Chapter Nineteen: From Snoop to Detective
Max's POV
Somehow, I had let Rachel convince me to snoop around Blackwell in search of clues, or in her case gossip. As much as I hated to admit it, this was a little exciting. I was nosy by nature, after all. At least I was doing this for a good reason, to help find out what happened to Chloe. That justification made me feel a little better about all this.
When we reached Victoria's dorm, we came to a standstill. "Now, first off we've gotta check the Queen Bitch of Blackwell isn't here. I think she's hanging out with her clones, but best to check. So, when you're ready, go waltz in there."
Steadying my nerve, I felt her lightly shove me towards the door and then something much more unexpected. A pat on my backside. Stifling a small yelp of surprise, I turned to see Rachel smirking at me. "Sorry, couldn't help myself."
Almost scared to turn my back on her now, I kept her in my peripheral vision as I sidled up to the door. Holding my breath and preparing for a rewind, I pushed my way in, letting out a deep sigh of relief when it was empty. Once the coast had been established as clear, we snuck inside.
"See? Easy. Now, let's find out some of Victoria's secrets," Rachel ordered softly, already on the move.
I started the search on the other side of the room, momentarily distracted by the impressive cameras on the couch. As much as I loved old school cameras, I sure wouldn't complain if someone gave me one of these beasts for free. Feeling eyes on me, I glanced over my shoulder to see Rachel smirking at my obvious admiration. Shaking my head, I shuffled over and tried to ignore the urge to play around with them. It was tempting, that and taking advantage of the huge TV on the other side of the room.
Eventually, I reached her laptop which was thankfully already on and logged in to her social media page. If only everything was this easy. I began searching my way through for anything that might tie Victoria up in Chloe's disappearance. I'd already experienced her malicious tendencies. Could she really go so far as to have an active hand in my childhood best friend's missing status?
I was way too engrossed in my search to notice Rachel sneak up behind me before it was too late. "Found anything?"
The unexpected words made me jump, almost knocking over everything on Victoria's desk. "Shit… Rachel, please… warn me next time."
"Oh, but that's no fun," she whined softly, arms wrapping around me. "Speaking of, want to take a short break?"
Taken aback, I gave her a strange look. "What? You do know where we are, right?"
"Uh, yeah, that's why I suggested it," she asserted, her arms closing around me like a vice. "C'mon, live dangerously for once."
Remembering what happened last time I let her do as she wanted - a new, jarring power development and killer headache - I decided that now would be as good a time as any to rewind on her. She might get annoyed but now was not the time for this, especially given that we were supposed to be searching for clues about Chloe.
Before anything else could happen, I focused and rewound to just before Rachel tried to scare me. As tempting as it was to give back as good as I got like at the pool, I refrained. It was better to do this quickly and quietly. The next time she tried to scare me, I was more than ready.
"Found anything?" she whispered, seeming disappointed by my lack of reaction. It didn't take her long to realize why. "Damn it, Max. Why rewind away my fun?"
"Because… your 'fun' can get… out of hand," I reminded her, certain memories resurfacing.
Her hands rested either side, keeping me trapped between the desk and her body. "Ooooh, did something happen, then?"
"I… never said that…" I backtrack, trying to swiftly change the subject. "But, I've found a couple things. Most of which just confirmed that Victoria hated Chloe's guts and vice versa. Not enough to pin this on her or anything."
Rachel rested her chin on my shoulder, placing a hand over mine as I scrolled through posts and messages. Doing my best to ignore her, I found the parts I wanted to share with her. Nothing all that incriminating, honestly. Just reaffirmation that Chloe and Victoria didn't like each other.
Just as I was about to click on another tab, I heard the door creak open. Freezing up, I began to panic. Before Victoria even had the chance to say anything, I pulled everything into a rewind. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to sneak out undetected but it did give me just enough time to yank Rachel into the nearby closet. I was briefly reminded of the times me and Chloe used her closet to play in, now was a very different situation from innocent childhood imaginations.
We got in just in time, Victoria, Taylor, and Courtney coming in mere seconds later. They had some kind of conversation about Victoria's odd behavior, but I couldn't really pay attention. My heart was racing, both from nearly getting caught and being so close to Rachel. Neither of us was big at all and even then, it was a tight fit.
"Doesn't look like they'll be moving for a while," Rachel observed, trying to get a good view of where they were in the room without giving herself away. "Fast forward time?"
After swearing not to use my recently discovered fast forward ability until I really, really had to, I wasn't so sure. "I…"
I didn't even get the chance to start, Rachel kissing away my protests. "If you don't… I might have to start making some noise… or I'll get you making some."
It was then I felt her hands in my back pockets, breath on my neck. If this continued, we would definitely get caught. Sometimes, I wondered if Rachel cared either way. She seemed just as quick to embrace chaos as to avoid it.
"Fine, just… gimme a minute," I managed, feeling her retreat.
Since my last fast forward had been by accident, I wasn't even sure how to trigger it. Hell, even my rewind was still a mystery. All I could do was imagine the point I wanted to travel to and will myself there. To my surprise, it actually worked. Slowly at first, then much faster. Images burned in my mind, all kinds of possibilities I'd missed out on for skipping. Gritting my teeth, I pushed further trying to catch the right moment. There was much more resistance to this than my rewind, past events much easier to revisit than forcing forward to live in new ones.
The second I reached a point close to the one I wanted, my body gave out, weight resting against Rachel. "And I thought my rewind was a mind fuck…"
"Max, that was fucking insane. I felt it this time. Saw it," the blonde added, her mind blown.
It seemed that unlike last time, my power didn't affect her. The reason… who knew. Maybe I subconsciously tried to include her in the fast forward. That might explain the mind crushing headache I was experiencing now. That did lead to an interesting question… could I potentially use my rewind to help others navigate through the timestream? If so, what were the limits?
However much I wanted to run that little thought experiment, I was too drained to give it serious attention. "Believe me, it's pretty fucking crazy for me too. Jeez, wish it didn't feel like my skull's about to get crushed. Should pass in a few."
Rachel poked her head out, checking that we were safe to leave. "Looks like it did the trick."
She helped me out and onto the bed so I could rest for a bit. Thankfully, I recovered relatively quickly and managed to stand, admittedly feeling a little wobbly on my feet. "I guess experiencing something I haven't seen yet is harder than going over something I already have."
Noticing me struggle, the blonde came over and let me lean against her. "Seems so. I'm sure you'll adjust eventually. Might take some practice."
"Or a lot…" I muttered to myself as we left. With each step, I felt my strength returning. "Think I'll hold off for a while until I use it again, if possible."
"I bet you'll be a time pro before you know it," she added reassuringly. "So, ready to keep going?"
As wiped as I felt from the previous time travel escapades, I wanted to find something from all this to make it worthwhile. Aside from a splitting headache. "Well, we didn't find much in Victoria's room… I kinda want to come away with something."
"That's the spirit. Next stop, good old Principal Wells' office," Rachel smiled, leading me down the hallway and outside.
It was getting dark now, the grounds pretty much empty aside from the meager security patrols. David would probably be out and about. After his warning about Rachel, I doubt he'd be overly happy about seeing me sneaking around with her. I knew he held grudges and was quick to lump people together. Ideally, I needed to keep everyone on side to get all the info. I had no idea how Rachel managed to do this without powers. It must be tiring.
After a few close calls, and one or two panic rewinds on my part which may not have been necessary, we made it to Wells' office. Once behind the little reception areas' door, I managed to relax a little. Not much.
Rachel, on the other hand, seemed to be loving this. "I'm so looking forward to this. You don't know how long I've been wanting to explore this office."
"Just keep in mind what we came here for," I reminded, trying to keep her on track.
"Max, I will. But I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts. Now, since there isn't a key for the office, shady as hell in my opinion, we've got to get creative. I've picked up some lock picking skill in my time, but I don't know how long it'll take before I get in," Rachel added thoughtfully, sizing up the lock.
"I might know the right guy for the job," I announced, dropping my science geek friend Warren a text.
As expected, he delivered with instructions to make a bomb out of easily accessible ingredients. It took some sneaking around and one or two dives into abandoned classrooms, but eventually, I managed to find everything we needed.
"Well, this will be loud," Rachel observed as I returned to put it all together just like Warren's text laid out. "What do you plan on doing after setting this off?"
"Simple. All I have to do is get into the office and rewind, avoiding the noise. Then, I'll let you in," I replied, trying to sound confident.
The shaky assertiveness seemed to amuse her. "Oh, so you have given this some thought. For a second, I thought you were just making this up as you went along."
"Um, I kinda am…" I admitted, setting everything up.
"Hey, so long as it works." Rachel felt around in her pockets for a lighter, flicking it on. "In future, just act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. It's what I do."
As planned, she lit the fuse and we hid behind the desk. The bomb exploded, a high pitched alarm ringing out before we could even begin to feel the faint sense of victory. Wasting no time, I dove into the office and rewound to before the explosion proceeding to let Rachel in behind me.
The seemingly impossible feat made her smile. "Impressive, Caulfield. Can't wait to see all your other smooth moves."
"You'll probably be waiting a while. Me and smooth don't tend to mix," I added as a self-depreciative afterthought.
"Once you've got your powers down, I'm sure that'll change," Rachel reassured as she wandered off in search of clues, settling on the computer first and foremost. "I'll try and hack into this. You go look around for Chloe's file and anything else of interest."
In my search, I found a bunch of files that I couldn't help but take a quick peek at. Of course, Victoria's file was spotless, same went for Nathan Prescott. I didn't know him well, but he seemed like a bit of a rich kid asshole sometimes. A file I wasn't surprised about was Kate's. She tried so hard in class and deserved the raving reviews. Mine, on the other hand, was mixed. Not wanting to dwell, I came across Rachel's report - which as expected portrayed her as a model student… aside from a few skirmishes with David Madsen. Most of them more recently, since Chloe went missing.
Did he really suspect Rachel? Or was that the loss talking? He seemed pretty adamant before, but Joyce seemed to think otherwise. I didn't really know David well enough to make a proper assessment of how paranoid he was. And I did trusted Joyce's judgment - more than either David or Rachel's - since I knew her better.
Eventually, I came across Chloe's file, expression softening when I began looking into it. I knew she was smart, always had been, and yet… she did have a rebellious streak. It seemed that got worse after I left, to the point where it became a detriment. If I hadn't left, would she have behaved this way? Guess I would never be able to find out now. Not unless I could go back and change things. That was possibly an option now.
Not finding anything else of interest, I snapped a picture or two of her file, including all the notes on her disappearance, and headed over to Rachel. "So, any luck?"
"Well, I'm in," Rachel clarified as I came around to see the screen. "There's a lot of boring shit on here, some juicy gossip too, but nothing groundbreaking. Some emails, notes, and stuff about how much Wells wanted to bury this whole incident."
As she went through, I took a few more pictures of anything that might be useful on the screen so we could look through them all later, including any deleted files we could get our hands on. The sooner we got out of here, the better.
Just as I was about to suggest we left, Rachel let out a small sigh. "Feels weird to be back in here again."
"How do you mean?" I pressed softly.
"Well, the last time I was in here was when…" She averted her gaze, voice turning quieter, "...just after Chloe vanished off the face of the earth. David put the pressure on Wells so he called me up. Just to pacify him."
Unable to keep the curiosity at bay, I tried to get more detail. "What happened?"
She shrugged, leaning back in the swivel chair. "Oh, he just mentioned how David seemed to think I was responsible somehow, alongside literally everyone at Blackwell. He asked if I knew where she was, to which I said no. And… that was about it, honestly."
"So much for a proper investigation," I muttered, feeling just a little angry at how quickly everything had been swept under the rug.
"That's Blackwell for you." Suddenly, Rachel stood and took hold of my wrist to pull me over to the door. "Anyway, let's get out of here. We can get into the emotional bullshit another time."
Sometimes, it felt like she wasn't telling me something, or maybe it was just too painful to think about. Either way, I wanted to find out more about how Rachel factored into all this. Something told me that she would prove a pivotal point in this whole investigation. How… I had yet to find out.