Snapping fingers in front of her face finally helped draw Kate back to the present moment. "Hey! Come back to me, Robyn Lively, I really don't need someone else passing out on my watch, okay?" Her vision cleared and she saw Chloe looking at her with genuine concern. Although she hadn't actively been trying to get on her good side, she was glad to see that they were already connecting a little. "You said something about Stella?"

"Teen Witch reference... Clever..." Kate rubbed the bridge of her nose and sat up a little straighter. At least she didn't actually black out this time. "Did I say it out loud? Um, yeah, some kinda mystical-magical voice in my head. I-I think Stella's in trouble? Call it another vibe." She reached for her phone to check the time. "We can check with the girls when they get out of class. Stella wouldn't miss a class unless things were bad. If she wasn't in today, we can start to actually freak out. In the meantime, why don't I finish your tea reading?"

Chloe laughed, but it was obviously an attempt to cover any nervousness she felt. "Nah, fuck it. I've had enough weird shit for a little while. The last thing we need is for you to discover like... The Happy Squirrel or whatever."

"You make a lot of pop culture references when you're freaked out, don't you?" Not like Kate could talk, she was pretty damn freaked out too. She'd seen far too much death today, blacked out, heard voices in her head, read Max's mind from across town... This was going to be a long week.

Chloe, it turned out, was excellent at distracting when the need arose. For a while she just puttered around asking Kate about each weird little eccentric item on her shelves. But at some point, something stuck out to the witch that made her worried. She hopped up and walked over to Chloe, unthinkingly grabbing at her arm where Frank had scratched her a few hours before. "Jesus, does Frank Bowers have some kind of disease growing under his fingernails or something? You need this looked at!" What had originally just been a succession of pinkish streaks were now very clear red scratches, and the skin around them looked sort of infected and puffy.

Chloe was apparently completely distracted from her wound, but now that Kate had pointed it out, she seemed much more aware of it's hideousness. She grimaced and pulled her arm back, gripping it tight. "Yeah, it fucking burns, now that you mention it. Fuck, I'm lowering that debt my-fucking-self for all this pain he's causing me."

Kate suddenly jumped into action and began working with tiny jars of ingredients and some oil with a mortar and pestle. "Hmmm, burning scratches, so... and... just a touch of mint..." Chloe looked over her shoulder suspiciously at the concoction she was making. Kate used a gentle hand and began applying it to her wound. "This won't do much, so you need to get to a hospital as soon as you can."

Chloe attempted to pull away, but she stopped when it suddenly sent a cooling chill over her skin. "Jesus, you really are magic..." Kate just giggled and wrapped a bandage around her arm. "You're not trying to get in my pants are anything, are you? Cuz seriously, I've already got one missing ladyfriend and I'm in the process of re-connecting with a second ladyfriend."

Kate wasn't sure her eyes could roll any harder if she tried. "You just keep making meaningful eyes at Max and working on not getting gangrene, I'm perfectly content with one girlfriend, thanks..." This was probably supposed to be an awkward moment, but the two of them being so open about the awkwardness actually sort of diffused it. Finally her work was done, and in perfect time too. Her phone rang and she rushed to answer it. "Baby! Um, sorry for the random question, but... Stella's in your class right?"

There was a pause on the other end as Victoria processed what she'd asked. "Huh? Yeah, but I haven't seen her in a little while."

She could hear Max speaking as well, apparently walking out of class alongside her girlfriend. "I knew something was missing. Normally she's all over Jefferson as soon as class ends."

"Shit..." Victoria seemed to be slowly catching on, and Kate was already out her door and heading down the hall, beckoning Chloe to follow. "I think... The last time I saw her was last week? Um, yeah, at the party."

"Mkay, I'm just gonna check on her. Another little vibe, probably nothing. See you when you get back." Kate hung up, then approached Stella's door and brushed her hand over it. Finally she steeled herself and knocked as Chloe came up behind her. "Stella? You okay?" She paused a moment, leaving plenty of space for, say, a sick classmate to respond or climb out of bed and answer the door. But soon, more than enough time had passed and she tried again. Her heart was thumping, and although they had never been close, she was getting scared. The party, that was the last time anyone had seen her. The party she had been at. Had she seen something? Had she completely missed an obvious danger?

Her knocking got more panicked until Chloe stopped her with a sure grip. "You're gonna freak out the whole dorm, and I'm pretty sure you wanna keep this stealthy. Here" The bluenette knelt down and began picking at the lock of the door, paused in confusion, and then tried the knob. It turned without resistance and the door opened. "Oh come the fuck- We're idiots."

The two entered what was an otherwise perfectly normal dorm. A bit messy and lived-in, but it carried a certain style that was clearly Stella's. There were a lot of books, and the desk looked more used. Kate began poking around, just a little, expecting at any moment Stella would walk in on them, returning from some kind of vacation or something, yelling at them for breaking into her room like a couple of weirdos. Instead, they were joined by Max and Tori, which didn't really do anything to lessen Kate's nerves. "I don't know, I was hoping to find a clue, or maybe get another vision, but..."

"Ah, but luckily for you, I am a ne'er-do-well of many degrees. Check this out..." Chloe held up a plastic bag for the others to see, filled with smaller bags, containing way too many drugs. "Stella uses some pretty intense study aids, and if I had to wager a guess, Frank is likely the one who supplied her."

"Maybe she went on some kind of... bender?" Max was trying to be helpful, and while that was always a possibility, it spoke to just how innocent she was - if adorably so.

Kate pouted, deep in thought, and sat down on the edge of Stella's bed. "No... If that were the case, she'd be right here working until her eyes explode. There's no danger of that until finals. Max? Could you go check with Alyssa? I'm getting truly concerned, so I'm going to try something less orthodox..."

"Less orthodox?" Victoria sounded worried and stood in the doorway with her arms crossed while Max went off in search of Alyssa.

"I'm guessing your definition of unorthodox is different from mine?" Chloe chimed in.

Kate sighed and began sifting through Stella's possessions, looking for anything that could be considered a personal item of great value. "There's a lot of weird stuff going down that I didn't know anything about just a few days before, so the specifics and the terminology still elude me. But yes, I'm going to try and... I don't know, read her things? Try and channel her or see if I can contact her? Sorry, I wish I could be more confident about this stuff."

"Hey, Miss Cleo? How about we start with this doohickey instead?" Kate looked over to where Chloe was holding Stella's laptop with a snarky grin, and even her own girlfriend was forcing herself to stifle a giggle at her expense. "Give me some time and I can probably find something useful. E-mails and chats, maybe someone as organized as her even kept a journal."

Gentle arms enfolded Kate and hugged her tight. Victoria looked in Chloe's direction with a worried smile. "Hey, um, you can handle this right? Chat with Maxine and sort out what to do with this weirdness, yeah?" She looked back toward Kate, brushing her hair out of her face. "You need a chance to lay down and fucking relax.." Not that she was actually given a chance to respond before she was dragged off to Victoria's room and forced into gentle cuddles on the warm bed. She tried, she really tried to resist or talk, to keep thinking and solve all of these mysteries that were piling up. And the junkyard... and...

But sleep claimed her. Victoria was doing that thing where she played with her hair and hummed quietly to her, and she was out like a light. And just once, perhaps as a gift of divine charity, it was silent. No visions, no voices, just peace and quiet.

By the time Kate woke up from her nap, the light outside had faded. Apparently Victoria had been keeping vigilant watch over her the entire time, and she felt some pangs of guilt for just how much work the poor blonde had to put in taking care of her lately. As soon as her eyes began to flutter open she felt those wonderful nails rake through her hair again. "Hey..."

She smiled gratefully at Victoria and started to stretch a bit. "Hey. What'd I miss?"

The sigh that preceded the answer told Kate just how exhausting this week was going to get. "Alyssa had no clue, but Max said she sounded a little bitter, like maybe Stella had found someone new to hang out with? She hasn't heard from her since last week either. Chloe finally managed to worm her way into Stella's computer and she found some interesting stuff. There was also a solar eclipse, but according to nerdboy Warren-"

"Nobody was expecting it. Yeah, go figure. And I'll bet no one else around the world saw it but us..."

"Chloe suddenly got this kinda manic look and decided that she and Max needed to go investigate the principal's office or something? I don't know, I think she's still more obsessed with finding Rachel. She's certain something in the files there will help find either her or Stella."

Oh shit. Kate sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Rachel Amber... Dammit, we... we have to go back to the junkyard, I have to know. I-I'm pretty sure Rachel is dead."

Victoria nodded seriously and climbed off the bed with her. "I was wondering when you were gonna bring that back up. You said her name just before you passed out, and you were staring at the ground like a zombie. Do you think...?"

Kate shook her head and grabbed her bag, starting for the door. "I don't think anything anymore. Everything is too screwed up. I'd rather be surprised than wrong." She stepped into her own dorm for a moment and began rooting around until she found the little gardening tool she kept on hand for ingredient-gathering. It wasn't much, but it would be better than clawing at the ground with bare fingers. The blue butterfly, as always appearing from seemingly nowhere, alighted on her shoulder and she smiled at it wearily. "Hey little guy, looks like it's time to solve this mystery. Sorry I'm a little late, I hope you don't mind."

The girls rode in silence to the junkyard. Everything was tense, and while Kate wanted to hope for the best, she already sort of knew where this moment was leading. Always the enigma, the butterfly was off the moment Kate stepped out of the car, and soon they found the patch of ground once again.

Rachel Amber...

"Yes, I kno-" Kate groaned and massaged the bridge of her nose again. "Sorry, Victoria, that was directed at the voice in my head, not you. And now that I say that out loud, I realize how terrifying that is..." She knelt down and began digging, praying she didn't have to go the full six feet under with her tiny trowel.

The good news was, it was barely six inches below the surface. The bad news was that it was most definitely a dead body, and an old one at that. The smell was immediate and potent, and both of them wheeled away quickly. Kate could feel the bile rising and had to force it back down. Only by covering her mouth and nose was she able to move back in and grab a bracelet that was laid rather ceremoniously on top. The witch quickly recovered the uncovered hole and looked at the object she'd retrieved. "Just like Chloe's..."

"Wait, didn't Frank have one of those too? What the fuck is going on?" Victoria took the handmade bracelet and inspected it more.

While the blonde took a closer look at the accessory, Kate's phone suddenly blew up with a series of texts from both Max and Chloe, including some pictures of files and images from Wells' own computer. "Shit... Um, Tori..." Kate showed one image in particular to Victoria with a guilty frown. A document from Nathan's therapy sessions displayed the phrase RACHEL IN THE DARK ROOM over and over.

"Don't be sorry, he's... Nathan's been getting worse. He hasn't been around much lately, he's impossible to get a hold of. Frankly, this makes as good an excuse as any to finally confront him tomorrow. And while I'm doing that, you should probably tell Chloe the truth." Kate agreed, even if she wasn't particularly looking forward to it. "Maybe Max can check in with Frank? Either he knows why Rachel is dead, or he'll want to help figure this out."

Kate was beginning to realize just how much she had been leading the charge as she watched Victoria's gorgeous mind whirl away figuring out their next step. She was just so tired, even with that nap she'd snuck in. They'd barely figured out anything yet and she was utterly exhausted. She moved wordlessly to Victoria's side and hugged her tight.

"I've seen so much death today. Real death. Potential death. Quantum death. I'm sick and fucking tired of death. Can we go home and have sex now?"

"Absolutely baby, you can have all the sex you want..." Victoria kissed the top of Kate's head and led her back to her car.

Back at Blackwell, while the witch and her girlfriend were otherwise engaged, Chloe was busy pushing Max up against the wall of the heated pool, pressing close to her, and kissing her hard on the lips. Eventually there would be security, and running, and hiding, and a vortex, and more death. But for right now, they were a bunch of teenage girls, and Chloe was feeling feral.