Time Seizure

Chapter 17 - The Colours of Youth

Max Caulfield, once a bright young innocent soul, was reduced to a ragged old shell as she cowered under the piercing gaze of the devil himself, more fragile than ceramic.

"N—No! Not you!" She squealed, bringing her nails close to her lips as they twitched.

"Oh yes, Maxine!" Jefferson widened his grin, the corners resembling a sharpened scythe. "We'd have so much more to cover. Would have, to be precise."

Chloe, lingering next to Max, thrust herself in between them and opened her luckily undamaged wings to shield her friend from this monster.

Jefferson continued regardless. "It breaks my heart to look at you right now. All that innocence, that naiveté, all burned up. Such a waste."

Those words, mixed with that voice, made Chloe's blood boil as they oozed into her ears like an infectious worm. "Yeah? Well fuck you! You're not having her!" She blared out.

The man, unfazed, nudged his attention to the blue-haired fairy and ticked his tongue as he examined her. "I must say, Miss Price, that you look much better this way as opposed to your 'Punk-Ho' appearance the day before."

"You don't get to decide, you pedophile!"

"Oh! I'm a pedophile?" He stiffens to that comment, half-offended.

"Max told me everything! How you drugged those girls! Took away their power as you pleasured yourself with their suffering. Both Kate and Rachel."

"Speak of the devil."

How right he was, she admitted silently, as she spun to see the other girl she was reminded of floating in her own space, motionless.

"Rachel!" She called to her, but she didn't move; she was still unconscious.

"It looks like she can't help you anymore, I'm afraid." The art teacher taunted. "But looking at her like this... she can sure help me." To him, this image of Arcadia's Queen, stilled and vulnerable with no gravity to hold her, sent thrills down his spine like sparks of electricity. "Such beauty..." He murmured.

Trying to ignore him, Chloe fluttered over to Rachel to try and shake her awake. "Come on, Rach! Wake up!" She thrashed harder, growing more panicked by the second, but still, she didn't respond. Chloe knew deep down from the gold aura that canvassed her body, now dampened and extinguished, that she wasn't coming to any time soon. "Fucking hell!"

Giving up eventually, Chloe let the body drift freely as the realization sunk into her that she was on her own now; it was like uncovering her corpse in the junkyard again.

You can't be dead... please, no! Not again!

A blinding white flash, washing over the entire set, jerked her out of that trance; it was like lightning, but instead of hearing a clap of thunder, the click of a shutter accompanied it.

Max shrilled and pressed her palms over her ears to block out the sounds of Jefferson's camera at work; to her, they were like shots of gunfire ringing in her head and leaving behind scatters of shrapnel.

Chloe rushed back over to get ahold of her. "Max? Max! Come on! Stay with me, okay?"

Jefferson shook his head at them in false pity as he suddenly let the globe slope from his fingers to free-fall downwards and smash on the ambiguous hard surface he was standing on.

As their world broke apart, Max tried in vain to reach out for her best friend as the resulting impact flung them away from each other.

"Chloe!" She cried out, but she was gone.