Chapter 25
The bright light was blinding her. She didn't know where she was or what time it was. All she remembered was the moment before the crash.
"Get up!" echoed a strange voice from far away. "Get up, Maxine!"
With a groan, Maxine mustered all her willpower and forced her eyes to stay open until they had finally managed to get used to the brightness. She then sat up and realized a few things as she was looking around: she was sitting on a patch of grass in the middle of a deserted town, she was back in her female body and she was naked.
Gasping aloud, Maxine covered as much from her private spots as possible and looked panicky around. Luckily, there was nobody else around though it seemed to be the middle of the day.
Slowly, she got up and walked over to a cafe that was nearby, where she took a tablecloth from one of the outside tables and wrapped it around her body.
"H-hello?" she then called cautiously towards the open cafe, but received no answer. "Hello, is anybody there?" she tried again, but once more, nobody answered. Now being freaked out by this silence and absence of other human beings, Maxine began to panic and yelled loudly "Hellooooo!"
"Sit!" answered this strange voice again, startling the brunette. "Fate awaits you!"
One of the chairs moved and signed the young woman to sit down. But if that wasn't already creepy enough, there also was a piece of cake and a mug of coffee standing ready on the table.
Feeling a bit hungry, Maxine's urges eventually won over her fear and caution, and she immediately sat down and started to eat the Apple Pie, gulping it down with a sigh of satisfaction.
"I'm glad you like it," chimed suddenly a familiar voice from right across the table, causing Maxine to almost choke on a bite of cake. And as she looked up, she nearly fell off the chair.
"R-Rachel?!"
It was really Rachel Amber, yet the older, 18-years old version with green-glowing eyes, who was surprisingly naked as well as she gave the geeky girl a friendly smile.
"Well, in your case, I'm Rachel Amber right now, because I thought this might be a pleasant sight for you," she said, and when she realized the other woman's blushed cheeks, she looked down on herself. "Oh...right!"
With a snip of her finger her bare skin got cladded with a white toga, which made her look like a Greek goddess.
"Better?"
"Uh...y-yeah, um…" Giving her a skeptical frown, Maxine then returned "So, you're not Rachel?"
"No."
The answer was short and so not helping Maxine in her situation. "Then who the fuck are you?"
"I am what was and what will be. I am the one who can make the poorest beggar rich and richest king poor. I am the beginning and the ultimate end. Nobody can escape me. I am the one who weaves the fabric of all realities. The old Greeks called me The three Fates, but over the millennia three became one, and this is what I am now."
Maxine didn't really know if she should now be afraid or simply puzzled by this rather long and detailed introduction. And she eventually asked herself if this was nothing more than a stupid…
"Be rest assured that this is not a dream… And don't be angry that I finished your sentence."
"Geez, stop it!" blurted Maxine back, her head already throbbing and spinning, plus that this thing in front of her was constantly smiling at her. "So, what the fuck do you want from me?"
A good question, yet, the answer was less than satisfying.
"To repair the flaws in the fabric of reality. The flaws you have created."
"Me?!" exclaimed Maxine and jumped up, the tablecloth gliding off her naked body as she forgot to hold it in place. But with another snip of Rachel's finger she got dressed in her all too well known hipster clothes.
"Yes, you." was everything Rachel answered, snipping once more with her finger which caused another piece of cake to appear. "Want some more cake?"
Having enough of those games, Maxine freaked out and swiped clean the table. The cake landed on the ground, not looking so yummy anymore while the dishes broke in a thousand pieces. And still, this Rachel in front of her stayed calm and kept on smiling, cleaning the mess with another flick of her fingers.
Feeling defeated, Maxine fell forward, and rested her body with stretched out arms on the table.
"I never chose this," she said with a low voice, tears spilling out of her eyes. "I never wanted those powers."
"Decisions are an illusion, Maxine!" mentioned Rachel, suddenly appearing beside the crying woman and soothingly brushing her back. "The moment you were born, your life-thread had been made and woven into the fabric. Everything that exists has a destiny and it always ends the same way."
"Death."
"Correct," the entity disguised as Rachel answered and stopped caressing the young woman and walked away. "But you cheated death, Maxine, and flawed the fabric by intervening in a reality that is not meant for you."
"It wasn't my fault!" blurted Maxine back angrily, her fists hitting the table. "I wanted to set things right, but somehow ended up there."
"Hmm…" hummed the entity, leaving open her intentions behind this, which drove the brunette woman even more furious.
"Hmm-what?! You got no answer to that? I thought you're this almighty three-become-one-I'm-the-beginning-and-the-end-thingy."
Despite Maxine's outbreaks, the entity stayed calm nonetheless, saying "I merely weave the thread, not produce it."
"Then who produces it? What asshole gave me those powers?"
Rachel froze in her movements and glimpsed over her shoulders, giving Maxine a wry smirk. "That is not on me to tell. Come, I want to introduce someone to you."
She should be angry right now and rip this wannabe Rachel a new one. But instead, Maxine did what she had done most of life: swallow it down and follow quietly.
They didn't go far, maybe just a few buildings until they reached a bus stop, where someone was waiting on a bench. And as soon as this person saw them, it jumped up and headed straight for the entity.
"Finally, how long were you gonna let me wait, Rach?"
The person was a teenage boy and he looked very familiar to Maxine.
"Maximilian?!" she gasped, her mouth standing wide open, now drawing the boy's attention towards her.
"Who's that chick?" he asked with a frown, clearly not that fond of the older teenager. Yet, she decided to stay friendly.
"Uh, hi! I'm Max...uh, Maxine."
She reached him a hand, but instead of a handshake and a friendly reply, she was met with anger.
"Is that this bitch, who stole my life?!"
"Indeed she is," replied the entity with an honest smile, not thinking about intervening as Maximilian jumped at his female counterpart and tackled her to the ground.
"Gimme my fucking life back, you imposturous cunt!" he yelled into her face, shaking her upper body. But Maxine had learned a few tricks and exchanged their places by simply rolling to the side.
"You outta your fuckin' mind, asshole?! It wasn't my fault that this happened. If you want answers, ask this Fate-bitch!"
As the young boy realized that he was pinned down and that the slightly older girl was indeed a bit taller and had more strength, he eventually calmed down and gazed over her shoulder directly at Rachel.
"What did she mean with Fate? Is that you? How did this happen?"
Fate simply chuckled and snipped her fingers once more, and like it had been magic, the three of them were sitting at the table again.
"I can tell you what happened, but not why. Yet both answers won't solve the problem. Both of you have to get back to their own reality, only this way the flaws won't get worse."
"Alright, let's go! Got some chicks to hit on and a play to write."
Fate was right. Returning to their realities was the solution. But did Maxine really want this anymore? Her own reality was either lying in ruins or without any love since Chloe was about to die and Rachel was already a rotten corpse. In Maximilian's reality, everything was still possible. There was hope. Rachel and Chloe were alive and she had just promised to her girlfriend that no harm would be done to her.
'I love her and I won't leave her!'
"I can't," answered Maxine, shaking her head before gazing adamantly at Fate. "I'm sorry, but I can't go back. There's nothing left for me in my reality. I don't even know if I survived the lightning strike."
Fate ogled her for some time, while Maximilian exclaimed "Hey, what the fuck, bitch?! Get back to your own reality! Your problem if it sucks."
"Geez-louise, shut the fuck up, asshole!"
"No, you shut up, you stupid fuckface!"
"Dear god, no wonder that Rachel liked my character better than yours. She never ever would've dated such an unsympathetic prick like you!"
"Wait! You dated Rachel?!"
"Yes, bozo, and the hell I'll let you get close to her!"
"The fuck? I wanted to do that. Now don't tell that you two already…"
"Yes, we did it."
"What the fuck?! You cunt popped my cherry? Why did you take this away from me?"
"Hey, be lucky that I'm a lesbian and didn't date a guy. Besides, I thought I'd never get back anyway!" she yelled in his face, her eyes welling up. "Please," she then pleaded towards Fate, "I need to get back to her! I'm sorry for him, but…"
"I cannot allow this, Maxine. The tapestry of reality has already been flawed. If these flaws continue, they can rip apart the fabric, which would destroy both of your realities indefinitely."
"Oh hell, no!" Maximilian exclaimed once again, jumping up. "You get back where you belong right now or…"
"Or what?" hissed Maxine back, her sadness and desperation switching to pure anger and defiance. "You wanna slap me? Then bring it on, motherfucker! Both of you! You have to kill me to keep me away from Rachel."
"What if you are already dead, Maxine?"
The question, spoken by Fate, hit the young woman right in the guts, letting her go silent and staring at the supernatural woman with dilated eyes. The woman with the glowing eyes indeed hadn't said anything about her well-being in her own reality.
Was she really dead? Would she only return for a few seconds before entering the endless darkness? Was that her destiny?
"Your final destiny is the same as it is for everything else, Maxine. Your life will be woven onto the tapestry and your thread cut as soon as your picture is finished. There's always a beginning and an end."
To everybody's surprise, Maxine literally jumped over the table and grabbed the false Rachel by her toga, speaking panicky right into her face. "Are you tellin' me that I'm dead in my reality? TELL ME!"
"As soon as you return, your thread will be cut."
"Shit!" was everything Maxine could return as she let go of Fate and just sat down on the ground. "B-but what about Chloe...a-and the storm?"
"Many threads will be cut that day, even Chloe's. That's their destiny."
Now entirely in shock upon what she had heard, Max couldn't do anything else than to stutter. "So, y-you tell me, th-that everything I've done, was worth shit?! That Chloe dies anyway?"
"That is how things need to be. Chloe is not supposed to pass her age of 19, as well as Rachel is not supposed to get older than 18. That is an important seam in the fabric, which must not be flawed! This is why you need to let him go back so that their destinies can be fulfilled."
"Whoa, wait! What?!" threw Maximilian in with wide open eyes, but got ignored.
"No, this can't be!" whispered Maxine, big droplets hitting the ground beneath her. "You can't do this! They got their whole life ahead of 'em."
But Fate stayed emotionless, her eyes now glowing with more intensity. "If you hope that I have a conscience, be rest assured that I do not have one. The fabric needs to be woven, no matter how dark it may become."
"Hey! Hello-o! Can some of you insane people explain this shit to me? What do you mean with 'Rachel and Chloe have to die'?"
This time, Maxine reacted to the boy's exclaims as she got up again and gazed deeply into Fate's glowing eyes. "C'mon, go ahead! Tell him what he needs to do to get his step-sister and girlfriend killed!"
"One must not know the path of their thread or when it gets cut, nor how it is intertwined with other threads! The consequences would be severe!"
"You wanna know why I'm here? Why I landed in your body?" asked Maxine rhetorically towards the speechless boy, now looking at him. "She and her friends gave me the power to influence time. Those assholes gave me a tool...no, the hope to save Chloe and Rachel. But in the end, I was forced to decide between an entire town and Chloe. Rachel was already dead at this point. But now I learned that no matter what I was doing, it was all for nothing! I suffered for nothing! I saw Chloe die a hundred times…" And then she turned towards Fate again, yelling in anger "...FOR NOTHING! You just wrecked me. Punished me for I don't know what. And now that you assholes showed me the Promised Land, I'm forced to give this up again, though I suffered once more...FOR NOTHING!"
Suddenly, something unpredictable happened as a very familiar power began to flow through Maxine's body, letting her eyes start to glow in a bright red while a shimmering aura surrounded her. And this time, Fate showed some reaction by bobbing her head to the side.
"You should calm down, Maxine!" she spoke, but the brunette girl saw it differently.
"Why? You're afraid that I'd shred your fuckin' tapestry?"
"I am not bound to human emotions, but you are. Just think about the countless existences you would eradicate with your actions." was the entity's plain reaction, which infuriated Max even more.
"My life's over anyway, so why should I care?"
"Uh, yo...dude! Your life may be over, but…" Maximilian tried to protest, but immediately shut up as Maxine was staring at him with her red-glowing eyes.
"Shut it, you lil' piss-ant and let the grown-ups talk!" She then shifted her gaze back to Fate. "You think I wouldn't figure it out? I know that it was you and your pals who tried to murder me."
Fake Rachel didn't reply anything, yet stayed silent and kept on ogling Maxine, who had a victorious smirk now on her lips.
"Yeah, at first you thought that the storm would convince me to let Chloe die instead of sacrificing hundreds of people, but then you wanted to make sure that I wouldn't spot your precious fabric again by letting a freakin' lightning hit me… But you hadn't anticipated what came next. And now you're head-deep in shit because I'm still alive and influencing another reality in a way you'd never imagined."
Fate closed in with slow steps until she was almost nose to nose with the mortal woman.
"This is neither about you nor me, but about him!"
She pointed at Maximilian, who took a step back like he was afraid that a laser beam could emerge from her finger.
"You just tried to make me have a bad conscience, though it was you who took over his life. You should ask yourself, are you willing to accept that you would doom this poor, young boy to stay for all eternity in a place between your and his reality?"
Maxine went silent, her victorious smile faltered and her anger dissipated. Unless Fate, she had a conscience, which was now screaming at her to stop being selfish.
"Ask yourself, foolish girl!" said Fate eventually, turned around and walked away, stopping at a building with two shops and pointed at the right door. "This entrance will lead to your reality, the other one to the boy's. Choose, little girl! Choose your destiny and decide his. You are the only one who can do this."
"And I thought decisions are illusions," scoffed Maxine with bitterness, her eyes stopping to glow and the aura disappearing as her powers went dormant again.
"Not for you, foolish girl, not for you. Remember that every power comes with severe responsibilities."
Fate's last words hadn't even been carried away by the wind as she dissolved into thin air, leaving Maxine and Maximilian alone.
"I dunno 'bout you, but I'm outta here. See ya...or not!" mentioned Maximilian, walking towards the left door and opened it. He paused for a short moment and then wanted to go through, but as soon as he set his foot over the step, he got thrown back by an invisible force, causing him to land on his behind, right beside Maxine.
"It's my choice," she said, more to herself than to her male counterpart. "I need to choose the door."
She went over to the shops and gazed through the glassy front. Behind it, pictures of the respective reality were on display, making it even harder to decide.
"Uh, Maxine?"
A sudden touch on the freckled woman's shoulder brought her back from her deep thoughts and let her turn her head so that she was looking at Maximilian, who seemed terrified, all this boldness from before gone.
"Listen, I know I've been a real asshole before a-and I know it sucks for you, but…"
But Maxine simply scoffed and shook her head.
"Yeah. Before, you were all 'gimme back my reality, bitch, and finally die'. And now? Now that you realize that I'm the one in charge of your fate, you're about to shit your pants, aren't ya?"
Maximilian got pale as he became aware of how much power the 18-year-old girl had over him. He was literally at her mercy. She could easily choose his reality and leave him to rot. Yet, she surprisingly hesitated to grab the handle and go on.
"She's right," Maxine eventually mentioned, lowering her head. "I can't do it. I can't just put myself over you and leave you here. I stole your life and it's yours to take back."
To be honest, the young boy hadn't expected this and started to feel pity for this poor young woman. Would she really sacrifice herself for him? He was obviously a stranger to her and she also had a lot to lose. So, accepting her decision would be pretty hard now, and it got even worse as she looked at him with big tears in her eyes.
"Just promise that you'll take care of Rachel and Chloe, okay! They both need you. Keep 'em outta trouble and...and…"
At this point, Maxine wasn't able to hold her composure anymore as she got shaken by heavy sobs. And it got even worse as Rachel's voice chimed from the sky, saying "Max, please wake up! I need you."
It was her real voice – she could feel that by heart. Her beloved Rachel, the person she loved the most. She didn't want to lose her. She didn't want to give up.
"Um...d-dude!" said Maximilian with insecurity as he witnessed how the aura engulfed the young woman again.
Maxine felt as her body got once more flooded with her power. And it got even stronger the more she thought about Rachel, which increased her desperation even more.
Maximilian took a few steps back out of fear, yet got also hit by a vast shockwave as the girl screamed and her power exploded.