A/N: Hey everyone, apologies for the late update (later than usual anyway). Been through some pretty major life changes which have been a bit stressful but mostly positive. I'm not going to bother making promises of getting back to regular updates because I think we all know I'll have another excuse down the line ;) Suffice to say, this story will continue until it is done.

Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks for sticking with me and I'll hand you back over to Max.

"Max? Max?"

I slowly opened my eyes. I blinked several times as my vision became clearer. I was in the photography classroom. As I looked up I saw someone stood in front of me with their arms crossed.

"Were you sleeping in my classes again?"

I looked up at Jefferson's face and sank in my seat.

"You know I hate when students don't pay attention," he scowled.

I tried get out of my seat, but I felt the familiar grip of duck tape on my wrists and ankles. As I struggled, Jefferson put his hand on the back of my head. I yelped in pain as he grabbed my hair.

"Class isn't over yet, Max. You can go when I say you can." Jefferson let go of my hair and walked over to the windows. "We can't have anyone else seeing what's about to happen, can we?" He looked over his shoulder at me. "It's our secret," he said with a sickening smile.

He pulled the string and the blinds fell down. Just as the room was about to plunge into darkness, several red lights lit up on the ceiling. I saw Jefferson grab a syringe from the table and move towards me.

"No!" I screamed.

"If I had any more duct tape I promise you wouldn't be making so much noise," he said as he flicked the syringe. "But this should do the trick just fine." He grabbed my head and forced it to the side, exposing my neck. I whimpered as he moved the syringe towards me. Suddenly, there was a noise out in the hall. Jefferson stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"No-one should be here. This our secret, Max." Jefferson slammed the syringe on the table and moved towards the door.

"Who's there?"

He stepped into the corridor. I heard his footsteps moving away from the room. I struggled again with duct tape on my wrists and ankles.

BANG!

I heard a gunshot from the corridor, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. I stopped struggling and froze in my seat. I heard a gun hit the floor next. Then I heard more footsteps approaching the classroom. I stared at the doorway in fear, then a figure appeared.

"I wouldn't go out there. Real R-rated situation."

I sat stunned, refusing to believe I'd heard that voice.

"Hey, hippie," she said.

"Chloe?"

"Alive and well," she said. "I guess actually dead and well."

She flicked the light switch on the wall. The red lights were replaced with normal ones, allowing me to see her. Her blue hair, beanie, jacket, shirt and ripped were jeans were exactly as they had always looked. Then I noticed the blood on her shirt, eminating from where Nathan shot her. She noticed me looking.

"This was all kinda last minute, otherwise I would have changed." She walked into the room and looked around.

"Wow, you really are a broken record with this."

"Get this stuff off me," I said. "We have to get out of here!"

"No, Max I think I'll just leave you stuck," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. "Hang on," she said as she approached me. She ripped the duct tape off my wrists and ankles. As soon as I got to my feet I put my hand on Chloe's shoulders.

"I can't believe you're here," I said.

"I'm as surprised as you," she said. I pulled her in and gave her the biggest hug.

"I've missed you so much," I said.

"Sure you have, Max," she said. I let go of her.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"I…We need to get out of here. Come on!" I grabbed Chloe's hand and pulled her with me towards the classroom door. As we got there, the door slammed shut. I jumped back before letting go of Chloe. I grabbed the handle and tried to open the door.

"Why don't you give Warren a call? Pretty sure he could help you," said Chloe as she folded her arms. I let go of the handle.

"Or you could pick the lock," I said.

Chloe chuckled. "Funny, we spent one night trying to break into Blackhell. Now we're trying to break out of it. Luckily for you, I have a few skills I've picked up."

"Really?"

"Of course," Chloe said with a smile. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. In an instant I found myself stood in the middle of a spotlight in an otherwise dark endless space. Alone. I looked around frantically.

"Chloe?"

No response. I started running. The spotlight stayed on me as I ran endlessly.

"Chloe!" I called again.

Eventually I was out of breath and doubled over. I looked around again. I tried to find any-

"Hey!" Chloe said suddenly.

I screamed as she gave me a shove from behind.

"Jesus," I said as I caught my breath.

"Nope, just me," said Chloe.

"Why the hell did you bring me here?"

"So no-one will bother us." Chloe folded her arms. "I once said that even if we ended up a world apart, you could talk to me about anything. You don't get much more apart than one of us being dead. And boy do we need to talk, Max."

"About what?"

Chloe face palmed. "I don't know if you've noticed, but something weird's going on."

"No shit," I said.

"Hey, don't be pissed at me. So what do you think is going on?"

"I don't know, I haven't had time to think."

"Well lucky you," said Chloe as she spread her arms and span around. "We're in an endless void where you have all the time in the world. Without rewinding, I mean. So come on, what's the last thing you remember?"

Joyce. David. The photo. I came back and-

I looked at Chloe. She raised her eyebrows, seeing I had pieced things together.

"That's right, Max. I hate to the one to tell you, but…

…you're dead."

My mouth fell open.

"Welcome to hell," said Chloe.

"No. No, I- I can't…" I saw the smirk spreading on Chloe's face. "You asshole!" I yelled as Chloe burst out laughing.

"Your face, dude!" She said through her laughter. "Priceless. Kinda like how you're life's been since I-"

"Just stop with the jokes! If this is all just some stupid nightmare then I'm going to wake up." I pinched my arm violently.

"Not that easy, dude" said Chloe. "You're stuck here until you're ready to go."

"I am ready. I want to go now!"

"No you're not. You'll know when you are. So let's talk. What's been going on with you recently?"

"You already know," I said. Chloe went to sit down and a chair materialised. As she sat down on it she crossed her legs.

"I know what's been going on between…" Chloe reached out of the spotlight into the darkness. Her hand came back holding my journal. Before she could start to thumb through it I reached towards her.

"Hey," I said.

"What? You have been writing to me, Max. I've seen most of this shit already."

"I guess I didn't…"

"...Think I could see it? Dude, I'm always watching you. Except when you're in the bathroom or doing other...private stuff, 'cos that'd be weird. Sit your ass down by the way."

I looked behind me and saw a chair had appeared. I sighed and went to sit down. Then Chloe snapped her fingers and the chair disappeared, leaving me flat on my ass. Chloe laughed as I got to my feet.

"Real funny," I said.

"Oh lighten up. Which one of us is dead here again?"

"You're not even Chloe, she wouldn't do this."

Chloe chuckled. "Did you forget I gave you a jump scare hours after you saw your friend jump off a building? This is nothing, but okay."Chloe snapped her fingers and the chair reappeared behind me. "No more jokes, promise," she said. I looked at her to try and find any signs she wasn't being serious. I couldn't, so I tentatively sat down in the chair. I don't know what it was made of but I instantly felt relaxed. Chloe finished looking through my diary and had pinched a clump of pages between her thumb and finger.

"So as I was saying, the first time I heard from you was October 25th…" she flipped over the to the last page. "…and the last was November 22nd. Before and after that I'm all blank. So what's been going on?"

"You seriously couldn't see what I was writing because it wasn't addressed to you?" I said sceptically. Chloe put her hand up with an open palm.

"Hey, I don't make the rules, dude. So what happened?"

"I don't…I don't want to talk about," I said. Chloe rolled her eyes and flicked to a specific page. "Really," she said, because on Tuesday, November 5th 2013 you said, and I quote: Sorry for whining so much, Chloe. But you're literally the only person I can talk to about all this. And it's not like you can even respond. Chloe looked up at me. "I'm right here. And I'm currently responsive as fuck. So talk. Start from the beginning."

"Okay…I started to write to you instead because-"

"No. I mean the beginning," she said.

I looked at her in confusion. Then I understood what she meant.

"You're written it down on paper. Just say it out loud, dude," she said. I nodded. I clasped my hands and looked down at my feet.

"I was sitting in class. Then all of a sudden I slipped into some sort of dream. I was making my way up the trail to the lighthouse in the middle of a storm. When I got to the top I saw a huge tornado heading towards the town. Then when I woke up I was in class being taught by…" I winced a little. "Mark Jefferson." I looked up at Chloe to see her nodding.

"Keep going," she said gently.

"Then," I said. "When I left class and went to the bathroom I saw-" There was a catch in my throat as I struggled to finish the sentence. Chloe just smiled encouragingly at me. "I saw you get shot by Nathan Prescott." Chloe lifted up the bottom of her blood stained shirt to show the bullet wound in her stomach.

"Was wondering where this came from," she said with a smirk. She saw my expression and lowered her shirt. "Sorry, I know I promised you no more jokes but I can't help myself. Keep going."

"And then I felt everything swirl around me and suddenly I was back in the classroom reliving everything over again. This time I made sure I saved you." I smiled at Chloe. "We met up and…we spent the week together. The best and worst week of my life."

"And how did that week end?"

I just looked down at the floor again. "You know how it ended, Chloe."

"No shit," she said. "But I want to hear you say it." I sat in silence for a while. "Why is it so hard to say, Max? You've written it down plenty of times," she said tapping on the diary.

"Because every time I talk about it…it just hurts. I've tried talking about it all and I've gotten nowhere."

Chloe smirked as she looked down.

"What?" I said.

"We'll come back to it," she said. "For now just keep going. What happened at the end of that week?" I went silent for a moment. This time I forced myself to say it.

"I let you die," I said. "I hid behind that bathroom stall and let you get shot so the tornado would never happen. Then the next thing I knew I was-" I sobbed and wiped my eyes with my hand. "I was at your f-funeral. And that's it. Th-that's everything."

"Well, not quite," said Chloe.

"What do you mean?" I said as I wiped my eyes again.

"Oh come on, man. This isn't a video game. The credits don't just roll and say thanks for playing. Life goes on. Well, mine didn't," she said with a small smile. "Look these jokes are gonna happen, so just get used to them." I smiled weakly.

"So what happened after that?" Chloe said. I shook my head. "Alright, alright," she said. "We'll take a break. You hungry?"

I suddenly felt my stomach rumble.

"I guess…"

"Great!" Chloe snapped her fingers and suddenly we were in the Two Whales Diner. I looked around frantically and saw we were sat in the same booth from 'that week.'

"It's cool, relax," said Chloe. "Neat trick I learned. Helps pass the time in the eternity of nothingness I now exist in." She looked at me. "Not to make you feel guilty or anything." I avoided her gaze and looked down at the table to see a Belgian waffle in front of me. Chloe picked up her knife and fork and starting eating her fried breakfast.

"Jeez, even here I can only get one damn slice of bacon," she said. "Come on, dig in," said Chloe as she shoved food into her mouth. I looked down at my waffle.

"I've lost my appetite," I said as I slumped back in the booth.

"My mom's not gonna show up, if that's what your worried about." I looked at Chloe. "I mean that would be awkward. Seeing the daughter she stopped loving and the daughter she started loving," she said as she shovelled more food down.

"What? No, Chloe. She loved you. She was so proud of you. She told me herself."

"Proud of a weed smoking, law breaking high school dropout? Yeah, sure," she said.

"She was, Chloe. I guess if there was anything she was disappointed in, it's that you never saw what you were capable of. What you could have been if you hadn't…"

"Pissed it all away?" Chloe said with a smirk. I smiled slightly.

"Maybe," I said.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Could have been a straight A student. Could have gone to any college. But then my dad would have gotten me a car for my sweet sixteen and I would have ended up paralysed. I always said the universe was always giving me a 'fuck you' and it looks like I was right," she said. I just sat and looked out of the window, only to see the rest of the dark void.

"So how about the other thing?" Chloe said suddenly. I turned to looked at her. "With my mom," she said. "How do you feel about what she did?"

I smiled weakly. "You starting up the session again, Doctor Price?"

"We've got a lot to cover," Chloe said as she shoved her now empty plate to the side. "You sure you don't want that?" She said eyeing my waffle. I smiled.

"It's yours if you-" Chloe grabbed it with her bare hand and took a huge bite out of it.

"Hungry?" I said.

"Like the wolf," said Chloe swallowing her mouthful. "Anyway, you're distracting me."

"I think you're distracting yourself."

"So how do you feel about what my mom did?" I went quiet, wishing Chloe had stayed distracted. "What did she do, first of all?" said Chloe as she took another bite of the waffle.

"She made my parents leave me with her for Thanksgiving. I didn't get a say."

"And hof doff va-" Chloe swallowed her mouthful. "How does that make you feel?"

"Betrayed. Angry."

"Now you know how I felt when you left."

I looked up at Chloe as she sighed and showed me her palms.

"Just sayin'" she said before putting her hands down. "So you weren't happy with what my mom did to you?"

I shook my head. "No. She lied to me. She made my parents lie to me."

Chloe nodded. "I get it, Max. I do. I mean it's not like you would ever do that. Make my mom keep secrets from your parents…" She looked at me. I wanted to look away but I knew there was no point. "Everybody lies, no exceptions."

"That was different. I was going to tell my parents what was going on. When I was better."

"And when will that be?"

I sat in silence.

"I don't know."

"Of course you don't. Because you'll never get better if you keep repeating the same mistakes. You might not even get the chance to try if you don't wake up."

"I will," I said.

"And if you do, then what? What's the plan Super Max?"

"I…I…"

Chloe stared at me expecting some great answer. I just got up and stormed over to the exit. I heard Chloe chuckle as I tried to force open the door. It was of course locked.

"If you want a change of scenery just come sit back down," she said. I stayed with my hand on the door. "Or just stare at your own reflection." I went back to the table and sat down opposite Chloe.

"Ready?" She said.

"Whatever," I replied. Chloe snapped her fingers and suddenly I was sat at my desk in my room. Everything was exactly as I had left it before staying with Joyce and David.

"This better?" I jumped a little and looked behind me to see Chloe sat on my bed. "Never did get to see your room," she said. "Not in the final time line anyway. It's a lot messier than I expected."

"What do you mean?"

Chloe picked up my guitar that was resting against my couch.

"Lotta junk lying around," she said as she tossed it to the side. The strings made a horrible twang as the guitar hit the ground.

"Hey, be careful!" I yelled.

"Oh, please. You never did finish writing that song. Plus this is nothing compared to what you did to it. Over and over again."

I got up and stormed past Chloe. I picked up my guitar and rested it against the couch again."I fixed it," I said.

"And remind me how you did that?" Chloe retorted. I just folded my arms and looked away. Then I heard a small crunching sound. I looked back and saw Chloe had a mischievous look on her face. I looked down and saw she had her boot on one of the many polaroids on the floor. She twisted her foot back and forth damaging the photograph.

"Hey, stop that!" I yelled again.

"Why? It's just junk. Why else would they be on the floor?" She said. She hopped off it and on another polaroid on the floor. She stepped across them like stones in a lake.

"Stop it! Those are important," I protested.

"They look important," Chloe said without bothering to hide her scepticism.

I growled and went for the door. I tried the door handle, but like every other damn door I had encountered, it was locked.

"I told you, we need to talk," said Chloe.

"I don't want to fucking talk!" I screamed as I banged the door.

I heard Chloe sigh. "Friday, November 22nd 2013, I am just so sick and tired of talking about what's going on with me…" I stopped banging on the door.

"Or rather not talking about it. Because I can't tell anyone the truth…"

I turned around and saw Chloe was reading from my journal again. She looked me right in the eye as she finished.

"Except you."

She snapped my journal shut. I gave a defeated sigh.

"Believe me, dude," she said. "You're looking at the queen of running away from her problems. Look where that got me."

I nodded. Chloe gestured to the bed.

"Lie down and get comfortable," she said. I slumped onto my bed as Chloe moved my chair so she was sat looking at me.

"Ready?" She said.

"I guess."

"Then let's pick up where we left off," she said. Suddenly the walls of my bedroom disappeared into the ground. All of my possessions except the bed I was lying on and the chair Chloe was sitting on quickly followed, leaving us both in the middle of another spotlight in the void.

"So when I died, what happened next?" Chloe asked.

I stared up into space for a while until I found how to word it.

"I was numb," I said. "I felt like I'd done everything wrong. I let you die to save everyone and all I could think about was bringing you back. I h-" I stopped as there was a catch in my throat. "I hated thinking like that. So I just locked myself away from everyone."

"Like I said before I have no idea what happened before you started writing to me. These should hopefully catch me up," she said. I looked over at Chloe and saw her pointing past the end of my bed. I looked forward and saw another spotlight. In the middle of it was a statue of me sat at my desk with my head in my hands. Something I had spent 90 percent of my time doing in the week following Chloe's funeral.

"You can go for a closer look if you want," Chloe said. I got up off my bed and approached the statue. As I got near it I heard myself talk inside my own head.

"What was the point? I went through a week of hell trying to save Chloe and for what? To lose her. After spending all that time reconnecting with her. Realising just how much she meant to me. Realising I...It doesn't matter now. I went through all that for nothing. Just to say goodbye to her for the second time in my life. This time forever."

As I watched and listened to my own memory coming back to me I was reminded of the nightmare I had before Chloe and I reached the lighthouse. When I walked through a week's worth of memories I had spent with her. Only for it to come to an end.

Chloe stood beside me. "Yeah, you were a mess," she said. "Not that I'm one to judge. You even gave poor Kate a hard time." Another spotlight appeared and saw myself aggressively talking to a timid Kate. I approached it and once again I heard voices.

"Then h- I- what is wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just told you I want to let hundreds of people die just to save someone I love. How can you be okay being friends with someone as selfish as me?"

Chloe turned to me again. "Pretty mean considering you failed to save her." I looked down at the floor as a sob escaped my mouth. "Next up…" she said. Another spotlight appeared. "The time you almost gave up." In the spotlight I was sat with Mom, Dad and Joyce in the Two Whales. I approached it.

"Listen, Max. Your father and I have been thinking."

"We'd like you to come back to Seattle for a while, until you feel you're ready to go back to Blackwell."

"We don't want you to be alone while you're dealing with everything. We want to be there for you. We contacted Principal Wells and he's heard from other students about how withdrawn you've been."

"I know"

"Then please come home with us," she said. "Until you feel ready."

"And let's not forget," said Chloe. "The other piece of drama the diner saw that day. Another spotlight appeared, I approached it again with Chloe by my side and saw I was storming out of the diner with Warren sat at the booth.

"Then maybe I don't even want you as a friend, Warren. I really thought you were better than this."

"Well, it looks like we're both wrong."

"Stop acting so immature."

"That's all I am though right? Just some stupid kid."

"I seriously need people around me right now. Do you know how hard this was for me to even talk to you about this?"

"Yeah, you have someone who's in love with you, that must be awful."

I spun round to face away from the statue. Chloe moved and stood in front of me.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I said.

"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, Max," she said. "Something Step-Douche seemed to take as a personal fucking mantra. Speaking of the literal devil…" Another spotlight and another statue. This time of David and I in the cemetery. I turned away from it. Chloe put her hand on my shoulder. "You'll want to get it over with, trust me. Still a long way to go," she said. I looked back at the statue as Chloe walked with me. As we reached it David's voice screamed out.

"Sorry doesn't matter now! It's too late. She's gone! Anything you wanted to say to her doesn't mean shit!"

"What about you? You could have stopped Nathan but you didn't. You could have stopped Chloe from being killed if you hadn't been getting dirt from him on other students."

"At least I was doing something! You just went about your days never even trying to find her, didn't you? You didn't care. You know one of the biggest rules in the military, you don't leave soldiers behind. You fight until your dying breath to save your comrades. What did you do? You just hid behind that stall like a fucking coward!"

Chloe put her arm around me.

"Hey, you gave back as good as you got. Hella proud of you. He was always yelling at me to stop blasting my 'punk shit.' He deserved a good smack down. Anyway, next is-"

"Just stop it!" I screamed.

"Stop what?"

"All of this! Stop doing this to me!"

"Newflash, this is your head, dude. You're doing it to yourself. If you're going to be a baby about it..." Chloe took a few steps back "...then let's rip the fucking bandaid off."

Chloe clapped her hands together. She disappeared before my eyes and found myself rooted to the spot. Paralysed. I tried to choke out Chloe's name but no air could escape my lungs. All of a sudden another spotlight appeared in front of me, with another statue. It glided towards me as I tried to fight the paralysis in my body. It showed me going after Logan.

"What did you say to Daniel?"

"What?"

"What did you say to Daniel online, about his drawing of me?"

"Jesus, calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down. What did you say?"

"It was just a dumb joke. Relax would ya."

"Did you know he took it down because of you?"

"Not my fault he can't take a joke."

"You're a joke. And a dick, Logan,"

"Not my fault no-"

"Shut up. Just shut up!"

The statue glided past me as another took its place. I saw myself yelling at Victoria.

"Shut up, Victoria!"

"There's a lot of things you don't have to do, Victoria. You don't have to step on people and bully them. You don't have to be so damn insecure that you feel the only way to get ahead is to make other people feel tiny. But you do it anyway, don't you?"

The statue moved past me. Another statue appeared and glided towards me: I was smashing my guitar on the wall. I heard my own screams along with the horrible sound of my guitar breaking apart. The statue sped away as another reached me. It was like a conveyor belt of torture. Every low moment I experienced was being paraded in front of me. Next I saw Dana and I in the bathroom the first day I went back to school.

"I took your stupid advice, that's what."

"I don't know why I listened to you."

"Looks like our trip was a waste of time too."

The next statue showed up. It was that awful memory of seeing Chloe die again. Nathan pressd the gun against Chloe's stomach as I stood frozen at the bathroom sink.

"You don't know who the fuck I am or who you're messing around with!"

"Where'd you get that? What are you doing? Come on, put that thing down!"

"Chloe, run!"

"Don't EVER tell me what to do. I'm so SICK of people trying to control me!"

"You are going to get in hella more trouble than this than drugs."

"Nobody would ever miss your 'punk ass' would they?"

"Chloe, get out now. Before he-"

"Get that gun away from me, psycho!"

BANG!

The next statue: me trying to make my way up the lighthouse trail after being caught in the invisible storm. I could practically feel the raging wind rain on my skin again as I stood and watched the statue, listening to the lightening strikes and noise.

The line of statues seemed endless, when one was finished and moved past me another appeared to take its place.

I saw myself covered in dirt and sitting on the ground at the lighthouse trail. I was on the phone to my mom.

"I-I…I fucked up."

"Oh, sweetheart. What do you mean?"

"I c-can't do this. I was so…s-so stupid to think I c-could."

"Max..."

"I went back into the b-bathroom where Chloe died and it was like it was ha-happening again. I just hid behind the stall again. And n-now, I don't think even think I can take ph-photos any m-more. All I can think about is what J-Jefferson did to those girls. I l-looked up to h-him but it was just a f-fucking lie. Just like how I th-thought I was someone special. I thought it m-meant I was s-strong. B-but I'm not."

"Yes you are, Max."

"I'm n-not. I'm… I'm n-nobody."

I saw myself yelling at Daniel.

"So you been working on your costume for the Halloween party tomorrow?"

"Oh, er…Not really. I've been busy."

"Is that true?"

"...No. I'm sorry, Max. I want to go, I just can't."

"Why not?"

"I'm just worried what people-"

"Oh, come on, Daniel!"

I saw myself sat in the cafeteria with Warren, Brooke and Kate.

"I think I'm going to try joining the study hall sessions in the photography classroom again."

"That's awesome, Kate."

"Yeah, good for you."

And then my voice destroyed the mood.

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"I- I just mean are you absolutely sure you think you're ready to go back in that room?"

"I think so."

"If you only think so then it might be best to hold off for a little longer. It's no fun getting ahead of yourself, trust me."

"No, of course. I don't want to set myself back even further. Maybe you're right."

I saw myself hunched over the toilet in the girls bathroom. The disgusting retching and heaving sounds rang on my ears.

I saw myself at the sink, with Victoria nearby.

"I can walk, Victoria. I'm not a baby,.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Isn't it?"

"You're not okay, Max. You don't need to pretend you are."

"No shit, Victoria. I just saw it all in front of me again."

I saw myself moments later walking away with Principal Wells.

"Jesus…Whatever. I'm going back to my room."

"I would suggest you see the school nurse first."

"I'm fine. I just need to get back to my room."

"I'll still be contacting Joyce Madsen and your parents-"

"I'm capable of telling them myself."

"Please don't raise your voice, Max. And no-on is saying you aren't capable. But you are still a student of this school and it is my responsibility to ensure your well being."

"Then you can start by ditching the fucking whiskey bottle in your office."

I saw myself holding the photo album Joyce had given to me. I was tearing out any photo that didn't feature Chloe and I. The sounds of my grunting and the sounds of the photos leaving the paper were amplified.

I saw myself cycling away from Stella.

"Have your foster parents done or said something to make you feel like you have to do well, whatever it takes?"

"Well, no. They've said they'll be proud-"

"Then what the fuck are you doing?"

"W-what?"

"You're dealing with people like Frank Bowers? Putting this shit in your system for literally no reason? Just talk! Talk to your damn foster parents and tell them how pressured you feel. Ever think of doing that?"

"I-I…it's not easy, Max."

"No shit. I know all about 'not easy.' Except I don't have a choice. You do. Fucking talk to someone, Stella."

I saw a tearful Joyce talking to me as David had his arm around her.

"Of course I'm angry! She lied to me. She made my parents lie to me. Do you have any idea how much I needed them right now? With all this shit I'm going through? But she was just using me to replace Chloe. Just like she used you to replace William!"

"Max! That is enough."

"I'm s-so sorry, M-Max. I do c-care-"

"Get away from me. Don't talk to me!"

Finally, I saw myself lying on the floor of Chloe's bedroom with my nose bleeding. I heard David's distant voice.

"-ax! Max!"

"Joyce…now…thing's…ppened!"

I heard the ringing in my ears again. It grew louder and louder as all the statues swirled around me, taunting me. My ears rang with the sounds of Jefferson, Nathan and Chloe. They overlapped until it ended with a huge-

BANG!

I broke free from my paralysis and collapsed to my knees. Tears streamed down my face as I cried. I covered my face and felt the heat of my tears on my hands. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Okay, we'll take a break," said Chloe. I just continued to sob into my hands. I felt her hands grip my arms.

"Max, just stand up for me. Okay?" I kept my face covered as I shakily got to my feet. As I did so I felt the ground morph beneath me into some kind fo slope. I removed my hands and wiped my eyes furiously as my sobbing began to stop and I regained control of my breathing. I opened my eyes and looked around. Chloe had her arm around me and we were stood on the trail to the lighthouse. There was a light breeze and the warmth of the sun hit my face when I turned towards it.

"This may be better for you. Or not. We'll see," she said.

"Just make this stop, Chloe."

"It'll stop when you want it to stop," she said.

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"You'll know before you wake up. Okay, so we've taken the tour through your worst moments in the past couple months. Now let's talk about the reason you're here in the first place." Chloe took out a photo album and shoved it towards me. I opened it up and saw it contained only the photos of Chloe and I from when we were kids. The ones I had used to jump back in time whenever I needed to feel better. I slammed the album shut and threw it to the ground.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said.

"If you say that one more time I swear to God, Caulfield... Do I have to remind you I'm the only one you can talk to? So come on, stop stalling and answer my question."

"Which is?"

"What the fuck have you been doing?"

The bluntness of the question stung. I stood motionless for a few seconds until I finally had an answer. I looked at Chloe.

"I didn't have a choice, Chloe," I said.

"Really? That's interesting," she said with a sly grin.

"Those photos. I can't do this without them." Chloe laughed. "What's so funny?" I said as cheeks began to flush red from anger.

"Have you heard those exact words somewhere before? Spoiler alert, you totally have." I thought but nothing came to me. Chloe sighed and snapped her fingers. The world didn't change this time but I heard a voice.

"I need these. I can't do this without them."

Stella?

"Yep, Stella," said Chloe. I whipped towards her in surprise. She gave me a slightly quizzical look. "Really, all the shit that's happened here and you're shocked I can hear your thoughts?" A small smile crept across my face as I looked away from her. "So you ripped Stella a new one because you thought she was avoiding a better way to deal with what was making her miserable."

"Do you think you're being subtle?" I said.

"No. Based on everything so far subtlety won't get us anywhere, Max. Besides, since when was subtlety my strong suit?" I smiled again. "But back to you," she said. "Remind me again why you've been relying on these photos when you could have done, oh I don't know, literally anything else?"

I could see there was no way for getting out of this conversation so I just stopped fighting.

"Because unlike Stella, I don't have a choice, Chloe," I reiterated.

"So you've said a thousand times."

"It's true," I said. "Stella can just talk to her to her foster parents. No, it's not easy, but she can do it. And Principal Wells…he doesn't have to drink. I know how hard it must be for him right now, but drinking is just a way for him to avoid his problems. Both he and Stella were using their problems as an excuse to-" I stopped speaking the second I could see how Chloe was going to use what I said against me. I looked at her and saw her smiling. Before she could say anything I launched into a defence. "But I don't have an alternative, Chloe. I have nothing else that can stop me from having a break down after a nightmare, or even when I just think of what Jefferson did to me."

Chloe looked at me for a minute.

"You're right," she said.

"...Really?"

"The photos were your last resort. You tried everything else."

I narrowed my eyes at Chloe, my suspicions were confirmed when she suddenly showed me a book. I looked at the title and saw exactly what I didn't want to see. Love after Loss - A Guide to Forgiving Oneself and Moving Forward.Chloe flicked through.

"I mean you read this cover to cover." She then went to page where I had left my bookmark. "Well, to page fifteen at least." She tossed the book forward off the cliff.

"And these," she produced the notes on relaxation techniques I had been given by Nurse Barenchi. "These didn't go straight into the trash, did they?" I looked away from Chloe. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chloe screw the relaxation notes into a ball and throw them off the cliff too.

"I don't want to get all cliché on you. Hell, I'm the broken girl who became a punk, that's cliche enough," she said as she put her arm around me. "When you were yelling at Wells and Stella, were you really angry at them?" I shook my head. "So who were you really mad at?"

I couldn't avoid the obvious truth any longer.

"Myself."

"Correct. See, it's not so hard to be honest, is it?"

I turned to Chloe. "You're not any better."

"What did you just say?"

I just folded my arms and turned around. Chloe marched round to stand in front of me, she towered over me as she gave my shoulder an aggressive shove.

"Hey!" I cried as I looked at the ground.

"I came from another plain of fucking existence, Max. I told you that even if we were a world apart you could still talk to me. So if you have something to say to me. You say it to my fucking face right here, right now!"

I stared Chloe in the eye and unloaded my thoughts.

"You have no right to lecture me on dealing with my problems, Chloe."

"Oh, is that so?"

"You lost your dad and it broke you. You pushed everyone away. You never dealt with your grief. You took drugs, you changed your wardrobe, you dyed your hair, you got tattoos. You did all that but you never dealt with what caused you so much pain. When we… When we found Rachel, you just wanted Nathan dead. It didn't matter that there was so much evidence to go to the police, you just wanted to shoot him! Your grief and anger destroyed everything, Chloe!"

Chloe glared at me with an intensity that made my hairs stand on end.

"Funny. You mention my dad. You mention Rachel. You left out one more person who caused me a shit tonne of pain. Except funnily enough, they didn't die. They made a choice. A choice to be so pathetic they couldn't even tell me they were going away and left that little piece of news on a fucking tape. They made a choice to never speak to me again. They made a choice to get back to Arcadia Bay and not even try to find me. To let me die on the floor of a shitty bathroom at the hands of the town psycho."

"I know!" I screamed.

"Know what, Max?"

"That it's my fault you died!" I broke down into sobs but furiously brushed away the tears as I confessed to Chloe. "If I had given you one lousy call so you would know I never forgot about you, maybe things would have been different. Maybe you wouldn't have made the decisions you made if I had been strong enough. You've been mad at me the second I got here because you should. I deserve all of it! It's my fault you died!" I covered my face and broke down in tears. "I'm s- sorry!" I grabbed Chloe and hugged her tight. "I'm so s-sorry." I felt Chloe hug me back.

"Well, the truth finally comes out," she said. I continued to sob as Chloe hugged me. "When you finally catch your breath I have some things I need to say." I continued to cry. I wanted to carry on forever but Chloe deserved to say whatever she needed to. "Oh, Jesus Christ, Max. Just do that thing your mom makes you do, usually works, doesn't it?" I thought of my mom and took a deep breath before breathing out. I did this a few more times until my heart rate returned to normal. I wiped my eyes and looked up at Chloe. "Can I talk now?" She said. I gave a small nod.

"What do you want from me, Max, huh? To say I forgive you for getting me killed?" I gave another small nod. "Well, I can't." I tried to stifle a sob and failed. "Fuck, let me finish, dude." I took another quick breath and looked at Chloe again. "I can't forgive you, Max, because it's not your fault."

"What?"

"Although I'm not surprised you see it that way. It's so you."

"But if I had talked to you then maybe you'd still be…"

"Maybe I would be, but you aren't responsible for me, dude." I looked at her confused. "You remember Marisa Rogers?" she said. I tried to remember but ended up shaking my head at her. "I told you about her on the afternoon…the afternoon my dad died. You heard that voice mail from her asshole mother. I told you Marisa called me a scholarship kid...made fun of me for my clothes…"

"Which is why you wanted to give them away," I remembered.

"Yeah, remember what I did, or tried to do?"

"You turned up her bunsen burner."

"Hardcore, I know. I just wanted to hurt her. That was before I knew I had lost my dad, before I knew I'd never see you again. Even before that, I…I never wanted to do the hard thing. Being angrier was just easier, because it felt like I deserved to be. I found it easier to just destroy-" Chloe chuckled suddenly.

"What is it?"

"I just remembered something else," she said. "I never told you where I got my truck from, did I?" I shook my head. "I had a particularly shitty morning so I escaped to hang out in the junkyard. I picked up a bat off the ground and went to take a swing at the hunk of junk that would one day be more most valuable possession, not that that's saying much. Anyway, before I hit it I stopped. I put the bat down, took a look at the truck and thought 'Hey, I can work with this.' So I fixed her up. Instead of smashing it to pieces, I fixed it and made it better. If only I had put two and two together maybe my life would have turned out better…" She gave a quick shake of her head. "Anyway, I got distracted. My point is, Max, everything I did, everything that lead to me being in the bathroom on that day with Nathan were my decisions. And that's exactly what they are, Max. My decisions. So I don't forgive you for getting me killed, because you didn't."

"I'm…I'm still sorry I never contacted you."

"I know you are, dude. You mention it often enough in your letters. So long as you've learned from it, that's what matters. So have you?"

"I- I think so."

"That doesn't sound good. Let's see, when was the last time you sent a message to Kristen?"

I tried to remember.

"Over a week ago."

"Okay, and that message you were going to send to Mrs Hoida, you ever get round to that?"

"...No."

"Why not, what was stopping you?"

My heart sank as I realised why I had been putting it off.

"Because I don't know what to say. So, I haven't said anything."

Chloe nodded. "And last but not least, your nightmares. Your inability to take photos. Not being able to get up to the lighthouse, when did all that start? What happened before that?"

I thought back and remembered.

"When I…I went into the bathroom. I saw you get…"

"Killed. We don't have time for pussy footing around, Max. And what about recently? I'm talking about the past week. You," she counted on her fingers, "got mad at Kate, stopped writing to me - writing in your journal or whatever - and you've been just staying out of everyone's way. Not going out for Warren's party, spacing out during Kate's movie night. You've been shutting yourself off from everyone. When was the last time you did that?"

My heart sank even further as it dawned on me.

"The week after you died," I said.

"And what's the reason you didn't immediately kiss me the second I appeared? Don't say you didn't want to."

"Because the last time I did that, was before I said goodbye to your forever."

"And when it came to the photos you used to deal with what Jefferson did to you. You had ones right by your desk. The hockey game, the Space Needle and the Fremont Troll. Why didn't you ever use any of them?"

"Because you weren't in them. I didn't think I could be happy without you."

"So putting all of that together," she said. "What do you think is the conclusion?"

I could feel tears in my eyes again as I realised the truth.

"I didn't learn a fucking thing and…" I wiped my eyes in vain as more tears rolled down my cheeks. "I didn't get over sh-shit."

"And why do you think you haven't gotten over shit?"

"B-Because I'm so f-fucking-" I stopped to wipe away more tears. "I'm not strong enough."

"Is that really what you think the reason is?" I just nodded. "Then I can't help you. Goodbye, Max." Chloe vanished and the world became another black void.

"No, wait! Chloe," I looked up and around and screamed even louder. "Chloe!" Nothing. I stood alone in the void. "What do you want?" I cried. "Just tell me! Whatever stupid shit it is that I'm supposed to figure out I can't do it, okay? I can't do this! I can't-"

I froze. It hit me like a bolt of lightening.

I c-can't do this. I was so…s-so stupid to think I c-could.

Those were the exact words I had said to my mom when I felt like everything had been a huge mistake. I wanted go home and give up. But my mom didn't let me...

"You are somebody, sweetheart. I will never let you say otherwise."

I jerked my head and saw another statue had appeared right next me. I was still sat in the dirt on the phone to my mom. But this statue showed me smiling. My mom's words eminated from it.

"We're proud of you for knowing what you want to do with your life. We're proud of you for going to Blackwell to chase your dreams even after doubting you were good enough. We're proud of you for fighting to get back on track even when your father and I tried to bring you back home. But most of all, Maxine, the compassion you have for others, even when you are weighed down by your own pain means I could burst. We wish we could take all the credit but that compassion is all your own. I know you have regrets about Chloe and what you wish you had done. But I hope you can see that despite the doubts you've always had about yourself. Despite the fact you've sometimes struggled and despite all the pain you've gone through and will continue to go through, you are still the extraordinary young woman Principal Wells described. Your father and I really couldn't be more proud of you, Maxine."

I smiled as I heard my mom's words. She had reminded me that day of just some of the times I only saw the things that were wrong, never what I had done right.

Suddenly…

"You let Chloe go to save hundreds of people in your dream. You always do. You know what that makes you?"

Another spotlighted statue appeared of Kate and I. We were hugging.

"No…"

"It makes you a hero. I know you're not a believer in God, but I think He would agree."

Chloe appeared beside me.

"And for what it's worth, I do too," she said. I smiled her before looking back at the statue. I remembered that moment when I finally broke out of my self imposed guilt trip. The moment I finally stood even a slim chance of moving forward. Then another statue appeared of me sat with David and Joyce at their dining room table.

"My time in combat…I never really came home. I tried to adjust to civilian life again but I don't think I ever did. That's what Chloe saw. I just wish she could have seen the real me."

"You can still be that person you wished Chloe saw, even if she can't see it now."

"I'm gonna get help. The kinda help I was too damn stubborn to get when Chloe was…I'm gonna get better. I promise."

I looked at Chloe. I could see how much she wanted to call bullshit. I held her hand.

"I know it doesn't excuse some of the things he said or did to you, Chloe," I said as she looked at me. "But he really did care about you. He is trying to be better."

Chloe looked back at David. "No, it doesn't," she said. Then she added "But yeah, I know he is. Besides, he did save your ass from Jefferson. I have to be at least slightly grateful."

My voice emanated from the statue once again.

"And Joyce…I promise you I'm never abandoning your family again."

"Max, moving away wasn't in your control."

"But not staying in contact was. Having Chloe think I didn't care was my fault and I'm never making that mistake again. I promise."

One by one, more statues appeared. Showing every moment when things turned around. Or when I was just simply happy. I saw myself giving the photo of Warren and I to him after he had apologised.

"Because I want you to have this."

"Really, why?"

"These feelings you have for me? They won't go away over night."

"Yeah, I know..."

"And that's okay, it'll take time. But they will go away. If you ever get frustrated at the situation I want you to look at this picture and remember how good it feels right now to still have me, even if it's not in the way you want."

"Okay, I'll take it on one condition."

"What's that?"

"That you stop thinking you aren't worth anyone's attention, Max. You're amazing."

I saw myself talking to Principal Wells in his office.

"I understand, Principal Wells. I really do. You feel you've caused so much damage that you can't repair it. I know exactly what that's like. But you can't give up. Please stay. This school needs you more than ever. If you really want to atone for whatever guilt you're feeling then stay and make this the school you've always wanted to lead. Fight the Prescotts, and be free from whatever hold they had on you. Move forward and make sure nothing that happened to Chloe and the other girls ever happens again."

"I er…I thought it was my job to be supporting you."

"It still can be if that's what you want. So are you staying?"

"Yes. I'll stay make this school exactly what it should have been all along. Thank you, Miss Caulfield."

I saw myself hugging a crying Victoria in her room.

"I'm sorry for looking through your journal. It's pretty cool actually, daring to put what you really feel and think about down on paper where you can't escape it. I just shove all my shit to the back of my brain and hope it goes away."

"That never works. They're always there. You can just try and deal with them...I still need to try and get my photos out there and not just keep them in my room."

"Yes, you do. You won't achieve anything otherwise. You have to put your stuff out there...Maybe work on adding something other than selfies to your portfolio though."

"I'm trying to. Baby steps I guess...I'm glad we talked, Victoria. We don't have to be best friends but there's no reason we can't be on the same side."

"I'm glad we talked too. I'll see you around, Max."

"You cut her a lot more slack than I would have," said Chloe.

"She's not all bad. She just needed someone to tell her it's okay to be scared. That there's better ways to cope with your insecurities."

I saw myself sat with Dana after our shopping trip.

"Dana, you said yourself you weren't ready to have a child, right? Then you made the right choice."

"But Max, I still feel awful…"

"Take it from me, Dana. Sometimes you have to do things…you have to do things you don't want to do. That you might feel awful about. But if you know that you've made the right choice then you cannot beat yourself up over it. You just can't. You should feel proud that were able to go through with that decision."

"You really sound sure about all that, Max."

"I'm talking from my own experiences, Dana. Believe me, I know what's like to feel bad for making the right decision."

"You mean about Warren?"

"Huh? I mean…yeah, that's right. I knew I had to tell Warren how I felt, or didn't feel. He didn't take it well but he proved he was the person I thought he was eventually. Now we can both move on."

"Thanks. God, I'm so sorry, Max. You've got your own crap to deal with, you don't need mine dumped on you too."

"Don't be silly, Dana. You've helped me with my problems. Just inviting me out today means a lot. Makes me feel less alone. I want to help you too if I can."

I saw myself and everyone at the Halloween party cheering for Daniel.

"And the winner of the costume contest and proud receiver of this fifty dollar gift certificate for Target is…Daniel Decosta!"

"Way to go, Daniel!"

"I can't believe it."

"Believe it, you earned it."

"Thank you. And thank you, Max. For making me come here tonight."

"It was still your choice. And your costume. It was all you, Daniel."

Then I saw all of us dancing, with me raving right next to Dana.

"Max. Rock out girl!"

"I said it better," Chloe said with a smile. "But you've definitely improved your moves since our Mimi and the Screamers gig." I just smiled. "I'm still not as good as you," I said.

I saw myself hugging Daniel.

"Please don't be sorry, Max. I'm not mad. Its just…you've helped me so much in the past couple of weeks. I know we don't talk a lot but when we do, you really make me think I can do anything. You give me confidence, Max. It's probably why I even felt confident enough to try and kiss you. So...sorry."

"You shouldn't be sorry either, Daniel. There's nothing wrong with confidence. Even if I didn't reciprocate, what happened back there was a victory for you. It takes guts to put yourself and your feelings out there like that. You won't lose that confidence just because things didn't work out this time. Promise?"

"I will try, Max. Likewise, please never forget how big of a difference your kindness makes to me."

I even saw myself sat with Logan.

"Does Dana know any of what you just told me?"

"Whenever I try and talk to her about this I get so angry and lose my cool."

"Then you need to control your temper. And tell Dana all of this."

"As if she'll talk to me now. I don't deserve her time."

"I can convince her to hear you out. The rest is down to you. If you screw it up then that's your problem, okay?"

"Okay, I just don't want her to be mad at me. What's that?"

"My journal. I came out here to clear my head a little before I wrote in it. I had another panic attack tonight which kinda ruined what was otherwise a pretty awesome day."

"I'm sorry. About the panic attack I mean. I'll leave you to it. Thanks for the pep talk, Max. You're actually pretty cool."

"And you're…not just some meat head jock, Logan."

I looked around at all the statues. So many good things I had pushed out of my head. And then I remembered small moments that made me smile. There weren't any statues but I didn't need them. Chloe let go of my hand and stood in front of me.

"So?" She said.

"I get what all this has been about," I said. "I have made progress, even if it doesn't feel like it at times. And I've done stupid things, but I've made sure that I made up for it. For the most part."

"And do you want to know why you're still struggling right now?"

"Why?"

"Because it's been two fucking months, dude," she said. "Of course life isn't a bunch of roses right now. But it's not quite the shit show it could be either."

"The fact I'm here says otherwise..." I said.

"Dude, you've still made more of an attempt to move on than I did in five fucking years."

"That's not-"

"It is true, before you try and say it's not," she said. "You were right when I said I let my grief destroy everything."

"You were just a kid, Chloe. No-one should have to through what you did at your age."

"No, but plenty other kids have," she said. "And not all of them would have gone down my path. You, for the most part, have tried to learn. You've tried to still help people. Even after all the shit you've gone through. Why do you think I said you were my fucking hero, dude?"

I smiled at Chloe.

"Cos I'm Max fucking Caulfield?"

Chloe laughed. "Damn straight!"

"I wondered why I still had my powers after I thought I'd learned my lesson from 'that week.' I guess I'm not done learning."

"I don't think you ever will be, Max. So what have you learned here today?"

"That I'm never using my powers again. For any reason. No rewind. No jumping back in time. Nothing."

"You've said that before..."

"And I'm saying it again. Having learned the hard way."

"Good. I would have punched if you didn't get that message." I laughed "And what else are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to start writing to you again. I'll start visiting you too. I promise."

"Anything else?"

"I'll keep in touch with Kristen better. And I'll write to Mrs Hoida, even if it's too late to mean much, I want her to know I've thought about her. And shit I need to make things up to Kate, Stella, Victoria...everyone really."

"That's great. Anything else?"

I thought, but just ended up shrugging. Chloe rolled her eyes and chuckled.

"Forget me, forget your friends and just think of you, Super Max. What are you going to do for you?"

"I…I don't know."

"Guy with a beard. Has been haunting you for weeks now..."

"Jefferson.."

"How are you going to deal with him? You're done with the photos, safe to say we can also write off staying up all night drinking coffee. Coffee's like a drug and drugs are bad for you," she said. I laughed.

"Like you can talk," I said.

"Good point, doesn't mean I'm wrong though, does it?" I just shook my head. "So what are you going to do?" I turned away from Chloe and paced slowly in a circle. Eventually I turned to her with my answer.

"I don't know."

Chloe covered her face and inhaled deeply.

"Come on, dude. This is the final test. You do know this. Hint, it's not something that's easy to do. But you have done it before." I stared at her blankly. She gave a quick roll of her eyes before she put her hands on my shoulders. "Forget limits, forget what you think you can or can't do. What do you want to do, more than anything else?"

I let out a deep sigh.

"I want to talk to someone about what Jefferson did to me. Someone other than you."

"Correct. So, how are you going to go about that?" I wanted to say to Chloe that I couldn't do it but I knew she wouldn't accept that. I had gotten this far having kept all these secrets and having never told anyone about 'that week.' Then I looked into Chloe's eyes and realised...

...That's not true

Several more statues appeared right in front of me. Chloe held my hand as I looked at the first one. I was sat on my bed with Kate, she had her arm round me.

"Ever since Chloe…Chloe died I've been having this nightmare. Every single night. It's pretty messed up."

"I'm listening."

"It starts in the bathroom. I'm behind the stalls watching Chloe and Nathan arguing. Nathan pulls the gun on Chloe. This time though it's different. Instead of sitting there doing nothing. I activate the fire alarm. Chloe is able to get away. Later we meet up for the first time in five years. She's a little pissed at me at first. She doesn't know why I stopped contacting her. But we get back to how used to be pretty quickly."

"What's dream Chloe like?"

"Everything I'm not. We're like ying and yang..."

Chloe suddenly snapped her fingers and made my voice stop.

"Hold up, what does that mean?" She said.

"You're...daring, brave and bad-ass," I said.

"So are you, dude." She saw my unconvinced look and put her hand on my shoulder. "You jumped through time and space to try and save me. You looked into that fucker Jefferson's eyes and told him to 'eat shit and die.' You are brave as hell, Max."

"Thanks, Chloe." Chloe clicked her fingers as my voice continued.

"We have so much fun together...But then something horrible happens. At the end of the week there's a giant tornado heading straight for Arcadia Bay. And I realise- I don't know how, call it dream logic or whatever- that Chloe being alive has caused the tornado. Anyway, Chloe and I are stood by the light house watching the tornado head straight for the town. Chloe tells me I have a choice to go back in time to change things. Again, dream logic. I can go back in time to when I initially saved Chloe. I can take it all back to stop the tornado."

I saw the next statue, me stood with Joyce at the bus stop.

"I just wanted to tell you something."

"Well, I'm all ears."

"Please promise me you won't ask how or why I could know this, okay?"

"Okay, Max."

"You should know that Chloe was braver and more selfless than you can possibly know. I know she probably never showed that at home or anywhere else. But she was truly amazing and you should be so, so proud of her."

I saw myself at the window of my mom and dad's car.

"I just wanted- I thought you should know- I think I'm…I mean I know I'm…"

"Just take your time, honey. Whatever it is."

"I'm gay. I mean, I might be bi. I- I don't know. With everything else I haven't really had time to process-"

"Are you okay with who you are?"

"Um, I think so."

"Then that's all we need to hear, Max. We love you. We always will."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Sort of. Chloe knew."

"We're so sorry, Max."

"Oh my God. Was this something you'd been keeping to yourself this whole time? Did you tell her before we left for Seattle?"

"I didn't tell her with words. I um... she knew,"

I saw myself sat with Dana on her bed.

"It was...when we were kids. She was encouraging me to try on some clothes I would never have worn in a million years. She told me I could afford to take more chances. Then out of nowhere, she dares me to kiss her. She double dares me and the next thing I know I find myself moving towards her. I kiss her right on the lips and she backs away. I don't think she expected me to actually do it. The weird thing was…that it actually didn't feel weird. It's only recently I've realised I had feelings for her. I think maybe I did even before I kissed her."

I looked back at Chloe as the statues and their spotlights vanished.

"You said talking about it all had gotten you nowhere..."

"But it has. I wouldn't have gotten to experience any of the happy moments if I hadn't tried talking to people. Even if I had to dress up the full truth."

"So what do you think is the next best course of action for dealing with these nightmares?" Chloe asked.

"I...I can't tell people about what Jefferson did to me."

"Why not? What did I just show you, Max?"

"This isn't the same, Chloe," I said. "I can't dress this one up. I have to tell the whole truth."

"What else do you have left?"

"If I do it there's no going back."

"Good, there shouldn't be."

"There's going to be people who won't believe me."

"Fuck those people," Chloe said simply. "You don't need everyone to believe you. Just the people that are important to you." Chloe produced the photo album I had started and abandoned. I looked at the photos I had taken of Kate, Joyce, Mom, Dad and Warren and smiled. "Plus all the other people who aren't yet in this album," said Chloe. She closed the album and tossed it out into the void.

"I do want to fill that album up. If I can ever take pictures again..."

"You already did, dude. That photo from the Halloween party, remember?"

I smiled again. "I remember. I don't know how I did, but I did do it."

"You should also finish that song you started," she added.

"It wasn't very good…"

"Doesn't matter."

I sighed and looked around.

"What's up?"

"If this is just a dream, then all of this. It isn't real. It's all just happening inside my head."

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Max, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

Suddenly the darkness began to disappear, a beautiful light shined and turned everything white.

"Looks like our time is up," said Chloe. "Time to return to the land of the living. Wish I could come with you."

"I do too," I said. "But then I guess that would be missing the point, wouldn't it?"

Chloe smiled. "Probably." The light slowly began to grow more intense.

"Wait," I said.

"Yeah?"

"Were you quoting Harry Potter?"

"Absolutely not," she said with a smile. I laughed.

"Dork," I said. As the light became almost blinding. I quickly leaned forward and put my hands on Chloe's cheeks. I kissed her. She kissed me back and then we separated.

"Still needs some work," says Chloe. I just laughed as my vision was about to be consumed by the light.

"Good bye, Chloe."

"Good bye, Max."

A/N 22/05/19: Hey everyone...so there's not really any easy way to say this but this story is going on a hiatus for the foreseeable future. In just over a week it will have been two years since I started and this wasn't exactly the way I was hoping to celebrate, but I've realised it's the right thing to do.

I made some big changes to my life back in January and have found myself with even less time than before to commit to this, alongside trying to do other scriptwriting and think about other ideas too. When I started this story I didn't even plan on getting past a first chapter, never mind still continuing two years later (with more years ahead). Recently my passion for this project has began to wane and I don't think it's good for me or any of you to continue putting out chapters for the sake of it.

Don't worry, this is NOT a permanent good bye for this story. Max Caulfield is my favourite character of all time and I'll be damned if this story is not finished some day. I just need some time away from it to recharge and come back with the passion I originally had.

I apologise that I decided upon this after ending on a pretty hefty cliff hanger. I did consider doing the next few chapters to reach a better stopping point but again I realised pumping them out for the sake of it wouldn't be good for anyone.

I know I'm not exactly the top author among the LiS group but I'm very grateful to the small audience who have been reading my story, especially those that have been here since day one. In the mean time feel free to message me or leave comments on the story itself.

I'll see you back here in the future and will be back with the story continuation Max deserves and you all deserve.

Take care,

Brad x