Ch. 96: Hall of Maxine

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX
Kyle~
Ally was able to temporarily morph the ward. Not by much, but by enough for me to get closer to what we all felt was Maxine’s room. Evan and Nick got us very close using their wolf stealth. It was crazy being that close when they moved around, not making a sound. I knew they were part animal, but still, watching it up close right in front of me was unreal.
They helped us move into a good position, and then I took Ally’s hand again (despite the warning glare from Nick), and I led us somewhere else.
I went straight for Maxine. We had been right, this was her room we were next to. Before I knew it I was in a carnival at night, an abandoned one - like we were in an edgy episode of Scooby Doo. There was a ferris wheel, a ‘fun house,’ a few carnival game booths, slides, and other blinking things. A dark figure rushed past. And my head spun around trying to make out what it was or where it was going. But it disappeared. Walking on, I looked for a way into her mind. Maxine herself came running past, being chased by another dark figure. Nightmare, she was having a nightmare. Good.
I walked on, looking for anything significant or out of place. The spinning, whirling rides, the game stands, the blinking lights - they were all too obvious. Too busy. Walking on I came by a game booth with all sorts of prizes. But one that looked out of place. A white rabbit. I smiled to myself, wishing someone else were here with me so I could make an Alice in Wonderland reference. Wasted reference without an audience.
I picked up the rabbit and looked into its eyes. It’s nose twitched.
I was suddenly in a grass field. A young blond girl was in front of me, intently watching a rabbit from beyond some tall grass. Something snapped - maybe a tree branch - and she whipped her head to the source, seeing a woman that looked disappointed, her arms crossed. The girl ran over to the woman, and the woman turned away from her, ignoring the little girl’s open arms searching for a hug.
The girl, Maxine, lowered her head and followed the woman up over a hill, and I followed them until they were out of view. They walked on further until they neared a cabin. Here it was.
Dreams always left an opening to and from the subconscious. And if you looked well enough in the subconscious, you would find some sort of storage place for memories. Now Dream Walkers were incredibly secretive about our ability to go deeper than dreams. And to enter someone’s subconscious was seen as a severe violation. To go into memories? It was both dangerous and deeply against the rules. But I didn’t care. I marched on.
I followed them inside the cabin, being careful not to stand too close to them. From everything I have been told about this, I knew it was a bad idea for the NPC-style people in here to realize you shouldn’t be in here. Minds did have a sort of defensive system, and if I wasn’t careful I could damage Maxine’s mind, or risk waking her up. Staying a few steps behind, I entered the cabin. They walked on and entered one of the many doors in this seemingly endless hallway. Doors of different styles and colors covered the walls along both sides, the overhead lights flickering on and off. Something felt a little off in here, and I considered going back out for a moment. Rachel came to mind, and I replayed what I had seen that had led me here, and I regained my resolve. No. I needed to keep going.
Time to nut up or shut up, as Tallahassee would say. A Zombieland reference for no one.
I took a deep breath and continued on. All kinds of sounds and lights came through the cracks in the doors. It didn’t seem like they had any sort of logical system to them. I opened one to see a very young Maxine sitting at a window all sad on a rainy day. I opened one next to it to see a baby Maxine crying in a crib with no one in the house. I angrily shut that door. I didn’t want to get all sympathetic for her here.
The next door she appeared to be around the age she currently is. At first it wasn’t clear what was going on and I held onto the door handle as I watched. Maxine was behind a building and a car pulled up, out came some girl I was unfamiliar with. She had a small frame, long straight black hair, and almond eyes. The look on her face labeled her immediately as a brat. Her arms were crossed, and her nose was basically in the air as she marched up to Maxine.
“So you’re her?” the black haired girl said all snottily.
I was already rolling my eyes at this one.
“Yeah,” Maxine said, looking completely unsure of herself.
The black haired girl walked up closer, her nose firmly in the air. “I don’t normally consort with your kind,” she started, her voice sneering at ‘your kind.’
Maxine looked down at the floor and said, “I did what we were asked. Was something wrong?”
“Yes, I mean she’s still alive,” the black hair girl grinned with a glint of death in her eyes.
“I just did what I was told,” she said back, hands in her pockets.
“Yeah, yeah,” the black-haired girl waved her off. “Look, tell your cult leader of whatever that if he wants what I promised him, he’ll need to send in someone who can do more damage than a little girl with some fire in her palm.”
The light in the room flickered, making me nervous that the memory was nearing its end. I don’t know enough about places like this to know if that could do something to me. I started to close the door and re-enter the hallway when I heard another voice call out, “That’s right Sophie! You make sure those cockroaches know who they’re dealing with.”
I looked back once more to see a man walking up to join the black-haried girl. And one more glance at Maxine told me she was not pleased with any of this.
I spent more time looking at several other rooms, and then something began to make it all feel wobbly.
Ally’s hand squeezed mine in a long slow way, our signal that I needed to get out, go back to the real world. Time to go!
I ran as fast as I could back out down the hallway. Things shook even more. Ugh! I couldn’t get much that was helpful! We would need to come do this again…
Finally I made it out the door and threw it open. And I ran out into the blinding light, and smacked right into something. Someone - I realized when I looked up from the ground. It was a very young Maxine. She looked disoriented at first, and then her eyes focused on me.
Oh sht.
I flew to my feet and ran with everything I had. Hearing little feet running behind me. I made the mistake of glancing back as I headed back to the field and rabbit, and there was a horror-movie version of little girl Maxine. She was demonic in her look. Huge black pits for eyes, her mouth frothing, her body running at an unreal speed, her hands reaching out for me, growling. It was like being chased by a crazy fast zombie.
I ran past a few trees with fruit and reached out to grab whatever I could and throw it behind me.
If I were watching all this, I would likely think it was hilarious. A guy running away from a zombie girl, throwing apples behind him without any sort of strategy.
Finally one of the apples hit and she lost her focus long enough to run straight into a tree. I ran faster somehow, my lungs in real life at this speed would have given up on me.
Now where was that field from before? They all looked the same out here!
She was getting up as I gathered more apples and then out of the corner of my field of vision I saw something white in the grass. Rabbit.
I threw an apple at her as hard as I could and missed. Then another, it knocked her over, her balance thrown off. I dove for the rabbit and landed a few feet from it. Evil little Maxine growled and lunged for me as I grabbed a stick off the ground and I swung it around wildly. She grabbed the branch from me and snapped it in half, her mouth opening, showing me sharp teeth and oozing blackness coming out from her mouth.
Ew, ew, ew. I scooted back on my side and reached out again, my hand flailing around reaching for that da!n rabbit. She threw the branch and lunged forward right when I finally put my hand on white fur. I looked down making eye contact with this rabbit and -
I was back at the carnival. Holding a stuffed rabbit. I threw it down and focused on my ability for a moment. I opened my eyes to see Evan’s face right in front of mine.
“Run,” he mouthed.
We all took off.