Dreamcatcher

Chapter Sixty-Five: Right Back To Where We Started From

Within a matter of seconds, there was a white flash and Max Caulfield found herself reliving what would've been one of the few worst moments in her life. As she stood around the corner of the end bathroom stall, Max tore the photograph up and stuffed the pieces in her satchel. Tears began to well up in her eyes, knowing that what was about to happen was something she could not interfere with for the sake of the hundreds of lives in Arcadia. 

Max listened closely to Nathan Prescott mumble comfort to himself in preparation for the confrontation that was about to unfold. Then, the door opened.

"What do you want?" Nathan asked grouchily.

"I want to know where Chloe is." Clark ordered firmly. 

"Your punk-ass bitch sister? Who gives a fuck? I'm actually glad she's gone." 

"Don't you ever talk about her like that! Now answer the question, you spoiled brat! Where's Chloe?!" 

Max pressed her back against the outer bathroom stall wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She pulled her legs close to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees and dropped her head on her arms and began to cry.

No matter what she did, in the end, she failed to save her best friend.

"... and left your stupid ass behind, just like Rachel did. What kind of people are they?"

"You don't know who the fuck I am or who you're messing with! Don't ever tell me what to do! I'm so sick of people trying to control me! I ain't telling you shit about your stupid sister! I'm glad she's gone! In fact, I hope she's dead! And if you don't back the fuck off, you're going to see her again!" 

"Get that gun away from me, psycho!" 

BANG!

Max jumped at the sound of the gunshot.

A body fell over and hit the ground, followed by the sounds of Nathan Prescott whimpering and breathing shakily, uttering his disapproval of how things turned out.

He just shot a person.

He shot a friend's friend.

He shot Clark Price in cold blood.

But for one slight altercation in the fabric of that timeline, a miracle happened.

Pained moans were heard when the door to the bathroom was kicked opened by force. Rustling sounds made Max curious as to what was going on when she dared to peek her head around the corner to see David Madsen arresting Nathan while a paralysed Clark Price laid on the floor, clutching his gunshot wound in his abdomen. 

Max made the decision to not expose herself just yet, rather to wait until everybody was out of the room before she made her escape. 

While Nathan was apprehended and taken out of the room, Max stared at Clark struggling on the floor, unsupported and slowly dying. Unable to fight her urge any longer, Max sprung out from around the corner and grabbed a handful of paper towels. She proceeded to sit on the floor, cradling Clark's head on her thigh as she shoved the scrunched up paper towels on Clark's gunshot wound to applied pressure. 

"M-M-M-Max...?" Clark mumbled shakily. 

"Don't worry, Clark. I'm here now. I'm here... Breath with me." Max smiled nervously. 

Doing all that she could to suppress the blood loss, Max began to breathe much faster at a steady pace Clark could follow until the paramedics arrived. 

Several minutes later and paramedics stormed into the bathroom with a wheeler stretcher. Max was reluctantly backed away to give the two medics space to treat Clark and suppress the blood for the time being before he was carefully lifted up by his arms and legs onto the stretcher. 

While Clark was transported to the ambulance parked outside the front of Blackwell Academy, many of the school's students formed the crowd that surrounded the grass patches on either side of the stone footpath leading towards the ambulance. The back door was opened by one paramedic while the other waited for his associate to assist lifting Clark inside the back whilst still on the stretcher. 

Max watched Clark disappear from sight as she stood like a statue, shaken by the sudden turn of events which had left her friend gravely injured and with blood staining her hands. 

People noticed Max's paralysed state but said nothing about it. Nobody except Kate Marsh. 

The dirty-haired blonde girl approached Max and brushed her fingers down Max's bicep. Max jumped out of her skin at the physical contact, but was quick to feel calm and relaxed when she realised that it was Kate who'd come to her aid. 

At first glance, Max was absolutely shocked and relieved to see Kate alive and well. She quickly remembered how she was officially back in time and Kate was indeed alive, along with the rest of Arcadia. Max felt the urge to throw her arms around Kate and squeeze the life out of her, but she refrained from doing such a thing and maintained composure in spite of the fact that her heart was racing. 

"H-Hi, Kate." Max spoke almost in a whisper. 

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Kate voiced her concern. 

Max's blue orbs darted down to Kate's candy red lipstick then back up to her hazel eyes, which were surrounded by red and bags under her eyes from the crying shed been doing after she discovered a video of her was released without her consent.

Max nodded her head timidly. "Y-Yeah. I'll be alright." 

"What in the name of the good Lord above happened back there? Is Clark going to be alright? Gosh... I hope he's alright." 

"I hope so too..." 

The brunette locked her gaze on the security guard who'd arrested Nathan Prescott and drew out her phone and sent an anonymous message to him, hoping that he would act on her message to put Mark Jefferson in prison forever. 

She was snapped out of her focus at the touch of Kate's hand gently rubbing her back for comfort. 

The ambulance siren's volume was switched back on and the ambulance sped off to deliver Clark to the hospital for immediate treatment. Meanwhile, the crowd dispersed to resume doing their own thing for the afternoon. 

Since Max was back in the present, she had to experience everything slowly and wait patiently to see what events would follow up afterwards.

For this instance, Max believed that she made the right decision contacting David Madsen about Jefferson and his Dark Room. It would not take long for him to uncover its location with the authorities to back him up - should he act in haste to uncover this tale.

"Do you want to go grab some tea?" Kate offered. She was always considerate for Max and always willing to spent any amount of time with the girl whom she fancied, but was still deeply and heavily insecure about her sexuality.

Max beamed with gladness at the dirty-haired blonde and accepted her offer, knowing that having a tea date - as they would call it - would do the trick in distracting them from Clark getting shot and Nathan getting arrested.

The two girls were last to leave by making their way to the girl's dormitory and straight to Kate's room where nobody could bother them.