Life is Strange

Mirrored Life

Chapter 1

The girl's eyes opened in the half-light of the room, instantly hurting. She squeezed them shut as they painfully adjusted, hauling herself out of bed and staggering over to where she vaguely remembered the light switch being. She groped around for it only for there to be a vicious snap as it sent an electric shock into her fingertip. Yelping, she pulled her hand back and shook it fiercely, trying to cool the hot burning sensation before putting her fingertip in her mouth in the hope of lessening the pain that way and grimacing at the bitter filthy taste left by the disgustingly grubby plastic.

"You never learn." She looked over to the opposite corner of the room. There, a girl sat the dressing table running a brush through her hair as best she could while smirking in amusement. It wasn't the easiest task when it was as short as she kept it. It was further impeded by the fact she was only working with half a mirror, the other half smashed away by... Actually, they didn't know what had done it. It had been like that when they'd moved in.

"I don't know how you can see in this crappy light!" she protested, glaring over at the opaque plastic panel over the window where glass had once been before the local vandals decided that throwing stones at buildings was intelligent. "I swear to god, I'm going to need an eye test by the time we get back into our own place! If I don't already, that is." The other girl turned around to face her, so alike that either one of them might as well have been the image in the mirror instead of a flesh and blood person.

"Well next time, don't be in such a rush to act on things." The other girl's voice was too measured. It was too controlled. She knew that she was trying to keep her emotions suppressed and that meant she was distressed about something.

"You're still having the nightmares." It was a statement. Not a question. She wanted to show that there was no point in hiding it. She had her figured out.

"I..." The other girl tried to say something but faltered. The girl walked over to her, wrapping her arms around her and feeling her slightly shivering thanks to her bed shorts and tank top ensemble in the early morning air. With both of them staring into the mirror, they were always fascinated with how alike they looked. They saw themselves as a living game of Spot the Difference. Only the people closest to them could tell them apart at a glance, or even a close look sometimes. The main difference was the small mark below the right eye of the younger girl. It was something that, while neither of them used makeup in day-to-day life, they found it great fun to cover up with foundation and impersonate each other to confuse teachers and their friends.

"It's okay." The older girl held the younger one close. "You can spit it out. Katie. I won't judge you for a nightmare."

"I saw you die." The younger girl's voice was heavy and the weight of the confession was visibly pressing on her. "Or it could have been me dying and I was seeing it through your eyes. I don't know. Dreams are weird. Anyway, we were in the hospital. I had both the pendants in my hand. It was weird. I thought you would be burned since I only started having these dreams after the ordeal of the fire. You weren't. You looked more like you'd been beaten up and-"

"It's okay." The older girl rested her chin on Katie's shoulder, holding her close reassuringly with one hand while the other subconsciously found her pendant under her tank top as she saw Katie doing the same. "It's a dream. It can get you emotionally but that's it. I'm not dying and as we've already proven it will take a lot more than a house fire to leave you holding my half of the pendant. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere yet." Katie stood up, throwing her arms around her and burying her face in her neck. As the they held each other for dear life, she could feel Katie's breathing evening out and realised just how much she'd been holding her fear in.

"You'd better not, Sophie." Katie said, her grip not budging. "I almost lost you once. That won't happen again."

"You think I'd let it happen the first time?" Sophie asked, pulling back and bringing the hand that had been touching the pendant up to make Katie look her in the eyes. "You really think I'd go out that easily? If I'd thought I was going to fucking die there, I'd have taken my pendant off and thrown it to you. I knew I had options open."

"And I know that you'll probably be the death of me before too long." Katie said, a small smile passing over her lips. Sophie rolled her eyes, letting go of her and bending down to look in the mirror again. The half-light hurt her eyes and would inevitably lead to a headache later, but she didn't care at that point. Her mind was elsewhere.

In truth, it haunted her more than she dared to let on. She also remembered being in that upstairs hall, Katie screaming her name from their bedroom separated from her by a wall of flames and standing on one of the beds where the hot glue gun had somehow started an electrical fire. She'd been cut off from her and flames were blocking her route to the stairs. That was when she'd noticed the weakened section of floor. The flames had already eaten into it enough that it was creaking ominously as the wood was warping and burning. She'd taken a gamble, screaming at Katie to jump for it as she raced towards it and jumped, slamming into it with all her might. Luck was on her side and the floor had given way, dropping her down to the ground floor. From there she'd fled to the living room and she'd been able to use the front door to get out just as the fire department showed up, alerting them that her sister was trying to get out through their bedroom window. They'd run around just in time to see Katie sliding down the drainpipe to safety. In that moment, their parents had arrived home. Both girls had been led back around to the front of the house to wish them a happy anniversary.

Sophie shook the memory off, running her fingers through her hair. Just like Katie, she kept it short. They'd previously had it long, but decided it was just getting in the way. Now they vastly preferred it, although Sophie figured it would probably best once it grew out a little bit more. As it was, it reminded her of something. Where had she seen it before...?

"Oh god..." she muttered. "Hey, Katie! We need to let our hair grow a bit! Right now we kind of look like Karens!" There was a pause as she looked up, their eyes meeting in that split second. She knew that Katie had seen it too. Both of them instantly burst out laughing, Sophie sitting down heavily at the dressing table since she didn't trust her legs to hold her up in that instant. Unfortunately, the rickety and ancient stool was just as poor of a choice and she ended up flat on her back anyway, causing Katie to just laugh harder as she tried to pick herself up again only to slide sideways as her brain realised her lungs didn't have any oxygen in them because she'd winded herself.

"I guess your luck doesn't always hold up." Katie gasped, still trying to breathe after laughing so hard. She made her way over, helping Sophie up before kicking the broken pieces of stool to the side. "Thank you, though. I needed that laugh after everything."

"No worries." Sophie shrugged, the first natural grin for a while overtaking her. "It was nice to hear."

"Hey, do you think there actually can be such a thing as an Asian Karen?" Katie asked as Sophie dusted herself off.

"How should I know?" Sophie shrugged. "The best ones to ask are Mom and Dad. Actually, forget it. That's a rabbit hole best not explored. Now I have to get changed for school, so get out. There's about to be nudity and you'll just complicate things." She'd already anticipated Katie's answer and was reaching for the closest heavy thing she had when the inevitable happened.

"Adult content? Say no more! I'll get a live link going." She pulled out her phone in an exaggerated gesture as Sophie launched the object she'd been holding- which turned out to be the alarm clock- at her head. She yelped and ducked out of the way as Sophie slammed the door shut behind her. It wasn't that they were shy about changing around one another. That was never something that had bothered them. Even if it had, living in the apartment for over a month would have forced them to get over that one way or another. But it had also forced them so close together that they tried to give each other space wherever they could out of common decency. That didn't stop Katie from taking jokes too far and going overboard as a way of masking how badly everything was getting to her.

Sophie herself knew that everything was getting to her really badly, too. Being the older of the two sisters by about twenty minutes made her feel like she always had to try and prove something. She knew she was also making how badly affected she was by recent events, but like Katie she'd also found her own way of coping with it: looking out for her sister. It made her way too overprotective and she knew it, but it was a cross she had to bare for the time being.

"As soon as we get back in our own place, we're both going into therapy." She looked herself over in the mirror as she muttered to herself, pulling her hoodie over her head and smoothing it down. Letting out a sigh, she double-checked herself before realising that she'd been so distracted she'd forgotten that particular hoodie had a zipper. "Oh yeah, I'm super fucked."

Author's Note: Well, here it is. This is the first chapter of one of those projects I said I was working on. This is the start of an OC fanfiction set just after True Colors. Thanks in advance go to Boris Yeltsin and MaxandChloe4ever for providing ideas for characters in this story. You'll see them from Chapter 3 onwards. Thanks should also go to some friends of mine who provided the inspiration for the twins and their parents. There was a lot to take in so I hope I got the character dynamic right.

Also to MaxandChloe4ever: with regards to my last fanfiction, Rain's new name was actually revealed at the very end. It's literally in the very last sentence, so looking back I suppose it might have been easy to miss. If you still can't find it, let me know and I'll tell you.

I hope you all enjoy this story. I had great fun writing it and literally finished up yesterday, so please feel free to let me know what you think. This is my first time writing an OC story that completely breaks away from the Arcadia Bay setting while still hopefully staying loyal to the timeline, characters and games. But don't worry, I'll have plenty more Max and Chloe stories coming in the future too.