Author's Notes:

Without any further ado, I'm introducing you folks a new story. It contains horror, violence, blood, gore and a bit sex, so take the M-rating serious!

Creative criticism and reviews are always appreciated and help my writing!

Now have fun reading!


Life is Strange: Lost Souls

Chapter 1

I lost my powers.

I lost my best friend.

I lost hope.

I lost…everything.

I tried to make things right. I thought I made the right decision. But it didn't take long for me to figure out that I can't live without her.

I wanted to jump back through the photo, but…it didn't work. I tried it again and again, but nothing happened. I stayed in this timeline. Alone. All alone without her.

Nobody knows what really went down this one week. Nobody knows what I've gone through to bring down a murderous psychopath. Nobody would ever know that Chloe Elizabeth Price had given her life to save a town and its people, neither of them ever have given a shit about her.

She died a hero, yet nobody will know it, not even Chloe herself. She died in the assumption that nobody cared for and loved her. She died, thinking that her best friend had just bailed and forgotten about her. She died…lonely. And this breaks my heart.

Everybody asks why I'm so depressed. Why I can't let go of her, since I hadn't contacted her for years anyway? Nobody understands that, within this non-existent week, I developed deep feelings for her. That I learned to see the awesomeness of her. That I…kinda loved her. Or was it even love?

Ugh, I don't know. I just know that I wanna undo my decision. I wanna go back and spend another week with her…and another one…and another one…An entire life. An entire eternity. Just me and her, together forever.

I want her back! But I…

Knock! Knock!

can't. My choice is final.

I already thought about joining her, but…

Knock! Knock!

"Max?"

I'm somehow not the type. I once talked with Kate about it, but she was just all hell 'n' damnation…Pft, she's one to talk about suicide. If it hadn't been for Chloe…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Max, you in there? It's me…Kate."

With a big groan of annoyance, Max Caulfield, a slender brunette with chin-long hair and freckles on her face, dropped the pen with which she had been writing into her journal.

"What?!" she blurted out, actually not in the mood to have any visitors. Slowly, her room door got opened and a petite blonde stepped timidly inside. Her hair was bound into a bun and her clothing remembered more of a boring school uniform than casual garments.

"Am I…disturbing you?" she asked shyly, hugging a book in her arms close to her chest like a shield.

Seeing the aback demeanor of her friend, Max eventually let off some anger by huffing out some air. "Sorry Katie, I…uh…I kinda feel edgy today. Just…just sit down."

For a moment, Kate let her gaze wander around Max's untidy room. All over the floor, bed and couch, dirty laundry and used tissues were scattered.

Realizing, that there was actually no place to sit down, Max swiftly jumped up and threw some garments off her bed. A bit reluctant, Kate sat down on the free space, Max doing the same right beside her.

Both kept silent for a few moments, not helping the already tense atmosphere, until Kate took the initiative and spoke.

"Max, truth be told, I'm worried about you! Since it happened, you isolated yourself entirely. I mean, you don't go to classes anymore and your room…"

"…looks like a pigsty. Yeah, I know." Max interrupted with a sigh, already tired of hearing such words. "Kate…I appreciate your concern, but…I'm fine. Thank you!"

"Max, you're not fine and that's okay! You should be allowed to mourn, but it's also important to don't get lost in your sorrow and search for help, if you can't overcome it alone."

Sounding a bit more agitated, Max stated "Kate, I said I'm fine, okay!" But either didn't the blonde want to hear or simply ignored it, instead she kept on pushing.

"Max, when my grandma died, I…I kinda felt the same. She was such a nice person – always has been – and her loss hit me deeply. But there was someone, who helped me through this dark time…"

As Kate's gaze fixed on the book on her lap, which she also brushed with the tips of her fingers, Max gave it a closer look. And as she realized that it was a bible and it became clear what her friend wanted to do, she gave her an angry glare and hissed "Get out!"

"Max," Kate spoke quickly as she felt that things were going south and Max was probably misunderstanding her intentions, "I don't wanna convert you. But sometimes it helps to pray together and imagine how a beloved person is up there, in hea-…"

"I said…get…OUT!" Max yelled and jumped up. Furiously, she ripped the book from Kate's lap, "And don't forget your stupid book!" and threw it against the door with a loud thud.

Entirely shocked and powerless the Christian girl had to watch how her beloved bible hit the ground. One last time, she gazed at her friend with watery eyes and trembling lips. Not able to suppress her hurt anymore, Kate shook her head and left hastily, picking up her book on the way out before she slammed the door shut.

"Shit!" hissed Max as she realized what she had done. Now being angry about her doings, she screamed out her frustration, grabbed her guitar and smashed it against the next wall, destroying it entirely. Another one of countless victims of her fatal decision.

Pushing anyone away. Behaving like an asshole. Being angry all the time. Max was turning into this self-destructive person that Chloe once had been, step by step. The only thing missing was being constantly high.

Max's gaze wandered to her bed and came to halt on a special spot. She grabbed the mattress and pulled it up, revealing a small tin…Chloe's weed stash!

Quickly, the young brunette picked up the metallic box, stuffed it into her bag and left her room as well.


Being smart, Max knew that consuming drugs on school grounds was strictly forbidden. Therefore, she opted to walk somewhere quiet to smoke her first joint. She had watched Chloe doing it nearly a thousand times. So, in theory, she knew everything that was necessary to pull it off. Still, she was very nervous and always watched timidly her surroundings, like a little child that was about to steal and eat some cookies right before dinner. In the end, she was more than relieved as she had reached the parking lot, where no other students were present…except for another brunette girl, who was sitting on the curbside, arms and head resting on her knees.

"Juliet?" spoke Max with a slight frown as she stopped in her tracks and approached the upset girl.

Slowly, the budding journalist raised her head and glimpsed with red-cried eyes at the young photographer.

"Oh…uh…hi Max!" she replied with a brittle voice. "Just…just ignore me and…do what you're just doing."

Max kind of had a feeling what was wrong with Juliet. She experienced it in the other reality. Even there, she had felt sorry for her. So – without any other word – she sat down beside the budding reporter, which caused her to look at the freckled girl with a big frown.

"What are you doing, Max?"

The first response by Max was a simple shrug, before she said "I don't know. Maybe you wanna talk about it. Y'know…just using me as your emotional junkyard."

At first, Juliet kept on staring in unbelief at the other girl, not knowing what to respond. But eventually, she scoffed and shifted her sight to a point somewhere at the other end of the parking lot.

"Look at that! I never thought you'd actually care about other people."

The witticism shone clearly through the reporter's words, yet Max simply scoffed as well, answering "I actually get that a lot, though I really care about others. The last few years, I preferred to only do that from a distance through my viewfinder. But…I kinda wanna change that. So…care to share? And please, don't ask me for your surname, just to make sure that I ever cared."

After huffing out some air and a moment of tense silence, Juliet started to tell her worries.

"Guess, you know our star-quarterback, Zac Higgins?"

"You mean this braindead jock?"

"Yeah! Zero brain, but damn, could he get you off in bed!" reminisced Juliet, but immediately cleared her throat and continued the story as she realized how Max blushed and looked sheepishly away. "Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, rumor spread that this asshole and Dana were sexting. Of course, I went all ballistic on Dana, 'cause she's my BFF and it's an unwritten law that you never-ever get involved with your best friend's boy! But…ugh! I somehow ignored one of the highest rules of being a reporter and didn't check my sources. And now just guess, who I caught in the restroom, givin' my now ex-bf a blowjob?"

"Victoria Chase?" tipped Max, inducing a surprised glare by Juliet.

"Okay, how did you know that?"

Right away, Max realized that the other girl had switched into her reporter-mode as she couldn't explain how – among all those other girls – Max of all knew the truth.

"Uh…" the freckled girl stammered, knowing that she had to be cautious now. "Well…you kinda pissed her off by writing those articles about her and the Vortex Club. Fucking up your friendship with Dana and taking away your boyfriend would be right up her alley of intriguing bitchery."

"Wow! Nicely deduced, Sherlock!" said Juliet with a wry smirk, seeing from the corner of her eye that Max was enjoying the praise as well.

"Thanks, Miss Louis Lane!"

Both glimpsed at each other for a few seconds before giggling in unison.

"And what's up with you, huh?" spoke Juliet eventually, pocking Max playfully with her elbow. "Haven't seen you in classes for some time now. And when I see you, you're mostly down in the dumps. So…wanna share, too?"

Now it was Max, who was staring at some point at the other end of the parking lot…or even further. Quickly, tears were forming at the brim of her eyes and started to draw wet lines on her cheeks as she began to tell with a brittle voice.

"You remember the girl that got shot in the bathroom a few weeks ago?"

"You mean Chloe Price? Yeah, I knew her from the old days when she'd been a student at the Academy. But that was long before your time."

"Well, what you don't know is that I was born here, in Arcadia Bay. From elementary school on, Chloe and I had been best friends, until…until, five years ago, my folks decided to move to Seattle. The first year, I was able to stay in contact with her, but after that…"

A big, shaky sigh escaped the young photographer's mouth as she tried to keep down her sorrowful regrets.

"I tried. I really did. But…I-I didn't know what to say anymore. I was hurting. I missed her so much and… The first thing I wanted to do after coming back here, was to talk with her, but again…I chickened out, and then…"

Max immediately went silent, the week that never was and Chloe's death swirling around in her mind. Now she wasn't able to suppress her feelings anymore. Her next words literally stumbled from her lips while she was crying.

"The last time I saw her, she…she got…she got shot in front of my eyes."

While flinging one arm soothingly around the weeping girl's body, Juliet hissed a quiet "Shit!" as she realized what Max was going through, not able to hold back some tears of her own.

It actually took Max some time to calm down enough, so that Juliet could talk to her again.

"Max…I'm so sorry! I-I didn't know…I…"

"Nobody knows," she replied, sniffing and wiping away some tears with the back of her hand. "Except Kate. And I, idiot, just shit-canned her. She just wanted to help, but instead of taking it with gratitude, I just met her with rage."

While rocking her softly for some more comfort, Juliet told Max "Y'know, maybe it's kinda the job as a best friend to fuck up from time to time, only to make up again and be stronger together in the end."

Not believing the other girl's words, Max backed away a bit and gave her a frown. "You're sure about this?"

But Juliet stuck with her words, saying with a reassuring smirk "Max, Dana once told me that Kate really digs you. I bet, if you just apologize and talk to her, she'll forgive you. And Chloe...Geez, the thing with Chloe is just fucked, but I bet my sweet behind that she would've forgiven you, too!"

For a long moment, Max once more gazed into empty space and tried to wrap her mind around the budding reporter's words. She already knew that Chloe would've forgiven her, so why should Juliet be wrong considering Kate?

"Y'know what, Juliet?" she said, new energy filling her body. "I think you're right! Maybe we both just need to apologize and everything's gonna be alright again!"

"Yeah," answered the light-brunette. "Though I'm scared shitless."

"You're not the only one!" remarked Max with a wry smile, touching the other girl's shoulder. With a loud sigh she eventually got up and cleaned her behind from some dirt by patting on it with her hands. "How about we walk to the dorms together and bring this shit behind us? It can't get worse, right?"

"Guess so," was Juliet's huffed reply as she got up too. Then, she offered Max her arm to hook on, which she immediately did with a soft chuckle.

"Thanks, Milady!"

Both then walked side-by-side, sharing a few more words as they were sauntering back to the dorms. On their way, Max pulled the metal box out of her bag and tossed it into the next garbage bin.