'Go back.'
The world slows down around her, falling away.
'Just… just go back.'
All she sees is red – red and white melting together, cold lifeless eyes staring up at her.
'Please, she can't… she can't be dead. You have to go back. You have to save her!'
She tries and tries and tries but the burning never comes – the world hasn't really stopped, has it?
She can't go back anymore.
Max can't stop the tears from falling. She's done this before, she should be able to fix this but she can't…
Max reaches out for Victoria but she can't touch her. She wants to wants to hold her, to say she's sorry, but it's too late, isn't it. She… she can't…
"I never wanted it to come to this," Jefferson's detached voice echoes through room. "When I saw you three leave the party early, I had my suspicions but I didn't really think you'd come here. 'Til Sean called me."
"What do you want?" Nathan spits through gritted teeth. He's crying, too.
Jefferson clicks his tongue. "Nineteen eleven forty five ACP holds about eight rounds, though I'm not much of a gun guy myself," he says slowly. "Why don't you have a seat?"
Nathan reluctantly sinks down beside Max, setting Rachel in between. She coughs again and Max thinks she might see blood but it could just be Victoria's and the thought makes her gag.
"What do you want?" Nathan asks again, quiet and defeated.
"Me?" Jefferson walks a little further into the room and leans casually against the desk, as if he didn't just murder someone in cold blood. "I already got what I wanted. It's happening right now."
Rachel flinches and edges closer to Max and there's… something. Something happens. The room flashes, just for a moment. It's quick, too quick to tell, but it feels like… like a hiccup or something.
Is this… is Rachel doing this?
"You know," Jefferson continues. "Your father wanted to let you in on this at first. He said that you could be useful; you could get close but not too close. He said he could control you. Then of course, Miss Caulfield came along and well, plans do sometimes need to be subject to change."
Nathan recoils as if he's just been hit. "What does my dad have to do with this?"
"Well, you see." He pauses, kicking off the table and taking a step forward. "He and I had a mutually beneficial agreement. All I wanted to do was take pictures but Sean? Sean was looking for something. A very special someone with a very special gift."
He raises the gun and points it at Rachel. Max instinctively curls herself around the girl shaking beside her. She won't let him kill her - not her, too.
Jefferson smirks. "It was just luck that Rachel came along and took my class. I just wanted a new model but, well, of course you already know what she can do. After finding out about it, we just had to keep her."
Max catches the glint of metal out of the corner of her eye but she doesn't dare tear her gaze away from Jefferson.
"Course, then all this shit started happening," he says. "Freak snow storm, dead animals, and a huge storm that she knew all about. I always thought it was her doing, but it was actually you, wasn't it?" He raises the gun, pointing it right at Max's head. "It's been you all along."
Max tightens her grip around Rachel. "You don't understand," she forces out even though her throat's so tight it feels like she's choking. "The storm is going to wipe out the whole town."
"Oh, I understand, Max. I know very well what it's going to do. Should make a pretty picture, don't you think?"
The room flashes again, red hued and burning. Max gasps. Beside her, Rachel's pupils dilate, teeth chattering and nose bloody.
"…pretty picture, don't you think?" Jefferson says again and holy shit, holy shit. "It's a shame you won't be around to see it." He cocks his gun.
Suddenly, Nathan rushes Jefferson, knife clenched in his fist, and tackles him to the ground with a grunt. "Go!" he shouts.
To her surprise, it's Rachel who grabs Max and hauls her to her feet. "We need to go!" She drags Max away from the scene, away from Victoria and Nathan, and toward the door with surprising strength but her legs are still too unsteady. She stumbles, leaving Max to catch her.
"We can't just leave him!" Max pleads.
A hard crack echoes as Jefferson hits Nathan with the butt of his pistol, knocking him to the floor.
"We have to!" Rachel urges.
A second gunshot thunders through the bunker.
"No!" Max wails. Not now, not again! This wasn't supposed to happen! None of this was supposed to happen!
"You're really more trouble than you're worth," Jefferson snarls, turning the gun on them. "Sean can go fuck himself; I'm not letting you ruin this."
He pulls the trigger and then it happens again. The world tinges red right before Max's eyes, steadily rewinding around her but it's not her doing.
Beside her, Rachel holds out her free arm, haze eyes burning with determination.
She's the one doing this.
Max swallows her anguish. There's still time. There's still something she can do to fix this.
"Go!" Nathan's repeated shout signals an end to the rewind.
Max doesn't hesitate. She grabs Rachel around the waist and half carries her to the security door, gunshot echoing like thunder behind them.
'I'm sorry,' she says in her mind, hoping beyond hope that they might hear her. 'I'm so sorry. But I promise, I'm going to make it right.'
The storm rages on, blocking out the sun as it completely engulfs the town. Rain torrents all around them, made sharp by gale force winds, soaking them instantly.
Max has to shield her eyes from the rain, making it even harder to see. Thunder cracks overhead but she can hardly hear it over the wind. "We have to keep moving!" she shouts above all the noise in her ears.
Rachel coughs into her hand, blood seeping through her fingers. She can't keep this up for much longer.
"Just keep moving!" Max yells.
She hoists Rachel further into her arms and drags her into the forest. Behind her, Max can just barely hear Jefferson's shouts. "You can't hide forever!"
Fallen trees litter the ground, making it almost impossible to go any further. Rachel's not strong enough to walk on her own and Max isn't strong enough to carry her to safety. Jefferson keeps shouting, closer then further away and Max can't tell if that's just because of the wind or not.
'Keep moving,' she tells herself but she can't. Her lungs burn and her legs are numb and even if she could keep moving, Rachel can't.
Max stops behind a wide oak tree, shielding them from the wind. She sits Rachel beneath the tree and scours for any sign of Jefferson. It's useless, though. She can't see two feet in front of her.
Rachel coughs again, blood pouring from her throat. "Y-you know," she sputters. "I always… f-figured I would go out… in a blaze of glory." She manages a dry humorless laugh. "N-never would h-have thought… A storm… is a pretty good substitute."
"We-we can still fix this!" Max says desperately. "I just, I need your help!"
"We can't fix this!" Rachel all but screams. "There's no fixing this! Everything's fucked and it's all my fault!"
"It's not your fault!" Max pleads. "It's mine! I went back and I changed everything and now everything's fucked! But we can still fix it! Just, please! Please help me!"
"Where are you, Maxine?" Jefferson shouts somewhere in the distance.
'Shit!'
There's no more time. Max takes out the photo that started all of this in the first place. She can't even recognize the smiling girls staring back at her. "If I can go back, I can fix this, but I need you to help me!"
Rachel takes the photo and stares at it, something like nostalgia in her eyes. "Can you really…?"
Max bites her lip. Can she really…?
"I don't know," she says. "But I have to try."
"I'm going to find you!" He's closer, now, too close.
Rachel glances between Max and the picture. "Okay," she says. "How do we do this?"
"I don't know." Max grabs her hand and stares at the picture. "You need to focus. Focus on it and try to use your power."
Rachel squeezes her hand so hard it hurts but Max doesn't even think to let go. She focuses on the picture, remembers the day vividly. 'Go back,' she demands in her mind.
Footsteps squish against the muddy ground somewhere behind them.
'Go back.'
The world hues red, the familiar burning firing away at every synapse in her body. She feels herself being pulled away, taken to a time from long ago. Memories flash and burn away like pictures in a slideshow.
She's going back.
The wet ground softens even the most frantic footsteps but she still hears them coming. "I found you." Jefferson's cold voice sends a chill down her spine. The barrel of a gun presses hard against the back of her head.
"You found me," Rachel chokes out through her tears. "But you'll never find her."
A torn photograph of two smiling girls falls from her hands only to be immediately carried away by the storm.
'See you on the other side.'
A gunshot echoes like thunder.
