Obstacles||A Life Is Strange Fanfiction

Chapter 1- After

"You better remember me, Max Caulfield."

She awoke, aching, hurting, cold and wet.

Chloe forcefully opened her eyes, violently blinded by rays of light.

"I'm probably dead." she murmured to herself, raising a stiff arm to her eyes to block the merciless rage of light. "Either that or I got..."

Then she remembered, and she quickly got to her feet only for a sharp pain sent her sprawling to her knees.

She groaned, and instead of getting up, she made her way to the edge of the cliff on her hands and knees.

Arcadia Bay was completely fine. No sign of an angered and pissed off tornado at all...

Shouldn't she be dead? This furious concoction of questions swirled violently around her head. She couldn't remember what had happened. Things had taken its toll horribly quick.

Her memory was fading fast, this memory of a broken photograph growing smaller by the second. She tried to cling onto most which seemed vaguely familiar and important, but they seemed to slip from her grasp.

She sighed, aggravated and exhausted by this confusion. Sitting down more comfortably, she looked at the scenery about her.

"Man... I must of been hella dazed to of come all the way up here." she exclaimed in a sense of unease only for her eyes to have their attention drawn to a small fragment of paper hidden between the thin blades of water-logged grass.

Furrowing her brows in contemplation, she shuffled her way towards it, and once in arms reach she plucked it from the grounds grasp only to let out a loud gasp of shock.

Turning the small photograph fragment in her hand for more identifiable clues, she realised she'd seen this exact fragment in her dream... Floating effortlessly against the horrendous empowerment of the tornadoes wind, scattering and falling soon to be lost.

The creased fragment was only small, but showed that of a dazzling blue butterfly. Looking at it now, it burned agonizingly in her head, making those memories to decrease in size and disappear altogether until she was an empty shell. Devoid of reasoning and explanation of what she was feeling. Things were mixed up in her head, and in the pit of her stomach and the centre of her chest she felt empty... A familiar sense of emptiness she'd felt before. As if this time, something else had been viciously ripped from her heart. Somebody's presence.

It wasn't everyday she felt emotionally attached to something, so when it did happen, it sort of hurt... Mostly because she knew how all the good things had to end one way or another.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of anything else seemingly unnecessary, she slipped the paper in her pocket and this time, slowly and carefully tried to stand up. It took time, a few minutes of unwanted energy, but she shakily managed to get to her feet.

Her mom was probably wondering where she was, not like this was of any interest to her, this sudden feeling of guilt washed over her.

"Goddamnit." she hissed, and quickly made her way down to the diner as the sun stretched out over the sea casting a light shade of amber across Arcadia Bay.

~∆~

It had taken far too long just to get to the diner. The place was almost a battle zone, rubbish scattered the streets and trees had been uprooted and had taken home across the roads and toppled into houses.

It wasn't too bad. Nothing was catastrophic or life threatening, but Chloe still felt this urge of needing to see if her mother was okay. Their bond wasn't the strongest, but she felt if she was to loose someone to a tornado, then it wouldn't be the best feeling in the world.

Aching all over, she finally got to the diner. People were inside. Almost half the town had decided to take residence. Chloe opened the door and an awkward tension strung out across the room. People stared. People spoke amongst themselves. Everyone was acting weird, and Chloe didn't have the energy to question it.

"Chloe?"

A woman's voice broke the silence, and Chloe turned her head to see her mom's bedraggled features.

Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by her mom's arms wrapping around her tightly.

"God, I had no idea where you were!" her mom sobbed, stepping back to examine if Chloe was harmed or not. "Where were you?"

Chloe stared at her mom. This was a very different approach to what she was usually like. What was she going to say? Yeah, hi. I was camping out near the lighthouse whilst a tornado was coming straight for the town. Nearly crushed by the lighthouse, but that's beside the point.

Chloe shook her head, shrugging her shoulders. "I..."

Her mom's eyes teared up again, sweeping Chloe into yet another hug. "It doesn't matter, at least your okay." 

Chloe tensed up awkwardly, not too sure how to act in this incredibly unnecessary situation until a loud chorus of shouts emanated from outside making Chloe's mom tear herself away from her daughter and look out through the cracked windows.

A man came running up to the diner, an arm held out behind him to show direction to the bay.

"There's a body!" he yelled, repeating it over and over. "Quick! We need a doctor, somebody at least!"

Everyone in the diner stood up, some weary and exhausted, others curious and spiked with energy. Those too curious for their own good quickly shuffled out of the diner, making their way down to the bay.

Chloe followed behind.