Dreamcatcher

Chapter Fifty-Three: Out Of Time

The two best friends made their escape via the window.

Clark made his way out first before giving Max a hand down in case she sprained her ankle jumping down to the ground. They then made their way into his truck and proceeded to make their escape without David even noticing their absence, let alone hearing the truck engine start.

A selection of music was entirely up to Max's choice - according to Clark. He didn't mind, so long as there was something else to distract him from his latest confrontation with David, his step-father.

Upon their arrival to the lighthouse, Clark pulled over to a decent parking spot before he and Max climbed out and began to make their way up the path taking them directly to said lighthouse. Nature around them felt so beautiful and unique that the entire time Clark had spent behind walls concealed the true beauty beyond Blackwell and his home. The two Arcadia teenagers walked up a path, passing nature's creatures along the way.

Max, however, was too caught up in her thoughts about the path and the lighthouse, which she had been before in a strange vision she had in her Photography class. She was very hesitant to tell anybody about it, but she felt secure confiding in her best friend.

Joining him on a bench overlooking the bay, Max sat beside Clark and smiled coyly at him.

"Feels nice out here after all that drama." Max spoke first.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." Clark apologised. "The last thing I wanted you to see was what really goes on at home."

Max frowned at him and reached her hand up to his reddened cheek. He flinched when her fingertips touched where he got struck but showed no resistance.

"You have to live with him. Has he always been this way?" Max questioned worryingly. Her voicing her concern for his wellbeing came out far more emotionally than intended.

"Ever since my mother so desperately dragged his hobo-ass out of a motel room to come live with us," he said crossly.

"He freaked out on poor Kate Marsh today."

Clark jumped up and half-turned to face the brunette, raising his voice in outrage. "HE DID WHAT?!"

"I only walked in on him giving her a hard time. I didn't get to hear why. He must have some kind of weird agenda."

The information unsettled Clark, knowing that poor, sweet, innocent Kate had more to deal with.

The view of the bay sedated some of the stress getting built up. Silence fell upon them as the only source of audio came from the waves crashing and the bird chirping and the wind howling in their ears. For such a magnificent spectacle that was the view of the bay and the sunset, Max couldn't help herself and got up from the bench to take a photo.

In that moment, Max felt a sudden wave of pain melt her brain, causing her to lean forward in agony. While her subconsciousness was else place, her physical placement now in Clark's arms.

"Max! MAX! Wake up!"

For several minutes, Clark sat on his legs, holding his friend in his arms, distressed out of his mind for her health. He didn't know what to do. So he sat there, waiting patiently for a response. There was a pulse, she still breathed, but it was like she fell into a coma. 

Suddenly, Max awoke as if nothing had happened and she sat up, sitting in front of Clark, clutched onto his arms. Distressed was her mood. She stared with fear into Clark's blue orbs as she spoke in distress, addressing Clark's presence as if he'd abandoned her but was relieved to have him in her company again. 

"Oh my Lord. This is real. It's real. Oh man, this sucks!" Max cried in a panic. 

"Max, are you alright? You just blacked out. What are you talking about?" Clark spoke calmly and softly. He gently caressed her arms in order to calm her down, but the thing that was on her mind was far too unsettling to even consider dismissing. 

"I didn't black out. I had a vision. I-I know this is going to make me sound like I'm crazy, but I really, really need you to trust me on this, Clark. The town... it's going to get wiped out by a tornado." 

He blinked a few times as he struggled to consider the fact that Max suddenly had a premonition something bad was heading for Arcadia Bay. The look of confusion on his face left Max scared that he was struggling to believe a word she was saying. 

"I'm not crazy!" Max argued. "I know it sounds crazy but you have to believe me. There's something else I have to tell you. Something... hardcore. I had the same vision earlier in class. When I came out of it, I discovered that I could reverse time." 

Clark was taken back by this, now unsure as to whether his friend was delusional or just straight-up crazy. He wanted to believe her, but for something supernatural, it was very difficult to consider anything she was saying was true or made up. 

Max desperately told him information that seemed contributing to her claim of having time rewind powers when she suddenly gave up in trying to reach out to him, judging by his facial expression, that she was getting nowhere. Crossly, Max got up to her feet and turned her back to him and faced the bay. Disappointed by his own failure to grasp any logical truth in what she was saying, Clark begged Max to start her story from the beginning, so that he might grasp a better understanding of the tale she spun. 

"It all started in class. When I zoned out, I was in another place. I was here. At the lighthouse, just down the path. It was storming... I saw a-a doe... It was guiding me. It lead me up here where I found this newspaper article on the day of the storm. It said it was next Friday, on the eleventh. I saw the town get destroyed, Clark. I saw it destroy everything! When I woke up, I panicked. Right after class ended, I went to the girl's bathroom to wash my face, thinking this was all some weird dream. But it wasn't. It was real. That's when I saw this blue butterfly enter the room." Max explained in detail the events that took place leading up to that point in time. 

Clark listened closely. As every word was spoken, he slowly understood that what Max was saying was absolutely true. 

"I followed it, took a picture. That's when I heard Nathan Prescott enter the room. I was so confused, a-and scared. But he was waiting for you. That's when I saw you come in and you guys had your stand-off. He drew a gun on you and backed you into a wall. Y-You two fought, but he shot you. I... I reached my arm out and everything went crazy: time slowed down, and before I could comprehend it, I was back in Mr Jefferson's class. I remembered things happen, and when they did, that's when I realised that I had the power to reverse time." 

"So, the bathroom... you stopped me from getting shot?" 

"Yes! I got there as fast as I could to try and save you. That's how I managed to trigger the fire alarm, Clark. Because I knew what was going to happen and I saved you. I... I saved you..." 

Comfortingly, he put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. 

"Thank you, Max," he said sincerely. "Now, about this storm you keep talking about... so you say it's next Friday?" 

"That's right." 

"So we've got plenty of time to figure things out. What we need to do is figure out how this storm is coming because... Oregon doesn't get hit by a storm every five years." 

"Every twenty years, Clark." 

"Oh. A-Anyway... we should figure out what this all means. We still have 'til next Friday to brace ourselves. But one thing we can't do is come forward with this to everyone right away. They're all going to think we're crazy and we could get locked up in an asylum. We have to tread carefully about this." 

Max nodded her head in understanding of how they were to approach this. She then proposed that they return to Blackwell in order to begin their research about the storm and its impending cosmic arrival.