Archive of Our Own ^beta

The school hadn't changed much. She got a bunch of curious glances - Chloe Price wasn't a familiar sight at Blackwell Academy anymore, and with her butterfly blue hair and tank top, she stood out against the preppy, varsity jackets and sweater crowd of the prestigious Blackwell Academy. It hadn't changed at all since she'd left. Only the faces had. Steph and Mikey and Elliot and all the rest had long since left the school. Dana was still there, though, and that stuck-up bitch Victoria, who gasped when she saw her and then moved off with her nose up in the air. Carbon Uranium Nitrogen Tin, Chloe remembered with a smirk.

It didn't matter. Nathan - that disgusting freak - was in the bathroom waiting for her. It still made her shudder, thinking about him. When she'd woken up in his room, half-naked, him with a camera in his hand...her skin crawled. She'd showered three times the next day and still hadn't felt quite clean. But he'd given her the opportunity she needed. He was hella rich, and she and Rachel needed hella money to get out of Arcadia Bay. A few thousand dollars - he could afford it easy - and they'd be gone for good, and he wouldn't be expelled or arrested for trying to drug and rape her.

The bathroom was as shitty as she remembered. The walls were clean, but half the lights were burned out and there were pieces of toilet paper and empty toilet paper rolls on the floor. And in the middle...Nathan Prescott. Her stomach roiled when she saw him again, bile rising in her throat, but she forced it down. He was going to give her exactly what she wanted.

His voice was as whiny and shaky as she'd ever heard him. It wasn't a surprise he'd had to drug her. She remembered him his freshman year at Blackwell, when she'd had to save him from Drew North, or when he'd almost collapsed at the Tempest. He never had a spine. "So what do you want?"

"I hope you checked the perimeter, as my step-ass would say," she said coolly, walking past him and checking each of the stalls. "Now, let's talk bidness."

"I got nothing for you."

"Wrong. You've got hella cash."

Nathan suddenly turned violently, reaching into his jacket...oh, SHIT. "You don't know who the fuck I am, or who you're messing around with!" He had a gun. It was silver and grey - it looked new - as he pointed it directly at her. She stepped back, her heart suddenly hammering. It wasn't supposed to go like this.

"Wh-where'd you get that! What are you doing?" Her voice was suddenly shaking a little. But...no, I've been through worse than this. Damion Merrick. "Come on, put that thing down!"

It was the wrong thing to say, she realized as his eyes suddenly flared in rage. "Don't ever tell me what to do! I'm so sick of people trying to control me!"

She took a step back, her hands still up as she fought to keep her voice under control. He couldn't do anything. Prescott or no, if he shot that thing, the entire school would hear it. There'd be no way he could get away with it - even the Prescotts couldn't get away with murder. "You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs - "

He cut her off, gesturing violently with the gun. "Nobody would ever even miss your punk ass, would they?" He punctuated the sentence by jamming the gun into her stomach and suddenly it was too much for Chloe. He was too close, she could smell him, like the night when she'd woken up with him undressing her, the gun was too close. She grabbed the gun, trying to pull it away, get it away from her as she shouted. "Get that gun away from me, psycho!"

"What is it thou can'st demand?"

"My liberty!"

"Thy liberty? ...nay, this most of all I will not grant!"

Chloe blinked. This was familiar...no, it had been...wait, it was her line. She blinked, looking up at Rachel - as stunning as ever, even in that ridiculous magician costume. "But thou assured my freedom, didn'st thou?"

"I never said how dearly I hold thee; my habit's been to keep my soul well-draped. Most loyal spirit...companion, and friend. Is acting in my service not replete with excitement, amusement, and delight?"

"Of course, mistress...most truly, it is so..."

"Then why, I pray you, wish you to be free?"

"Excitement's a mere...counterfeit of bliss. These storms and adventures...I prefer...to know thou still cared for my...plainest self."

"I have thee in my grasp; I will not bend. I will not see thee flying forth alone! The envy would be more than I could bear."

"So come with me! Is that not in thy power?"

Rachel kneeled before her, reaching up and taking her by the hand. "Spirit, take my hands...most faithful friend. For but a little longer, I beseech: continue in thy service to my schemes. And when they are complete, I swear to thee - we shall fly beyond this isle, the corners of the world our mere prologue. I'll seek to make thy happiness so great, that e'en the name of liberty's forgot. What sayest thou to my most hopeful wish?"

There was silence as Chloe stared at Rachel. Is is just a dream? Is this part of the play? She's so far off-script...is this for real? Her lips trembled as she stared into those beautiful green eyes, wide with emotion, so earnestly staring at her. Someone from a great distance shouted, "Say yes!", but Chloe couldn't even hear her. Her lips parted, trembling, her voice quiet - but the entire audience was so silent, even the crickets stilling their chirping, that everyone could hear the word.

"Yes."

A cheer rose from the crowd, almost drowning out Rachel's next words as she rose. "I am most pleased..." but the rest of Rachel's speech Chloe could barely hear, much less understand. She was still too dazed by the sight of perfect green eyes and that smile that had curled across her friend's lips when she'd said yes. Suddenly, she realized Rachel was gesturing for her to get off the stage and she stumbled towards stage left.

"Remember that?"

Chloe blinked as she looked over. That was why the scene had felt so surreal - she hadn't been in her own shoes. Or...she had. Wait, what was going on? Rachel was sitting next to her with her feet up on the dash of her truck. They'd been watching through the windshield...no...they'd just been on the stage. Where was the audience? What is going on?

"Rachel? What...where are we?"

She laughed. "At the junkyard. Space out much?"

"But I was just..." she frowned. She'd been somewhere else, doing something else...but it didn't seem important to figure out what right now. Something else was nagging at her brain. She felt like it should be important that Rachel was there now, but...why would that be odd? They'd spent every day together for the last three years.

"Come on. I want to play a game." That was the Rachel she knew. That playful smile on her lips as she grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of the truck.

"What are we gonna play?"

"I don't know. I'll pick a game."

"...alright." That was Rachel, spur of the moment, and Chloe always following breathlessly behind, trying to keep up with her as they breathlessly rushed from storm to storm.

"Easy. Come here." Rachel sat down on the bench, looking out over the Bay for a moment. The lighthouse was always beautiful, but today it was especially beautiful - the sky was a perfect clear gold, the sun slowly setting over the Pacific ocean, red and gold light filtering through the trees. Max would've loved to take a picture of this. Chloe sat down, that old familiar feeling of joy in her chest. It felt...odd, like she hadn't felt it in such a long time. But of course that was crazy, because she felt like this - like anything was possible, every time she was around Rachel, and she'd just seen Rachel yesterday.

Her beautiful best friend leaned her head against Chloe's shoulder and she protectively wrapped her arm around her Rachel's shoulders. She basked in the moment for a while, Rachel listening to her breathing, Chloe feeling the silky strands of her friend's golden hair. Finally, she cleared her throat. "So...you wanted to play a game?"

Rachel nodded after a moment - almost reluctantly. Weird, because Rachel was never reluctant. She had always dived right into things, grasped at what she wanted with the confidence of a girl who always got it.

"Right. I don't know...maybe a game's not the best thing to do right now."

"Why not?"

"It's....hella complicated. Like you, Chloe Price."

"You're being hella weird right now, Rachel Amber."

Rachel drew back, stung, staring at Chloe like she couldn't believe that she'd said that to her, tears starting to fall from her eyes. Chloe's fingers itched to wipe the tears away from those perfect cheeks, her arms itched to wrap around her lover's waist, her lips itched to settle against those indescribably soft lips. But she remained where she was, staring incredulously at Rachel.

"I'm sorry, Chloe."

"Why are you telling me this?" She turned, her gaze out towards the ocean, towards all those memories. She could see her first kiss with Rachel, their breathless making out on a street sprinkled with ash. Her first fight - then she'd gone and smashed up the junkyard. The park, dinner with the parents, The Tempest, the first time they'd had sex, the pictures and the graffiti and the darts and the trains and the storms and the fires all blending together into an insane whirlwind of exhileration and excitement and passion. If she looked at Rachel, she'd forgive her.

Her angel took a deep breath. Her voice was broken, and that broke Chloe too. "Because...you have a choice now, Chloe."

"Wrong," she said with a bitter laugh. "Hella wrong. Just like everything else that's ever happened in this town, I never had a real choice about any of it." She curled her hands into fists as she stared at the sunset. But then Rachel said something quietly that made her pause.

"No, Chloe. You do have a choice now...and it's more than anyone else ever gets to choose."

She turned to look into those sad green eyes as Rachel reached out take her hands. Rachel's hands were just as soft as she remembered, taking her left hand in both of hers. "What are you talking about?"

"Chloe...I disappeared. Six months ago."

"You what? Wait..." Memories started appearing around them. Months of fevered terror, anxiety, hopelessness and despair and confusion and anger. Months of printing missing posters, posting them everywhere, talking to everyone and finding nothing until even the police gave up. Months of forced optimism and delusional hope, still stockpiling for their get-out-of-Arcadia-Bay fund, until - a bathroom, and a loud - BANG!

She turned, staring at Rachel in shock. "Rachel...oh my god, what happened to you, where are we? What the fuck is going on?"

The ghost stood. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I would never have left you of my own choice. But I didn't get one."

A chill gripped her as she stared at Rachel. "Rachel...no...you don't mean..."

She turned, looking sadly at Chloe. "That's why I'm here. And that's why you're here." She wasn't looking at her face, she was looking...

Chloe looked down. The blood was pouring from her abdomen. She could see the hole where the bullet had punched through her. The sight didn't terrify her nearly as much as it should have. She was just...numb. Rachel was dead...she'd been dead...why had she died? What kind of world would've taken away someone like her? So beautiful, so smart, so...indescribably awesome? Even if she'd cheated on her...it was Rachel. Her dying was a loss for the entire world. Not like Chloe. It was like Nathan said. No one would even miss her punk ass.

"You have to make a choice now, Chloe. Because you can survive this."

"What are you talking about?"

Rachel gently took Chloe's hands. "The bullet...it's bad. But it's not necessarily fatal. And you...get a choice. One I didn't. One most people don't get."

"Whether to live or not? How am I supposed to live without you? What sort of fucked up..."

Rachel gently pressed a finger against Chloe's lips. "Just listen, Chloe. I want to show you something."

"More memories?"

"Ones you don't have. That doesn't make them any less real."

"What are you talking about?"

Rachel turned her to look towards the forest. She could see herself stumbling up the path to the lighthouse. She had someone's arm around her, someone with brown hair and a pink jacket on, and a camera in one hand...Max?

She and Max collapsed after a moment, sitting down at the edge of the cliff as she looked desperately at Max. There was that weird sense of vertigo again as she watched herself talking to Max...but she could see Max through her own eyes. She was both the actor and the audience...but she could feel her desperation as she looked at her unconscious friend.

"Max! Max, can you hear me? Please say something!"

Max's voice was as soft and gentle as it had ever been, even when they were kids. "Chloe? I...I must have passed out...sorry..."

"Oh, thank god. Don't you ever do that again, okay?"

"I-I swear. But that nightmare...it was so real. Was so horrible..."

And then, suddenly, Chloe could see dozens of scenes playing out in tandem, all scattered around the lighthouse. There she and Max were in their underwear on her bed, laughing as Max took a selfie of the two of them. There they were in the Blackwell pool after hours, breaking in and owning the school and running circles around David. There was Max kissing her for the first time on a dare, and her so flattened by it and guilty about kissing Max when Rachel was missing that she'd just frozen. The memories she'd never had flooded into her head, shocking in their vivacity and clarity. The anguish when they'd found Rachel's grave, the bitter acceptance that David was trying to protect everyone, the horror of what Nathan and Mr. Jefferson had done to all those girls, to Kate, and to Rachel, and almost to Chloe.

She staggered, gasping, and it was only Rachel's arm around her that held her up as images flooded in front of her eyes and inside her eyes. Her mother crouching in the diner with Frank and Pompidou and Warren, praying to God that the diner wouldn't give way to the storm of the century. Everyone dying, the town destroyed so thoroughly it'd never come back - until...until -

"You could use that photo...to change everything right back to when you took that picture...all that would take is for me to - for me to..."

"Fuck that! No, no way. You are my number one priority now. You are all that matters to me."

"I know...you proved that over, and over again. Even though I don't deserve it..."

Chloe groaned as she clutched her head. All the memories of the future, or the past, or...an alternate future...she could feel all the emotions flooding through her in quicktime, like she was living that entire week in a flash. Fury and joy and anguish and ecstasy all mingled and flew through her. And as she looked, she could see all the other memories. Her past, her life. All the moments, the secrets, the terrors and joys shared with Rachel, the horrible moment when Rachel had killed Damon Merrick and saved her life, all those moments with her father, making pancakes in the kitchen, hiking, talking about Paris, until he'd left and Max had abandoned her...

She suddenly felt drained as she sat down on the bench, Rachel gently supporting her weight. Finally, she managed to croak out the words. "What...what am I supposed to choose?" She could feel Max's rough lips against hers, the cold rain dripping from her blue hair onto her neck, Max's hand on her cheek. She could feel Rachel's perfectly cared-for lips, too, and the warmth of her hand, and the ash falling from the sky.

"He wanted you to know that he's really proud of you too."

Chloe swallowed back tears as she looked at the sea. "What do I do?"

"That's up to you. Max is waiting for you back in Arcadia Bay, and Joyce, and David, and everyone else. They all miss you and they love you. You can go back to them. Or...we can turn left instead of right on the road back."

"And where would we go?"

"Out of Arcadia Bay."

Chloe swallowed, looking out at the ocean again. Max...Joyce...Rachel...William...how could she make this choice? What would happen if she made either decision? She could see a whale rising out of the ocean in the distance as the sun crept below the horizon.

"Rachel?"

"Yeah?"

"This day has really sucked."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You know what hella doesn't suck?"

She looked up, green eyes faint with that hopeful look she'd had sometimes, her lips parted slightly.

"Me?"

"You really, really don't." The first night they'd really spent hanging out together, cutting class and finding out about...her father...they'd had this same conversation. Only now, their roles in the conversation were switched.

"Even with Frank?"

"Even so." She glanced at Rachel, thinking about all those memories she'd experienced again. "I love you, Rachel."

She felt the ghost's fingers interlace with hers.

"I love you too, Chloe."

"You mean it?"

"What would it take to prove it?"

She stood up after a moment, her resolve finally hardened as she turned. Rachel stood with her, bright green eyes looking up into Chloe's sea blue eyes. "Chloe?"

"How about a kiss?"

Rachel's eyes widened for a moment, then that familiar, mischievous grin spread across her face. Chloe leaned down, setting her hand on Rachel's cheek as she gently pressed her lips against her lover's. Rachel's lips parted softly as she made that soft noise in the back of her throat that she always had when Chloe had leaned into her, her arms wrapping around Chloe as they poured themselves into a single embrace. Then, finally, Chloe broke the kiss.

For the first time, she led Rachel by the hand as she ran towards the truck, pulling Rachel along behind her. "Come on. Let's get the hell out of Arcadia Bay."