(A rather long) Epilogue

A few months later…

Somewhere in Southern California

A naked woman emerged from the floods. The waves were crushing against her, from hours of swimming, well-trained, tanned body, giving the 19-year-old with the short, red-dyed hair a slight push towards the lonely beach in the middle of nowhere.

Close-by stood an old RV with a camping chair and table in front of it. First destination of the young woman was the table, from which she, at first, picked up a bottle of beer and emptied it, and secondly her phone.

"Three more customers," she mumbled to herself, tapping something into the phone before she entered her home.

Being all alone, she didn't even bother to cover her body. She loved being naked and living this south had the advantage of a lot of warm weather.

"Hello, Chloe!" it suddenly chimed from behind, startling Chloe Price and let her spin around. On the spare seat in the front of the vehicle sat James Amber, gazing at the punk-girl emotionlessly.

"James?!" said Chloe, still catching some air from the last shock. "Wh-what're ya doin' here?"

Instead of answering the question, the older man stood up and sauntered through the RV, scanning the quite fancy interior.

"You weren't easy to find. Had to pull quite some strings to track you down."

"Well, that was the plan," Chloe replied with a shrug and pulled two beers out of the fridge, reaching one towards James. "Beer?"

Rachel's father, however, shook his head and continued the sightseeing, while Chloe, who was leaning against the counter of the kitchen, opened the bottle and took a big swig.

"So, again: What brings you into my hella humble home?" she asked once more, but this time with some urge. Yet, she had to wait for the answer until James had sat down at the table and pointed at the opposite side.

"I want to talk with you," he said plainly, but instead of simply sitting down, Chloe just looked at him with a frown and gulped down the rest of her beer.

"I get paid by the hour, you know?"

"Yes," James replied without judgment, "I already heard you became a prostitute for a living."

"Escort!" the red-head threw in. "Pervy, old men like you hire me to be their arm candy for some hella fancy-pansy party." After a pause, she added "The girlfriend-experience costs twice as much."

"So, prostitution is an option."

Hearing the word prostitution again, Chloe straightened her body and lost her temper.

"Dude! I'm not some cheep hooker, standing on the fucking boardwalk! I get paid a shitpile of money just for acting like some old fart got lucky with a hot gal; no fucking included. But sometimes they want more and I'm not ashamed to rent my body to the right fucker for another fuckload of dough, as long as it get's my bills paid!" To underline her words and put some pressure behind them, the tall girl slammed her hands on the table and leaned in. "So, either, you pay and talk or you get the fuck outta my home!"

Being unimpressed by this outbreak, James Amber pulled out a stack of money, holding it in front of Chloe's face.

"Will this be enough to get your full attention?"

Snapping out of her rage and eyeballing the green bills in front of her, Chloe eventually snaps them out of James' hand and counts the money.

"You got my full attention, Mr. Amber!" she said politely with a smirk and put the money into small safe with a combination lock.

"Good! Now get dressed and sit down…and make me a coffee!"

Getting ordered around, but still were being forced to do her job, Chloe groaned and rolled her eyes in annoyance. After she had put on some shorts and a bikini, the red-haired woman made some instant-coffee for her client and sat down at the table as well, pulled out a cigarette from a pack that was laying on it and lighted the tobacco.

"Let's talk about Rachel, shall we!" started James Amber, inducing another sigh of annoyance by Chloe as she exhaled some smoke. Still, she was bound to her profession and had no other choice than to stay.

"If we have to," she scoffed, pressing the half-smoked cig into the ashtray. "But don't expect me to talk fond of that cheatin' bitch!"

Though James twitched a bit as he heard the rant against his late daughter, he tried to remain professional. "I simply want to know your perspective of the events, revolving my daughter. I want to know why she had changed so much. And, especially, how it could come to this tragedy of her demise."

"Why don't you ask this yourself? Me, I was just used by her like everybody else. She actually was like you…lying, disguising, getting rid of those who seemed to be a threat. A real…fucking…actress! Well, with Max she found the wrong person to fuck with."

"So, Miss Caulfield killed her?" he kept on asking with suspicion, his hands clenching from time to time.

"Killed her?" Chloe scoffed once more, now taking out a joint and lighted it with shaking hands. "This crazy chick killed a lotta peeps, but Rachel…? Well, let's just say, she let her die."

"And you let her die, too?"

Though not the first time asked, this question caught Chloe off-guard, making her lose her temper once again.

"No! I arrived at the scene when the train had already turned Rach into kebob. If you wanna find a murderous bitch, then go and search this lunatic Caulfield!"

The tension rose, evident by James' trembling hands and the anger, displayed in his face.

"Miss Caulfield is dead. She burned along with a whole bunch of students as their location had been set on fire by some mass-murderer. Forensics is still busy, trying to identify the victims."

"Oh, and lemme guess," spoke Chloe sternly, her sight fixed on the older man's determined glare, "You think it was me, who killed them all, right?"

The tension peaked into eternity. The young woman and the older man, sitting face to face, both their hands moving secretly. James' serious and threatening spoken "Yes!" was like the bell had struck high-noon.

Since starting the job as an Escort, Chloe had realized that not only the pervy and desperate, but also the creepy and psycho kind of people might contact her and therefore armed her sweet behind to the teeth.

She grabbed the pistol, holstered under the table. He, the revolver under his jacket.

Out of instinct, Chloe kicked with her knee the underside of the folding table, letting it jerk upwards. This saved her life as James' already at her pointed gun was thrown aside as the shot broke.

Immediately, the red-head jumped out if her seat and ran to the back of the RV, firing blindly behind her. Another barrage of shots chimed and as she felt a stinging pain in her thigh, Chloe gasped and stumbled into the bedroom. With a groan of anger she kicked the door close with her uninjured leg and took another pistol from under her mattress.

Silence occurred and for a moment Chloe thought that one of her shots might had finished her opponent. But she wanted to make sure before trusting the peace.

"James?" she called, hissing a "dammit!" as the DA answered.

"You're guilty, Chloe! The evidences are clear."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I already had bailed town before this shitshow even started!" retorted Chloe, readying herself to make run for it.

"You're shabby truck had been found close to the warehouse, remnants of napalm in the cargo bed!"

"What?! I left my fuckin' truck behind, asshole! Anybody could've used it!"

"And what about this RV?" James called out, clearly from a different position. "It belonged to Francis Bowers, who had been murdered as well. A coincidence?"

"Shit!" scoffed Chloe quietly, shaking her head in unbelief of this situation. "Then, why are you here? Why didn't you bring the cops if you're so sure it was me?"

"Because I'm off the case and prison wouldn't be enough for you! People like you are a disease and finally need to be wiped off the face of the earth. Nobody knows where you are or that you're even alive, so nobody will miss you anyway and Rachel can finally rest in peace, knowing that your up-to-no-good punk-ass is rotting in hell!"

There was no reasoning. There was no chance to sort things out. James had always been a man of principles; pragmatic and merciless if necessary. These were a few reasons why he was such a successful DA. Chloe just knew that the time of talking was over. It was either her or him.

Taking one last deep inhale, Chloe stood up and kicked open the door. Only, to lose balance on her wounded leg and fall onto her back. This saved her life, since James had expected her standing and was aiming for her upper body.

Chloe used the chance and emptied both of her guns in her opponent's direction, peppering him with several bullet holes. James Amber went down, already dead before hitting the ground.

But in the end, Chloe's luck had to run out eventually as James' cocked revolver hit the floor as well and went off. The bullet hit a cast-iron pan, ricocheted and then hit the red-haired woman right in the head.

Time…absent…

Location: Paris, France…or at least what's left of it

A tear dripped from her face, hitting the dusty ground to her feet. Dust, which once had been human beings. Women, men, children…it hadn't matter to Max as she had ripped the fabrics of time apart and turned the city into chaotic vortex of decay and destruction.

Buildings which once dominated the characteristic scenery of the city of love were now nothing more than ruins, hundreds of years old. The Eiffel Tower, once a world renounced monument, had been turned into a pile of rusted junk. And in the middle of it, sat Max Caulfield, mourning the death of her beloved Kate, who was laying in her arms.

"Fuckdammit, Caulfield!" chimed Chloe's voice suddenly from beside. "You turned the fuckin' City of Love into a shitpile of crap, dude!"

Though she should be more surprised, Max simply turned her head and frowned at her ex-girlfriend with the red-dyed short hair, dressed in some shorts and bikini, plus a bullet hole in her head.

"What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be dead? Nobody survives in here."

"Well, actually…I am already dead," replied the red-head, pointing at the hole in her skull. "Rachel's dad took the death of his oh-so-perfect bitch of a daughter rather personally and blamed me for everything. At least he bit the dust, too."

Kissing her forehead one last time, Max laid Kate's body cautiously on the ground and stood up, facing Chloe with a stern demeanor. She was about to say something as a loud thunder drew both girl's attention to the sky above.

Several fireballs were heading right at their direction. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last.

"What is that?" asked Chloe with curiosity, getting a rather grim answer.

"Intercontinental rockets with nuclear warheads. Russian design," mumbled Max like it wasn't something special. And it really wasn't, as the brunette used her powers to turn those objects of mass-destruction into a pile of dust, millions of years old and whiffed away by the wind.

"Daaaamn, they even wanna nuke your sweet ass?!"

Just replying this with a nonchalant shrug, Max gazed at Chloe once more, hissing "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Neither being intimidated nor afraid, Chloe just grinned and pointed towards the sky. "Long story short, someone is pretty pissed at you for fucking up time and space, and I'm just your very familiar face, who tells you to stop this shit."

"She's dead, you here me? Dead! It doesn't matter what I do, Katie simply keeps on dying," Max cried out loud, probably wanting the universe to hear her pain.

"Well, sometimes people die and maybe we need to accept it…"

"No!" the brunette shot back and grabbed Chloe by the strings of her bikini. "Tell the fucking universe, if it doesn't want me to fuck up everything, it should bring my Katie back to life!"

"You know that's impossible," answered Chloe with an honest smile, getting tossed away by Max upon this reply.

"Then you're useless!" she yelled, dropped on her knees beside her late girlfriend and began to shed some more tears.

But Chloe wasn't done, yet. The punky girl sat down on some scrap metal that used to be a car and began to recount her thoughts.

"Y'know, when my Dad died, I felt pretty much alone. Mom was busy mourning, later busy fucking this douche with a pornstache. I never had friends or people who cared about me that much to share my sadness. So, one night, I gazed at the stars and begged the universe to turn back time. But not to necessarily undo my Dad's death – I had already accepted that – but to gimme the chance to find someone, who would be at my side and help me pulling through, through all this shit. A real friend, who would also gimme love and safety."

Slowly, Chloe stood up again and softly touched Max's shoulder. "Sadly, I never had time travel powers, but you…"

Chloe's sentence stayed incomplete as the punk girl vanished into thin air, leaving Max alone once again.

For a long time, Max thought about the red-head's words. What they meant. What they were telling her. And out of the sudden, the brunette came up with an idea. She rummaged through her old camera bag and brought forth an old picture of her and her family.

August 2014

Marsh residence, Arcadia Bay

The lovely sound of her violin chimed through her room and engulfed her young mind with peace and harmony. After the last note was slowly pealing out, Kate Beverly Marsh put down her instrument and kept her eyes close. The 15-year-old had always loved the aftermath of a play, may it be by her own violin or another instrument.

"Kate, there's someone on the phone for you!" her mother's voice called from downstairs, pulling the young teenager back to reality.

"Got it!" she replied, put the violin aside and took the call on the cordless phone in her room.

"Kate Marsh here!" spoke Kate with her sweet voice into the receiver, but only heard a deep inhale and shaky breath on the other end of the line, which made her feel uncomfortable. "Um…h-hello? Wh-who's there?"

"Katie?!" a soft, female voice answered, sounding brittle and somewhat relieved.

"Um…yes, this is Kate Marsh. Wh-who am I speaking to?"

It took another two seconds for the unknown voice to answer. Two seconds in which the blonde girl with the bun felt even more uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that she would've loved to end the call right away.

"Listen Kate, my name is Maxine Caulfield and you don't know me…yet. Listen, what I'm gonna tell you now sounds so freakin' unbelievable, but please…promise me that you'll at least let me finish, okay?"

Kate had always been a sensitive and cautious person. Though she was kind-hearted and had an open mind, she also was aware that there were bad people out there, who hurt girls like her. Still, the urge, importance and confidence in Maxine's tone let her develop some sort of trust and eventually whiff a soft "Okay!" into the receiver.

"Thank you!" chimed the reply in relief, before Maxine continued. "Listen Kate, I need you to do me favor. You see my number on your phone?"

The young girl gave the display of her phone a short glimpse before putting it back on her ear. "Yes!"

"Great! Okay, right after I cancel this call, you wait…I don't know…um, maybe ten minutes and then call me again. It's my cell, so I'll be the only one to answer it." Maxine paused another second, taking another audible inhale. "And now comes the freaky part: I won't remember calling you. But still, talk to me. Tell me something about you. Gimme hope! Can you do that?"

Normally, Kate would have declined the request kindly, but also with determination. Yet, some sort of inner feeling and need for adventure were emerging from within and urging the young girl to agree with another honestly whiffed "Okay!"

"Thank you!" chimed the now again brittle voice through the phone, followed by a weak "Goodbye!" before the call was canceled.

Slowly, Kate let her arm with the cordless phone in her hand drop and sat down on her bed. In Catholic school, they had warned them about talking to strangers or answering weird phone calls or emails. But Kate felt that this was something different. She felt some kind of bond with that unknown girl, which she couldn't really explain.

Time flew by as the young blonde was literally lost in deep thoughts, and before she knew it, more than twenty minutes had passed.

Gasping upon being late for the asked for call, Kate took out her own cell and dialed the number of Maxine Caulfield. It rang…once, twice, thrice…but no one answered so far.

"Curses!" she cussed, almost disappointed in herself for not even fulfilling such a minor request, as suddenly her call was accepted.

"H-hello?" chimed that soft voice once again, but this time its tone was different: shy, insecure, unconfident. Like the opposite of the previous caller.

'Okay, remember: she doesn't know you or that she called you before. Ugh, let's hope it's not just a stupid prank!'

"Uh, hi! M-my name is Kate Beverly Marsh. Am I speaking with Maxine Caulfield?"

"Um…yeah! B-but it's just Max, never Maxine! D-do I know you?" Max answered, sounding even more timid.

"No…not really. Listen, I know it sounds strange, but…uh…but you called me before and asked me to call you back."

Silence occurred for a moment on the other end of the line, soon replaced by quiet sobs.

'Is she crying?!'

"P-please…" Max whimpered, "Please don't! If this is another prank…please don't do it! I can't…I can't take this anymore! Please!"

'Oh my god, what happened to this poor soul that she thinks I'm gonna prank her and already pleads me to stop?!' thought Kate, and knew right away that she needed to help this girl.

"Max, I promise you, it's not a prank!" she said, trying to sound as much soothing as possible. "Tell you what, why don't we start over and forget what I said before, okay? Just like it's the first day in school and we just met."

"I hate school!" was the still sad girl's cried reply, followed by another bunch of sobs.

'Darn it! Let's try a neutral place!'

"Um…okay. Then, how about a teashop? Do you like tea?"

"Y-yeah."

'Success!'

"That's cool! What kind of tea? I'm totally in for some black tea, and you?"

"P-peppermint."

"Okay! Nice taste! Now, imagine we're at a teashop. Any tables are occupied, so I decide to ask you if I can sit down at yours. You're with me?"

"Mmh-hmm," confirmed Max and sniffed a few times, now sounding a bit calmer.

"So, I'm asking you if the seat on your table is empty and you just nod. I sit down, order a tea and you…um…you're reading a book. What's your favorite book?"

Again, there's a pause. And though it sounded at first that the ice might had been broken, Max's tone got timid once more.

"I-I don't read in public. People…people will pick on me for what I read. No matter, what it'll be."

Then she sobbed once more, whining angrily "I…I can't do this! Nobody likes me! Everyone hates me! Why would you be any different? How should I know that you won't use the things I tell you to fuck me over, huh?"

Though Kate would had loved to say something different, she could only answer "You…you can't!"

Small droplets were forming at the corners of her eyes as despair took a grasp on her kind heart. How could she help such a poor, broken girl? She never had been confronted with such an amount of hopelessness and mistrust. But on the other hand, how should you trust anyone, who you met not even an hour ago and knew nothing else than a voice? So, she came up with a new idea.

"Max, do you have Skype?"

She knew that this was nothing more than a longshot, but it was a last straw to save this situation and help this poor girl in distress.

"Yeah…um, why?"

There still was a lot of doubt in Max's voice, nonetheless, Kate held on to her idea and put as much faith as possible in her proposal.

"Maybe you can judge if I'm honest or not by looking into my eyes."

After another pause on the other end of the line, Max eventually said "I'm firing up my Laptop!"

Right away, Kate was excited and happy at the same time. Max hadn't given up on her, yet. "My nickname is bunny_angel."

Kate had just started the program as the melody of an incoming call sounded. She resettled the build-in camera of her laptop one last time and then engaged the connection.

The loading screen appeared and as it was replaced by the image of a young girl with freckles and long brown hair, bound into a ponytail, Kate's heart skipped a beat and her mouth stood agape. Though it took her some time to regain her countenance again, Kate immediately put on her warmest smile.

"Can you see me?" she asked, but instead of an answer, Kate realized that Max was looking at her with a strange stare. "You okay?"

"You're so beautiful!" whiffed Max, barely audible and instantly became beet-red.

"What?!" squealed Kate out in surprise, which let the other girl wince and cover her face in shame. But as soon as Kate had shaken off said first surprise, she overcame her own shyness and listened to her heart. "Um…th-thank you! You…uh…you're beautiful as well!"

'Beautiful?! What are you doing, Kate?'

"Y-you think?" it chimed muffled from under Max's cupped hands before she dropped them and revealed her stunned demeanor. "N-nobody has ever called me…b-beautiful."

'Keep going, Kate! Encourage her! Give her hope!'

"Yes! Very beautiful! Especially your freckles!" answered Kate truthfully, feeling how her heart was almost jumping out of her chest while she was blushing intensively.

'How could anybody say that she isn't beautiful? She's actually really cute and I…I…I feel some kind of tickle in my stomach!'

Once more, Max's eyes began to well up, though this time, these were tears of joy, evident by the sobbed laugh. "Th-thank you!" she whispered and Kate herself began to spill some tears under a soft smile as she witnessed how her small compliment had such a positive impact on the brunette girl.

"You're very welcome! Listen, I don't know what stupid people told you otherwise or make fun of you, but know this: from today on, I wanna be your friend! And whenever you're sad or in need for some soothing words, I'll be there for you!"

"F-forever?" asked Max and it sounded like she was holding on to a lifeline.

"Yes! Forever and Ever!" was Kate's honest answer as she brushed with her fingertips over the freckled girl's face on the screen. From this day on, Kate and Max would call each other every day.

A few years (and far less murder) later…

Academy for Modern Arts, Los Angeles, California

A door swings open and two almost eighteen years old girls stumble inside the room, giggling in giddiness.

"First!" cheered the freckled one with the chin-long brown hair, receiving a soft push by the other girl, who had her blond hair bound into a bun.

"You cheated, Max!" she retorted, crossing her arms and pouted artificially.

"Oh c'mon, Katie!" returned Max softly, closed the door and wrapped her arms around Kate's neck. "Y'know how much I love to mock you. Besides," with a warm smile, she leaned in and pressed her lips on Kate's, before she cooed into her ear, "Now that we live on our own, you can give me a proper punishment!"

The blonde's breath stopped for a second while her heartrate increased. They both had waited for this moment for so long. Since the day Kate had first contacted Max, both had become very close friends and soon started some kind of long-distance relationship as they learned so much about each other and had developed deep feelings for another. Max's depression and mental issues got better with every passing day and over time, things got pretty serious as Max had visited the Christian girl during the summer holidays. Still, they had been forced to keep a low profile due to Kate's parents. But now that they visited a boarding school in Los Angeles, they eventually got the needed space to spice up their relationship to the next level.

Although Kate was a devout Christian, she had been yearning for sex for over a year now, no matter if it would be premarital or not. Numerous masturbation sessions with Max via Skype bearing another witness to that need for intimacy with her girlfriend, as well. And right now was the time.

Both girls would take the next step and seal another tight bond, whereas only one of them carried a dark secret, which had made this event even possible.

Another couple of weeks later…

Marsh residence, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

A fine layer of dust was covering every bit of the inventory. Where once the sounds and prayers of a Christian family chimed, only eerie silence remained.

A secret laid upon this house. A dark secret, which would tremble the fundamentals of an entire community. It had been the biggest secret of the Marsh family, yet Kate found out about it, her nosiness triggered by her secret girlfriend, Max.

It hadn't been easy to find this hidden door, but Kate had always been smart. And as the passage had opened and revealed hell on earth to the young girl, she became aware that the key to finally make her relationship to a girl public didn't lie in telling her bigot parents about it, but to avoid this unpleasant situation at all.

Yes, she would tell them. And she wouldn't even lie about the details, because that's against the rules. But she would set the terms!

A trap was easily set and her parents way too naïve to suspect anything like it from her daughter. Yet, Richard and Janine Marsh were sitting in this very chamber, their bodies tied onto two spiked chairs, side-by-side, and their withered fingers intertwined.

Kate wanted them to leave this world together and this was what she had done. She had fixed her mother and father on the chairs and then had pierced their hearts with one long spear, connecting them for eternity…or until they would decompose eventually.

Now they're sitting there. Two decaying corpses, guarding the secret of the Marsh family, which they were now a part of. A secret nobody would find; nobody would know about. Because, Eleanor Marsh, who had been in this as well, had a tragic accident, containing a ladder and a hedge clippers and had taken her knowledge into her moldy grave.

It had been for the best. Carla and Lynn were sent to a Catholic boarding school in Portland as long as Kate's relatives were fighting for custody. Hopefully, the right person would get it or else fate had to be bent into the right direction.

Kate, however, was now free to go wherever she wanted and with whom she wanted. She was free to give in to her obsession for one particular girl. But she would never tell Max the grim truth. Janine and Richard Marsh would simply stay missing and that's it.

Everything else would remain nothing more than a dark secret.

- The End -