Life is Stranger

Hands and Hearts

Chloe's mouth opened as if she were about to say something, but no words came. She continued to stare in amazement at the rings nestled inside the box.

"I believe the words you are looking for are 'hella yes'." said Max.

At the sound of Max's voice, Chloe's attention shifted to the brunette's face. Her mouth hung open, her breath causing an ethereal mist to hang in the air between the two lovers.

"Oh Max. Yes. Yesyesyes! A thousand times yes! A million times yes!"

"Give me your hand."

Chloe extended her left hand forwards and Max slowly slid the ring onto Chloe's finger. It was a perfect fit. The intertwined hearts twinkled gently in the blue moonlight, two stars delicately drawn down from the celestial heavens above and melded together to form an exquisite, harmonic marriage of beauty.

"Now yours, Angel." Chloe placed the matching ring onto her fiancée's ring finger and they entwined their hands together, both of them unable to draw their gaze away.

"Forever." they whispered together.

"I love you Max."

"Love you too Chloe."

The kiss lasted an eternity, their hands never parting.

"Chloe?"

"Yes Angel?"

"I know you want to help me, but I don't want you to change anything. Anything at all. Chloe, my life can't possibly get any better than this. Please don't take this moment from us. Chloe, this week has been the best of my life, and I want to keep it. Please."

"But the dark room. Our separation. What if we can figure out a way to stop Vanessa from..."

"Chloe, look at me. This moment alone, here and now, is worth a thousand years of torture. We were destined to be together – and now we are. Right here and now. Chloe, we are going to get married. We are going to spend the rest of our lives together. We are going to raise a family. We have a whole lifetime of love with each other ahead of us. The past is gone. Let it be. Please. I don't want to risk what we already have. Chloe, we already have everything we could possibly wish for."

"I wish that were true, Max. But I don't have everything I want. There is one thing that I can never have."

"Your dad?"

Chloe simply nodded, then began to sob uncontrollably.

"Heyyyy. C'mere. It's okay." Max took her fiancée in a loving embrace. "Shhhh Chloe. It's gonna be okay. We'll think of something. We'll try and find a way to save him...Chloe, did you...have you...Chloe, did you already try?"

Max felt Chloe nod again, her warm tears trickling down the skin of her neck.

"What happened? How come it didn't work?"

Chloe raised her head from the smaller girl's neck and Max gently wiped her tears away. "Max...he...he...doesn't want to be saved. He planned it all himself. He...sacrificed himself. For us. He had to. The thing was coming to get us all. He died for us, Max - to save you and me and Mom. To save us from that thing. Max, I can't...I can't save him. I can't bring him back. He's gone. Forever."

"Oh Chloe. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Max began to weep as well. "God I hate that fucking thing! You took my Chloe's dad from her. My Uncle William. You bastard! Why? What did we ever do to you, eh? None of us has ever done anything to deserve this. We are going to make you fucking pay for what you've done. Do you hear me you bastard? We are going to make you pay – for everything. Chloe, my poor baby – I can only imagine what you went through that day. I wish I could take all of your pain away."

"You...do Max. You do take my pain away. Without you, I wouldn't have the strength to carry on through all this shit, I really wouldn't. I need you with me to do it, to beat it. I can't do it without you."

"And you won't have to. This fucking thing has bitten off more than it can chew."

"Max, aren't you scared? Not even a bit? Doesn't all this frighten you?"

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't, and I am not going to lie to you, Chloe. Of course I'm scared. Who wouldn't be? But I'm angry too. I was scared back in that dark room as well, but I never gave in. I fought back, and I won. And I'm going to fight again. I will always fight for you, Chloe. We can't let fear cripple us - we have to make your dad's sacrifice worth it. I don't want to die. I want us to grow old and die together. But even if I die tomorrow, if I die by your side, then so be it. I will never abandon you, Chloe - you know that. I will be with you for the rest of our lives – whether it's just a single day or a thousand years. Every second spent with you is priceless...pun unintended. I know you're frightened too, Chloe, but we can do this. Me and you. We are going to win. I believe in you. I believe in us."

"You're just so brave. You really are awesome, you know that?"

"We both are. And right now, I want to see one of your awesomely pretty smiles. Don't make me tickle you, Price, 'cos I will." Max raised both of her hands in a mock tickling gesture.

Chloe's face lit up from within, grace and beauty replacing pain and grief. "You are such a dork, but that's why I love you."

"Yep. I'm your dork. Now come with me." Max stood up and led Chloe by the hand.

"Where are we going?"

"We totally mucked up most of our promise, didn't we? But there's still one part of it that we can keep. We're going to our bed. We're going to love each other. Any objections, Mrs Pricefield?"

"Nope. None at all, Mrs Pricefield. Not one. Lead the way my Angel."

The two girls ascended the tree together and entered their sanctuary, both of them shining brightly in the pure blue light of the full moon overhead. They did not see the doe and butterfly emerge from the trees, nor the cowled figure that appeared from the other side of the glade to meet them.