She felt a thump in her chest and at first she thought it was her heart, but her vision cleared up just soon enough for her to see it was a person who had run into her with their whole body, effectively tackling her. With no time to prepare herself and with her body refusing to respond to the signals her brain were sending out, she fell backward, completely limp, and landed on her back on something soft. A grunt sounded and she couldn't tell if it was her own or the person who was now lying on top her.
Her whole body tensed and it felt like a momentary seizure when she was unable to move her arms, only to realize they were restrained. She closed her eyes shut so hard she could and gasped.
"Fuck" the person on top of her mumbled, and with the voice that she heard, her vision could connect the dots and formed a clearer picture when she opened her eyes again.
The edges of every shape were still blurred, but the colors were so distinct and had an odd shine to them as if they were reflecting beams of the sun. The brightest color of them all being the blue hair on Chloe's head, her face falling from frantic into confusion.
Even though she had forgotten nothing, everything felt as if it came back to her and it made her see the familiar roof above her, made her conscious of the bed she had been thrown on and made her feel Chloe's grip around Max's wrists. It made her realize that just before she traveled through the photo, Chloe had run towards her in a desperate attempt to stop her.
But she still couldn't hear anything.
And it took another second to realize as to why.
It was because no one said anything.
The pressure on her waist became stronger, but the grip on her wrists looser. The eyes looking down on her seemed to struggle to find their place, gradually replacing black with blue and Chloe finally allowed herself to breathe if not only to cover the sound of her heartbeat. Her hair was falling down next to her face and she curled her lips and moistened them prudently with her tongue. Extending one finger on her hand, she cautiously stroked the side of Max's hand and then bit the inside of her lower lip.
"Chloe, don't..." Max whispered out with a hoarse voice, knowing what was on Chloe's mind even with her own being impaired.
Chloe seemed to react, but furthermore, the words made it look like something clicked inside of her and she suddenly tightened the grip around the wrists again, even harder than before.
"You fucking did it" It was clear how she tried to remain calm, but the exasperated breath she used in which to speak gave away the anger.
"I can see it on your face" And that anger came from the absolute disappointment of Max having gone against Chloe's wishes of not returning to the past.
She quickly turned her head towards one particular spot in the room, to see the young man standing at the exact same spot and with a giant question mark just hovering above his head.
"But if you called Ethan, why is Ted still here?" Her frenetic gaze was quickly aimed back at Max.
"What the fuck did you do?!"
Max processed all the movements and sounds, but it didn't register correctly with her. She failed to care, failed to feel anything but loss. And because of that, she didn't respond. For that reason, she didn't acknowledge her own existence.
"Is she all right?" The feeble voice of Ted came with a question and a linger.
Chloe looked at Max for another second but only saw the eyes looking through her.
"She is overwhelmed, but I don't know" She shook her head, wanting to sound concerned, but realized it would have no impact. But she was perturbed.
"Thankfully she didn't call Ethan's daughter it seems," she said before breathing in, loosening her grip and got off her friend. She slowly got on her feet next to the bed and did one last attempt to get any sort of confirmation.
"Right?" She craned her neck, directing the question at Max but saw that she didn't move a single muscle.
"No, she didn't" And the voice of Ethan that was finally recognizable with its disdain coming from the phone that had been tossed on the ground.
"But she's going to go back again, and do it properly this time" It was clear to tell he was incensed and in want of nothing that sounded as a compromise.
However, Chloe completely ignored him and turned her whole body around to face Max again, letting her concern finally show by bending over her and laying a hand on her shoulder to get her to respond, but Max was just a daze, an existence that took a breath without purpose, so mentally torn to shreds that nothing felt real.
"Ethan, I think you're going too far..." With uncertainty, Ted took a few steps closer to stand in the center of the room, his voice changing when directed at the man on the phone.
"Max looks really traumatized" He spoke as if there was any kind of hope that he would be able to convince Ethan to somehow change his mind.
And unsurprisingly, Ethan didn't show any hint of compassion but only because she was listening, Max heard something she mistook for courtesy. "It will all work out for everyone, trust me".
As soon as Ethan spoke out these fraudulent words, Max shivered a little before burping in her throat, feeling immensely sicker than she remembered. It didn't cause Chloe to stop her attempt at grabbing her attention, however, but Max, being overwhelmed by the feeling of being back in her present body, didn't even blink. It was too much at once, and her brain couldn't process everything, therefore, she just shut down. She was still present, still conscious of her existence, but unable to perceive anything psychical with the image of the younger Chloe still burnt into the back of her eyes.
"Hey, eh, Chloe?" Ted's voice sounded extraordinarily timid even for his standards as he leaned closer but stood his ground, still a good seven feet away from Chloe and Max.
"I still don't believe in the whole time-travel thing, but Max obviously did something since she seems so... I don't know" He tried to hide his glance at Max by hovering a hand in front of his face.
"Do you think she'll be able to try it again? Whatever it is" His teeth were screwed together, his jaw barely moving as if he anticipated a scolding for even making the suggestion.
"No, Ted. She shouldn't have done it, and she certainly won't do it again. It could kill her" Chloe wanted to turn her head to look at him, to grant him some sort of respect but kept her attention at Max.
"So please, stop siding with Ethan. It's enough knowing that Tiffany is already involved with him"
She felt burnt down, well-knowing that she wasn't able to yell anymore and not wanting to either. The initial shock had passed, and enough time had passed for her body to realize it shouldn't use its last shred of energy on stimulating fear.
"What? Tiffany has... nothing to do with Ethan" He moved his hand a little further to pinch his earlobe, his voice hinting at the offense he mistakenly received.
"For fuck's sake, there was a picture of Ethan's daughter in her purse" Chloe swayed her head to either side while slowly pulling Max's arms out the sleeves of the hoodie after she had noticed the drops of sweat on her forehead.
"Either you're really fucking stupid, or you're trying to protect her" With no sting in her voice, the words did a great job at making Ted feel belittled as Chloe eventually got Max out of her hoodie.
"Or Ethan" She didn't know why she said it. She didn't really suspect Ted of working with Ethan, but then again... Max probably didn't expect Chloe to have been working with him.
"Yeah, I'm trying to protect the psycho that's holding me hostage and slowly killing my friend" But Ted still took it in and made a snarky remark in response, but it was the last word that caught Chloe's attention and made her turn her head.
"Max is not your goddamned friend, and if you're innocent, then Tiffany isn't your friend either" She insinuated her certainty, letting Ted know where they were at and attempting to end such a needless argument but with the phrasing, she knew she had just made it worse.
"God, shut up. Tiffany has nothing to do with this! She would never do anything to harm us" But at this point, it didn't sound like certainty from Ted's side. It sounded a lot more like denial.
"Yeah, well, you're biased, so your words mean nothing" Keeping herself from being sucked into a state where she would be sure to yell, Chloe instead turned her head towards the phone on the floor.
"Ethan" She sighed.
"Why was the photo of your daughter in Tiffany's purse? Is she like... your fucking sidekick?" She didn't care too much if it came across as if she asked 'dad' to settle the argument, as she mostly did it out of curiosity.
"I've helped a lot of people," Ethan said after taking a breath, sounding surprisingly composed despite that he had waited to speak up until he was spoken to. Most likely because he still got a jolly from analyzing their behavior, Chloe thought.
"Even though it's detrimental, sometimes being dragged up from a hole makes you feel like you're in debt to the one that helped you" How, and why Ethan changed his tone so drastically as he so often did was anybody's guess.
"They often want to return to favor" Probably some other mental 'association' technique.
"But that's trivial. I've helped young adults, and I'm simply continuing to doing so"
In spite of his patience, he still sounded like a man who would rather avoid wasting any unnecessary time.
"Aha. Good fucking job then" Chloe scoffed, frustrated by the fact that he didn't actually answer the question but then again, she shouldn't have expected anything more than some vague implying answer.
"I'm not going to state as to why- forget it" It legitimately began sounding as if Ethan had reached a point in which he no longer wanted or could keep up the act.
"Max, if you're able to hear me, go back through the photo and call my daughter. If you refuse, I will not hesitate one fucking second to shoot Alfred in the back of his head" And it allowed his emotions to flow through his voice that was a mixture of frustration and desperation.
"The number is 208-887-0760, tell her that-" But even so, it didn't deter Max from not only speaking up but actually interrupting.
"I can't" Her frail voice instantly caught the attention of both Chloe and Ted, but with Chloe most clearly expressing her relief that she spoke, however weak it was, and also to see that she had actually moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
"I was only in the past for a second before I was forced back" But it wasn't the energy she had found that made her able to speak, and even lie in the process, but rather, it was an involuntary action. She seemed so detached from herself, felt it too, and she only spoke because her thoughts had finished.
"My powers has a correlation to my energy and... I'm weak, alright? My powers aren't worth shit right now" She pushed herself off from the bed, Chloe waiting for her to wobble or even fall but she stayed relatively stable as she began walking across the room.
The only thing Max could somewhat comprehend about herself was how fake she felt and how easy it was to be so.
"But I know that the main reason you want me to save your daughter is to twist my morale or whatever, so that I will sacrifice Chloe and save Arcadia Bay" Every word was manual, planted in her thoughts minutes ago and now passing along her tongue. She could tell how she was so messed up, being able to know that any functioning human would be frightened, tired, traumatized, and stressed. And she was. But it had all hit her at once and it proceeded to benumb her. Like being in so much pain and passing out because of it. Only the mental version.
"That way, your daughter will survive, your grandfather will survive, and hundreds of innocent people will survive" But she couldn't hide the dark bag under her eyes and her messy hair.
"I get it" She did her best to convey any sort of emotion her voice, to make it sound convincing.
"And because of that, I have another plan" When in reality, she was lying with a still heartbeat.
No longer fearing the thought of going insane.
Why would she?
"I'm not going to compromise, Max. If something doesn't go my way, I'll simply reverse time until it does. Until you do as you're told. You have no ground to make demands" Despite her efforts, Ethan clearly unveiled his suspicion and as always, wouldn't have anyone other than himself making the plans.
"I have, though" As she took one final step, she found herself in front of the table close to the window that no longer brought in any light. She remembered Chloe placing the black scarf on the table. The scarf that had through silent words and lengthy touches been given to Max from Chloe. It was now her black scarf.
But it still smelled of smoke and a distinct perfume. It smelled like Chloe as far as she could remember.
"You're currently threatening Chloe's grandfather who've I've barely spoken to" She dug her hand under the scarf and let the fabric slowly slide across the palm of her hand.
"If I refuse, an old man dies a little early, big whoop" As expected, this statement caused a silent but serious reaction from Chloe as her whole body growled, but she was luckily astute enough to stay quiet as she knew Max well enough to know that she had a reason for saying something like that. Or so she hoped.
"So in that sense, I have more ground than you, because other than Alfred, your daughter will also die" She spoke with brief pauses.
"Your daughter's life is in my hands" If said with any other voice, it would have sounded cold and ruthless, but the tone in which came from Max's lips, it sounded more... empty. As if she was only speaking to herself.
"If that's how you wanna play it..." After his words, the sound of a gun being cocked was heard and Chloe nearly jumped up and sent Max a pressing look.
"I will save her, though" Max quickly let out but without changing her idle voice.
"Just give me a minute to talk to Chloe in private" From an outside perspective, it may have looked as if Max had the situation under control and was calm and logical while, in all honesty, she was confused and all over the place. It was simply one side of her brain that handled communication while the other was barely active. She was hardly conscious of what she even was doing or what to do next. It just came automatically and she didn't even care if it would continue to do so.
"I'm not giving you the chance to play me again" And for the first time, Ethan couldn't analyze her behavior and motives either, making him go on the defensive and not take any chances.
Max blinked in what she believed to be the first time since she got off the bed, and it burned. "Then shoot Alfred. I'm going to talk with Chloe" The only reason she didn't give in, fell down and stayed there, was because the thought of giving in didn't even register, as did nothing else. So she kept going without fear. Without hope.
And even though Max didn't turn her head, Chloe didn't need the prompt to walk over to her with a provocative body language and eyes ready to pierce.
"You can't just use my grandfather like that!" Chloe stated aggressively under her breath while pushing her lightly on the shoulder to make her face her.
"Chloe, I-" Even looking at her friend didn't replace the vacant stare Max retained, and frustrated with her questionable course of action, Chloe quickly interrupted her.
"I really fucking hope you have a plan!" She leaned in provocatively, still finding it impossible to grab her attention, and furthermore, it seemed that interrupting Max had made something in her brain malfunction as she stayed silent for a couple of seconds with a blank stare as if she was resetting.
"Ethan shot you at the mall" Was the entirely new statement that eventually came out of her mouth and it pulled Chloe into a dismissive pose, annoyed that Max seemingly ignored everything around her.
"Yeah, that was a great time, so what?" She did her best to cut out the pauses a normal conversation would have and speak quickly in the hopes of eventually getting something from Max that replicated coherent information.
"Why would he do that, if he knew I was going to reverse time?"
Just as well, Chloe had given up trying to catch Max's line of sight as she was pretty sure not even an earthquake would make her blink. "I don't fucking know" She sighed resignedly.
"He wanted to see our reactions..." Her lips barely moved either as she answered her own question, making Chloe register that it wasn't actually a conversation they were having.
"Oh, you're not actually asking me, you're fucking- fucking talking to yourself" Might as well, Chloe leaned against the table to her right and began caressing the scarf Max was touching earlier.
"He wanted us to believe he knew when I reversed time" Max spoke quietly.
"He has a notepad" And every sentence had no connection to the previous, and it unsettled Chloe to such an extent she felt her heart turn in her chest.
"Come on, Max. I don't know what to do here. What happened in the past? How do you want me to... to approach you? Approach the situation?" She pinched the edge of the scarf while biting, no longer having the perseverance to look at her emotionless friend. She simply begged it was only temporary.
"In about thirty seconds, I want you to turn around, and say this..." But even so, this caught Chloe's attention.
At the other end of the room, Ted was standing close to a wall but felt too uncomfortable to lean on it. He had begun fiddling with his long orange hair, finding nothing better to do after Max and Chloe had excluded him from their conversation. He did feel bitter about it, but it was hard to focus on being mad when the fear of being killed by a crazy man was so much more in your face. He tried to reminisce about the conversation he, Max, and Tiffany had in the car the other day. At the time, he was glad he managed to distract Max enough for her to calm down, by talking about why he called Tiffany "Jo". While the explanation was incredibly simple– it was the first two letters of her surname- he had made up an elaborate story only to get Max thinking about other things, to calm her down. He felt glad that he did so. He felt like a good friend. And of course, were he to be honest with himself, some part of him had taken a liking to Max in a more romantic fashion when she got to talk to her without neither of them being scared out of their skin. The feelings were luckily not strong enough to break his heart when he learned that Chloe and Max were dating, and neither had he no intention of trying to woo Max, even though it seemed the girls' relationship was ailing, to put it mildly. For all he knew, Max wasn't into guys anyway and he was happy just being friends. Which is why it kind of sucked he wasn't allowed to help since Chloe seemed so protective of her, despite Max telling her she didn't love her.
He didn't want to meddle, and it was true, Chloe probably knew how to handle the situation way better than he himself ever could but it just sucked to stand idly by as some bystander who just watched a horrible accident. And what truly sucked was the circumstances of how he had come to known Chloe and Max.
Suddenly, after some seconds of whispers and odd moments of silence, Chloe turned around with a nervous look that she probably felt glad Ethan couldn't physically see when she spoke.
"Alright, listen, Ethan. Max do have a plan that will save your daughter and Arcadia bay. But before we tell you anything, I need you to promise me you won't shoot Alfred a second time" She said as confident as she could and went over the exact phrasing in her head one more time to make sure she said it as she was instructed to do so.
And it seemed to have some sort of effect as Ethan used enough time to answer that it became notable.
"I will not cause any harm to Alfred or anyone else, as long as you cooperate" He eventually answered after the pause but with a hint of suspicion that peeked Chloe's curiosity as well.
"Why did I have to say that?" Chloe whispered after turning to face Max while lowering her body slightly, suddenly feeling a sense of urgency in her body.
A feeling that only expanded when Max blinked again, her eyes focused on one spot on the ground as if she was evaluating something.
"To set the plan in motion" She whispered back, her lips barely moving.
Another wave washed over her, this time filled with apprehension.
"What do you mean?" The question became stern, and when she heard her own ragged breath she became just frightened enough to lift a hand and take a gentle hold on Max's left arm while trying to catch her attention one more time.
"Can you just listen to me, please?" She spoke softly, letting the girl know how much she needed to feel acknowledged and her heart skipped a beat when Max looked back at her, her eyes vehement and assured.
"I don't believe Ethan has the power to rewind time"
Chloe's heart made a single hard thumb, pumping a new dose of blood through her veins as her eyes flickered from side to side, watching every curve of her friend's face when she stated the one thing, which could change everything.
"Henever did"