Life is Strange

Path to Isolation

As she leaned back on her bed, her curtains having just been tightly shut to block out the offensive sunlight that had been hurting her already streaming eyes, Chloe let out a shaky sigh that threatened to turn into a sob. It wasn't uncommon for her to shut herself away in her room every spare second, but it was very rare that she let herself feel so vulnerable even here.

But this day was different to all the others. This day marked a full seven years since the accident that took her father away from her. On this day, no one was allowed to disturb her. She'd turned her mobile off, turned off her social media and locked herself in her room wearing nothing but an old grey tank top and the shorts that she usually wore to bed. She was completely out of her usual comforts: weed, cigarettes and the occasional bottle of beer; but she also couldn't be bothered to get dressed and go to get any. Instead, she just grabbed her phone, plugged the charger in so that it couldn't run out for the whole day despite still having seventy-eight percent left and put her earphones in. It was a frantic attempt to drown out the world and she knew it, but she didn't care how it looked to everyone else provided it worked for at least the next eighteen torturous hours.

'It starts with the unexpected loss…

…of something dear…'

This was a different song to what she was used to, but it helped. It didn't take a genius to see the truth in that line either. If William hadn't been killed, none of this would have started. David wouldn't have appeared on the scene, she probably wouldn't have 'hit all the phases' as Joyce put it. She probably wouldn't have been attending nearly as many parties, making half the dumb mistakes. But if that had happened, she wouldn't have met Rachel. If every grey cloud had a silver lining, then Rachel was an entirely separate cloud made of fine gold with a gossamer interweave. She'd been Chloe's life raft to keep her head above the water when life itself threatened to drown her.

'The warmth…

…that comforted and cradled…

…just disappears…'

She still hated David. It didn't matter that he was seeing a family councillor, trying to get over his PTSD and acute paranoia and had really settled down since the incident with Kate Marsh on the roof at Blackwell. He wasn't her dad. He was just a washed up old soldier. She didn't love him. She was able to dodge most of his attempts to show affection, but those she couldn't didn't feel anything like her dad's. It always felt empty and useless. It was like he was still trying to dominate but this time in a much less upfront and infinitely more intrusive way.

'And in its place there's nothing…

…just an endless empty hole…

…the light that shone the way is gone, and darkness takes control…'

After her dad was gone, there had been no reason for her to really bother with life until Rachel came along. Her grades at Blackhell had fallen massively, but instead of help she just got pitiful looks from all of her teachers. Each look said something vaguely different, but it all fell into the same category. "Oh, we understand, Chloe. You lost a loved one, Chloe. It's all natural, Chloe. Don't overwork yourself, Chloe…" She couldn't remember how many times she'd been tempted to give her teachers both barrels of a shotgun. Unfortunately, Blackwell Academy had a 'No Guns' policy.

There had been no support from Joyce either. She'd been so busy getting starry-eyed over David that she hadn't had time for literally anything else. There had been times when he'd invited her back to his apartment in the single living terrace and she'd completely forgotten to leave Chloe anything for supper. Chloe had never been the best cook by herself, so after narrowly managing to save the house from burning down, she'd decided to quit while she was behind and gone to bed hungry.

To top it all off, Max had dropped out of contact. It had been chatty for about a month before communications started to break down. Before long, Max had been totally silent. She'd known Chloe was deep in family issues with no cover and Chloe had hoped that the girl she'd always thought of as a sister would have had the common decency to get in touch. When they met up again, Max had claimed that she'd broken her phone and got a new one, but had to get a new SIM card and couldn't retrieve Chloe's number. Unless she went for exactly the same model of old beat up phone and deliberately cracked the screen in an identical pattern to how it had been when she left, Chloe seriously doubted that.

'Bitterness and anger…

…are quick to fill the void…

…the path to isolation…

…is littered with the dreams that lay destroyed.'

Chloe's spite towards everyone had proven limitless. It knew no boundaries. She'd started out offensively tagging everything important to people. She'd heard Ms Grant saying that she loved the creativeness of the students and the imagination they showed. Principle Wells on the other hand had been less amused, threatening to have the entire school punished in a way so awful he had yet to come up with it if one of them didn't own up and clean their 'imagination' off his car.

Chloe had surprised even herself that day with her willingness to come forward and her savageness towards him in his office, much to Joyce's horror. She wanted to make it plain that she'd done it to hurt him and would do it again in a heartbeat. It hadn't had the desired effect. He'd simply chalked it up to her losing her father and taken his car to be washed, writing off the cost as a school expense.

'The cold…

…seems to grow in my soul, it's consuming me.

Confused…

…and I'm losing myself in the storm.'

The whole world seemed to be passing Chloe by in a blur. Throughout it all, she deliberately waged an internal war against anything she could. Max was the primary target at first for dropping off the radar, but as soon as she drew the picture of thirteen year-old Max hanging by her neck from a tree, she instantly hated herself for it. She wanted nothing more than to rip that page out and toss it, but she couldn't because of the cherished memories written down on the other side. To lose them would be a part of herself.

She'd also had a go at David. He'd hit back with militaristic fury threatening everything from 'grounding' to 'a good old fashioned pipe beating'. She'd even seen him cutting off a length of garden hose one day and was convinced it was intended for her, but it still didn't stop her. She'd tagged his car and put custard in the seats, grated cheese on the engine block so that it ended up smelling like something was burning, wired up his car engine to a hidden speaker that she controlled from her phone that played music he hated for one month straight until he found it and ripped it out…

But the final straw came when he'd tried to repaint the house back to the original colour. William had been halfway through painting it blue when he died and Chloe was damned if she was letting David erase a trace of someone she loved from the house. In the end, she'd taken a run at him with a screwdriver before he could start. It had taken that much to simply get the message through his thick skull and even then it had only worked because he felt bad about throwing her on the ground military style and fracturing her distal radius. She'd just told everyone it was a skateboarding accident, even her mother. While the prospect of Joyce leaving David over breaking her wrist resulting in a surgery bill brought her no end of joy, she also knew Joyce might just as likely have thrown her out for attacking him in the first place and made her pay the bill out of her tuition aid money.

'Growing jaded…

…being pushed, being pulled, I'm unravelling.

Can't find myself when I'm constantly forced to conform…'

Everyone had hoped that Chloe's 'skateboarding accident' might shock her into submission, but in fact the opposite happened. She didn't exactly hide it when she first started on drugs. Instead, she'd flaunted it. She'd really only done it to anger Joyce and David. It had worked like a charm and they didn't even bother to hide it. David had dragged her outside and tried to demand that she hand over any she was carrying on the spot, but she'd come in right on cue with the emotional blackmail and undisguised threats about what a teenage girl going cold turkey could let slip. Clearly getting the message and not wanting Joyce to find out about his part in Chloe's injury, he backed right off for about twenty-four hours. Meanwhile, Chloe had felt reborn. She was sick of trying to live up to everyone else's expectations of her. She was her own person and she'd been determined to prove it.

'Enemies surround me, but the worst appear as friends.

Liars and pretenders, only seek to reach their ends.

Everything is breaking right before my eyes.

Looking in the mirror, I see someone that I don't recognise.'

Her worst enemy back then had been herself. David and Joyce had tried to sit her down for lectures that if she carried on as she was then she'd end up dead. She remembered screaming that she didn't care. It was true. She wanted nothing more than to end up dead and be able to see loved ones she actually felt she could trust to stick by her. Boys had flocked to her like paperclips to a magnet to try and get in her pants and she hadn't stopped a single one of them. She did literally everything she could to try and push her body to absolute destruction. She'd starved herself, been drinking like a fish most nights, sleeping with anyone of either gender that she could. She'd only ever really been into girls, but the knowledge that she was constantly sleeping around with boys was like Joyce's kryptonite and she knew it. She knew she was falling apart and she didn't care. There had only been one day when she actually bothered going to a doctor when she was seriously sick and she'd stood on the weighing scales that she took any notice. She was dangerously underweight and evidence of the various abuses she'd put her body through were plain to see. On that one day, she sat up and realised how far she'd fallen. From then on, she didn't starve herself. She was determined to see her weight get up to a safe range if nothing else.

'The joy…

…that my heart used to know is eluding me.

Removed…

…and the one thing I feel is alone.

Smiles faded…

…and I'm spinning, I'm sinking, I'm weakening.

Frozen in solitude, loneliness chills to the bone.'

That was when her life had fallen apart a second time over. She'd met Rachel, a girl who was also clearly into the idea of a relationship and also had no reason to stay in Arcadia Bay. She hated the town almost as much as she hated her awkward family life, wanting nothing more than to light it up like a bonfire and demonstrating that resolve with a savageness that stunned even Chloe when she burned down half the forest. The kiss they shared after they'd been on stage in The Tempest, a story Chloe never thought would capture her heart, had really sealed the deal. They would run away together and start a proper life together.

But it hadn't happened. Rachel had disappeared and Chloe thought that she'd left without her. None of her calls were being returned and Chloe was getting desperate. She was determined not to be abandoned in the same way again. Little did she know, Rachel hadn't abandoned her. She was being held prisoner by a maniac and then ended up dying with no one knowing.

'Memories escaping as my heart begins to drain.

Scars that cover wounds can't hide the self-inflicted pain.'

Chloe had remained frantic for months, She'd been slathering Wanted posters all over Blackwell despite having been expelled nearly a year ago by that point. She hadn't bothered to get Wells' permission, either. Rachel was her girlfriend, not his. But at the same time, she was deeply touched that he hadn't once tried to stop her.

Security had flagged her truck as being on the grounds several times while she'd been there putting up missing person flyers, and yet Wells had made no move to have her escorted out once. Clearly it had been his way of expressing his concern over Rachel's disappearance and his respect that Chloe was actually doing something about it. Either that, or it was because the flyers would play into Blackwell's political agenda and make it seem like the staff and students cared deeply. Now that Chloe thought about it, probably the latter.

'Everything my mind wants…

…in conflict with my heart;

Fighting back surrender…

…but every day I'm falling more apart.'

It had taken the unexpected arrival of someone Chloe had long given up hope of seeing again to actually help her get answers. Max Caulfield had arrived like a guardian angel and helped her set things straight. Because of her, Rachel's body had been found. Chloe had finally managed to get answers about what happened to her. Whatever Max had done wrong in the past and whatever her reason for dropping out of contact years ago, Chloe knew Max had more than redeemed herself. Not only that, but she'd actually stayed this time. She'd rented some cheap accommodation and was now living in Arcadia Bay as a photographer making decent money with a view to buying a place. She'd tried to get a bank loan to get somewhere with a room she could turn into a studio for herself, but she had nothing to offer as collateral. To Chloe, it still made no sense why Max had been denied. She'd thought that banks would be encouraging people to set up their own businesses, especially from home.

'Mirror, what's this thing I see?

Who is staring back at me?

A stranger to my heart has filled my mind.

Mirror, help me…

Who am I?'

The song ended and Chloe was about to switch to another one, when a knock at the door interrupted her. Who would be knocking? Joyce and David both knew to steer well clear of her on this one day of the year.

"Chloe, don't think I don't know what you're doing!" Max's voice blasted through the wood. "I was there on that day too! I know what today's date is! Open the door!" Reluctantly, Chloe trudged over and turned the key before throwing herself back onto her bed face-down so Max couldn't see how much of a mess she was in. Max carefully made her way over and sat down beside her, resting a hand across her back. Her touch was cold in a weirdly refreshing way.

"Max, what have we actually got left?" Chloe asked.

"You don't mean that." Max sighed as she laid herself down next to Chloe and planted a kiss on her head.

"Yes, I do!" Chloe protested. "David is all over my mother like a rash now that he's trying to sort his life out, you can't set up your business properly and I feel like I've just lost so much that I want one thing to go right for us!"

"Things will go right." Max assured her as she pulled her closer and passed her a tissue. "I might not be able to set up properly, but I'm still making money. People still pay me to journey down and do photos for them at specific locations or as a group, they buy the prints and raw images I do of landscapes and I'm still making a good trade off it."

"Yeah, but there'll only be so many people in Arcadia Bay who want photos." Chloe argued. "Arcadia Bay is tiny. For something like that, you need to be somewhere bigger and more heavily populated."

"Well, we could always just up and leave like you and Rachel once planned to." Max shrugged. Chloe still felt her heart burn like it was on fire at the mention of Rachel's name. She missed her so badly words couldn't describe it. It was a worse pain than a toothache that tore at her heart and reminded her of the empty space that was left in her life.

"I can't tell if you're being serious." Chloe confessed.

"I love it here, Chloe." Max said as she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "But the thing is, there's very little left here for me. I don't pay much for rent so all it takes is one word with the landlord and I can pack my stuff. I didn't bring much with me anyway. Other than the instant camera, my whole life pretty much fits into a shoebox right now. It'll easily go in the back of your truck."

"Right, so your plan is to just leave as soon as I snap my fingers?" Chloe gave her a sideways glance in disbelief.

"If you honestly feel you'd be happier somewhere else, then we'll go." Max said. "It'll take literally a couple of hours to hand my keys in and pack my stuff. I don't even have any commissions pending at the moment." What Max didn't tell Chloe was that she'd actually cancelled them. She'd been planning this for a couple of months now and had the perfect idea on where they might go first.

"It's all gone from here, Max." Chloe punched her mattress arbitrarily. "Dad… Rachel… I barely see Joyce and her pet soldier anymore. After you moved away, my whole life here just burned and turned to glass. Maybe it is time I looked at rebuilding it. Maybe you're right, too. If I'm going to do that, it can't be here."

"So…. What does that mean?" Max asked. "Are we actually doing this?"

"You bet your ass we are!" Chloe hauled herself up with the most enthusiasm she'd felt all day. "I can't believe this is finally happening!"

"What stopped you before?" Max asked. "I get that Rachel going missing put your plans on hold but it's been a whole two years since we busted Nathan and Jefferson. I really don't get why you haven't just skipped town sooner if it's what you really want."

"Well for a start, I don't have the money for gas." Chloe told her as she threw off her tank top and walked over to the closet, beginning to get dressed. "I could afford maybe one fuel stop and that's it. If I can't afford a second fuel stop, I definitely won't be able to afford anywhere to stay."

"I guess that's a fair point." Max nodded. Chloe had thrown on the first bra and loose-fitting shirt she found that didn't necessarily go together and was now looking for her jeans.

"What brought this on for you, then?" she asked, turning back to look at Max who was now perched on the edge of her bed. "This is totally not like you."

"I don't know." Max shrugged. "I do love it here for the scenery, the photo opportunities, the fact I know pretty much everyone… but you're the only thing that really kept me here, Chloe. I love you and I've known for a long time that you really want to leave here. I want to be with you, but I want to do it where you're happy. I've been saving up. I have enough to get us as far as Seattle and get us a cheap apartment there like the one I have here but with hopefully less cockroaches."

"Wait, you get cockroaches?" Chloe turned to look at Max incredulously. "Why didn't you say? I'd have put you up here!"

"Well it wasn't a big deal until I went to spray one and it started flying!" Max shivered involuntarily.

"That does it. We're getting out of here today." Chloe said, pulling on some jeans and grabbing the keys to her truck.

"Once we're in Seattle, I have friends there as well as my parents." Max told her. "We'll have all the help we need to get our lives set up."

"That's great." Chloe let out a contented breath as the first smile of the day broke out on her lips, seeming to light up her whole face.

"Okay, I'll meet you outside when you're packed." Max said, getting up and walking to the door.

"Max?" Chloe called after her. Max stopped and turned back expectantly. "Thanks for this." Chloe rubbed her left eye furiously, trying to hide the fact that she was tearing up. "I know what you're giving up here. You've just started building a life and now you're uprooting it all for me. That means a lot."

"It's not even a choice, Chloe." Max said as she walked over and threw her arms around the taller girl. "Arcadia bay wasn't really all that good to me when it mattered. Yeah I still love it, but I love you more. This is just a place and you're everything to me. There's literally no debate on it."

"Thank you so much." This time, Chloe couldn't stop the tears spilling over. Max pulled away and headed for the door.

"I'll wait by your truck. Come and find me when you're ready." Max shut the door quietly behind her and Chloe heard her footsteps heading downstairs. Not wasting any time, she grabbed a beaten up old wheelie case from the back of her closet and frantically opened the zip, stuffing clothes in as fast as possible. There was a mixture of her own stuff and some of Rachel's old clothes that had been left there. Once she'd grabbed everything she needed, she raced to the bathroom and snatched up her toothbrush and toothpaste along with any other products she might need including her shampoo and what was left of her blue hair dye. She threw it all into her wash bag, the seams of which started to strain under the effort, and raced back to her room to put it in her suitcase. With that done, she pulled the zip closed only to hear a metallic snap as it sheared clean in half.

"That sucks!" Chloe muttered sharply as she pulled it onto her shoulder. It didn't matter. She would just have to be careful carrying it to the truck, ask Max to buy her a new one at some point and pay her back later. With her packing done, she staggered downstairs while clinging to the stair rail for dear life. The case was much heavier than she'd expected.

She entered the garage through the side door and went to her truck. Max was leaning against the passenger door. She looked up as soon as she saw Chloe enter and immediately rushed to help her.

"If you need a new one of those, I've got one I can lend you." Max offered before Chloe said anything.

"Are you sure?" Chloe gave her a sideways glance.

"I already told you, my life fits into a shoebox right now." Max shrugged. Everything I have is in Seattle and even that's just a pit stop for me right now. Once we've built our lives up, we can go somewhere together that we both want to. It'll be our long-term goal."

"You've really worked this out, haven't you?" Chloe threw her bag into the back of her truck and secured it with a tarp.

"I just see it as making the most sense." Max replied as she grabbed a tether and threw it to Chloe so she could tie up the tarp properly. "We go where we know we'll get help first and then use that to find our feet. Besides, you'll love my friends. They're in a band and I think they might be looking for someone to help them set up the equipment at their gigs. It might be your thing and they'll pay you."

"That's pretty much a dream job!" Chloe gave Max a disbelieving look.

"I figured you might like that." Max flashed her a grin as she made her way to the passenger door.

"It's open." Chloe told her as she grabbed the screwdriver out of her back pocket and went to start the engine.

"Ah, that's something else." Max glanced at the screwdriver uncertainly. "Once we get there, you'll have to get a proper ignition system put in the truck, otherwise it'll be too easy for people to steal it. Seattle isn't quite as crime free as Arcadia."

"You think Arcadia Bay is crime free?" Chloe burst out laughing and gripped her steering wheel for support. "Max, my first girlfriend was literally murdered and buried in a junkyard!"

"Good point, but I was more on about vehicle crime." Max elaborated. "Dwight bought himself a cheap car at the start of last year. A month later it got stolen. His parents were so angry over it, they bought him another one themselves. Any guesses what happened?"

"Um, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it got stolen a month later?" Chloe said as she started the engine and checked her fuel levels.

"No, it got written off due to vandalism after two days." Max gave her a pointed look. "Don't worry though, I can teach you the tricks to keep yours intact while you're there. I'll walk you through it on the way."

"Okay, that'll be handy." Chloe nodded.

"Oh, I've got another surprise for you too." Max said as Chloe started to pull out of the driveway. "I'll show you when we get there."

"I can't wait." Chloe muttered, rolling her eyes and clearly thinking it would just be something trivial. If only she knew what Max had planned. Suddenly, a car came hurtling through the side road on their right, heading their way through a T junction and not showing any signs of stopping. Knowing they'd never get clear in time, Max lifted her hand. The car suddenly reversed with equal speed in the direction it had just come from as birds started to fly backwards in the air. To their left, a Frisbee returned to a dog walker's hand as the dog returned to his side.

As soon as they were clear, Max deactivated her power. Around them, life resumed as normal. Chloe on the other hand was visibly shaken. She pulled over and gripped the steering wheel, trembling.

"Are you okay?" Max asked gently."

"Is this happening?" Chloe didn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular. "Is this really happening?" Gingerly, Max reached over and gripped Chloe's left hand in both of hers.

"This is really happening." Max assured her. "We're finally doing it, Chloe. We're finally getting out of this place." Max didn't release her grip on Chloe's until the taller girl had stopped shaking.

"Thanks, Max." Chloe leaned over for what Max thought was a hug. She was shocked when Chloe's lips met hers. Instantly, both of them felt any sense of uncertainty crumble. This was what they needed. Arcadia Bay was poisoned by hate, bad memories and the corruption of the Prescott family. The beautiful town was hiding a darkness that was only just being exposed. The cracks were showing and it was time to get out. Max and Chloe knew that. They also knew that they had each other. As long as that was the case, they were safe. They knew there was no limit to the number of things that could go wrong, but that didn't change their certainty that everything was going to be alright from now on.

End

Author's Note: Okay, so it's been a while since I wrote a Life is Strange story. For those who don't know, I did have a multi-chapter series going called Life has Changed. That is now on hold and has been since I had some really bad college and family problems over the rest of 2016 and leading straight into 2017. I may go back and finish it at some point since I had a pretty good ending planned for it, but for now I'm thinking of writing a multi-chapter sequel to this coving Max and Chloe's journey to Seattle.

The song that inspired this is called Path to Isolation. It's by Jeff and Casey Lee Williams. It was written for an animated series called RWBY, which I'm pretty addicted to. If you've never heard of it, I recommend it. A lot of the songs are very character-specific and I could definitely see some parallels between Chloe's situation with David in the games and this song.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Happy new year to everyone. Please feel free to review and let me know what you think.