Mak Wheeler: Chapter 1

7) Hearts

Their hearts stopped beating. The Earth stopped moving. Everything was at a halt. They couldn't process that their daughter was dying.

"What?" Mike said quietly.

"Wheeler! Shut up and help!" Steve shouted. They had found a cushion for Mak to lay down one. Will finally found her a glass of water which, she drank gingerly.

Mike finally got it together and made his way over to her. By the time he did, the pain had stopped.

"What just happened?!" El yelled, tears falling freely down her cheeks.

Steve sighed and explained the whole situation to them. Mike looked pissed. "So we think that Brenner is trying to get back at her for leaving."

Mike slowly took a large step towards Steve. Mike smiled a malicious smile before shoving Steve into the shelves filled with books. "You didn't think we should know?!" He shouted, "She's our daughter!" Punching him over and over again, sobbing.

"Dad stop!" He heard. He felt like a magnet was pulling his fist back. He looked behind him to see a distraught girl looking straight into his eyes. Her hand was up, and she looked completely drained. The only reason he gave up, was because he knew it was hurting her more to try to stop him from killing Steve.

"Anything else we should know about?" El said, angry herself.

Mak looked at Steve, then at her mother. "He's here." She said coldly.

"What do you mean he's here?" Lucas exclaimed.

"Brenner is in our time Sinclair!" Steve shouted.

She took a breath. "But the more I think about it, the more I realize that he's not trying to get back at me from 2010, he's closer than we think."

El swallowed hard. "How close?"

"Close." Was all Mak said.

They decided that they probably shouldn't talk about this in the store so, they made their way back to the Wheeler house.

"This is crazy, this is just insane, this is really really really-" Dustin kept rambling on.

"Shut up!" Everyone said in unison.

Mak was leaned up again the wall with her arms crossed. She was definitely pondering many, many things. The rest of the group was just trying to figure out how to end this with Mak still alive.  It was Monday, so she had until  Sunday (at the latest). She was going to spend it with her family.

She must have zoned out because she was pulled back into reality by her father saying "Mak?"

"What?"

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

She was obviously confused so, Lucas chimes in, "our plan, you know, to get you to stay alive."

"Maybe, we should just get it over with?" She said frankly. The only reply was blank stares from her family, Mike and El the most.

"What?" Steve asked, seeming confused.

"Look, either he's trying to kill me now or he's going to kill me on Sunday, you're choice."

That, of course, earned a, "Don't say that Mackenzie!"  from Mike.

"Why I'm just stating the facts. Either way I'm going to die, either way, he's going to kill me!"

Mike got up from his chair with a start. You could tell he's been crying, everyone had been. "The thing is Mak," he paused to take a breath before quietly stating, "He's not the one killing you."