Escaping Her Mind

Chapter Ten: Escaping Her Mind

Max wakes up on the floor of the white hallway. She opens her eyes and lifts her head, looking around. 

"Not again..." Max whispers, tears already welling in her eyes. She was getting sick of this hallway and the never-ending secrets within it. 

Max pushes herself to her knees, wincing as her back shoots up in pain and her body aches. She looks around the area, her eyes hurting at the bright light. It was definitely a change in brightness from the dark attic and it would take her eyes a while to adjust. 

But what she didn't understand was what she was doing here. Why was she back here? Why was she back in the hallway? She went through the memory, she confessed that she wanted to live and keep going. So what the hell was going on? What kind of other sick trick has her mind come up with to torture her? 

"What the hell is going on!" Max screams at the ceiling, still on her knees on the floor. "I want to go home! I want to go home!" She yells at the ceiling through tears. She pushes herself to her feet, wobbly and weak from the emotions she has endured, and throws herself at the large steel door. "I wanna go home!" She yells, slamming her fists against the door. "I wanna go home!" She screams, throwing her body at the door. 

...Lucas and Eleven had ended up in Max's trailer...

The two look around at the trailer. There was no one in there. The trailer looked as if no one had been in there for a while.

"What happened?" Lucas questions, looking around. "I thought we connected with her mind." He looks at Eleven. "I saw her. She was right there...and now we're here?" 

"I...I do not know." Eleven says, her voice wavering slightly. "I do not understand either." She says, looking around the place. The place didn't look much different from when they watched the memory of Max's power going out. If anything, it looked exactly the same. So what did this mean? 

"Max?" Lucas calls out, his voice slightly echoing through the small trailer house. "Max? Are you in here?" He questions. 

Eleven looks around the trailer, taking small slow steps as she looks at everything. There would have to be some kind of clue somewhere, right? There would have to be something in here. Or else, why would they be here? Eleven had never done this much memory traveling before in her life but she knew that there was an answer to this. There was a reason they were here right now. 

And then, Eleven freezes. She hears something. Something so faint, so slight, but so desperately pleading that her eyes widen. "Sound." She whispers. 

"What?" Lucas questions, looking over at her.

"Sound." Eleven repeats. Her eyes lock onto Lucas' eyes. "I hear...something." She is silent for another moment. "I hear...Max..." She whispers.

"Where is she?" Lucas questions, rushing over to Eleven as she closes her eyes to concentrate. Lucas anxiously waits for her to open her eyes again, to give him some kind of answer as to where Max was and what she was hearing. 

He needn't wait long. Because he heard it too. "I wanna go home!" Max's voice screams from somewhere. Eleven's eyes shoot open as she wildly looks around the trailer. "I wanna go home!" Max's voice repeats, screaming loudly. And then, there's banging. 

Eleven and Lucas whip around to see the bedroom door to the trailer banging, almost as if someone was on the other side of it. 

"Max!" Lucas yells, rushing over to the banging door. "Max! We're here!" He screams. 

But Max couldn't hear him. Her banging, screaming, and sobs were too loud. Her own voice was overpowering her senses and she was getting weaker by the second, using all of her energy to try and bust down the steel door. She should have known it wasn't going to work. Hell, she should have known her own mind would end up screwing her over. She didn't trust people easily, always putting her walls up. Why would she have thought that her own mind would be the exception?