Dreamcatcher

Chapter Fifty: Chrysalis

October the second was officially the start of the worst few months of Kate Marsh's life. 

Given that she had only two months until graduation, Kate still dreaded the utter humiliation and misconduct that would very soon come to the attention of Kate's church and her family. 

The morning after the Vortex Club party, Clark had awoken early that morning to recall where and what his situation was. Seeing Kate sound asleep in her bed warmed Clark's heart. But when the sound of realisation dawned on him, not only did he have to face escaping the girl's dormitory undetected, but whatever would come out from last night's party, nobody would dare let go the fact that Kate Marsh was drugged and unwillingly made out with several strangers. 

Clark Price quietly scrambled out of the girl's dormitory and made his way across into the boy's dormitory to collect his belongings and head to class. 

Throughout the day, all Clark noticed was people looking at their phones; laughing at something very amusing. It worried him deeply, his gut feeling, that it was something having to do with what Kate told him last night. Not once, had he seen any of his friends, including Kate. 

It wasn't until lunch time when Clark caught up to one of his friends, Max. 

The two friends quickly established eye contact from across the cafeteria and assembled at a nearby vacant bench and fell into discussion. 

"Max. What the hell is going on? People have been acting very weird after last night. Did something happen?" Clark began, not wasting a second to use up his breath with questions and anxiety. 

The brunette stared at him, perplexed exactly the same as he. She was dying to know, but she wasn't certain she would approve of the truth. 

"I don't know. Have you heard from Kate? She won't answer my messages or my calls. I'm very worried about her - it's not like her to go quiet like this."

"Max... something happened to Kate last night," he said, looking over his shoulders out of caution. "Kate went to the party last night and she thinks... we think Nathan Prescott drugged her."

"What?! Are you cereal right now?!"

"Max, listen. Kate doesn't even remember what happened after she got drugged. All she had was a sip of wine. Next thing, she's being recorded making out with a bunch of people before she disappears from the party. Said Prescott went to take her to the hospital, but I don't think that's where she ended up..."

"Oh my God... Kate..."

"Do you want to see the video?" Clark suggested.

Max shot a sceptical look his way, causing him to feel frightened.

"I-I mean, to find any clues. Not because I want to watch Kate make out with some people. What am I, some sort or perv?" Clark explained quickly.

"Oh."

Drawing out his phone, Clark pulled out the viral video of Kate Marsh going wild.

It truly disgusted them both to be watching it; to see Kate get tortured and humiliated without even realising what exactly she was doing. It broke their hearts to imagine what sort of agony she was in, feeling hopeless and all alone.

At the end of the video, Clark tucked his phone back in his pocket. He almost felt the urge to throw it away after what he'd just seen.

"So we know Victoria was the one who recorded the video. Did Kate say anything else?" Max stated matter-of-factly.

"Nothing except that she recalls seeing Mick at the party and she saw Prescott doing something behind the bar when she arrived at the party."

"So when did she get to the party?"