Paying the Price - Chloe Price x Reader a Life is Strange Fanfic

15 - Journal

I was taking this surprisingly well. Or so Max Caulfield told me.

"So this thing you did, called the Butterfly Effect-" I started "Allowed to you focus on pictures you'd taken with your Polaroid, to change the past, that would affect the future and destroy Acadia or kill Chloe or both." I exhaled slowly.

"Yes." Max said. Clearly somewhat agitated that this was taking so long. "When I changed the past, I created a new future. The world can only handle one future, so it destroys anything changed from the original future to make up for it." Max huffed.

Max stood abruptly and grabbed something out of a book bag from the shelf across from us. Max turned to me, her eyes cold and deep, her features hard like stone, a look not so natural for her soft personality.

"Y/N, this is important." she said holding a journal out for me to see. "You have to find my journal and read it. You'll understand what happened to me, you'll understand what I sacrificed and why it worked."

Max dipped her head a little.

"I'm sorry this visit had to be so brief, and that it came at a cost. But I hope the gift you receive in return will be worth it." she said quietly.

The scene was already fading, this time without the smoothness of mist but the roughness of sand. Max Caulfield looked up at me one last time, her eyes burning into the back of my mind with only two words left.

"Save her."

—

I brushed near consciousness to become sensitive to the aches and pains. I felt my back aching from remaining in an upright position too long, and my neck screaming for mercy because of one pillow too many beneath my head.

But this was nothing compared to when I opened my eyes. Or an eye, I think.

I groaned at the pain in my head from the brightness of the room. But I hadn't been oblivious to the eyepatch and bandages I was wearing over my left eye.

I froze, taking a moment to try and open my other eye beneath the patch, but there was something beneath the patch holding it closed. Possibly for good reason because it was burning.

Tentatively I raised my hand to cover my eye, and wondered if I'd ever see out of it again.

I sighed, and tried to stretch a little to get rid of the aches in my back and neck, and looked around with my good eye, taking in my surroundings.

I was sitting on a hospital bed in a bleak room. My mind vaguely registered the saline IV in my arm, but I knew better than to mess with it. I noticed a few machines to my right, making silent but regulated beeps and buzzes.

An empty chair sat on my right, and a feeling of hurt, not pain, rattled through my chest as I looked towards the door, then sharply around the room for Chloe.

The feeling of hurt was overwhelming to say the least.

Although I soon began to reach for rational thoughts, which went somewhere along the lines of "You idiot, you didn't see where you shoved her out of the way too, she could be in a similar state to you in another room." or "Jesus, what if she's in a state like this? David and Joyce will kill me- fucking Rachel Amber will haunt me- And I'll have let Max Down."

Chloe chose that moment to walk into the room mid-sentence with the doctor.

"-be alright, no sunlight, come back in a week to redress the bandage and don't let her take more than a couple ibuprofens a day." The doctor finished, marking something on a clipboard in his hands before turning without a glance at me and leaving the room.

Chloe sighed and looked towards me, suddenly noticing I was awake.

"Hey, how are you doing?" she asked, approaching me.

"Pretty sore." I said, gesturing for Chloe to come closer.

"You were whispering things in your sleep." Chloe said as I shuffled over to make room for her.

I smiled as she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and looked down at me. "You were talking about your Dad, and crying." She whispered, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear.

My smile faded and I looked at my IV hand, examining the bandage covering the needle.

"You mentioned Max's Journal too." Chloe said, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion. "I never mentioned or showed you that journal, how do you know about that?"

"I was dreaming about a lot of strange things. Probably the pain meds." I claimed, picking at something on the blankets.

"Tell me?" Chloe asked, gently pulling me closer and tucking the blanket around me in a protective cocoon of warmth.

"It started with my Dad apologizing for his own death. Then to meeting Rachel Amber, who told me to carry a message to you for her, and Max telling me to find her journal."

Chloe tensed. Her lips thinned as she pressed them together. Her eyes searched my face for something, her expression unreadable. I squirmed under her intense gaze until she found the words.

"You're not messing with me, right?" Chloe questioned.

"I wouldn't do that to you. I know they were important to you." I replied, uneasy for how she would react.

"Tell me everything you saw, everything she said." Chloe said.

I told Chloe in the best detail I could remember. She nodded absentmindedly when I mentioned the burning pine trees, and the wild protectiveness in her eyes. When I finished, I heard Chloe sniffle, and I felt guilty to know that I hadn't realized she started crying.

She turned her head to look at the ceiling, trying to hide her face, but it didn't stop me from tilting her chin down so that she'd look at me. "I wouldn't lie to you."

Chloe avoided my statement, "What about Max?" she asked looking back at the ceiling.

When I finished, Chloe wasn't moving. She her breathing rate was increasing and she wasn't looking at me, so I couldn't read her expressions. The hand I was holding was becoming clammy, and all I could do was rub circles into her palm with my thumb.

Chloe sat upright, ripping herself away from me. The warmth, the feeling of safety, prying itself out of my chest to follow her as she slipped off the bed, her eyes glazed and clear confusion crossing her facial features.

"Chloe?" I asked, watching her take a step towards the door but then stopping to look at me.

"Y/N what you just said implies that she knew what she was doing." Chloe said.

I was still confused.

"Y/N your book-" Chloe said reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out my book. "The main character talks about the same thing, in the same way."

"Chloe, why would Max want me to find her journal?" I asked.

Chloe was whispering under her breath. "Max apologized so many times for things that didn't make sense when she was dying. She kept telling me to be strong."

"Are you telling me you think that Max had seen the future?" I asked

"There's only one way to find out." Chloe said, marching into the hall, leaving me behind.

"Chloe!" I yelled.

Chloe stuck her head back in the door, "I'm not leaving yet Y/N, I'm getting the nurse to get that IV out of your hand so we can get out of here."

I sighed and smiled then relaxed back into my bed.

Merry Christmas my dear readers! I hope you guys enjoyed the Christmas Special, I was going to make it more "three Christmas spirits haunting Y/N", one being her Dad, then Rachel and Max, but that would have turned out wayyyyy too cheesy, so I think this ties in pretty well with the rest of the plot line that's going to be filled in later. 

I might be on an MIA again, but this beat down most of the writers block so expect another few chapters here and there.

Let's get us to 100 likes guys! Then I can start the Overwatch x Reader!