Living Large in Purgatory Bay

by Aerolumen

When Max returns to Arcadia Bay, her new photography teacher is dead and she's shocked to discover that her best friend from years before, Chloe Price, has died as well. Max had hoped to rekindle her friendship with Chloe, using her newfound power to rewind time as an icebreaker. Instead, she finds herself pulled into a mysterious alternate world, where only Arcadia Bay remains.

2. Chapter 2 - Apocalypse

Chloe looked down at me with a furrowed brow and then her eyebrows shot up.

"You're…you're a different one," she said.

"I…what?" I asked.

Chloe shook her head and said, "it's not safe, not even for you. Come on."

She reached out and grabbed my arm, her fingers clamping over my wrist; I grasped her wrist and she pulled me up so fast that I felt a little dizzy. Without another word, she began to pull me away from the tree.

"Wait!" I called out, "my camera!"

She gave me a look that I remembered well: the "you must be kidding me" glare that she used every time I wanted to do something like rewatch a film we'd just finished or stay at the beach after it had gotten cold. The sight of that look made my throat tighten.

She released my hand and I hurried in a circle, examining the shadowy ground where the rip in the air had been. I didn't see the camera (or its pieces) anywhere.

"Maxine," Chloe said, "we can't stay. I know how much your camera means to you…at least, I think I do. But we'll get you another one, okay? We have to go. You don't want to know what kind of fucked up shit can happen to you out here."

"Okay," I said.

Chloe took my hand again, gently this time, and led me toward the train tracks. Despite the chaos around us, with twisting and warping shapes that made my brain bend in unpleasant ways, my attention fell to the warmth of Chloe's fingers wrapped around my hand: she was alive, somehow. Or was she? Had I just died and ended up in some kind of messed-up afterlife?

We broke through the treeline, the branches and leaves around us continuing to rewind themselves in bizarre ways. Out in front of us, just before the line of train tracks, the air seemed to shimmer with an almost-invisible haze. And just in front of that, heavy raindrops fell in sudden and random bursts.

"Come on," Chloe said.

She pulled me down the short hill and through a dry gap between two sheets of rain, right up to the hazy wall. Before I could ask about it, she pulled me right through. I gasped: goosebumps erupted all over my skin and the air hissed as we lurched to the other side.

I let my hand fall out of Chloe's and put both of my hands on my knees, bending over for a moment and squeezing my eyes shut as a wave of nausea shuddered through me.

Chloe chuckled and said, "yeah, first time's a bitch."

I looked up at her, taking in her wide smile and the familiar glint in her blue eyes. The nausea vanished and a balloon-like feeling filled my chest.

"Chloe!" I said, practically shouting it.

I flung my arms around her and squeezed her tight, my messenger back slapping against our sides.

She laughed and said, "whoa, hey there, tiger."

She hugged me back.

"Let me guess," she said, her voice going tight, "where you're from, I'm not exactly, um, alive, am I?"

I pulled away.

"How could you know that?" I asked, "and how…how are you alive? And…"

I looked around: the dark clouds above made the dusty ground around the train tracks look gray and lifeless. And the trees: the whole forest behind Chloe sat peaceful and still in the dim light. The deafening sounds of wind and rain were gone, as were the twists and rips in time. I looked over my shoulder: beyond the hazy barrier, the forest there continued to tear itself apart and rewind in fractious moments, silent in its terrible seizure.

"...where am I?" I finished.

Chloe bit her lower lip.

"Look, Maxine…," she began.

"It's Max," I quickly said.

A smile twitched at Chloe's lips and she said, "oh, thank fucking god for that, Max. Max. Maaax. Max. Damn, that's so good to say. Max."

A smile twitched at my lips, too.

"Anyways," she said, "Max, I'm not a hundred percent on this but I think you're from another universe. Like, an alternate reality kind of thing."

"I am?"

"Yup," she said, "now come on, let's go; I don't really like hanging out by these tracks."

She led me over the train tracks and through a thin cloud of mist.

"So," she continued, "I figure I must be dead in your, um, universe because come on, you were all over me just now. And I happen to know that I fucking die a lot in other universes. As for how I'm alive here? You, actually. Or, um, not you exactly but the you that's here."

"Wait, there's a me here?"

"Yeah, and I'm honestly kinda split on this: I'm dreading you two meeting but seriously looking forward to how hella hilarious your expressions will be," she said.

"Why dreading?" I asked.

She looked away and said, "because there's only so much hipster coffee and insufferable music that one universe can take."

I felt like there was more to it than that but I didn't press her. And her comments about my taste in coffee and music more or less went right over my head.

"So, um, I…she saved you?" I asked.

"More than once," she said, "with, um, so…this is kind of heavy but she has this superpower thing where she can rewind time and stuff."

"Oh, um, I do too," I said.

Her head darted to me and she said, "wait, really?"

"Yeah," I said, "um, hold on. I guess I should see if I can do it here, too."

We both came to a stop and I looked at her for a few seconds; I expected that I'd have to explain rewinding to Chloe but she just stood with her arms crossed and her head tilted expectantly. So I shrugged, held my hand out, and started to rewind…

…and it was completely different.

As soon as I gripped at that invisible flow of time, the space around me split into thousands of different pieces…and pieces of pieces: countless little blurry dots of time. If I reached out, it felt like I could rewind each one of them, separate from the rest.

I focused and gathered up the pieces that made up Chloe and I and rewound a few moments. When I stopped, she smiled at me.

"Just rewound?" she asked.

"Yeah and…wowser," I said, "I…that was different."

"I figured it might be. Maxine said it was different for her after…well, after," she said, turning to walk up through the last clump of trees before the road.

"After what?" I asked.

She looked away and said, "you asked where you are. Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes," I said.

She led me up to the same battered truck I'd seen outside her house, parked right off the road and looking like an abandoned wreck in the gloom.

"Well," she said, opening the passenger door for me, "you're at the end of the world."

. . . . .

Chloe drove slowly, the beams of her headlights stabbing through clumps and layers of fog.

"Where are we going?" I asked, "your house?"

"No, Blackwell," she said.

"Oh."

We were silent for a few moments.

"It's warm," I said, "like, outside."

"Yeah," Chloe said, "it was…is, I guess, a weirdly warm storm for fucking October; not the strangest fucking thing around here, not even close. But yeah, warm. Can't complain too much: it's nice to not freeze my ass off every time I go outside. Even the ground is warm. Weird as shit but hey, I'll take the good side effects over bad ones."

I stared out the window.

"How long has it been like this?" I asked.

Chloe paused long enough for me to look over at her; she had her lips pursed to the side.

"I don't know," she finally said, "from my perspective, it's been, um, six years?"

"Six years?" I asked, my mouth falling open.

"Yup, time flies by when the clock is frozen," she said with a shrug.

"But…you look…you don't look like you're twenty-five," I said.

"Thanks, I guess," she said, grinning at me, "but yeah, time works weird here. Nothing ages."

"So wait, it's been like this for six years? Six years in cloudy, dark weather like this?" I asked.

She smirked at me and said, "didn't you live in Seattle for five years?"

I paused.

"Point taken," I said.

"And yeah, it's been at least six years but I'm sure Maxine has rewound the whole thing at least once…and probably more than that. So who fucking knows? Maybe it's been ten years, maybe it's been a hundred."

"She…rewound the whole thing?" I asked, "I…I couldn't rewind just two weeks to save you."

"It's different here or something. Fuck if I know. And right…so, I know I shouldn't ask this kind of shit because it always leaves me needing a drink and a smoke or ten but how'd I die?"

I didn't say anything, collecting my thoughts.

"If you want to share," Chloe continued.

"You, um, confronted Mr. Jefferson and Sean Prescott in a junkyard and it ended up being a shootout," I said.

"Fuck, you mean one of those assholes killed me?"

"Yeah, I think it was Sean Prescott. You had Nathan with you and, um, he shot his dad but I guess you actually killed both Jefferson and Mr. Prescott," I said.

"Whoa," she said, slapping a hand on the steering wheel, "that is, by far, one of the least lame deaths I've had. Not too bad, I guess, taking those fuckers with me. And let me guess: it was over Rachel?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, that's pretty fuckin' consistent," she said with a sigh, "and wait, Nathan was with me?"

"Sounded like he had some kind of epiphany and teamed up with you," I said.

Chloe let out a mirthless chuckle and said, "hadn't heard that one before. And I got the deets on a bunch of 'em. So wait, where were you while I was getting my ass shot?"

"Seattle," I said, "it, um, happened a couple of weeks before I moved back."

"Shit," she said, "that sucks for me. Other me, I mean." She shrugged. "Could've been worse. Has been worse."

"What…what happened here?" I asked.

"Oh, Nathan accidentally shot me in a fucking Blackwell bathroom, you used your time powers to stop it, and then we went on a crazy fuckin' detective thing to find out what happened to Rachel. Then we used some weird symbol shit to contact Rachel's fucking ghost but Jefferson killed me, got you, and the whole thing went nutso as you worked to fix it with rewind shit. When you finally got me back to being alive and got away from Jefferson, we stopped a storm…this storm, actually…," she raised a middle finger towards the sky, "...from destroying the town but…well, we either accidentally cut Arcadia Bay off from the rest of our universe or we kind of destroyed the world. Not sure which and kind of don't want to know."

"But…but how?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"Arcadia Bay is a weird fucking place and we pulled bigger levers than what other versions of us ever did," she said.

"How do you know about these other, um, universes?" I asked.

"Maxine," she said, "she, um, well, she'll probably show you. No, she'll definitely show you; there's no way she doesn't. It's kinda weird and creepy so, you know, brace yourself, but it's also kind of badass."

"Um…okay," I said.

"And, um, speaking of bracing yourself, you're gonna want to do that now," Chloe said, pointing out to where the trees began to thin ahead, "we're about to see the Bay and it looks fucking terrifying if you haven't seen it before."

I clutched my seatbelt and stared out the window as Chloe drove the truck through one last cloud of fog. As soon as the view cleared, I gasped.

Out over the bay, a giant tornado spun with slow fury, lit from the inside by an otherworldly blue light. Lightning lashed out into the sky and at the tornado's base, water churned up as high as houses.

Chloe patted me on the leg and said, "like I said, welcome to the end of the world."

. . . . .

I finally managed to tear my eyes away from that swirling maelstrom, but only when Chloe's truck bounced through a series of potholes and broke my stunned trance. I then forced myself to look out over Arcadia Bay instead: banks of fog covered much of the town but yellow and white lights cast a hazy glow and twinkled from visible windows and streetlights; if you could ignore the huge tornado, the town looked almost normal. To be more accurate, it looked almost normal for the half-second it took before you noticed the new things…

The most obvious and eye-catching addition stood near the waterfront: a tower, perhaps ten stories tall, that looked a bit like the ones that hold power lines out in the wilderness. And the most striking thing about it, quite literally, were blue arcs of lightning from the tornado that pierced the dome-like barrier and danced along the tower's edge.

Near the tower, off at the far edge of town, bright lights illuminated a huge concrete dome under construction.

And before Chloe drove the truck into a thick bank of fog, I caught sight of a statue right in the middle of town, one that rose high above the surrounding mist-bound buildings. It was a statue of a person, that much I could tell, but we were too far away for me to make out any details.

When we emerged from the fog a minute later, we'd entered the flat stretch of Arcadia Bay Avenue next to the waterfront. I glanced out towards the ocean: the tornado was still there. And that's when I realized that the storm made no sound; the silence of such an immense and powerful sight was eerie, to say the least.

"You okay?" Chloe asked.

"Um, yeah, I guess," I said, "I don't really know what to think."

Chloe snorted and said, "then don't. You get used to it, eventually. The storm, I mean. For now, just try to chill until you get a chance to talk to Maxine. Maybe she'll have some answers for you."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe."

Chloe turned left just before the block where the Two Whales sat, and I could see friendly light pouring out of the diner's windows.

"Chloe?" I asked.

"Yeah?" she said, turning a smile at me that made my heart flutter.

"It's really good to see you, even if I feel like I must have passed out and that this is all just a dream…or a hallucination," I said.

"Well, good to know I'm at the top of your list for hallucinations," she said.

"I felt really terrible that I moved back and then didn't find out for days that you…you weren't there," I said.

She winced and said, "ouch, really? There wasn't any news that I bit it? No one told you?"

"The reports didn't identify you and there was only a blurry picture of you," I said, "I didn't recognize you and thought it was someone else so I didn't ask. I…even had this whole thing where I was going to come and find you and talk about the shootout and then about the rewinding powers. I, um, thought it would be a good way to break the ice."

She chuckled and said, "it would have. And yeah, that version of me would've been hella pissed at you for a bit. I was with Maxine. But hey, at least you were actually going to reach out. Maxine was here for a whole fucking month before she accidentally saved my ass in that bathroom. And she didn't recognize me until I nearly hit her with my truck after. Um…maybe don't tell her I said any of that."

I smiled and said, "okay."

We began rolling up the hill towards Blackwell.

"So, how did you get here?" Chloe asked.

"It was…some kind of rip in the air," I said, "it was just kind of floating there. And there was this doe that…"

"Wait, what?" Chloe asked.

She stomped on the brakes and the truck squealed to a stop; she then snapped her head toward me.

"There was a doe," I said, swallowing hard, "it started showing up after I after I saved Kate with my power…"

"Kate?"

"Yeah, Kate Marsh? Is she, um, here?"

"Yeah, yeah," Chloe said, "what happened, exactly?"

"The old totem pole at Blackwell fell on her. It was strange, too: it went through some kind of really fast decay and then snapped. After that, the doe started showing up but I could never get a picture of it. It was like it was invisible to everyone but me. Then it led me right to the thing that brought me here." I shrugged.

Chloe sat silently for a minute, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Max," she finally said, "do me a favor: don't mention the doe to Maxine. And…maybe don't talk about Kate, either. At least, not very much."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Just…trust me, okay?" she said, a bite in her voice.

Then she took a breath, smiled at me, and said, "sorry, I'll tell you more when I can, alright?"

"Okay," I said, "I trust you. I'll leave out the parts about the doe if…the other me asks about them. And not talk about Kate much."

"Thanks," she said, patting my leg and grinning at me.

I nodded and smiled back: for some reason, the idea of holding something back from some other version of myself didn't bother me nearly as much as refusing a request from Chloe. Strange, how a bond of friendship can snap back so quickly. Chloe accelerated again and we remained silent as we approached the school.

"Alright, hippy, here we are," Chloe said, pulling into the Blackwell parking lot and stopping diagonally over two handicapped spots.

"Um, won't you get a parking ticket?" I asked.

"Nope," Chloe said, sliding out of the truck.

I followed her up toward the main building; out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a small crowd of people standing outside, up above the parking lot. But when I looked again, there was only fog. I shrugged and turned to Chloe.

"Where is, um, Maxine?" I asked.

"In there," Chloe said, gesturing to the building.

"In class?"

Chloe snorted and said, "no, no classes. Blackwell is…kind of her office building, I guess. And she's got a schedule she sticks to, pretty much the same shit every day. Right about now she's getting out of a meeting, probably with the town's reps about supplies and shit. Then she goes down to her photo walls."

"Photo walls? Like the one I have in my room?" I asked.

Chloe said, "yeah, like that…just, um, look, she'll probably show you the walls and it'll probably be kinda weird and creepy, like I said before. And don't be surprised if she gets kinda hyper; I'm the only other person she ever showed them to and I stopped going a long time ago."

"Okay," I said, drawing out the word.

"And hey, there she is," Chloe said. She pointed to where a figure emerged from Blackwell's front doors. Even from a distance and under the dim exterior lights, I could tell that she was me, a realization that made my heart skip. Her hair was longer and tied back in a braid. And her clothes looked far trendier than mine. But she otherwise looked exactly like me. A few other people came out after her and she nodded at them and said a few words as they left down the steps. I recognized a few of them, including the owner of the town's only grocery store and someone who ran the harbor warehouses owned by the Prescotts.

As we approached, the other me turned and saw us; Chloe gave a weak little wave and then the alternate me's eyes fell to me. Her mouth dropped open and her eyebrows shot up. She remained where she was at the top of the stairs, her eyes following us.

"And she definitely goes by Maxine?" I quickly asked, my heart pounding.

"Yeah," Chloe said, "she used to go by Max but changed when…when some stuff happened."

We arrived at the base of the stairs and Maxine stared down at us.

"Hey, Maxine," Chloe said, scratching her head, "look who I found."

The other me descended the stairs slowly, her eyes locked on me with an intense, piercing stare. I met her gaze and held it, even though the sustained eye contact made for a massive weight of awkwardness. For some reason, I couldn't look away.

She stopped a few inches from me, her eyes level with mine. Then she reached out and traced gentle fingers over my cheek and into my hair, sending a wave of tingles over my skin. She looked back and forth between my eyes, her mouth slightly open. And seeing her was doing weird things to my head: my brain kept trying to convince me that I was looking into a mirror. But her touch was no illusion and her eyes…it took me a moment to realize that she didn't seem to blink enough.

She dropped her hand and turned to Chloe.

"Where did you find her?" she asked.

I scrunched my nose: her voice sounded exactly like mine did when playing back a recording and I hated the sound of my own voice…like most people do, I supposed.

"Just outside the Barrier," Chloe said in an offhand tone, "north by the old swing."

Maxine turned back to me with a gentle smile and placed a soft hand on my arm.

"How did you get here?" she asked; her tone was like what you'd use when talking to a child.

I frowned and said, "there was a kind of tear or rip in the air. I got close to take a photo and…I got pulled in."

"I see," she said, her eyes searching my face, "did anyone tell you to go to that spot or tell you about it in advance?"

I shook my head and it was technically true: the doe hadn't told me shit.

"Okay," she said with a nod.

She looked to Chloe and her face showed the briefest hint of strain.

"I'll take her from here, Chloe," she said.

"Okay, sure thing," Chloe said. She clapped me hard on the back, making me stumble a bit, and said, "see ya later, Maxaroni."

I coughed and said, "yeah, definitely."

Both Maxine and I watched her go and then Maxine turned to me with a grin so wide that it made my own mouth twitch with discomfort. She reached out and gripped both of my upper arms.

"This is…exciting," she said, a bright glint in her unblinking eyes, "another me. It's improbable that you're here like this. But stranger things have happened; far stranger things. Now, are you hungry? Thirsty?"

"Oh, um, I'm not really hungry but I could use some water," I said.

"At your service, Max," she said, a shallow laugh in her voice.

She took my hand and led me up into Blackwell, through a drifting cloud of mist that left little pinpricks of water on my skin. The doors creaked as Maxine pushed them open; inside, I glanced around with my eyebrows raised: almost all of the familiar posters, papers, and bulletin boards were gone, replaced with large framed photos. I recognized a couple of the photos as mine. Others were prints of famous photos (I noted that none of them were Jefferson's). And the rest, I didn't recognize at all.

Maxine followed my gaze and grinned.

"Not much schooling here anymore," she said, "so I decided to redecorate."

"No classes or anything?" I asked.

She laughed in a way that gave me the faintest shiver and said, "time has no meaning here, Max. No one ages and no one dies. We still run the elementary and middle schools to provide education and activities but for high school?" She shrugged. "People our age just sort of train to do useful work. Well, most do."

"So what does happen at Blackwell now?" I asked.

"A few rooms are given over to art collectives," she said, "the rest are for logistics: keeping track of everything that has to be rewound in."

"Rewound in?"

"Oh, sorry," she said, grabbing my hand and putting her other hand on top of it, "I'm so used to everyone knowing. This may come as a shock but I have the power to rewind time."

"Oh, yeah, I do too," I said.

Her eyes and lips twitched.

"You do?" she asked.

I nodded and said, "yeah."

"Interesting, interesting," she said, "have you tried it here?"

"Yes, after Chloe asked about it."

"So did you see it? The fractures? The quanta?" she asked, leaning so close to me that I could smell her chapstick.

"I…I think," I said, leaning back a bit, "it was like everything around me got split up into tiny parts."

"Yes, yes," she said, her smile going wide, "and that's how it's done, that's how it's all done. I…we can rewind the tiniest pieces of Arcadia Bay, independent from the rest." She gestured down the hallway. "On my rounds through town, I rewind the specific spots that hold items that we're running out of; I rewind until all of it reappears. It's infinite, all of it. Food, fuel, anything. We can do it on people, too, Max: someone breaks an arm and you can rewind just the broken parts."

"Doesn't that…make it so that a person has different parts of themselves that are different ages?"

She laughed and said, "yes but no. Time is all even here. It progresses but stays the same; forward is the same as backward. While we're here, every moment is forever."

She squeezed my hand and then turned, pulling me along with her.

"Come, I have something to show you, something you'll appreciate," she said, "and while we walk, tell me everything about your world."

. . . . .

As we wound through hallways to the back of the building, I told Maxine about my life over the past several months, from my decision to apply to Blackwell to the story of the shootout to finding out that Chloe was dead. When I tried to be circumspect over how I got my powers, Maxine stopped and turned to me.

"What happened, exactly?" she asked, fixing me again with an unblinking stare.

"Oh, um, the totem pole, you know the one in back?"

"The Tobanga," she said, her voice flat.

"Yeah, that," I said, "it fell on…it fell on Kate."

I wasn't sure why Chloe had told me not to mention Kate but as soon as her name slipped past my lips, a shadow crossed Maxine's face.

"Continue," she said.

"It killed her, I think," I said, "but then I was able to rewind and save her."

"And you had no visions of a storm, like the one out there?" she asked, pointing behind us.

I shook my head.

"And no unusual natural phenomena occurred, like large numbers of dead animals or unexpected eclipses?" she asked.

"Nothing like that," I said.

"And you continued to use your powers after?" she asked.

I nodded and said, "just a bit. I…wanted to try to rewind to save Chloe but I couldn't go back more than a couple of minutes. Two weeks was…out of reach."

Maxine's face softened and she gently gripped my wrists, leaning in very close again.

"I understand that," she said, "but don't feel bad, there was no way you could've rewound that far. We can rewind very far here but never that far in a normal world. I'm sorry that you didn't get to see her again."

I hesitated before closing my fingers around her wrists too; she smiled.

I took a breath and asked, "is it…okay if I spend time with Chloe? The…Chloe here?"

I hated the pleading in my voice but I couldn't hide it. I also wasn't sure why I was asking.; something about Maxine made it feel like I was supposed to.

Maxine's face remained soft and she gave me a sad smile.

"Of course," she said, "as much time as you want and as much time as she'll give you. But all in due time, Max. Come now, you'll soon see just how unusual your universe is. In almost all of them, including this one, there were five days in October where Chloe's life or death shaped a great deal of fate. And truth be told, this universe is unusual as well. We here are forever stuck on October 11th, 2013. I've never found another universe like it."

"What…what was different here?" I asked. I was also wondering how, exactly, Maxine knew about other universes, but I held that question back.

A pained look crossed Maxine's face.

"Symbols," she said, "in this universe, as Chloe and I investigated Rachel's disappearance, we came across a cave filled with symbols on tablets. The cave exists in many universes but is not easily found or stumbled upon. But in this universe, the Prescotts were aware that these symbols held significance and had been searching for more information. Sean Prescott believed that the symbols held the key to controlling nature. He was…somewhat correct. I've been replaying those days for a long, long time, Max, and I still don't understand exactly what we did. It's difficult because in almost no other universes do any of us find the cave. And that makes it impossible to compare or gain any other insights. In this universe, we brought some of the tablets to the junkyard, picking them based on what I felt when I looked at the symbols. We thought we could contact Rachel with them. And, somehow, we did."

She stopped and turned to me.

"A ghost," she said, "in the form of a doe. I'd seen it already but it became so much more real. She tried to warn us…but before we could understand, Jefferson shot Chloe and got a needle into my neck. He took me to his dark room." A deep shadow passed over her face. "Max, I am so glad…so glad that you never had to experience that. It's a gift to you, a gift that you do not have that burden weighing on your soul. There were so many deaths and dead ends in the Dark Room; so many dead ends. But in the end, I escaped. With help. I found a way to save Chloe and we used the tablets to try to stop the storm." She chuckled. "It's funny: in most universes, her and I ended up next to the lighthouse and had to decide to either let the storm destroy the town or go back through a photo and let Chloe die."

"Um, go back through a photo?"

"Yes," she said, "our powers, yours and mine, include the ability to go back in time through a photo. Crazy, isn't it? In a normal universe, that power can allow us to change the distant past. I didn't realize how far until after I discovered how other versions of us used it. But it's irrelevant now: that power doesn't work here. It's probably for the best: it's an extremely dangerous power."

A memory suddenly popped into my head: odd sensations and sounds when I'd stared at an old photo of Chloe and I.

"I…I think I almost did it," I said, "with a photo of Chloe and I. I…could almost hear and feel what was in that photo."

"That means you did almost do it," she said, "and it's a good thing you didn't. Other versions of us caused terrible things with that power. Some good…but many terrible." She paused and gave a humorless smile. "To be fair, none of those other Maxes and Chloes did anything quite as huge as what we did here. Those tablets, with the symbols? They stopped the storm. They stopped everything. But they ended the world. Some think that we somehow destroyed the entire universe except for Arcadia Bay. Others think we detached Arcadia Bay from our reality and now sit in some kind of pocket universe. I always hope that it's the second one. Either way, Arcadia Bay is now a place where spacetime doesn't behave quite as it does anywhere else." She chuckled. "Of course, that's always been true to some extent in every universe. But it's far more obvious and intense here, in our safe little pocket."

"Has anyone traveled outside?" I asked, "I mean, further than where Chloe found me?"

"Chloe has," she said, "she can walk anywhere out there without being affected, for some reason. She says that once you go far enough, there's just a black haze. No one else can confirm it so we just have to take her word for it. And that's because if anyone else goes out there for more than a few minutes, they get torn into constantly time-shifting shreds."

I swallowed.

"So…how is Arcadia Bay protected?" I asked.

"Rachel," Maxine said.

"Rachel?" I asked.

"Yes, I'll show you later," she said. She took a deep breath and a smile floated back to her face. "For now, let's continue to something amazing."

. . . . .

Maxine, still holding my hand, led me out the back door of Blackwell's main building and off to the side. She took me down a short set of steps and there, below an expanse of fog, sat a squat, unadorned concrete building that I'd never seen before. It looked like the entrance to a subway station, with stairs leading down from a wide opening.

My doppelganger led me down those stairs. The gloomy light from outside fell away and warm yellow light came up from below.

At the bottom, a concrete corridor stretched away, its end lost in the blurry distance. On both sides, the walls were topped with strings of spherical lamps, just like those in my room.

"Come, come," Maxine said, tugging on my hand.

She practically skipped as she led me to the nearest wall: polaroid photos covered a section of the concrete in neat rows, just like on my own photo wall. At the top, above the photos, the number 0 stood out in bold, black ink.

I leaned in: most of the photos were selfies and the Max in them had hair and clothes that looked more like mine than Maxine's. There was also a photo of Chloe and I in her sunlit truck, with sunlight pouring in…and a photo of Chloe lounging on her bed…and a photo of a blue butterfly perched on a bucket…and a photo of a stone tablet covered with arcane symbols. When I looked at those symbols, a feeling of immense weight filled my mind and I quickly looked away.

"These are from this universe, photos that I took a long time ago," Maxine said, her voice echoing, "now here…"

She turned and stepped to the opposite side of the hall.

The section of the wall there had a '1' painted at the top; below it, Maxine had arranged a different set of photos in rows. Some of the Polaroids were identical to those in section '0' while others were very different. One big difference: no photos of stone tablets. Instead, there were a few photos of Chloe in a wheelchair. I pointed at one of those and Maxine sighed.

"That Max used a photo-jump and stopped William from dying. Chloe ended up in an accident instead," she said.

"Oh," I said.

We moved on down the seemingly endless corridor, our footsteps echoing, with Maxine skipping far ahead at times to show me a particularly interesting version of our alternate histories.

"Look at these," she said, pointing to sections labeled '46' and '47' on opposite sides of the hallway. "in that one," she pointed at '46,' "the storm swept through Arcadia Bay and didn't destroy nearly everything; only one-hundred eighty-two people were killed. See..." She pointed and I leaned in to see a photo of the Two Whales, battered but intact. "And then that one," she pointed to the other side, "in that universe, the storm absolutely flattened the town. There wasn't enough left to identify any of the dead. Only Chloe and Max survived."

I leaned in to look at a photo that showed only piles of glassy sand where the town had been.

"Come on," Maxine said, taking my hand again, "there's so much more to show you."

She led me swiftly down the hall, our shoes nearly silent on the gray floor. We moved fast enough where I could only catch the details of a handful of photos as we sped along. And most of them looked like my typical photography fare, with shots of Chloe mixed in.

"These were all the easiest to see," Maxine said after we hurried past a section labeled '108' above, "and they're all so similar to one another, with only small differences. When I first discovered them, I thought I could only copy photos that had been taken in those worlds. Later, when I started discovering other different worlds, I found that I could take my own photos, looking in from the outside. The first of those are ahead."

I looked out in front of us: the end of the hallway was still too distant to see.

"How long have you been doing this?" I asked.

"A long time," she said, "I'll admit that I've done some big rewinds; years of rewinds. But this place…this never gets rewound away. I always keep it separate when I rewind. That way, I never lose any of it."

"How far does it go?" I asked.

"It loops around, eventually," Maxine said.

"How did you make it? The tunnel, I mean."

"There are plenty of people in town that are good at this kind of work," she said, "I just rewind in the materials."

"And how do you actually get the photos of these other universes?" I asked.

"Ah, now that was a wonderful discovery," she said, "I use one of the tablets, one of the ones we found in the cave. It has a little window in it and it's…adjusting it is almost like using the rewind. There's a lot of nuance to it, with shifts that can send you to wildly different places. I'll teach you, one of these days, so that you can see it too. It takes a while to get the hang of it but once you do, the possibilities are endless."

We passed by a section labeled '156.'

"Um, you said you'd been at this for a long time. How long is long?" I asked.

"Not as long as you'd think," she said, her grip on my hand tightening slightly, "not that many rewinds."

She was lying.

That realization hit me like a slap across the face. And I was certain of it: she was lying. I couldn't be sure if it was in the way she moved her hand or the way her eyes slid off to the side or just some kind of sixth sense but I knew it for sure. But why? Why would she lie about how long she'd been doing this? How long had she been doing this?

"Um, how long has…Arcadia Bay been like this?" I asked.

"You mean how long it's been frozen in time? It's been about six years…but I rewind every once in a while to a point a little less than two years after it started. It keeps everyone from getting…too worked up."

"So you remember a bunch of years that no one else does?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "it's a burden but a necessary one: it keeps everyone else happy and lets me work on projects like this."

"How many times have you done it?"

"Just a few," she said.

Another lie.

"And you've been able to do years-long rewinds over and over?"

"Yes, each one just as easy as the first time," she said with a tight smile.

Another lie.

I decided to press in a different direction…

"So, um, I've used the rewind a bunch to help people out with stuff," I said.

"Like stopping Alyssa from getting hit by toilet paper?" Maxine asked, giving me a lopsided grin.

"Exactly," I said.

"And?"

"Do you still do that?"

She turned to me, her face half in shadow, and said, "all the time."

Another lie.

I opened my mouth but she came to an abrupt stop and I nearly tripped before steadying myself.

"Here," she said, touching a photo with her fingertips, "a happy ending."

I leaned over to see the photo she touched and gasped so hard with embarrassment that I nearly choked: it was a photo of me, stark naked, sitting in Chloe's lap…and Chloe's bare back and bare hips suggested that she, too, was completely naked.

"Oh, um, wowser," I finally managed.

Maxine grinned at me over her shoulder and gave me a wink.

"I can see anything in other universes," she said in a whisper.

She pointed to the next section and I glanced over: among pictures of that universe's Chloe and Max doing things like lounging on park benches, walking on beaches, and sitting in diners, there were several that were extremely intimate.

I opened my mouth but Maxine spoke first.

"Don't worry," she said, "no one from these other universes will ever know. It's all just between you and me." She paused. "And Chloe has seen some of it too." She shrugged. "And besides, unless you're actually in that reality, it's not really real. They're just images of possibilities, really."

Her voice softened as she spoke and she brushed her fingertips over a Polaroid of another Max and Chloe laughing from the inside of what looked like a Ferris Wheel pod. I didn't say anything: the ethics of cross-dimensional voyeurism were beyond my ability to process at that moment. And then I took in just how many of these photos showed Chloe and I as far more than best friends. My mind had never gone down that path before and now that I was seeing it, the idea didn't feel gross or weird or wrong. Instead, it made me feel warm inside…and as I glanced over to see a serene photo of another Chloe and Max hugging each other, I smiled.

But still, I now understood what Chloe meant when she said that this place was creepy. It wasn't just the sex photos, although those were a big part of it. It was the feeling of intrusion: these tens of thousands of photos (if not hundreds of thousands or more) showed the private lives of hundreds or thousands of different people. And the sheer number of photos hinted at an uncomfortable level of obsession.

And yet, I couldn't look away.

Maxine led me further down the corridor and my eyes followed to where her finger pointed.

I saw a photo of another Max and Chloe sleeping in Chloe's truck. One of another Max and Chloe sitting up in a tree, kissing. One of a different Max, her body covered in sweat, atop that universe's Warren (I nearly tripped upon seeing that). An entire wall with no Max at all, just Chloe and Rachel Amber hanging out in what had to be Los Angeles. One of another Max, sharply dressed, standing with Principal Wells in an airy photo gallery. One of Victoria's face buried between the bare legs of another Max (that one made me cough aloud). A photo of some other Kate and some other Max grinning over a table in a tea shop. One of a naked Max sitting on top of Chloe's face while kissing an equally-naked Rachel. A photo of a Max, a Victoria, and a Nathan, all raising a toast with champagne flutes. Several photos of a battered and bloody Mark Jefferson. A photo of another Max and Chloe wearing black clothes and with guns strapped to their hips. A photo of another Max tracing her fingers over another Chloe's lips. And a photo right next to that one of the same Max with her tongue sliding over Chloe's breast (I did actually trip upon seeing that one and Maxine laughed). A photo of Joyce serving a huge stack of pancakes to a version of Chloe with her arms crossed, a party hat on her head, and her lips pursed to the side.

Those were only a few of the ones that caught my eye…and yes, I'm not exactly proud to admit it but a disproportionate number of the ones that I noticed were ones that involved sex. I'm no prude and so, to be honest, those photos gave me more than a small thrill…but I also felt a far sharper sense of invading someone else's privacy when looking at them. Basically, I had very mixed feelings about what I was seeing.

And there were many photos that I wished hadn't noticed: ones of Chloe dead, with glassy eyes and a little round hole in her forehead…or her shirt drenched in blood. Or the ones of Kate falling from the top of the dorm building; I couldn't tell if she fell or jumped and didn't want to know so I didn't ask. Or one of what must have been a particularly tragic version of me jumping off of the cliff by the lighthouse. Or the multiple photos of Rachel's dead body. And more.

We finally reached the end of the passage, at section 2102. But it wasn't the end of Maxine's gallery: I peeked around the corner of an opening at the end and found an identical hallway stretching into an interminable distance, angling slightly down.

I turned to Maxine, who beamed at me with wide eyes.

"Are we going further?" I asked.

"Not today," she said, "but later, we can see as much as you'd like. There are some wild ones down there."

I nodded, not sure what else to say.

Maxine stared at me with a dreamlike expression. I turned away and looked at the nearest set of photos, which showed selfies of Chloe and I at the Grand Canyon and in Las Vegas. When the silence and Maxine's unblinking stare became too uncomfortable, I spoke up…

"I'm…not looking forward to walking all the way back," I said, clutching my elbow.

"Don't worry about that, precious Max," she said, making me raise an eyebrow. She held out her hand.

After a moment of hesitation, I took it.

She grinned, held her other hand up in front of her, and the world around us shattered into little splinters of time, exactly as it had when I'd rewound earlier. But Maxine wasn't rewinding, she was holding time still. And then she moved…she didn't step or lean or make any physical motion. It was as if she reached out, grabbed some little piece of the fractured constellations around us, and pulled us to it.

We suddenly dropped out of the blurry, rewind-like world and stood on a patch of damp grass in front of Blackwell, surrounded by a cloud of mist and the sound of crickets.

"Awesomesauce, huh?" Maxine said.

I took a deep breath, looking around with wide eyes.

"Wowser," I said, making Maxine grin, "that's…how did you do that?"

"It's actually pretty easy, once you try it out," she said with a shrug, "it's like how you can stop time and walk through space but it's so much easier here…and when you can see this whole little universe, you can pick a spot and skip the walking bit. Time and space are the same, after all. It's not as easy as what Warren can do, I guess, but it gets the job done."

"What Warren can do?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Oh? Did Chloe not tell you?" she asked, tilting her head slowly to match mine, "how funny…she must be planning some demonstration to impress you. How to tell this…hmm, when we put the tablets in place to stop the storm, there were five of us there. I was the only one with powers going in but all of us had powers going out."

"Wait, really?" I asked, my eyes going wide, "there are other people with powers? Time rewinding?"

"No," she said, "Chloe can move things with her mind. She's very proud of it. Warren can jump from place to place, similar to what we just did. And…Victoria can see or hear almost anything at a distance." When she said Victoria's name, she looked off into the mist and her mouth tightened. "And Kate can hide pretty much anything, making anyone or anything invisible." She continued to look off into the distance.

I paused for a moment before deciding to go out on a limb…

"Where are Kate and Victoria?" I asked.

Maxine turned to me, her face expressionless.

"Max, there are some of us, among our sisters in the multitudes of universes, who are strong. And there are others who are weak. I'm strong, Max. Saving this town and providing everything that the people need requires strength, especially when some people think they know better. And remember, Max, the rewind is far more powerful than anything else here. It's what allows us to survive and thrive. It allows you and I to do almost anything any of the others can do. It's essential. We are essential."

She suddenly stepped over to me and grabbed my hands.

"Max," she said, her eyes boring into mine, "are you one of the strong ones? Or one of the weak ones?"

I stared at her for a long moment, fear prickling at my brain: what the fuck was she talking about? What had happened in this place?

Then I swallowed and said, "someone's strength can't really be known until it's tested, tested by something you can't predict."

Maxine stared at me, her mouth slightly open, and then laughed aloud.

"Oh, Max, you perfect, perfect Max," she said, resting a hand on the top of my chest, her fingers scratching gently at my collarbone, "that's well said. Very well said. So I suppose we'll see what strength you have."

She suddenly strolled out into the mist and I rushed to follow. A few steps later, the mist cleared to reveal a statue, a concrete figure nearly three stories high. I looked up and gasped: it was me.

The figure looked more like me than Maxine, with shorter hair falling loose above her shoulders. She had her hand raised like we did with the rewind and her face had been carved with intense focus. She stood with her knees bent and feet braced, as if holding back the storm out in the bay…and I supposed that was an intentional representation.

"You probably think it's a bit much," Maxine said, "but I wanted to make sure you saw this. The town knows who saved them…and who continues to save them day after day. I saved them from the storm, not to mention giving them eternal youth and immortality. They're thankful, and they built this to show it. Most are thankful, at least. Come now, let's walk again before lunch. There's one more statue you should see."

She began walking towards town and I followed, my brow furrowed: she hadn't actually answered my question about Kate and Victoria. I decided not to mention it…but I wasn't going to forget.

. . . . .

Maxine led us down the hill, among streetlights that set clouds of fog aglow. As we walked, she spoke about the first few months of life in their pocket universe: chaos briefly reigned as people tried to flee and as authorities tried to establish some form of order, especially as anyone trying to leave was forced to turn back from the deadly time storm beyond the Barrier. During that time, Maxine and the others with powers worked hard to convince Arcadia Bay's leaders to listen to them, all while refining and practicing their new powers. Once Maxine demonstrated to enough people that she could manipulate this universe's fractured spacetime by bringing back dwindling supplies, people began listening in earnest and the unrest eased. And once she'd demonstrated that she could heal any injury or disease and allow the town to build almost anything, the unease among the people had turned to calm. As Maxine spoke, I had the distinct impression that I was receiving a well-rehearsed version of events; I detected no lies but the account certainly felt…sanitized.

And as Maxine spoke of how her and the others developed plans for the future of the time-frozen town, I read between the lines: Maxine, along with her closest friends, had quickly become the real power and authority in Arcadia Bay.

By that point in the story, we'd nearly reached the center of town and Maxine stopped at the edge of an intersection blocked off by concrete blocks. A closer look showed that someone had carved intricate patterns of flowers, birds, and trees into those blocks. Beyond, a drift of thick fog blocked our view of whatever stood in the intersection.

"Everything I've done," Maxine said, her voice soft, "none of it would have been possible without her."

"Who?"

"Come," she said, pulling me through a gap in the blocks.

The fog cleared and an immense statue reared up from the center of the intersection; it had to be the one I'd seen earlier from afar. At the base, dozens of stone tablets sat propped up, each one covered in clusters of symbols that matched the kinds I'd seen in photos from this universe. Flowers, carefully arranged in concrete pots, dotted the spaces between tablets.

Maxine led me around to the front of the statue and I looked up: it was Rachel Amber, standing tall with her eyes closed and her hands clutched in front of her heart. I'd obviously never known her when she was alive but I'd recognize her likeness anywhere: in my quest to understand Chloe's fatal drive to seek vengeance for this girl, I'd looked up everything I could about her. I still didn't fully understand Chloe's devotion to Rachel but everyone I'd talked to said that if I'd known Rachel, I'd get it. The statue managed to capture her stunning beauty, the whole thing painted in a lifelike way that made it radiant even in the perpetual gloom around us. Then I realized that it wasn't just an effect of the paint: the statue was actually glowing in a soft and subtle way. My eyes traced down from Rachel's serene face and I found the brightest spot: behind the statue's hands where Rachel's heart would be, a bright red glow peeked out.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing.

"That's Rachel," Maxine said, her voice soft.

"Sorry, I meant the red glow," I said.

"Yes, I know. That's Rachel," she said.

"Wait, what?"

"Yes, that's actually Rachel," she said, "it's her spirit, housed in a capsule that stretches beyond even what I can see in this place. She's the one who maintains the Barrier. She's the one who was able to focus the power in the tablets we found. Her spirit found a way to use some piece of my power to make it all happen. It's a bond between her and I and a bond between both of us and Arcadia Bay. The three of us, together in forever."

She reached out and ran her fingertips over the bare stone toes of the statue.

Then she spun around to me and smiled.

"Let's have lunch, shall we?" she said.

. . . . .

I'd never been to the Prescott Estate. Nestled in the middle of Arcadia Bay, you almost wouldn't be able to pick it out among the two-ish blocks of homes that were larger and more expensive than what you'd find in the rest of town. But there were small things that gave it away as something extra special: automatic gates, expensive stonework, and subtle water features. And once you were inside, it became far more obvious that it had been the residence of the richest people in the area.

But now it was Maxine's.

There weren't any Prescotts around to lay claim to the house: Nathan was dead, Nathan's mother and sister were out of town when everything went down, and I assumed that something happened to Nathan's father (Sean Prescott's fate wasn't exactly the highest in my very long list of questions). Since the property was effectively abandoned, Maxine didn't have any qualms about taking it, especially given the Prescotts' involvement in the kidnappings, murders, and calamities that led to Arcadia Bay's current status. As we walked the few blocks to the Prescott Estate, Maxine explained that she still kept her room at Blackwell and would sleep there every once in a while, just for the memories. She'd also laid claim to Principal Wells' residence at Blackwell, taking it as a kind of personal office. I didn't ask what Wells had to say about that.

When we entered the ex-Prescott residence, Maxine insisted that I remove my shoes and she handed me a pair of the softest, most luxurious slippers I'd ever worn. Past the entry and in a warmly-lit living room, we found Warren leaning up against a wall.

"Holy Maximus," he said, pushing off and hurrying over, "Chloe said there were two of you but I thought she was pulling one over on me again."

Maxine pulled Warren into a tight hug, one that lasted long enough to remind me of the intimate photos I'd seen of other Maxes and Warrens. Warren then raised his arms towards me with a tilt of his head and I shrugged: I gave him a far shorter hug than Maxine did…and a bit shorter than I'd share with my own universe's Warren.

"It's true," Maxine said, "this is Max. She comes from a very different reality and somehow slipped into ours."

"You got the rewind?" Warren asked me.

I nodded.

"Cool," he said, flashing me a smile.

"Is Chloe here?" Maxine asked.

"Not yet," Warren said, shaking his head, "you know how she is."

"That I do," Maxine said.

"I don't," I said.

I intended that to be a quiet whisper but both Maxine and Warren heard: they looked at me with furrowed brows and I blushed. Maxine turned to Warren.

"Her Chloe died before they could reconnect," she said.

"Oh, that sucks," Warren said, rubbing the back of his head, "but, um, yeah, Chloe kinda does her own thing on her own schedule. She's always there for you if you need her but, um, not the most reliable?"

He gave an apologetic look to Maxine and she smiled a tight smile.

"She's Chloe, she has her ways," Maxine said, "now, let us dine."

In a formal dining room, we sat at a polished wooden table that must have come from some kind of artisan gallery. Maxine had me sit at the opposite end of the table from her and Warren sat at her right. We were soon joined by four more people that filled out all but one spot. I knew most of them: Juliet, who immediately asked to set up an interview with me for the town's newspaper; Alyssa, who nodded at me then ignored me; and Stella, who offered to give me a tour of her photography studio along with the art galleries that had taken over several classrooms at Blackwell. The only person I didn't know sat on Maxine's left, kissing Maxine's neck (I raised my eyebrows at that) as she sat down. Maxine smiled at her and whispered into her ear before turning to me.

"Max," Maxine said, "this is Megan Weaver."

"It's so great to meet you, Max," Megan said from her seat, grinning at me, "you probably don't know me in your world but I was at Blackwell before you. In this world, after the storm, Maxine," she put her hand on top of Maxine's, "helped bring me back from a really dark place and…"

"Hey-yo," came a loud voice.

Chloe came bounding into the room. She pointed a finger-gun at Maxine and said, "how's it hangin', Maximum Maxine?"

"Very good, Chloe," Maxine said, tilting her head and looking at Chloe with unblinking eyes.

"Cool," Chloe said.

I glanced around the room: Megan looked at Chloe with a clenched jaw, Warren grinned at her, Stella looked at Chloe with raised eyebrows, and both Juliet and Alyssa didn't look at her at all.

"Thank you for coming, Chloe," Maxine said.

"Yep yep, of course," Chloe said. Her eyes found me and brightened. "Hey! You're still here. I thought one of us might've made you up. Like, a hipster ghost or something."

I couldn't help but smile and said, "yep, I'm still here."

"And my seat's next to you. Awesome," she said, "I never have anyone to play footsie with."

I felt my cheeks heat up but everyone else seemed to be familiar with this Chloe's humor. She dropped heavily into the seat next to me and leaned toward me.

She spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, "it's okay if you don't want to play footsie, Max. No pressure."

In response, I kicked her boot with the toe of my slipper and gave her a lopsided grin.

"Now I can say you started it," she said, winking at me.

Maxine cleared her throat and Chloe's grin vanished. I saw the briefest of eyerolls from her as everyone turned to face the other end of the table.

"I wanted to bring all of us together so that we can give Max Caulfield a proper welcome to our little pocket of forever," Maxine said, smiling at me, "and to let you all know, so that it gets around, that she is like a sister to me; closer than that, even, given that we share so much, including the power." She paused for a long moment. "Now, because she is new here, please have patience and understanding and love for her. In time," she smiled, "Max will understand all there is to know about this place. And then, her and I will use our powers together to ensure peace and prosperity and plenty for all."

"Gonna make another water park?" Chloe asked.

Maxine bit her upper lip and said, "perhaps. Now, let's have lunch."

She snapped her fingers and white-clad servers emerged from a doorway, carrying covered trays. They set them down, one in front of each of us, and swept the covers away, revealing steaming lobster tails, mashed potatoes, and delicate mushrooms.

"Whoa, pulling out all the stops, Maxine," Chloe said, earning a glare from Megan.

"It's a special day," Maxine said, smiling at me.

Chloe put a hand over her mouth but spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, "last time, it was club sandwiches."

"I seem to remember you liking those," Stella said.

"Yeah, they were fucking delicious," Chloe said, grinning at a couple of the retreating servers, who grinned back, "Maxine always gets the best stuff."

Maxine tilted her head with a smile at Chloe and Chloe gave her a thumbs-up. I glanced around the table, taking in everyone's moods and expressions; to say that I had a ton of new questions would be a huge understatement. Clearly, a lot had happened over the past few years in this timeless place and I'd still only barely scratched the surface. And what the hell was going on between all of these people? I felt as if I'd stepped into some kind of over-the-top soap opera. And I really had to wonder about Maxine and Chloe…I could see echoes of their friendship. I could see echoes of more than that. But whatever it had been, it was clearly gone. Maxine swung back and forth between warmness and coldness towards Chloe, while Chloe seemed to exhibit some kind of friendly indifference.

I had a very sudden desire to go home.

"How do you like your meal, Max?" Maxine asked.

"Oh, sorry, it looks amazing but I haven't tried it yet," I said, quickly spearing a mushroom, "I, um, it's just crazy seeing you all here when I know, um, different versions of you."

"And you're wondering why all of our drama is so different from all of yours?" Maxine asked.

Several people around the table looked back and forth at one another nervously. Chloe barked out a laugh.

I winced and said, "yeah."

"It's okay," Maxine said, taking a sip from a glass of wine, "you'll get used to it."

"Actually, um, I don't want to sound rude or anything but after getting to stay here a while and hang out with all of you, is there a way for me to go home? I'm kind of concerned about, you know, people back home getting worried," I said.

A hush fell over the room and Chloe locked her eyes on Maxine.

Maxine took another sip of wine, set it down slowly, and steepled her fingers.

"I'm sorry, Max," she said, "we can't go to other universes."

It was a lie.

Chloe frowned, plunging her fork into a mound of potatoes, and Warren gave me a pained look that oozed sympathy. A quick glance around the room suggested that they all believed Maxine. And if I was right and she was lying, then there was a way to leave this place. And that, of course, raised the question: why didn't Maxine want people to know that?

For a brief moment, I considered challenging her. I considered calling her out and demanding that she tell me how to leave. But my nerves got the better of me: she could rewind, just like me. But she'd been in this place, with its own rules and quirks, for years, practicing and refining her skills. And I felt something slightly dangerous in her demeanor, a cold tension that sent a shiver down my spine. No, challenging her would be a mistake, perhaps one that I'd never get a chance to correct.

If I wanted to get home, I'd have to be sneaky. And that meant playing nice and keeping my head down until I could find out what was going on.

So I gave a tight smile and said, "well, I guess it's good then that the company here is great."

Maxine smiled at me and said, "very true. And besides, why would you want to go back? Here, you can live like a queen, forever. As I said before: you'll never age, never get sick, and never die. That storm may loom over us and keep the days dark but this is a paradise. And you can help keep it that way."

I nodded.

"Excellent," she said, "now, I insist that you try your lunch. It's sublime."

. . . . .

Chloe left early, before anyone else was finished.

Right before she stood up, she leaned over to me and said, "you can find me at the junkyard if you want to talk."

She then popped up, told everyone to have a hella good dessert, and sauntered out. In the distance, I heard her old truck roar to life and roll away.

The others continued to chat away and I mostly just listened. I discovered that Alyssa ran Blackwell's library, that Stella was the town's photographic curator, and that Juliet ran the town's newspaper. For Juliet, her status as one of Maxine's friends gave her the leverage to take over that position and she mumbled something about retirement when I asked what happened to the previous chief editor.

As for Warren and Megan? I couldn't quite tell what Warren or Megan did but they were both very affectionate with Maxine, and vice-versa. Maxine would laugh at the things they whispered to her and would respond by touching them on the shoulder, hands, wrists, or cheeks.

A little while after Chloe left, Maxine rose from her seat and everyone else did, too. I was the last to stand.

"Thank you, everyone," she said, "let us gather again for dinner tonight."

A chorus of thank yous and promises to attend floated out from the group and then everyone began to leave. I stood where I was and watched with eyebrows raised as Maxine cupped a hand on Warren's butt and then squeezed Megan's hand as the two of them left the room. She then came over to me, a lazy smile on her face.

"Max," she said, her eyes half-lidded, "Warren, Megan, and I are going to go…relax for a while. You're welcome to join us."

She snaked a hand up onto my arm and her smile grew.

"Oh, um…," I started, feeling my cheeks heat up.

She laughed and said, "yes, relaxing means sex. And yes, I'm sure Warren and Megan would love to have you. And so would I."

She brushed her fingertips on my cheek and a bunch of very confusing and conflicting feelings rushed through me. I had no idea what to say.

"No pressure," she said, "despite what Chloe may tell you, we're not some hippie, free love commune here. Well, there is a lot of free love in our little paradise, truth be told, but you never have to join in unless you want to. You should know, though, that both Warren and Megan are very enthusiastic lovers. So, what do you think?"

Honestly, the thought wasn't exactly unappealing, to put it mildly. And that surprised me. For the past several years, I'd been so focused on photography and schoolwork that the idea of romance hadn't really entered my head in more than the most cursory ways (even my long-gone crush on Mark Jefferson hadn't really gone further in my mind than the effusive adjectives and colored-in hearts I'd put in my journal). So I decided to be truthful, especially since Maxine could potentially see the same deceptive cues that I saw with her…

"Honestly, it's…a bit overwhelming," I said, "the idea…it's…exciting. But I don't think I'm ready."

"That's okay, Max," Maxine said, gently rubbing my shoulder with her hand, "so what do you want to do?"

"I was thinking about going to see Chloe," I said. As soon as I said it, Maxine's face darkened but I continued, "I just…never thought I'd see her again so I'm…I don't want to miss out."

"Okay," she said, dropping her hand away from my shoulder, "you can probably find her at the junkyard. Ask anyone for a ride and you'll be taken care of. Or, if you remember what it felt like to step through the quanta, you can try that. The junkyard is…difficult to get into that way but it's easy enough to get to the entrance."

"Thanks, Maxine," I said. On a whim, and remembering my plan to go with the flow, I pulled her into a tight hug, "thanks for all of this. I'm sorry I'm kind of distant. I'm just…still processing all of it."

She squeezed me back and I felt her shoulders relax.

"I understand, precious Max, I understand," she said with a sigh. She twisted her head so that her lips were right next to my ear and whispered, "I understand more than anyone ever could. And if there's one thing we have, it's time. So take your time."

She stepped away, letting her hands slide down my arms, and briefly gripped my hands before spinning away. I followed her out of the dining room. In the living room, Warren and Megan stood chatting. Maxine took Warren's hand and led him away; he flashed me one of his endearing goofy grins over his shoulder before they vanished around a corner. Megan watched them go and then came over to me.

"Max," she said, "I just want you to know that the most important thing in this world is loyalty. Loyalty to Maxine. She did everything for us and she continues to do everything for us. Never forget that."

Without waiting for a response, she spun around and walked away, following Maxine and Warren.