Hellions of Arcadia

Chapter 39: The Test

Max -  ???

Damn it, just when I thought I had escaped the darkness.

This time, though, it's different. There is a strangely cool breeze, and the invisible ground beneath my feet is somehow softer. I look around, trying to see if there is anything to see, even if it's off in the distance, but it's to no avail.

Yet again, I'm plunged into darkness, and yet again I must walk until my feet grow tired. Is this her test, to see how my endurance holds up? If I reach some unseen destination will she give me the reward I seek? I guess there's only one way to find out. Luckily, this time the darkness is much easier to handle, even if that's not saying much. I've already experienced it before, so I know how it works.

After a few minutes of walking, my foot gets caught in what seems like a pothole, and I tumble to the ground. My face scrapes against a grainy substance, it kind of feels like... sand? I push myself off the invisible sandy floor, and look around. I'm obviously not in an empty abyss anymore, but I can't see where I am.

On my knees, I grab a fistful of sand and hold it up, but there is nothing in my hand. I feel it's gritty, and slight moist properties against my palm, but it looks like I'm trying to cup air. Scrambling to my feet, the smell of the ocean wafts through the air. Am I on some sort of beach? This is one of the last places I expected her to take me, even if I can't see it. 

I remember back to what I did with Chloe. Just as I was thinking about her made her appear before my eyes. It could have been a completely coincidence, but Time Max's comment about how I 'summoned Chloe,' was not a coincidence.

If I try hard enough, maybe I can do it again? This is my own mind, I have control over whatever happens in here. I can allow myself to see again. A strong breeze to my front threatens to knock me over, but I plan my shoes into the sand and barely avoid another fall. If I want to do this, I should do it now.

I clench my fists, and close my eyes. Well, I think I close them, it's hard to tell out here. I try to repeat the process of Rewinding for the first time. Deep breaths in and out, trying to feel it running through me. Beach, I'm at the beach. I want to see it.

But when I open my eyes, nothing has changed.

This won't be anything like Rewinding, will it?

I think back to when I made Chloe's silhouette appear before me, how I willed her to be there, how I imagined her standing beside be moments before she appeared there. I draw in a deep breath of air, and I imagine the beach around me. It looks like the coastline of Arcadia, where Chloe and I confronted Frank all those years earlier, and she shot him in the leg.

It's a sour memory, one that brings the metallic smell of blood to my nose. I have to brush it off if I want to focus solely on getting my vision of this place. I imagine the lapping waves against the sand, and Frank's RV parked away from the water's harm. I think about it all, the sunshine, and the way it feels on my skin, how the salty smell of water always stung my nose in the best way possible.

Thinking is not willing. I have imagined the place I want to be, but I haven't decided that's where I am. I will myself to be at the beach I envision myself at the beach. I focus so hard my head begins to hurt...

Light filters through my eyelids, and when I open them, it's all here. The beach in Arcadia Bay is all around me. I did it! I actually did it!

You're learning. Time Max's voice cuts into my head, or is it just my own? Either way, I take this opportunity to get some answers. "Was that a test?" I ask, "to 'prove myself'? Because I think I did a good job."

She doesn't answer, and I clench my fists.

Sweet laughter behind me caused my to whip around so fast I almost call over. Chloe Price leans against her shitty beige truck, looking at me with fascination. "What are you babbling on about, Caulfield?"