Life is Strange: My Unusual Journey

Chapter 26 of my Life is Strange novelization, enjoy.

Reviews

Boris Yeltsin: Thanks.
Marina Ka-Fai: Thanks.
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks.

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange or its characters.

Polarized – Welcome to the Nightmare

My awareness returned; I was still woozy, drugged, but certainly nowhere near as bad as the other time. I was seated in the chair, bound to it, like when I first woke up, but in this case, I had not got my right foot free. I was bathed in red light as Jefferson continued taking his pictures of me.

'This isn't, urgh, this is so sick.' I thought in disgust. 'I...I feel like he's violating me, Kate went through this, Rachel…?'

No, I had to focus, I had to find some way to twist this to my advantage, to try and stop the tornado and to save Chloe. I couldn't leave things like this, I couldn't leave her dead, not like that. Jefferson was continuing his muttering, sounding creepier and creepier by the minute.

"Yes, that's it Max, oh very good." He grinned. "I have to admit, there's something special about you, not like Rachel who was always looking in the wrong place, or Victoria, posing and showing her vanity...Kate came close, but you..."

I tried to move and he suddenly snapped again.

"STOP...MOVING!" He then calmed down again. "Ah yes, it's a shame about Rachel, typical of Nathan I suppose."

"You killed her." I burst out.

Jefferson shook his head, smiling lightly. "No Max, it was Nathan. He sought to emulate me, I reached out to help him, as his father wouldn't, so it was he helped me, giving me access to this bunker, built by the Prescotts, or the drugs needed for my subjects. I showed Nathan the true beauty in capturing that one pure art form."

I listened to this, shocked at what he was saying, how could I not have seen this, was he truly like this all the time.

He continued on, explaining what I knew, simply due to the calm and precise way he described it, what was the truth behind Rachel's death.

"Yes, he sought to emulate me, gave Rachel an overdose by accident, so we had to hide the body." He shook his head. "Unfortunate for him, Nathan thought he could copy me, but nobody can emulate the true nature of art."

I looked around again, worried. "Where is Nathan?"

"Dead and buried." He replied calmly. "But it doesn't matter, in the end, you'll all be dead...I'll leave and start fresh elsewhere."

I shook my head; afraid of what I was hearing, but I had to keep him talking. "Why are you doing this?"

"I am so glad you asked Max." He replied; his voice taken on that creepy tone again. "You see, I'm obsessed with capturing that moment, where innocence, becomes corruption; most models are too cynical, they lack the...focus. I find the slightly conscious model is best, it is in that time, when their emotions are at their purest. Do you understand?"

I glared and shot back. "Yes, you're a psycho."

A brief glare flickered over Jefferson's face, but it was quickly replaced with a sardonic grin. "Oh, like you're in a position to judge, you let your little friend beat Nathan nearly to death."

I flinched at that; but that wasn't true. Before I could protest however, Jefferson shook his head.

He took the camera again and took more photos as he explained.

"It doesn't matter anyway, act as high and mighty as you want." He remarked. "Now, please excuse me Max, I think it's time I prepared these photos. I suppose I see why you prefer your instant camera. You don't have to waste time with expensive printers every time you take one of your patented selfies."

He spat the word out, confirmed he still hated it and began to walk towards the computer, turning on some music, so he likely wouldn't have to listen to me. But he had given me an idea. I looked over at my belongings, it was when I saw my journal I remembered.

I had all those pictures I had taken in there, I just needed to somehow get it nearby, enough for me to once more use my power to push back through time. I quickly rewound back to him talking about his plans to leave and print the pictures.

"Please, wait, wait a minute." I burst out desperately.

He sighed. "Now Max, please, I need to print these pictures, especially while they are still so fresh in my mind."

I put as much desperation in my voice as possible. "Please, you, you still have my diary."

He laughed, walking over and picking it up.

"Ah of course, nothing more innocent, than a teenage girls diary." He taunted, as he slid it across the floor to my feet, it opened at one of the pages. "Another selfie, look at that, you can do better than that Max."

Shaking his head he left to work on the photos.

I didn't care however, I was focused on my journal. It had thankfully opened to the page I had written about school and my first tornado dream on Monday. Right there in front of me was the selfie I took in Mr. Jefferson's class.

Now was my chance, I could go back to where this all began and put a stop to it all. I took a deep breath and began focusing, this was the first time doing something like this. I was already back in the past, but now I was going to put myself further back, without returning to the present first.

'This is probably crazy, but it's my only option.'

So I focused on the picture and soon was pulled back, right to where I started this whole crazy week.

My awareness returned as the photo developed from my old camera, I could hear Jefferson's words.

"I believe Max has taken what you people call a selfie..." I looked up, for once not embarrassed.

I remained impassive as he continued the lecture as he did on Monday.

I shook my head. 'Honestly, listen to him, now that I know, it's like it's staring me right in the face...Urgh...'

He turned to look at me. "Now Max, as you've caught our attention and clearly want to join the conversation, can you please tell us the process that gave birth to the first self-portrait."

I replied simply, in mood for trying to be impressive. "the Daguerreian process."

"Oh, well..." Jefferson replied, a little put out by my impassiveness. "That was easy."

"Was it, alright." I replied, just as blandly.

Victoria was also shocked, she didn't let out her disgusted noise this time. Jefferson continued while I continued to plot my next move.

'Okay, need to fix things so that Jefferson can be taken down...I need to contact David and tell him what's going on. Then, to avoid suspicion, I'll hand in my photo...Who know where this will lead, but it might work.' I thought desperately.

I waited until class was finally over and everybody except Jefferson, Victoria and Kate had left.

I quickly pulled out the Blackwell brochures from my bag and rooted through them, finally finding what I was looking for, sending a text to David, warning him about Jefferson, before deleting it. I quickly gathered everything up and stood up.

'For once David, I hope you'll over-react to this like you usually do.' I thought before stopping. 'Whoa?'

I reached up, wiping at my nose which had started bleeding again, I also felt light-headed.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus. 'The past within the past, am I pushing myself too far?'

Once I was sure I was alright; I turned to Kate, my first step here was to make sure Kate would know she wasn't alone.

"Kate." I said softly.

She looked up. "Oh, hi Max."

I spoke seriously, but still softly. "Kate listen, I know things may seem hard just now, but I want to you know, you're not alone, you have people to watch your back and they care for you, more than you can possibly know."

"Max..."

I smiled gently. "Trust me, and if you need anything, I'm here, I've got your back, I promise."

Kate smiled widely. "Oh Max, thank you, that's, this is wonderful, I will..."

I nodded and we hugged, I was glad to see Kate did indeed look better. Now it was time for me to bring down the man responsible for the terrible events that led to Kate being in this position.

I approached Jefferson's desk.

"Excuse me, Mr. Jefferson, we need to talk." I said at once.

Victoria glared at me. "Excuse you, I'm talking to Mr. Jefferson."

I was in no mood to deal with her shit. "I can see you're kissing ass again, nothing new."

"What did you just say?" She gasped, scandalized.

Jefferson continued to play innocent however. "Hold on Victoria, are you okay Max?"

He looked at me, obviously feigning concern. I just shook my head and decided to correct another problem.

"Not until Victoria knows that hiding behind a screen and posting videos of people is totally fucked up" I snapped. "You know how easy it is to hurt someone, to destroy their life?"

I could see she looked uneasy, that was a step in the right direction.

I continued. "Are you proud of yourself? If you have any feelings left, you should think about your actions."

"Listen, I...I didn't..." She stammered.

I wasn't in the mood however.

"Of course you did. You're so insecure you can't even be happy with your own talent." I snapped. "You have to try and bring everyone down to your mean and ugly level."

She glared again. "Okay, I do not have to listen to this bullshit..."

"Do I, Mr. Jefferson?" She turned, looking for support.

I glared in his direction, waiting for his response.

He shook his head, holding up his hands.

"It looks like you already did Victoria."

She sighed and crossed her arms. "Then I guess I'm done talking."

I rolled my eyes. "I sure hope so."

She turned and walked away, clearly shocked going by her expression. I turned to Jefferson again.

"I'm not going to pretend she didn't have that coming, Max, but why?" He queried.

I just shook my head and handed him my photo. "Here, my entry for the Everyday Hero contest."

He seemed taken aback but smiled, and tried to banter, I just remained impassive, clearly making him uncomfortable and then turned to walk away. As I did so I felt my surroundings fade and I prayed that this time, things went right.

I was going through that dark corridor again, seeing the events of the future change, once more in photo format, what I saw this time actually looked positive, it gave me hope.

When I came to, I was sitting in a plane, the way things were I realized time wasn't exactly stable yet.

'I must be between timelines at the moment, okay, just be careful and everything should be fine.'

I briefly took note of my new attire. I was now wearing a beige blazer and a light white blouse which is tucked into dark blue jeans. I also wears a black belt around her waist, dark brown mid-calf boots and a dream catcher necklace.

I knew the best source of finding out if what I saw in those images meant what I thought it did would be to check my phone. I did so and was relieved to see one thing.

'Chloe, yes, you're alive...' I thought delighted. 'Jefferson and Nathan were arrested...I won the contest, everything...'

I couldn't believe it as I read, it seemed like things were actually taking a positive spin this time around. Chloe had come to terms with David, seemed calmer and while still saddened by Rachel's death, she was ready to face things, showing new strength.

She was applying for college.

Kate seemed happier and even managed to give a statement about what happened to her too. I reveled in the hopes that this time around, everything would work, throughout the whole trip to San Francisco.

I noted that I was accompanied by Principal Wells and that, surprisingly, he was a very different person in this reality. I guess a lot of stress had been lifted from him by all this coming into the open, making him happier. As I took note of that, the plane prepared to make its descent and I blacked out again, once more seeing more images as this new time line finally asserted itself.

I found myself walking through the doors of Zietgeist Gallery, in San Francisco where I knew now my entry for the contest was being displayed. I was still trying to come to terms with everything, looking around in wonder.

"You okay Max?" Principal Wells queried.

I turned to him and smiled, quickly covering my actions. "I'm fine, just...still taking all this in."

He smiled. "Well, take your time, this is your moment. Take a look around the gallery, talk to some of the people here, enjoy the buffet and who knows...Maybe you'll meet just the person you need to help you kickstart your career."

I smiled and tried to sound more confident than I felt. "So long as I don't have to eat any caviar, can't stand the stuff."

He laughed and after a bit more talking he headed off to the buffet table himself. Taking a deep breathe I began to look around the gallery. I still couldn't believe I was actually here, that all this happened.

I did still have a slight headache, but I was getting over it, hopefully this time, messing with the time line had actually fixed my mistakes and maybe, just maybe, set everything up to be better. After looking around the gallery some I soon found my photo, on display at the back, my 'Photo Memorial Wall' in all it's glory.

I was a little surprised at how I felt, seeing it on full display. My nervousness was back again, but I was doing my best to keep composed, especially when I saw people actually interested in it.

I knew I'd have to talk to these people, indeed some of them saw me and greeted me. But before an actual conversation could take place, I suddenly felt my headache getting worse and then, one of them pointed something out which panicked me.

"Hey, are you okay, your nose is bleeding."

"Uh, yeah, still...altitude sickness and..." I stammered, quickly wiping the blood away. "Excuse me a minute."

I quickly left, heading to quieter area of the gallery where I sat down and tried to calm down, stopping my nose from bleeding worse. Just then I felt my phone vibrating, I pulled it out and was shocked to see I had countless missed calls from Chloe.

'Stupid idiot, you left the ringer off...What is going on?' I wondered, a sudden ominous feeling replacing the happiness I felt earlier.

I answered the phone at once.

"Hello, Chloe?"

I could barely hear her, it sounded like heavy winds, but then her voice broke through and my heart nearly stopped.

"Max, oh God, it's true, your tornado vision is true, we're..." She yelled, panicked but suddenly stopped.

"Chloe, Chloe!" I called out, even more panicked.

It was then I saw she had been cut off. This wasn't right at all, I hadn't fixed anything, the tornado still happened, Chloe was still in danger, everyone was still in danger, my mind went, unbidden to Warren, along with Chloe, Kate and Joyce, he was the one person I did not want this to happen to, more than any other.

I had to fix this and there was only one way to do that, to go back in time again and sadly, there was only one picture I could use to do that and only one thing I could possibly do to prevent this when I got there.

I had no choice, yes it meant preventing this from happening, but I couldn't just let everyone die. There would be another contest, I quickly made my way back through the gallery, back to the exhibition of my photo.

This was it, making sure I wasn't seen I approached and began focusing, I had to once more, push myself back into the past. It took surprisingly little effort this time and I soon felt myself slipping back.

When I recovered myself I was standing in my room, at the exact moment the photo was taken, it printed from my camera set on it's stand. I was in another focus, but this one seemed really distorted.

'Whoa, what the fuck's going on, am I, am I pushing time too far?' I wondered before it happened. 'Ow, shit, ow my head.'

My headache came back with a vengeance and my nose started bleeding again. But I ignored them, I did what I had to to, I turned the newly developed photo, pulling it out, I observed it one more time.

Then I ripped it half, the effect was immediately and I blacked out again, watching as things changed before me once more. I had no idea what I was going back, but I just hoped I still had a shot at fixing things, even if they couldn't be perfect. I still had a long way to go.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.