Afterwards: A Life Is Strange Fan-Fiction <A Choice Story>

Chapter 8

That blood looks serious, and fresh. Someone's life could be at stake. I jog to the entrance of the girl's dormitory. Aside from looking a little beat up, the front of the dormitory doesn't look as bad as the actual school. I don't see any of the squirrels that were here before. Hopefully they left before the storm. The blood path leads up to the doorway. There's a bloody handprint on the left door handle. I pull open the right door and go in. This place doesn't look all that bad, if you can excuse the trash and leaves scattered about, and the few holes here and there. The blood trail goes from the front door to...my room. I jog over to my room to find that my door is open. Wide open. I rush in to see a blonde haired person curled up on my bed clutching their stomach.

"Unngh...is-is someone there? Please! Help me!" The blonde girl says while turning to face me.

"Victoria?!" Victoria lay there on my bed, crying in pain as she holds her stomach, which has a large piece of metal in it.

"Max ugh...Max, this hurts. Please, help me." She says while gasping for air. She sounds a little panicked. I would be too, of course.

"Oh my god! Ok, we-we're going to have to take that out." Considering the local hospital has been annihilated, we can't go anywhere. I take my jacket off, I'll have to use it to stop the bleeding, and I sit down next to her. "Here, you can squeeze this." I say handing her my jacket.

"M-Max, I'm scared. I don't know if I can do this."

"It'll be ok. Just-just stay calm ok?"

"Ok."

"Alright, I'm going to pull it out now, ok?"

She sniffles. "Ok."

"3...2...1..." I pull the piece of metal out of her stomach area. She makes a high pitched screaming noise, then starts crying.

"...Thank you Max." I take the jacket back and wrap it around her. I tie it as tight as I can in a knot around her wound.

"You're welcome, Victoria." That looked serious. Even though I got it out, I don't know if she'll be ok. I wish I could do more, but the hospital is gone and there are no doctors here.

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Ask away." I say.

"Could you go over to my dorm and get my red leather jacket, unngh, and please hurry." She says. She sounds like she's in serious pain. "Here's the key." She hands me a key with her least bloodiest hand. That begs the question of why she was in my room.

"Sure. I'll get it as fast as I can." I wonder what's so special about this red leather jacket. It doesn't matter. This could very well be her dying wish. I rush over to her dorm and jam the key in. I open the door, and oddly enough everything seems fine. Nothing was really even knocked over, unlike my room, which looked like a bull ran through it. I jog into the room and stand in the center. Hmm, if I were a red leather jacket, where would I be? The closet maybe? I go to her closet. Her normal fashion runway clothes are here, but no jacket. It really would have been helpful if she told me where it was. Though, I could have asked. That wouldn't have killed me. Where else would a jacket be? I search her bed. Nothing. It's not like it couldn't have been there. I look at her desk. Nope. Not here either. Well, I can't find it. I'm just going to have to explain to her that I don't know where it is. A gust of wind comes in from the open window and closes the door. "There you are" I say while grabbing the red jacket placed on the inner door handle. Good thing that wind came in. I jog back over to my room. "Here Victoria." I put the jacket next to her.

"Great, could you get something out of the pocket for me? The right pocket."

"Okay" I say while shoving my hand into the right pocket of the leather jacket. I pull out a metal canister and hand it to her. "Here." She unscrews the top and takes a drink. I never would have figured Victoria for someone who really drinks, let alone have a flask.

"That's good stuff." She sits up and hands the flask to me. "Want some?" She asks.

"Alcohol? No thank you." I say rejecting the offer. I've never liked alcohol. I remember when my dad gave me my first sip of beer years ago. I almost threw up.

"Hmm, makes sense. You hipsters seem to run only on coffee and selfies." She says, mocking me as usual.

"Look, I just pulled a big piece of metal out of you, the least you could do is be nice to me for a change." I respond with some anger in my voice. Maybe a little sass, too.

"You-you're right." It turns into awkward silence after that.

"So, if I may ask, what are you doing in my room?" I say breaking the silence that felt like it had gone on for, well, long enough.

"Your door was wide open. I was in too much pain to unlock my door." My door was open? I closed it last time I was here.

"That's weird. I locked my door last time I was here..."

"There were some holes in the door made by an axe or something like that, I don't know." I look over at the door. There are a bunch of holes in it made by some sort of sharp tool. Jesus Christ, did someone break in here? "Unnghh." Victoria makes a sound of pain and takes a big drink out of her flask.

"So how did this happen to you?"

"I remember seeing that big storm, and the next thing I know I'm trapped under a heap of metal with a searing pain in my stomach."

"Oh my god that's terrible, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Caulfield."

"It could have been avoided though, trust me."

"I managed to get out from under the metal pile and I crawled over here." Everything turns quiet. "...Max, I want to apologize, for the way I've been treating you these past few months. So, I'm sorry, for being..." she pauses. "For being such a bitch." She takes a long drink. It seems like it took her a while to say that. Is she that stuck up?

"Victoria, it's ok, I promise." Even though it really isn't and she made my life a living hell. I just don't have the guts to say anything. Even though I helped save her, I still feel like I'm under her, like she's a shadow that never goes away. That's just what being bullied feels like, I guess. It turns silent again. Victoria sits there, holding her stomach with one hand, and her flask in the other, taking frequent sips. I sit down beside her. This whole scene would be very awkward for someone to walk in on: Victoria slowly getting drunk while holding her bloody stomach, and me sitting next to her resting my hands on my knees, which are right up next to each other, and looking super fucking awkward.

She starts crying and hugs me out of nowhere. "It's not ok. I've been a terrible person to you for too long." Wowser, Victoria is really broken. "I just, I don't know Max. I don't-I don't want to die." She wails while sniffling after every couple of words.

"Don't worry Victoria, you're going to be ok." I reply. I really don't know if she will be or not. I'm not a doctor.

"What if I'm not Max? I'm too young to die. There are so many things I haven't done yet." She takes a long sip out of her flask and stares at me. Such and original movie line, 'I'm too young to die', classic.

"Well, what can you do now that you've always wanted to do? I can help."

"I've always, well, wanted to, I thought it would be-." She stops mid sentence and starts leaning in to my face. Is-is she trying to kiss me? What the fuck!?
Get up/Lean in

If you choose to get up, go to Chapter 9
If you choose to lean in, go to Chapter 10