Chapter Text
It was a calm night for Arcadia Bay. The last few nights had been incredibly rainy, the wind incredibly loud against the windows of the dorms. Max hadn’t slept well for nights, so this calm night was essentially lulling her to sleep right where she sat. There is no way I get homework done this way, Max thought to herself as she closed the tab where she was writing her essay. She quickly opened up another tab though, and began exploring the internet. This was all she was doing those nights she couldn’t sleep. Attempting to learn more about her new ability, attempting to learn the ramifications of it, and then passing out at her desk when she was too exhausted to continue. It was a cycle, day after day, that Max repeated almost without fail at this point.
The worst part of it all was she was just finding the same old links every time she searched. Every single time, nothing new in the forums, no new breakouts in the science of it, just mostly the articles that Warren had already linked her. She knew about the search filters on most search engines and, out of boredom, she only allowed results from the last 24 hours. There will be no results, I already know it, she silently presumed in her head, but why not? She clicked the filter button and waited for the page to refresh. To her surprise, there was a result. A single result: “Help, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Confused and slightly intrigued, she clicked the link and it took her to a forum she already knew. It was all about paranormal occurrences, she had considered posting about her situation on the forum herself, but she never did. She didn’t want to be considered a freak or have people hunt her down and use her ability to their own benefit. Warren had linked her the site reluctantly, saying that he wasn’t very sure how accurate their information was, plus the fact that it was barely related to the concept of time travel anyways, not very useful for the “paper” she told him she needed the sources for.
In all her reminiscing, the page had loaded. Max scrolled down to the main text of the post and read in her head.
“Dear whoever’s reading this,
Hello, you don’t know me and I don’t want you to know me. I just need help with something that has come up recently in my life. I had no idea where to look, so I just asked this nerdy kid in my history class. He told me this wasn’t the first person who had asked him for information on this stuff, but I didn’t really care. Anyways, there have been some strange things happening in my life recently. I don’t know exactly how to explain it but I guess this is it.
I can time travel…”
Max stopped reading there. She couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t the only person who could time travel. She felt her heart jump into her throat with excitement. She had been isolated before, only really able to tell Chloe about her ability, but now she had someone who understood. She wanted to read the rest of it, but her mind was so giddy and floaty, she had to spend a few minutes just calming down. After taking some time to herself, calming down, Max went back to reading the post with a new anticipation.
“I can time travel. I know, some of you might think that I’m crazy for saying this. But I promise, I thought I was crazy too. But I swear that I can. The only time where I know for a fact that I did it was in my math class earlier today. The teacher was boring, the lecture was unnecessary, and I had to at least act like I was paying attention. I already knew most of what she was talking about so I was entirely waiting for her to ask a question so I could answer it. She just kept rambling, so I started fidgeting with my pencil. Low and behold, it flew out of my hand, but when I reached out to catch it: it happened. Time started going backwards. Slowly at first, but progressively faster and faster. I was so confused that in the moment I just dropped my arm, causing the reversing to stop.
It was crazy. It was like I never even got my pencil out of my bag to even act like I was taking notes. It was genuinely five minutes earlier in the lesson and I had no idea how to react. I just sat there stunned and it was clear my teacher noticed. I promptly asked her if I could go to the restroom after this incident and I just sat there for a few minutes, deciding whether I should test it again. How would I even test it again? I couldn’t go for anything too blatant, especially if it didn’t work.
So this is me, asking first, has this happened for anyone else? I can’t imagine I’m the only one this has happened to. Is this a case of Déjà vu? Is this me losing my mind? And if it isn’t, how would I even go about testing it again? Am I the only one that remembers things from before I rewind time? HELP ME UNDERSTAND!!!!”
The post ended there, it seemed and not a single person had replied. Max was half tempted to ignore it, but curiosity got the better of her as she typed out her reply, possibly a bit too enthusiastically:
“Hello! Oh my god hello! I know you don’t know me, but you and me both have a thing in common. We both can do this! I know it sounds crazy, but believe me, I’ve tested it out plenty of times. Even saved someone’s life with it once. It was pretty crazy. I just wanted to tell you that you are not losing your mind, you are not going insane and there is someone out there like you. Even if it feels like a lost cause, there is at least one other person who can rewind time like you.”
Even with her excitement, Max attempted to stay composed, but that flew out the window every time the stranger replied. The replies came rather quickly, too. It was almost like this person had been waiting for someone to reply all day. Max and the stranger chatted back and forth for about an hour before she realized something. The stranger’s account had a location. That location was Arcadia Bay. The stranger was in her town.