voyager // max mayfield

TWENTY FIVE: IT WASN'T REAL

Max stayed quiet, letting the girl continue as she added a bandage to the wound on her side.

"He was telling me I had almost completed my treatment, that I was on the final part," Eve whispered, almost ashamed to admit it. "He looked so real, he felt so real..."

"It was a memory, Eve," Max said to her softly, "he can't get to you anymore. He's in Florida, and you are here."

"I know," Eve nodded, "it just... it felt so real. I was terrified."

"Was the final step... what you told me about the pictures?" Max asked her, moving away from the wound and standing to her full height again.

"No," Eve shook her head, "no, that was like... step two or three, it blurs together."

Max nodded her head.

"I need... to do your back," Max said to her quietly, making Eve turn around. She sat cross-legged at the counter now, staring at her own reflection as Max looked at her back, the scrapes weren't deep, but they looked extremely painful.

The two of them were silent as Max carefully cleaned the scrapes, the conversation dead from the mention of Florida. It seemed to be the root of all of their problems regarding any friendship or relationship they tried.

Eve would always be too scared to share.

Max would always be too careful and worried to mention it.

Eve stared at her reflection as Max went to work - she could see a head of ginger sitting just over her shoulder - every once in a while Max's face would appear if she applied too much pressure to a wound, checking to see if it hurt her.

Every time she did it, it made Eve hide a small smile - the girl really did care for her.

She knew Max would always care for her, the way she would always care for Max - they'd been through so much, they'd experienced things no one else ever had.

She knew Max had her back.

And that's why Eve decided to speak up, for the first time.

"He raped me," Eve said quietly, staring at her own reflection in the mirror, scared to break eye contact with herself. She could feel max completely pause behind her, as if the sentence didn't feel real, or that she had made it up, "that was, uh, the final stage. To prove I loved men."

"Eve..." Max whispered.

"It's okay," Eve shakes her head as she speaks, "it got me out of there quicker."

"It's not okay," Max shakes her head, "you should have never been forced to go there. It should not be seen that a girl liking a girl is wrong... you should not have to be fixed from something that was broken."

"I learnt something while I was there," Eve said to her, making Max look at her through the reflection, "I learnt that I have no interest in ever dating a man. The sight of them makes me feel sick, actually."

Max nodded her head, "and that's okay."

"That was the only good thing about seeing him in my trance," Eve said then, "I got to kill him, I got to see his body go limp. I got to see him pay for what he did."