Chapter 01: Time Shift

My head hurt so much. And I didn't even care how much my nose was bleeding. Chloe's life hung in the balance. My instincts screamed at me that everything would be destroyed if I kept going. Time and space itself began to break down as I found myself in the past within the past. It was too much. But nothing would stop me. Not until I saved Chloe.

I grabbed my entry for the Everyday Heroes contest and ripped it in half. That should have been enough. Without that photo, I wouldn't go to San Francisco. I would be in Arcadia Bay with Chloe. I could protect her. Everything would be okay.

A sense of relief washed over me as the jump collapsed and my vision faded to white. My serenity crashed down, however, as I heard a shout. "Get away from me!"

That was Victoria's voice. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I blinked, trying to make my eyes work. I wasn't safe with Chloe. Somehow, I ended up back in the Dark Room, strapped to a fucking chair! I strained against the tape binding me to the chair. "No… No!"

I looked to my right, where I heard the struggle. Jefferson had a syringe in his hand, and Victoria struggled to keep away from him with her wrists and ankles bound together with duct tape. Victoria flopped over, hitting the ground hard right next to me.

"Victoria!"

I heard Max shout my name. Everything in my body screamed for me to get up. That psychopath was going to kill me. Actually fucking kill me. He brandished a needle filled with a sinister, clear fluid. "You fucking druggie cunt! I'll make sure this dose is enough to stop your struggling once and for all!"

He rounded Max's chair to come after me. I struggled against the tape, against gravity, to try to escape. But I couldn't. Just as he approached, Max swung a leg out, and Jefferson tumbled to the ground, the syringe falling from his grasp. "Max!" he shouted, his voice full of vitriolic anger.

"Get my hand free! Everything will be okay if you can just get one hand!" Max yelled at me.

I lurched my body over and up, my shoulder painfully smashing into her chair as Mark crawled over to the needle filled to the brim with my untimely death. I brought my bound hands to the tape, but it proved to be thick and sturdy, reducing my frantic attempts to break it to futility. Pushing myself up just a bit more, I got close enough to bite at the tape. I caught it between my teeth on the second try and ripped free a tiny section. Then, I grabbed the tear with my hands and pulled for all I was worth.

A hand grabbed my hair, causing me to shriek in pain as my body pulled away from the chair and Max. "I will teach you to fuck with me!"

I felt the needle on my skin. This was it. I was going to die.

A strange sort of calm washed over me. At least Max might make it. I did something worthwhile in the end.

"Don't move a fucking muscle!" Max's voice shouted from across the room.

Looking over, the chair was empty, shreds of tape on each arm and leg. Max stood halfway across the room, a pistol in her left hand as her right extended toward me. "M-Max," I whispered. I didn't understand how she got free and found a gun, but that didn't matter. A chance still existed for me to not die today.

"What? How!" Jefferson shouted, shifting his body to hide behind me.

"It's over, motherfucker!" Max shouted back. "Let Victoria go, and no one has to get hurt today."

The needle sunk into my flesh, and a gunshot rang out. I fell to the ground. Whimpers left my throat, the dying remnants of screams I couldn't muster.

"Vic… Victoria, don't move," Max's soft voice spoke to me. I felt a tugging in my neck, then the soft sound of the syringe being thrown on the floor.

"Oh, God, Max," I said, leaning into her.

"It-it's over Victoria. He can't hurt anyone anymore," Max said as she helped to break the tape on my wrists. Once they were free, I worked on the tape on my ankles.

I dared to look behind me. Mark lay there motionless. As I shakily got to my feet, I caught sight of his face. The right lens of his glasses showed a perfect circle with cracks emanating from it. Behind that, the bloody remnants of his eye. Max shot him. Right through the fucking eye.

"You piece of shit!" I shouted, my tattered and frayed emotions coalescing into a single, unified feeling. Rage. I kicked his lifeless corpse. "You were my fucking hero!" And I kicked him again. And again. "I fucking worshipped you! You sick fuck!" A couple more kicks and that rancor unraveled. I stumbled away from him, finding the wall and sinking to the floor as tears sprang anew. "F-fuck," I muttered as I began to sob.

"Victoria, where is my diary?" Max asked, looking around some boxes near the cabinet.

I rose a shaky hand to point at the cart near the chair. "He… he burned it, remember?"

Max's eyes widened. "No!" She rushed over, pulling the tray of ashes out. "No, no, no! All my photos! They're… gone."

"H-how can you be worried about your stupid pictures right now?" I yelled at her.

"Chloe…" Max croaked out, her voice breaking. "Chloe is dead! I… I have to fix it. Somehow…"

"You can't fix death!" I shouted back at her.

Max threw the pan of ashes before looking around the room. "Watch me," she muttered.

A loud bang sounded, and both of us looked over the draped plastic where it came from. A moment later, that Blackwell security officer pushed through, gun drawn. Upon seeing us, he holstered the weapon. "Max?" he asked. Then he looked over at Mark's corpse. "What the hell happened here?" He knelt down, pressing his fingers to Mark's neck.

"Max… Max saved me," I muttered, my voice refusing to rise to more than a whisper. "He—Mark, he was going to kill me."

"Max, you did this?" the officer asked, standing up and looking back over at Max. She was by the desk. In her hand was that stupid bullet necklace Price always wore.

"I… I asked him to let Victoria go, but he tried to kill her," Max said, not looking away from the necklace. "He didn't leave me a choice."

The officer seemed just as transfixed on that necklace. "Where… where is Chloe? She was with you, right?"

Max ducked her head, putting the necklace on. Though she gave her head a little shake, she didn't look up. "Ch-Chloe's dead," she said, her voice cracking. "Jefferson, he… he shot her."

"No…" he breathed, whirling around to look at Mark's corpse. "You-you're sure Max?"

"That fucker shot her right in front of me," Max said, failing in her fight to keep her voice even. "Last night."

"Last night? When I was in my hotel room, feeling sorry for myself?" He stood over the body. "All that surveillance, and for what? Chloe… My family…"

I stepped around the body and made my way over to Max. "Wh-what do we do now?"

The guy shook his head, before wiping his face on his sleeve. "Max, where's the gun?"

Max went over to where she first started searching for her journal. She picked up the pistol and walked it over to David. Holding it flat in her open palms, she extended it toward him.

"You shouldn't have had to go through this," he said. "You two girls should get out of here. You've been through enough." He then took a rag out of his pocket before starting to wipe down the pistol. When he finished, he took the pistol into his bare hand before setting it down on the cart by Mark's body. "Don't worry about the police. I'll take care of everything. Just go."

I could barely understand what I witnessed, the numbness leaching into my very consciousness. It wasn't until Max started pulling on my sleeve did I dare to step away. "I'll fix it," Max whispered to me. "I have to."

She led me up a staircase. Before we even reached the top I could hear the wind howling and angry rain splattering above us. There was a storm? How long had it been since Mark abducted me? My memories were a tangled mess after I went to him. I remembered him taking photos of me, posing me this way and that like a fucking doll.

"Max, you warned me about Nathan! You didn't say anything about—"

"I know!" Max snapped back at me as we made our way into some old, ratty barn. "I-I thought Nathan was acting alone, but he was just a fucking puppet! I'm sorry, Victoria. I really am. Him getting to you… It was my fault."

"Fuck that!" I shouted back at her, grabbing her shoulder. "I knew something was wrong with Nathan for a while, but I… I just let it go. Maybe if I'd paid more attention, or-or just…"

Max pulled her shoulder away as she went over to the barn door. When she spoke, her voice was hollow, "He murdered Rachel Amber six months ago. You didn't stop him then."

My stomach twisted at her words and the conviction she said them with. "He… did that?"

Max didn't pay my words any mind, though there was a good chance she didn't hear them. The sound of rushing wind and driving rain multiplied to a roar as Max forced the door open. "Holy shit! The storm is real…" Max pulled out her phone, dialing a number before putting it to her ear. After a couple of seconds, she pulled it back. "Shit!" She looked over at me. "Can you get a signal? I need to get a hold of Warren!"

I looked at my phone. No bars. I shook my head. "The storm must've knocked out the towers!"

"Fuck!" Max rushed over to the car, throwing open the door.

"Can you even drive?" I asked as I headed over.

She shook her head. "I'll figure it out. You should stay here. This isn't a normal storm! That bunker is probably the only safe place in Arcadia Bay."

"Fuck that!" I shouted, grabbing the top of the car to block Max from getting behind the wheel. "I am not going back into that fucking nightmare!" I slipped into the driver's seat. By the time I got the seat adjusted, Max sat in the passenger seat.

"We have to find Warren," she said as she put on her seatbelt. At least she didn't try to talk me back into that torture chamber.

"Your little boy toy?" I countered, adjusting the rearview mirror.

Max audibly groaned, which was impressive given how loud the storm roared even inside the vehicle. "I can't explain it, but if I can get to Warren, I can fix everything. Please, Victoria!"

I rolled my eyes as I buckled up and started the car. "Okay, so where is he?" My hand rose to my neck, scratching the sore spot where Mark… I closed my eyes and did everything I could to bury that thought.

"I… I don't know. It's lunchtime. Doesn't he usually stay at Blackwell?"

Staring at her for a moment, I just shook my head. "You're asking me?"

"Fuck… Fuck!" Max slammed her arm into the door. Throwing her head back, I heard a strained whine come from her throat. "It… It's our best bet. Let's try Blackwell."