Chapter 09: The Secret Door
"You sure you're ready for this, Max?" Warren asked from behind the wheel of his car.
"It's fine," Max said as she got out. Holding up William's camera, she flashed a smile. "You two wait here. I just need to find the right clothes and take a quick photo." Turning back around with the well-wishes of Kate and Warren at her back, Max walked up to Chloe's door and gave a firm knock. When no immediate answer came, she briefly wondered if they were here too early on a Saturday. Max leaned over and peered in the glass. David didn't work weekends. Someone should've been home. Her fist pounded again on the door, louder this time.
Still, nothing.
"No one home?" Warren asked, leaning out the window.
"Maybe not," Max muttered. "How much you wanna bet Chloe's window is still open?" Without a hitch in her step, she walked over to the overhang leading up to Chloe's window. Though she had the will to break into Chloe's room, she did not have the height. "Warren, Kate! Come give me a boost!"
Kate stepped out from the passenger seat. "Should you really be yelling that?"
Not far behind, Warren got out and rounded the car. "Yeah, what if we get caught?"
"Rewind," Max said before pointing up. "Now help me get up there and keep an eye out, okay?"
Warren cupped his hands and held them out in front of himself. "Okay," he grunted as Max stepped in his hands and reached up onto the roof. He struggled to lift the girl until Kate stepped in, grabbing Max's other foot and hoisting her high with Warren. "But what if someone calls the cops instead of confronting us? You can't go back more than a couple of minutes, tops!"
Laying out on the roof, Max twisted back around to look down at her friends. She held out the Polaroid from last night. "Then I warn us not to try. Besides, as long as we don't actually break in, it's not breaking and entering. They can't send us to jail for just entering."
"It's called trespassing. Absolutely jailworthy," Warren said thumbing over in the direction of the car. "But Team Super Max has your back. I'll keep the getaway vehicle running."
Kate glanced over at Warren's retreat before giving Max a little wave. "Good luck!"
"Thanks, Kate," Max said before she turned her attention back to the matter at hand. She crawled over to Chloe's window. Pressing her hands to the cool glass, she pulled up and, sure enough, the window slid right open. As soon as she worked her way inside and got off Chloe's desk, she held out a hand.
Just in case.
Max watched the window shut itself and a ghostly image of herself head backward across the roof and disappear. The rewind kept going until the pressure in her head hurt too much to continue. Grabbing her skull, she released the rewind. Each heartbeat sent a painful bloom through her head, but each one hurt just a bit less than the last. After recovering for a moment, she grabbed her phone and texted Kate.
[Max]
[I'm not sure how far back that rewind went, but I'm inside. Just sit tight, okay? (^_-)]
"And it's like I never entered. Revenge of the Blackwell Ninja," Max said to herself. Her jovial mood quickly fell away. All around her, Chloe's room was more or less the same. It even had that same smell.
She's coming back. You'll get her back.
Trying to push the conflicting emotions down, Max busied herself with the task at hand. There were precious few selfies from her week with Chloe, and only one she might be able to recreate. The problem was that, for the most part, she couldn't remember what she wore. Except for one photo. She took a selfie in Rachel Amber's clothes in the bathroom mirror. The outfit was practically the whole reason she took the selfie in the first place.
Max marched over to the closet and threw it open. Sure enough, there hung her very own Rachel Amber costume. Just about everyone hated seeing her in it. Everyone but Chloe.
After changing, Max made a beeline for the bathroom. She turned on the light and stepped up to the mirror. William's camera made the ensemble complete. Holding it in front of her, just like the time before, she snapped the picture.
Prize in hand, she turned out the light, crossed the hall, and went back to Chloe's room. After quickly changing back into her own clothes, Max headed back out the window, across the roof, and down to the lawn before going back to the car. "Got it," Max said, holding up the photo.
Kate leaned over from the passenger seat to look back at Max. "Are you sure it's going to work?"
Max shook her head as she stowed the photo in her bag. "Part of me is terrified I'll use it and just come back to now instead of a week ago. But this is my best chance to set things right."
"Speaking of getting things right, I think it's time to put Super Max through her paces," Warren said, adjusting the rear-view mirror to look at Max. "I've been dying to see what you can really do after your demonstrations last night. Plan A kind of depends on it."
"Right," Max replied, a little less than enthused as she brought an arm around herself. "Lighthouse?"
"To the lighthouse!" Warren readjusted the mirror before throwing the vehicle in reverse and pulling out into the street.
For Max, everything blurred before leaving altogether.
An omnipresent pain throbbed through Max's body and head. She could faintly also sense a charge in the air broken by a painful rain and howling wind. Opening her eyes, she found her vision reduced to a narrow tunnel. She was laying on her back, and off in the distance she saw the storm. In her ears, she heard Chloe shouting, but only the sound of her voice reached her. The words themselves were lost in her ears as a thready heartbeat echoed in them.
A driving desire to see Chloe one last time took hold, but she lacked the strength to turn her head. Even the effort of keeping her eyes open became too much. A blackness overcame her and the only thing she could sense was her weak heart fluttering. A warm, floating sensation took hold, banishing the cold she didn't even realize had settled in her body. Then, nothing.
"Shit!" Max jerked in her seat as reality reasserted itself. In her chest, her heart thundered with all the determination in her soul to keep her body alive. It was another vision, and there was one thing that was very clear.
I died! I'm going to die!
"Max, are you okay?" Kate asked, again leaning over to look back at her. "You zoned out for a minute."
"I… had a vision," Max muttered, her hand over her chest in a futile attempt to quell her heart's desperate tattoo.
"Do we… need a new plan?" Kate asked, her face paling at the sight of Max.
Closing her eyes, Max tried to remember details from the vision other than her dying. "I… I'm not sure. I don't… think so."
Plan A. That's why she was there on the docks instead of the safety of the lighthouse. A terrible realization set in, leaving Max feeling helpless. Plan A worked. Or will work, if her visions were anything to go by. Maybe not perfectly, but it wasn't useless. And all it cost was her life. One life against a thousand. It was the same fucking conundrum she and Chloe faced at the lighthouse.
But she couldn't let Chloe be there! It was too dangerous. If Chloe were to die again, then it would all be for naught. Last time, she didn't pay attention to her visions until it was too late. Maybe this time she could use her visions to shape a future she could live with. First and foremost, she needed to keep Chloe away, no matter the cost. Plan A put Max there on the docks, but maybe there was a hint to a way to survive. The next vision, she would find it. A way out.
This was fate, trying to shackle her with fear and seal her away from what needed to be done. But she wouldn't let go of her truth. Being with Chloe was all that mattered. And it was her destiny to conquer fate—to quell its wrath and survive. She just needed to find the way.
Her heart returning to its normal pattern, Max gave a resolute nod. "Plan A will work."
"We still get to see you in action, right?" Warren asked as he pulled the car to a stop at the foot of the hill leading to the lighthouse.
Max nodded. "There are still… things to figure out. The more I know about my limits, the better."
I have to find a way to change the future. Those visions can't be my destiny!
Silence dominated the short trip up to the lighthouse. Warren practically buzzed with excitement, arms swinging further than necessary as he constantly fidgeted and faltered. It seemed like every other moment, he was looking over at Max, just waiting for something amazing to happen. For her part, Kate seemed to have a calm, introspective air to her. Max couldn't figure out what was going on in her head, though she found herself far too distracted by her own worries to really give it much thought.
Terror gripped Max's thoughts. What if she really couldn't defeat fate? Were her visions a warning of her folly? It sure seemed like that if she went with the half-formed plans they'd come up with in their all-night session in her dorm, then not only would Chloe be just as dead, Max would be right there with her. Maybe that was her destiny. To be a memory rotting in the dirt with Rachel and Chloe.
Her stomach turned and her vision swam.
Save her!
Just like that, the episode passed, as did her doubt. It didn't matter if it was one chance in a thousand. In a million. She had to try. What good was her power if it couldn't save the one person she cared for the most? No matter the cost, even if it had to be her own life, she would save Chloe.
As the group reached their destination, they naturally gravitated to the bench looking out over the bay. Max and Kate sat there, though Warren's energy had hardly dissipated. "So, how about a warm-up, Super Max?" Warren suggested.
"We practiced a lot last night," Max replied, not even sure herself what those words meant.
"Do you still have a migraine?" Kate asked, her warm hand gently resting on Max's.
"No," Max denied with a shake of her head. "I felt better after a few hours of sleep."
"Let's get to it, then!" Warren said. He rushed over to the railing, standing at the precipice of a vertical drop straight to the jagged rocks and frothy waters below. "I was thinking a classical experiment with a time-bending twist." Plucking a rock the size of a football from the ground, he rested it on the railing.
"Shouldn't keep him waiting," Kate whispered as she got up. "Not sure his heart can take the excitement."
Max got up but hesitated as she looked back over the area. It was different now. Peaceful. Quiet. No raging storm. No heartfelt goodbyes and mournful kisses.
Max's stomach painfully twisted as she allowed the memories to flow through her. As much as they hurt, she had made Chloe a promise. One she wouldn't break. She would never forget that moment. Not ever. But they would have more memories together. Better ones. Even if it killed her, Max would make sure of that.
Though the few steps over to the railing weren't enough to shake her own damning thoughts, it did give her time to at least pretend she was okay. "So, what's this experiment of yours?"
"Galileo's, actually," Warren said as he patted the rock. "This is yours, Max." As Max approached, he let her balance the ten-pound chunk of stone on the post as he stepped aside. "He posited that objects fall at the same rate, regardless of their mass. To prove it, he dropped things at the same time and watched them fall. We're gonna do that, only our stuff will come back to us. Right, Max?"
"Sooo, we're gonna throw shit in the ocean and I'm gonna rewind it back to us?" Max deadpanned.
Warren shrugged. "Basically. We'll each drop something at the same time, so they should all splash down at the same time. Should also return at the same time, too." To get the point across, he reached into his pocket and brought out his phone. He then held it out over the railing. "Kate?"
Max looked to her other side to see Kate slipping her necklace off. Mimicking Warren, she held it out over the ledge. "We have faith in you, Max," she said, a reassuring smile on her face.
Here Warren and Kate were, offering to throw away some of their most prized possessions because they believed in her. Didn't they pay attention? Every time she tried to fix things with her powers, it always ended up worse. Hell, she had a rock and she barely trusted herself with that.
"Kate? Can… can you switch me places? It might be easier if both of you were on the same side of me. So I don't have to split my attention."
Kate agreed, moving over so that she and Warren were both to Max's left. Then, Max held out the hefty rock with both hands to match Warren and Kate. "Ready?" Kate asked.
"On three," Warren instructed. He called out the numbers, and on three, the group released their objects. Despite the dozens of feet to the salty waters below, the fall lasted less than a few seconds for the trio to splash anti-climatically into the ocean.
Now, that just left the hardest part. Max took a deep breath to center herself as she turned to Warren and Kate. She held out one hand directly in front of her, her other hand directly at the duo. As she felt time parting and familiar pressure in her head, she saw not just her ghostly image work backward, but a phantom of Kate and Warren as well. They leaned over, watching the fall, before straightening back up with their arms outstretched. Their items returned to them. Just in time, too. The pressure built up so quickly! Max released the rewind, her hand reaching for her aching head as she released a pained hiss.
"That was amazing!" Warren shouted, fishing his phone from his pocket. "Did you go back as far as you could? I think I saw myself over by the bench for a second."
"I have to admit, that is always… exhilarating," Kate said, her fingers worrying her cross, once again dangling around her neck.
Max rubbed her temples. "Keeping both of you out of the rewind was a lot harder than just one of you. Which itself is like ten times harder than a normal rewind."
"But it proves you can keep more than just yourself out of the rewinds. More than just a person," Warren said. "I mean, you said yourself that items in your possession are exempt, but if you can reach out and remotely affect multiple things, Plan A just might stand a chance."
"Good," Max said, blinking away the worst of the pain in her head. It already started to dissipate into a dull ache. "What next?"
Warren held up three fingers. "Okay, we need to test three things about your powers. Distance, volume, and repeatability. We already crossed off duration, right?"
"I don't know that what we just did really counts," Max replied.
Kate's hand brushed against Max's arm, resting there. "Are you sure you can do this? We just started and you look…"
Max nodded. "I have to do this. I have to know everything I can and do everything I can."
"You can't save anyone if something happens to you," Kate retorted, her tone sweet but firm.
A ragged breath left her as Max turned and rested on the railing. "This is where it happened, you know." She lifted a finger, pointing over behind the bench. "We stood right over there. I gave my heart to her. Told her that, as long as I had her with me, everything would somehow be okay. I don't… I don't know how much I really believed that, but to give her up and let her die?" Max hung her head as a sob escaped her lips. "We kissed goodbye, and I… I promised her I would never forget her. I will never break that promise for as long as I live." Shaking her head, Max all but shouted. "But it isn't enough! I'll take her back! Even if it kills me, Chloe deserves to live. She doesn't deserve to die on a dirty bathroom floor believing that everyone in her life abandoned her!"
Max turned back around, looking out the ocean. "Warren, what's next on the agenda?"
"Distance is a good start," he muttered, his voice now devoid of the excitement he'd expressed all morning. "I count seven boats out there. Try rewinding the closest, then work your way farther out to see how far away you can keep something outside of your rewind."
Max looked down over the cliff. The closest was a small fishing boat dangerously close to the rocks. It couldn't have been more than four or five hundred feet away. Duration was important, too. Fishing out her phone, Max started a timer and set it on the post in front of her. "We'll see if distance affects how far back I can go, too."
"Great idea, Max," Warren said, just a bit of enthusiasm returning to his voice.
Extending both arms, she focused on the boat and keeping it clear of the rewind. As time danced backward, Max saw that boat continued moving forward, slowly but surely. It wasn't rewinding with the rest of reality. Max wanted to know how far back she could go, so she kept it up until her head threatened to burst. It wasn't very far back. She started when it hit minute two, and now it read 42 seconds.
"Did it work?" Kate asked, her eyes fixated on how Max held her head in pain.
"Yeah. The closest boat. I was able to rewind about a minute and 15 seconds," Max stammered out, trying her best not to aggravate the throbbing pain in her skull.
Warren chuckled. "We really should've gotten a baseline for your duration, but still, that boat's a good 200 meters out there. It's pretty impressive. The next one is probably closer to a kilometer. Can you rewind with it?"
Max looked down at the numbers ticking on the screen. "I'll go when the timer hits four minutes." The boat was so far away, Max wasn't sure if she'd have any indication if the rewind affected it or not. But still, she had to try. Both arms reached out, and time flitted backward once more. Though Max couldn't see the ship well enough, something in her fingers—a deliberate absence—told her that it wasn't affected. It was too far.
Releasing the rewind early, Max cursed. "I can't reach it. And the storm…" Images of the tornado flitted through her mind's eye. The wall of the tornado was further away than that second boat. "I'll never reach it from here."
"Max, you said it yourself, this is the only safe place in Arcadia Bay," Kate said.
"Yeah. So I don't get to be safe during Plan A." It wasn't new information. Her visions had her on the docks. And dying in Chloe's arms. Needed to change at least that last thing, but this didn't seem to be giving her any real answers.
"We should come up with a new plan," Warren said. "If you can't even reach a kilometer, you would have to be way too close to do anything. It's too dangerous."
Max shook her head, regretting the motion as pain bloomed anew. "No time."
"Dude, you're a time-traveler! Time is the only thing we have an excess of," Warren said. "We go back to the drawing board. Find a new plan."
"No. My way back. My permanent return to the past is a one-time thing, I think. And that window closes after tonight," Max said, trying to remember the exact words of the spirits. "Technically tomorrow, but my dad is going to drag me back to Seattle before then. So I have to go back. Today."
"What should we do?"
"Why don't we take a break?" Kate suggested. "We can take a step back and weigh our options."
Warren gave her an approving look. "Max?"
Max turned back and snatched her phone. "Let's do lunch and see if we can figure something out."
They piled into the vehicle, with Max once again opting for the back seat alone. "Did we even learn anything at all?" Max muttered after shutting the door and donning her seatbelt.
"Plan A is doomed to failure?" Kate replied as the car started and pulled out.
A pang of fear and regret passed through Max. "It… it's still the best option."
"We knew your power had limits before we started, but now we know a little bit more about them," Warren offered. "Max can only rewind so far, and now we know that the farther away something is, the harder it is for Max to leave it out of the rewind. We can also presume that the bigger an area she leaves out of the rewind, the harder it is as well."
"We can?" I asked.
"Logically speaking," Warren admitted. "Of course, given your powers could just as easily be magic, who knows?"
"Explain it to me," Max insisted.
Warren adjusted the mirror so he could see Max in the backseat. "Okay. So your powers affect spacetime. Not time."
"Spacetime?" Max's mind wandered back to the first futile time she tried to make sense of her powers. "I don't quite follow."
"Space and time are not separate. They are two sides of the same coin. Time is an inherent property of space. So it makes sense that the farther away something is, the more effort it would take you to affect it with your powers. It's not just farther away in space. It's farther away in time. And your powers can only rewind so far back."
"I… sort of follow you, I guess."
"Wait," Kate said, leaning over so she could look at Max and Warren. "Doesn't Max's power go out way beyond all that? I mean, doesn't the whole world go back in time when she uses her power?"
"I would guess that Max's power affects the whole universe," Warren said. "Satellites would get messed up if it just affected the planet, and the planets' orbits would appear distorted if it affected anything less than the solar system. There's no reason to believe that there is a limit to what is rewound, only what is not rewound." A moment passed before Warren shouted. "Holy shit!"
"Warren!" Kate hissed.
"Sorry, but, don't you see? That's Max's power!" Warren shouted, way too loud for the conversation in the car. "Max doesn't rewind the universe. The universe must spontaneously rewind all the time, it's just immeasurable because we rewind with it. Max can exclude things from the rewinding! Fuck! The arrow of time is wrong! Time goes both ways!"
Max shrugged. "For me it does. But how does that help me use my power or to save Arcadia Bay?"
"Max… this… the implications for physics based on this—"
"Is more important than the lives of everyone in Arcadia Bay?" Max snapped back.
Warren sighed, his hands gripping and ungripping the wheel. "No. Just… it's a really profound thought and it totally makes sense. That's why you have the limits you do when clearly the whole of existence is affected. But you're right. Theories later. Fix the problems now."
"Any ideas on how to fix the problems?" Kate asked.
A heavy silence filled the car.
As the group piled out of the car, Max spotted a familiar RV occupying the parking lot. Max knew she needed to try to do without the Xanax, but today promised to be a trying day. The last piece of the pill Frank gave her was gone before breakfast, too. "Hey, why don't you two get us a table? I think I need to talk to someone." Warren and Kate hesitated. Especially Warren. Max put her hand on his shoulder. "I can take care of myself."
Warren nodded. "Just… call or text if you need us, okay?"
Max headed over to the RV, giving the door a light knock. From inside, she heard a shuffling, then, the door cracked open. The moment Frank's eyes fell on her, he smiled. "Well, if it ain't my favorite scrawny ass witch."
Rolling her eyes, Max let his complete and total lack of charm pass. "Invite a girl in?"
"Hell yeah," Frank said, opening the door and stepping aside.
Once inside, Pompidou came running up to her, tail wagging. "Hey there, Pompidou," she said as she crouched down to pet him.
"I somehow doubt this is a social call," Frank said, stepping past Max into the tiny kitchen area. "Need more chill pills?"
"Just one," Max said, her attention still being slathered on the overgrown, overviscious puppy.
"You gotta be kidding me. Just one?"
This time, Max looked up. "It's all I'm going to need."
"For today, maybe," Frank said. "I'm not gonna be around for you to stop by every goddamn day. Stock up."
"You don't get it," Max said, snorting out a bitter chuckle. "Won't need any more after today. I'm… I'll be performing a ritual tonight. One that'll fix things for good… Hopefully."
"A ritual?" He crossed his arms over his chest. Though he tried to exude a tough exterior, he just couldn't will that ghost of a smile away. He was loving this shit. "So what, you and your coven are just gonna cure you of all the psycho shit?"
"Just me. And the way I see it, all my problems stem from her being dead. So I'm gonna fix that."
That wiped that smile off his face. "You-you're serious? You're gonna raise the fucking dead?"
Max shrugged. "More like, make sure they never died in the first place."
Frank's eyes were wide. "What… what about Rachel? Can you do the same for her?"
And the power shifted, putting Max on the defensive. "I… I don't know. Maybe. I only get one shot, so I have to make sure I get it right and Chloe is my only priority."
"Fuck, you know Chloe misses her more than I do!"
"I… I know," Max muttered. "We'll see what I can do. I promise. Now, about that Xanax."
"Five bucks."
"What, seriously?" Max asked.
"This ain't a charity, and you're not buying in bulk. Five bucks is the friends and witches price." He licked his lips. "But tell you what. You bring Rachel back, and I'll hook you up for life. No charge."
Fishing the money from her wallet, Max passed the money over to Frank. He took it and disappeared into his room at the end of the RV only to return a moment later with a single yellow tablet between his fingers. "One Xanax."
Max took it, stowing it in her bag. "I'll do what I can to make things right," she said as she turned and stepped down to the door. As she reached for the door, an errant thought wormed its way to the forefront of her mind. "And Frank. This is goodbye. Pretty good chance this is gonna kill me, and even if it doesn't, I'm not gonna need Xanax or even have powers anymore."
"Hmm," Frank shrugged. "Good luck."
Max walked out of the RV before making a beeline for the diner. Lucky for her, Kate and Warren were at her favorite table. It wasn't hard to figure out why. Joyce stood behind the counter. She offered Max a strained smile and a half-hearted wave, which Max returned.
"Sorry about that," Max muttered as she slid in next to Kate. "Unfinished business."
Warren leaned over, hissing, "That was the fucking drug dealer, wasn't it?"
"His name's Frank," Max replied evenly. "He's not a good person, but… he did save Rachel and Chloe's life, once. He's not all bad."
Max straightened up as Joyce came back around. "Hey, Joyce. How are you?"
"I'm… I'm taking it one day at a time," she replied, her voice straining.
"I know the feeling," Max replied, nodding just a bit.
The awkward banter ended as Joyce took Max's drink order and the table's meals. After she retreated, Max breathed a bitter sigh. "I ruined her life, too," she muttered.
"You saved her life," Kate said, pressing her palm gently against Max's upper arm.
"She would've rather Arcadia Bay be razed than for Chloe to go like that," Max replied.
"You don't know that," Kate said.
Max sighed again. "Talking to Frank got me thinking. I haven't thought about it really since the storm. I don't know what happens when I jump and change the past."
"What do you mean?" Warren asked.
"I jump to the past, change something, then I come back to the present. But it's different because of what I changed," Max explained. "I mean, this time will be different because I'm not going to return. But still, what happens to the reality I left behind? Does it transform into the new reality? Does it stop existing? Does it… keep going on like nothing happened?"
Max took several deep breaths, trying desperately to keep from devolving into another episode. "Was this all for naught? Is there a Max in some other reality stuck staring at a picture, not understanding why her power isn't working while Arcadia Bay is destroyed? Did Chloe's sacrifice save anyone at all? Or did I just make an additional reality where she died, too?"
"It transforms," Warren said, his voice firm and confident. Max looked up to see a smirk on his face. "The arrow of time is wrong. Sorry, but you were the one that didn't want to wax philosophical. And yet, here we are."
"Okay, so explain it to me," Max said, reveling in the fact that Warren's confidence warded her episode off. In her chest, her heart slowed and her breathing returned to normal.
"The arrow of time postulates that time can only go in one direction, that it is asymmetrical. We all know that's wrong. My theory is that only our perception is asymmetrical, and your power allows you to pierce through that veil. So you return to a point in the past, then time shifts forward again, the events running in a different way lead to a different present. But it's all in the same reality. There's no split in timelines, because time. Is. Not. Linear." Warren leaned back smiling. "Chloe really did die to save all of us. And you can save her, too."
While Max didn't fully understand the explanation, it brought to her untold relief. Because what she did understand was that there were no Maxes left behind. Arcadia Bay was never destroyed. Not in this reality or any other. That event never happened. "Thank you, Warren," Max said, feeling her whole body relax as she leaned back in the booth.
"Now, that doesn't preclude the existence of multiple realities," Warren said, forcing Max to tense up again. "Just that you aren't hopping between them. You're here, with us. Whether we can remember all the back and forth shifts or not."
"That's enough philosophy," Max said, relaxing again. "My heart can't take anymore."
With that, the trio again tried to come up with some way Max could use her power or otherwise change history to stop the storm. One whole meal and a Xanax fragment later, and still, they had nothing new. Worse, toward the end, Max got a text from her dad saying that he was in town. Max told him where they were and he agreed to meet them there.
"So, what do we do now?" Kate asked.
"We're out of time," Warren agreed.
Max shook her head. "I take care of business here. I jump back, and… I execute Plan A, B, and C. We haven't come up with anything new, so we go with the old plan."
"But, B and C aren't foolproof, that's why we have Plan A and your powers… they're not enough for Plan A to work," Warren argued.
"And we don't have a better idea."
"Fuck!" Warren muttered, holding his head in his hands. "Max, do you have any idea how crazy this is?"
"It's my only chance."
Kate leaned toward Max. "I have faith in you."
Max shook her head. "I guess that makes one of us."
"Now, are you three stayin' for dessert or just loitering?" Joyce said, forcing a smile. "Of course, for you three, I wouldn't mind too much if you stayed all afternoon."
"We're waiting for my dad," Max replied. "He should be here soon."
"Ryan Caulfield? I haven't seen him in ages. Not since…"
"Joyce, do you have a break soon?" Max hurried to fill the silence. "There… there is something I wanted to talk to you about."
Joyce pointed over to the door where a woman was stepping in. "Gina just got here. Let me hand everythin' off to her and I'll be right back."
Max turned back to her friends as Joyce walked back behind the counter. "Do you two think you could give us a bit of time alone?" Receiving affirmations from both, Max asked them if they could keep an eye out for her dad. They agreed after Max showed them his picture on her phone so they would know who to look out for.
Sure enough, it didn't even take two minutes for Joyce to return and take a seat where Warren was. This time, she didn't even try. She rested her head in her hand as she leaned on the table. "Some days are harder than others," she said. "Today has been… bad."
"I'm sorry, Joyce," Max apologized, her gaze falling away from the tired face of the woman who was practically her second mother. "I… I'll try to make it better."
"Max, having you here has been the only silver lining on this endless storm," Joyce replied, sitting up so she could reach across the table and take Max's hand in her own.
Max withdrew her hand. "No, Joyce. I am the storm. I let Chloe die." Everything in her abdomen painfully squirmed at the vile words, sending bile up the back of her throat.
"You can't blame yourself just because you were there," Joyce said.
"No. I made a choice. A deliberate choice. I was in that bathroom specifically to let Chloe die." Taking a deep breath, Max took a mug into her hand. A glance over at the pastry display and she felt the heft of the cup. With a small nod, she chucked the mug at the display, shattering both.
Joyce's head whipped over at the crash, watching the splintered glass and ceramic litter the counter and floor. "Max! What in the devil—"
Joyce's protests died as the cascade of glass rose from the ground, replaced itself in perfect order, and the cracks vanished as the mug reassembled on the impact point. The mug then launched only to land in a ghostly hand. Max was in two places at once. One, had both arms extended and was still. The other caught the mug before placing it back on the table.
The episode ended, and Max lowered her arms. "I can redo moments," she said, panting just a bit. The inside of her head throbbed, but such a short stunt proved to be quite bearable. "Chloe died before, and I brought her back."
"I don't… understand," Joyce muttered, looking between Max and the unshattered confectionery counter.
"When Nathan shot Chloe, I discovered that I had the ability to rewind time. That was the first time I saved her," Max said. She closed her eyes, trying to find her center through her regret and sorrow. "But… that action. Changing the natural course of events led to a storm. A terrible storm." Just mentioning the storm sent an icy chill through her veins, as if just invoking its presence invited death to take dominion over her.
"This… this is all too much!" Joyce hissed. "You can control time? If-if you can do that then why? Why wouldn't you save Chlo—"
"She asked me not to!" Max snapped back. Breaths squeezed in and out her chest in uncomfortable haste. "That storm… it kills everyone in Arcadia Bay. I had to choose between Chloe, or everyone and everything in Arcadia Bay. I chose Chloe, but Chloe… she asked me to go back. To save you. Everyone. It only would only cost one life. Chloe's."
Joyce stared, eyes glassy and mouth hanging open. Finally, it snapped closed as she shook her head. "I… understand what you're sayin', but I just can't believe it."
"Chloe didn't die for no reason. She chose to die in order to save you. To save all of Arcadia Bay. The only reason anyone here is alive is because Chloe made that sacrifice," Max explained. She reached out again, her hand only making halfway across the table before Joyce's hands desperately wrapped around it. Max swallowed, though the action did little to calm her twisting insides. "But that was Chloe's choice. Not mine. And Chloe's not the one with the power to beat fate. I'm… I'm going to change my decision. I'm bringing Chloe back."
Tears streaked down Joyce's face as her eyes went wide. "You… can do that? Bring her back to me?"
"If Warren's right, it'll be more like she never died in the first place," Max replied. "But… that means the storm will come again. I'm going to do everything I can to keep everyone safe, but…" A long sigh in and out and Max's gaze fell away as her hand went slack in Joyce's. "I don't know that I can save everyone. This decision. This choice that I'm making will save Chloe, but it also means that good, innocent people might die because of it. It's selfish, but—"
"Be selfish!" Joyce practically shouted at her, her hands gripping Max's harder as she stared at Max with a fierce fire burning in her eyes. "Bring her back."
Save her!
Max nodded. "I will."
Tears continued to stream down Joyce's cheeks, but she smiled as she breathed a ragged, exuberant breath out. "I feel like this can't be real. That I've gone mad and imagined this all to comfort myself."
Detangling her hand from Joyce's vise-like grip, Max left the booth to round the table and wrap her arms around Joyce. "You took care of me for years, Joyce. Just for today, let me take care of you. I'll fix everything… or die trying."
"Oh, Max!" Joyce returned the embrace, squeezing Max with an uncomfortable pressure. "I… I don't know what to say."
"Just… just be there for Chloe. I know you won't remember any of this. All this will be erased when I save her, but… I know you, Joyce." Tears broke free, but Max kept her voice steady as she held Joyce. "Put the last five years behind you two, like we did. She wants you in her life. I'll make sure you get that chance."
The embrace ended, and Joyce grabbed a napkin from the table to sop up her ruined makeup. "You can make that happen? You really can?"
Max reached out, placing a hand on Joyce's shoulder with a reassuring squeeze. "I'll make it happen. I promise."
"Maxine!" The duo looked up to find Ryan Caulfield waving as he stepped toward them. "And Joyce Price, it's been such a long time. I really wish it was under better circumstances."
"It's Madsen, now," Joyce corrected him, plucking at her tired eyes with her fingers. A weary smile touched her lips. "And it's all right. Max will fix everything!"
Then, Ryan moved backward, raising his hand again in a wave, before lowering it and exiting the diner. Everything else in the diner ran in reverse at a breakneck speed for a few more moments before Max lowered her arm.
"What in tarnation?" Joyce looked over at Max, shooting her a quizzical look.
"Dad doesn't know," Max explained. She slid back into the booth, holding out her arm in a gesture for Joyce to rejoin her. "I… don't know if I will. Tell him, I mean." In some weird, cosmic sense, this could be one of her last chances to tell him how much he and her mom just how much they mean to her, especially given that, should she find herself unable to change her vision, her days were numbered.
"Maxine!" Ryan greeted again. "And Joyce Price, it's been such a long time. I wish it was under better circumstances."
"It's Madsen, now," Joyce corrected him, giving Max a long look before turning back to Ryan as he stepped up to the table.
"Right, sorry," Ryan spoke up, filling a silence that wasn't there last time. "And I'm so sorry for your loss. If anything happened to Maxine I…" He reached out, putting a firm hand on Joyce's shoulder. "If there's anything I can do for you, just name it."
Joyce turned back to look at Max. "I think… everything will turn out okay. Right, Max?"
For the first time, Max looked over at her dad, a pang of deep guilt settling in her stomach. She had to remember that this was all for Chloe. Even if it cost her life and put her parents through hell, she had to. For Chloe. "I'll find a way."
Ryan cracked a smile as he met his daughter's eyes. "I'm glad to see you in better spirits." He leaned over the table, wrapping his arms around Max's shoulders and drawing her into a hug.
Max returned the gesture. "I just… I had an epiphany. I found my truth, and I won't let it go."
I won't let her go.
"Joyce, a little help?"
The hug ended and the trio turned to the waitress as she headed out with a full tray. Sighing, Joyce stood. "Looks like I've overstayed my break, unless Max here wants to give me some more time." She gave Max a wink.
Oh my Dog. That's where Chloe gets that shit from.
"I'm sure dad has a nice, long lecture for me," Max said, chancing a glance over at Ryan as she also slid out of the booth. The duo bid Joyce a farewell, with Ryan restating that he was there for her if she needed anything. A bit of coercing and Max convinced her dad to let her ride back to Blackwell with Kate and Warren. She didn't even have to rewind. Her dad must've been really worried about her.
After admonishing the duo for failing to warn her about her dad walking in, Max talked Kate and Warren into helping her handle her dad while she finished up her final preparations. So, once they arrived at Blackwell, Warren and Kate played interference with her dad as he carried the box full of Polaroids, allowing Max to make a beeline for her dorm ahead of the other three. Once inside, she made sure to tear down her "Save Chloe" collage, now separated into Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C from when they were working out the plans for her jump back.
She barely got the collage torn down before Kate and Warren led Ryan into the tiny room. Ryan didn't seem to notice, instead just grunting as he waved the large box about. "Where do you want this?"
Max leapt from her bed, pointing at it. "Just put it down here." As soon as Ryan released it, Max tipped it over, sending a wave of Polaroids over her bed. The box was tossed aside as she glanced through the pictures. Her fingers started gathering up the images without her in them. "Help me out, here," Max said, tossing the rejects back into the box. "Throw anything that doesn't have me in it in the box."
Kate and Warren didn't need further explanation, heading over to sift through the mound of pictures with Max. Ryan cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Maxine, is everything all right? No tour of the room, no explanation of what's going on or why you had me bring your pictures, no… talk about what's really going with you?"
"Keep at it," Max murmured to her two friends as she pried her attention away from her pictures. "Sorry, Dad," she said as she stepped away from the bed. "There's… a lot going on and the explanation is… there isn't one." Was she just supposed to tell him the truth? That was certainly an option. It wasn't like she was keeping it a big secret anymore. Everyone would forget soon.
Max sucked in a deep breath, holding for a few seconds before letting it slowly out. "I'm sorry, dad," I said. Telling him would probably mean letting him know the risks. Letting him know his precious little girl was risking genocide to save just one life—letting him know that there was the very real chance that this trip to the past would prove fatal, was too much. One more secret. One more lie. "I know you and Mom are probably super worried about me, and I never meant to hurt you two. It's just… it's been a lot."
"I know. And I'm so sorry your mom and I haven't been there for you like we should've," Ryan said, placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "But don't worry, we've both taken time off work to focus on you and getting you better, okay?"
That was worse. Just another thing to feel guilty over. Not only had she scared her parents to death about her wellbeing, but they were also blowing off their careers to support her now non-existent crisis.
It's okay. Max reminded herself. None of this ever happened.
A deep breath and Max nodded. "Thanks."
"Have you started packing? We do have a long trip ahead of us," Ryan said as he withdrew his hand.
Max shook her head. "Do I really even need to? I still have clothes and stuff at home."
"There's nothing you want to take with you?"
The question felt like a trap. Was not wanting to bring anything a cry for help? Probably. Still, it was hard to know what she should want to pack, given that she had no intention of going anywhere Chloe wasn't still alive.
"I, uh… guess I should pack some stuff, huh?" Max looked over to Kate and Warren, silently begging for help.
Warren jumped to the rescue. "Hey, why don't I show you around campus while Max packs?"
"You do realize that I took the full tour with Maxine when I brought her here, right?" Ryan put on a wry smile at Warren's cowed expression. "But I also realize a ruse when I see one." He turned to Max, putting a hand on her shoulder. "If you need some alone time, just say so. But we really do need to get on the road soon, okay?"
"Just a few minutes, Pop, okay?" Max all but begged, clasping her hands in front of her.
Ryan turned his attention back to Warren. "Do you think the Principal might still be on campus?"
"He lives here, so yeah," Warren said as he stepped by Ryan and toward the door. "Let's try his office first, though. He might still be there."
"Sounds like a plan," Ryan agreed, letting Warren lead him out. Before closing the door behind him, he leaned back in. "We'll be back soon, okay Maxine?"
"Yeah," Max replied, sending him a smile. As the door closed, a feeling of relief washed over her. It didn't last long. The seeping dread of what still had to be done clawed its way to the front of her mind. "Okay, let's get to work."
"Right," Kate agreed, going back to the pile of photos.
They sifted for a few minutes before Kate passed one back to Max that gave her pause. It showed Max and Kristen together. Though Max appeared in her regular attire, Kristen had a pair of silly, plastic rabbit ears on her head. It was from an Easter party Kristen and Fernando dragged her to.
Wasn't that also Spring Break?
"When was Easter?"
"March 31st," Kate replied almost instantly.
"Three weeks before…" Max took the photo, pinning it up on her board before moving the last photo William took next to it. Then, she removed from her bag the recreated photo from this morning. "I think… This is what I was looking for."
Before Max was three opportunities to the past. Three different times she could return to, permanently. Three choices.
First, there was the recreated photo. It would put her back in the week she spent with Chloe, and that Chloe would remember everything… all the good things, at least. Their midnight swim. Their kiss. But it would give her almost no time to come up with a plan to defy the storm. Only a couple of days to get everything together and try to save Arcadia Bay. Two days with Chloe before she would have to risk everything to save the Bay. And if she failed, it really would leave Chloe all alone in the world again. No Dad. No Rachel. No Max. All that spoke nothing of the biggest risk—it wasn't an original photo. There was the very real risk that this photo would literally just send her back to this morning, sealing Chloe's fate forever.
Then, there was the photo from the Easter party. It was far enough back that she could save Rachel, too. Even in Chloe's final moments, her thoughts trailed to her fallen angel. A girl she loved probably more than she loved even Max. And Max could return her to Chloe, forever. Then, even if Max died, Chloe would still have someone to lean on. Chloe could still be happy. But that would seal away any hope Max had of a relationship with Chloe. And there was the problem of even getting to Arcadia Bay to save Rachel. Sure, it was Spring Break, but there was no guarantee her parents would let her go to Arcadia Bay or that Chloe would accept her after her five years of silence. And, if the storm did trigger the moment she got back, she may not even get a chance to save anyone from her prison in Seattle.
There was also the option to save everyone. A world where William lives is also a world where Chloe is paralyzed. But if Max got to go back permanently, she could stop that from happening, right? She would even have the opportunity to stop Jefferson before he hurt anyone in Arcadia Bay, including Rachel. It would even give her the chance to take back her silence, allowing her to stay in touch with Chloe for those five, long years. But it had even more risk than going back to Easter. She would start her life over at thirteen years old. If the storm started the moment she got back, then there really would be no way for her to be in Arcadia Bay when it hit. Everyone would die. Again.
Max weighed her options before she reached out and snatched a picture down from the board. "I'm ready," she said, clutching the photo as she scrambled off the bed.
They left the dorm, headed for the Tobanga as they sent Warren a text to meet them there. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" Kate asked as they waited by the Tobanga.
Max shook her head, doing her best to make sure that was the only part of her that shook. "I don't have any more time. This is my only chance to save everyone. It's reckless, and I just know I'm going to fuck it up like I do everything. I… I just, I have to try. I have to."
"I'm praying for you, Max," Kate said. "I believe in you."
Her lip twitched, nearly curling into a smile before it gave up. "I wish I did."
"Yo, Max!"
The duo looked up at the shout to see Warren approaching. Thankfully, Ryan hung back as Warren joined the girls. "You're doing this, right now?"
Max's gaze stayed on her dad. "It's now or never. And I'm not letting things end this way." Her own words tore at the back of mind. What if it ends worse because of this? Every time she tried, it just got worse. But she had to try. Keep trying until it got better, or she couldn't try anymore. She had to make sure Chloe stayed safe. If nothing else, she could be at peace if only she could make that one thing happen.
Max turned back to the Tobanga. "Kate, Warren… Thank you. I… I was never good at making friends. Next to Chloe, you two are the best I've ever known. So… thank you." Placing a hand on the Tobanga, Max felt thrumming energy in her fingertips that ran through her whole body. Though the spirits didn't speak, the message was clear. It was time.
"No, Max. Thank you," Kate said, clasping her hands in front of herself. "You are one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. So kind and sincere. I know I might not remember any of this, but I pray that you always treasure our happy times together."
Warren held out a hand, hesitating for a second or two before finally letting it rest on Max's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "You got this, Mad Max. Don't just save Chloe. Save everyone. And you better show me your powers in that timeline, too!"
Reality bent and twisted as Max focused on the photo. Sights and sounds from the past bled into the present. Then, in a flash of light, the present vanished.
Author's Notes: This story will continue on. Chapter 10 will hopefully be ready to publish soon as a continuation of option one. However, that isn't the only choice available to Max. Option two (going back to Easter) is being continued in the M-rated "Evoker" and option three (saving William) will be posted in the next few weeks.