Chapter Text
0
In the distance, a crow cawed and Chloe woke up with a start.
Her heart felt like it was racing a mile a minute and her mouth was dry and cottony.
“What?” Chloe whispered, blinking slowly.
She was in her room—laying down in her bed—and the TV was turned on, playing a movie in the background.
Chloe sniffed. Her nose was dry too.
Continuing her inspection, Chloe looked down at her hands, poking at the skin there with a frown. Everything felt kinda tingly and she was having a hard focusing on anything for too long.
A second passed.
“Oh god,” Chloe mumbled, running a hand through her hair. “The fucking brownie.”
Everything came back to her slowly. Frank had given her a weed brownie for free and asked her to test it out and let him know just how high she ended up feeling.
Very, very high, as it turned out.
Thinking was hard, so Chloe turned towards the TV and smiled dopilly when she saw Roy Batty about to launch into his iconic ‘Tears in the rain’ monologue on the screen.
She really, really liked Blade Runner.
Settling down to watch it, Chloe felt her eyes grow heavy very quickly and, within minutes, she had drifted off back to sleep.
1
Chloe’s eyes snapped open and she groaned.
Everything looked weird and she felt a bit dizzy.
“How am I still this high?” Chloe asked out loud, fishing her phone out of the front pocket of her jeans to check the hour.
It was 8:25 pm .
Chloe groaned again, putting her phone down on the bed.
It felt like she had been high for hours now, but she distinctly remembered eating the brownie somewhere around six and it hadn’t even hit her until well past seven o’clock, so that meant that Chloe had just been high for about an hour now.
A sudden wave of anxiety washed over Chloe. What if this never ended? What if this became her new reality? A world forever out of focus and a brain too slow to ever hope to catch up with it.
“Stop it,” Chloe growled, punching the bed and turning back towards the TV, where Roy Batty had just saved Deckard from falling to his death. “You’re just high, stupid.”
Taking a deep breath, Chloe settled back down to watch the movie, focusing intently on Roy’s monologue and mouthing the words along with him, letting the familiar cadence of the speech relax her.
The absolute last thing she needed was to have a bad trip on an edible when Rachel wasn’t around to calm her down.
A muscle in Chloe’s calf started to twitch uncomfortably, but Chloe forced herself to ignore it, keeping her eyes fixed on the TV screen until, slowly, she managed to drift back to sleep.
2
Chloe woke up with a gasp.
She was in her room, laying down on her bed with Blade Runner playing in the background and she was still high as fuck .
“What the hell?” Chloe asked, feeling her heart beating a mile a minute. “How long has it been?”
Reaching into the front pocket of her jeans, Chloe pulled out her phone and whimpered when the screen came to life and she saw the clock.
It read 8:25 pm .
“That’s not right,” Chloe mumbled, shaking her phone as if that would be enough to make the time change. “That can’t be right. No way it’s been only an hour.”
On the TV screen, Roy Batty helped Deckard climb up to the rooftop, just about to launch into his iconic speech. Chloe tensed up.
Hadn’t that happened already?
Chloe whimpered again, jumping out of bed and pressing the speed dial button to call Rachel before she had really stopped to think about it.
The phone rang once—Chloe moved backwards until her back hit the wall—then twice—God, the time between rings felt like an eternity—then three times.
Shouting, Chloe tossed the phone to the other side of the room and crouched into a ball on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest.
Deep breaths , Chloe thought, running her hands through her hairs in a frenzy, deep breaths.
“Rachel is at a Vortex club party,” Chloe said, drumming her fingers on top of her head and trying to calm her breathing. “I eat a weed brownie that Frank gave me and now I’m freaking out because I’m in for an 8 hour ride and it’s only been an hour.”
A little voice in the back of Chloe’s head told her that something wasn’t quite right about that sentence—that she had been freaking out about another reason altogether and that there was something really, really wrong going on right now—but Chloe squashed down that train of thought and focused on keeping her breaths nice and even.
She wasn’t unfamiliar with the sense of dread that too much weed could bring on and Chloe refused to fall down that rabbit hole tonight.
“Last time you freaked out, Rachel had to sneak out of Blackwell’s dorms in the middle of the night to calm your dumb ass down,” Chloe mumbled, “you’re not pulling her out of the party with another freak out. You got this.”
It was a slow process. First, the trembling on her muscles died down—Chloe hadn’t realized she had been shaking like crazy until she wasn’t anymore, and the relief was startling—then her heart rate came back to normal and then, finally, Chloe’s mind drifted back to the calm and weightless feeling of a good trip.
Now feeling back in control of herself, Chloe stretched out her legs and sighed, laughing softly at how stupid she had been.
Crawling to the other side of the room—standing didn’t seemed to be a good idea, with how dizzy she still felt—Chloe searched around for her fallen phone and found it sitting on top of a pile of laundry, luckily intact.
Turning it on, Chloe check the time.
It was 9:40 pm .
“Fuck,” Chloe said, laughing, “five more hours to go.”
Dumping her phone back down on top of the laundry pile, Chloe crawled her way back to the bed and laid down on top of the covers, turning towards the TV. At some point the movie had ended and gone back to the menu, staying there on a loop.
“That’s not good,” Chloe mumbled, reaching into her nightstand for the DVD controller and starting the movie back up.
She was never doing an edible again, Chloe decided, hugging one of her pillows to her chest and blinking heavily, it just wasn’t worth it.
3
Chloe opened her eyes, slowly.
It was still dark out and her limbs felt unnaturally relaxed. Sighing, Chloe turned around and went back to sleep.
6
Chloe woke up.
Her eyes were heavy and there was the hint of a headache pounding on the back of her head, but she was almost clear headed for the first time in what felt like ages.
“Fuck,” Chloe said, rubbing her eyes, “weed is not supposed to give you a headache.”
Then again, maybe that was less the weed’s fault and more because she had slept her way through most of the effect of the brownie.
Stretching, Chloe yawned and turned towards the TV, frowning when she saw Roy Batty save Deckard from falling to his death.
Had she started the movie back up at some point?
Most of the night was a blur of colors and feelings that Chloe didn’t want to dwell in, but little flashes still came back to her.
“Yeah,” Chloe mumbled, turning off the screen. “I do remember doing that.”
With another stretch, Chloe got out of bed, almost stumbling when her eyes landed on the window and she saw the night sky blinking down at her. Either she had woken up incredibly early or she had managed to sleep the whole day away.
“Fuck,” Chloe whispered, searching around the room for her phone. She vaguely remembered leaving it on the floor the last time she had been up, but she didn’t see it anywhere.
Maybe it was on the bed? She had dumped it there at some point, hadn’t she?
A quick search revealed it wasn’t there either, but Chloe did found the aluminum wrapper that the brownie had been in and she tossed that to the trash with disgust.
That was the last edible she did for a while—and the last one she ever did without Rachel, period—that was for sure.
Sighing, Chloe grabbed her sneakers and sat down to put them on, frowning when she felt something dig into her hip as soon as she did.
“No way,” Chloe said, reaching into the front pocket of her jeans and coming up with her phone. “You were in my pocket the whole time?”
Laughing, Chloe turned the screen on and checked the time, feeling her heart jump in her chest as soon as she did.
8:38 pm .
“No fucking way,” Chloe muttered, tossing her sneakers to the side. “I really did sleep all day?”
A quick check told her there were no new messages, so Chloe sent Rachel a quick text asking if she had gotten home okay and stood up.
Both David and her Mom were going to be really pissed when they saw her—Chloe was actually really surprised that they hadn’t decided to wake her up before now—so she wasn’t in a hurry to go downstairs.
Deciding to buy a little time, Chloe sneaked to the bathroom and took a long, luxurious shower, washing away the grueling night and feeling a lot better once she was done.
Now ready to face the day, Chloe made her way downstairs.
Joyce was in the kitchen, swaying to a song on the radio as she cooked, and on the living room, David was watching a game on TV and drinking a beer. Neither of them seemed particularly angry, but Chloe was still wary when she entered the kitchen.
“Hi mom.” Chloe started, deciding to try for casual. “What’s for dinner?”
“Oh, hey there, honey.” Joyce said, turning down the heat from the pan in front of her, where a mix of mushrooms and spinach was simmering. Chloe frowned, she wasn’t feeling particularly hungry which was weird after sleeping for so long. “I’m just putting together something to go along with the meat I bought from the market.”
“Awesome,” Chloe said, rocking in the balls of her feet and waited, but Joyce didn’t say anything else.
Chloe wasn’t sure if her Mom expected her to make some sort of excuse for sleeping all day, but she figured it was best not to mention. It wouldn’t be the first time she slept all day, to be honest. Her insomnia had her crashing at odd hours sometimes and if Joyce wasn’t mad about it, why ruin a good thing by bringing it up?
“I’m going out back for a quick smoke and then I’m all yours.” Chloe said eventually, gesturing towards the backdoor. “Back in a flash.”
Joyce sighed. “I really wish you would quit, honey.”
“And I really wished you would dump David,” Chloe replied, scoffing, “but sometimes we don’t get the things we wish for.”
Not giving Joyce a chance to reply, Chloe walked out the door. Outside, the night air was cold against her skin and Chloe shivered.
“Should have brought a hoodie,” Chloe mumbled, taking out a cigarette from the pack she always kept on her back pocket and lighting up. “I’m going to freeze my ass off.”
With the warm smoke running through her lungs, Chloe sat down on the porch and let the nicotine calm down her surprisingly jittery nerves.
“I’m not even sure what I’m anxious about,” Chloe grumbled, pulling out her phone and checking her messages. Nothing. Maybe that was it, maybe she was worried because Rachel hadn’t checked in with her all day—not that it would be the first time Rachel had forgotten to call—or maybe it just was a lingering effect from the weed. Either way, Chloe took another drag from her smoke and scrolled down her contacts until she found Frank, sending him a quick text: ‘ ur brownie is a killer man, it knocked me out all day”
About ten minutes later, when Chloe was working through her second cigarette, her phone pinged with a message from Frank. ‘ U still high, Price?’
Chloe snorted. ‘It’s been a day dude, they don’t last that long’
The response came immediately. ‘ LOL, just sleep it off, kid, we’ll talk tomorrow’
Chloe stared at the message for a good minute or so, trying to figure out what Frank had meant by that, only putting her phone away when she heard Joyce call her in for dinner.
The plates were already served and David was sitting at the head of the table when Chloe arrived, giving her a disapproving look when she plopped down on her seat. “So, you decided to join us for dinner after all.”
Of course , Chloe thought, rolling her eyes, here comes the lecture .
“I sure did, but I’m sure you would have been happier if I had stayed another day up in my room.”
“You were the one that said you were going to skip dinner.” David said, frowning.
“That was yesterday,” Chloe grumbled, “I didn’t mean I would skip all dinners from then on.”
“What are you…” Whatever he was going to complain about got interrupted when Joyce came in from the kitchen with the roast beef and slammed it down on the table with a little more force than was necessary, clearly trying to interrupt the brewing argument.
“Dinner is done, time to dig in!”
Chloe frowned, but decided to let it go. David seemed to have the same idea, because he shut his mouth and focused on his plate.
The rest of the meal passed pretty peacefully, at least until Chloe was about halfway done with her plate and feeling pretty full. That’s when she began to feel… weird.
Chloe dropped her fork and put a hand on her chest.
Her heart was racing.
“Everything okay, sweetie?” Joyce asked, putting a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and looking her over with a concerned eye.
“Yes,” Chloe said, clearing her throat. “I think so.”
Chloe tried to get back to her food, but it was hard to stay still when her heart was hammering away in her chest. After a couple of minutes, Chloe dropped her fork again and stood up from the table.
“I…” Chloe turned towards her Mom and blinked hard. Her vision was blurring—the colors merging together and making it impossible to see anything—and her heart still felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. “I don’t feel…”
7
Chloe opened her eyes.
She was laying down in bed, with Blade Runner playing in the background.
“What?” Chloe asked, stumbling out of bed. “What was that?”
Her head hurt, but Chloe barely felt it, looking around the room wildly. “What the fuck is going on!?”
Distantly, Chloe realized she was shaking, hard , but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.
“What the FUCK?”
Chloe’s back hit the wall and she slid down to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking herself in place, clenching and unclenching her fist over and over again.
“I… I passed out. I passed out and David brought me up here. Everything is fine, I just… I passed out.”
The shaking was still there, but Chloe could almost think again. That made sense. She had just passed out, maybe from not eating or drinking water all day and David had carried her up to her room. Everything was fine. Chloe took a deep breath and reached into her pocket for her phone, intending to call Rachel, but dropped it to the floor as soon as the screen turned on.
The clock said it was 8:27 pm , Friday night. The same night she had gotten the brownie from Frank.
Chloe didn’t realize she was screaming until David slammed her door open, gun at the ready, and it was only the shock from watching him there that stunned her into silence.
“What?! What happened?!”
Chloe opened her mouth—to say what, she wasn’t sure—but no words came out.
David turned towards her and lowered his gun, approaching her slowly. “Are you alright, Chloe?”
Shaking her head, Chloe tried to stand up, only to fall back down to the floor when her legs refused to hold her up.
David rushed towards her, a look of deep concern in his eyes when he put a hand on her shoulder. “Was someone here?”
Chloe shook her head again.
“Did you take something?” David asked, frowning.
A startled laugh fell from Chloe’s mouth and, once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop, laughing hysterically as she watched the concern on David’s face turn slowly to fury.
“A weed brownie,” Chloe said eventually, still laughing. “Two hours ago.”
“Dammit, Chloe.” Next thing she knew, David was pulling her up by the armpits until Chloe was back on her feet. “We’re going to sober you up and once we do, there’s gonna be hell to pay, young lady.”
Chloe wanted to protest. She wanted to tell him that she knew what being high felt like and this was not it, not by a long shot, tell him to call Rachel, because Chloe needed her, so, so badly right now or maybe even tell him that there was something wrong with time . But the words refused to come. Chloe ended up letting him drag her downstairs and dump her on the couch, listening in silence as David explained everything to her mom and tossed accusations after accusations towards Chloe, calling her a drug addict and telling Joyce that this was the last straw.
And while all of that happened, Chloe stared down at her phone and watched the seconds pass by, trying to make sense of everything that had happened in the last few hours.
She wasn’t high. Chloe wasn’t sure of much but she was positive that she wasn’t high. There was the faintest bit of a headache forming on the back of her head, but it was barely noticeable, nothing to indicate she had hit her head when she had...what? Fainted?
Checking her messages, Chloe didn’t find any of the texts she had sent Frank, or of the responses she had received in return. Had she imagined the whole thing? Was David tampering with her phone?
And then there were all the flashbacks that she kept having. The whispers of memories from when she was still riding out the high from the brownie, memories of time passing too slowly, or maybe even going back on itself?
“Look at her, Joyce!” David shouted, gesturing towards Chloe. “She doesn’t even know where she is!”
“It’s more of a matter of when,” Chloe muttered, back to watching the minutes pass by. 9:50 pm , still Friday night. An hour and twenty two minutes since she had woken up.
“Oh, honey, drink this,” Joyce said, offering Chloe a glass full of water. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”
Chloe took the glass gingerly. She felt more here than she had an hour ago, but she was still a bit dizzy.
“Stop coddling her, Joyce.” David shouted, taking the glass from Chloe’s hand and slamming it on the table. Chloe frowned. “She brought this on herself!”
“Stop yelling at my Mom!” Chloe shouted, surprising herself as she put the phone down and glared up at David. “She did nothing wrong!”
There was a surprised pause and then David turned towards her with a snort. “Shut up, junkie, this is between Joyce and me. You and I are going to have words tomorrow.”
“I’m not a junkie, you ignorant fuck!” Chloe shouted, jumping to her feet. Her heart was beating hard on her chest and the shock seemed to have given way completely to a wave of emotions that she couldn’t name, all of the roaring in her chest and demanding action. “You would know that if you ever got your head out of your ass!”
Her Mom made a dismayed noise and David froze, turning towards Chloe. “What did you just say to me, junkie?”
Chloe swore she could feel the blood rushing through her body, hot and angry. Her face felt warm and her breath was coming in fast pants and she clenched her fists. “I said—”
“She’s high, David!” Joyce interrupted her, putting a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and trying to push her back towards the couch, but Chloe refused, holding her ground. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying!”
“I said,” Chloe tried again, feeling her head swim. Was her vision blurring again? “I’m not a junkie, you abusive piece of shit!”
By then everything was a mess of colors blurring together, but Chloe was still aware enough to see the fist flying towards her face.
But the world went dark before it could reach her.
8
Chloe opened her eyes and launched herself off the bed just in time to puke her guts out.
“So,” Chloe said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand once she was done retching, “that happened.”
She was still in her room, with Blade Runner playing on the TV, right before Roy Batty gave his ‘Tears in the rain’ monologue.
Groaning, Chloe fished her phone out from her pocket and turned the screen on.
8:25 pm , still Friday night.
“Oh God,” Chloe whimpered, clutching her pillow against her head and taking a couple of deep, even breaths. Whatever was happening, at least the urge to scream had passed. That had to count for something.
“Okay, keep it together Price.” Chloe mumbled, taking out her phone and pressing the button to speed dial Rachel’s number, tapping her fingers against the bed as she waited for Rachel to answer.
So, either someone—meaning her Mom or David—was playing a really, really awful joke at her expenses, or something really, really weird was happening.
Chloe still hadn’t decided which she was leaning towards when the call disconnected.
After about five more tries to reach Rachel—all of them failures—Chloe put her phone back in her pocket and stood up from the bed, slipping into her sneakers and dashing down the stairs.
She had an idea.
Her Mom was in the kitchen, cooking a mix of mushrooms and spinach and swaying to a song from the radio. Chloe ran beside her and opened one of the kitchen cabinets, rummaging around until she found a good sized knife.
“Chloe! What on earth?”
“Sorry, Mom,” Chloe said, dashing for the front door with the knife in hand, “no time to talk.”
Outside, the night was cold, but Chloe ignored it, running down the street until she found a dark corner where to sit down.
Then, Chloe put the tip of the knife against her forearm and, without pausing for a second, made a deep cut across the length of her arm.
The blood welled up quickly and Chloe dabbed the worst of it with the bottom of her shirt, watching fascinated as the white cotton was quickly stained with the deep red color of her blood.
Once the wound was under control and the blood had stop running down her arm, Chloe took her phone out of her pocket, and smashed it with the handle of the knife until deep cracks formed on the surface of the screen.
Turning it on, Chloe watch with satisfaction as the still legible clock ticked forward.
“And now,” Chloe said, pulling out a cigarette from her pack and lighting up, “we wait.”
9
Chloe woke up with a grunt of pain.
Just around 9:50 pm, Chloe had felt her heart start to race and a few minutes later her vision had started to blur out. Then, just as the clock turned to 9:55 pm, everything had gone dark.
And now here she was, back in her room, with Blade Runner playing on the background and the beginnings of a headache.
Also, her arm hurt.
Holding her breath, Chloe looked down and winced when she saw a deep red line running down the length of her arm.
So, that was still there.
It would have been more comforting if it wasn’t for the already formed scar tissue that spoke of weeks of healing instead of a few hours at best and if her shirt—the same one she had been wearing before the blackout—wasn’t back to a pristine white instead of a blood soaked mess.
Reaching into her pocket, Chloe found her cellphone. The screen was still intact and Chloe sighed in defeat before even turning it on to check the time.
8:25 pm , Friday night.
On the TV, Roy Batty launched into his iconic monologue and Chloe buried her face in her pillow.
What the hell was she supposed to do now?