Max readied the hammer again but her wrist was grabbed by Chloe. The brunette gave a glare Chloe had only seen on wild animals protecting a fresh kill. "What the fuck!?" Chloe shouted while trying to pry the hammer from the small girl's grip. Max softened her stare and let the hammer go. "Max?" Chloe's eyes flickered between her friend's and the boy who was screaming through tears on the floor.
The hammer fell with a clatter and Chloe followed it. Slumped down against the bathroom wall. Max froze, not time it's self, simply her. Panic shot through her in a long forgotten way. That gunshot wasn't the hallucination that haunted her. She hadn't got there in time. Her right hand started shaking and raising on it's own. It was another variation, a branch of the tree she had never gone down.
"Fuck me.." Chloe groaned and clutched at her side, instinctively covering the wound. "You fucking shot me!" A kick was launched toward Nathan and it landed but there was no retaliation.
The gunshot and screams had caused David to burst into a sprint. His shoulder went against the door and it barely missed Chloe as it swung open and smacked against the wall. He scanned the room quickly looking for the gun, finding still within Nathan's reach. Although he could tell the boy was preoccupied in anguish, David kicked the gun away ever still. His mind raced as he saw Chloe sitting in the corner. Scarlet seeping through the white fabric of her t-shirt. His daughter was dying in front of him.
"My legs." Nathan moaned for what had to be the twentieth time. There would be no sympathy for the devil at that moment.
The training kicked in and he was at Chloe's side. His hands pushed her's away and he clamped down on the entrance and exit wounds. The pressure earned a scream from Chloe. "I need information, now!" David barked out to the room.
Max hadn't moved a muscle until Chloe's scream tore her from the depths of her mind. What had she done? Something new hadn't happened in so long. She broke out in a smile before a single hideous cackle passed her lips.
"Caulfield! Snap out of it!" David yelled at her. You could hear it was a plea not an order.
Their eyes met and she could see he was afraid. Hand still in the air, she touched the invisible pattern of the weave of time. Feeling back and taking in all of what had exactly just happened. She had fractured several of Nathan's vertebrae. It would be an arduous surgery but he would walk again. The bullet, instead of going into her chest and ricocheting off ribs, had went in straight through just above her right hip. An inch from missing her all together. She'd be fine.
Max went grab her cellphone but realized it was still in the classroom. She hadn't planned on this. Principle Wells would be here soon enough. "She- Chloe will be okay." She managed to say as she walked to the doorway looking for Wells. He was on his way but staring from a corner was Victoria. Max looked in at the state of the bathroom. It was too much, too real. It wasn't the routine and it turned her stomach.
Chloe called for Max as she slipped out the door. Wells burst in right away her, already on the emergency phone line. Knowing she would have to be questioned she just sat down. Matching Chloe's position on the other side of the wall. She curled her knees to her chest and hugged them. This was going to be a lot of pretending to be her old self. She could feel Victoria's eyes on her.
Her mind faded as flashing lights came through the large windows of the entrance. The thuds of so many feet. The gasps and silence as Chloe was taken out on a stretcher. David's bloody hand tentatively touching her elbow then a withdrawal. Then the cries and whispering as Nathan was carried out. Eventually an EMT put a blanket over her shoulders and lead her out to of the building.
Victoria's mind reeled while she took it all in. She could hear and feel Courtney and Taylor at her sides. Her attention hearing "Mark Jefferson?" Come from a stern voice behind her. She turned to see Jefferson watching the commotion from his doorway. Several police officers had gathered around him. She wondered why he was of any interest. Because Max had just stormed from his class? Finally it was her turn to gasp as she watched Jefferson be grabbed by the upper arm and led down the hallway.