Author's Preface
When the doe had reached Arcadia Bay at last, it paused to scan over the mass destruction. Its featureless head tilted in way that made it appear like it was thinking.
This creature, or some compilation of matter , had never set foot in this territory before, yet it seemed to know this place somehow. How? It didn't know, nor did it matter anyway.
The powerful energy it was attracted to was in much closer proximity now.
Right on queue, a blue butterfly flickered past the doe's ear from behind, the one with the blue feather, and continued forth into town. The doe, feeling somewhat of a connection to this beautifully winged insect, just knowingly decided to follow it.
Inside the Two Whales, Joyce just got off the phone with David, which was remarkably still working; he had called to let her know that he was on his way to come get them.
He too was alive, and so were others.
Frank was sitting behind the counter with his canine friend, Pompidou, massaging behind the dog's ears soothingly.
Kate and Victoria had survived as well somehow; they were on the stools talking to each other, which was rare to see.
There were also some cops casually moving about in the area, just waiting for whatever help they could provide.
Max was slouched at her usual table, taking in this liberating sight with glazed eyes, her quivering mouth managing a faint smile; she felt a great weight being gently lifted off her shoulders, despite the bad shape she was in.
"Yes... this is good. This is right." She whispered to no one in particular.
Ever since that incident back out on the road, she had been numb. Everything was surreal to her, like her right mind wasn't in full control of everything she was doing at this second.
"Hey, Maximus."
Chloe sat down next to her, rather than opposite her like usual, and took Max's hand which was rested on the table , only to find that she was shaking still.
She hesitated to ask. "How's my angel?"
Max released a long-withheld sigh and leaned against the diner window to briefly gape outside.
"Better."
"Still stuttering?"
Clearing her throat, Max straightened up to test out that matter.
"Peter P—Piper picked a—picked a pack of—Peter P—Piper—Pickles." It was hopeless. "Fuck, you can't be c—cereal!"
Max hammered in frustration while Chloe could only look on, feeling bad.
Joyce had been watching them over her shoulder and eventually came over to sit with them on the opposite seat, her face wearing the same concern as her daughter's.
"Is something wrong, darling?"
"Yeah, Mom. I think she needs a doctor."
"I could see that from here. What's the problem?"
"I don't know." Words spun in the punk's head. "I think there's some... damage to her brain because of the storm."
Joyce furrowed in confusion. "What? Why? Did she have an accident?"
"Yeah..." Chloe nodded, "something like that. She needs help fast."
Chloe didn't know how she would explain the circumstances of Max's condition to the MEDs, and there was no way she could string up some alternative bullshit story; it was giving her a headache too.
Max was about to plunk her head on the table, tempted to just pass out.
"Hang in there, Maxine. David will be here to get you help." Joyce assured, taking the sick girl's other hand.
Max raised her head at the woman with a mock-frown. "Max... never... M—Maxine."
Chloe smirked, glad to see that her friend was somewhat herself again.
The doe, led by the butterfly, continued its stroll through the cluttered streets. It then halted in its tracks when it sensed the alluring energy swell up.
Curious to know what was happening, it focused intently for about a minute until its gaze then pierced through houses, through rubble, through everything, until it found the interior of a diner. It quickly spotted the source inside the body of a meagre young girl who was sitting at one of the tables.
All this current of time-bending energy that called to it was coursing through her veins like a valley. Now most of it was all a coiling noisy mess inside her brain, trapped, panicked, and rattling for decampment. It was all going to blow up inside her soon, the doe realized.
The butterfly flapped away shortly, leaving its follower to decide the rest of the way on its own.
As well as that, the homeless lady, who was regularly seen sitting behind the Two Whales Diner, cruised by with a trolley, scavenging whatever leftovers she could find, when she froze before this being .
Her fingers hung loose from the handle as she was mesmerized by what she described as a God-like presence. She was seeing, yet hardly believing what her eyes were processing.
The aura bordering the doe's form gleamed like a blinding flare, which forced the lady to shield her face. Yet, she insistently squinted through her fingers. When her sight finally adjusted to this new brightness, there she saw its animal frame remoulding itself to look more... human.
A bit later, Max pushed herself up from the table and staggered over to the counter to see Kate and Victoria; she could barely step a footlong at this point.
"Max!" Kate waved to her delightedly.
"Hey, Kate. H—How are you doing?"
"Fine, I guess." The way she hunched and bowed her face gave a different answer.
"I'm glad you're okay." Max turned to Victoria, who was giving her a charitable side glance. "Both of you."
"Thanks, Max." The blonde finally spoke. "I'm glad you're still alive too."
Max returned her a kind nod. She could see how humbled the Queen Bee had become after the outbreak, though there were still traces of her usual self from her regal posture as she sat.
"Are you okay?" Victoria then asked her, showing a rare tinge of worry for her classmate.
Surprised, Max nodded again when she suddenly swayed back and stumbled, almost losing her own balance.
"Whoa, Max!" Kate almost hopped out of her seat when she thought her friend was going to fall down. "Have you had enough sleep? You look very tired."
Max waved it off while rubbing the throbbing in her forehead that resurfaced; she was now getting rather lightheaded and dripping with sweat.
Right then, it came back to her what she wanted to ask. "Did anyone else make it?"
Kate clawed her knees as she hung her head solemnly.
"Yeah, some others made it out. Brooke, Dana, Luke, Justin. Principal Wells is okay too. He's doing whatever he can to help the students and teachers."
"What about W—Warren?" Max grunted out. She especially wanted to know what happened to him.
Kate sniffled and heaved in a deep shuddered breath. Victoria too had her eyes cast down knowingly.
"He helped me... helped a lot of people to safety."
"What h—happened to him?" Max's own breaths were becoming shallower by the second. She had to know.
Kate paused. She shook her head. She sucked in her lips. She wiped the moist off her lashes, and then struggled to look through them at Max directly.
Finally, from the bile in her throat, she forced out those two fateful words. "He's gone."
In a flash, Max's heart turned into ice. The joints in her bone went rigid. The roots in the back of her hair stiffened.
"What do you mean?" She gritted.
"He went home to be with our Lord."
"No!" Max cupped her mouth, her eyes bulging wide open in horror. She wanted to deny it.
"Warren's dead, Max." Victoria interjected.
"NO!" Max spun away from them, whimpering into her hands. "Not Warren!"
Chloe, who went outside for a smoke, came back inside to see her friend crying again and rushed over to put her arms around the girl.
"Max, what happened? What's wrong now?"
Max turned and pressed her face into her shoulder, pouring her renewed guilt and sorrow.
"I'm sorry." Kate could only say.
Chloe tried caressing her back.
"I should have agreed to go to the m—movies with him!" She heard through her sobs. Putting those words together, she realized who she was talking about, and what that meant .
"Oh, God... Max..." Chloe hugged her tighter. She had only met the boy once, and it was when he beat up Nathan. Max, of course, knew him longer, and while he had an obvious crush on her, she only regarded him as a friend. Still, it didn't stop her from feeling a little jealous whenever he was mentioned, but Chloe knew he was loyal to the end and held no bitterness against him.
"I—It's my..."
Chloe refused to let her finish. "No! Don't say it! Don't even think of it! Please ." Chloe just continued holding her.
Soon enough, a hefty figure of man entered the ruined diner to scan the place for his loved ones.
"David!" Joyce cried when she saw him and leapt into his arms.
"Oh, Joyce! I'm glad you're here! I'm so sorry for everything."
David spotted the two girls shortly and came over to see them next. "Chloe. Max."
Both were side-by-side, facing him, as they nodded.
He heaved a sigh and let his eyes fall to the floor. "I know it may be strange to hear this from me, but it's great to see you both."
Chloe responded with a faint but genuine smile. "You too, David ."
Gathering some more courage, David knelt before them and focused mainly on his stepdaughter. "Listen... I know I haven't been the best father figure, and maybe you prefer it that way, I understand. I don't want to replace your father." David paused, nervous and unsure if these were the right choice of words.
Chloe just waited for him to continue.
"I don't deserve you, and I probably don't deserve your mother. But after everything that's happened, I..." David trailed off, at a loss of words; he wasn't used to this. Joyce however patted him encouragingly. "I'm sorry, for everything. I'll try to be better, for both of you. You and your mother."
David now looked Chloe straight in the eye, almost pleadingly. He meant it with all his heart, and he wanted to make sure she knew that as well.
"You don't have to call me 'dad', but hopefully in time, however long it takes, you'll stop calling me step-douche."
Chloe eased herself and let her shoulders rest. She always used to be on edge around this man, but now she could see. This wall that David always kept up to hide his emotions was coming undone, brick by brick. She could see pain, sorrow, regret, and love , all in just his eyes. To this, she nodded gently and widened her smile slightly.
David mirrored her expression, relieved, and raised a hand to offer her a handshake. "Truce?"
"Hug him." Max nudged her friend.
"What?" Chloe whipped her head in surprise.
"H—He c—cares for you. It's the least—you can give him."
Chloe bit her lip and hesitated momentarily. After deciding, she walked up to give him a five-second hug before pulling away just as fast. "Truce." She finally answered.
This surprised everyone, especially David. It was a very short hug, but to get one from his wife's child who always hated him and hurled insults his way, it was more than enough. David rose back up, content.
Out of nowhere, the jukebox started playing Mt Washington by Local Natives ; Victoria had wandered over there to see if it was still working, and somehow it was, in a place that was nearly decimated by a tornado hours ago. Still, no one decided to question it.
Max turned to the machine and managed to spot a little cockroach crawling out from under it; it was the same one she saw just days ago while trying to prove her powers to Chloe. It was still alive too.
Victoria took one glimpse at the brown insect and fled back to the counter, shrieking.
The whole family just laughed at her in what felt like a lifetime.
"How the hell is that old thing still working anyway?" Joyce had to wonder.
As the song continued playing, Max snailed towards the sound, soothed by singer's voice and bathing in those soft strums. Her eyes shuttered, comfortably.
This gave Chloe an idea. She waltzed in front of her best friend to take both her hands and pulls her closer to the music player.
"Let's dance, Maxy." She whispered into her ear, seductively . Max chuckled shyly.
Surely enough, they leaned into one other, necks intertwined. Their steps matched the other's pace as they revolved in the floor space to follow the rhythm.
Joyce leaned into her husband's shoulder as they watched the two proudly.
Kate too took notice and beamed in adoration.
Victoria was just neutral, though growing curious by the second as to where this dance would go next. It was something about the way they moved.
Max and Chloe were so lost in each other that nothing else mattered anymore; this floor was theirs and no one else's.
"I love you." Max breathed in her ear. "Please never leave me again."
"Never." Chloe huffed back. "I'll always be with you. My partner in crime... partner in time ."
Their heads parted while their oceanic eyes locked. Chloe recalled their first kiss on the road, the one Max had pounced on her, and wanted the feel that again. Cupping the brunette's cheeks, the bluenette, being the initiator this time, brought their lips together and sealed them once more.
Kate muffled a gasp.
Victoria was stunned.
Joyce was just happy and started clapping for the two girls who had found love at last. David averted his gaze a little, not from disgust, but simply because he felt like he was intruding.
Max and Chloe snickered in embarrassment, suddenly self-conscious again.
Their moment of serenity came to a sudden end when Max started making gargling sounds from her throat, unpleasant ones. Next, her body was twitching uncontrollably.
Alerted to this, Chloe pulled Max away again and felt an icy grip squeezing in her chest at what she was witnessing.
Her head was bobbing to one side while her jaw hung like it had come loose. Her eyes, however, had turned all white with pink vein strands, her blues having rolled to the back of her head; it's like something dark had possessed her entirely.
"Max!? MAX!" She screamed, alarming the rest of the diner.
Max lost all sense of balance again like she did before they came here, but Chloe kept her hold around her and let her sink to the floor, resting her head on her lap, her face between her shaking hands. Blood had again leaked out of her nostrils with aggressive force, quickly messing the tiles around them, adding to their distress.
"Jesus!" Frank had come out from his spot to see what the commotion was and flinched once he saw it for himself. "What the hell is wrong with her?"
Pompidou, who tailed behind his owner, was barking and growling.
"God! What the fuck is happening!?" Chloe's panic put dents in her voice.
"Oh, dear God!" Cried her mother.
David, however, spared no time for such shock and rushed over to aid them while Joyce stood over anxiously.
Kate and Victoria were thrown off their stools, rigid at the sight of Max bleeding and spazzing like she was having some sort of seizure .
"D—David! What do I do?" Chloe begged.
"Lay her down on her side!" She did as instructed, rolling her lover to her side as to have them facing each other. " Don't restrain her or put anything in her mouth!"
"What about the nosebleed?"
Joyce answered her call by darting for the paper dispenser on her counter and back over to press a ball of tissue firmly under her nose.
"Okay, now what?"
"We wait for it to pass."
"Are you fucking serious?"
"Yes!" David went firm on his stepdaughter again. "It's a seizure. I've seen this happen to one of my brother-in-arms. There's nothing more we can do!"
Chloe sighed, defeated. With nothing else to do, she made a conscious effort to slow her breaths down, a task that proved laborious, but not impossible.
"We need an ambulance NOW!" David shouted to one of the onlooking cops. One of them hurried off.
By now, dark veins were bulging profusely through her reddening flesh, threatening to pop altogether.
Chloe's death grip on her flailing hand refused to relent since she positioned her, and she pressed it against her sticky lips. Her flow of tears could not be stopped any longer. Max always had the power to pull her sorry ass out of death, yet here she was, entirely powerless to do anything for her . She ripped off her beanie in grievance.
As if things weren't bad enough already, Max then forced out a bloodcurdling shriek that could have brought the entire food place down.
Max could not describe the unbearable pain she was experiencing. She could not think, could not control her own body, and all she could see became an oversaturated blur; the faint outlines of Chloe's hair stood out to her though.
Suddenly, Max starts bashing her head on the floor furiously. Joyce hurriedly seizes her head to stop her from hurting herself, but she still flailed in her hands. Her eyes were now bloodshot.
Watching Max like this became agonizing to everyone else to witness as well, including Frank. Kate hid her face and sobbed away, heartbroken to see the very girl who stopped her from jumping off the girl's dormitory in such a torturous state.
Joyce too was starting to lose surety of the situation and looked to David for answers, answers he was unable to give her.
Chloe was ready to pass out at any second, but she managed whatever strength she had left to muster through, for she needed to be strong.
"Max..." She scrambled for whatever words she could say to comfort her, assuming Max could still hear or understand her at this point. "Just—Just hold on, okay? We're gonna get you an ambulance! You're gonna be fine. After this, we can doze off back at my place. We can go back to the junkyard. Or we can be pirates again. Yeah?"
Max only let out another croak, and that was it. Chloe let her head fall next to Max's and sobbed harder than she ever had since she lost her father five years ago, and Rachel .
Without warning, Max arched her back, unleashing a swell of power that rippled outwards like a gong, and dropped back down as it passed just as instantaneously.
The nerves of everyone in range numbed at this sudden surge they all felt. No one, apart from Chloe, had any clue what that was just now, but they knew they felt it. Chloe figured that it had to do with her powers.
In a few seconds, that wouldn't be the least of their worries anymore. Before long, a blazing glow drew everyone's attention outside, facing the window, all except for the three people still tending to Max.
Standing in front of the diner, they could trace out a glowing honey-yellow aura that had taken the physique of a young slender girl.
When the light settled, only then could the people see her face. Long brown hair that streamed all the way down to her neck framed a pair of swan-like eyes, and a fair oval face that had a long blue feather fluttering under one of her ears.
Anyone who had been around Arcadia Bay long enough would recognize those features instantly from the missing posters that were planted everywhere; the bewildered bystanders inside the diner were of course no exception.
Frank especially was transfixed. He knew this face far too well; it belonged to a girl that he once loved.
"Rachel?"