As promised, here's the next chapter of my story in Kate's perspective. Enjoy, and be sure to leave a review after reading.

Chapter 3: Damnation

Keep Calm and Have Sex!

That was the derogatory message that Kate Marsh had seen vandalized on her poster that was put up on the school's bulletin board, which she made as part of her campaign to advocate for abstinence. Someone had crossed out the words "Practice Abstinence", and replaced them with "Have Sex" followed by three exclamation marks. The poster was also riddled with cartoon drawings of penises and someone even had the nerve to tape a condom to the poster. The worst part was that all of the markings were made with a black permanent marker, so there was no way of getting it out.

Kate was still appalled at what she had been witnessing before her own eyes. It was just a little over a month since she had made those posters and put them all over campus. In the main building where classes were held, the boys and girls dormitory floors, the locker rooms. She didn't want to look for those posters in any of the other locations as she only feared of what kind of vulgarities would be written on them. If she had known that this was the kind of backlash that she would get, she would have never even put her contact information on those posters. Thankfully, no one had dared to prank call her, harass, or threaten her. As Kate finally decided to take action and went to take down the defaced poster, she was met with a much more pressing matter.

"Dude, look!" She could hear one boy saying behind her.

"Is that her?" Another guy was asking.

"Yeah, that's definitely her. The wild church girl." Someone else had said.

"'Wild church girl'?" Kate immediately thought to herself in such concern and confusion. What exactly could those boys be taking about?

Kate turned around to face the boys talking behind her back. She didn't want to know what they were talking about and if it actually had to do with her. At the same time she needed to know as she was wondering if it possibly had some connection to this whole incident with her posters.

"What are you talking about?" She asked softly while having an amount of fear in her voice.

"Oh come on. Don't act like you don't know. We we're all there Friday night and saw it for ourselves."

"And you sure knew how to give my friend some lip service on Friday." Another one of the boys added.

"Yeah, they should have really named that video 'seven minutes in heaven'." The other boy jumped in as he burst out laughing afterwards.

"Video?" Kate's heart had nearly stopped as she heard that word. She dropped the poster in her hand and immediately left the main building, scurrying back to her dorm room.

While walking to her dorm room, she was met by frequent stares from fellow students and could hear whispers of falsities that all centered around her.

"I knew she was faking that whole 'church girl' persona this whole time."

"All those years of staying abstinent and she finally broke."

"Who knew that religious girls could be such freaks at parties?"

Kate couldn't take anymore this. She needed to figure out what this was all about. As soon as she made it to her dorm, she ran up the stairs to reach the second floor and down the hall to make it to her room. She was rudely encountered by a horrifying message on the white slate next to her room's door which read:

Will Bang 4 Jesus

Kate had felt that she was in a nightmare but every moment of it was actually real.

She sat down in her chair by the desk in her room, placing both of her hands on her head and trying to piece together what had happened the previous weekend.

It was a Friday night and Kate had been met with the dilemma of whether she should attend the Vortex Club Party that night, with the benefit of her stepping out of her comfort zone and making new friends, or stay in her dorm room and continue to live a life of being reserved.

She had chosen the first option and began to walk to the party by herself. Upon arriving, she had seen a couple of familiar faces from her classes but barely knew anyone in actuality that was there. She had at one point seen Victoria Chase, who would frequently taunt her in and outside of class.

Kate tried her best to avoid making eye contact with Victoria's cold gaze, but the "queen bee" rich girl still made a big deal of it by getting the attention of both her best friends, Taylor Christensen and Courtney Wagner, and showing them that the sweet and innocent Christian girl of all people was at a Vortex Club Party. They were beginning to think that it was the end of the world.

Kate's family never drank alcohol back at home and aside from having a sip of wine at church for communion, she had been sober her whole life. However, she was still getting over the stressful week she had just completed, having three exams and four papers. She told herself that she would just have one cup of wine for the night and that would be it.

She walked around the swimming pool transformed night club area, hoping to run into someone else she would know that lived on her floor in her dorm. However she found it difficult and overwhelming to navigate through such a large crowd.

After she had taken a sip from her cup of red wine, she noticed that it had a funny after taste about it. Before she knew it her vision slowly started to get blurry and her hearing became a bit more muffled. The one thing she prayed that wouldn't happen to her at the party ended up actually occurring. She had been drugged.

Not knowing what to do, the last thing Kate remembered was trying to find a way out of the place and hearing a voice in her ear that said "Kate? It's me Nathan. Let me help you."

The rest of Kate's memory had continued when she had woken up hours later, outside of her own dorm room. She was still fully clothed and there were no signs that she had been violated. She did however, feel a sharp pain in her neck as if she had been stung by a wasp. So the real question was, did Nathan Prescott, whom she seemed to have run into, help her or hurt her?

She had to find out the truth about what else had occurred that night. What had happened in that missing gap of time from blacking out at the party to waking up outside of her own room? Curiosity got the best of her and she turned on her laptop and went on the internet. As soon as she logged onto her Facebook, she saw an unchecked notification.

"Victoria Maribeth Chase tagged you in a link." the notification read. Kate's heart was pounding upon reading this. But she needed to see this so called video people talked about and see exactly what all of this hysteria was about. Why had she been receiving so many stares and gossiping behind her back today? She clicked on the thumbnail of the YouTube video that had posted on her wall by Victoria. In mere seconds, Kate began to experience the very horror that she had been a part of.

The video was titled Kate at the Vortex Club. It was obvious that someone had filmed it on their phone due to the vertical angle that it was shot in. It had started off with Kate downing the rest of her drink in her hand as numerous voices chanted "chug" repeatedly. The video then cut to footage of her grabbing several strangers, all boys who she had never even talked to during her time at Blackwell so far, she had been caressing them or groping him. Kate couldn't believe what she was seeing. She wanted to throw up in her mouth in reaction to all of this. What had possessed her to behave in such a manner? Finally the last few minutes of the video had shown her kissing those same strangers. She had sat on one of the boys' lap just making with him for what seemed like forever. It had almost looked like she was trying not to choke on his tongue and she could hear the laughter of several people behind the camera. Soon the other boys that were seen earlier in the video began lining up, each to have their own turn making out with her.

Kate's mind was still running with different emotions and questions. And if that wasn't enough she had remembered the letter from her dear Auntie Marsh that she picked up from her mailbox today. Perhaps it was something that could help her restore her faith and inspire her to keep fighting. Upon opening the letter and beginning to read the first few words, Kate only felt sick to her stomach.

Dear Katie,

No spirit or devil could have prepared me for what you have done in that videotape.

And like a jezebel you released your harlot image before God's eye.

I will pray with my church for your soul to be saved from Eternal Hellfire.

Auntie Marsh

Tears began to stream down from Kate's eyes. What else could she do besides cry during a dark time like this? What did she even do to deserve any of this in the first place? She read her Bible, she was devoted to her faith, she led the Meals on Wheels program at Blackwell, and she was even in charge of the Bible Study Club. So why was this happening to her? Was she being punished by God?

Kate looked up at her clock on her wall to see that her Art of Photography class that she had with Mr. Jefferson was starting soon. She didn't want to be late, and she didn't want anyone to see that she had been crying either. After going through half of the box of Kleenex tissues in her room, she then washed her face in the girl's bathroom and began to walk to class.

Kate could barely concentrate in class. She had been constantly spacing out, still worrying what everyone was thinking of her. Her classmates, her friends, her family. She had already been disowned by her own aunt. What if her younger sisters had seen the video too and how would she explain it to them? How would her church react if they had watched it? While everyone was taking notes of Mr. Jefferson's lecture, Kate had been drawing pictures in her notepad that were unsettling for even someone of her demeanor. Doodles that depicted an angel hanging from a noose and another falling into a pit of fire. There were also several different words that she wrote: "waste, slut, and sinner."

Kate began to look up to make it seem like she was paying attention to lecture until moments later, as soon as Jefferson had turned his back while talking, Taylor Christensen had chucked a crumpled up paper ball across the room, hitting Kate in the face. Kate had flinched upon being hit didn't overreact to it as she wasn't one to make a scene about things. Class was eventually dismissed following Jefferson stressing to his students to submit their entries for the "Everyday Heroes Photo Contest" if they didn't yet. As everyone had already gotten up and took off to go on about their lives, Kate did not. She did not have the energy to move. In fact, she just wanted to be done with this. The humiliation, the harassment, the shaming. All of it had broken her and so she sat there, a fallen angel, until she had been approached by a true friend.

"Hi Kate." Max greeted as she stood at Kate's table.

"Oh, hi Max." Kate replied in a voice that wasn't as cheerful as usual.

"You seem quiet today." Max acknowledged.

"Just thinking too much…" Kate simply expressed.

"I hear that. Wanna go grab a cup o'tea and bitch about life?" Max asked.

"Thanks, but not today. I have to go over homework". Kate told Max as she tried to come up with an excuse for not feeling so social with her best friend.

"No worries. Let's hang later." Max stated.

"Sure." Kate replied.

Kate felt bad about blowing off Max like that. She felt even worse for lying to her. Max was her friend, but for some reason, Kate just didn't feel comfortable telling her what was really wrong. She had already been through enough today. All she just wanted to do was go back to her room and cry herself to sleep.

When she arrived back to her dorm she checked her mailbox once more to see that she received a post card from her father back at home. After reading the letter containing Auntie Marsh's harsh words, she decided to wait until she went up to her room to read it. The postcard had a photograph of several wax candles in the dark. She slowly flipped over the back to see what message had been written for her. Instead of being disowned by her father, he left her some kind words of encouragement which had read:

And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

— John 1:5

Katie, you'll always be my brightest light against the dark.

hugs n' love

Pop

Kate couldn't help but shed a few tears once more after seeing this. She felt that she had brought so much shame to the Marsh family name after everything that had happened. She sat in her room and began to cry more. It was only Monday and she dealt with so much aftermath from the Vortex Club party incident. How would she make it through the end of the week like this? She was slowly becoming depressed and her faith had been weakened. She was wondering if there would be any use in praying at this point. She didn't even want a miracle. All she really wanted right now was someone who could come to her rescue and protect her from the bullies.

Poor Kate! Hopefully things will surely get better for her. But you'll just have to keep reading to find out. In the next chapter, Ben is reminded of a visit from a more popular character of the game. Let's just say they used to have "hella" good times together.