Life is Stranger

Dust Struggling Against Cosmic Winds

"I can't...can't cope with this. I need her. I need Max. I want her here with me."

"Yes Chloe, I know you do. But is that really for the best? Would Max even want to be here at this moment? Is it fair for you to ask Max to make this decision? She's much better off not knowing, Chloe. Isn't she? This would hurt her unnecessarily, and I know you don't want that. Preserve Max's ignorance of this, at least for the time being. This is a decision that you must make. You and you alone."

"Me? Why? Why me?"

"Because you are Max's angel, as she is yours. You are her guardian angel. Her protector. Her saviour. You are her everything, Chloe. You know this by now."

"But...but I...I can't. I can't make this choice."

"If not you, then who? Max? Who else is there to make it, Chloe?"

"Vanessa. She can. I can go back and...convince her somehow, tell her about this, about you, about the crash, tell her what's going to happen. Then she can choose. It's her life. Who am I to decide whether she lives or dies? I don't have the right to do that. I'm just a fucked-up dyke who's trying to make sense of all this shit. I've had so much crap thrown at me in no time at all. All of this came out of fucking nowhere – Max and me, the butterfly shit, this fucking douchebag of a thing that's coming to kill us. My head's a total fucking mess! And you're telling me that now I have to decide this? Give me a fucking break! Have you got any fucking idea what I've been though recently?"

"Yes, Chloe. I have. I know everything. I am truly sorry for what both you and Max have had to endure. And your father. The suffering this has caused to everyone. But there would be even more suffering in the future if these things hadn't come to pass. This way, the suffering will end. If there was another way I would have taken that path. But alas there is not. Things had to happen this way. Have to happen this way. Nothing comes without a cost, Chloe. Nothing. A price has to be paid."

"Not 'a price'. A Price. My dad. He gave up his life to save us, and now Max's mom has to as well? How many of us have to die? This isn't fair. Max doesn't deserve to go through the hell that I did. She's never hurt anyone. Ever. She's the sweetest, kindest, most caring and loving person I've ever known. This never ends, does it? Death after death after death. A never-ending cycle of death and destruction. I'm fucking sick of it!"

"It will end, Chloe, I promise you. You will end it. Once and for all. You will restore the balance."

"'The balance'? The balance of what?"

"Everything."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"All in good time, Chloe. For now you need to focus on the here and now. You have to choose."

"No I don't. Like I said, Vanessa can."

"Vanessa has already made her choice, Chloe. She made it long ago. Vanessa made the same choice that your father made – to sacrifice themselves for their child. To exchange their lives for the lives of those they love. That was their choice, Chloe. Not yours. You should not blame yourself. Vanessa wants you to allow her to die. She knows what will happen if you do not. She thought you would try and save her, so she told you to save Max instead. She told you this would happen, Chloe. Vanessa warned you. She tried to help you. Can't you remember?"

"What? Are you fucking high or someth..."

The blue-haired girl's tongue suddenly froze inside her mouth as her eyes slowly widened.

"Do you remember now?"

Silence. Then in a voice barely more than a whisper. "I remember." Chloe paused as yet more memories came flooding back. "I remember everything. She came to Blackwell. To see me. The day before Rachel...she told me. She told me that Rachel would break my heart. Oh my god, Vanessa. I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry for everything." Chloe rose from the chair and brushed Vanessa's hair away from her forehead before kissing it tenderly. "Please forgive me. I didn't know. I'm sorry." Chloe's glistening tears fell onto the sleeping face of the older woman. Chloe cradled Vanessa's face with her hands and kissed her once more in the centre of her forehead before turning her head to face Kate once more.

"It's inside her, isn't it? That thing. It's living inside of her, making her do things that she doesn't want to do? Making her hurt Max?"

"Yes Chloe. I'm afraid that it is. And it has been for a long, long time. She has tried to stop it, to fight it, to resist, to keep it out, but it was simply too strong for her. Yet she never gave up. And she still hasn't. She's still fighting it right now, Chloe, even as we speak. She knows that she cannot beat it, but she is still fighting it to help Max. And to help you, Chloe. She's bought you some time, and it has cost her everything. Her life has been a living hell for years, but she never gave up. She endured all of that agony, torment and torture...for you, Chloe. Vanessa believes in you, Chloe. She's putting all her faith and trust in you. Vanessa is a truly remarkable and amazing woman. Few would have lasted as long as she has. But she cannot go on forever. The last vestiges of her strength and resilience are waning rapidly. She is nearly spent. Her time draws to an end. She is very close now."

"Can't you help her? I mean, you did...this..." Chloe waved her arm towards the door, "so can't you do something? You have to be some sort of...I dunno...god...goddess or something? Can't you do anything? Can't you at least wake her up? Let me talk to Vanessa. I want to tell her I'm sorry."

"No Chloe, I cannot. But she can hear you, Chloe. She knows that you are here. I am not able to wake her up, but you are."

"Me? How?"

"You already have."

Chloe turned her attention back to the woman lying in the bed. Vanessa's eyes were now wide open. Two steel-grey irises focused intently upon the blue-haired girl. Vanessa spoke with a voice that was subdued but seemed to fill the entire room with its icy-cold, inhuman, bone-chilling timbre.

"Do not position yourself between me and my purpose. You cannot prevail. I do not fail. I shall end you. I shall end you and the doe. Your light cannot withstand the darkness. You are merely dust struggling against cosmic winds. No mere mortal can hinder me."

"Really, cunt? My dad did, didn't he, hm? Vanessa has fought against you for years. So has Max. They all fought you. And so did I. You tried to kill my Max, and I fucking stopped you. I saved her. You aren't the great all-fucking-mighty that you think you are. Just you fucking watch me, douchebag! I'll do it for my dad. For Max. For what you've done to Vanessa. For what you've done to all of us. I will end you."

"Your struggle is futile. It would be less arduous for you if you ceded to me and succumbed. You are only delaying the inevitable. Give yourself to me. Let me extinguish you. Now. It will be instantaneous and without any pain or suffering."

"Fuck you! You've tortured her for years and now you've gone and crashed that goddamn truck into her car, scumbag, but I'm fucked if I'm going to just do nothing and let you hurt her any fucking more. Leave her the fuck alone."

"I did not bring about the chain of events that caused this woman to be placed here. Those were the actions of another."

"Bullshit! If it wasn't you, asshole, then who the fuck was it?"

"The entity that was present but is now absent."

Chloe turned her head and stared at the now empty space where Kate had been standing mere moments before.