"Get off me, brah!"
Max covered her mouth in shock.
So karma WAS real. Karma was why she and Chloe were watching Warren go literal Ape(shit) on Prescott, pummeling away recklessly at his desperate, grounded opponent.
"You like to hurt people, huh? Like Max? Like Kate? Like me? Huh?"
Max had never wanted to hurt anybody. Not even Prescott, initially. She'd have stepped in and pulled Warren off, she really would have...
"Feel this, motherfucker!"
...Had she not found the photo of her best friend drugged and completely at the bully's mercy. That was a good enough reason to let karma, in Warren's raging form, to run its' course.
Then the whimpers and pleas for mercy woke the girl up from her vindictive stupor. Caused her to remember the whale songs, the countless medication pill bottles, the mail from Sean Prescott.
Nathan Prescott was on the ground, begging for mercy. It was high time to show it – karma had already run its' course.
Except Warren wasn't stopping.
Dread, like an ice-cold blanket settled over Max's heart.
"Warren!" she hissed, rushing over and pulling Warren off Nathan, "He's down…come on…"
"Stop…sorry…" Nathan whimpered, and Max never expected to have her heart break for a Prescott, if only just a little.
"He's right. Stop for a sec."
Chloe's voice. Max turned around in surprise. The punk was making her way over.
"Hella awesome job, Alpha-Nerd. Thanks for the show," she said, putting her hand on Warren's shoulder and surprising both him and Max.
Warren nodded a bit too heavily, still panting from exertion. "Sure…but l-let's get outta here now."
"Not yet. Can you go over the other side of the hall, watch for anyone coming?"
If Max hadn't already been surprised and confused by Chloe's behavior, that was the breaking point. She lifted her eyes from where she was looking at Prescott's crumpled form, only to almost recoil back.
There was…something in her best friend's eyes. Something unrecognizable. Something she perhaps did not want to recognize.
"But-" Warren started.
"Relax, I won't take long. We ain't getting in any more trouble," Chloe assured him.
"Fine," the boy relented and started slumping away, "but I can't really be a hero again 'till I catch my breath."
"Max, you keep watch on the stairs," Chloe turned attention to her, and Max started to feel really bad vibes about what was going down.
"Chlo, what are you doing?"
"Me? I'm boutta get some answers the easy way," Chloe said, making her way towards Nathan's whimpering form, and Max couldn't help but compare her gait to that of a predator toying with wounded, soon-to-be-dead prey. Nathan's sobbing only got louder when she got close.
Then she picked his gun up off the ground.
"Chloe!" Max hissed in panic, rushing over. In the background, she could see Warren make his way over to them too, likely startled from wherever he was resting at.
"Max," Chloe whispered, and the weight her voice carried made the smaller girl freeze in her tracks, "We won't get another chance at this. He knows things, okay. About Kate. About Rachel. Just trust me, okay?"
Trust the girl who had gotten herself shot twice on two different occasions. Trust the girl who'd almost become a train casualty. Trust the girl who drove under influence more than she drove sober.
Trust her best friend in the entire world, even after five years of painful hiatus.
This is why time manipulation was given to Max. So she could stand to make choice she'd never have the guts, or morals, to make otherwise.
"Okay."
Chloe smiled, and, for a second, Max could forget all about the shitty situation they were in. "Thank you for trusting me on this. I really do mean it."
"What's happening- Whoa!" both of them turned around to see Warren right behind them, startled by the gun in Chloe's hands.
"Hey, hey, chillax, Graham," the punk awkwardly tried to placate him, "I ain't doing nothing with it!"
"'kay, look, Chloe? Chloe," Warren disagreed, "I'm all in for kicking Prickscott's ass, but waving a gun at him is over the line!"
"Oh, right, because he totally didn't do the same to you."
That gave Warren pause. "Crap. Fair point. But I'm still, uh, staying close. Just in case."
Even if Chloe was turned away from her, Max was pretty sure she could hear her rolling her eyes.
That was when the trio was alerted to a faith, but noticeable, rustling on the ground. Nathan, completely forgotten in their back-and-forths, was trying to crawl away.
"Oh no you don't, bitch!" Chloe kicked the boy, who, with a yelp, curled up again and started shaking.
"Please…please just-"
"I have choice questions for you, bastard," Chloe hissed like a rattlesnake with pure vitriol in her voice.
Nathan tried to push away the leg that was pressing down on his chest. Chloe kicked him again and Nathan didn't even have air to cry out – he simply gasped in agony and covered his bloodied face..
"Please- please, I don't…"
Max could feel the familiar, hated burning behind her eyes. She couldn't tear her eyes away from Nathan.
Just one time. Just this one time. Then rewind and never let Chloe do this again.
Chloe crouched down near near Prescott and Max's heart started beating faster than it already was.
"Rachel In The Dark Room," she half-whispered, half-shouted, making Max gasp. Warren jolted back in surprise, an unspoken "WTF is she talking about Max?" evident in his eyes.
Nathan started shaking even harder. "N-no…how d-did you-"
"What does it mean," Chloe spoke with deadly venom in her voice, "Rachel In The Dark Room. What does it mean?!"
"I-I don't-please-"
"Answer me, you fuck!" Chloe all but shouted, making both Warren and Max wince. Nathan was openly sobbing now.
Max didn't want to risk it. She raised her hand, prepared to rewind as soon as anyone that wasn't them came into view.
Warren was the first to call Chloe out: "Um, Chloe? I really don't know what the hell's going on, and what's this on about Rachel, who I assume is Rachel Amber, but you should really-"
"Shut up!" Chloe barked quietly, but with enough power to force the boy back. Turning her attention back to Nathan, she forcefully brushed one of his hands out of his face and pressed the barrel up against his forehead. Nathan froze and started openly crying. Max had tears prickling at the corners of her eyes as well; judging by how Chloe did this uninterrupted, Warren, too, was either too scared or too shocked to act.
"You think I won't pull the trigger?" she spat out, "You think I haven't forgotten how you almost did the same to me? Trust me, I'll shoot you," she quickly turned to Max to send her a "meaningful" stare, but paled almost comically quickly once she saw the state the freckled girl was in.
After a moment's hesitation, the gun was placed on the ground, and Max breathed out in relief.
"I-I don't want to do it," Chloe continued, with only just a hint of previous confidence and rage, "But I will if you force me to. Just…just answer the fucking question and make it easy on both of us, come on! I know you wrote all of that – you-you know something. Spill it!"
There was a beat of silence. Time was frozen, and for once, it wasn't Max's doing.
Finally, Nathan mumbled something.
"What's that? Speak up!" Chloe frustratingly exclaimed, having pointed the gun away from Nathan.
Nathan suddenly screeched. "Th- THE PRESCOTT BARN, OUTSIDE OF TOWN! There-" He started coughing very hard.
They had pushed him too far, Max realized. Dude was already on metaphorical thin mental ice, and she, Chloe and Warren all but divebombed onto it and broke through way harder than they should have.
"What the fu-" Warren started.
"Fucking knew it," Chloe beat him to it with a hiss. "What's there?!" she started shouting, "WHAT IS THERE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!"
Chloe's voice may aswell have been a flashbang without the "flash". Max knew they were in trouble now; sure enough, it didn't force to wait for itself. A door at the end of the hallway had burst open, and an almost naked Trevor with his underwear evidently hastily dragged on jumped out of hia dorm room, brandishing his skateboard like some knockoff version of a bat.
"Yooo, what the f-"
Max was already rewinding. This has gone on for too long, and too much had happened. Too many things she should never have allowed to happen.
No more beating up Nathan. No more having Chloe indulge in the side of her that Max felt directly responsible for.
She'd do this right.
...
"Get off me, brah!"
Max came back just in time to see Warren kick Prescott's gun away; turning to Chloe for a sec, she saw the blue-haired girl watching the confrontation with an impassive expression but growing interest in her eyes. Max really did not want that interest to bloom into something else, not now.
"Warren, stop it! Cmon!" Max exclaimed as she pulled the two guys apart. She didn't- couldn't see Warren's face, but the sheer aura of disappointment that she could feel coming off of Chloe was almost enough to give her a pause. She didn't falter.
"Ooow, my head! Why the hell y'all looking at me like that, huh? FUCK! You," Nathan ranted, slightly delirious and pointing at each of the trio, "You, and especially you," he pointed at Warren – not with the gun, thankfully, otherwise Max would've rewinded again and really given him a few kicks of her own this time – "You're all fucking dead!
"PLUS! My dad's on his way! You're all fucked, bitches! He owns you!"
Warren and Chloe were long gone through the door when Max recovered from Nathan's tantrum. It was such a jarring contrast – to listen to him begging for mercy, almost for his life in one moment, and then acting like the spoiled, stuck up, mentally deranged brat that the entirety of Blackwell saw him as in next. But he wasn't at the forefront of her mind; it was Chloe.
Chloe was…she didn't want to badmouth Chloe, but what she'd done (didn't do) – it was bad. And yet she didn't know how to fix that. Maybe she couldn't fix it, not yet. Maybe you don't fix 5 years of emotional and physical neglect from your best friend in a couple of days. But there was something she could do.
Nathan's words about the Prescott barn outside of home (and outside this timeline) bounced around her head as she made her way down. This was as solid of a lead as they were going to get.
