are still strapped at the foot of the bed. Shit, how will I manage to get back to the psychiatry? Wait? I get it? She really had a great plan, however, she had no time to explain thoroughly. She realized how she ended up in this hospital.

It's because I did something bad in 2013 and she felt it here in 2015. After that she had a seizure, which caused her to change the location. Normally I am the person, who experiences visions, but now there are two of us. Maybe we are linked together because of our mutual time-travel-fragment-showdown.

you have totally gone out of your mind
stop talking more and more bullshit
you will make this even worse
you will murder them all

What the fuck? No! This is horrible. That's my own voice inside of me. Crap. I grab the pen next to my diary. I write onto my body: loose tile! Once I'm back in 2013, the normal Real-Max should know what to do with that note. Real-Max assumedly wanted to describe the way 2015 works, when I was making my choices, two years in the past. She knows the reason why I'll repeat Tuesday another time.

Chloe drank enough to have the courage to pull the trigger. But, Real-Max never actually was there, right? So, it basically had never happened and she's fine, after all. And, oh shit, I forgot to ask her about the incident between Nathan and I. God, there's too much to keep track of. Unfortunately, I won't find out devoid of the social web, because I was robbed my laptop. I have to ask someone, once I'm back.

see?
you've totally lost track of it
end it here
here isn't your place
you should pull the trigger instead

Holy shit! I can't imagine the pain my other me had to experience. At the very least, I vaguely knew the Real-Max vision's timing, date and location. My vision however was beyond anything. Arcadia Bay is my rival. I won't stay here. If the Prescott family is interested in me and knows about my medical file, I'm fucked! This is hell!

I look around. Nothing here to cut myself out of this sickbed. My heartbeat looks normal. Whew, something acceptable for once. I hear steps coming closer to my room. I stop moving, since my door is widely opened. Man, I can't do anything. The steps have stopped before my door. A shadow drops into my room. Don't keep me in suspense here! Can't move, this way or another.

"Is that room 17?" a dark voice with a familiar dialect says. He comes from up north. A voice further away answers his question, "Yes, we're reprinting the slate's descriptions. You may go in." Well, I totally forgot about the Kraut in hell. Almost forgot about the German.

2015 and still doing mischief around Arcadia Bay. He smiles, opens his arms and offers a hug with it. I'm scared shitless. I can hear my own heartthrob increasing within seconds. Alfred Der Grosse Dongleman, he realizes the sudden change of my heartbeat.

Siegbert… virtually completely forgot your imaginary name. "Uhm, howdy Max. Ain't you happy seeing me again?" he gleams with pleasure. I notice slight disappointment on his face for a second, but he returned to kindness fast. Truth be told, his English has changed a lot. I assumed it was the dialect from up somewhere around Seattle… if there's any.

"Well, I'm here now. You insisted I should come down around here and visit you. So, here I am," fairly smooth and confident. No hiccup, no stutter, no searching for words. Good job. At least he's making progress. Not like me. "Don't talk much anymore, huh? I've been warned about your… condition," he shrugs and takes a seat on the chair, Dr. Jacoby was sitting on an hour ago. He's put his little bag in the corner of the room. No glasses on his face, as always.

distrust
disbelief
disoriented
disintegration
-no reason to trust

Great, so there he is. The German whom I had distrusted all along and today he's coming back to me, because I've insisted. "Oh, what's this?" he raises a little pouch with small tools inside. "Lemme see!" I want to see the little bag. He gets up and hands me the pouch. Jackpot! Jacoby forgot this on the chair. There's the key to the straps' locks.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," he restrains me from getting out of this bed. I hide the pouch under my blanket and start talking. The clock on the wall shows 12pm. Plenty time to find out some more things, for instance the incident with Nathan, and what I did at the vortex club party. Real-Max has vanished unfortunately. I know about 95 percent of everything I wanted to know.

"What's wrong Max? Why are you so pissed off at me, right now?" Siegbert reacts fairly disappointed. He stands next to his bag. Is he about to leave? "Stay, I want to find out a few things," I raise my hand as though I wanted to grab him. He smiles and takes a seat next to my bed. Nervously waving about with his hands, he tries to say something, "No hugs?" but still smiling. Should I, or shouldn't I? Didn't Real-Max mention him beforehand? "I'm not in the mood, right now, later," so I answer. Siegbert shrugs and mumbles an almost inaudible okay. He has a new scar in his face drawn above his upper lip. No time to ask him about that.

"Why are you here?" I'll do this the pragmatic way. He looks confused already, but after some breaths, he begins "Remember the great weeks we had? Laughing all the time? The bird?" he shines with happiness. He touches my left arm. Thin cold fingers on my skin. Holy, it's freezing, I pull it away and rub my arm.

Siegbert looks away, out of the window. He goes there and views outside. "I'm here, because we are supposed to be friends," he says sadly. A bluetit lands and perches at the window. The German startles and immediately points at the bird, "Remember…? That little bird?" and then looks at me. It's the same bluetit I had saved in the Prices' house, in whatever reality. Alfred Giantpecker knows it?

he's lying
he tricks you
he won't trust you
he's no good for you

"Shut up!" – "Excuse me?" the German asks disappointed. He stares to the ground, walks to the door and grabs his bag. The bird flutters against the pane. "I came down… all the way from Seatlle to be treated like this?" he asks me while putting his bag up on his right shoulder. The voices in my head are still echoing. "What's your name?" I repeat the same question after two years. Two years that have passed by blacking out once.

He sighs, walks to me and draws his finger to my arm he was touching. "I was told that your memory had been destroyed, for the most part, but maybe you should read your own notes first, before asking. I'm leaving…," he pauses here. During the bird's relentless flutters against the window, I'm inspecting my notes at the arm. It reads, "Getaway with Steven".

mark is to be distrusted not steven
mark snubbed him at the parking
mark had followed you
how ironic

"Please, be quiet!" I talk to my head and massage my right temple. "I should give you a present from Mrs. Price, because I was at the Two Whales Diner, today for lunch," he points at his bag. "Joyce? Joyce Price?" Chloe's mother talked to him and entrusted him to give me a present? "She said, she was in love with a German when she was our age, because she recognized the foreign language as I was phoning my parents. The ticket to our conversation," he describes his way to Arcadia Bay and to talk to Joyce.

"A present? I'm begging you…" he interrupts me here, "No, you are rude, unpolite and not a friend right now. I came all the way just to be ignored and insulted. I forgot how much I hated Arcadia Bay, especially after Joyce's stories," he denies my wish to have a look on the present. Apparently, it's the same present dedicated to me, which Joyce was talking about on Tuesday evening. Back when I broke up the friendship with Chloe.

Do you ever learn Max? You envision the wrong enemy. And he's almost leaving. You need him, to get out of Arcadia Bay. This place is cursed. And I think that staying here, will cause to bring me into the next facility: Testing laboratories or whatever Dr. Jacoby was discussing with Mister Prescott on the phone. My choices are on a different tier. Real-Max seemed mad at me for distrusting Steven Dongle. Damn, I'm the worst. I must revert my decisions.

proud you didn't kill him the same?
what about your parents?
or what about kate?
and chloe?

Those thoughts are giving me the creeps. I need to rewind. Steven is a sensible person. I shouldn't treat him like vermin. After all I need him more than ever. Even Joyce confided in him. Time to rewind, his good nature won't… don't rewind, Max! Don't do it, yet…

"I'm sorry! I remember everything, I understand everything!" he turns around while I'm shouting this at him. A nurse peeks inside, "Everything fine, here?" with a friendly tone and a smile on his face. "Sure, we're wallowing in bad memories, nothing to worry about," Steven handles the situation. The nurse nods at him smiling and leaves. "Close the door, please," I tell him.

"I'm not allowed to, I am not to close any sickroom doors… I- I was told," he shrugs and bites on his lower lip while twisting his mouth. But he comes to me and keeps the derp look on his face. Deliberately, he wants to make me laugh. What a dumb look, can't help but smile a little. "I have a job for you to do," I start, "you have to trust me."

He smiles a little. "I feel so humbled, thou art… eh… sure what's on your mind?" he offers help with a laughter. I've just noticed how small his eyes are. Brown, like his hair. The red streaks are gone. No more dyed hair. Instead there is a necklace hiding under his shirt and there are some bracelets on his left arm. One of them shows, "Aurice". What's that? Normally I'd be nosy and snoop around, but I have to stop asking myself even more questions. Let's confide in the not-anymore-self-styled Mister Dongle. Here goes nothing,

"I have to tell you something, something important. I'm… not supposed to be here. I'm at the wrong place, but the time is correct. I need your help to get out of here," I start off, "I can alter time. No kidding!" He looks confused and replies, "What you mean?" I will convince him to escape this hospital with no cruel consequences.

"Give me your bracelet, please," I open my hand and wait for him to put it in. I can see the big question mark on his face, but he doesn't refuse. Little square-shaped dices with seared letters. "Do I know, who or what this is? Aurice?" I ask as he drops the bracelet onto my palm. I close my hand. The little ribbonlike straps – to tighten the bracelet – drape on my knuckle.

thaw your heart before breaking another's
it's cold inside
he won't play along
don't treat him well
you've squandered your chance
stay here

"Argh!" I cover my face with both my hands. He tries to calm me by holding my shoulders. I fob him off and thank him briefly for another try to comfort me. After breathing once, he answers, "Aury… Aurice… she's my girlfriend." and pronounces the word differently than I have. The searing pain on the right side of my skull virtually breaches through my head. "Is she faithful our jealous, as you're visiting me?" I continue asking while trying to fight against the pain. "She admires the help which I'm offering to you. And, yes you know her… very well," he makes this very easy. I'm grateful.

I raise my right hand and rewind until the beginning of his laughter. I'm so sorry, that I'll also contaminate you with my despicable gift.

"Where is your bracelet?" I ask to shock him. He looks at his left arm. "Uhm, what? Seriously, how did you know about it? Yesterday I was given that bracelet, and… now it's gone?" he walks to his bag and inspects the pockets. "Is it this one?" I raise the bracelet high in the air, so that he can see. The ribbons dangling in the air, the dice letters inside my little palm rattle. Before he makes his first step towards me, I'll continue with my next question and hide the bracelet behind my back, "Bring me the present and you'll regain your gift," as I've said before, here goes nothing. He'll never have a change of heart that fast. Never… I won't mind…

Oh my, he really picks up the box shaped present. Gift-boxed and dusty. He paces to the foot of my sickbed and carefully places the present next to my feet. "Thank you, see you back a minute, ago," I say while starting to rewind another time,

I rewind back to the stamp of time, whence he was getting up from his chair to search for his – actual stolen – bracelet.

"Where the heck is the present?" all the fuss messes his language up. Can almost dig his German accent. He realized the missing present inside his rucksack. "Come here," I tell him while pointing at the white plastic chair, he was sitting on. He sees the present at the foot of the bed, says nothing however. He sits down, I raise my arm, with his girlfriend's bracelet in my left hand. I draw all fingers away until it reveals the bracelet.

"I don't know your girlfriend, but I should. Especially because she's not jealous or anything. She backs you and admires the help you offer to others. Thanks for coming down from Seattle to see me. I need your help more than ever!" I say while dropping the bracelet on his hands. He keeps staring at it.

I grab the pouch, which was hiding beneath my blanket. Time to get moving. "I think, you're not ready for the present," he answers during my attempts to unlock the shackles. Damn, those things left reddish marks around my ankles. I realize the pain while trying to remove those bloody fetters. Steven gets up, wraps the bracelet around his wrist and ties it up. He utters a loud sigh.

Done! They're unlocked, what about the tubes on my body? "Watch it, Max! Are you going nuts?" he whispers and walks forwards and backwards inside the room. "You don't want to escape this hospital. They moved you here to Arcadia Bay's hospital, because you had a seizure. I can't assist you, no matter how much… magic you perform," he hesitates. "I will go anyway. No matter whether you want to help or not. I must leave Arcadia Bay, or else I'm dead, by tomorrow. So, you gonna help me or not?" I point at the tube that goes right into my left arm. He quickly walks towards me.

"Max, I don't like this… I've got a bad feeling about this," he looks around and darts to the door to look outside. "Why did you show me this?" he subsequently asks, while heading back to my bed. I try to remove the cannula injected into my arm. "You want me to repeat this over and over? Foreshadowing your every word, just like a déjà-vu? I'm not rewinding time for your entertainment," some blood leaves my arm, during my attempts to remove the needle. The tube drops to the bottom and leaks on the floor with a translucent viscous liquid.

Looks like he wants to help me with the cannula on my arm. My heartbeat monitor beeps more rapidly. "Hold it! And done!" he removed the needle and placed a tissue on the injection site with high pressure "Hold it for one minute. Press it against the skin," he says and nervously removes some of my blood which dripped on my arm. Then he removes the electrodes which are scanning my heartbeat. The flatline will alarm everyone. "Where are your clothes? What else do you need?" he acts almost viscerally. His face looks awfully pale. He doesn't want to do this, I feel it in my bones.

"I don't know, I don't even know how I ended up in Arcadia Bay. Last time I woke up in 2015, it was the fun house in Portland. I guess it is in Portland," I answer him, while leaving the bed. I plummet and fall hardly. Damn, for how long have I been lying in beds? My calves are thin, the thighs almost gone. No muscles, so Steven has to help me with that, too. A nurse runs into the sickroom. No, you won't stop me!

I raise my right arm and rewind time. Simultaneously, I see my written notes on my body beaming and shining brightly. Hence "There will be no violins when you die" – almost faded – becomes legibly. The nurse runs in reverse. I stop when I was removed from the last electrode.

"What the fuck? Max, how did you…? Never mind, where are your clothes?" the heartbeat monitor continues beeping, although I'm not connected any longer. He comes to me and helps me getting up from the ground. "Thanks, get your stuff first, and then search for my mine, okay?" I say to him exhaustedly. He nods and grabs the present and puts it into his bag. And still, he walks almost a million miles per hour. How does he manage walking that fast?

"Shit, this wardrobe's locked!" he tries to open a white wardrobe built into the wall. Fire extinguisher! "Grab that fire extinguisher and break it!" I order him while trying to get on my legs again. Tough luck, Max. They can't sustain your weight. And you're not even that heavy. "Fire extinguisher? They're secured. Once I remove one of them, it'll set off the alarm," he explains.

But then he walks next to the door and puts his hands on the extinguisher. "Fuck it!" he yanks it off the wall and runs to the wardrobe. The wailing alarm screeches through the hospital. He slams into the wardrobe, which turns out to be a giant safe for medical supplies. "What the fuck is all that?" he startles and concludes, "That's all your medication! What the hell?" Since I can't get up from the bed, I have to rewind. The wardrobe filled with clothes is somewhere else.

I raise my hand and rewind to the spot, when Steven tries to open the reputed wardrobe.

"Fire extinguisher? They're secured. Once I remove one of them, it'll set off the alarm," he says again. "Don't do it! It won't go out well," I change my mind – to him. "Look around, somewhere… it has to be somewhere," I'm getting nervous. The heartbeat sensor hasn't stopped, yet. The German accomplice looks under my bed. "There, they've stuffed everything into that… sports bag," he hauls a big duffel bag over his shoulder. "Can you walk? … let me help you," he offers to be a crutch.

"Urgh, you're light enough. This should work," he encourages us. "You can change clothes inside my car. Where will we head to?" he asks. "Portland. Anywhere there, but not here in Arcadia Bay," I tell him. We leave my room. The heartbeat sensor now permanently beeps. The flatline has emerged and postponed two minutes later. "Shit, they'll notice your disappearance pretty fast," he grabs my chest a little harder to increase walking speed. It hurts a little, because his fingers dig into my ribs. In what ward are we? Thought I knew Arcadia Bay's hospital well enough.

look outside
freedom is imminent
he'll let you fall

Not now, brain, I must focus. "Damn, they see us," he stops and changes direction. I hobble along with him. My thighs burn already and each new step hurts more. I'd love to run with him, but I need muscles. He turns left at the next junction. People looking at us, some of them consider reporting this weird looking escape to a nurse, however, none of them actively stops us. We are not planning on staying anyway. "Fuck, we're surrounded, Max," he halts immediately and looks around. To our right, there's an opened fire escape staircase. Two to three nurses per hallway block our escapeway.

I raise my hand and rewind as much as I can. Fuck dammit, Steven walks away from me, I will fall when I stop the rewind.

Told you! The German must be back in my sickroom, I hope I didn't rewind too far. My nose bleeds a little, can't rewind again, shortly. Steps are running into my direction. The hell? He found his way along with the duffel bag? How? "I saw my own self walking away with you… what the fuck are you causing to this place?" he whispers while picking me up. "Get to the emergency door to your right!" I point at the door. "Also secured," he looks at a warning plate that tells us, we'll be punished for abuse.

"Break it, let me out and I'll do the rest," I tell him. "Here goes nothing," he says in lieu of me. Thanks for robbing my sayings. A red bright light flashes rapidly next to the door handle, after the door has been opened. "Mind the step!" he helps me getting out. "Max, your nose… you sure, you want to do this?" – "No time for doubts… you know what? You will repeat this question anyways," I say during the next rewind.

This time I only go back to the point, where he wanted to pick me up from the ground.

Still, my thighs burn like flowing acid. Every fiber hurts. I open the fire door from the outside. Hope, it won't… oh fuck, my nose! I fall against the door. I'm not blacking out, though. It's just, that my strength has gone, for a second. Steven hears the loud impact against the glass emergency door. He comes out and helps me up all over.

"This caused the alarm. We have to hurry. Oh, look…," he stops right there and points at the parking lot. "I parked there. It's not far anymore. What else can you do, with your pow… your nose… you sure, you want to do this?" he realizes my blood-smeared visage, yet iterates the same question. It makes me smile. Sweet irony.

"Can you walk the exit stairs? Will the railing suffice in terms of grip?" he nervously takes the first two steps down. "My legs hurt. I can't walk…," I let him know. At the same time, I regard the scarred abrasion on my leg. An indication that all those things in 2013 had really happened, the scar on my belly – as mentioned before – isn't there however.

I can't move a muscle without struggling. "Do what you can, I try to not get caught," I tell him and sit down on the rusty lattice bottom. Even the muscles on my buttocks feel tiny, as though the doctors and shrinks were planning on going fully comatose with me. Think about the cupboard which looked like a wardrobe. Filled with medicine. Did they plan this? First the muscles, after that my brain? No time for any questions.

While my random thoughts about time, space, place and reason, I hear the bag dropping on ground level. "Coming!" he shouts and hurries up the stairs. Meanwhile an alarm has been set off inside the ward of my sickroom. Some steps inside the building run back and forth. Voices shout here and there, nurses are searching for me. A security guard passes the glass door behind which I'm sitting. He hasn't spotted me, what luck!

"I'll try to carry you," my savior grasps me under my legs and armpits. "Shit, I can't lift you. I'm not strong enough," he gives up on it. "C'mon, we need to get out of here. We're out in the open to them," he helps me up and tries to carry as much of my weight, as possible.

Don't ask, how we managed, to go down the fire escape staircase without falling or anything else. We managed and how! I'm surprised about how we made it down altogether with no further injuries. "Whew, I'll throw the bag in the trunk, after that, I'll pick you up," he sets off. Exhausted and almost hobbling, he rushes to his car. Not Warren's, though. He replaced it with a fancier modern car. Never did he pay this out of his own pocket. I'm sure he's not rolling in money on his own – not at that age.

"Found her!" somebody tightly grabs on my shoulders. The fingers dig into my skin so that it hurts. "No!" I scream. "She's hurt… her visitor tries to kidnap her!" the security guard shouts as he inspects my blood-smeared face. I can't fight, I'm not even strong enough to stay on my own feet. I must rewind, but I'll suffer even more.

I raise my right hand. The rewind works fine, although the security guard has laid his own hand on my wrist to prevent me from running away. I've rewound to the point, when Steven and I have reached ground level.

"Whew, I'll throw the bag in the trunk, after that, I'll pick you…," – "No, we have to stick together!" I manage to tell him, but my strength is totally gone. I fall harshly. "Shit, don't leave me here!" he screams. I hear myself being dragged over tarmac. "Found her, visitor's trying to kidnap her!" a voice shouts. My eyes open. "Hold up, I think I can walk again," I utter while waking up.

The trunk is opened. Apparently, his keys have a switch that opens the trunk without the need to open them by hand. He leaves me at the back of his car and tries to throw the bag inside. The security guy runs towards us. During my attempt to get up on my own, the guard has almost reached the car. He attacks Steven, who's not realizing the attack. Not another rewind!

I raise my hand and watch the security guard running away. I stop shortly after that, because my head aches terribly.

I'm at the back of the trunk, whereas the German is still on his way to me. "How did you get… never mind," he reaches the car and is fairly surprised by the time travelling skills. The security guard runs the same route. "Punch him with the duffel bag!" I whisper to him. Steven doesn't understand and looks back. The guard catches him and beats him in the face. I can't rewind over and over here. He beats the shit out of him, instead of arresting me… correct, he called him an abductor. Other doctors and nurses follow, but yet are still far away.

hit him with the wrench
and after that hit the other one
put all your weight into it and aim for the head

I see a monkey wrench inside the right netting of the trunk. Oh no. I must do this without rewinding. I grab the wrench, Steven has managed to nudge the guard off of him, I try to use all my strength to smash the long metal into his face. I hit his shoulder instead. The guard screams in pain, and shouts at the end,

"You fucking brat!" Steven hurries back to the trunk, takes the wrench out of my hand and closes the trunk after throwing the wrench inside. I slowly hobble to the door and get in. Blood almost spurts out of my nose. I try to cover it but my hands shake too much, so that blood splats into my eyes. The engine starts and I give my best to stay awake. "You'd better have a good fucking reason for me to do all this shit!" he screams and leaves the parking with squealing tires.

"Thank you… you've saved my life," I say while struggling to keep my eyes open. My lids literally twitch to hold themselves open. Everything's so blurry and out of focus, overexposing light rays into my irises. I can't rewind another time. I have to wait. "Yeah, and endangered my life on the other hand. Very nice tradeoff," he says while accelerating more and more.

"We're on the highway, away from hospital. The police will search for us, no matter how much you can fiddle about with time," he admits and breathes hastily. "I just need a minute." – "Yup and I need a fucking new life, after this shit. I'm a foreigner kidnapping a mentally ill hospitalized patient," he's pissed. Okay then, one last time a rewind. I'll stay inside his car, nobody shall spot me in the footwell.

"Can you buckle up, please? Don't want to lose you, again," he says. Again? No time for any questions. I huddle up inside the footwell. "What are you doing, buckle up already!" – "Shut up and hold my hand," I want him to grab my left hand. It seems likely that rewinding can make someone feel a déjà-vu, provided he has physical contact with me. "Fuck, no. No more games, I'm sick of this bullshit!" I've got no time for another fight on the lam. I try to reach his wrist, but he slaps it away. Am I stupid, I can grab his knee.

While laying my hand on his right leg, I concurrently rewind time to the point where he opens the trunk of his car. He should notice a change, it's my last chance to leave Arcadia Bay without being seen. While rewinding, I can feel the warm and wet blood leaving my nose and flowing to the chin. I black out completely. I hope that I won't reawake in 2013 but all those actions in 2015 were a bust or worse!

Tires spin. It's calm, quiet. Music plays – a radio I think, or what else could it be? The car stops, and a voice talks, however not to me. The language used, isn't English. What and who is talking to whom? I'm asking myself too much again, aren't I? "Oh, see's grodeh ouph gaiwoght…," the voice says. "Ja, ciao," he bids goodbye. Am I trying to understand German?

He realizes my slow awakening, "I've got so many questions to you, but first… howdy? Welcome back. No one noticed us leaving," definitely him. "Hey Siegbert," I accidentally call him again. He laughs instantly. I assume, he knows that name from somewhere.

"Nice having you back. Look over there, our old school," he points at Blackhell. "Who were you talking to?" I ask him however. "My mother. Haven't talked to her in weeks," a brief answer. "Can we talk for a minute? I mean it's one o'clock in the afternoon, so why not… talking about… all of this?" now he's the person being curious. Well admittedly, I understand him.

"As long as we leave Arcadia Hell, no problem," I look up to the six-foot giant next to me. My vision couldn't be blurrier. Thank God, we left that hospital undetected. Truth be told, I have big issues understanding my attack against the guard. I know that he was a problem that I had to take care of, but shit… it's hard to believe that I can rather deal with my unholy time-powers than with violence. Violence however wrecks my brain. I really hope that I never do anything like that ever again. I feel sorry for that guard… I rewound… period!

The radio displays a song named: "frames – the encoun". I'm sure it means "encounter" but the display isn't wide enough. Frames, really? "I'll ask my first question. How comes, you know this band?" I'm curious. He smiles and lowers the volume until it's hardly audible, almost turned off, "The radio's busted, always zapping between songs… or maybe it's my old flash drive attached to it," he explains why he has lowered the volume.

"You can change clothes. I won't watch… of course. Trust me…," he smiles and points at a little pile of clothes on the backseats. He folded them for me. They're not crumpled. "Thank you so much," I smirk. "Don't sweat it," he says while leaving the car. He's heading to a guardrail and drinks some water. "Give a holler, once you're done," he says. Okay, I haven't grown up more… that's a plus. Let's see. Jeans, shirt and jacket… I'm still as boring as always. I should get some clothes from Chloe, once I'm back.

i love you Chloe
we will be back soon
don't mess this up another time

"Ouch," I fall on the pile of clothes. "Sorry for heading back, but… man, and I thought my headaches were obnoxious," Steven has returned because he heard my sudden pain attack. "Come on, let's head back inside. You asked me something," he says although I forgot my question. "Buckle up," he chuckles. I do as requested and we're off on the road again. "Frames, you asked me about them," he pauses here and all the sudden, he looks a tad blue.

"I felt like an invader to you. So… I left you alone… the day Kate kicked us out of her room. Can you remember?" he wants me to recall the exact day. "I do remember, yes. Mark insulted you… and threatened you, because he was worried about me," I add. He nods and continues, "Exactly… phew, that was a shitty day. Y'know, us both, we resumed our friendship like three weeks ago. And you didn't remember anything. I was afraid your memory was disintegrating. It's coming back, I'm glad to hear. I digress… where was I… uhm, yeah… Kate kicked us out," he pauses here to take a breather. With his tongue outstretched, he indicates his exhaustion and smiles a little. Then he goes on,

"I left your room and took the album of my favorite band back. At the same time, I discovered the album "In Via" on your shelf and made some research, later that day. German band, awesome post-rock stuff! I love it, especially 'don't stay here'. It's amazing," radiant with joy, he describes his emotions. "I remember that I was having trouble trusting you," I let him know. "But we had the greatest time of our school life. You are the greatest friend, one could have," he smiles and opens his arms to hug me. I evade his attempt to hug. Why?

he is a liar
he knows more than you
you won't ever find out about it
ask about kate

"Cut it out!" I squint and cover my face. Steven turns away grievously disappointed. "I'm sorry, all of this is too much right now," I explain… or try to explain. "It's fine. Shoulda known about it," he sadly talks to himself. I will not rewind, now. This would be a mistake. I can't go back into my state of unconsciousness. "I shouldn't give you the present… I should give it back to Joyce, I'm afraid," he says. "No, I was supposed to be given the present, two years ago," I try to change his mind.

ask him about kate

"What about Kate?" I ask him. He doesn't respond. "What about Joyce? Tell me more please," he keeps up being silent. After uttering a very long sigh, he shakes his head. Means, he doesn't want to talk, right now. "You wanted answers about me… ask… anything," I try to reason with him.

"I distrusted your idea to leave the hospital, but the more you showed off, the more I believed. Getaway with Steven. Am I a substitute to that creepy Mark… or am I just your only friend left? What the fuck ever – who am I to you? Definitely not a friend, right?"

ask him about kate
he's lying to us
hiding pain

Ouch, I cover my face again. After a short time, he goes on, "Haven't you realized, what harm you did to Kate and… me?" – "How is she?" I persist, but he turns away avoiding eye contact. "She's fine… another topic: we agreed, that I'd help you escape, but I can't give you that present, without any knowledge. What the fuck's going on," he explains but seems to not tell the truth about Kate. "Why didn't you hug me at the hospital and avoided it right now? Two years have passed and you behave all the same to me. Why? To this day…?".

The little display of his radio shows the date. October eighth. Wait… I studied my diary, it must be the same day Kate had jumped off the roof. But today's Thursday.

suspension of disbelief
you must crush his struggle
you will find kate eventually
chloe will be there for you, too

Fuck, what the hell? My inner voice sounds almost like my own, but it's muffled… barely audible, although clear to understand. October eighth…? This 2015 is exactly a two-year offset? Oh crap, now I remember every word Kate had said on the roof … Kate? The German nervously plays with his necklace underneath his shirt. Doesn't pick it out yet. Why is he evading everything I want to know about Kate?

"What happened to Kate?" I ask him. He looks out of the window instead, his necklace tinkling as he. "I want my answers first," he insists and slaps his hands on his legs. Oh, damn this, he can't be serious. "Are you… fuck off, man…," I curse and knee the glove box in anger. By all the heft, I've put into my kick, the glovebox suddenly opens and folds out by itself.

"Stop it, easy! This is not my car. My boss'll kill me!" he closes the glovebox again, but something slips out of it and falls. Chloe's three bullet necklace jangles into the footwell. Like an instinct, I grab the necklace in mid-air. It drives me crazy. I point at the necklace,

"What the hell are you hiding? Tell me… where is she?" after finishing my sentence, I feel my throat getting sore. He'd better know. "What about the present…? Tell me, tell me already!" My scream turns into a desperate cry of fear. He shakes all of a sudden. What is he doing? He leaves his car without closing the door. All the adrenaline. I can see it running through his veins. He breathes heavily, "Fuck my life," he whispers.

I exit the car as well to confront him again. Where the hell did he get Chloe's necklace. He looks through the pine trees up the shore. It's warm… the clouds approach Arcadia Bay. It's gonna rain. "Tell me! Where is she," I scream at him. I have to support my body on his car, although anger and despair makes me ignore the lack of muscular power. Every tendon and sinew burns like shit.

He turns around and obviously fights against something, "Chloe… her mother asked me to give this necklace to you…," he says. Something at least. Not enough to me, "That's not the present, right?" I counter him and try to balance myself without using his car's hood. Are they all… gone? His own necklace… first it hid beneath the shirt and made its way out, but… it's Kate's necklace. The cross. Sparkling in daylight.

No, you can't be serious! "Quick, drive us to the graveyard," I shout desperately. He'll drive us there, whether he agrees or not. "I can't, I'm begging you…," – "I am begging you! Get us there, fast!" I almost fall, while heading back into his car. Shit… please… I don't want to see their names engraved on tombstones.

"Max, I don't know if that's such a… sane idea…," he doubts it. I won't answer him. Heading back into his car, he turns the key and starts the engine. Slowly we hit the road and head down the street. "I'm imploring you, please don't make me go there," his voice becomes… disquieting. He swallows. I can read pain off his face. Don't make me ask more questions.

he suffers
you will suffer
they had suffered
and it is all your fault
you have to distrust them all

We are there. It wasn't far away. "No, no… I've got such a bad feeling about this," I talk to myself and him at the same time. "Wait… you are not capable of walking… lemme help," Steven tries to stop me. The graveyard in front of us. My legs drive me. They can hold my weight. It doesn't hurt yet. They make me run. It's like an invisible force hoisting my body to find its way to the unknown goal.

"Wait…," he shouts, but I'm running to the place… to the place I remember Chloe being buried. Tears run over my face. I can't believe revisiting this awful place, just to make sure, someone didn't die. Hell, it hurts inside my chest. The only pain I sense at the moment. I reach the burial area from the ceremony. I dart to the tombstone which isn't there, yet. This space is empty. My watered eyes wouldn't be able to read inscriptions, anyway. Oh my God, I'm relieved. The German has followed me. A little exhausted he asks me, "Where… why… cut us a break. Be so nice. Here, let me help you" and having problems finding the right words.

"Thought, I'd find Chloe's tombstone here," I say. "Let's go… to that bench over there, okay?" he suggests to leave this place. Nothing is buried here, yet. "Let me explain everything to you, but please… don't be stubborn, just for once okay?" he asks me. I nod at him. My instinct, it still drives my muscles. They made me learn to walk again. However, the German helps me up to the wooden bench. I don't reject his help.

A hill. Kind of an overlook, a vantagepoint above the graveyard underneath the dark-gray blanket of clouds and bending trees in the winds. The scarf around his neck flutters with the winds. It's colder than 2013's October. Well, this day is a blast anyway. The German scratches his forehead and looks away. He's concentrated and closed his eyes. A good spot to repeat my questions.

"Please, for Christ's sake, tell me, what have I missed," I'm begging him for answers. Both of us keep up a uncomforting silence. While wailing winds circle around us, I'm watching down the seemingly endless rows of gravestones.

"Okay fine, there are two options. You either go down that path… or I'll tell you about Joyce. You can keep the necklace of her daughter," – "That's not fair! Tell… what will I face down this path?" but then I conclude my question, "Don't tell me…," my heart stops, all anxiety, stress, grief has swallowed my capability to feel my own body. He understands, doesn't even need to say yes or nod.

I'm gathering strength, on and on. The lack of muscles doesn't matter. He looks at me and says, "Go alone, that's your truth to find. Make a decision here. I'll either tell you about Joyce's and my meeting at this morning or… go down this path. When you're done, we should go to the Two Whales diner and eat something." – "Why are you doing this to me?" I palpitate with fear.

don't choose to go that way
don't do this on your own
don't stay here
don't go there
don't do it

"You've gotta consider this first… before you get any answers," he answers frigidly and hence doesn't realize my wrecked-in-grief-expression on my face. I get up from the bench and head down the path. Leave him behind me sitting on the wooden bench on the hill. "I'll be there for you, always," he concludes and brushes some fallen leaves off his shoulders. I could use some music right now. Something that carries me. I could need some solace during my slow walk through endless ranges of tombs.

Gravestone by another, I read engravings inside the marble. No familiar names thus far. I'm relieved for every unknown name I'm passing. Within my field of vision, I've seen the German getting up from the bench and slowly following the same path. He really knows?

Kate Beverly Marsh
Sep 12 1995
- Nov 27 2014 -

I read her name without realizing first. The rest becomes illegible because… my eyes. My vision, the strength – all of it. Despair drove my muscles and now it's all gone, has turned into mourning. What have I done, "Kate! No! Kate, oh please…," I fall over with my eyes closes. Not giving a shit about how hard I might fall. Something warm catches me, though. "Why… did I do this… why," my voice burns inside my gullet. Every swallow increases pain along with the pressure on my eyes. More and more tears leave my lids and warm my cold dry cheeks.

kate, no
kate
not there anymore
this pain
kate won't be there
we miss you kate
please come back

The German knew, I wasn't going to survive it. The little voice's echo inside my head doesn't help, but at least it doesn't accuse me. The cold necklace drops out of Steven's shirt and lands onto my neck. I don't see it, but I know what it is. As if Kate floats around us and tries to make a sign. What have I done? How did I…? I regret every decision I made, I regret leaving the first time fragment. I shouldn't have left. I really fucked this place up. I mean it – not the voices in my head.

Why did he tell me, she was fine? What the hell is he still hiding. "It's alright. I'm here," is everything he whispers. That all? No apology? Why lying to me? "Why didn't you tell me? What have you done!" I scream at the German. All this grief and loss turns into anger. Blindly I move my weak arms into his direction. I try to beat him or hit him, I don't care how much damage I do. Fuck this! Fuck all of this! I can't bring her back to life. Her path of death is pre-determined just like any other person.

Steven moans as I hit his face somewhere. I'm blind, my arms hurt. They are not used to be moved. I should rot in a bed, drowning in a coma. He embraces me tightly. I use all remaining power to slam on his back until every inch of my body burns from the inside. His necklace clatters, as I move. "Fuck you!" I scream although my voice isn't strong enough to shout. Every fiber of my body has lost strength. Only my eyes release their tears. The only thing that keeps working.

With the cold cross on my neck, there's something else, dripping on my neck. Warm and very wet. I turn around and see, that his eyes are also wet. He's not crying however, he sucks on my grief. The wet drop on my neck was blood. I hurt him on his eyebrow barely his eye. A small cut. The blood glints inside the light. The clouds behind him gloom changing his appearance into a sinister silhouette.

"What have you done?" I say to him with my hoarse voice. "Ouch," he removes the blood off his brow. "Are you done? You done accusing me?" he digs his fingers into my waist. The look on his face – disappointment. With his blood-stained hand, he removes my tears. His fingers are cold. He looks pale. "Shit I'm miserable. I feel terrible…," I swallow at the end. Talking hurts. "Speaking hurts," he has the same problem and cracks a bleak smile.

"I understand. You didn't know any of this, but I'm not responsible for any of this," he says after some time. "I was blind with anger," I cough while saying anger. With his cold blood-smeared hand, he brushes the back of my head. My hair freezes along with his fingers. Rain will come as expected. "I'm so fucking blind," I look up to him and hope, he's not mad at me in return for his wound.

What luck he's smiling and helps me getting up on my legs. "Oh… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you," I repeat my apology. "None taken, luckily you hit, I'll be blind soon enough anyway," he points down the pathway to show the graveyard's exit. "C'mon, we'll chat more at the diner," he kindly says.

"Tell me, what happened to her?" I continue to persist, asking the same questions with my destroyed voice. By now, I should've understood that it's pointless. He lied for me, to protect me. He tried…

"Later. You'll need to come to terms with this, first. We should return to the coast. It was hard enough for me, to be at this gloomy place again," he explains and wants to head back the path, but chooses a different direction.

there'll be more
seek them

"That's the wrong way to the exit, we can go down this way and take a shortcut," every word hurts inside my throat. He's suddenly nervous. What is he hiding this time? "You know there's more?" I viscerally ask and shake myself out of his strong grasp. No matter how deep grief has sunken into my bones, my curiosity has revived the power in my tiny muscles. "Don't…," he wants to stop me, but even interrupts himself. I scurry along the pathway. No other familiar names, so far. I cannot believe my eyes.

Ryan Caulfield & Vanessa Caulfield
Feb 23 1972 & Jun 26 1973
- Oct 09 2013 –

No, no… fuck! I look away and walk further. This is a nightmare. Finally, I've reached the gravestone, I didn't ever want to see ever again,

Chloe Elizabeth Price
Mar 11 1994
- Oct 08 2013 –

you are next
this is our work
you are next
this is our work

All this bullshit, all this grief. I never expected things to be worse. Steven has followed me and tries to catch me, while falling over on the muddy ground. Some tiny raindrops hang in the air. They mingle with fresh tears under my sealed eyes.

There's no time for crying. I'm crying unconsciously. There is no feeling of letting go of something. I want back into Chloe's arms, Kate's arms, my parents' arms. There was no time for any grief. It wrecked my brain. There is a difference between melancholy and grief – yet they are nothing compared to pure devastation like this. Everything I've seen has crushed my heart. Burst it, shot those billion shards into the sea.

I'm away now. Here is darkness. I'm sure I lost consciousness on the graveyard. I hope the police isn't searching for us in all Arcadia Bay, for Steven wanted to visit the diner with me. I'm not sure, whether I can eat something after this tragedy. And my voice inside my head should shut up, just for only fucking once.

there is water
the frozen ebb and choked flow
wake up, now

Light enters my eyes. My throat aches just as bad as my head. The tears have dried on my cheeks. They almost feel like a thin layer of wax on my skin. A cold gust of wind blows through the car, whistling beyond the shore. Where are we? The parking area.

Steven sits on the hood and beholds waves surging against the rocks. The sound of the ocean calms. I guess that was his intention for coming here. I open the hefty door from his company car. He startles on the hood and smiles mildly. Still, my muscles lack so much power. I sit down next to him.

"So, can we talk?" I ask him. "Sure, go ahead," he replies and takes a sip on a small bottle of beer. "What happened?" two words suffice. "To who?" he wants my answer to be more precise. "All of them, Kate, Chloe, my parents," I answer, struggling against another fit of weeping. "Found your diary in the duffel bag. Didn't read, of course. But maybe you'll find answers inside," he responds and gets up from the hood and walks a little toward the boardwalk. "Don't give me a rough time here, please," I stand firm over it. "And why aren't we in the diner as promised?"

"Kate… uh, I wasn't keeping in touch with her for a long time. One day, her mother had called me to attend a burial ceremony. Her family's very religious and I was afraid I'd mess up… but no, quite the opposite. I was given her necklace by her crying sisters," and he grabs the necklace's cross with his right fingers. "I'm not a Christian, but I admire her family for all the benevolence. Even if something cruel as that had happened, they abide by the rule of benevolence. Unbelievable…,"

- NOTE - EXPLICIT CONTENT HAS BEEN REMOVED -

"Oh, this is worse than hell," I lie down on his hood and regard the sky. It will rain eventually. Dark and gray, and blurry. I can't believe how I managed to delay her fate, and made her suffer so much more. "That's not your fault, stop blaming yourself," and he comes back to the car and sits next to me. "Chloe…?" almost impossible to pronounce her name.

"Okay… I had talked to her mother, before I came to you at the hospital. Joyce trusted me, because I was a German plus a friend of yours. She wanted me to give you her necklace and an old present, she was never able to give to you," he explains. "The last day of her daughter's life was exactly two years, ago. Joyce has mentioned a fight between you two. She and her husband anticipated Chloe to sleep, because… you managed to make her turn off deafening music. She overdosed herself with too much alcohol and other drugs. She locked her door, and died of alcohol intoxication. When the ambulance arrived, it was too late by two hours. I don't know any more details," he adds.

"Where is Joyce? I must talk to her," I try to sit up straight. There's not enough time to think about the why. I need to know more details on what happened. "She's not waiting tables. She waited for the day to give someone Chloe's presents, because she couldn't bear, visiting you. She left Arcadia Bay, today," he tells the rest of the story and scooches a little closer to me on the hood.

that's not the entire story
he lies to you again

"Why aren't we at the Diner's place?" I dig my head into his right arm. He pets the back of my head. "I saw the police showing up near the graveyard. I won't have luck another time. I don't want to get busted for kidnapping," he asserts. "Nothing, you experience here, right now, is true. I will change everything," I assure him. "What you mean?" he doesn't understand my point. "I told you, I've got time altering skills. By now, it's more a curse than a blessing, but still I'm able to change things to the better," I go on. Instantly Steven draws breath, "Good, finally you tell me what the fuck's going on with you," he's grateful.

"Let's stroll the boardwalk. I know a bench there, where we can talk… or I can talk," I suggest. He says okay and helps me to walk. I don't even know how and where to start the story. The watch at his arm displays 3pm. So, plenty time to tell him the whole story. I know that it won't change anything, but since the Real-Max mentioned to rather trust him, I assume he might help me out with some things. Whether they devastate me even more or help me out.

I can't believe having seen so much shit in the last hour. Also, I want to know what happened to my parents… but I should find out without lacerating my heart. First and foremost, I will tell him everything I remember. The time fragment, the story of "life is strange", my alternate 2013, and the Real-Max's decisions. I hope he will understand. We've reached the bench. Watching the sea going wild and the rain teeming down onto us. He seems to enjoy the pouring rain on his skin.

---

How much time has passed? I didn't stop talking. I'm speaking fast and he constantly nods – indicates he's listening. Those words, they're all tangible… the story is present… he understands every smallest detail I recall. The worst thing of all, as I was mentioning my ability to travel with polaroid images, he instantly said, "Oh God!" That was his only comment besides "uh-huh" and "yeah" and "okay". Sometimes he played with Kate's necklace, but I kept talking. He chuckled here and there, especially when I told him, that I spilt Frank's beans. Or the Siegbert Dongle name, I coined as when I came up with a substitute name. He didn't even frown, when I admitted my heavy distrust towards him.

My throat has dried up after my very long hour of telling him everything I could remind myself of. He didn't interrupt me nor ask anything nor question any detail. Astounding. After I had finished my very long story, we kept up a very long silence. Five minutes, or so, I don't know. The voice inside my head didn't interrupt me, neither. It happened to trust him or has fallen asleep – both would be nice.

"So, did I get it right, that you originate from an entity called time fragment?" he asks out of nowhere. "Yes, why do you ask, I mentioned it for so many times," I'm also a tad disappointed about this question. "Because of your initial amnesia. You knew nothing about 2013, and even now you know nothing – nothing about yourself. I have the feeling, you try to be something which you aren't. It seems likely that your escape out of the time fragment bestowed a second chance upon you, and yet you're searching for answers which never existed. You can tailor your fate, that's… amazing," he thoroughly describes his thoughts.

"If there was a mechanism that repeats days, over and over, use it as a second chance. Look, I've seen medical supplies in that cupboard; those weren't the primitive stuff. Those were the highly hazardous compounds they use to put patients into an artificial coma. My mother works with hard drugs and I know some of them, thanks to her," he goes on. "And Nathan Prescott isn't that of a bad guy, his family is. Watch out what you'll do when you are back in the past. Find your laptop… get it back," he points out. "I understand your reason to leave Arcadia Bay, since so many bad things have happened here," he says looking at the sea.

"So, this is the place, where you and alternative Chloe strolled along and ogled The Golden Hour?" he looks to his left. "Yeah, and I'm glad there are no wheelchair marks on the ground, and no burning horizon to be afraid of," I answer him while searching for any wheelchair marks. "It's raining, sure there'll be no marks dig in the sand," he smiles. His hair is long and he had to draw it back to his neck, so that he can see. I should do the same. Yeesh, so wet and soaked in with water.

"All this lack of muscle power makes me feel like her," I sadly add. "There are no stranded whales," The German poet gets up from the bench. He looks down to me. I'm shivering, the cold water has cooled my body.

"There are so many things… I had to sacrifice so much…," I say, but he interrupts me, "You don't know about sacrifice." What did he say? "You can't be serious, I thought I told you the entire story…," I stand to my point. "You know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make; loss is a choice made for you. The Max in your story had to sacrifice things. You believe the wrong story," he looks at me.

"Look, you told me a very long story about being inside an alternate reality, which means you are not the same person you remember to be, right? Now, you either use your new opportunity or you don't. This looks more like you don't know what you really want, and you live backwards all the time," he pauses here and turns around.

"Back when I remember the day, when Kate threw us out of her room, I had the feeling you tried to tear us apart. From that day, Kate almost distrusted anyone. If you go back to 2013, you should take care of yourself first, and then… fix the rest. Make Kate trust other people again," he suggests and faces me again.

"I sacrificed Chloe…," I persist once again. "No, you did not. You woke up in an entity, a dimensionless void filled with mixed memories. Anything you did there, had no effect to this real world. It was your place to stay. But you determined to change the real world instead. All that by leaving your dimension. You are empty now – a hull. You can't remember your most crucial choices, you are at a new beginning. Use 2013 as long as you can. Find out what you really want. And please," he waits a second and draws another deep breath,

"Come to me on Tuesday over and over, will you? Listen to some music" And he smiles at the end while getting up from the bench "I was a victim of bullying… what the hell happened before my escape out of the time fragment?" I ask, but he shakes his head already, "Didn't look like bullying to me. More like the opposite."

Well forget it then. There's no need to ask any more questions. My mind has no place in 2013. I'm wrong. I raise my hand for his help, to get up from the bench. The rain has stopped. The clouds are racking away. "So, where are we heading now, very exactly?" he asks a third time while going back to the parking lot.

"Portland… I have to fall asleep in your car. Doesn't matter where, but not Arcadia Bay. When I fall asleep in the hospital, it could likely happen, that the Doctors are going fully comatose and that would kill me on so many layers…" I respond and explain as much as I can. "So, if I recall everything correctly, you'll be away and this reality closes up, distorts and all the stuff I've experience has literally never happened?" an appropriate question back to me.

"I mean, it could happen that I'll never meet my girlfriend ever again… and I'll still have to cope with my ex's fate… all my success at work… it'll be gone. Your decisions can influent me, even make me an evil person I don't want to be," he adds to his previous thought. "Could be, I'll treat you as a friend, that's everything I can promise," I reassure him. He unlocks his car, "Get your diary, maybe you'll find something helpful," he grabs a bottle of water and almost empties it with one big gulp. The radio in his car, automatically switches programs and jumps through tracks.

"Ah dammit, every time I unlock you, you have to go nuts," he talks to the radio and turns it off. "The jukebox inside the diner broke today, too. Guess my proximity kills hardware, haha," he laughs at the end. "The jukebox broke?" I'm a little scared. "Yeah, and Joyce has told me yesterday has happened something else… some kind of snowfall, but she assumed that she was just… going crazy. She was happy when she took her stuff and left the diner for good," he empties the rest of the bottle after this sentence. I open the trunk and open the big duffel-sports-whatever-bag and rummage around the pile of clothes. Gotcha!

I grab my diary and walk to the front seats and enter his car. He walks to the backseat area and gets another bottle. It's beer, I think. "Drink? Oh, wait. Yuck?" he smiles and proves at the same time, that he has listened to my story. "Trust me, German beer is the best you can drink… normally I wouldn't drink and drive, but… you know… since you will change everything… I think it doesn't matter what actions I will take here and now," he realizes the entire situation.

He opens the bottle with his bare hands. Ouch, that looked painful. "I'll read my entries from Tuesday, now," I let him know. Sitting on the hood and taking a big sip with his left hand, he uses the right hand to show the sign of the horns. Metaller at heart says, "Yessss."

I start reading the entry of October second:

"October second,

this day has started great already. I saw an old friend making out with me. I hung out with Kate and Siegbert Dangler Van Dongle and told Kate, he's an asshole and she shouldn't trust him. I met Mark, not to be confused with my skeevy photography teacher who did bad things to me the day before. Mark was the guy who came to rescue me in the dark room. We were shooting the breeze in the diner…"

Okay what the hell is this? 5pm? What the hell? I saw the sun moving with superspeed in my field of vision? The German sits on the hood. "Hey…, could you come over here, please?" I ask him and forgot his name again. He nods and jumps off the hood. "What's wrong Maxi?" he asks. "Didn't you notice… anything, and don't call me that?" I wave about. "You look like a dork who realized that planet earth ain't a sphere but a-flat?" he tilts his head and chuckles. "One hour has passed," I bring it to his knowledge. "So?" he shrugs. "I've only read one paragraph," I tell him.

"Proves you aren't fast at reading," he laughs. "You could've said something. I don't want to waste your time," I respond a little pissed. "Whose time? You've got all the time in the world. Just because you can't rewind, doesn't mean you don't have any control about time," he thinks about it differently. "Thanks for your patience… damn right a virtue," I recite without really looking at him.

"So, how's the entry?" he asks while hanging on the roof and stretches himself a bit. Good point, let's read on:

"… then I met an old friend and we wallowed in childhood reminiscences. We hung out for quite some time. Unfortunately, I hurt myself at my leg and I had to see a doctor. Later, back at the dorms, Kate gave Siegbert Woodpenis the cold shoulder because she knew that I was going to hit on him and tried to pinch her future boyfriend. Whatever."

This is… not me. What the fuck did I do? 6pm… what the hell? "Sieg… why didn't you interrupt me?" I almost aggressively say to him, damn I totally forgot his name again. "I'm patient. So, what does it tell?" he changes the subject back to the entry. "It feels like those diary entries weren't composed by me. It mentions the quarrel between Kate and you. She thought, I wanted to hit on you… but I'm not into boys," I explain to him. He raises both his eyebrows, "Sure? Not into boys? I wouldn't say that…"

Suddenly his radio turns on by itself again. "Grrr, need to get this trash-fuck-piece of garbage repaired," he says and gets in the car. But before he can do something I stop his hand with mine, "Wait… it's fine," I tell him. "Goodness, what the shit is this?" he looks through the windshield.

He leaves the car, "Max, watch this!" What's wrong now? I leave his car but don't close the door, the song is too nice to shut it off. The solar eclipse. "Oh, my God!" I'm astonished. Steven also gapes at the eclipse and tries to find words while admiring the view.

"The song is 'Si… gur… Rose with…' I have no idea. The song's broken… stops after five minutes of playtime… my flash drive likes to go nuts whenever this song plays." I look inside his car and read the display's description. "Saeglópur – Sigur Rós" it tells us. I start shivering, it's getting cold, since we're both still drenched in water.

"Oh my God, look the water!" he points at the sea. The water is frozen. Beams of light dapple on the icy surface. Temperature drops every passing second. My breath turns into a little cloud of evaporating haze. Cold wind tickles my nose. Where's Siegbert? I look to the shore, but he disappeared. Has something changed again?

"Here," he says from behind and puts me into his dry warm jacket. Didn't hear his footsteps… quiet like a ghost. "Thank you, so much," his jacket warms my body. "What's your last name," I ask him. "Stillwater," he hesitates but answers.

"Stillwater? A German dwelling in America with an American last name? What's that?" I wonder and laugh a little. "My father insisted on an English first name, and Stillwater, because that's my girlfriends last name," he answers while looking at the moon in front of the sun. "I can't believe it. I've shifted Arcadia Bay's fate by two years and added another layer on top of it…," I talk to myself. "Plenty time to change your life. Repeat 2013 as often as necessary and improve your present condition, okay?" he looks at me.

"Let's blow. Arcadia Bay doesn't seem safe," Mister Stillwater says. We both enter his fancy company car with the broken music player. "I'll listen to this band, once I'm back in 2013," I promise myself. "You should listen to P.O.D. instead. But that's your choice… After all, I won't remember any of this… I wish, I helped you a bit today," he responds and starts the engine. "More than ever," I smile. "Nothing will be like this… you wrote a letter to your parents. It could be, that I'll never move to America and you never visit Blackwell. By the way, once we left Arcadia Bay, I'll tell about your parents' fate," he leans back into his seat and marvels the frozen sea.

change
life is about change
you have to change something

"I change as much, as I can. And if you are there… I'll give you, what you deserve," I promise him. "We all will change, you will change, too. Y'know what? One thing will never change. That you are beautiful to me," he changes his gaze to me. I can't tell, if he's crying. He concludes enigmatically, "I am not living in the past… if you however can change everybody's fate… go for it. Take care of yourself first, Memorize Max."