"oh.. Chloe there you are, are you ready for your… Sweetie are you okay?"
'How on earth did Max function with all this time travel crap. Chloe's face obviously strained by what she had just experienced. The trails of tears still evident on her face. What more needed to be said.
"I'm… sorry, I'm gonna head home..." Joyce's concern also evident in her face simply gave her a nod and a short hug. After letting each other go, Chloe made her way to her truck, the trusty rusty truck. Placing the keys in the ignition and starting on her way home, she didn't even try to stop the assault of thoughts flying around in her mind, rather than try to control them, she merely observed them fly around her head not placing focus on any in particular. Pulling up into the driveway she could see David wasn't home… turning off the engine she simply sat there for a while continuing to allow her thoughts to wander, it was a lot less stressful than trying to work anything out at this moment.
Approaching the porch and with the turn of the key, opened the door. Finding herself once again in this place called 'home' she had already had several emotional breakdowns, she wasn't looking to have another one. So, avoiding her room, she simply went into the bathroom and allowed the shower to occupy her thoughts for the moment being. Warmer than last time, she fell into a more pleasant daze, the room quickly filling with steam.
'There is a reason why I'm alive…
There is a reason why the storm didn't come…
There is a reason why Max picked me…
There is a reason why…
*sigh*
Making her way out of the shower although exhausted, she wasn't ready to deal with whatever her dreams were preparing. Drying her hair, she noticed the colour beginning to fade again… her strawberry blond roots always made her hair look odd, one reason for the beanie. Slipping into some comfortable sweats and a vest, Chloe made her way down stairs fully aware the condition of her room. Slouching on the couch she flicked on the TV as a means to distract her from her thoughts, watching nothing in specific she continued to channel surf till something would catch her attention. She even scrolled through the adult channels but of all the moods she was in, that wasn't one. Resolving to just turning it off she walked over to the backdoor gazing at what she might find.
The familiar swing set was still there. Along with the returned painting Max and she did when they were younger, they had used it as a board to track down the Dark Room, but this being another universe it was back outside, unchanged by their efforts to play detective. Chloe continued, her eyes meeting the stone grave of Bongo…
"It's so unfair…"
Everything was a reminder of what once was, and now it was all gone. Tears again rolling down her cheeks, Chloe stood there looking up into the sky.
"I hate you…"
She didn't know who or what she was speaking to, but she wanted whatever was controlling this situation to know that she was full of hate towards it
"YOU HEAR ME! I FUCKING HATE YOU!"
Knees giving in, and hands covering her face, the blue haired girl simply sobbed. Curling up in a ball and refusing to be comforted. There she laid, then things went dark.
*Bang*
It had been some time and Chloe hadn't moved, she was conscious of the sound but didn't care to look what caused it till it happened a second time. Right there in her garden struggling to stand was a small deer. Unaware it was being watched Chloe was drawn to it just like that day. Investigating further she tried to work out how the hell it got there in the first place. There appeared to be no damage to the fence, which also begged the question what on earth made that noise? Suspecting the deer was obvious, but nothing had moved or been pushed to cause a loud enough bang for Chloe to notice despite her stupor.
It wasn't long till the animal knew a pair of eyes was watching it's every move. Expecting it soon to dash off Chloe savoured the moment, but unexpectedly rather than running away, the doe moved closer towards her, slowly lowering its head and meeting Chloe's eyes. For a brief moment Chloe felt like she was even getting pity from a flippin animal, but after some time she didn't feel that was what was happening. No, the animal was concerned, as though Chloe was one of its young. Not knowing how to react, for fear of scaring the creature, Chloe continued to lay there dead still, her eyes and the slow raising of her lungs pushing in and out her chest were the only movements she allowed herself.
"What… are you trying to say?"
The tilt of the head from the creature confused Chloe… before getting lost in her thoughts about how another strange ability was possibly coming into play the doe slowly raised its head, gestured behind her, and shot off. Leaving Chloe another out-of-this-world experience. Turning around to see if she could find the possible thing the doe had signalled to her, she got up and started to play detective. Standing where the doe had stood and looking in the believed direction Chloe's attention was pointed towards the phone on the sideboard. Closing the back door behind her she dashed to the phone to inspect it.
1 New message.
Hesitating, she pressed the button to listen to the message. There were obviously some serious nerves going on when they called.
"Hey Chloe… ah… I'm sorry…I've not had the opportunity to actually meet you… um My name is… is Kate I was one of Max's friends. She spoke of you often and Umm ahh.. I'm sorry, I .. I was wondering if we could meet some time Saturday? It's okay if you can't but if you could give me a call back? That'll be great… well Okay, well, um have a good day Chloe. byee"
Laughing at the innocence of the girl, Chloe took the number from the answering machine and responded to Kate's message. If it had not been for the week she had with Max, and finding out about Kate, she would have never responded.
"Hello? Kate speaking?"
"Hey Katie it's Chloe."
Although Max spoke often of her, Kate was surprised on how soft Chloe's voice was, in her mind the picture of a tough punk girl was all she'd been told about. But then again, after crying her heart out the past couple of days that lump in a throat must have done some damage on her vocal chords but of course, Kate didn't know that.
"Ahh yes, Chloe, hi, umm so about Saturday"
"It's okay Kate, just breathe, I don't bite"
Kate let out a sigh of relief, she was never good with phone conversations especially to strangers. Chloe continued… "much."
Chloe could here the gasp on the other side of the phone followed by a small chuckle which she matched.
"Saturday sounds great. Did you have any plans? You're at Blackwell, right?"
"Yes! And I actually haven't really… planned anything yet. But I can explain why I've called you on Saturday. Does 11 work for you?
"11pm is a little late Katie, unless you planned to have a sleepover?" Chloe laughed again as another distinct gasp was heard over the phone
"I'm joking!" ensuring not to freak out the innocent girl, Chloe realised that this was actually the first time she had spoken to Kate, Max also shared a lot about her… and what happened before… trying not to focus on her thoughts she agreed for 11am at Kate's dorm. Excited, Kate said her goodbyes and hung up. Chloe slowly lowered the phone, looked back at the glass panel door where once stood the doe. Soaking in everything that had just happened, taking herself up to her room she grabbed her journal and recorded all these crazy experiences. And it was only Wednesday.
Here, I introduce another lead character in the story. The one and only Kate Marsh! I'm actually really looking forward to developing her as a character and watching the relationship between Chloe and here grow. Of all the characters (and there's more to come) I enjoy most writing for is Kate, there's a lot that resonates with me about her character. Well that's another Chapter for you. Soon I'll have to actually start writing full chapters! Naturally, the updates won't be hourly when I do. So hope this was enough to get you interested and excited for what happens next!