This story is a spin off of my other story 'polarized" if you read it you will understand this more, but if you don't want to, you can read this and i will explain everything in my second note. This story is really sad, so if you're looking for something happy, don't read this. Go look for some sweet fluff instead :)
The first time fate cut the thread was in a stormy day.
She woke up in the middle of the storm, lying on the road that led to the lighthouse. Her memory was fuzzy. She found trouble recalling how she got here.
"How did I get here? And where is here?" She thought as she got up and turned around looking for a shelter. Her eyes were drawn to the reassuring light coming from the lighthouse.
She walked towards it using her arm to shield herself from the harsh wind. She kept stumbling. Her body was weak and it almost felt drugged.
That was when she started to remember, and realized how she got here.
Mark Jefferson, her teacher and idol brought her here.
His warm and reassuring presence was nothing but an illusion.
This was the worst week of her life. It started with Nathan Prescott shooting a girl in the school's bathroom, and that girl turned out to be Chloe Price, her former best friend that she left behind. The next day, Kate Marsh jumped off the dormitories' roof, and the responsible for the tragedy remained free.
Mark Jefferson killed Rachel Amber and Kate Marsh and his last victim was Max Caulfield.
This was a universe where her powers were never triggered. She never saw the blue butterfly. She never truly reunited with Chloe. She never tried to convince Kate not to jump.
Something deep inside tells her that this wasn't how things were supposed to go. If only she went to the bathroom earlier, if she talked to Kate…
Would it have been possible to prevent all of this?
She felt the palm of her right hand itching.
"Holy shit!" She whispered at the horrifying scene once she reached her destination.
The clashing of the howling wind and the violent waves sounded like the growl of a monster. The tornado was so gigantic that she could've sworn that it touched the sky.
Max felt the storm's rage. Her whole body shook as she watched it approaching arcadia bay. Her home. She wanted to yell at it and distracting from destroying it, but her voice didn't come out.
Chloe was there, in a coma and Joyce was with her and the storm was going to swallow them.
A flying boat snapped her from her thoughts as it collided with the lighthouse, then everything went black.
She felt a sharp pain when she woke up. A sharp piece of glass pierced her leg, and there were other parts of her body that were injured because of the impact with the glass. She inhaled sharply as she tried to move. She couldn't go anywhere and everything was dark.
She knew she was dying. No one would find her here, and even if they do, it would be too late.
She pulled out her phone to get some light. She was shocked that the device wasn't broken.
There was a voice message from Joyce, and she was really worried about the woman, so she opened it to hear her soothing voice. She received the message when she was captured in the dark room, and a few hours have passed since then.
"Max, darling? Where are you? Chloe… she's awake, can you believe it? I couldn't reach you the whole day so I hope you hear this. She asked for you when I told her that you found her….that day. If you hear this, please answer, we're both worried about you. There is a storm outside and I hope you're not caught in it. Please call me Max."
The message ended and Max felt her insides burning up.
Chloe woke up, on the worst time ever, but she still woke up and she couldn't reach her. She was dying and she never apologized for abandoning her.
This wasn't fair.
She called Joyce with whatever force she still had. The phone was beeping but she couldn't just lie and wait for her to pick up. She gripped her phone and crawled towards the exit. But the more she moved, the more the glass went deeper into her skin. She felt her leg go numb.
She couldn't stay here, not while her home was being destroyed.
She couldn't shake the strange feeling that took over her. The connection she suddenly felt to every part of arcadia bay, to every scream of terror and every tear drop, and she felt so alive and yet so dead and it was as if she became… the storm itself.
No, she was part of arcadia bay, as crazy as that sounded.
Her resolve was soon crushed down as her body went numb. She couldn't move anymore.
"Max?"
She then heard a very familiar voice, Chloe's voice, talking to her. She sounded weaker than she remembered.
If only she went in there a few minutes earlier, she would have prevented her from getting shot.
"Max can you hear me? There is a hella crazy storm out there. Are you safe?"
It was ironic that she was worried about her, even though she just woke up from a coma, and they didn't see each other for five years.
She had plenty of regrets that she never found out until this moment, until she was dying.
"C…Chloe…" She whispered, loud enough for her to hear her. She felt her body starting to give in, so she brought the phone closer to her as a mean of comfort. "I'm sorry…"
"W-why are you saying this? Dude, this is not the time to-"
"I'm dying… I'm sorry." Max said as tears ran down her face.
She regretted so much.
"God… Max, hold on please. Where are you?"
She could hear the pain in these words, she sounded as if she was crying. Chloe didn't deserve to cry over someone like her.
She couldn't reply. She was too weak to say anything.
If only she could go back in time. She would have fixed everything.
That was when she felt the strange feeling fill her again, and her eyes were focused on a blue butterfly.
How did it get in there in the middle of a storm?
She then saw some sort of vortex symbol on her palm, and it was shining so brightly.
Fate finally decided to cut the thread.
"Max?! Please answer me! Max!"
Max Caulfield died, and the shining butterfly flew away, to another place, to another time, and landed on a bucket in a dirty school bathroom, only to be spotted by the same dying blue eyes.
The Max who dies here is the one we start playing as in the first few minutes of the game, and our Max sees the storm and her counterpart's death as a warning vision. There are multiple timelines, and the storm comes anyway, (if you want an explanation for the storm you can read Polarized).
This is basically the first Max, and her resolve at her dying moments is what triggered the rewind powers or rather aracadia bay to choose her in other timelines. Hope you enjoyed this!