KRRSSHZZKK
Max Caulfield looked at the picture coming out of the Polaroid camera.
That had saved the life of the woman she loved, her Captain.
That had lead her to dooming an entire town.
A memory surfaced, from a Star Trek binge, years ago.
‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one’
‘Fucking fuck you, Spock. They brought you back to life, anyway’, her mind sneered.
Next came the shouting, the shot. The blood of a dead girl spreading across the tiles.
A girl that, no one but Max would ever know, had saved them.
As things faded to white, she was glad of the snap forward for once.
Selfishly, she thought ‘I don’t care about Auto Max, at least I won’t have to deal with the shit storm this is gonna cause’.
She was sitting on the bench in front of the Lighthouse, looking out at the sunset.
Arcadia Bay was there, but, the person who had changed her life was gone.
Never said thank you for that
Now I’ll never have the chance
The next thing she knew, she was heading through the front gate of the cemetery.
As she approached the coffin, she looked over at Joyce. She looked like her whole world was gone. Max knew exactly how she felt.
A pastor walked in front of the coffin. He began spouting stale platitudes. ‘Life
cut short’ this, ‘loved by all’ that.
What a load of sugar coated shit. This town didn’t give one single fuck about Chloe Elizabeth Price.
She had been angry, over a world that had fucked her over. Over a dead Dad, and a traitor of a friend. And she deserved to be angry, it was all true.
But, after they had reconnected, she had been Max’s angel. Comforting her, sharing the load of bending time, and its consequences, as best she could.
After the funeral, Max was in her room. A mix CD played in the background.
And if you were with me, tonight
I’d sing to you, one more time
She stared at her guitar. She’d give anything, to hear Chloe make fun of her playing.
A song for a heart so big
God couldn’t let it live
May angels lead you in
hear you me my friends
on sleepless roads
the sleepless go
may angels lead you in
Max put her head down and sobbed. Because she had killed her best friend, her Bluebeard, her other half. To save a ignorant town, a town that had looked down on the one who given her all for it.
Max didn’t know what she would do from here on out.
But she sure as hell wouldn’t live.
It would only be an existence, just marking time.
Marking time until she could be with her heart again, could be whole.