R2 Thursday

When Max fell asleep, she focused on not taking anyone with her, and she was confident it worked even before she opened her eyes to Victoria's lavish room. For a change, she wasn't interwound with anyone's limbs, so she sat up and looked around, noticing the others were asleep. Suddenly, she also noticed that Leana wasn't with them, which surprised her since it was the crack of dawn. She then realized that they wouldn't even know why she was there, not to mention Chloe would be freaking out when she woke in her bed. She decided to wake Victoria, Rachel, and Esha now so she could explain what was going on before Leana came back from wherever she was.

As she shook them awake, they protested with groans while rubbing their eyes and stretching out. Victoria looked at her, still half asleep. "Is there a reason you're not letting us sleep in?"

"Sorry, but there's something you guys need to know before Leana comes back."

Rachel seemed confused at her name. "What?"

"Yesterday, when I shifted back here, I accidentally brought my Chloe, Rachel, and Esha with me. So, you guys were here physically, but they were in your bodies."

All at once, they seemed to fully wake, looking at her in disbelief. Rachel looked around momentarily with a questioning look. "Where's Chloe?"

"She spent the night at her parents' house after we had dinner there."

"My sister is here?"

"Yeah, she apparently woke up earlier, so I thought now would be a good time to fill you guys in. I don't know where she went."

Victoria smirked. "I know exactly where she is; the library. And good luck getting her out."

Max looked confused. "I'm surprised you guys don't hang out with her more; she's pretty cool."

They all began to sit up and move around Max as Rachel weighed in. "Yeah, but she can be annoying sometimes, and we obviously don't want her to get involved in our more adult-oriented activities. ... So, I think I can already guess what our counterparts did with our bodies. I'm just glad I wasn't permanently erased from existence."

Victoria looked agreeable. "I don't think anything really surprises me anymore. Did we do anything besides spending time with people and places in the futures past?"

"Not really; that pretty much sums it up."

Rachel glanced back at Kate, who was still soundly sleeping. "I suppose Kate got along nicely with my sister."

"Yeah, and so did you. I didn't see or hear most of it since I went to Chloe's parents' house for dinner, but Rachel was very taken by her. She looked like her heart was torn out after she got back to her reality, along with Chloe, of course."

Victoria smiled a little. "It must have been a cray emotional moment when she met her dad."

"Yeah, luckily there was that whole event at school, which she used as a cover for her odd behavior."

Rachel looked curious. "Speaking of odd behavior, did her parents figure you out?"

"They knew that something was going on but refused to believe any rumors. After they beat around the bush, Chloe just straight up told them. They seemed relieved and glad about it, which was nice. On our way out, Chloe basically broke down and couldn't leave; I can't really blame her."

"So, my sister doesn't know anything about your powers I presume?"

"Nope."

Victoria cocked her head expectantly. "Can we also presume you have this shifting power under control now?"

"Yeah, I would never do something like that willingly without your permission. That being said, they would obviously appreciate a trip here every now and again, but it's totally up to you."

Rachel casually smirked. "I don't see the harm; it's basically like taking a long nap."

Victoria hesitantly looked agreeable. "Yeah, no harm floating around the void for a day, but don't get carried away; it kind of freaks me out."

Esha finally chimed in with a cheerful smile as they looked at her, "I don't mind."

After they moved to the sofa in the other room and Victoria ordered coffee from Al, Max got into details about what happened the other day in this reality as well as the other. When they got their coffee and began sipping, Max became curious. "Does Leana like coffee?"

Rachel responded, "Nope."

Victoria added casually, "The only thing that girl needs is an occasional tranquilizer."

Max chuckled, "Oh, come on, she's not that bad, and it's been so long since you've hung out with her; maybe she's changed since then. That, and her mom seemed concerned about her well-being, so I think we should take her along if we go on a trip. She seems especially interested in Esha."

Rachel looked skeptical. "Well, I'll leave it up to Esha then, except this Esha hasn't even met her yet." She looked at Esha curiously. "Whaddya say, Esha? Think of her as Kate but more outgoing with an endless stream of questions."

Esha shrugged. "I don't mind. Did the other Esha enjoy her?" Max nodded. "I've always imagined what it would be like having a little sister."

As if on cue, Leana came through the door, walking to the couch while looking more mellow than usual. "Morning."

As she helped herself to some coffee and sat down with them, Rachel looked mildly perplexed. "Since when did you drink coffee?"

"I started drinking it with mom ages ago."

Victoria chimed in, "Having fun in the library?"

"Actually, I woke up a few hours ago and felt like a swim."

Rachel continued looking confused. "Since when did you swim?"

Leana looked at her oddly, partly reflecting her confusion. "Hello, sleepy-head, I told you about this yesterday; I was thinking about joining the swim team, remember?"

"Oh, right ... I guess my brain is still waking up."

"But I did spend some time there afterward. That library is just too cool. It looks small at first, but the shelves seem like they go up two floors at least."

Victoria looked mildly critical. "Did you find any dust on the books?"

"Actually, no, it was surprisingly clean."

"Good, we pay peopled to clean it, but I can't remember the last time I looked."

Esha chimed in curiously, "Find anything interesting?"

"After we talked so much about Hindu mythology yesterday, I tried to find something on that but settled on a book about the origins of Ancient Buddhism in India."

Esha looked a bit taken off guard. "That's nice."

Victoria chimed in, "Yeah, the organization of books is a bit off from what I vaguely remember."

Max was intrigued. "How did your parents come by so many books anyway? Or is there some sort of all-in-one package deal you can buy somewhere?"

"I know they used to get a lot of rare first editions in exchange for paintings when they got started, along with all sorts of other useless junk, so they're probably worth a lot."

Max was curious. "What sort of useless junk?"

Victoria smiled to herself. "I remember when I was a kid that I used to go up to our attic and pretend I was an archaeologist as I sifted through it all. Some of it my parents kept in a special corner that I couldn't touch, but most of it I was free to rummage through. I can remember a few cool pendants and an old samurai sword; in fact, one of the pendants I still wear now and again."

Leana looked fascinated. "Victoria, you must have had the coolest childhood ever between that, exploring this mansion, and your secret garden."

Victoria pleasantly smiled in agreement. "I certainly can't deny it. I remember when I first saw Indiana Jones; I would pretend like I was him in search of lost artifacts. My dad even made a game out of it and hid things, then gave me a list of clues to follow."

Rachel chimed in with interest, "How long has it been since you've been up there?"

"Definitely pre-teen ... and no, I wouldn't mind checking it out again if you guys are up for it."

They all quickly agreed and proceeded to get dressed. When they left the room, they took a left down the hallway to the end, then Victoria pulled on a rope which brought out a fold-out staircase from the ceiling. The old wooden steps creaked as they walked up, and Max felt like she was moving into a whole new world as she reached the top.

Max's first impression was that she was surprised it wasn't bigger; it was about the size of Victoria's two rooms put together. As she looked around at the piles of antique-looking wooden boxes, some of them visibly brimming full of odd-looking trinkets and other curiosities, Victoria commented grimly, "As you can see, the help doesn't clean up here, so try not to stir things up too much, unless you want to bathe in dust mites."

Everyone began to walk in different directions, looking at and picking up things. Max quickly found herself in front of a small wooden crate and holding what seemed like a delicate-looking ceremonial knife with a handle made out of finely carved wood, in a sheath with an odd-looking leather. As she looked at the rest of the items in the same crate, she noticed a similar style, including a headband with various feathers. She wouldn't have been surprised if it was native American in origin.

As she began to move to another box, her text sound went off on her phone. She picked it up, anticipating that it would be Chloe, which it was. She read the message to herself with amusement. "Max, what in the actual F am I doing in my bed at home?!"

Max quickly responded with a text. "I'll explain things in detail when I pick you up, but basically, my Chloe stole your body for a day and ended up spending the night there."

"Cool, I'll be waiting for the pickup, but I'm smelling breakfast, so take your time."

"Will do. I'm in Victoria's attic looking at ancient artifacts."

"On second thought, don't take too much time."

As Max put her phone back into her pocket, she stepped beside Leana who was handling an intricate looking talisman of some sort with an unusually black stone in the middle. As the mild light came in through a distant window, everything but the black stone reflected light; it almost felt eerie it was so black. As Max picked up another one with a white stone, Leana glanced at her with a smile. "I could spend all day here looking at this stuff. This thing is amazing; I would need a magnifying glass just to read it, except I don't even know what language it is."

"Yeah, it looks kind of creepy with that blacker than black stone. I like this one better."

Leana seemed to agree as she set it down and looked at hers. "Yeah, me too."

After they continued looking at things and chatting for awhile, Kate's voice suddenly came from the entrance. "You guys up here?" Max looked back to see Kate's head popping up from the entrance door, looking around curiously.

After Rachel responded in kind, Kate joined them, and they all got caught up in the exploration of things as Max took off to pick up Chloe. When she arrived at her house, she sent her a text, and she was out in a minute and sitting beside Max with a quizzical look. "OK, this should be an interesting story, judging by the awkwardly sympathetic vibes I was getting during breakfast."

Max went over everything that happened as she drove back. After parking again, she went on and breezed over the previous days dramatic events in her reality too. Chloe didn't looked surprised. "Figures, I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later. I'm just glad I'm still ... existing."

"Yeah, me too, and now that I have control of it, I promise it won't be without your permission."

Chloe responded casually, "No, that's cool; I don't mind. Just don't get carried away; I think I'd like to exist at least six days out of the week, so I have enough time to go to school and study; she can have Sundays."

Max was amused yet conflicted at the idea. "Honestly, I'm not sure if that would be good for them. When they got back, they took the change pretty hard, especially Chloe. If I brought them back every week, it might be too traumatizing ... but I'll talk with them."

When they went up the stairs and began walking down the hallway, they noticed that the stairway to the attic wasn't down, so they checked Victoria's room, but no one was there either. When Max texted Victoria, she texted back that they were wandering the compound looking for clues. Interested to find out what she was talking about, they went outside through the downstairs game room and out onto the balcony, seeing them in the distance near a corner of the backyard garden.

When they got closer, winding their way through the stone pathways outlined by beds of flowers on both sides, they noticed they were standing around a small fountain, looking like they were stumped about something. Chloe looked at them curiously. "Clues for what?"

Kate responded with excitement as Rachel inspected the fountain more closely, bending down and running her hand beneath the upper ledge which was dripping with water, "We're on a treasure hunt; Victoria found a map with clues in the attic. Just imagine, it could be anything."

Victoria rolled her eyes with amusement. "It's just something my dad left me, thinking I would find it five years ago. I used to find these things all the time when I was a kid. He must have left it before he knew I grew out of it. We thought it would be fun to solve, and it's proving to be harder than expected. So far, we've deciphered a map, then solved a riddle that led to another clue on paper, which led us to this fountain ... or at least we think it led us here."

As Victoria finished, Rachel's face lit up as she found something underneath a loose stone beside the fountain. Everyone noticed and watched with interest as she removed a partially decaying piece of paper from an old Ziploc bag. After carefully opening it, she read the contents aloud. "The garden of Eden hath not fallen asunder; to the depths of mystery it cries out with tears of red. Those that seek truth fallen from grace; ask thyself what witchcraft dost thou partake? And cipher this omen: 9 by 32 by 12 by 18 to X."

After a moment of silent thought between them, Chloe blurted out, "62,208; ... that's what X is."

Everyone looked impressed, especially Victoria. "Damn, girl, you're like a human calculator." Her face abruptly became confused. "But what does that mean? Obviously, he's talking about the secret garden, but what could a random number have to do with it?"

Everyone thought for a few moments before Chloe spoke up again. "Maybe we should go there and look around." Everyone agreed and marched off.

When they arrived, they spent a half-hour looking around, but Max could tell that most of them had given up and were only enjoying the scenery. When Max had nearly given up hope, Chloe blurted out from nearby the entrance behind the hedge, "I got it!" When everyone ran to her, she explained, "I don't think the numbers have anything to do with a math equation; they just represent a path from the entrance based on the stones or bricks in the ground." Everyone watched in fascination as she pointed at the first stone near the entrance and continued, "From here to passed the hedge is 9 stones in length." They followed the stones. "Then if you take a right and count 32 stones this way, it leads to another path." They continued following the trail until they reached the end of the so-called omen.

Leana was quick to dig the final stone out of the ground, although because it had settled for many years, it took some effort; eventually, they had to find a small handheld garden shovel to help. When they finally got it out, they were greeted with a small but sturdy-looking tin box. Leana was quick to snatch it up and pry it open, which also took some effort.

Suddenly, Max was taken off guard as her vision blurred and she felt disoriented; for a moment, it was like she didn't know where or who she was, which was frightening in itself, making her heart race. When things became clear again, she noticed that she was standing just behind where she was before, except now, there was another her in front of herself, observing as Leana opened the tin box. She stepped forward and stood beside herself, watching as Leana took two objects out of the tin; one of them was another partially decayed slip of paper, and the other was a smooth and red stone.

As Victoria took the stone and looked at it closely, Leana read out loud what was on the slip of paper. "The tears of red hath lost their veil. Look beside the workman's keep, and end the sorrow of blood that doth not weep."

Victoria smirked knowingly as everyone looked at a loss. "He must mean the gardeners shack."

They walked to the back of the secret garden and went through a small gate that led to a shack as Max walked behind them and observed. It seemed apparent that her consciousness was split in two, but for some reason, she felt compelled to just watch instead of figuring out a way to become whole again. When they reached the shack, they split up and eventually found a pendant that looked familiar to Max. Before she could even remember, the other Max took the pendant and spoke. "Leana, isn't this the same pendant as those other two necklaces that we found in the attic?"

"Yeah, the pendant must be the so-called veil he's talking about." Everyone watched as Leana took the pendant and stone, looking at them carefully. It took her a minute to figure out how to open the pendant into two pieces, then she placed the red stone inside and put them back together. The moment the pendant clasped together, Max's vision blurred again and she was struck by the same feeling of disorientation. When it passed, she noticed that she was standing just ahead of where she was, except now, it was clear that she was her whole self again.

Esha noticed something was off. "Max, are you OK?"

Still feeling a bit hazy from the experience, Max responded hesitantly, "That pendant ... did something to me; I was standing behind myself from the moment that tin was opened until it was enclosed again. My consciousness was split in two ... like when I travel back in time, except I was here as some sort of spirit. It was ... disorientating."

Everyone looked intrigued except Leana, who looked perplexed and amused. "What?"

Max finally realized again that Leana was there and not aware of her true nature, but she wasn't sure how to respond. As Max struggled for an explanation, Rachel stepped in casually, seeming to ignore Leana. "Was your skin glowing like the time you saw me on my grave?"

"Um ... no, I just looked normal to myself, except ... none of you could see me."

Chloe chimed in curiously, "Were you able to walk through stuff?"

"I don't know; I didn't try."

Leana began looking more amused than perplexed now. "Is this some sort of improv game your playing?"

Rachel quickly replied, looking annoyed, "Yeah, and you just messed it up. Try and play along next time, OK?"

"Sorry, will do."

Rachel suddenly took the pendant and handed it to Max. "Max, why don't you wear this for now, in case you feel like ... being beside yourself again."

Everyone looked amused as Max responded with a smirk, "Thanks, but I think I'll keep the ... veil on for the time being; my life is confusing enough as it is."

They decided to go back to Victoria's room now that the scavenger hunt was over. Max didn't feel enthusiastic about the prospect of more mysterious powers that she couldn't explain but kept it to herself. She frankly just wanted to forget it ever happened; she was beginning to feel like she needed a vacation from herself. When they sat down on the couch in Victoria's room, Max noticed that Leana wasn't with them anymore, which Chloe seemed to notice too. "OK, Max, I want some serious details about this."

Max rolled her eyes as she sighed, "Can we ... forget this ever happened?"

Chloe looked struck with disappointment. "But Max ... aren't you at all-"

Rachel intervened, "Chloe, she just needs a break from all the bizarre and unexpected shit in her life. Why don't we leave all this shit behind and go to Portland for awhile?"

Max couldn't have said it better herself. "Yeah, I just need a break from ... myself."

As she finished, Leana came waltzing in with excitement and sat down next to her. "So, I thought it would be cool to compare the pendants we saw, so I got the other ones." To Max's dismay and much to her disapproval, Leana opened her hand to reveal the other two pendants that she saw earlier. "Do you mind if I look at the red one?"

Max was relieved to remove it from her neck. "Sure, knock yourself out ... just don't open any of them, OK?"

Leana looked confused and disappointed. "Why not?"

Max was tired of playing games. "I don't want my consciousness split in two or any other shit, OK?"

Leana looked at her playfully. "OK, I won't." She began looking at the pendants carefully, but everyone watched her carefully, not sure if she got the intended message. Suddenly, Leanna looked like she recognized something as she looked closely at the white pendant. "Wait, I think I recognize this writing; it's an old dialect from the Inca Empire in Central America. I studied it for awhile as extra credit for a college course I was taking. I can't make it all out, but I think it's a warning. It says, 'if red is unsheathed, to open white is to stave off your destruction of everything you hold dear.'"

Rachel looked skeptical and amused, "You've got to be joking; since when did you take college classes?"

Leana looked confused. "I thought you wanted me to play along?"

"Well, yeah, but ... not until we start."

"But Max did start; didn't you hear her?" Rachel and everyone else was at a loss. Before they could think of anything, Leana blurted, "Well, good then, game over."

As Max noticed that Leana was suddenly and enthusiastically trying to open the pendant with the white stone, she reacted reflexively, reaching toward her and yelling, "Wait!" But it was too late, the moment the word came out, and the moment before she could have taken it from her, everything suddenly became bright white.