Rynx

Chapter 4 - Max

Max woke up to someone shaking her. "Mmmn, but I don't wanna go to schooool..." she mumbled drowsily, slowly peeling her eyes open. Then it sunk in—she wasn't on Earth anymore. She looked down at the ground when she saw Conjure's longing look.

"S—sorry." Now that she thought about it, she had come to seriously miss her home. Especially school, because it was full of familiar humans. All this...other world...stuff seemed so confusing. It made no sense. She had seriously thought that Rynx was a dream. But...apparently it wasn't.

Max sat up, rubbing her eyes.

Conjure smiled softly and ruffled Max's hair. "It's alright. We're all missing our home."

Max smiled too. Max had noticed—one good thing about Rynx was the fact that Conjure had been showing her true colours, giving Max sisterly love and attention. It made Max want to scream in amazement and scream in annoyance. Her brain screamed things like "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE" or "WHAT WAS SO PITYING ABOUT ME THEN THAT MADE YOU HAVE TO YELL."

Max sighed softly. "So. Where's Par?"

Conjure jerked her head at the shore of the water, where a purple silhouette sat with her arms around her knees. Her knees were tucked under her chin, as she watched the water lap at her feet.

Max walked up to her, the cold dewy teal grass crunching softly under her feet. Paranoia was mumbling to herself, with suuuuch a sad look on her face. Max flinched.

"Ink...just like the sea. The black water...it didn't always look like this, huh, my old friend?"

Max blinked. "Huh? Hey, um, Paranoia, are you...okay?" Max sat next to her, looking out at the sunrise, which was turning the sky red again. The black clouds whooshed by as Max felt the breeze on her cheeks. Max kind of got how Paranoia felt. This sense of dread, like something was wrong. The sense of "I shouldn't be here" was heavy. Max could almost...taste it. It was weird.

Paranoia jumped in freight, looking over at Max. "Oh. Hey, Max. I'm fine, just...y'know, enjoying the sunrise."

Max laughed softly. "Anyone ever tell you you're a terrible liar?"

Paranoia let out her monotone laugh. "Yeah. A lot. Before I ... looked like this. I still remember a bit of my memories, after all," she said sadly, "and it's not all that of a good thing, per se, but it's better than being a mindless beast. Ha-ha, I was a mistake too. I wasn't supposed to become a full shadow, I was supposed to just be part-shadow. I think. I'm not too sure, but I remember someone whispering in my ear, 'I'm so sorry, it wasn't supposed to be like this' but maybe that's just a memory I made myself out of desperation." She shrugged as if it didn't matter to her, but Max recognized that expression. She knew it like the back of her hand—she made it quite often when Conjure had holed herself up in her room. She shook of the rotten memory, trying to drown it in happy memories, like when Conjure made Max a beaded bracelet with her name in bead-squares, all of Max's favorite colours displayed in a colourful pattern.

She looked at the worn bracelet that still sat on her wrist with a mournful smile.

Paranoia was studying Max's expression with great interest. "The real question is, after seeing and knowing that expression you wear, are you up to going on this huge journey? You may never see Conjure again, we may all die. It's a huge risk."

"Yeah. It's either die here and not try to get home or chance my life and get the chance to maybe get home. Being honest, I'd choose the latter," Max said honestly, looking down at her feet. "I'm not quite ready to give up on you and what you say. I know for a fact that Conjure will go, as stubborn as she is. If family, of any sort, is going, I am too."