Chapter 08: Our Destiny
Max knelt on her bed, staring at the board that once housed her Polaroid collage. Only two photos adorned the wall. The one where Chloe and Max were dressed as pirates, and the last photo William ever took. Between them, a sheet tacked up with the primary objective: Save Chloe.
Below that, she had three categories that needed to be fulfilled to make her objective. First, was A Way to the Past. This was subdivided into two groups: Existing Photos and Recreated Photos. Her fervent search through her dorm room turned up precious little. She really did have just the two from her childhood. Nothing from her time in Blackwell was left. If she wanted to return to anytime soon, she would have to figure out how to recreate a photo.
Below that section was the big one: The Storm. If she could return to the week with Chloe, she knew exactly when it would hit. But if she returned to an earlier time, then would the storm keep the same schedule? Or would the countdown to armageddon start the moment she stepped into the past? And none of that spoke to just what to do about it.
Finally, the tools at hand. Powers subdivided into Stop Time, Rewind, and Photo Flashback. How could she possibly use her powers to stop a record-shattering tornado?
The last two sections proved the most difficult, so she focused on the first section. No photos existed here that she could use. So she would have to recreate a photo. Or would she?
Moving her hand, she let her fingers trace over the label "Existing Photos."
She jumped off her bed and went for her bag. Digging out her phone, she brought up her texts with her dad.
[Max]
[I know this is really not the time for me to be asking for favors, but it's really important. Can you and Mom go through my old polaroids there? I'm looking for selfies. It's really important. Please let me know what you find, okay? xomaxo]
With a sigh, she tossed the phone onto her nightstand. None of this was getting her closer to the real problem.
How can you possibly stop a fucking tornado?
Just as Max was about to flop down on her bed and waste what little time she had left pondering how long it might take to find every single person in Arcadia Bay and convince them to leave with however many rewinds it took, her one-woman strategy session was interrupted by a thumping on her door. She had half a heart to ignore it. But usually, this sort of thing just got louder and more annoying.
Opening the door only a crack, Max peeked out to see Warren standing there. "Warren? What are you doing here?"
Another voice answered. "We came to make sure you were okay." Fully opening the door, Max found Kate standing there by Warren. "You missed all your classes today and I—we—were worried about you."
"Max, you haven't answered any of my texts or anything! I was convinced you got kidnapped or something," Warren said.
"Can we come in, please?" Kate asked, clasping her hands together in front of her chest. "We just want to talk."
Max couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt as she looked at Kate's pleading eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean to freak anyone out. I was just… dealing with stuff." Stepping by, she held out an arm, inviting the duo in.
Kate led Warren over to the couch and the duo sat down as Max closed the door. "Dude, what's with the collage?" Warren's voice brought Max's attention right back to where it was a minute ago.
"Shit." Max shook her head. "Just a project I'm working on. I don't suppose your super-brain knows how to stop a tornado?"
"Not really," Warren said, not taking his eyes off the chart.
Kate cleared her throat as she clasped her hands in her lap. "Max. We didn't just come here to make sure you were okay. We are your friends and we love you." Warren fidgeted at that, his face flushing. "We want you to know that we are here for you, and we will do whatever it takes to try to make things better for you."
"Yeah," Warren said, thumbing over at Kate. "We're totally here for you. Just name whatever it is that'll make you feel better. We'll do what we can to make that happen.
Max closed her eyes, letting out a long sigh. This sounded like an intervention. In a way, it was. "Look, I'm sorry I scared you two with the way I've been acting. I just…" Max held up her hands with a shrug, letting the gesture speak where words wouldn't. "The only thing I want right now is Chloe."
Kate and Warren's eyes trailed above Max's head, reading the title of her little chart, no doubt. The weight of the situation fell on her in waves. At this point, did it even matter who knew about her powers? Two days and this reality would be another bitter memory. "Kate, did you… did you tell Warren the story I told you this morning?"
"I… I told him about the story," Kate said. "I felt that… Max, that wasn't a fairy tale. I didn't feel right telling other people about those very personal things that happened."
Max sat there on her bed, her anxious hands between her knees rubbing together. "Yeah. Not a story. I thought… maybe if I got it off my chest, I'd feel better. I don't."
"No way, seriously?" Warren said, looking between Max and Kate. "You experienced two different realities simultaneously?"
It was all up there on the board behind her. She already told Warren about her powers once before. And poor Kate had all the other details, anyway.
Fuck it.
"No. My powers don't work that way." Max felt all eyes leave her and settle on the board behind her. "If I have a picture from the past with me in it, I can visit that time in the past. Change the outcome. Change reality."
"The Butterfly Effect," Warren muttered.
"Yeah, but the parts I can't remember are after I return from the jump. Still a lot of nosebleeds, though. Whatever I did in this reality from the time Nathan… shot Chloe up to the funeral…" Max shook her head. "I don't remember any of it."
"Rewind… Stop time," Kate read the board behind Max.
Max nodded, keeping her gaze down. "Yeah. Those, too."
"No way," Warren launched himself off the couch. "You're telling me you're some kind of superhero?"
"No. I just fucked everything up," Max replied. "Or… I thought I did…" If what her spirit animal said was true, all the weird stuff wasn't because Max's powers were breaking reality. Fate was just winding up for its haymaker. With her mind made up, Max sprung from her seat and grabbed the box that Joyce had, apparently, given her. There, inside, was William's camera.
In her hands, it felt much heavier than she remembered. "I thought I caused the storm. That I twisted reality over and over and over and I broke it." Max held the camera up, facing her, but she just couldn't steady her hand. It trembled so much that she nearly dropped it. "Shit," she muttered as she set it over on her bed.
Max then turned to her bag. Her eyes flitted by her guests as she pulled the bag to her. Inside, she found the remnants of the Xanax. How long had it been since her last dose? A couple of hours? Another piece couldn't hurt. She broke off another piece and stuck it in her mouth before throwing the bag aside. Grabbing her drink, she swallowed the pill. It fell down her throat much more easily this time.
"Max, what are you doing?" Warren asked as he sat back down.
"I was just… I was thinking maybe I'd show you my powers, but I… I don't want to risk another catastrophe." Max pointed over at her camera. "I'd take a couple of selfies so I could just come back and stop myself if anything got out of hand, but… I can't."
"Do you think it would be easier if I took your photo?" Kate offered.
Max shook her head. "No, I think… that—that would be worse."
"Of course. Right," Kate said, hanging her head just a bit. "Sorry."
Warren leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees. "I just… I feel like I'm totally lost here."
Max sighed as she dragged herself back to sit on her bed. "Okay. Story first, then demonstration." A small pang of guilt shot through her as she looked over at Kate. "The whole story this time. Rewinding time and alternate realities and shit."
Though she intended to tell the whole story, she did still leave out bits here and there. Mostly unimportant things, though she did omit the ending to her time in the reality where William didn't die. Kate would never look at her the same if she told her the real reason that reality was dead to her. Thankfully, this time the story was much easier to tell, and not just thanks to the pill she took. Kate was able to help fill in some of the harder parts since she'd heard them before. The end, however, wasn't the same.
By the time she'd gotten to the end, Kate and Warren had both left the couch. Each one was at Max's side, doing everything they could to comfort her. "She said it was time to stop avoiding her fate. That Joyce and everyone deserved to live… so much more than her." Warren handed her a new tissue that she ripped from his hand to bring to her face. "She… she practically begged me to go back. Go back and let her die."
Warren put his hand on Max's shoulder. "Jesus, Max."
"The hardest thing I've ever had to do was… nothing. But I did it for her. Chloe died on that bathroom floor feeling like the whole world had abandoned her… and I let it happen." Throwing away any pretense of strength, she turned and grabbed Kate. Hugging her tight, Max broke down into a flurry of sobs and apologies.
It took several minutes for Max to calm down. Instead of pulling away, she just fell slack in Kate's arms. Confident that the tears had stopped, Kate leaned back with Max until her weight rested on her mattress. Then, she painstakingly detangled herself from Max as not to wake her.
"Poor thing," Kate whispered, teasing Max's bangs away from her face.
"You were not kidding about that story. No wonder Max has been so… Shit," Warren said, also keeping his voice low as he carefully got off the bed.
Kate let Warren's comment pass as she scooted off of the bed, too. "Max seems… different from this morning," she said, standing by Warren as they stared at the board.
"We gotta stop her," Warren replied, pointing at the chart. "Save Chloe… she's going to sacrifice all of Arcadia Bay just to get her back."
Max wouldn't do that. "She misses her," Kate said. "Look, she's trying to find a way to stop the storm. Didn't she ask you how to stop a tornado when we first came in?"
"Yeah, but there's no way. I mean, I can dig into it some, but stopping a tornado, even with superpowers would be… impossible."
"Maybe she could evacuate the town?" Kate offered.
Warren turned to Kate. "We're doing this? We're going to try to help Max put all of Arcadia Bay in danger."
Kate shook her head, an earnest smile gracing her lips. "No. We're going to help Max get Chloe back."
Max drew a sharp breath, breathing in the refreshing aroma of coffee. She found herself sprawled on her bed, with her legs dangling over the side. "What?"
"Sorry," Kate apologized as she stepped into the room with a coffee in each hand. "I tried to close the door quietly, but my hands are a little full."
Her weight shifting, Max rolled over and sat up. "I fell asleep?" No nightmares tormented her this time, at least. Probably the best sleep she'd had in a week.
"You've been out for like, two hours," Warren said. A glance over showed Warren sitting at her desk on her laptop.
Must've been those pills. I'm still tired.
To dispel the last of her sleep, Max stretched. "You're both still here?"
"We wanted to help you," Kate said as she set a coffee by Warren, who accepted it with a "Thanks."
"I've been trying to study tornadoes. Gotta say, there really isn't a whole lot to be found," Warren said, leaning away from the computer to look at Max. "I think the thing we're really missing is you, Max. I mean, from what you told us about your powers in your story, they really can't affect anything other than you."
"They can't. Or, at least I thought so," Max replied, her attention drawing away from Warren and Kate and over to William's camera. Picking it up, she noticed that it didn't feel quite as heavy as before. She held it up with both hands. And there it stood, its eye staring right back at her own. Her finger rested on the button, not daring to press any further.
Just do it, Max! You've done it a thousand times!
She pulled the camera away, setting it by her. "I… today I accidentally froze time. Frank said that I kept him from being frozen, too."
"Accidently?" Kate asked.
"I was… struggling," Max replied, not even remotely wanting to go into further detail. "But yeah. Somehow I kept him from being affected."
Warren scooted the chair out a bit, inching just a bit closer to Max. "Do you think you could do the opposite? If you could only stop time for a single thing, you could wrap up the storm. Maybe long enough for an evacuation?"
Max shook her head. "That would take hours, at least. When I rescued Kate, I felt like my head was going to explode after just a couple of minutes."
"Well, other than the storm and the powers, there is one other thing on the chart. Warren and I couldn't completely figure it out," Kate said as she pointed up at the first section.
"That…" Max fell back onto her bed so that she was staring up at the ceiling. "I have to find just where to go back in time to. I threw out all my selfies, so I'm completely out of actual photos except the two up there. I was talking to my spirit animal—whole other story, don't ask—and it told me I might be able to recreate a photo and use that to go to a specific moment.
"Oh, shit!" Max shot up, reaching over and grabbing her phone.
She skipped down to find her dad's texts.
[Dad]
[I'll see what we can turn up.]
[I spoke with your mother at length about you coming home. I am coming to get you tomorrow afternoon. No arguments.]
"Shit."
[We turned up a whole box of photos. They go all the way back to when you were in Arcadia Bay as a child. What exactly were you looking for?]
[Max]
[Can you bring the whole box? I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but I'll know it when I see it.]
"My dad's coming to take me back to Seattle tomorrow," Max said as she tossed the phone aside. "What am I going to do?"
"Whoa, Seattle?" Warren asked.
"Yeah. I might've had a, uh, small incident with the principal. He told me I could take a week of personal time or a week's suspension. My parents are totally freaked."
Warren looked over to Kate. She gave him a shrug and he turned back to Max. "You're coming back, right?"
"I'm not going… well… Let's just say yes. Next weekend," Max replied. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Where were we?"
"Um, you were talking about recreating a photo?" Kate offered from her spot on Max's couch, her hands still wrapped around her coffee.
Max's eyes trailed back over to her camera. "I only took a few selfies that week. I can't recreate anything with Chloe, either."
"Photobomb!" Chloe's voice echoed from Max's memories.
Grabbing her camera, Max lifted it up in front of her.
I'm coming for you, Chloe.
The shutter clicked, followed by the familiar noise of the rollers spitting out the Polaroid. The familiar sounds didn't fill her with disgust. Instead, it just reminded her of Chloe. She grabbed the Polaroid, shaking it out. Max looked over to find Kate smiling, though she kept silent, just taking a sip from her cup. Returning her smile, Max nodded. "I'm getting Chloe back."
Hopping up, she crossed the tiny space and dropped down next to Kate. Squeezing in close so that they were cheek-to-cheek, she took another selfie. "This one's yours," Max said as she freed the photo from the feed. "Keep it safe."
That one felt even better.
"You too, Warren," Max said as she got up and went over to her desk. Leaning forward, Max lowered herself so her face was practically resting on Warren's shoulder. She looped the camera around. Giving Warren a moment to adjust, and she took one more before setting the photo on the desk by Warren.
"Okay, selfies are… crap. Is my hair that bad?" Max lost her train of thought as soon as she picked up her first selfie from her bed. With the intent to fix the mop on her head, Max headed over and grabbed her brush. "Anyway, selfies are a way for me to go back and change things. Keep those safe in case I need to come back to now and stop myself from screwing shit up. Granted, I'm not going to have a lot of time, but who knows what might happen." Brush in hand, Max headed over to her mirror. She paused.
The idea was to show her abilities to Kate and Warren, right? Spinning back to face her friends, Max motioned to her hair in an exaggerated pose. "Pretty bad, right?"
Warren leaned back in the chair, raising an eyebrow. "This feels like a trick question."
Kate offered a warm smile. "You did just roll out of bed."
"Not gonna forget you totally wussed out, Warren the Weak," Max said as she went to work on hair. One good thing about her simple hairstyle was that it only took a minute or two to look presentable. Once she was sure it looked at least half-decent, she turned back around and held out an arm. Feeling a familiar pressure in her head, time danced backward. She kept it up until she saw herself make that pose again.
"How about now?" she asked as she resumed the pose.
Warren shook his head, his eyes bugging out. "What?"
"Uh… better?" Kate said, staring hard at her.
"I rewound," Max stated flatly.
"No way!" Warren said, giving his hands a single, sharp clap. The wide smile refused to leave his face. "Do more cool stuff!"
"She's not a toy, Warren," Kate admonished. When she turned back, there was a small smile on her lips as her eyes danced. "Thank you for showing us, Max. And for trusting us with all this. I know this wasn't easy for you."
"Powers, photos… This isn't hard, Kate. This is… me."