Lost in Time

Chapter One

"This is my storm! I caused all of this!" the short brunette had yelled over the wind that was howling through the trees behind them. "I changed fate and destiny so much that...I actually did alter the course of everything. And all I really created was just death and destruction!"

Her blue haired friend, standing behind her, had placed her hand on her shoulder, spinning her to look her dead in the eyes. "Fuck all of that, okay? You were given a power. You didn't ask for it...and you saved me," She was yelling at the shorter girl as the storm grew in power, thunder echoing around them. "Which had to happen, all of this did...except what happened to Rachel. But without your power we wouldn't have found her!"

The shorter girl was looking around her now, uncertain of her friend's words, but her friend kept yelling.

"Okay, so you're not the goddamn Time Master, but you're Maxine Caulfield and you're amazing,"

Max looked down, accepting the compliment, which she felt was an odd time to receive one, and she also felt guilty. Max's eyes shifted to look out at the raging storm that had formed in the harbour, the blue haired girl staring in anticipation as to how Max was going to respond to the situation, and as the shorter girl came back to face her friend, she realized she was going to have to make the call.

The shorter girl accepted the photo that was placed in her hands. A sad smile gracing her lips as to what she realised had to happen. She was going to have to go back in time and allow her friend to die. She knew she would be sitting at the end of those stalls, knowing that the bluenette would have no memory of the time shift. She would pass away alone; isolated; not realising that Max and she had fallen in love and never knowing what had happened to her friend Rachel Amber.

Blackwell had only been closed for the day of the fatal shooting in the ground floor, female bathrooms. Max had listened, as she had figured, as her best friend passed away on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. She remembered the sound of the gargling as the bluenette's lungs filled with blood; she remembered the clatter of the pistol falling from Nathan Prescott's hand. But most of all, she remembered the sound of her own heart stopping.

Max had been made to attend classes almost immediately after the incident, meaning she had to replay almost everything she had already been through. Her photography class was slightly different. Nathan had spilled the beans on the darkroom and on Mark Jefferson. So Max's class had ended up being a free for all, with no relief teacher coming in to fill the position.

Principal Wells had sent out an email to the parents and students telling them that they were unable to find a suitable teacher to take Mr. Jefferson's place and that if they couldn't, then the students that were there on photography scholarships, like Max, would have to relocate to another school or cough up the fees to keep them there.

Of course, Max's parents had called her straight away, not only to find out how she was doing after witnessing a 'long lost friend' be murdered, but also to find out if she wanted to come home. Max had politely declined moving back to Seattle. It wasn't that she hated it there, it was that she felt like she would be abandoning Chloe's memory. Not after the week that they, well, she, had just been through.

On the day, in her previous timeline, that Kate Marsh had attempted to jump off the roof, Max made sure to be around her friend, although she wasn't sure if she would really need it. After finding out about the darkroom and the two men involved, Victoria Chase had removed the original video of a clearly inebriated Kate, and sincerely apologised to her.

"How are you, Kate," Max had said as they had both appeared in the dormitory corridor simultaneously.

"Hey Max," she had responded, her soft voice no longer marred with the sadness of the previous timeline. Max also noticed the lack of dark rings around her eyes. "I'm feeling really good, but I'm running a little late to my visual art class,"