Chapter Text
“Dude, what the fuck? No one's out there”, Chloe said as she looked out the view port. She was positive that until a few seconds ago SOMEONE had been walking around and talking. She vaguely heard Max say something as she reached down and opened the door. She was able to look at the darkened parking lot for just a second before she felt Max full body tackle her out of the doorway, screaming her name in terror.
Chloe shouted in pain as her shoulder collided with the edge of the table and she heard a similar shout from Max as she saw her head hit one of the chairs. “Max?! What the fuck are you doing?!” she shouted from underneath her girlfriend, but Max didn't answer. She had already stood up and slammed the door shut, locking it. Chloe lay on the floor, her mouth slack in shock, as Max ran around to the front of the couch and hurriedly pushed it up against the door. “Max, seriously. You're starting to scare me. What the fuck is it?!”, she asked again, but like before, Max didn't answer. She instead went around and turned on all the lights she could in the cabin before dashing for her cell next to the bed, knocking her messenger bag off the nightstand, spilling its' contents on the floor.
Chloe watched as Max quickly dialed and held the phone up to her ear. “Yes please help. We are at the cabins by Cauldron Lake in Bright Falls Washington. I...I can't remember the address but I saw someone outside with an axe. He looked like he was trying to break into one of the other cabins. I blocked our door and turned on the lights, but I'm worried he may still be out there. Please send help immediately!” Chloe watched in stunned amazement as Max completed the call, then ran to the blocked door and yell out as loud as she could, “I've called the cops! Whoever you are fuck off and leave us alone!” At this, Chloe finally came enough to her senses to stand up and grab Max by the shoulders.
“MAX! JESUS! What the fuck is-”, she started to say, but the look on Max's face stopped the words dead in her throat. Max was breathing hard, her eyes wild and constantly flicking about the cabin, looking for any sign that someone could be in there with them. A thin line of blood was starting to run down from her forehead where it had hit the chair. Chloe placed a hand on Max's cheek and forced her to look at her. “Hey...hey it's okay. Just breath. Max? What happened?” For a moment, Max just looked at Chloe...then the tears started flowing freely as the smaller girl buried her face into Chloe's neck.
“OH GOD...Chloe...he...it...you...”, Max could barely speak over the tears. All Chloe could do was rub at her back, making soothing noises, guiding the two of them to sitting positions on the floor. It took Max a couple of minutes before she was finally able to speak. “Chloe...the thing out there killed you.” The words sent a cold spike slamming into the pit of Chloe's stomach.
“What...what the fuck do you mean?”, she asked quietly. So Max told her what had happened in the brief moment of time that had been unwound. How Chloe had opened the door and the thing had swung its' axe into her face. How it had seemed almost to be MADE of darkness. How it had made to grab Max just as she rewound time. Chloe felt the old panic of having her life saved by her time-traveling girlfriend rise in her chest again, but something didn't add up. “Wait...you said he attacked the moment I opened the door?” When Max nodded, Chloe continued, “Max...there was no one there. No one even close to the door.”
Chloe watched Max try to process this information and shake her head at the impossibility. “No...no Chloe I know what I saw. He...he attacked you right then. There wasn't any pause.”
Chloe rubbed at her face. “Ok...maybe he was to the side of the door, but he still would have swung right? You didn't tackle me that fast out of the way, so...” she trailed off and looked at the door.
“Maybe...maybe it heard me running and chickened out?”, Max asked in a quiet voice, but Chloe could hear the uncertainty. Max would have seen or heard the thing running. It had been completely silent the entire time. Before either of them could process this further, they heard the sirens of the approaching police car. Chloe swore under her breath.
“Okay...we'll figure it out in a moment, for now we need to unblock the door. I'm going to let you take point on this okay? Whatever you say, I'll match.” Max nodded at Chloe's words and the two stood, moved the couch back from the door and opened it just as the flashing red and blue lights of the cop car pulled into the parking lot. Chloe looked off to her right as she stepped outside, figuring that it must have been where the thing that Max had described had waited for her. The knot in her stomach tightened when she saw there was no porch, just a sheer drop off from the steps up to the cabin. She crossed her arms over the stomach as the last rational explanation of where the thing had been broke into nothingness.
Don't punch a cop, don't punch a cop, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHLOE DON'T PUNCH A COP, was all Chloe could think to herself as she listened to the cop that had been taking Max's statement drone on. After her and Max had stepped out of the cabin, the two officers had pulled up to a leisurely stop in front of them, switched off the siren and stepped out, sweeping the surroujnding area with their flashlights. “Evening Ladies...got a call of a disturbance?”, one of them, later introduced as Deputy Mulligan, drawled at them. He was an older man, at least in his 50s, with puffy bags under his eyes and full head of grey hair. His radio squawked out something from the shoulder of his dark green jacket as he stepped out of the car. Something about the man had set Chloe's skin crawling and she had suddenly wished she was dressed in more than just her sleepware. The feeling doubled when the older cop had ran his eyes over their body's, not even trying to hide it. Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. While the older cop approached them, his partner got out and started wandering the campsite, shining his flashlight into the darkness of the camp. Mulligan let out a sigh as he removed a notepad and pencil from his breast pocket to take notes. “Okay...Names and then let's start at the beginning.”
Max had barely given them the first details when Mulligan had interrupted. “I see...and was this befnore or after you hit your head, Ma'am?” Chloe's fist tightened under her crossed arms as Max blinked at the cop's question before reaching up to wipe at the tender cut on her forehead. Chloe barely registered as Max's position shifted from a time jump before she spoke again.
“Before. I hit my head trying to block the door. Slipped and hit a chair”, Max said quietly aCs Mulligan just nodded and wrote something down in his little notebook. He then turned to Chloe and directed his next question at her.
“And I assume you heard this to?” Chloe bit back the acidic retort building at the 8back of her throat before answering.
“Yeah. I woke up the same time as Max. Heard the guy talking and moving around outgside. Max went and looked out the view port which is when she started blocking everything off. She told me about seeing the axe afterwards.” The cop just 'Uh-hmmed' and wrote it down too before turning to his partner.
“Thornton! You see anything?”, he yelled out behind him. He jumped a bit when the otherFofficer, a shorter weaselly looking man wearing a stiff brim hat and solid winter coat with fur lining the collar, came up out of seemingly nowhere to stand beside him.
“A few footprints, so som1eone was here, but no signs of break in that I can see”, the cop said as his partner rounded on him.
“Dammit Thornton! I told you not to sneak up on me like that!”, the slightly older cop said as he placed a hand over his heart. The other cop turned toward Chloe and Max ignoring the complaining of his partner.
“So what you girls doing up here at the cabins?” he asked as his flabbergasted partner just shook his head and started to write in his pad again.
Chloe watched as again, Max's position time shifted, leaving her arms crossed over her stomach. “We're on vacation. We used to live in Seattle and I wanted to come out this way. See more of the state.” Thornton looked like he wanted to argue but just shrugged as Mulligan took back over.
“Now...you say you looked out the view port where you saw the man with an axe. Is there anything you can tell us about him? How he looked? What he was wearing?” Max thought about it a moment before answering.
“It...was pretty dark outside. I could only see that it was a man wearing a camo hunting jacket and dark pants with a hat. I couldn't really make out any details” Mulligan just nodded and wrote down Max's words before closing the notebook. He placed it away in his pocket with a sigh.
“Well...looks like whoever it was is gone now. We'll hang around here for the night, make sure that no one comes back”, the deputy said as he and Thornton started to turn back to the car. At their words, Chloe stepped forward to stop them.
“Wait, we aren't staying here! Some fucking maniac with an axe is wandering about!”, she shouted as the cops stopped to look at her.
“Miss, I understand your concern, but me and Mulligan will be here to watch over you two. We ain't gonna let anything happen to ya so don't worry”, Thornton said with an air that, to Chloe, sounded almost leacherous. Yeah that's what I'm also afraid of asshole, she thought as she opened her mouth to say more, but stopped as Max placed a hand on her arm. Chloe looked over at Max, but kept her mouth shut.
“Thank you. You understand if we still keep our door locked and blocked of course?”, Max asked of the two cops. They just nodded and got wished a good night, but Chloe was pretty sure she saw Thornton look disappointed. “Come on...let's get back inside”, Max said quietly to Chloe before taking her hand and leading her back inside. Once they were in, Max closed and locked the door. “Could you help me move the couch back?” she said quietly. Chloe didn't say anything and just helped Max move the couch back in front of the door.
Max sat on the floor and brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Chloe quietly sat and wrapped her arm around her girlfriend, pulling her close for a hug. “I saw you rewind a couple of times. Everything okay?”, she eventually asked. Max just sighed.
“After they saw my head, I tried to make it less noticeable, but they kept spotting it. I was worried they would think I just made it up. Then when they asked why were were up here, I accidentally let slip that we were here on a job. Panicked and rewound it.” Chloe just stroked Max's hair as she spoke. She was glad that there hadn't been more reasons to rewind. They stayed sitting in front of the couch for a few moments, Chloe running her fingers through Max's hair. She stopped as Max spoke next. “Chloe...I...I think the thing...KNEW I rewound time.” It took a solid minute before the words worked their way into Chloe's brain, and when they finally did, she couldn't believe what Max was saying.
“You...how could...Max why do you think that?”, she finally asked. Max stood and started to pace. Chloe just stayed sitting on the floor watching her.
“I don't know how to explain it. Just the more I think on it, it's the only thing I can think of. Even before I rewound time, you said that nothing was there. Then you opened the door and it was there ready to strike. I rewound everything and then when you opened the door again...it was gone! There's no porch here so it couldn't have been hiding beside the door and like you said, I didn't see it run off. Chloe...what other explanation is there?”
Chloe could hear the rising panic in Max's voice. Chloe stood and wrapped her in a hug again and stroked the back of her head, but she didn't know what to say Max. She hadn't wanted to say it , but it was the only conclusion she had come to as well. “I'm sorry I had us stay, but I just wanted to go back inside, to not talk with them anymore.” Chloe could only nod.
“It's okay. We're safe for tonight. Let's just get some sleep and tomorrow we can leave. Fuck this place.”
Max nodded before she spoke again. “Okay...but can we keep a light on?”
Chloe woke up to a knock on the cabin door. She tried to rub the sleep from her eyes, but found her arm trapped by the sleeping form of Max. She had wrapped herself around Chloe's arm before they went back to sleep last night and refused to let go. Chloe smiled as she gently extracted herself from Max's embrace. She was about to go answer in her sleepware, but the memory of the two cops waiting outside made her stop to put on some pants.
More suitably dressed, she walked over to the door and kneeled on the couch still blocking the door to look out the viewport. Standing in front of their door was another cop. He was dressed similar to Thornton from last night, but he was much younger. His hat bore a gold star along with another on his jacket that bore the words 'SHERIFF' on it. He scratched at his bearded face with his free hand while the other held a set of three coffees. Chloe blinked at the sight before standing back to push away the couch and open the door. As the door opened, the sheriff held up his hand in greeting. “Good morning! I understand you had some excitement here last night. I'm Sheriff Tim Breaker with the Bright Falls PD. I was hoping to ask you a few more questions. I brought some coffee because...well I just figured you could use some after your night.” He then took one out before handing the rest to Chloe. Confused, Chloe took the drink tray they were in.
“T-thank you for the coffee, but I don't know what else we could tell you. The two cops last night asked everything we knew”, she eventually said. Sheriff Breaker just nodded.
“They did, but I had some questions that I needed to ask that they didn't. I hope you don't mind coming down to the station to speak with me.” He gave a slight smile, but it faded when he saw Chloe grimace at his words. “I know you probably wanted to leave, but I'm afraid I have to insist. I think you're incident is related to some things I have been investigating and would really like to speak with you personally. I promise it won't take long, but if you could both come down to the station as soon as you can, I would appreciate it.” Chloe sighed. Well fuck...so much for getting out of here.