Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Life is Strange.
A/N: Life is Strange contains adult themes. Therefore, adult themes will be present, but not explicitly portrayed.
I had posted this awhile back but took it down out of a bout of frustration with the many requests for longer chapters making up the bulk of reviews. Fanfiction is a hobby and I don't get much time to write between my obligations in life. Chapters will be the length that they are. I know that everyone always wants longer chapters for every story-I do, too for my favorite stories-but I'm trying my best here.
She didn't die, but she remembered a fog of events with lightning strike clear moments that explained her voyage from point A to point B. Being trapped in a shed with spotted memories and embedded knives of betrayal felt worse than being trapped in a coffin because of death, blissfully unaware of your fate. How she wished she could be Snow White sleeping in her glass cage with dainty hands so carefully folded on her still chest.
Of all the places they missed searching for her, why the singular place in which she existed? How could they not hear her yelling until her throat was raw and only croaks came from it?
Why was fate so cruel to her? She admitted to making bad choices, but did the punishment need to be so severe?
She wondered if the search efforts stopped. If there had been any to begin with. If she was just another face belonging to memories, no longer a person. A thought that faded a little more each day.
How were her parents handling her disappearance? Did they think she'd run away? She wished she'd said more to them. She wished she'd told them that she loved and appreciated them more often. That she forgave her father for lying, but was still hurt that he felt he needed to hide her real mom from her. That maybe it was too soon for her to plan ditching Arcadia Bay for California and it wasn't because of them. It was because of a dream.
The fight drained out of her a long time ago, and now she waited for a death she was uncertain was coming. Starving herself was considered more than once each day, but once food appeared in front of her and pulled her from the hazy world of delusions her deprived mind conjured, her resolve shattered and she ate until not a scrap remained. It was the same way she attacked water when given it, always just enough to stay alive. Like some kind of animal captured and starved, but—she thought—that wasn't far from the truth.
Such was the power of her captor, to strip away her humanity until she knew little more than what existed within the four walls that caged her. Had this been his plan from the start? Had it all been part of a sick game?
Her body obeyed her for one second—maybe two—at a time, making it impossible to do more than wait for a death she was certain must be close. There was no reason to keep her indefinitely, was there?
She let her heavy eyes close and breathed in the fresh air from outside that slipped in through the shoddy siding with the wind.
She recognized the girl on the cliff next to the lighthouse through her tears: Max Caulfield. Chloe talked about her now and then, always with a mixture of sadness and adoration in her eyes fighting for dominance over each other. Rachel never figured out how she felt about that mysterious, absent friend of Chloe's.
Yet Rachel could not approach her, not with the chains around her ankle tethering her to the abandoned shed that had become her home over the past… months? Years? They dug into her flesh, and though this wasn't her physical body, it hurt just the same.
Max's short hair swayed in the breeze, and Rachel wondered if she, too, felt the energy in the area surrounding them. The way that she could wrap herself in it and let it fill every cell of her body. The way that it waited—begged—to be shaped into reality.
She breathed in and filled her lungs with that energy, and Max faded away when she exhaled. Rachel supposed that, logically, Max was part of her imagination, but she had a feeling that she couldn't shake telling her that Max had been there. Somehow their minds had connected in a way that she couldn't have imagined, even if Max had not realized it herself. Like they were bound by threads of fate that frayed as Rachel's life drained away a little more every day.
"You're so close, but I don't think that we'll be meeting in this lifetime, Max. I..." She pursed her lips together and forced herself to look away. "I wish it could be different."
She raised a hand to wipe the tears from her face, surprised to find them turning to ice on her hand. The sensation was beautifully cold and she let out a choked laugh. How was it that she felt more alive while sleeping than she did awake?
Her eyes opened and dragged her back into reality, as they always did. Each time, she felt more hopeless—as if she had any hope left to lose.
There were no tears left for her to shed in reality, they dried up long ago. Instead, she whispered apologies to those she left behind and wondered if the wind could carry them away, not knowing that, nearby, Max and Chloe marveled at the snow falling in Arcadia Bay.
A/N: It's been a long time since I've written for this fandom, but I hope that this will be enjoyed. I'm testing the waters with this one to see if there's interest at all as I've recently been unable to write. My confidence has been shaken in myself, and I hope to regain it. That's the reason behind the short chapter to start. I like to write them to be a bit longer, and will hopefully do so in the future.
Pairings are undecided. I'm leaning towards AmberPriceField.
I'm not known for having large amounts of fluff in my writing. I'm also sorry for the rambling here.