Chapter 2: Max

As the boy got out of the shower and got dressed he could hear a loud thump against the wall, enough to where it shook some of the toiletries sitting on the sink. It was followed by the sounds of a woman groaning.

"M-mom?" He quickly reached for the door handle. "Are you okay? What's going on in there?"

As the boy swung the door open he could hear a gruff, older voice spit out the words. "Shut up," and "be quiet bitch."

The boy's legs began to shake and the blood in his veins ran cold. A sense of pure dread washed over him. He recognized that voice. Their worst fear and nightmare had come true.

He had found them.

The same man who had belittled and had talked down to them for years. Who had convinced he and his mother that they were worthless pieces of space. The same man who had left countless bruises on the both of them.

This man, his father – if you  could even call him that – was standing there with his body pressed up against his mom's, pinning her against the wall. He had one hand cupped to her mouth, and the other clutching a gun which he pressed against her head.

As she saw her son exit the bathroom the panic in her eyes grew. She tried to call out only for his father to bath the butt of the pistol against her head, the hand around her mouth tightening. All the while she kept her eyes fixated on her son.

"I told you to shut the hell up, bitch."

The boy could see a trail of blood trickle down his mother's head from the wound, fueling the anger inside of him. They had endured years of this man, and he was sick of being hurt and seeing his mother hurt by him.

'What are you doing here," the boy demanded, stepping forward to face his father.

The man turned his headphones to look at him, a disgusting grin slowly spreading across his face. "Why, Maximus, my dear boy. I am just here to claim what is rightfully mine. You see, she tried to take you away from here and that just will not do. Did you really think that you two could leave me?"

What is rightfully mine.

That sentence left a sour taste in Max's mouth. All of the fear that he had left for this man evaporated, being replaced with something more powerful.

Fury.

"You don't own me or her," his hands clenched tightly into fists, so hard that the skin on his knuckles turned white. "Leave us alone!" A rush of adrenaline filled Max's body as he flung himself at his father, swinging for his face.

His father laughed as he easily swung his son to the side, causing Max to tumble and crash into the nightstand sitting next to one of the queen sized beds. His face hit hard against the wooden surface, the sharp edge piercing his eye. Blood splattered from the wound, staining the white  sheets of the bed crimson. Max cried out in pain as he pressed his hand to what used to be his eye, sticky liquid oozing out from the cracks between his fingers. He took a deep breath and forced himself up, using the rest of the strength he had to fling himself at his father again.

"Let her go!" Max snarled, kicking at the man's legs as he sank his fingernails into his arms.

His father just laughed and shook the boy off easily. "Back off before you get your turn." Heather, it was a big mistake to run away from me. You know the consequences."

He slowly pressed in the trigger on the gun and-

*

Max woke up in a cold sweat, his body trembling and his heart racing against his chest. He pulled the soft blue blanket tighter around his body, wrapping himself into a cocoon. Monk let out a soft mew protest as Max disturbed him from his sleep by pulling the blanket out from under him. The gray and white cat had been laying on top of his stomach. Max whispered an apology to his friend, scratching behind the tom's ear and getting a purr in return.

Max pushed himself into a sitting position, readjusting Monk to where he was laying on his lap. The images from the nightmare still lingered in Max's mind, haunting him even in the waking world. This was the third night this week it had terrorized him in his dreams. The same sequence of events played over and over in Max's dreams as if they were a punishment for not being good enough to save his mom from her fate.

Josh had always been abusive towards his mother and him. For years Max had watched his mom endure with a fake smile only for tears to fall when no  one was looking. For years she had been afraid to leave him, terrified of what he might do. Josh had always been unpredictable when he was sober and even more so when he was drunk.

Often times Max's mom would send him away, telling him to sneak out the back door when he had a chance. His mom would always lie and tell Josh that his son was away at a friends house or somewhere else when he demanded to know where Max was. Josh would always call out her lies, hit her over and over. He always seemed to know where Max would be. He would march out into the backyard or woods behind where Max would be hiding and drag him back to the house. All the while he would be feeling helpless, praying to any deity that would listen. But they never did.

Hit after hit.

Bruise after bruise.

Until Max's mom finally got the courage up to leave. She had snuck the two of them out and drove to a hotel while Josh was passed out. She planned on leaving Willowridge and heading to Cedar Falls in the morning, to where her parents lived at the time. She had been exhausted, her body bruised and battered from the day's abuse. She had thought we would he safe there, for the night at least.

But he had found them there anyway.

Max leaned over, flicking the switch to his bedside lamp to turn it on. It cast a dim light around the area, revealing his messy bedroom. Clothes had been strung across the floor and left dangling from the chair he had sitting in the corner. Empty Chinese takeout boxes and paper plates cluttered the dresser and a few empty beer bottles had been left on the nightstand.

Max felt ashamed at the sight that greeted him. He knew that he needed to clean up, but never had the energy anymore to. Not with the constant nightmares plaguing his sleep every night, and his waking moments being haunted by the thoughts of what he could have done better to save his mother. 

Max had devoted my life to going through the police academy and joining law enforcement after that. He wanted to make sure no one else suffered the same fate that his mom had. Maybe if he could save other people, Max felt, then he would be able to redeem himself and become a man that she would have been proud of.

But no matter what, his mom was still gone and he would always regret that.

Max breathed a long sigh as he wrapped his arms around Monk, bringing the cat up against his chest and listening to his quiet purrs. "At least I have you..." Max smiled softly, giving the cat a kiss between the ears. He sat the fluffy tom back down. The cat arched his back and rubbed his soft fur up against Max's arm. His eyelids felt heavy but he was afraid of falling back asleep. He did not want the same nightmare to return again.

Just another sleepless night and a long day filled with coffee and energy drinks...

Max forced myself up and stumbled over to the pile of clothes on the chair. He carefully lifted up each pair of clothing and sniffed it to make sure it was clean before putting it on. If he couldn't sleep then he would watch TV, a bad habit he had on his restless nights. Max put on some clothes and flopped down on the couch in the living area. He picked up the remote and started absent-mindedly flipping through channels. This was something that he would often do when he wasn't able to sleep at night. Max found that if he could just drown himself in some cheap drama show or action movie then he could, at least for a few moments, forget about everything else.

Where is that stupid man now!

Max let out a groan, closing closing his eyes. Hehad let his guard down and now his mind had started to wander, causing his ability to spiral out of control. Max could hear the thoughts of the people in the apartments around him as if they were his own. 

They were overpowering – almost deafening, drowning out his own thoughts.

The ability was as much of a curse as it was a blessing. It may have helped Max out many times with his job, but it also gave him almost constant headaches when he was unable to control it.

He should have been back hours ago!

Control was a concept unfamiliar to him. Something that Max had always struggled with even before discovering his curse two years ago. After he had gained the ability to read minds what little control he did have slipped away.

He is going to get it when he gets home!

Max wanted to yell at his neighbor to just shut up. Her thoughts were strong and overpowering, enough that he could feel her anger in waves. It flooded his body, drowning out his own emotions and replacing them with hers. Max got up from the couch and involuntarily clenched his hands into fists. He had to get out of this place and away from everyone.

Max grabbed his keys from where he left them on the counter and stumbled his way out of his apartment and down the hall.

Let's see.. three eggs, milk, sugar...

Come on! Come on! Come on! What are you doing, you moron! That was such a dumb move! Give the ball to someone else before you fuck up the whole game!

I wonder what I should fix for dinner tomorrow.

That asshole will regret cheating on me again!

Max shook his head as he walked down the hall towards the elevator, each door he passed bringing a different thought into his head. He wanted so badly to block out all of the voices. He wanted to, for once, have his mind to himself again. Why had he been cursed with this ability? He still wasn't even sure entirely what caused it. Only that it had correlated with the tumor they had found in his brain. 

When I was twenty-two years old Max had been diagnosed with a brain tumor after breaking down and visiting the doctor over constant headaches, vertigo, nausea, and feeling tired all of the time. When the doctor ran an MRI on his brain they said that it was the size of a golf ball. He had been told that it was inoperable and that he had only a few months left to live.

Max had decided to go home, opting not to have further tests or treatments just to push his life further by just a few months. If he was only going to live a few months more then he would rather not be bogged down by IVs and radiation that would just prolong suffering.

In a way, Max had saw it as the universe's punishment for him. A way of getting revenge for his mother's death.

Max had recovered though. He had woke up one day feeling strange. The ache in his head was gone, but it had been replaced by something else. The thoughts of others around him, pushing out his own. 

For the first few weeks, Max would stay curled up in my bed not wanting to go out or talk to anyone else. The thoughts were so overwhelming and he was afraid that he was going crazy. That it was just the tumor taking away his sanity, but when he had gone back to the doctor a scan had shown that the tumor was completely gone. 

A miracle from God, the doctors had called it.

Max still thought that he was going crazy at times, even though the ability had proved time and time again to be real. He had decided not to speak with anyone about this new power, not after he had been urged to seek help by the very few he had told. Max couldn't blame them, really. If he hadn't been the one experiencing it himself and someone told him they could read minds he would think they were insane.

Max unlocked his Jeep and got in, resting his head against the steering wheel. Now that he was out in the parking lot and further away from all the people in the apartment building the jarring thoughts had become only a slight buzz in in his head. Still annoying but now much more manageable now.

Max breathed out a long breath and started his vehicle. He needed to get away for a little while to allow my head to clear. There was only one place around here that he could truly get away, and that was the falls that this town was so famously named after.