Chapter 4

Max awoke the next morning to see two worried faces looking at her.

"How are you, Maxine?" her mother asked worriedly. Max looked over to see a Get Well Soon card perched next to a massive bunch of flowers "Oh, those are from that lovely boy who visited earlier." Max's mother said. "I think his name was Wally or something?"

"It was Warren, Vanessa." Max's dad told her.

"Oh, I do apologise, Ryan. Our daughter is in the hospital but God forbid I'm allowed to forget the name of someone I've never even met before!"

"Okay, you two. This is making my head hurt." Max groaned as she rolled onto her side and grabbed the card before reading it.

'Get well soon, Max.

Love you...

Warren. X'

"God you're brilliant, Warren." Max muttered as she put the card back on the table and breathed in the scent of the flowers.

"You're right, Max. We all need to stay calm." Vanessa said, giving her husband a pointed look.

"Just shut up and come here." Max said, wrapping both her parents in a lopsided hug.

"How have you been?" Vanessa asked.

"My head feels like it's about to explode." Max answered truthfully. Even her voice sounded weak. She knew that if she tried to lie her parents would see straight through her in a heartbeat. There was no honest point.

"What have they put you on so far?" Vanessa asked.

"They haven't yet." Max replied. "They don't know what's wrong yet, and some types of medication could kill the pain but just make the condition worse. It's a bit of a minefield." In reality, Max knew the real reason behind the nosebleeds and blackouts, but if she told the truth they'd have her committed. She would just have to play along for now and get out of the hospital as quick as possible so she could get answers for herself.

"Have they actually done anything in the way of tests yet?" Ryan asked.

"No, I haven't been able to stay awake long enough." Max told him. "They don't want to do tests while I'm unconscious in case something goes wrong." Vanessa was about to say something when they were cut off by raised voices outside the door.

"But what do you mean by 'anything and everything'?" one voice asked.

"I mean exactly what I say!" Ian's voice snapped. "When I say 'test for anything and everything', you test for everything from the common cold to Chlamydia or the Black Death! As many known diseases as possible, I want Miss Caulfield's blood tested for! And just in case you're unclear, when I say constant updates it means that if she so much as sneezes then I want to know about it at least ten seconds in advance!" Someone's running footsteps echoed down the hall as Ian pushed the door open.

"Good evening, Doctor Price." Vanessa said, her voice dripping venom.

"I'm not sure how much of that you could hear..."

"Oh, we heard all of it." Ryan muttered.

"I can't believe the facilities here!" Ian ranted and pulled up a chair to sit by Max's bed. "The 'doctors' don't know the basic medical terms for anything or any form of infection protocols. When we brought you in here, Max, they wanted to put you in with the other girls. Can you believe that? In your state, we can't have you catching whatever they have, and we don't want what you've got spreading if it's contagious. I doubt it is, but I don't want to take that chance."

"Doctor Price, what are you actually doing regarding my daughter's health?" Vanessa asked in her venomous tone.

"We're doing full blood work now and then it'll be CT and MRI scans." Ian told her. "But personally, I'd like her to be transferred to the hospital in Seattle where I work. I'm familiar with the doctor's there and frankly I can vouch for their competence a lot better than the staff here."

"I think that would be best." Vanessa nodded. "We live in Seattle, so we can visit every day."

"No thanks." Max said. Everyone turned to look at her in shock.

"You want to stay here?" Vanessa asked. "But we won't be able to visit very often."

"Not to mention the doctors here are intolerable." Ian chipped in. "You really want to leave your life in their hands?"

"To tell you the truth, I hated Seattle since we moved there." Max said to Vanessa. "The scenery isn't anywhere as beautiful as Arcadia Bay. There's never a good moment to take photos. Not to mention, Chloe and I have only just found each other again. She's worried I'll die and leave her behind, and that gives me a reason to survive. If I get moved away from her, it would just go against that and her. She's promised to visit every day and she's one of the best friends I've ever had."

"I can vouch for that much." Ian said. "When Max was brought in, Chloe sat by her bed each night and was there on the morning she woke up. That girl's been through some rough times, but she's a damn good friend in spite of it all."

"So it's official then? You want to stay here?" Ryan asked to make sure.

"I'd rather be here with the sun streaming through my window and birds singing outside than in Seattle where the closest thing you have to birds is car horns and the only sun through your window is being reflected off the skyscraper next door." Max nodded.

"In that case, we'll check into a hotel and apply for compassionate leave from work." Vanessa said immediately.

"If we're doing that, we'd best get moving before the hotel reception shuts." Ryan suggested.

"I agree." Vanessa nodded. "We'll see you tomorrow, Max." She and Ryan left, shaking Ian's hand as they left.

"Okay Max, I need to sort this blood work out now." Ian told her as he pulled out something that looked like a buzzer from Deal or No Deal only smaller. "This button connects straight to my pager and I've set the contact holder to your room number. If something's wrong, just press that and I'll personally come running."

"Okay, thanks." Max said as she put it on her bedside table.

"Just call me if you need anything." Ian said before departing. Max heard him walk down the corridor and was about to try and go back to sleep when an invisible battering ram smashed into her skull. Blood flowed freely from her nose at an alarmingly fast rate as everything around her started spinning.

'How is this happening? I'm not even rewinding!' Max made a frantic grab for the button only to knock it off the table. Cursing, Max made a grab for it only to find the battery compartment had flown open. There were no batteries in it. As Max prayed for a quick end to this torture, the darkness swallowed her again.

She opened her eyes to find herself in s swirling dark void. Standing in the centre was one lone figure. She made her way towards it, only for it to suddenly lunge forward. Instinctively, Max raised her hand to rewind. Pain started crashing through her head again, but the figure stopped dead. Cautiously, it stepped into what little light was in the void to reveal its face. Max stared at a mirror image of herself. They were identical in every way but clothing. While she wore the white hospital gown, the mirror image of her wore entirely black. Her jeans, hoodie, shoes and T-shirt were all the darkest colours under the sun.

"It's a long way to come, isn't it, Miss Caulfield?" Mirror Max asked mockingly. Max could see the cruel intent burning in her double's eyes. There was something wrong with her, but Max couldn't put her finger on it. Even the tone she was speaking in was too oily. Yet something about it was very familiar.

"What do you want?" Max asked, trying to hide her fear.

"I want you to know how I'm killing you and how I'm going to continue to do so." Mirror Max snarled.

"What will that achieve?"

"It'll achieve a great deal, Max." Mirror Max said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "When someone anticipates pain, it hurts so much more when it comes. What I need is for you to know the danger that comes from within." Just then, Max realised where she'd heard that tone of voice before. "Yes, Miss Caulfield. Look past the butterfly to see the hornet within. Gaze upon the face of your most hateful enemy!" Mirror Max had started yelling now. Flames rose from her body and started forming a shape around it.

"It's impossible." Max said dumbly as the shape fully emerged.

"It's not impossible, Maxine; merely improbable." The flames finished shaping themselves as the fiery form of Mark Jefferson glared back at her. "I must say, I was quite surprised to learn of your power. And fragmenting me in a tornado made of doomed alternate realities was a stroke of genius on your part. Though frankly, it just wasn't smart enough. When you died in the tornado, I was able to infect you with my collective consciousness. Each and every one of the realities I was thrown into is trapped inside me, and I'm thriving inside you. From here, I have control over your rewind power and I'm the one causing it to backfire! Each and every time you use it, I kill you one piece at a time."

"You're more sick and evil than I thought!" Max gasped. Jefferson clenched his fist and Max doubled over clutching her head in agony.

"That may be true Max, but you can't deny that I'm so much more powerful than you thought too." Jefferson rubbed his thumb over the edge of his index finger, causing a shower of sparks to fly from his hand. Max felt every one of those sparks in her chest. Suddenly, a chill settled over her as she felt her heart stop. This was it. She was going to die here.

"Do it then." Max gasped.

"No." Jefferson said as Max's heart surged back into life. "This would be too easy for you. I release you for now, Max Caulfield. But I will be back again. Whichever way you look at it, life has changed."

Max suddenly snapped back to reality with a jolt. Someone pulled her hospital gown back into position to cover her again as they dumped a set of defibrillator pads back onto a trolley. Max lurched forwards and vomited just as Ian held a bucket under her chin. Blood was streaming from her nose the entire time, staining her hospital gown red.

"...water..." Max gasped.

"Get the girl some water!" Ian yelled. One of the doctors dashed out from the room to get water. "What happened with the button, Max?" Ian asked.

"No batteries..." Max managed to say before vomiting again.

"What do you mean 'no batteries'?" Ian asked, giving Max the bucket to hold and walking round to see the button now shattered on the ground. Sure enough, the batteries weren't inserted. The battery compartment was broken open. Shards of plastic littered the floor, but there were no batteries in sight. Just then, the person who went for water came back in carrying a jug in each hand. He handed one to Max who weakly rinse her mouth out before taking a small sip to moisten her throat.

"Did my heart stop?" Max asked weakly.

"We were literally just about to give up on re-starting it." Ian told her. "We used adrenaline, defibrillators and CPR. Without the button, it was literally blind luck that the nurse was just coming in to check on you and used the generic buzzer. It was literally one in eight-million. You're one lucky girl, Max."

'No, I think it was because Jefferson wanted it that way.' Max thought to herself.

"Can I get some Polo mints or something?" Max asked.

"I'll go and round some up in a second, but I need to ask you a question first." Ian said. "With what's happened, I want to start doing the CT scans now, but I don't want to put you under too much stress. You have two options here: you can have two hours rest at the risk of having another attack before then, or we can do the scans immediately and you can have all the rest you want afterwards."

"Can I think about it while you get those Polo mints?" Max asked as she took a gulp of water.

"Please do." Ian said as he got up to leave. "I'll be back before you know it. Don't worry, Max. We'll get this fixed." As soon as Ian left the room, Max couldn't stop herself from bursting into tears.