mellifluous (life is strange 2)

EPISODE ONE / sound

whoops, there i go again with constant updates. i honestly would not be surprised if i finished this book before 2020--

-

Juli let out a sigh of relief as she collapsed on the side of the road. Her legs ached from nonstop travel for the past few days, punctuated only by sleeping under the stars and resting in gas stations and laundromats along the way. Her phone had long died by now. She had used most of her battery looking at old videos of Wyatt, her section, and her track team.

She looked up at the sky and pressed her fingers into her thighs to distract herself from those thoughts. She couldn't look back now, not when she was so far. Her pride and her parents were the two things keeping her from going back.

She got back up and made her way a little further down the trail. She found a blue sign on the side of the road. The white paint across the sign read "Trout Spring Trail," with "Nisqually River viewpoint" underneath it.

"Oh, good," she said. A river meant fresh water and food if she was lucky. This trail was bound to be practically empty as well, what with it still being during the school and workday. She continued walking past the sign and pulled out her journal as she did.

Her mother had been the one to recommend that Juli kept a journal. Sometimes, Juli wondered if Mom had tried to do it so she could snoop in her personal thoughts. Good thing Juli had never decided to record her true thoughts back then, otherwise Mom and Dad would've been even more pissed off at her.

She used her teeth to pull off the cap of her pen and started writing down whatever came to mind. Right now, she was on the subject of her friends.

"Every time I go to sleep now, I can't stop thinking about everyone back home. The drum line at Rainier wasn't very good, but we were family at least. Our track team was better, but we were still family, too. Now I don't have anyone. I even miss Holland; he was a dumbass and kind of cranky, but when Wyatt wasn't there I could count on his help to keep everyone in line. I hope he's okay. With Wyatt gone, he's the only one I trust.

"Does anyone know that Wyatt's dead? Does anyone know what really happened? I bet they all hate me now. If I heard about this and I found out someone had killed Wyatt, I'd probably hate me, too."

She closed her journal with a slap and looked up. She had arrived at the start of the Trout Spring Trail, which was marked with a bulletin board, a few signs, and an abandoned blue car. She investigated the inside of the car and saw a few scattered papers, and a Chock-O-Crisp bar sitting on the dashboard.

"Fuck me," she whispered. The last time she had eaten anything was at a rest stop last night, and even then it was just a sandwich and a bottle of water. At the sight of the chocolate bar, her stomach protested.

Feed me! it yelled. There's a bar right there, you dumbass!

The window was slightly down as well. Juli ran a hand down her face and turned away. If that person came back right now, she wouldn't be able to explain herself. Her paranoia had kept her alive more than once, and she wasn't about to ignore it.

She tore herself away from the car and began heading deeper into the trail. She saw an unfamiliar white stripe on one of the trees a little farther down the path. She walked up to it and ran a finger over it.

"Paint?" she murmured. She hummed to herself and kept on walking.

It didn't take long for Juli to find a directional post down the way. One sign pointed to the left and indicated a picnic stop, while the other one pointed to the right and continued the trail. Although she wanted to find out the view from this route, she was also more interested in finding a good spot to bed down for the night.