Chapter 24

"Maaax!!"

Liz's terrified voice tore through him, freezing the blood in his veins and he quickly spun around. What he saw was enough to send any man to his knees. Blood. Liz was covered in blood.
"Liz!"
He stumbled over to the bed, his hands moving over her body in search of the source to the blood even before he had climbed onto the bed.
"No, Max," Liz sobbed, "It's not me. It's not me. It's Emma."
His eyes met hers, his heart thudding in his ears and he could hear it slowing down as he slowly diverted his eyes away from her glittering eyes to his daughter.

He could see the blood, the red twinkling in the light, the shadows making it appear black. It was gathering in Emma's hair, the thick fluid collecting in her ears. Blood, so much blood. Without any further thought, Max reached over and cradled Emma's head between his hands, just seconds before her eyes rolled back in her head and her body tensed before going limp in his arms.
"Max?! Oh my God," Liz whispered next to him. "What's happening, Max?"
But Max didn't hear her. He was already forming a connection with Emma, having been able to catch her eyes before they had drifted closed.

"Emma! Emma, baby…"
Max's voice gradually fell to a forgotten whisper as he stumbled through the dark surroundings. There was hollowness around him, as if he was fumbling around in a vacuum. The darkness tried to force itself down his throat and he could feel the dampness of the air around him pressing through his clothes and against his skin.
"Emma!!" The volume of his voice scratched against the insides of his throat, the only evidence that he had in fact been screaming, because to his ears there was no sound. The darkness was devouring his voice like a hungry beast.

The surroundings shifted around him, shifted back and forth, a continuous motion that was starting to make him dizzy. He reached out towards a wall that was dancing in front of him in an attempt to steady himself. As his hand should've made contact with the wall, his feet stumbled as his body fell forward when his hand pressed through the wall. As if it consisted of merely air. He quickly regained his footing, his hands searching blindly through the darkness.
"Emma! Where are you? Emma, if you can hear me, please… Emma!"
But there was no answer. No answer except the eerie sound of the complete absence of sound. Then he saw her. She was sitting on the ground, her legs barely touching the muddy ground, a faint light surrounding her, making her glow with a flickering light.
"Emma!"
She looked up at him as he came running towards her. He saw the tears running down her cheeks as he fell to his knees next to her and pulled her into his arms. He held her close, trying to force himself to believe that he could feel the warmth of her body, when the rational part of his mind knew that he couldn't. She was as cold in her arms as if he was cradling a dead body.

She pulled out of his arms, looking up at him with big round eyes, and her look was anything but dead. She was looking at him more intently than he had ever seen her, like she was trying to tell him something. Max opened his mouth to ask her about what when she answered his unspoken question.
"The man took them away."
The sentence made a chill go down his spine. His hands shook as he brushed away the tears from her cheeks, trying to will his heart as well as hers to slow down.
"Who did the man take away?"
"My brothers," Emma answered, causing Max's hand to stop in mid-air. His mouth opened only to pull in air, while his lips were desperately trying to form any sounds.
"Wh…what… Who took them away, Emma?"
"The man," Emma sniffled. "The man. He killed the doggie."
Max frowned, trying frantically to figure out who she was talking about. Mentioning the man seemed to upset her, so Max decided to focus on the other part of her story.
"Were your brothers here? With you?"
Emma nodded, not breaking eye-contact for a second, barely blinking.
"Emma, I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do that?"
She nodded again, her big chocolate eyes glittering with fearful tears.

"No one has taken your brothers. They are inside your mommy's stomach. They are safe. Okay?"
Emma shook her head in protest. "No, th-th-the man took them. They were sitting here and then the man took them. We was playing and the man took them."
"Honey, please. I promise you, your brothers are safe in your mommy's stomach. Do you want to see for yourself?"
Emma looked at him and he could see that she did not believe him. He cradled her face between his hands. She was so small that the top of his fingers reached the top of her head while his wrists were touching her jaw line.
"Em, your mom and I miss you. We love you so much. Try to wake up. Your brothers need you, but you have to wake up first. Do you understand me?"
"They are in mommy's stomach?"
Max nodded. "They are in mommy's stomach."
"Bad man is gonna-"
"Honey," Max interrupted gently, "The bad man is gone. He can't hurt you anymore. No one is ever going to hurt you again."
She looked at him with big round eyes and then whispered, "I wanna go home now."
Max's throat constricted with her teary request and he nodded, pulling her up in his lap. "Let's go home."

Liz watched Max heavily fall down on the bed. He was still touching Emma with his hands and Liz could feel Emma go still in her arms. It was as if all the tension in her little body dissolved and she went almost limb. Even though Liz could feel Max through the, albeit weakening, connection, it didn't do much to relieve her worry when she saw how unresponsive Max became. Usually when he connected he would remain in the position he was in when he entered the connection. But not this time. This time he just collapsed, which scared Liz to death. She couldn't lose them both. She wouldn't survive that. Brushing away the tears from her face, she reached out and took a hold of Max's hand, entwining her fingers with his.

Max could feel the pull like a strong thread winding through him. He could feel her warmth surrounding him and protecting him. He could feel her soul calling him. He closed his eyes and bathed in her love for a few seconds, before slowly opening his eyes and pressing a kiss on Emma's forehead.

Emma opened her eyes and looked up. She could see her mother, but her mother wasn't looking at her. She was looking at something else next to her.
"Mommy," Emma whispered, the need to drink washing over her.
Her mother turned towards her, with a startled expression on her face and when she smiled, the darkness in Emma eased away – to some degree.
"Emma…"
Then she was in her mother's arms and she could hear her own sniffles in her ears, mixing with her mother's crying. Shortly thereafter, she became aware of another set of arms surrounding her.
"Is she okay?" her mother whispered. "Emma, are you okay?"
"She's okay," her father answered next to her.
That's when she remembered. Her brothers. She pulled out of their arms and looked up in their slightly confused faces, before her eyes traveled down to Liz's stomach. She reached out to tentatively touch Liz's stomach.
"We have to be together," she whispered.
Liz threw a questioning glance in Max's direction, but his face shared the same bewilderment that she was feeling.
"Of course, sweetie. We will always stay together," Liz answered.
Emma slowly shook her head, her hands tightening their grip on Liz's arms. "Otherwise they will die. We have to be together."
"Honey, what are you talking about?" Max asked, his grip tightening around Liz as he could feel her distress echo in the silence.
"We have to be together," Emma murmured with a far-away expression on her face.
Liz met Max's eyes as Emma buried her face in Liz's still wet gown.

But Max couldn't give any answers. He was still shaken up from whatever place Emma had been in. It hadn't just been a dream and something told him that it was real. Something told him that what had been going on in Emma's head meant something. He just didn't know what.

Emma fell asleep in Liz's arms and Liz dozed off not long thereafter. Max used his powers to dry her clothes and as quietly as he could, he put on some boxers and a T-shirt before gently easing down next to Liz and his daughter, enveloping them in his arms. A shiver went through him as Liz's stomach brushed against his hand and everything that had happened up to the moment when Emma had started screaming came flooding back to him. How he had almost killed his own babies. His heart twisted painfully and he pulled away, his hands leaving the places where they had rested on the bodies of his family. Liz's breathing, a little more strained with every night passing, echoed in the silence, as he turned away from them. With Emma's last words resounding through his head, he fell into a restless sleep.

We have to be together.

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One month later

"Hey, I'll do that," Max said gently, catching Liz by the elbow as her tired legs stumbled. One of the toys that had been gathered in her arms fell to the ground.
"I'm doing it, I'm fine," Liz said, her voice bearing the hint of irritation.
"Please, Liz," Max said, guiding her towards the bed. As soon as she sank down on the bed, he let go off her, taking a step back.
Liz closed her eyes against the coldness washing over her. She missed him. She missed him so much. But something had changed that night when Emma had returned to them. Liz had gotten her daughter back, but her best friend, the person she loved more than her next breath, had pulled away. Sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night and find Max on the other side of the bed, so close to the edge that if he'd moved one inch he would've fallen off. At first she had tried to scoot closer, but it would always end in Max waking up and disappearing to the bathroom. He would be gone so long that Liz would go back to sleep and when she woke up in the morning he would be gone and she would find his pillow on the couch in the living room. His presence and the warmth of his body was so rare that she had once woken up because he, in his sleep, had rolled over and put his arm over her. His lips had been resting against the skin of her neck and she had been able to feel the warm gentle puffs of air against her. She hadn't dared to move, afraid that he would wake up and move away. So she had been lying there in the darkness, crying, because with him so close she could feel the anguish raging within him. The connection wasn't strong enough anymore for her to find out the reason, but she could feel the torment, the everyday struggle that was going on inside of him.

Sitting there, she felt like she'd had enough. She had tried to talk to him before, but he would just close off. She wouldn't let him get away without answering her this time. She could feel whatever was breaking down her body slowly eating away at her, and she didn't want to spend her last weeks alive away from him.
"Why are you doing this?"
She opened her eyes and caught the look of raw fear in his eyes before his eyes skittered away, like they had done so many times before these last couple of weeks. She used to love his eyes. She still did. She used to be able to see every emotion in them, but now he wouldn't let her. It hurt. It hurt so much.
"Doing what, Liz?" Max asked casually, like she wasn't sitting there in front of him trembling with exhaustion and desperation.
"What happened, Max?"
She was struggling to prevent the tears from falling. She had cried so much lately that there shouldn't be any tears left, but there were. There always were.
"Uhm… What are you talking about, Liz?"
Sudden anger screamed inside of her and she hit her fist on the bed. "Damnit! You know exactly what I'm talking about! I can't do this anymore!"
He took another step back and she could feel her heart sinking. They could just as well be standing on two separate islands with an ocean between, their screaming voices being carried away by the wind, never reaching their target.
"Mommy?"
Liz took a deep trembling breath before turning her head towards her daughter standing in the doorway behind Max. She tried to smile, but the muscles in her face weren't co-operating.
"Everything's okay, sweetie." The guilt came crashing down. Emma might be talking to them again, but she wasn't well. They had to be careful around her. There had been times when she went inside herself and disappeared from the world, when something had scared her. A puppy whining on the TV. A door closed too suddenly. Lights being switched off. Loud voices.

"Go back to your room, Em," Max whispered, having turned towards his daughter.
"Are you angry, mommy?" Emma asked in a small voice.
"No, honey," Liz answered, shaking her head. "How about watching that movie grandpa bought you, huh? Do you remember what movie it was?"
Emma's face lit up, but both Max and Liz could see that the fear was still present in her eyes. "Cindella?"
"Cinderella," Liz smiled. "That's right, honey. Ask grandma to put it on for you, okay? Daddy and I need to talk for a while. Okay?"
Emma looked from her mother to her father, hesitation in every small movement. "Okay."
"Great, honey," Liz said, "I'll be right out."
"You should get some rest, Liz. You look so tired."
Liz turned her eyes back to Max, struggling to keep herself in control. "I am tired, Max. Do you know why? Because I need you. I can't do this alone. I can't do this anymore."
"What do you mean?" She could hear the tremble of fear in his voice and one part of her was satisfied with the knowledge that maybe finally he would understand how much he was hurting her, but on the other hand it hurt her knowing how scared he was. He was just as afraid as she was. He knew just as little as she did about what was wrong with her. At least that's what she thought. Lately, something had been telling her that Max knew more than her.
"Do you think I'm stupid-"
"No!" Max exclaimed, taking a step towards her.
"Then tell me what the hell is going on! We have to be able to talk to each other. Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you-" Max stuttered, reaching out with his hand towards her.
Liz shrunk away from his touch. "You don't trust me with the truth. You know something, Max, and instead of talking to me about it, you take it on your own shoulders, like you've always done. You try to fix it yourself and you shut me out. I don't want you to make the decisions for me. I want to know what's going on. If you know something about what's going on with me, I want to know. I don't want you to protect me. I don't need you to protect me from the truth."
"I know," Max whispered.
"Then why are you doing this?" Liz sniffled in resignation, a tear falling down her cheek.

Max stared down at the floor in silence and even without the connection, Liz could feel the battle he was waging. With his gaze still locked on the floor, he started talking.
"I'm afraid, Liz. I'm afraid that you will…" he took a deep shuttering breath, "…die."
"Max, I-"
Max looked up and she found herself looking straight into his shimmering eyes, which made the words vanish from her tongue.
"I thought that… That the… " another deep breath and he reached forward and tentatively placed his hand on her stomach. This was the first time he had touched her like this in over a month and it made Liz's heart skip a bit with sadness. "That the babies inside of you were hurting you. That they were making you sick. So I…"
He turned his face away at this, snatching his hand away from her and thus ending all physical contact.
"Max?" Liz questioned, looking up at him as he turned his back on her. She could see how his hands were shaking, how his whole body was shaking.
"That night…when you found me in the shower and Emma woke up. Before that, I had tried to…" His voice broke with a repressed sob and he barely got the next words out. "Liz, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I didn't know what to do. I was so afraid that you were going to leave me. But I couldn't choose. I couldn't choose."
Liz rose to her feet and put a hand on his shoulder. "Max, you're scaring me. What are you talking about? Max? Please tell me."
He took a step forward, trying to avoid her touch, but instead of letting him she moved her hand down his arm and grabbed him, forcing him to turn around.
"Max, what happened?"
He wouldn't look at her. He looked at some point on her chest.
"Max!" Liz demanded, giving him a shake. "What happened?"
He looked up at her and she had to take a deep breath to not start crying when she saw the look in his eyes. Fear. However, it was not the same fear as before. This was fear of abandonment. He was afraid…of her?

"I… I tried to kill them," he whispered so softly that she barely heard him. But every word reverberated through her soul, cutting through her body with painful intensity.
"Who?" she whispered.
"The babies. I tried to kill them, but I…" Liz took a quick step away from him, pulling her hand away like she had been burned.
"I couldn't," Max murmured, knowing by the look in Liz's eyes that what he had feared would happen was about to happen. She would finally see him for what he really was. She was finally going to see through his façade and realize that he would always cause her harm. It always had been. That just being who he was would harm her.
Confusion was rapidly replaced with fear and next worry as one feeling replaced the other. His hand reached out towards her in an instinctive motion to comfort her, but she took yet another step backwards.
"Liz…"
She swallowed, looking at him with betrayal in her eyes. "You tried to… The babies… Your sons..."
"I'm so sorry," Max whispered.
"Just…" She couldn't look at him anymore. Her arms went around her stomach protectively, a movement not missed by Max. "Just leave. Leave me alone."
He didn't argue. He had expected it. He knew that it was over. But that didn't mean that it hurt any less.
"I love you," he whispered before quietly leaving the room.
Liz stood staring at the empty doorway where he had disappeared and without any conscious thought of what she was doing, she sank down on the bed, tears helplessly tumbling down her cheeks.

TBC...