IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Hi everyone, I'm back! So, before you go on reading, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know that from now, the tone of the story will progressively veer toward darker and edgier territories. Like, abuse, murder and the likes. Might add trigger warnings from now on when things get a little too dark or weird. This chapter contains a rather graphic murder scene in the first half and suicide talk in the second half.
And thank you for reading! :)
"Chloe?" Max called, but she got no answer.
Where are you, Chloe?
And while I'm at it, where am I?
She looked around, lost and confused. Not that she could see much anyway. Her whole world was gray, a blanket of fog so thick even her vampire eyes couldn't see through it. In every direction, the same gray, gray, gray… she felt her breathing quicken.
No! Don't panic, Max! This is hella weird, alright, but there has to be a reference point, somewhere, so you'll know where you are.
A sudden idea came to her, and she squatted to see and touch the floor. Her fingers met the rough texture of asphalt. Then she took a couple steps until she spotted a stripe of paint that confirmed her first impression. A road.
Okay, good. A road has to lead somewhere, right?
She stood back up, tried once more to pierce the fog - to no avail – and eventually decided to walk down that road. The air felt hot and dry around her, and her nose picked up a strong smell that reminded her of a log fire. Then, as she walked on, she eventually noticed small particles falling lazily around her.
Snowflakes?
Nah, couldn't be… it felt way too hot for it to be snowing…
She reached out, and one of those snowflakes fell on her open hand. She carefully studied it: it was dry, warm, and gray. She softly rubbed it, and it left a thin white powder on her palm.
Ashes.
Frowning, she rubbed her hand clean against her jeans and looked forward. Was the fog clearing, or was she getting accustomed to it? Either way, she could now distinguish the faint reddish glow of a sunset, far away on the horizon. And in front of her, at a distance, there was a mist-shrouded human figure, standing still.
"Chloe?" she called out, her heart racing with anticipation. But she got no answer from the figure.
She resumed her walk, quickening up her pace. The fog seemed to clear up as she neared her destination. Eventually, she noticed something on the road, big letters painted in black under her feet. She stopped to read the message. It was… NATAS? SI? No, it wasn't right. The letters were upside down. So she took a few more steps forward, still trying to read it along. EMAN SIH? XAM? DLEIFLUAC? Weird, she could've sworn she'd recognized her name here… eventually, she reached the end of the message, and turned around to read it properly.
And her heart stopped.
SATAN
IS
REAL
HIS NAME
IS
MAX CAULFIELD
What? Who could've written that? It's so… not nice! And it's not true at all! I'm the second sweetest person I know… the first one being Kate, obviously. What the hell is this place?
Feeling increasingly distressed, she turned back to the human figure in the distance and began running, faster and faster, in her hurry to find Chloe again and leave this God-forsaken place… wherever the hell that was.
Before long, her lungs started burning, her eyes started shedding tears. The pungent smell of burning wood was becoming intolerable. Soon enough, she started coughing and had to stop to catch her breath, resting on some kind of grassy slope on the side of the road. She looked up: the figure was close to her now, looming over her from atop the slope, with the red dusk behind it that seemed to be growing in intensity. Close enough to hear her. So she called it, but once again, it remained still and silent. After catching her breath, the young vampire went on to climb up the slope until she reached some kind of low stone parapet, which she leapt over to find herself on flat ground again. Messy, unmowed lawns delimited by stone trails, tall, dead trees… looked like some sort of castle garden that hadn't been maintained in a while… the figure was only a couple feet away now, she could almost make out its features through the mist: it was… wowser! It was tall! Like, ten feet tall, maybe? And it looked like… like it didn't have a head!
Her heart beating in anticipation, she walked the last remaining steps to a fountain in the middle of the castle garden, and she gasped in utter shock. The figure she'd seen in the distance, the one that was standing proud on a pedestal at the center of the fountain… was the decapitated statue of Jeremiah Blackwell! So that meant she was standing in front of…
At this very moment, the fog cleared, as though controlled by some entity that had been waiting for dramatic effect, and before the confused and frightened girl there stood the desolate husk of what used to be Blackwell Academy.
What in the world happened? She thought as she gazed in terror at the once familiar building that was now barely recognizable with its central tower collapsed and most of its windows gone, and its crumbling façade defaced with a large red graffiti that read:
RACHEL AMBER RULEZ
And to add to her horror, the fog receded even further as she looked, for her to see the wooded hills that sprawled behind the school, all the way up to Overlook Park. And she realized that the red glow she'd mistaken for a sunset was actually fire. The hills were on fire.
No way! What happened? How long have I been gone?
She hurried to the main building, climbed up the stairs, headed inside through the broken doors.
"Is there anyone here?" she called. "It's Max! Max Caulfield! What happened in here?"
She froze. There was a sound, coming from somewhere inside, not too far from her. Slow, deliberate footsteps. Heavy, metallic breathing, Darth Vader-style. Coming her way, from her left. A survivor!
"I'm here!" she called as she strode through the lobby, past the shelves displaying the various trophies and achievements, and crossed the doors to the left wing of the building. The hallway was long and wide, lined with lockers, dark and eerily silent. She started walking slower, listening attentively.
The footsteps and the breathing came to her ears again, and the young vampire froze in surprise as her nose picked up the unbearable stench of garlic.
And then the figure appeared, coming out of an empty classroom: a tall, slender man dressed in heavy boots, thick leather pants, thick gloves and a black breastplate, armpads and shoulderpads that looked like they were made of Kevlar, all scuffed and covered in dust. His face was concealed under what looked like a police helmet with a gas mask. And, most concerning to her, he was wearing a copious amount of cloves of garlic and crucifixes and medals all over his neck and arms, and across his chest, half a dozen sharp wooden stakes in scabbards.
And… what the fuck, was that a goddamn machete in his hand?
The definitely not friendly-looking figure looked at her with his expressionless polarized lenses, and from his mask came a menacing metallic growl:
"So you've come after all, you bloodthirsty bitch!"
Max tried to say something, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she began to choke and her knees got weak, her throat felt like sandpapers and her eyes got itchy and teary. She couldn't breathe. The stench of garlic was so strong she couldn't even breathe! Shadows started dancing before her eyes and she struggled to stay up as the figure approached with a determined gait and swung his machete at her.
She flickered away. Or at least, she thought of flickering away, for she found out it didn't work at all.
Crap, is it daytime? Just my luck!
Fortunately, she still had her superior reflexes, and she managed to dodge the blade. Barely.
"Wait!" she whispered with a coarse and raspy voice as the figure struck again, and again missed her by a hair's width.
Oblivious to her plight, Gas Mask Man swung his blade at her a third time, but this time Max was close to the lockers, and as she dodged, she heard a deafening clang as the blade sliced through a thin metal door and got jammed in it. The young vampire took it as her chance and threw her fist at the masked face, but she felt immediately knocked back, as though she'd hit an invisible wall followed by a sudden , blinding flash of white light.
She shook her head, recovering. How come she had… oh, wait.
The crucifixes. Can't hurt people wearing crucifixes. Shit shit shit!
With nothing else to do, she then decided to get the fuck out of here while the monster was still busy retrieving his blade.
"Max!" she heard him roar behind her as she flew past the doors and back to the lobby. "Can't run away from me! You're so fucking dead meat!"
His voice! Such hate in it! What did I do to piss this guy off that badly?
But she really didn't feel like stopping to have a little chitchat and find out: she kept running, straight ahead, flying past the doors to the right wing and heading straight down the hall. She heard steps behind, he was hot on her heels. The way ahead was barred by fallen lockers, piled up like a barricade, so she quickly took a right turn and leapt into a most familiar place: the art classroom.
As soon as she opened the door, though, she found herself drenched in water from above, and the surprise was such that she froze on the spot as the empty bucket fell in front of her feet.
A bucket of water over the door? Seriously, that old prank? In a place like that?
But then she started feeling uncomfortable: her head and her hands started tingling, softly at first but growing in intensity, until the tingling turned to an agonizing burn, and as Max fell to her knees, writhing and howling in pain, she gazed at her hands with dread and saw her skin begin to smoke and bubble and fall off in shreds, while the disgusting stench of burning meat invaded her nostrils.
Holy water! Holy shit Holy shit Holy shit!
And then an incredibly strong, gloved hand grabbed her from behind as she kept screaming, lifted her off her feet, and slammed her on a table. Knocked nearly unconscious by the blow, she mustered all her remaining strengths to shake herself awake and tried to struggle free, ignoring the pain. Gas Mask Man held on. He was strong, so incredibly strong! As strong as she was! He pinned her down and punched her in the face and for a second she saw stars. Then he punched her again before she recovered, and again, until she lay there spitting blood, her body not responding anymore to her hazed brain.
The man stood back up, dominating her in triumph, and removed his helmet and mask. Max's heart froze as she saw who was really standing over her, gloating.
"T-T-Tori?" she murmured weakly.
Victoria let out a short, spiteful laugh. "Don't you fucking dare tell me you're surprised! You knew this would happen. You knew your day would come eventually!"
"Wha-what happened? Why are you… after me?"
"Why?" Victoria roared. "You got some nerve asking that! Why don't you ask Kate?" She added, her voice suddenly going higher as tears started rolling down her cheeks. "Or Brooke? Warren? Taylor? Why don't you ask them when you see them again?"
Then she took a stake out of its scabbard and pointed it at Max's chest. "Yeah," she added, heaving, "you're gonna see them again real soon! I'm not enjoying this at all, you know. I loved you, Max… or I thought I did. But the Max I had feelings for is gone forever. I gotta do this. For you, guys!"
Then, in an almost imperceptible whisper, she added: "For you… Katie…"
And she hammered the stake down to the vampire's chest. Max caught her hand just before the sharp wooden tip touched her, and tried to resist, forcing until her muscles broke, but Victoria kept pushing, inexorably. The stake pierced through her clothes, through her skin. She gasped at the sting. Then came the snap of breaking bones, and the nauseating, squishy sound of the weapon tearing through tender flesh. She felt her own cold blood ooze from the wound and soak her shirt, and she could do nothing against that. And finally, the stake dove straight through to her heart.
Max opened her mouth to scream, but not a sound came out. She couldn't breathe anymore. She couldn't move anymore. All she could do was stare, wide-eyed, as the image of her girlfriend-turned-enemy faded to black and she sank in total oblivion.
"Max! Max, can you hear me? You're okay, Max, you're safe with me! Breathe deep!"
Still in the dark, Max focused on getting her breathing back in control. She inhaled, and to her greatest relief, she felt the air get sucked in her lungs, then out. She was alive! After a minute or so, she began to pay more attention to her other senses: she was laid on her side, on a mattress. Her cheeks were wet. She could hear the drumming sound of her own heart, and feel something soft pressed against her. She recognized the sweet, comforting smell: Chloe. She could feel her entire body curled against hers and her arms cuddling her. She let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.
Everything was fine. Chloe was here.
Slowly, she twisted her neck to take a look at her friend's delicate face, framed with her beautiful light blue hair. A mermaid. Just the sight of that face was enough to soothe her.
"Are you alright?" Chloe whispered, worry painted all over her face.
"Yeah," Max whispered back with a short nod. "I… had a nightmare, I think… dog, it felt so real…"
"Wanna talk about it?"
Max shook her head. "I'd rather not… not now, at least… too fresh…"
Chloe nodded in understanding, then Max turned her head to look her in the eyes and raised an eyebrow at her: "What I wanna talk about though is… you know you're spooning me, right?"
The punk girl chuckled: "Yeah, we fell asleep like that. Do you mind?"
She'd asked that with such an air of concern, it made Max want to giggle.
"No, it's pretty nice actually. But why aren't we in our coffins? And by the way, where are we?"
She took a look around: the blinds were shut and the room was plunged in darkness, but still she could see it was a rather large bedroom with a bed in the middle, and a couple sleeping in it. Several mattresses were laid on the floor around the bed, with other people sleeping on them. She didn't recognize the place, nor did she recognize any of these people.
Her confusion seemed to greatly amuse Chloe who chuckled as she answered: "You were really out of it last night, weren't you Maximus? We're in Portland, don't you remember? We went to this goth club I told you about, we fed and then we met this couple, Steven and Clara. We hit it off and they invited us to finish the night at their place with their friends."
"Crap," Max groaned, "and I wanted to take it easy on the booze…"
"In your defense, you didn't drink that much last night, but the guys we fed on were pretty wasted."
Max nodded, then shook her head and yawned as her brain finished waking up. And then it came back to her: the afterparty in Steven and Clara's flat. Before that, the club, the Asylum it was called, she remembered it as some creepy old building, and Chloe had informed her that it used to be a sanitarium back in the 19th century. She had even commented on how fitting that was for a goth club. Then she remembered even before that, the drive from Arcadia Bay to Portland, Chloe had done it in record time, probably breaking every single traffic law in the process. And even before the drive… Blackwell, the swimming pool, how their scary prank on Warren and Brooke had escalated to a full-on fight…
Suddenly very much awake, she sat up as though on springs and snapped:
"Shit, Warren and Brooke!"
"Sssh," Chloe whispered, "not so loud, you're gonna wake up everyone!"
"Sorry. But Warren and Brooke, we fucked up last night, they saw you! I got to call them!"
"Okay, easy there. First, let's get out of here."
As swiftly and silently as cats, they found their clothes strewn around, got dressed, and tiptoed out of the room. Max had her hand on the front door of the apartment when she spotted Chloe stooped over the kitchen table, scribbling something on a post-it note.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Telling them we're leaving, and giving them my phone number. Wouldn't mind hanging out with them again, they're pretty fun!"
Once that was done, they left the dark apartment and Max put on her sunglasses before they stepped outside. Then she took a look at Chloe and chuckled at the sight, thinking it was amazing how their choice of sunglasses reflected their personalities: Max's were small, round, black, discreet, while Chloe had opted for a huge pair of aviator mirrorshades, tacky and imposing, just like her.
As they made their way to the truck, Max took out her phone and was surprised to see it was noon, and then to see the number of messages. Most of those she'd sent herself, drunk apologies to Warren and Brooke that had remained unanswered.
Uh oh.
There were also a couple from Victoria:
Victoria Chase: thank you for last night, Max, I had a great time with you
Victoria Chase: Max, you there? Wanted to ask you out for breakfast but you're not answering your door?
Victoria Chase: I just checked and your truck isn't here, did you leave early?
Victoria Chase: oh, well… I'm with Tay today, talk to you later?
Crap… better make it up to her real quick before she gets pissed or worried…
Max Caulfield: Hi Tori Sorry I didn't see ur messages sooner, had to leave early, Lacroix called!
Victoria Chase: on a Saturday? What a slaver :o
Max Caulfield: don't tell me -'
Victoria Chase: will you be free tonight?
Max Caulfield: dunno yet, big project :/
Victoria Chase: kay, bon courage then! XOXO
Max Caulfield: MAXOXO 3
Fuck, did I really sign with a heart? Well, technically she's my girlfriend now, so I can do it, right? Right?
Then why isn't she sending a heart back?
"You done chatting with the GF?" Chloe asked, leaning on the truck and lighting up a joint.
"Yeah… isn't it a little early for that?"
"Wake and bake, Max. Some traditions are sacred."
Max chuckled.
"So what now?" Chloe asked.
Max felt her palms get wet at the thought of the task ahead.
"I gotta call Warren."
"Again? Dude, he didn't even answer any of your texts last night!"
"I know! But, man we really fucked up last night, I can't believe I let you talk me into this! They're my friends and we attacked them!"
"Oh, so now it's gonna be my fault?"
"It's… not what I meant. Just… they just didn't deserve this, we went way too far!"
"Yeah, well that's what those dorks get for messing with us!"
"It's not fair, Chlo. They're lovely, both of them, they've always been there for me, especially after…"
"After what?" Chloe asked, seeing her friend drop silent all of a sudden.
"Nevermind. I just have to keep trying."
And on these words, she called. It rang. And rang. And rang. Eventually, her heart made a somersault when she heard the boy's voice, but sank when she realized it was only his voicemail:
"Hi, this is Warren Graham, if I'm not answering it probably means I'm in the middle of an experiment that will either get me a Nobel prize or blow up the school… or both. Anyway, leave a message!"
"Warren! Dog, please answer! Look, I'm so sorry about last night, we didn't mean no harm to you or Brooke, it was just a prank that went terribly wrong! Please call me back so I can explain!"
Then she hung out and let out a dejected sigh.
"Bah, forget it!" Chloe said as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders to cheer her up. "They're just pissed at you for now, but they'll come around eventually."
"I hope so… I'm really worried though, I mean they saw you!"
"So what? We were supposed to find a way to bring me back to the world, letting people know one or two at a time doesn't seem like a bad start."
"But how are we gonna explain that?"
"I dunno, make up something. How about witness protection program? I knew about Nathan and Jefferson and had my death faked to get out of harm's way, how does that sound? Plus, it'd make for a hella cool story!"
"I don't know, I… just… Chlo?"
"What?"
"I was thinking… I mean, they're my closest friends at Blackwell, along with Kate and of course, Tori, so… how about we… we just tell them?"
Chloe remained frozen in shock upon hearing this suggestion… then she barked out laughing. "Tell them what, that we're vampires? Dude, like someone's gonna believe us!"
"We could just give them proof!"
"And what if they freak out and decide to come after us, all stakes out?"
"They're my friends, Chlo, they wouldn't do that."
"You're way too trusting," Chloe scoffed. "Besides, I don't think Mr Baguette would be okay with it."
"I told you not to call him that," Max groaned in annoyance. "Besides, he more or less told me I should consider telling Tori if I want our relationship to last, so… I don't think he'd mind if we let our close friends in on it, you know? I was just thinking about how bad we've been at this 'discretion' thing so far, I mean, all we've managed to do was alienate Warren and Brooke, and I don't know how long I'll be able to keep lying to Kate and Tori, it gets harder every day. I don't want to reach a point where I'll be chased around Blackwell by Tori with a stake because I've made an enemy of her and everyone else!"
"Wait, what?" Chloe raised an eyebrow, and Max blushed at her carelessness.
"That's… just a thought," she said sheepishly, holding her elbow with her other arm.
"It was oddly specific for 'just a thought', and I know what it means when you hold your elbow like that, Maximus. So what's the story?"
"That's, uh, what my nightmare was about," Max floundered. She looked at her friend but Chloe kept staring at her in silence, waiting for her to elaborate, so she took a deep breath and went on reluctantly: "Look, it was pretty horrible. I was in a sort of creepy, Silent Hill version of Blackwell, complete with fog and eerie silence, and in the distance the whole forest was on fire! So I went inside the building, looking for other people, and there I saw Tori. She was… like some kind of vampire hunter, she had stakes and crosses and a goddamn body armor, and she chased me around, saying how much she hated me and I had it coming… in the end she caught up with me, and drove a stake through my heart, right after implying… dog that was awful, she implied I'd killed Kate and everyone else!"
Chloe observed a moment of silence to process it, and finally muttered: "Fuck…"
Then: "Are you okay?" she added with concern as she took her trembling friend in her arms.
"Yeah," Max reassured her, "it was just a dream. But it was hella scary. So it got me thinking… what if we end up making enemies if we keep hiding? What if we could gain allies by being honest instead?"
Chloe got very serious all of a sudden, leaning against the truck, looking down at the pavement, rubbing her chin.
"You okay, Chlo? Did I say something wrong?"
"No," she answered absent-mindedly. "I was just thinking about that… about telling… well…"
Max lay a gentle hand on her best friend's arm and gave her a warm smile: "Joyce?" she asked.
Chloe nodded. "I miss her, you know?"
Max nodded in return: "Yeah, I know… if you want to come out to her, I'll be right beside you, you know?"
The young punk shrugged: "Yeah, I know, just… don't wanna rush things, it's gonna be a hella awkward thing to do, convince her that we're real and all… I'm not in a hurry to do that."
Then she straightened up and shook herself to chase all the self-doubt and gloomy thoughts away. "You know what?" she said. "Let's just enjoy the rest of the weekend we have together! Fuck, it's Saturday, I'm in Portland with my best fucking friend, we need to make the most of it! Let's stock up on tats, beer and weed!"
"And books from Powell's!" Max added with a goofy grin plastered over her face, her spirits high again at the prospect of enjoying the day with Chloe, in a city where nobody knew them and they could come and go as they pleased.
"And strip clubs… Kidding! But you never know… okay, matey, all aboard!"
And Chloe opened the door and sat at the driver's seat.
"Oh," Max said as she took her own seat beside her, "before we do all that, now that we're in Portland there's one item on my hit list I'd like to take care of, if you don't mind?"
"Is it gonna be some boring-ass shit?"
"Maybe… or it could be an adventure, who knows?"
Chloe grinned at that: "It better be an adventure! So, where to, matey?"
"OHSU."
As they were approaching the hospital, Max's phone rang.
"Who's it?" Chloe asked when she cast a side glance at her friend and saw her frown.
"Nothing!" Max answered a little too earnestly to be honest. "Just… I have to answer, it won't take long."
Then she answered:
"Hello… Dr Connors, hi!... yeah, good, thank you… I know, I'm sorry I missed yesterday, I've been hella busy, you know with my new job… yes, I know it's important to keep coming… next Friday? Yeah, yeah sure… I'm fine, really, thank you for asking… yes I still take them… look, can we talk about it next Friday? Thank you. Have a nice weekend!"
"Soooo, a doctor?" Chloe asked inquisitively as she hung up.
"Uh, yeah, that's Dr Connors, he's a… a doctor…"
She mentally facepalmed. You don't say!
"A doctor you're seeing every Friday?"
"Uh, yeah…"
"You're being evasive, Maxi-pad! Come on, tell me what you're hiding!"
"Nothing, Chlo, it's just not very important… Dr Connors, he's a… a grief counselor."
"A grief counselor?"
"Yeah… look, your death was a hard blow to me, okay?"
"Okay, okay, no need to get so worked up! Not judging you, if you need to see a shrink, you see a shrink."
Max softened as she answered: "Sorry, I just… I'm kinda embarrassed cause I don't know how to tell him I don't need him anymore… I mean, it's not like I'm grieving anymore, right?"
"Right," Chloe chuckled. "You can't keep grieving someone who… undied?"
They continued in silence and parked on the hospital parking lot.
"I still don't understand why you wanna do it," Chloe commented as she killed the engine. "I mean, sure it sucks for Taylor, but isn't she like one of the Bitchy Trio?"
"Well, even the worst bitch ever doesn't deserve that, so if I can help… and I told you, they've changed! I got to know Taylor a little better, and she's really sweet actually, I'm sure you'd get along with her!"
Chloe scoffed.
"No, really!" Max added. "You should've seen that really nice card she sent me when I…"
"When you what?" Chloe asked upon noticing how silent she'd dropped, again.
"Nothing," Max said quietly, averting her gaze.
"No, wait!" Chloe ordered as she grabbed her shoulder to keep her from opening the door and leaving the truck. "When you what, Max?"
"I said it's nothing important."
"Well maybe it is to me!" Chloe answered sternly, this time taking hold of her friend's frail shoulders with both her hands and forcing her to face her. Max gasped and felt a bit of dread at this sudden roughness.
"Look me in the eyes!" she ordered as she took off Max's sunglasses, then her own. "There's something you're not telling me! Several times you alluded to something and said it was nothing when I asked, when we went to see Prescunt you looked like you knew your way around the hospital, and now I learn that you're seeing a doctor! And before you feed me more of your 'grief counselor' bullcrap, keep in mind that I know exactly what 'I still take them' means, you're on meds, Max! There's no shame in that, I was on meds too, but if there's something wrong with you, I want to know what it is and how I can help, cause that's what best friends are for! And now you're talking about a 'nice card' Taylor sent you? Usually people send you 'nice cards' when you're at the hospital! So tell me, Max, you're my best friend, please don't keep stuff from me!"
"Alright, alright!" Max yelled in annoyance as she shook herself free. "Dr Connors is a psychiatrist, okay? And yes, I'm on meds, or I was before I became a vampire, and yes I've spent a couple days at the hospital! There, said it! Happy now?"
A heavy silence settled between the two young women. Chloe stared, dumbfounded, at the cute freckled brunette sitting next to her, heaving with anger and looking like she was on the verge of tears.
"I mean…" she stammered, her tone softening as her body relaxed. "I-I-I don't know what to say! I… I'm sorry, Maximus, I didn't want to make you upset. Is… is it something you want to talk about?"
Max shook her head and looked away, her gaze drifting toward the windshield and the parking lot beyond it. Chloe reached a slow, tentative hand and caressed her cheek softly with the tip of her thumb. Max twitched and the bluenette, surprised, withdrew her hand. Their eyes met again. Tears were slowly flowing down the photographer's freckled cheeks, the sight of which stung the punk's heart. She reached out again and rested her hand on Max's cheek. This time she didn't flinch.
"You know you can tell me," Chloe whispered comfortingly.
These words felt to Max like a bomb blowing a hole in a dam, and, drowning under the flood of weeks of bottled-up feelings, she broke down weeping:
"It was so hard to live without you! You… I know I've been a shitty friend, not keeping in touch, not calling you in five years, and just as I was starting to deal with that fucking goddamn anxiety that was ruining my life, just as I was working up the nerve to call to you, to see you again, I… I saw you die! I saw you clench your belly, I saw the blood flow from between your fingers and I saw your eyes… saw your eyes go glassy and starey as you looked at me, but you didn't recognize me cause you were already… gone… gone and I couldn't even tell… one last goodbye… I couldn't live with that, you understand? Thinking… thinking I… I could never see you smile again… could never… hear your voice again as you told me dumb jokes, could never… smell you… cuddle against you like when we were kids and having sleepover… all of that… gone, forever… and thinking none of this would've happened if I'd been there for you, to keep you safe like a first mate should. Thinking I'd lost you forever and it was all my fault! I couldn't, no, I couldn't… so, one day… one day it got to a point when I… I wanted to see you again, so badly… so I went up, on the dorm roof… I walked to the edge and as I looked down, I realized there was a way for me to be with you again, forever. All I had to do was take one step forward. One little, tiny step forward… Kate… Kate was there for me, at the last moment she appeared like the fucking angel she is to talk me out of this."
She stopped talking and went on sobbing freely for a moment. Then, as she calmed down, she sniffled and wiped her tears and muttered: "That's why I've been to the hospital, and that's why I'm seeing a shrink. Now… you see why it wasn't so hard a choice to make, I mean becoming a vampire to bring you back?"
She looked up at Chloe again with a faint smile on her face, but that smile faded away the moment she saw the punk's look: she was staring, her piercing blue eyes bloodshot and wet, her arms and her jaw trembling. She had one hand on the steering wheel and Max could see her fingers white with tension.
"Chlo?" she asked, her voice choked with tears and worry as she tentatively reached out.
Nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.
Chloe slapped her.
In shock, Max slowly put a hand on her hot, stinging cheek as she stared at her friend and opened her mouth to speak, but not a word came out. It was Chloe who spoke:
"How could you?" she spat out. "How could you…"
"Chlo…" Max began hesitantly, but Chloe cut her off:
"How could you even think about it?" she wailed out at the top of her lungs, hot tears flowing freely. "How could you even think about ending your own fucking life for me? You had no right to do this!"
"I told you, I was in so much pain!"
"That's not an excuse! Listen!"
And once again, startling Max with her brutality, Chloe grabbed both her shoulders, so strongly the brunette winced at the sensation of fingers digging into her, and came so close their foreheads touched. Then, looking her dead in the teary eyes, she declared, her voice choked yet intense and determinate:
"You are the single, most important person in the world, do you understand that? Ever since we met, back in school, you've been my whole. Fucking. Universe! That's why I've been so hurt you never called me in five years, that's why I didn't have the balls to call you myself, cause I didn't want to find out you'd moved on and forgotten me, and I preferred not knowing and believing you were still out there, thinking of me, than not having Max Caulfield in my life at all anymore. You are everything to me, everything! And I could never stand to see you get hurt, to see you suffer, or… or fucking die on me! You're too precious, Max, way too precious! You have no right to take your own precious life away, even for me! Get it? I'd rather die for you every day of the week for all eternity than have you do the same for me even once. Do you understand that?"
Max froze, flabbergasted. She'd never expected such a…
"I…" she began, but was interrupted when, out of the blue, Chloe lurched forward and pressed her lips against hers.
Her lips pressed forcefully, and Max could feel the tension in her, the anger, the pain, the relief, the endless affection, all focused on that single point of her body. And when they parted, the poor brunette sat there, slumped in her seat, barely able to support herself.
"Wha… wha… what?" she tried to ask, but Chloe, after shaking her head and sighing deeply, brushed her off:
"Sorry bout that, got carried away a bit. Whew, feels better, I was so mad at you for a sec!"
"Uh, I… uh… you…"
"Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said, her tone calm again. "And I'm sorry I hit you, I… I lost control, and it wasn't cool. Hope you can forgive me?"
Still incapable of forming a complete sentence, Max just nodded.
"Cool," Chloe sighed in relief.
Then she groped for her shades with a trembling and put them on. "Now," she declared, back to her old snarky self, "how about you move your skinny ass and we get on with it? We got a fucking job to do, and I'd rather do it quick so we have shitloads of time for fun! Let's go, hippie!"