Wha… where am I?
A certain blue-eyed girl asked upon waking up. Her head was a mess. her mind seemed dazzled at the moment, an ongoing sense of pain went about her whole fragile body.
Max groggily attempted to flicker her eyes open, succeeding after a few, the only thing she saw was white! In fact, the whole room she was in, was! Panicking, the brunette tried to sit up, quickly regretting the obnoxious decision, she let go of her limping grip, shuddering under The pain of her intensely sore muscles.
Argh! My head…a-and my body… it feels like somebody used it as a punching bag or something.
She groaned out loud in her head. Even parting her jaws seemed undoable at moment.
She wasn't laying down on a bed nor a couch from what she could tell, but whatever it was, damn it was comfy! She could just lay there for hours and not move so much as a muscle for days and by days she literally meant days, not mere minutes!
Laying on the comfy surface, Max's eyes wandered around the room. There wasn't really much to see from her rather 'fixed' angle, all she could see was a single white door.
The door had a simple wooden texture, a single white doorknob and white metal keyhole, a rather old keyhole, the kind you see in old black and white movies which requires a big key to open.
But no key…
The brown haired girl frowned mentally as trying it, in reality, had proven to be painful. Even breathing seemed… wait was she breathing?!
Steering down on her body in horror, Max let out a sigh of relief through her enclosed lips, seeing her chest moving up and down, slowly but surely clear her fuzzed-up mess of a mind.
Pheww! now at least, I can cross being a half-dead zombie off my list of weird problems, huh. God, I'm messed up.
She contemplated with an imagery nod.
While bickering with herself, she also noticed she was wearing an odd set of clothes: A White shirt with a symbol of a black photograph printed on its front. She had black ripped jeans on, but no shoes. As I said, odd!
Having nothing else to look at, the burette closed her dry eyes, staring at the blackness which was her eyelashes.
"MAX!" a voice shouted right next to her ear. Into her ear was more accurate.
The frightened girl tried to whisk herself away from the sound but the ringing pain in her head froze her still. Clenching her teeth, the small girl snapped her eyes open, only to be met with darkness. Darkness… Max would've frowned by now if she could. It was pissing her off how much she was using the word "darkness" recently, it almost made her want to puke whatever was left in her stomach. If there was any, to begin with.
Letting out a muffled groan through her zipped lips, the brunette tried to turn her neck. Obviously, it hurt like hell! As if she was an old car and her bones were the said car's rusty gears; Turning, but Screeching on the top of their dead non-existent lungs as they did.
Glancing over her shoulder, Max saw… more darkness.
OK! That's it! I'm done with all this stupid darkness shit. What is this? 'Star wars the dark hole' or something?!FUCK this…
max started off with an angry puff in her head, but her train of thoughts or rather cursings, were cut short with a series of flashes; camera flashes to be exact.
Max's eyes shut themselves in reflex, trying to protect the unique blue orbs stationed within, but the thin strips of flesh didn't help much against the millions of million-watt flashes going off at once. It was as if the world itself, was telling her to watch what she wishes for.
"Ugh!" the brunette screamed inwardly and out aloud at the same time as she felt hundreds of blazing needles, all made out of light rays, punching through her freckled face. It felt as if her skin was being boiled in a big pot of lava!
Then all of sudden everything stopped as if someone had paused reality itself. If you could call this hell hole reality that is. Fearing to be bombarded with flashes again, the now shaking girl slowly peeked from between her lashes.
Let's just say Max almost jumped out of her skin when she saw her… well, more like herself, staring back at her! The girl in front of her shared a huge resemblance to her, yet looked so different, so broken…
God that feels weird to ask out loud but I-is… that m-me?
Asked an uncertain Max.
She checked out the… human-ish figure in front of her. she or herself in a way, looked messed up. Her skin was so pale that you could mistake it for someone wearing a shit ton of flour as a bad Halloween costume and that wasn't even the worst of it! The bruises that spread all over her bare arms and legs were… disturbingly 'noticeable'. The girl was covered in a ragged red shirt and ultra-ripped red jeans which fits well with her looks in a disgustingly hurtful fashion.
hold on a sec…t-those aren't red! Oh god! Nooo…- that's-s… blood!
Max gulped down a large lump in her throat. trying to shake off the goosebumps all over her body, her gaze traveled upwards trying to pass all the cuts without much of thought, but boy was it a mistake to look at her face. If she had to pick a word to describe it, 'terrifying' would've done the trick. The other girl's eyes were glazed as emotionless and her face… it was disfigured.
A deep open wound filled with tiny shards of glass had popped out from her left cheek, bleeding to some extent, only the blood wasn't normal, it reeked with the stench of very old blood and rendered in a pitch black shade.
Then her disfigured self-parted her blood-coated lips into a sad bone-shaking grin. Max felt her stomach crumble into itself at the sight of her mouth, it was filled with broken teeth and a few very nasty looking black spots. Spots that used to contain her presumably shiny teeth
"so puurrreeee…,yet so… guuillltyy." The girl cooed in a raspy voice.
Word?!... guilty of what? And wowsers... she's got a thick voice!
Trying to keep a straight face and not be disgusted by the reeking smell coming out of her other self's mouth, Max opened her to say something but was stopped as a boney finger pressed itself onto her chin.
"nooot yyet… itt's nooot time yyet." She asserted in her odd tone.
"time for what?" was what Max intended to ask but before she could even mutter a word, she was bombarded with another series of flashes. So intense, she got knocked out cold.
Waking up once again, Max stayed still for a few moments, allowing her mind to comprehend what she had just gone through. She was covered in cold sweat and had body was shaking ever so lightly as her heart pumped against her fragile chest.
What the hell was that?... it was a nightmare, right?
She tried to convince herself, but it came out more as a question than anything.
But it felt so…-real.
One side of her mind argued.
It couldn't have been real, like how can I explain that… girl? Another…m-me? fuck! I don't know. Speaking of knowing, where the hell am I this time and why is there something heavy on my feet?
The other side said taking notice of the extra weight moving on top of her skinny legs.
With those two questions in mind, she flickered her eyes open, again. Only this time, she was met with a normal hospital wall structure. At least that was what came to mind, seeing all medi' stuff scattered along the wall and of course, how could you not recognize the infamous 'hushing girl in nurse uniform' picture?
Heh since when has a 'hospital room' become normal in my book? I must be going crazy or something.
Looking down at her feet, her gaze rests upon a familiar figure. It was Rauka…but covered in bandages.
Wowsers… wonder what happened to her.
Max's eyes widened in shock.
Why am I being so chill about this?!... I SHOULDN'T BE SO CHILL ABOUT THIS! WTF? …
she tsk-tsked at herself in disbelief.
But the hard truth said otherwise. Maybe it was the nightmare, maybe it was because of the said nightmare that she felt at ease with whatever the world threw at her, at the moment of course! But maybe it was because she was covered in bandages as well!
A chill ran down the brunette's back as her eyes made contact with the dozens of white pieces of cloth wrapped around her left arm and face.
I hella don't like the looks of this. Nope! Not one bit!
Trying to keep her breath in rhythm, Max slowly focused on her bandaged arm, attempting to lift it up.
At first, it didn't hurt that much, prolly due to the drugs in her system, but as tried to clench her wobbly fingers, her face introverted into one of pain and suffering.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouchies!" Max squealed, immediately letting go of her wreck of an arm. Muttering a small curse under her breath, she decided to avoid moving her slope of meat at all until a nurse or a doctor came to check up on her.
Surprisingly enough, it didn't take a lot of time for a nurse to wander into her windowless room.
Makes you wonder what kind of hospital doesn't make windows for its patients, huh? Speaking of hospitals, I still haven't found out why I'm here in the first place!
"Oh, goodie! You're awake. Right, sit tight or rather lay down, y'know… whatever just don't move! I'll be back in a sec." the nursed quipped in such speed that Max didn't even get to capture a glance at her name tag as she literally dashed for the door.
Wha just happened?! God, my mind is still too foggy for intergalactic speed chattering.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, the flecked girl reclined into her not-so-comfortable single sized bed. The heat emitting from Rauka's body kept the shivers at bay from her tiny feat. The room she was in wasn't warm at all! Max couldn't see any heating systems from her limited, by a big set of white hospital curtains, point of view, but even if they had any, it sure as hell wasn't turned on!
Pulling the thin disposable blanket over herself with her one good arm, Max waited for her nurse's return. With their breaths along with the occasional crack of seldom furniture, being the only sources of sound in the packed room, Max felt a sinister cramp forming in her stomach. Apropos her stomach, when was the last time she ate? A single loud grumble gave her the answer,
Hella Long Time Ago!
Ignoring her hollow belly's demands, the burette looked over the small section available to her praying blue speckles. There wasn't much to pray on except for Rauka and an old-fashioned armchair in the corner of the room. Rauka seemed to be wasted in puppy-sleep at the moment. As for the chair tho, it was a simple plain chair! What else would you expect from it?! Jesus!
Focusing on the husky-mix again, a fade smile crept its way onto her half-bandaged face.
She looks so peaceful sleeping like that, I hope her wounds aren't that serious. Geez… now I feel awful about being so cold before? That nightmare got me good, didn't it? Shit…
The burette huffed a strand of her breakage hair out of view, chewing on her dry as sand lower-lip, she wondered the reason she was here in the first place, but strangely enough, she couldn't remember a thing! As if her mind had turned onto a blank page in her book of life.
Soberly musing on the subject, the flecked Carelessly bit down a tad too harsh. Causing the familiar metallic taste of blood to overwhelm her dry throat.
Silently scolding her own ignorant self, she reached for the box of tissues firmly based on the edge of the hospital table. being extra careful to not startle her snoozing dog, she grabbed a handful of pinkish tissue papers, using half to Wipe the small trail of blood flowing out of the side of her mouth and the rest to Add pressure on her punched lip, stopping the bleeding.
Can this day literally get any worse?!
She asked no one in particular.
Before she could even comprehend what a stupid mistake it was to challenge the universe with her choice of words, the door swung open and walked in, two people wearing knee-length white coats. One was a somewhat chubby blonde with violet eyes, probably around her 20s. the other was a skinny tall half-bald man in his late 40s. he also had dark bags under his eyes giving him a tried-to-the-bone-from-working expression.
The male doctor didn't pay any mind to Rauka as he crouched down surveying Max's health profile. His bushy brows furrowed to an almost-non-existent frown for a second as he hummed through the list, but was quickly replaced by a pokerfaced before Max could get a better read on it.
"Err… going to take a wild guess and say I'm not alright?" she intended it to be a joke but her tongue betrayed her again with a question-ish undertone, forcing a sad smile on the doctor's face.
"well, Maxine I…"
"Max! call me Max." she retorted in an unmeant commending manner, it really messed with her mind when people called her 'Maxine' rather than 'Max'. this held true even against her best friend, Chloe. No even she was an expectation to the rule of Max Caulfield.
"Aha! ok max, as I was saying, your condition is not ok." He said in a professional tone. Max gulped down a lump in the throat as a drop of sweat gathered on her bare-half. "don't worry! I didn't mean anything serious! at least, nothing life threating." He said trying to cover up his mis-pick of words.
good, good, that means I won't die, right?
Max let a seemingly harmless breath of relief before her mind caught onto the meaning behind the doctor's words. "what do you mean by not life threating?" the brunette scolded, quirking up a brow in question.
"hmmm… how about a deal? I ask you some standard medical stuff and in return answer yours as truthfully as I can."
Max pouted hearing the last part but let it slide, she needed to know if her nightmare had somehow become reality and what is the reason she ended up here in the first place.
Guess beggars really can't be choosers, eh. Fine, I'll play along… for now.
"deal accepted doc, shoot." Max agreed.
"glad we could work something out max." he gave her a reassuring smile as he retrieved a pen from his front pocket. Scribbling something on the board he received from the nurse, who had been silent all this time despite her sonic-like talking abilities just a few moments ago.
the doctor started off with the simplest of all questions.
"can you introduce yourself to me?" he asked ready to write down her answers.
The question seemed a bit off to the freckled girl, she was no expertise in medical grounds, so she went along with it.
"Sure, my name's Max Caulfield, I was born on September 21, 1995, in Arcadia Bay, Oregon."
"right, that makes you what, …-twelve?" the doctor guessed, rubbing the side of his temple with his pen.
"Thirteen." Max corrected.
He paused for a second as if redoing his math. A tiny frown drew on his fore only to be driven out just as fast. He shook his head in a telling-off motion as he scratched off something on the paper and wrote the correct answer.
a few coughs of pride-being-broken were made as he moved onto the next question.
"how are you feeling?"
Max raised a brow, giving him the 'are for reals right now?' look. "I meant apart from the obvious." He added pointing at the bandages.
"ah huh." The brunette said, check turning red all of sudden. "mmm… well, to be honest, I feel a bit messed up in the brain department." She sighed, shrugging painfully as her wound was stretched.
"how so?" the doctor, whose name Max had come to know as Dr. Martin. J. Carter from the tag on his suit asked with a crooked eyebrow.
"I can't remember a damn thing! Don't even know why I'm here in the first place or how I got these!" Max retorted with a grimaced glare, pointing at her face and wreck of an arm with her good one.
"ohh…-" Dr. Slayer uttered, his mouth lingering wide for a moment. Hurriedly Catching himself, he answered. "the memory lost part is normal, mostly due to the shock your mind's been through." He explained waving his hand dismissively. "but, as far as concerning your injuries, I can only say you were involved in a car accident. A pretty bad one!"
"come on doc! You can't leave me hanging here like that!" Max shouted louder than she intended to.
"Max please, we are in a hospital! Keep your voice down." He said with a sterned face, pulling his index in front of his face as an act of silence.
Max quipped a short sorry, clenching the fabric of blanket into her fist nervously.
"it's alright, I understand having no recollection of past events can be… distributing for you, especially at such a young age but, it is in your best interest that you let your mind stride back into a subtle condition before dealing with the harsh facts."
The 'harsh facts' part worries me. Fuck! Was someone else caught up in the accident? Are they ok? Damn it I want…i-I... need to know.
Max cursed inwardly at the cold-hearted doctor but yielded in the end.
"fine, shoot away the next question doctor lame. You already held up your end of the bargain with giving me, exactly nothing." She mocked in a grumpy, defeated voice.
the doctor quirked a brow in response but didn't commentate on her words. He instead, moved on to the next question wanting to get this over with so he could go take a much-needed coffee break.
"right… so do you have any specific medicine you need to take on a regular basis? Any that we should be aware of?"
The freckled tenderly shook her head. "nope, at least none that I can think of."
"aha," the doctor uttered his hand quickly scribbled some more notes on what she presumed to be her medical forms. "I wrote down some morphine for that…" he said, waving towards Max's bandaged arm and face.
"…and about your nurse, "he pointed at the oddly silent blonde in the corner. "miss. Ashworth will be attending to your medication, redoing your bandages and proving you with anything you may need to reach full recovery." And with that, he handed the nurse her board and excused himself from the girls' presence and went to fetch his warm cup of Café Au Lait.
An awkward silence fell between two, eyes flying relentlessly across the square-shaped room. Something caught Max's eyes, well, more like, something is not where it was supposed to.
"hey miss Ashworth," max called outgaining the blonde dressed in white's attention.
"Oh please, call me Susan dear. Ashworth makes me feel like an old lady!" She reopened with soft motherly tone, forcing a faded smile on Max's face as she nodded obediently.
Her voice is so comforting! Huh…must be a nurse thing.
"err…" Max fell in stutter trying to remember what she wanted to say just a moment ago. "errr…. Aha! I have this leather bracelet with me which I always have on my left wrist. It's Kinda worn out piece really, but it's very important to me. Could you possibly know where it is?" she asked pointing to the empty spot on her wrist.
kinda sad that I didn't notice it missing until now, but guess it works as an excuse anyhow…
The blonde haired girl scratched under her chin, musing thoughtfully for a few seconds. "aha!" her index finger jolted up in the air excitedly. She hurried to Max's side being careful not to startle the big husky's slumber, she sat beside her. Caving over her side, A pack of surprisingly skinny fingers reached under her pillow careful to not trouble her arm and retrieved the cherished leather.
"oh 'anks a buncheez! I totals' thought I'd lost it forever!" Max squealed with joy, snatching the shiny plated leather from the blonde's palm. Her cheeks flushed a tune of rad at the minor slip of language; it wasn't something she used to everyone she talked to, only people close to her. And Susan keeping her Bracelet, definitely scored her a point or two, in Max's book.
"yay!" she raised her hand for a high five which Max replied to. "now I feel good for not throwing it away with your other bloody-shredded… clothes." The smile on her face slowly turned into a furrow. "I shouldn't have said that!" she said with a guilty tone, mostly thinking out loud.
"what! Noooo…" she waved her hand dismissively in the air. "I'm like a half-wrapped mummy from Egypt hehehe…"
shit that sounded way better in my head. look at her, I think she is about to cry! Fuck! Think of something smart to say, Super Max, Quick!
she let out a forced chuckle. "I'm just glad I didn't lose my hair or anything, my mom would've hella freaked out!" the nurse smiled in return.
pheewwww, code green! The coast is clear.
A sharp surge of pain went through the girl's head, causing Max to clutch her face inwards.
What the freaks?! All of sudden my head wants to explode!
Max grunted painfully pressing her good hand against her temple, trying to subdue the ringing in her head.
"ehh…-you okay Max? is it your head?" she asked in almost rehearsed voice with an undertint of worry. Not being able to form words, the brunette managed a weak nod as she held on to her head as if, it would fly away on its own if she were to let go.
Gone and back in a flash, Susan helped her up in a sitting position before handing her a pill and a cup of water.
Taking the pill, Max uttered a barely audible "thank you!" before gobbling down the much-needed fresh water.
"better?" Susan spoke up after a few minutes or so.
"hella!" the girl smiled sheepishly as she wiped the small line of drool from her mouth.
"goo-" a sudden beep from Susan's pocket cut her off. Looking down at her pager, a stumped groan escaped her mouth. Turning back to the brunette, who had declined back into the stone cold bed, she said. "you sure your all hunky-dory now? If you want, I can stay." She said with a mother-like concern in her eyes.
"Nope, I think I was just low on water or something. Anyhow, there ain't no ringing in my head no more. Thanks!" Max said giving her a reassuring nod. The pager beeped again, louder this time.
"sorry, duty calls," she pointed her hand, like a gun at the device, shooting an imaginary bullet as she moonwalked out the door.
Just after disappearing from Max's side, her head slid from around the corner of the door frame, "oh yeah almost forgot, push that red button on the side if ya need anything, me or my sister, ahhh the nurse who found you awake, will come to see what's up." And with that, she left.
Ohh so that was her sister, huh… they look so alike! Maybe their twins or something… huh.
Max mused, her hand absentmindedly fidgeted with the now almost shredded-to-pieces bracelet resting in her lap. She pouted, her bottom lip budging out as she examined its burned edges.
"gawd I need to get a new band for it, new beads too," she murmured to herself. "well, at least the plate survived, that would've been irreplaceable." She noted to herself. Trying to look on the bright side.
Slowly reaching over her side, she intended to place her bracelet on the nightstand but the sight of flowers caught her off guard. Laying in a pale plastic pot, were a various bunch of flowers; her favorite kind to be exact. A card hung from the red ribbons around the bouquet, Max smiled as a faint smell of a somewhat fresh batch of daffodils and tulips filled her lungs. Taking in a few sniffles at her favorite kind of flowers, the girl squinted her eye to read the sloppy handwriting.
"so soozie for wha Happened. (T-T)
Get well soon ya dork! 3 :)
love uuuuu!
Sign: Chloe :-P."
Auwwww… that's so sweet, wish I was awake when you came tho, nerd.
Max grinned warmly as she read the small massage over and over again, each time Chloe's words sounding better and more beautiful in her mind than the last.
Her brows knitted together.
Speaking of visitors, where are my parents? are they… o-okay? Were they caught up in… NO! snap out of it Caulfield! Positive thoughts only! They are probably talking with that doctor… Was cutters it? yup yuppers, that has to be it!
Max smiled bobbing her head in a self-convincing manner. Across from her, Rauka lifted her head taking in a long exhausted yawn, munching on her lips as she laid back down. Seeing the Rauka yawn, made the brunette realize just how much she wanted or rather needed her beauty-sleep as well; in fact, the only thing stopping her from doing so, was the dreadful fear of having another encounter with her.
Pressing her head against her uncomfortably warm pillow, she tucked an arm under her head while the other slowly grabbed hold of Rauka's tail. Just feeling her rough fur against her palm made Max feel much safer.
y'know, I'm gonna put my faith in you tonight gurl! Keep that freaked version of me, away from me 'me', Okie?
Max asked the snoozing dog not expecting a reply but to her surprise, the dog let out an affirmative growl from between her encased muzzle.
life goals: Jedi telepathic powers, achieved! YAY!
Max giggled as she gently brushed the end of Rauka's tail with her now rendered painless fingers. she laid there for quite some time just enjoying the overall silence of the room. Even the occasional beeps of heart monitor next to her bed went in rhythm with Rauka's snoring. as if, it was trying to ease her into some well-deserved sleep. On that thought and under the influence of a small high from taking pills, closed her eyes once more.
Sleeping painkiller pill powers, ACTIVATE!
Max chuckled waving her hand in the air, pretending to have Jedi mind-trick powers before she repositioned it back under her tiny head.
Eyes closed, breaths are steady, my head so heavy, the world of sleep, I'm ready.
A/N:hummmm I really like how this chapter turned out!
Apologies for the big delay in uploading this one but if you must know, I have been 'hella' busy with school and life and English isn't my native language so I tend to take my time when it comes to writing even the smallest of chapters. _ BTY this is a lot longer than the first chapter too, around 5k words. maybe I make this the average length If you guys like me to!_
so I know it seems all dark and shady for Maximus right now, but worry not! I have things planned out and there are lighter chapters on the way pretty soon-ish( maybe after the next two)
Thank you for reading, I hope you find my little scribble coherent and if not, please tell me the parts I need to work on so you can get better chapters in the future.
Thanks again, see you later and oh yeah I don't own anything except my OCs and the plot!