Chapter Text
Foreword
Right then.
Hello.
Welcome back.
Actually, hold on, let me start again, because that's the sort of opening I always do and before we get to that, I want to have a proper word with you first. Just you and me. So pull up a chair.
Are you new here?
If you are, please stop. Stop right now. Go and find the rest of the series. I'll list them for you, because I'm helpful like that:
- Before the Storm
- Life is Strange
- I Know That Life is Strange
- Echoes of the Bay
- Fault Lines
That's five stories. Some of them are quite long. Off you go.
...
Still here? Good. That means you've either read the others, or you've decided to ignore my advice entirely and just barrel on ahead. In which case, hello, and please don't come to me when something doesn't make sense, because I told you. I literally just told you.
Right. Now then.
This story is called The Weight of Grace.
I want to talk to you about that title for a moment, because I think it does some heavy lifting before the first word of the first chapter. Grace is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot, particularly in religious contexts, and there's a version of this story where I leaned into that angle quite comfortably. Kate is a person of faith. Her aunt is a person of faith. There's a deathbed in here. Grace was always going to be part of the conversation.
But the more I sat with it, the more I realised that grace isn't just a theological concept. It's also something you extend to people who don't necessarily deserve it. It's the decision to be generous when you have every right not to be. It's what Kate does, quietly, constantly, almost without thinking about it.
And it has weight.
That's the part that interested me. Because grace sounds light, doesn't it? Airy. Forgiving. But actually extending real grace to real people who have genuinely hurt you is one of the hardest things a person can do. It costs something. Kate is about to find out exactly how much.
I should tell you something about what this story is, and what it isn't.
It isn't about Max and Chloe. They'll be here briefly, because at this point they're family and it would feel strange not to include them. But this is Kate and Victoria's story. Entirely. It's the first time in this series I've done that, given two characters the whole stage without splitting focus elsewhere. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, honestly. They're quite different people, Kate and Victoria. Different in ways that could easily become friction rather than depth.
But that's rather the point, isn't it?
It also isn't set in Arcadia Bay. We're in Paris. Victoria has been there for a while now, working, building something that is genuinely hers. Kate visits once a month. They've built a life around the distance, which is its own kind of achievement. I wanted to show you that. The ordinary, hard-won rhythms of two people making something work.
And then things stop being ordinary very quickly.
I'm not going to tell you what happens. That's what the chapters are for. But I will tell you this: there is a dying woman, a lost teenager, and a mother who should know better. That's a lot for one month in Paris.
One last thing, and then I'll let you get on with it.
These characters have been with me for a long time now. Longer than I initially intended. And I notice, coming back to Kate and Victoria specifically, how much they've changed since Before the Storm. Kate, who flinched at everything and trusted almost no one. Victoria, who used cruelty as a first language because she hadn't learned any other. Look at them now. Don't let anyone tell you people can't change.
Right.
Welcome back.
Welcome to Paris.
Let's find out what grace costs.