@emptyheir left an offering :
your nose is bleeding .
max doesn't react to the observation . in fact , max doesn't move at all , save for the occasional involuntary twitch of her facial muscles . eyes rolled back in her skull , she couldn't staunch the flow of blood from her nose if she tried : in fact , she can't tell just yet , but she's over a year away at the moment , tucked into a pocket of the past . it's still hard for her to focus in the haze , a muddled red mess that will take practice for her cloudy eyes to see through . she can hear steve .... though the comment about her nose bleeding sounds so faint it doesn't seem real , and she hears his voice much more clearly here . she moves through the space as if in a dream , though in truth her body is stiff & stationary . steve ? she can hear him talking to her , his voice low & shattered against a backdrop of hospital gowns & clinical beeping . was he going to get hurt ? is that what this is about ? she moves with more urgency , fingertips digging desperately through the thick , almost gelatinous air . the hospital bed , silver & cold , doesn't hold the man she's looking for : instead , max is face to face with her own mangled body .
suddenly , what steve is saying makes a lot more sense : he's talking about the letter . the letter . she had wondered every now & then whether he had read it ---- she hasn't asked anyone in the party if they had or hadn't . max doesn't really think she wants to know whether or not they had accepted she was gone or not . it makes it just a little too real to stomach . if vision - steve was right , he hadn't touched the thing . he won't , he says . he won't give up on her . he had thought about it , but when he opened the paper and saw the tearstained pages he couldn't stomach it . and then .... he stays . he talks to her , tells her about what each of her friends have been doing . they haven't been good , that's for certain . they miss her , he says . come home , max . she would if she could . she tries , though the air floods her mouth like blood and the sound comes out garbled ---- she reaches out , frightened , desperate ----- and for a second it seems like steve looks her right in the face .
the lights flicker before everything turns black once again ,
and max wakes with a gasp .
