Perfect with You

Chapter 27 - Roots Behind Locked Doors

She pushed the door open and burst into the apartment building, taking the three first steps on the stairs to the ground floor and banged on the first door to her left. "CHLOE?!" Without waiting for a response, she curled her hand and flung it towards the door to her right. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" Heavy steps could be heard coming from the door to her left, but Max was already on her way to the second floor. "I'M HERE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs while taking a single swing on every door she passed by on her way upwards in the apartment. Someone yelled from the first floor, cursing and demanding her to be quiet. As she jumped up to the next staircase, she felt the sweat on her neck and saw flashing dots in her vision. Her breath became short with her heart pumping blood through her limbs with excruciating speed. "CHLOE?!" She screamed in desperation. She was almost at the top now and all she waited for, was for the girl to call out her name to let her know she was well. To let her know that she could see her, embrace her and share the fear with her. Such a call never happened and with every second that comfort was absent, her mind got more wretched and her stability disintegrating. "I'M SORRY!" Her words were pure instinct, but she trusted her body more than her sanity to guide her. A larger number of indistinct murmurs and yells were heard from under the panicked girl, but none of them sounded like Chloe, so none of them mattered.
Taking one more step up the meandering stairs, she reached the final door. A steel door, guarding the last place Max hoped Chloe would be, or more accurately, the last place she hoped she had been. When she reached for the handle with her sweaty palm, she could already see herself, standing on the edge, looking down at the ground and seeing her worst nightmare.

The cold handle clicked when it went down, the door feeling light as air when she pushed it open, overwhelmed by a strong wind blowing against her, catching air under her brown hoodie and making it flutter in the wind. Her feet felt like bricks, her legs were logs of fire and her chest felt compressed by vines. Everything went silent, every feeling fled and left her a shell when she saw Chloe sitting in the middle of the rooftop. She was resting one arm on her knee that she was supporting her head on. "Ch-" an undefinable ache choked her words. "CHLOE!" Yet, she forced it out with anguish as she shattered the lock on her legs and made herself burn every last energy inside of her to reach the girl who looked up when she had heard her name being called.
The lines of her face displayed the surprise of seeing Max as she quickly adjusted her position as to get up with a single movement. It was an explosion of emotions that burst inside of Max, seeing the dear face of her blue-haired girl. Everything loosened up as she forcefully ran towards her, feeling the weight in her chest and the acid in her stomach fading away.

"Max," Chloe said nervously just before the running girl leaped towards her and placed her shaking hands on her face, the first tear escaping from her under her eye.

"A-are you o-okay? You're not- not in danger?" Max stuttered anxiously as she stared at every inch of her bewildered face, trying to find a single wound, a single sign of damage still with her hands caressing both sides of Chloe's face.

"I'm fine. Are you, uh, good?" The response from Chloe was delivered with a flummoxed tone along with a confused expression, seemingly weirded out by Max's investigating approach, however, she made no attempt to pull back or remove her hands from her face.

When the first tear trailed down Max's cheek and escaped from her chin, another quickly followed. All that stored energy had broken loose into an overwhelming sensation of various emotions that she finally felt safe enough to release. Her hands hovered down to Chloe's shoulders, giving them a slight squeeze before she took a step back and fell down on her knees, sobbing.

"I'm sorry for leaving you. Sorry for yelling at you" Her cries sounded like tormented laughter as she watched her tears falling onto the pavement.
"All this shit I have dragged you into has been too much and nobody should expect you to defend me from it. I never meant... you don't deserve all this fear and danger that is drawn towards me" The enhanced feeling of guilt broke her down, wanting to glue back together every piece she had broken in the layout of her weakness.