Chapter 1: Better Off Just Being Dead

A/N: To all the readers of Lost Without You, please read the A/N I have at the end, thanks. :)

It was odd staring at a version of herself that didn't brazenly boast vibrant cobalt hair. Her reflection seemed so unfamiliar, despite being one of herself.

Her hair was midnight black with streaks of crimson running through the side parting, she just couldn't resist having a non-conventional colour.

She ran her fingers through her newly decorated strands, and although she would miss her iconic blue, she already felt herself becoming familiar with the new look.

She exhaled a sigh of relief, now knowing that she could hide her noticeable hair from suspicious eyes.

After tossing away the emptied tubes of hair dye, she left the cramped bathroom, tossing her fatigued body onto the stiff mattress and staring blankly at the ceiling above her as her thoughts spiraled out of control.

Out of the many thoughts that festered in her head, the image of one person shone the brightest.

Just thinking about her was painful. It had been quite some time since she passed but it still hurt to bring the thought of her into her broken mind.

A single tear welled up in the corner of her azure eye and threatened to overcome the girl with relentless sobs. She wiped it away with her thumb before it could.

"Max…?" She knew her cry would be left unanswered, but a nagging instinct insisted on trying regardless.

She hoped for a response.

Anything.

But expectedly, silence continued to taunt her.

She was all alone again, just as she once was years ago.

The nightmares of abandonment and isolation returned to plague her once more after hibernating in her mind for so long.

She had no one to tell her everything was going to be okay.

No one to hold her.

No one to cry with.

So she cried alone.

This time, she let herself fall apart. No more fighting it. No more resisting.

Silent sobs filled the room and her pillow was soaked with grieving tears that flooded out from her weary eyes.

There was no motive to move on. She had managed to kill the man who had caused her all the pain and misery in the first place, she was granted vengeance.

It felt like the whole world was out to hunt her down, and under the circumstances, that didn't stray too far from the truth.

This was the fourth motel in a week. Every night was sleepless as her eyes were locked open with the worry that police would break down her door in a split second. It was radical and highly improbable, but to her, paranoia felt welcome.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to keep this up. Constantly checking in and out motels on a near daily basis was far from a viable option, but without any other choice at the moment, she settled for what she had.

She felt tempted to turn herself in, end everything and accept her fate.

But she knew she couldn't.

She knew she had to keep going. She had to.

After all, she was Chloe Price.

Chloe opened up the tattered brown envelope that contained the remaining funds she still had from her limited savings over the years. Just another stack of money she would have impulsively spent on marijuana, so she was more relieved that she held off from doing so.

After exhaling a sigh of mild panic and disappointment when she counted just under three-hundred dollars, she glanced at the clock on the wall which read 1:52 AM.

More than two hours ago she had checked in, and more than two hours ago she had tried to fall asleep.

She forced her eyes shut, and tried to focus on Max. She brought back nostalgic memories of her and her best friend together during a time when death and tragedy was just a myth they could easily ignore.

The images of a smiling Max brought much needed solace into Chloe's fragile mind, and before her momentary happiness could fade away, she drifted off to sleep.

Good night, Max.

When Chloe awoke, daylight had just begun peering its way into the room through the cracks in the curtains, blinding her with a ray of natural light. Her eyes squinted and adjusted themselves to the space around her and once she familiarized herself with the room, she groggily sat up.

The time read 7:02 AM, and Chloe groaned at another night lacking sleep. However, five hours was far better than none.

Seeing as she had no reason to stay any longer at the motel, she hastily packed up her belongings and made her way out the door.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the motel hallway was completely deserted, but it didn't come to much as a surprise given the early hour.

Chloe stopped at the front desk and placed her key on the counter before ringing the bell to call for the manager as she impatiently tapped her foot. Checking out of a motel had become a part of her daily routine almost, something she could do in her sleep.

A short middle-aged woman with her red hair done up in a bun skipped out from a door behind the counter and met Chloe with a smile.

"Bright and early, aren't ya?" The woman greeted cheerfully. Chloe simply nodded in response. "Hey, you changed your hair." She had almost forgotten that she had re-dyed it, and her pupils shot up to see the ends of black and red strands barely peeking into her view.

"Uhh, yeah." Chloe mumbled.

"That's certainly new. Never in my fourteen years of running this place have I seen a guest dye their hair during a stay." The woman laughed heartily as she pulled the key towards her. Chloe just responded with a light forced chuckle.

The woman tapped away at a keyboard painfully slowly, adjusting her glasses and squinting at the boxy monitor that had gathered dust on its beige surface.

After what seemed like eternity, the woman finally smiled and gave Chloe the good news.

"Alright miss, you're all checked out. Thank you for staying." Her grin went from ear to ear and her smile almost felt contagious.

"Thanks." Chloe mumbled a final word and turned to leave before the woman's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Hold on." A chill ran up Chloe's spine and panic began to overwhelm her. "I think I know you from somewhere." The girl gulped hard as she kept her back to the woman while her arms began to shake.

"You uhh, you do?" Chloe said as she reluctantly turned around. The woman placed a finger to her chin and gave off a contemplative expression.

"Yeah." A few tense moments passed as Chloe waited for the woman to finally realize her as a wanted fugitive and dial for the authorities. "Oh, that's it. You just remind me of one of my daughter's friends." Chloe let out a breath she had contained for the whole moment, breathless after narrowly escaping another human encounter. "Sorry about that. Take care now!" The woman waved goodbye and Chloe took that as her cue to dart out of the door, carelessly tossing her bags into the passenger seat of her truck before leaping into the driver side and jamming the key into the ignition.

The sound of screeching tires and a roaring engine slowly faded as the vehicle soared away from the motel parking lot.

"Chloe…?" Max's soft voice called shyly from across the room, and Chloe lifted her head to give her a somber smile.

"Hey, Max." She greeted before fixing her eyes back onto the framed picture she was originally focused on.

A picture of her and her father who proudly grinned behind her while she held a bright blue ribbon up to her chest with a nervous smile.

She remembered being so scared that day, anxious to present her project she had spent countless hours on. She remembered the look on her father's face when they had announced her as the winner. She remembered the tear in her father's eye as she accepted her prize in front of the audience of parents, teachers, and students, all applauding her work.

She remembered him, and that was all she was left with. Memories.

"What uhh…what are you looking at?" Max gingerly approached her best friend with a worried look in her eyes before she sat herself down next to her on the bed.

"Just…just a picture of me and my dad." Chloe admitted, wiping a tear that had landed on the glass cover.

"Oh." Max muttered, staring down at her feet before reluctantly placing a hand on Chloe's shoulder.

"He was so proud of me. I don't even know why." Chloe mumbled, chuckling as another tear began to form. She parted a few strands of her long blonde hair that had peeked into her sight.

"He was. I was proud too." Max smiled.

Chloe tightly squeezed Max and sniffled away a tear, clutching the picture firmly like it was a child.

"Chloe…" Max's voice held a pang of regret which Chloe could tell. "I have to tell you something." The blonde parted and stared at her friend with a look of concern.

"What is it?"

"I…" Max seemed to find it difficult to just make eye-contact with Chloe, and over the many years of their friendship, Chloe knew that it meant something important was on Max's mind.

"Max, what is it?" Her voice became more urgent, worried about her best friend and determined to find out what had been bothering her. She placed the framed photo and placed it behind her, keeping her eyes fixed on her friend.

"I…" Max wiped away a tear in her eye before returning her eyes to Chloe's. "I'm leaving." Chloe was puzzled, wondering what her friend meant by it.

"Wha…what do you mean?"

"I'm leaving Arcadia Bay." Max's voice trembled as she hung her head down once more and began to quietly sob, instantly regretting what she had told Chloe.

"Leaving…? How long?" Chloe's question sparked a reaction in Max that looked as if a knife had gone through her heart.

"I…I think forever." A million things crashed inside of Chloe's head, pillars within her mind crumbling and collapsing into pieces that could not be repaired.

"Wha…Why…You're leaving?" Chloe's voice was ice cold, yet evident of her fragility. It trembled with every syllable, ready to turn into wails of sorrow and apathy.

"My dad…found a job…in Seattle…" Max had to take pauses amidst her sentences to weep, and her words were almost inaudible.

"Seattle? Max…" As Chloe took a moment to absorb everything, sadness turned into anger as she felt destroyed, betrayed. "How…how could you do this to me?!" Her voice pierced the air like daggers, erupted into shrieks of hatred that pummeled Max into a hole of guilt she could never escape.

"I'm sorry! I'm…I'm so sorry, Chloe! I wish I didn't have to go-"

"Then don't go!" Chloe pleaded, cutting Max's sentence off and denying the fact that her best friend was deserting her.

"I have to. I…I can't stay here."

"Why not?! Max, I need you more than anyone right now. My fucking dad died two weeks ago and you're leaving?!" Chloe locked Max in a resentful gaze the brunette could not escape. She was left speechless, scavenging her mind for something to say but to no avail.

"I…I don't know what to say…"

"Then fine. Don't say anything." Chloe shifted around so her back faced Max and huddled herself on her bed as tears trickled down her cheeks. "Just go."

"What?"

"I said go!"

"Chloe, please-"

"You're leaving anyways, right? Might as well just do it now." Chloe wasn't able to see how Max reacted to what she had said, but she knew she hurt her.

She heard the door shut moments later, allowing her to cry alone. A wave of emotion left her eyes in the form of streams of tears that trickled down her cheeks and through her blurred vision, she saw the photo of her and her father in her peripherals.

In a fit of blind fury, she shrieked violently and hurled the picture across the room, letting it crash into her wall and land with a dull thud. She fell onto her bed and wept into her pillow, soaking it with waves of tears she couldn't hold back.

She was alone.

No father, and now, no Max.

Her eyes shut and the world around her faded to nothing.

Then…

Chloe's body shot up in her seat, jolting forward so quick that she nearly hit her head on the steering wheel in front of her.

Her breathing was heavy and desperate, and beads of sweat stained her forehead as her heart raced.

The cabin of her truck was tinted a light tangerine as the sun set before her, disappearing over the horizon of dense forest green.

Chloe sighed and rubbed away the sleep in her eyes, adjusting her vision to settle on the majestic scenery in front of her beyond the truck's windshield.

I bet Max could take some awesome shots of this.

Before her dreams of Max could get carried away and fill her mind with grief again, she shook away the thoughts and focused her attention on a more pressing issue; her hunger. Her stomach felt empty, and she found it genuinely difficult to recall her last meal.

She leaned over to the passenger seat and zipped open the large suitcase, picking out a can of peaches that was packed along with a small selection of canned goods that remained after a week on the road.

Her options dwindled. Food was running out, money was falling short, and her truck had begun to show its age after occasional breakdowns on the freeway.

Chloe chose to focus on the present. She tore the can open with the can opener she carried with her and then swallowed gulps of the preserved fruit inside the tin housing.

She couldn't remember her last meal that wasn't from a tin can or a shoddy motel kitchen, and suddenly she found herself drooling over the thought of her mother's cooking. Suddenly, her peaches lost their taste.

Despite that, she finished the whole can, preserving every drop as she knew that rationing was crucial now more than ever.

She carelessly tossed the now empty can out her driver-side window before switching the ignition on and rolling away from the cliffside spot she had parked in for the night. She gave one final glance to the sight of elegant pine trees, locking it in her memory to hopefully help wash away any of the negative thoughts that still plagued her.

It had been enough time for her to feign cluelessness, pretend like she didn't know where to go when the decision seemed obvious. No more would she drive aimlessly, lying to herself that she was running from what she had been haunted by for so long.

She needed to start anew.

A blank slate, a chance to begin a life where she was no longer Chloe Price, but instead someone else who bore the shadow of her.

Chloe drove with her eyes fixated on the road in front of her. She had memorized the route to this destination that she had considered travelling to throughout the week, staring at its spot on her map so much that she had managed to embed it into her brain.

Just less than an hour later, a sign greeted her to the place she hoped to call home.

Portland.

A/N: It's about damn time, isn't it? I don't even know if people still remember Lost Without You after how I ended it.

Yes, I know it was unexpected and anti-climactic, and I'd like to apologize to those who felt that it could have been more. As it was my first fanfic-nevermind, first real piece of fiction, that I've ever written, I just didn't know how to end it. I had this epic idea that I thought people would love and by the time I finished it, it turned out to be underwhelming. I regret how I ended Lost Without You, and I also regret a lot of the plot choices I made for it. A lot of things felt forced and ridiculous.

However, a promise is a promise and I swore I'd make a sequel, so here it is. This one will be better, I'll do my best to make sure of that, and I hope you'll give me a second chance to provide you an entertaining story.

I also did say I would start this after 24/7, but I never anticipated that it'd be going on for so long. People really love it and I still have loads to do with it and I feel as if waiting even longer to release this it wouldn't be right, it's been long enough already.

Right, many things await you, me, and most importantly, Chloe. Stay tuned, and I hope you look forward to more.