Max had left the hotel to head back to the beach, but the moment he hit the sidewalk, he felt an incredible urge to stay. He felt an overwhelming kind of sadness. The kind of sadness he'd only experienced a handful of times over the course of his life. If the others were right, if they were dead, was it possible that his family was there, too? He'd already seen Asher.
He waited outside on a bench for quite a while, fading in and out of consciousness, until the sky started to darken. He decided to head back in as a rowdy couple chased each other through the hotel doors. He rode the elevator for a while, hoping to catch a glimpse of his mom or his dad or his sister.
Eventually, he got off on the seventh floor. Maybe, just maybe, he was lucid dreaming. If he could see himself dreaming, maybe he could stop it. It wasn't until he spotted Sydney heading for the wing where he'd been staying that he felt any kind of hope at all. He followed her, stopping short as she found her way into the wing, watching as she climbed over a chair and then returned to open the door. For a moment, he thought she might've seen him.
Instead, he saw someone else. He didn't have enough time to make up his mind--so he jumped forward, sliding in behind Zoe. He reached out a hand to try gently touching either of the girls. As before, he could make no contact. He sighed.
But hey, wasn't this what he was looking for? His sister?
"If I were you," he said quietly, still following them, "I would avoid the blueberry muffins. They're terrible."