--7 days after the accident--

Walking by the damaged building brought the strange memories back into Maxine’s head. There were construction workers putting it back together, but even as they worked, inside, people were still eating. The two groups were chatting between each other, as though they were all friends.

A little further on was the cafe she meant to go to. She grabbed a table outside and ordered her food. Soon enough, the person she was coming to meet sat down.

“Mistress, what’s up?” Luise asked, stretching herself out. “You already order?”

Even though Luise was no longer employed by her father, the ex-maid still called Maxine ‘mistress’. Despite that, she didn’t act anything like how she used to. She was completely casual, wearing a massive raincoat even though it wasn’t raining, and tying her short hair up in a messy ponytail. She talked loudly and without hesitation, and her face was full of life. On one hand, it seemed very intimidating to Maxine, but on the other, it was nice seeing her real personality.

Maxine answered her question.

“Cool, you get anything for me? Huh, no? Ahh, alright, I’ll get something. So, how’ve things been going since you got back? Everything settled?”

Things had been quick to go back to how they were.

Maxine’s father had taken both his children home, and in the long drive home, the three were all completely silent. When she thought he would just let them go without saying anything, he stopped by the local graveyard. There, he shouted at them until his voice went raw, screaming about how they all would have died. When he was done, he forbade them from saying anything about this to anyone, especially their mother.

After that, everyone acted normally. Maxwell stopped going out in the middle of the night to strange places, and started picking up anatomical textbooks, claiming that he was thinking about going back to school. Of course, Maxine noticed how strange he was acting. On that drive back home, the only one to notice he was missing an ear was Maxine, but it was back the next day. She didn’t say anything about it, but the thought lingered in her mind. The image of Arco lasping blood from her brother’s stump felt like a hallucination, even though everything else seemed so real.

Oh, what ever happened to him?

“Who, Arco? I have no idea. Hanson said he killed him, but when we asked for proof, he said the body was completely destroyed. After killing him, the body burst into sludge. Truthfully, I’m a little disappointed. Even after everything he did wrong, he was still one of us. Those kinds of bonds, the ones between brothers and sisters, can’t be broken so easily. Ah, I’m sure you would’ve wanted to see him too.”

No, not really. He was a nice guy, even though it was all an act. Even though he was obviously using her for money, that day had still been one of the best days of Maxine’s life. No amount of bad blood could change that; and she wouldn’t forget the freedom she felt for as long as she lived. But he was perfect just as a nice memory.

“Huh? Wow, that sounds super mature. Oh, how's it going with your arranged marriage and all?”

Another net positive.

After having gone through so much, Maxine would have been fine to resign herself to that fate. Because truthfully, even as she complained and tried to run away, she had already accepted it was her fate. And out of the billions of different fates that existed out there, it wasn’t even close to being that bad. She was totally ready to accept it, having already gone out and earned her memories of freedom.

But it never came. Upon learning the reason for why she left, Maxine’s father decided to cancel the arrangement. She thought there was some other reason for it, but after stalking outside his study for a week and reading through all his correspondence, it seemed like his mind was made up. That wasn’t to say the man she was supposed to marry was completely fine with it; he was going to be taking a train out to District 5 in an attempt to try and woo Maxine in person, but that at least felt normal enough.

“You have such a crazy life, don’t you? Huh? What about me? Ehhh~ well, Hanson is still avoiding me, so that isn’t much better. I’m out of a job at the moment, but thanks to the cash you gave me for pretending to be you, I can at least live for a year or two without worry. Not sure exactly what I’ll do in that time. Maybe I’ll try to become a painter or something. I hear certain pieces of art can sell for thousands of francs. What? That’s super rare and only goes to rich artists? Bah! In that case, you can just buy all my pieces and make me popular and famous, right?

“The siblings are both doing good. I don’t think they were expecting your dad to just give them all the ransom money, and since they just finished a different job a few days ago, they’re currently rolling in cash. Kinda crazy how much work they do, but I guess with those results, it makes sense. Oh, and then that Gordon fellow? With the big hat? I don’t have much of an idea. He didn’t take any money from your dad, right? I don’t know much about him, but from what I hear from the underground, he’s that sort of dude. Believes in justice and honor and all that sort of bullshit. I’m sure he’s just patting himself on the back, now that all this is over.”

***

The two continued talking for another half hour. By that point, most of their conversation topics had started to get boring, and despite how much they should know each other, they didn’t. Maxine and Luise were from two different worlds.

Luise said farewell first, leaving barely enough cash to cover her side of the bill.

It would probably be the last time they talked to each other. Both back to living in their own worlds after having spent a day swapped, even if those swapped days were a terrible picture of the whole.