Chapter 6: Helpless

CHLOE:

Max darted out of the Two Whales and onto the sidewalk, I followed closely behind her.

Her breaths were rapid and panicked, she paced back and forth with her hands on her head, disheveling her hair. Tears streamed down her face.

I reached out a hand to her, stopping her. I stepped in front of her and placed my hands on her shoulders.

"Max, just look at me," She trembled beneath my hands, "Breathe, Max. In through your nose and out through your mouth."

Her breathing continued to speed up as she became more pale.

"In through the nose...out through the mouth," I breathed with her, and we did this for probably a minute or two.

It was obvious that she still had high anxiety, but I'd stopped her from hyperventilating too much.

She bent over with her hands on her knees, still trembling.

Tears dropped from her chin onto the sidewalk, leaving tiny wet splotches on it.

I offered her one of my jacket sleeves, and she wiped her eyes on it.

I bent down with her as our hair obscured our faces, cars sped past us on the road.

"I've dealt with my fair share of panic attacks too, never quite got used to them," I said, trying to comfort her.

She sniffled, "M-my powers are…" she struggled to get the last words out, choking on them, "...gone, Chloe."

"You don't need them."

"What?"

I half-grinned, "Max...you don't need powers to be an everyday hero."

She continued to look at the ground, silent.

"I shouldn't have asked you, Max. I...I shouldn't have asked you to use your powers."

She stood up straight, her voice was hoarse, "No, Chloe. I think you did me a favor."

I stood up straight too, "No, dude. I tried to make you do something you didn't want to do. I need to keep my damn mouth shut sometimes."

"Besides, I no longer doubt you."

She sniffled, "Yeah, I know."

We stood in silence for a few tense moments.

"Our uh...food is probably ready, you think you'll be able to eat?"

Wiping her reddened eyes, she mumbled, "I'll try."

She composed herself and walked back into the Two Whales, sitting back down at our booth.

Our food was there and Joyce stood nearby, noticing something was wrong with Max.

She ran over to her concerned, placing her hand on Max's shoulder, "Are you okay, sweetheart? I saw you bolting out of here."

I answered for her, "She just had a panic attack, she's going through a lot of stress right now."

Joyce put on a motherly face, "Awww, poor thing. Blackwell beating you down?"

Max tried to grin but couldn't, "Yeah, that and a few other...things."

"Tell you what, sweetie," Joyce pulled out our bill and ripped it in two.

"I'm not making you pay for the meal."

Max gawked at her, "What? No, Joyce I can't-"

"I insist," Joyce placed a hand over her heart, smiling.

"It's on the house."

Max went wide eyed, "Th-thank you...so much."

Joyce gestured to the food, "You're very welcome, young lady. Now enjoy."

My eyes went wide too, "Wow, Mom...thanks."

She didn't hear me, I'd mumbled it.

We sat down and dug in, eating like ravenous dogs. We didn't even pause to speak; I guess we really were that hungry.

We finished our meals, and Max left a sizeable tip on the table. I chipped in what little I had.

I sat down in the truck, feeling like I weighed ten more pounds.

I said what I felt, "I feel about ten pounds heavier."

Max put her hand on her stomach and grinned, "Me too."

Thoughts of this alleged dark room flashed through my mind.

I gulped, "Max?"

"Yeah?"

"What's in the dark room?"

She stared at me for a moment, thinking out her response, "I'm not gonna lie, Chloe...It's not good, not good at all."

"You better have my back in case I have a panic attack."

She smiled, "I'll have your back, Chloe. I promise."

I sighed, then tried to psyche myself up, "Good, now let's do this shit."

We set off, screeching away onto the road.

We pulled up onto a heavily wooded dirt trail a few miles later. It opened up into a flat area, and there stood a large, rickety old barn. Several rusty antique cars surrounded it. The truck shut off with a rumble and a groan.

"Guess you should grab that pistol, we're going to need it."

I grinned, "Right, for the lock."

I pulled the giant revolver from the glovebox, and got out as she led the way.

We walked around the side of the barn; she ducked her head and entered through a gap that had been covered by a sheet of corrugated metal.

I went in behind her, spotting her crouching over an area of the barn floor.

She took up armfuls of mildewed hay that covered it, revealing a heavy steel trap door.

I kneeled beside her, "So that's it right there?"

She glanced over at me briefly, before looking back down at it, "I don't know if going all Dirty Harry on the lock is such a good idea."

I frowned, "Maybe not, but I'm trying it anyways."

She got up and stood back, "Whenever you're ready."

My heart was in my mouth as I cocked the hammer.

I stood up and backed away from the steel door, training the heavy pistol onto the large padlock.

'Inhale...exhale...slowly pull the trigger.'

My ears rang as the deafening crack reverberated throughout the barn, the revolver emitted a massive fireball and jumped up within millimeters of hitting me in the face. My hands and wrists felt like they'd been slapped with a ruler.

"That...was badass!" I lowered the hand cannon.

"What? I can't hear you over the sound of my eardrums getting punctured."

I tilted my head at her, "Why didn't you cover your ears?"

"Because, if you can't cover your ears then neither will I. It's only fair."

She pointed to the lock, "Did you hit it?"

Sure enough, I did. It had a large hole punched through it.

I whooped in victory, "Fuck yes, first try!"

Max jiggled the padlock, and it came undone as pieces fell off of it.

We both struggled to lift the door, it had to weigh at least 150 pounds.

It fell open with a thud, kicking up dust and hay and revealing concrete steps.

She wasted no time in going down there, punching in a three digit code beside the door.

It beeped, and we cracked open the vault-like door.

"Are you sure you want to go in?" She glanced over at me as I stood right behind her.

I gulped, "No, I'm not sure."

I stepped past her and went in, the frigid air gave me chills.

Shelves upon shelves filled the initial room, each of these shelves had various cans of food and supplies.

My mouth was agape, "Holy shit, look at this place…"

That room opened up into another area, a white backdrop was draped over the wall and floor. A single splintery wooden chair sat on it, with duct tape around the armrests and legs. Various photography equipment was scattered throughout the room. Red binders filled a particular shelf, I read off the names:

Lynn

Kelly

Grace

Ashley

My heart sank:

Rachel

I grabbed her binder and flipped through it, making me nauseous the more I looked.

Rachel had been photographed in several revealing positions, haunting image after haunting image. Progressively looking sadder and lonelier as they went on.

I slammed the binder shut, as my organs tied themselves into knots. I felt my abdominal muscles contract as the bitter taste of bile filled my mouth. I swallowed it back down, shuddering.

A rolling metal table had various syringes and empty vials. I picked one of them up and read it, 'Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid.'

I put it back down and looked around, noticing Max had hung back.

She stood at the entrance, "You okay, Max?"

"I don't want to go in there again."

"Again?" I asked, confused.

Her eyes welled up with tears, "Chloe...there's something I haven't told you."

She choked, "Jefferson hurt me too. I...I saw him kill you with a bullet to the head as he injected me with something."

My blood rushed to my head as my face went hot, "He...hurt you?"

"It was awful, Chloe. He was going to kill me, and...and…" She started bawling, dropping to her knees. It was the most anguished I'd ever seen her; drool ran from her mouth, hanging in stringy strands from her chin as her face went beet red.

I dropped to my knees and clutched her, holding the back of her head with my hand, feeling every jagged breath.

After a moment her crying had died down, her voice was muffled as I still held her, "I'm s-sorry, Chloe. I...just can't go in there."

I ground my teeth in utter rage, how could somebody hurt Max? How could anybody be that evil? Not only just towards her, but to Rachel too, and countless other girls.

"Max, this is probably the only time you'll ever hear me say this. We need to call the cops...now."

MAX:

It was an open and shut case. Following a brief investigation, Mark Jefferson was arrested and charged with so many crimes that the rap sheet took several minutes to read.

Nathan Prescott was arrested too, and he got charged for his own crimes after he sang like a canary.

Apparently, Mr. Jefferson had been enticing Nathan into doing bad things, drugging and photographing Chloe, for instance. Mr. Jefferson tried to act like a fatherly figure towards Nathan, since Nathan's father wasn't the nicest to him.

However, when Jefferson kidnapped Rachel, Nathan refused to be a part of it. This had saved Rachel's life, since Nathan hadn't had the chance to kill her. An issue that was never brought up in court, though, was the fact that we didn't know where Rachel was.

It seemed as if everyone else knew something we didn't, and this infuriated us.

If nobody would tell us where Rachel was, we'd find out for ourselves.

We got home from court late that night, exhausted.

The hospital-like odor of the dark room still danced around in my nostrils, even though I hadn't been there in a while. I had memorized the smell. Neither of us could sleep, it had been one fucked up past few days.

Chloe lay sprawled out beside me, "Fuck this, Max. I've got something that'll put us to sleep."

She leaned over her side of the bed, turning a lamp on and opening a jar. She pulled out a joint.

She cleared her throat, "I know you're not big on drugs, but I think this'll help. You know, that's why I started smoking it in the first place, to help with my insomnia. Maybe it'll help with your uh...you know."

"Uh, I'm not so sure about it, Chloe. It's...not going to make me see things, is it?"

Chloe chuckled, "No, Max. It'll just mellow you out and make everything funny."

She flicked on a lighter and held the joint in the flame, sucking air through it with her mouth.

Chloe took a few hits and handed it off to me, smelling strongly of skunkiness.

"Since you've never smoked before, I'd only take a hit or two...probably only one."

I gawked at the joint in my hand, "I've never smoked anything, not even cigarettes."

We both sat with criss crossed legs on the bed, "Basically, you want to draw the smoke into your mouth and hold it there, and then inhale it quickly before exhaling. It makes it a little less harsh that way."

I handed her the joint and she demonstrated, "See, just like that." Her eyes began to redden.

She handed it back to me, "Well, here goes nothing...I guess."

I held it to my lips and did exactly what she said to do, twice. Surprisingly, I didn't cough.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth and my lips tingled.

I gave it back to her, and she let it smoulder out on an ashtray.

"Thanks, Chloe."

She lay back down after turning off the lamp, "No problem, dude."

I got back under the covers and waited, a tingling sensation went through my body and my head felt fuzzy.

I giggled, "This feels funny."

She responded, sounding out if it, "Yeah...funny, like a clown."

"But...clowns are scary, Clown...I mean Chlo."

"Chlo? That's...new."

"What is? Oh yeah...Chlo."

She shook with laughter, "Chlo...Chloro...form…"

We engaged in this baked conversation for a while before we drifted off.

The nightmares began that night. (A/N: This part might get a little bit disturbing, sorry.)

I couldn't see a thing, pitch blackness engulfed me. I felt around in the dark and touched a lightswitch, I flicked it on and a dim red light filled the area. A figure stood where the light was the brightest, and it came towards me. I recognized him as my blood froze over, it was Mr. Jefferson. He appeared inches before me, as if he'd teleported.

He held a small metal object in his hand, "You'll know what to do, Maxine." He placed the object in my hand and I realized it was a scalpel. I held my breath and looked up at him, hearing a clicking noise come from behind me.

Brilliant white light filled everything, which was nothing. We were surrounded by complete nothingness. I spun around and spotted an object in the distance. Looking back at Jefferson, I saw him shooing me along. I approached it, footsteps making no sounds. The object flickered and shot directly in front of me, it felt like the floor had been pulled out from underneath me like a rug. I fell down, dropping the scalpel with a clatter. Another one mysteriously appeared in my hand.

I stood up to look at the object, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was Chloe, fully nude and strapped to a grimy operating table, ball-gag in her mouth. Several booming voices appeared to come from all directions, some male, some female, "Go ahead, Max. Fix what you broke."

I stared at the scalpel in my hand, "No...no, please no…"

Chloe thrashed in fear on the table, screaming through her gag. Her bloodshot eyes looked wild, like a rabid animal.

Large, disembodied hands gripped mine, raising the scalpel into the air. The hands' long blackened nails embedded themselves into my arms, drawing blood.

I begged and pleaded, bursting into tears, "No! Please, don't do this!"

I fought back as hard as I could, but the arms were too strong.

The scalpel was placed in between Chloe's breasts, and it was viciously and violently dragged downward as a gurgle escaped her throat.

I bolted upright out of bed screaming, doused in a cold sweat.

Chloe instinctually screamed too, but then tried to comfort me. I punched and kicked and fought my way out of her grasp.

She flicked on the lights as I cowered in a corner.

Her breaths were rapid and shallow as she stared at me with wide eyes.

"W-w…...what happened?"

My stomach flipped upside down as a wave of nausea hit me.

Once again, David and Joyce burst into the room.

Chloe screamed, "Guys, help! Some-something's wrong!"

My heart was beating so fast that it hurt, leaving a sharp pain in my chest.

I spent the rest of that night in the emergency room, with Chloe by my side.