"Rachel?" Victoria gasped. "Are you talking about Rachel Amber? Max, you… you brought her back too?"
"Yes," Max said. "Or rather, we tried. We thought it didn't work cause she didn't show any sign of reviving for hours, we wanted to put her back in her grave tonight, but… holy shit, Chlo, wait!"
But the blue-haired girl had already dashed out and up the stairs, and when Max and Victoria followed her and emerged outside, Chloe was hovering high above them, calling out into the dead woods:
"Rachel! Rachel!"
The punk then floated away to their left and kept calling desperately.
"I'm gonna help her," Max told her girlfriend, and after a quick squeeze of her hand, she started soaring. But as she was seven feet above ground…
"Fuck!" she groaned as she plummeted and fell on her butt like a sack of potatoes.
"Shit, are you okay?" Victoria asked as she knelt by her side and grabbed her shoulders. "What happened?"
"I'm fine, don't worry, just my pride that got hurt," Max groaned and wiped a trickle of blood from her nose. She inspected the blood on her finger: "I guess I used up my flight battery."
"Battery? Wait, are you a vampire or a cyborg?"
Max chuckled: "That's just a manner of speaking. We can't really fly by ourselves, you see, we have to use or psychokinetic powers to lift our own bodies off the ground, and it's pretty draining so we can't do that for too long. I guess with my little stunt at the lighthouse, I'm out of psychic juice now."
The brunette quickly recovered and then tried another method: on all four, she started sniffing the charred ground, like a dog, a sight which puzzled Victoria quite a bit. A couple minutes later, they heard Chloe curse as she crash-landed, her flight battery dry too.
"I can't see a sign of her anywhere," the punk said as she walked to the other two girls. "There's this whole circle of burned trees around us, and beyond it everything looks normal. Fuck. Do you have a lead, Maxi-pad?"
Max stood up and shook her head, much to Chloe's chagrin.
"Sorry," she said. "Everything's so burned and wet around here, I keep losing her scent. Can't tell which way she went."
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," Chloe groaned, grabbing her head and pulling at her hair in panic. "She's got to be somewhere around here! We need to find her before she gets lost in the woods, or gets to town! Where the fuck is she?"
"Chlo, calm down!" Max called, grabbing her friend by the shoulders. "Look at me, Chloe: we will find her, okay? I swear on Bongo's grave, we will find her! But we need to stay calm and use our heads, okay?"
"Kay," Chloe said weakly.
"Guys!" Victoria called. "Look at that!"
In a ruckus of croaks and flapping wings, a flock of crows suddenly emerged from the barn roof and took flight.
No, Victoria thought. Not a flock. A murder. A flock of seagulls. A pack of wolves. A pride of lions. A murder of crows.
She shook her head, wondering what the fuck was wrong with her brain for coming up with useless bits of trivia at a time like this, and focused on the black birds' flight.
"They look like they know where they're going," she commented as she noticed they were all going in the same direction.
"Think we should follow them?" Chloe asked.
"Why should we?"
"I dunno. Could be a sign. I mean, usually crows get excited when there's…"
Her voice died out in awe as she realized what that meant. The two other girls understood it too: death. Crows were attracted to dead things.
"Yeah," Max said, "let's follow."
"Wait!" Victoria shouted, annoyed, as the two vampires dashed off into the dark of the woods, but they went so fast they didn't hear her.
She kept grumbling as she walked on, tripping every couple steps because she couldn't see shit in there! Her legs were getting tired, she was sweating in spite of the cold, and she felt her feet getting sucked into the soft, damp soil whenever they hit the ground.
There go my $2000 shoes… I'll be lucky if I manage to get at least half of that mud off!
"Max?" she called. "Price? Where the fuck are you?"
She shivered. The forest was so quiet tonight! Not a bird, not a bug, she had walked through the burnt region and was now entering the healthy part of the forest, where the trees were untouched by the… blast… and so far she had not heard a single sound but her own!
"Max! Price! Seriously, this isn't fucking funny!"
A snapped twig startled the blonde, and with a gasp she turned and looked up, trying to see the origin of the noise. There she saw her: at first, she thought the dark figure crouched on that branch, high above her head, that she barely made out in the pale amber moonlight, was some sort of big cat, but then the figure looked down at her with its glowing orange eyes and whispered:
"Here, Tori."
And Max jumped on another branch below, and another, always landing on all four, her fingernails digging deep in the woods like cat claws.
Damn, Victoria thought as her girlfriend landed by her side, she really does look like a cat.
Why did that thought make her shiver so… pleasantly, though, she had no idea.
"Sorry," Max whispered sheepishly, "I guess we took off a little too fast. I tend to forget how it is to be… you know? Normal."
"Yeah, well, please try not to forget too often, cause getting lost in the woods by myself on a fall night isn't really my idea of a fun date," Victoria grumbled, trembling from head to toe. It was getting really cold and she couldn't wait to be back in the warmth and light of the dorm!
"Here, let me," Max offered as she took her in her arms and hugged her tight. "Is it better?"
On a purely physical level, it wasn't, Victoria had to admit it. It's difficult for your girlfriend to warm you up when she has no body heat, isn't it? Yet… she also had to admit there was some sort of butterfly-inducing quality in being held in Max's arms, so strong in spite of the girl's frail appearance, and she couldn't help but feel more peaceful, and also a little weaker in the knee.
"Max! Chase! You better come and check this out!" Chloe shouted from a distance.
Quickly – yet a lot slower than Max could so she wouldn't lose her girlfriend again – they ran to meet her. The punk was crouched, studying something on the ground that Victoria first took for a rock or a big log, but as she took out her phone to light it, she stepped back in horror.
"Fuck! Who could've done this?"
It was a doe. A very dead doe, its big glassy eye reflecting the light from her phone. This wide eye, this face… the animal was frozen in an air of sheer terror. Its throat had been torn open in a very messy manner, with ribbons of flesh still dangling from it, smoking slightly as what remained of its body heat escaped into the night. Its flank was punctured with beak marks, and around them, in the trees, they could hear crows croaking with impatience, scolding the girls for interrupting their meal.
There was not a single drop of blood to be seen anywhere.
"She looks like she's been sucked dry," Max commented, and Victoria couldn't help but notice how unfazed she seemed to be by this dreadful sight.
"Yeah, and I guess only a vampire could do that," Chloe added. "And check this out."
Next to the body, there was a small dark object: a black, high-heeled sandal.
"Isn't that one of the shoes she was buried with?" Max asked.
"Yup!" Chloe cheered. "Rach was here. We're on the right trail, Maxi-pad!"
"Okay. Where to next?"
Chloe squatted down and grabbed the shoe, and took a good sniff of it. Then she stood up and smelled the air. "I got her scent better now. I think I can follow it, she went… that way."
She pointed her fingers in a direction, then froze, her eyes wide.
"Wait, Max, do you see it?"
"What? Oh, yeah, it's-"
"It's what?" Victoria asked. "I can't see shit!"
No matter how hard she looked in the direction Chloe was pointing to, the best she could make out was the faint glow of a street lamp in the distance.
"It's the junkyard!" Max explained. "Rachel went toward the junkyard!"
"Maybe she's still there, hiding in our safehouse," Chloe said. "C'mon Max, let's go!"
"Wait!" Victoria shouted, stopping the two vampires dead in their tracks as they were about to make a run for it.
"Price," she ordered when she had their attention, "give me your keys."
"What the fuck, Chase?" the punk protested.
"Tori, what's wrong?" Max asked with concern.
"Look," the blonde explained patiently, "I just can't keep up with you guys if you keep running off like that, you're gonna wear me out! Besides, if you do find Rachel, you'll probably need wheels to carry her back to your bunker, so you girls go on ahead, while I go get the truck and meet you at the junkyard, okay?"
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea," Max agreed.
But Chloe didn't look too thrilled with it: "Yeah, and entrust my baby to you, Chase? Why the fuck would I do that?"
Victoria rolled her eyes: "Price, please, I can't possibly ruin that rustbucket more than it already is!"
"Chlo, this is the best plan," Max added. "Imagine we don't find Rachel? We're gonna need the truck if we got to snoop around town, and we can save loads of time if Tori's bringing it for us."
Chloe pouted for a moment more, then conceded begrudgingly: "Fine, but if you so much as scratch it…"
"I won't," Victoria reassured her as she grabbed the keys thrown at her. "Not like it'd make a big difference anyway…"
"Are you gonna be okay to go back there?" Max asked.
"Yeah, don't worry, it's not very far and I know the way," Victoria answered softly.
Then she gave Max's arm a quick rub, followed by a peck on her lips.
"You two take care, okay? I'll be with you shortly."
And on these words, they parted.
Later…
"Is this what you call a safehouse, Price? Shit looks like a squat! And smells like it!"
"Chase, are you here to help us, or to criticize my home décor tastes?"
"You don't have any taste!"
"Okay, girls?" Max intervened. "How about we focus on what we're here for? Obviously she's not here."
"Yeah," Chloe agreed, "her scent stops at the doorway. Like she took a peak inside and walked off. But damn, how could she be so fucking fast?"
"Maybe she's still around, let's follow the trail."
And the three girls walked among the piles of rusted cars and furniture and appliances, casting long glances left and right with every step, checking every pile of refuse, every rusted carcass, following the invisible trail of her scent. Eventually, it led them to the shrine.
"What the fuck!" Chloe erupted in shock.
The place was a mess, the pictures and unlit candles scattered about, the flowers trampled. And in the middle of this, a three-feet deep hole had been dug in the muddy soil.
"What kind of sick asshole does that?" Victoria asked in outrage.
"Yeah," Max added, "it's like a sacred place!"
Once the initial shock was passed, Chloe suddenly had an intuition. Signaling the two other girls to stay where they were, she silently knelt down to examine the hole. She bent over so her nose almost touched the mud, and smelled. Then she stiffened, looked for a spot in the hole, found it, and rammed her arm into the mud. When she pulled it off, she was holding something in her hand. The other sandal.
"She did," she concluded. "There's her scent here, and it's recent. She did that herself."
"But why would she vandalize her own shrine?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure it's her!"
"Okay, let's follow then…"
And Chloe went down on all four, sniffing the ground around the hole. Then she picked up a trail, and started following it, but after a couple yards, she stood back up and groaned in frustration.
"Lost her again!"
Max gave it a try, but didn't go much farther than her punk friend. Yeah, there was her scent around the hole, but it got weaker and weaker very fast until it was lost completely under the musk of soil.
"She must have covered herself in mud while digging," Max said. "It masked her scent."
"Dammit!" Chloe barked as she kicked a rusted rebar. "It's gonna take us ages to find her now! Why the fuck did she dig that fucking hole?"
"I don't know," Max said.
"And what if she makes it to town before we find her? What if people see her? How are we gonna explain that?"
"I don't know!" Max repeated, a little more impatient this time.
"And why the fuck couldn't she just stay in the lair until we got back? What took her, sending us on that fucking wild goose chase?"
"I don't know!" Max almost shouted this time. Then: "Oh, wait, actually I have an idea for this one… I guess she woke up confused and… after what happened with Jeffershit, waking up in the Dark Room might have made her panic a bit…"
"The Dark Room?" Victoria asked, frowning. "Why are you talking about the Dark Room?"
Then, her mouth opened and her eyes grew wide with sudden realization.
"What the… don't tell me… your secret bunker hideout is Jefferson's old pervy studio?"
"Why, yeah, it is," Max shrugged sheepishly. "We figured nobody would come looking for us there."
"This…" Victoria started, but she found herself lost for words, too shocked to think about any objection.
After a moment of silence, she pinched the bridge of her nose, let out a long sigh, and said:
"Okay, then, let's try not to think for a second about how fucked up this is, and focus on the matter at hands. Obviously, yes, she must've woken up confused and terrified. Her first instinct was to flee the Dark Room and run in the woods."
"But the forest was on fire!"
"Maybe the fire had already been put out? Anyway, she ran into the woods, panicked, eventually she found a doe and… are you guys really capable of doing something like this?"
"Most of the time, we can control ourselves," Max said, "but I guess… if she was really starving…"
"Okay, so she did… her thing… and then kept going until she ended up here, in the junkyard. She recognized the place, and thought she was safe because of that squat she and Price had, but…"
The blonde looked at the hole, pale as death.
"And I think I know why she didn't stick around," she added, her voice weak and quivering. "But… it's pretty horrible."
"What?" Chloe intervened, grabbing Victoria by the shoulders and shaking her like a rag doll. "C'mon, Chase, if you know anything that could help us find her, you got to tell me!"
"Let go of me, you barbarian!" the blonde protested as she shook herself free. "And no, I don't know anything, it's just a theory."
"Then spill!"
"Okay! Okay, Jesus, Price, you should learn to communicate with people, someday. Anyway, I think… they say Jefferson OD'ed her, and then buried her here, on this exact spot. But what if… she wasn't entirely gone when he…"
Her voice faded. Her two vampire friends were now staring at her, pale and barely breathing.
"You think," Max eventually said, struggling to speak. "You think he… buried her alive?"
"It's… it's a possibility. She may have had a little bit of consciousness left in her when… anyway, my point being, she recognized the place and it triggered her, so she ran away from here too."
"So why did she dig that hole?" Chloe asked. Then: "Oh, wait…"
Again, she stood silent, her mouth agap. She started shaking.
"No fucking way!"
"Yes," Victoria said, "I… I think she got confused when the memory of her burial came back, and she tried to dig herself up. I'm… sorry, Price."
Chloe didn't reply and stood staring at the horizon, her limbs shaking even more, her breathing ragged, tears of pain and rage flowing down her cheeks as she grasped with full force the horror of her angel's final moments.
"That… bastard," she whispered eventually, her weak voice loaded with venom, like the hiss of a cobra. "That bastard doesn't deserve to be alive…"
Then Max appeared by her side, and grabbed her hand.
"I'm here, Chlo," she whispered tenderly. "Don't worry, everything is going to be okay. Rach is back now, we're gonna find her and it will all be but a bad memory."
Saying this, she tenderly caressed the punk's cheek.
"Promise?" Chloe asked feebly, childishly.
"Promise."
"Thank you, Max. Thanks for being here for me."
And the two best friends were soon locked in a tight hug, and Victoria couldn't help but feel the flame of jealousy burn her innards. She chastised herself for feeling this way, Max was consoling her best friend, because that was what Max did. She cared for others. That was one of the things Victoria had grown to like about her.
Still…
She cleared her throat: "Okay, guys, I don't want to ruin the moment, but we're on the clock here."
"Yeah, you're right," Max mumbled sheepishly as she and Chloe parted. Did they look embarrassed? What were they embarrassed about? Chloe for showing her vulnerable side to Victoria? Max for being so sweet?
Whatever.
"Now we have to think like her if we want to find her. Imagine, you wake up, believing you just escaped from a death trap. The closest place you find you think will be safe turns out not to be safe for you. What is your next move?"
"I think I'd try to run straight back to my room," Max said. "Oh shit, you think she'll try to break into the dorm?"
Chloe shook her head: "I don't think so. Rach had a room at Blackwell, but from here, she'd have to run across the whole town to get to it. Her house is much closer. Oh, shit, her house!"
Victoria nodded, a triumphant smirk on her face: "Exactly. This is our next stop."
"So that is the Amber residence?" Max asked as she gawked at the huge house in front of them. "Nice!"
Victoria rolled her eyes: "Oh, please! Look at that crap, no style, no personality, just a tasteless McMansion with some wood and bricks to give it a fake 'country home' flair! Any other given self-important upper middle-class douchebag owns the exact same house!"
"Wow!" Max reacted. "Now that is pretty harsh, Tori. I know you didn't like Rachel much, but still."
But before her girlfriend could apologize, Chloe came to the rescue:
"I gotta admit she's right, though. James Amber is a self-important douchebag."
"Thank you, Price."
"You're welcome. Dude, I never thought we would agree on something one day!"
"To be honest, neither did I."
"Must be the Max effect. She has a way of bringing people together."
"Yes," Victoria replied as she glanced at her girlfriend with a smirk on her face that made the brunette feel flustered. "Max is wonderful."
"Another thing we can agree on!" Chloe cheered. "High five, Chase!"
And to Max's utmost shock, the two girls did indeed high-five.
Wowser, I'll find a way to make them friends after all!
Yet, it was so embarrassing hearing those two talk about how wonderful she was, that she decided to cut that right now or she'd start blushing hard and if they noticed, dog that would be mortifying!
So she cleared her throat: "Hem, I don't wanna ruin the mood, but we've got something to do, remember?"
"The voice of reason," Chloe sighed.
"Right," Victoria added. "Okay, then, let's get to it."
To Chloe, the house looked oddly dark and quiet. Not a single sign of life, not even a faint light. It was only after they'd crossed the street and engaged in the alleyway when the punk noticed the sign on the lawn.
"For sale?" she yelped. "What the fuck? The Ambers are bailing?"
"I heard they'd skipped town after Rachel was, uh, found," Victoria said. "James Amber said something about needing a break away from it all to mourn properly, stuff like that. Didn't think it would be permanent, though."
Chloe scoffed: "Mourn properly a daughter he didn't really bother looking for in the first place. And now the unwanted kid is gone, hey honey, let's sell the house and start a new life! Asswipe!"
"Unwanted kid?" Victoria raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Chloe sighed. "Look, there's a lot of stuff you don't know about Rach's life. She might tell you about it someday. Anyway, find anything Max? I don't smell shit."
"Me neither," Max said as she walked to the door and put her ear against the panel. "And I don't hear any heartbeat. There's no-one inside."
"Shit," Chloe muttered despondently. "Wrong place. Let's fuck off."
"Wait," Victoria asked, "don't we go inside to make sure?"
Chloe shook her head: "No point. We can hear every single heartbeat in the neighborhood. If someone was in there, we'd hear it for sure."
"Plus," Max added, "we can't get into a house if we're not invited. I don't know how it applies to empty houses, but I don't think it's worth checking out here. I can hear the hum of some electronic thing in there, I guess it's an alarm."
"But you're invisible on camera, right? So it shouldn't detect you?"
"Maybe it won't, but if there's a motion sensor… we've never done that, so I don't know if it can spot us or not, and I don't wanna take a chance and trigger it. This is enough of a mess without getting the cops involved."
"She's right," Chloe decided, "come on landlubbers! Back in the ship!"
The drive through town was more peaceful than an hour before. The cacophony of sirens and horns had ceased, and, while the streets were still busier than usual with confused people and cops trying to answer their questions and calm them down and firemen and paramedics taking care of those who had suffered panic attacks, it was relatively quiet compared to the earlier mess.
A quick stop at the Two Whales had yielded no results: the place was bustling with activity, the night staff cranking out coffee after coffee to refuel the rescue workers, but no sign of Rachel. They then drove toward the beach when they passed by the boardwalk, and all of a sudden…
"Chlo, stop!" Max shouted, and Chloe complied without asking questions, braking so abruptly Victoria almost kissed the dashboard.
"For fuck's sake, Price!" the blonde protested loudly, but nobody reacted: the two vampires had already dashed out of the truck, and Victoria had jump off and run to catch them.
The boardwalk was just as deserted as it was earlier in the evening, save for one person, the one Max had spotted, and soon, the three girls were gathered around the human shape curled up on the planks, in front of a closed souvenir shop, her fragile frame covered in mud.
Chloe's heart had made a somersault in her chest when she'd seen her from the truck, but now that she was close, disappointment took over. It wasn't Rachel.
"Oh God!" Victoria gasped. "Is that Stella?"
"Yeah," Max whispered as she knelt beside the unconscious girl to have a closer look.
"Is she…" the blonde asked with dread, but Max shook her head.
"Nah, she's alive, don't worry. Her heart's a little weak, but it's beating regularly."
"What happened to her?"
Max cautiously took the girl's head in her hands, and turned it to get a closer look at her neck.
"Fuck!" Chloe gasped as she stooped down to get a closer look.
The girl's neck was smeared with blood, and sported two little bumps, like mosquito bites. Immediately, the punk rose and took a long, deep sniff.
"Yes!" she yelped in triumph. "I can smell her! She was here! Let's follow!"
"Wait!" Max ordered.
"What?"
"Not yet, we need to get Stella to a hospital first."
"What? Can't be serious, Maxi-pad, we're gonna waste a shitload of time! The trail will get cold by the time we come back!"
"I know, but we don't know how much blood Rachel siphoned out of her, and judging by her heartbeat, I think she took quite a lot. We can't leave her like this!"
"Bu… but Rachel…"
"I know, Chlo. I'm sorry, I wish we could… but we can't… we have to do what's right."
Chloe sighed, defeated.
"Fine," she conceded, "get in quick then. Let's get this over with as fast as we can."
The drive to the hospital was a silent, sullen one. Chloe kept her eyes fixed on the road, feeling slightly ashamed of having almost left Stella to her fate. Victoria, sitting in the middle, kept her eyes closed, trying to enjoy a moment of peace to process the crazy events of this long-ass night which – she had a feeling – was far from over. Max was holding Stella in her arms, gazing at the unconscious girl.
I hope she's gonna be alright.
Shit, Rachel, we got to find you before more people get hurt!
Fuck, there's her blood on my sleeve now! Her blood… it smells nice…
God, I feel like I haven't had human blood in ages! I'm so hungry right now!
Would it be bad if I took a sip or two? Just a little, couldn't do much harm, right?
"Max?" a weak voice pulled her from her reverie, and the young vampire had a start and turned to her girlfriend, who looked back at her, just as surprised as she was. It wasn't Victoria who'd spoken, nor was it Chloe. The brunette looked down at her burden. Stella was barely awake now, her breathing ragged and her eyes but two thin slots behind her glasses.
"Hey, Stella, you're awake!" Max greeted her softly.
"Hi, Stella," Victoria added, leaning closer.
"Vic…toria?" the dark-skinned girl asked, confused. "Whe… where am I?"
"Don't worry," Max said, "you had an accident, we found you on the boardwalk. You were unconscious. We're taking you to the hospital."
"An… an accident?"
"Yes. Do you remember what it was?"
"I…" she shut her eyes tight and shook her head slightly, investing a lot of effort in the recollection. "I'm not sure… I was just walking and… something… jumped at me…"
"Something? Like an animal?"
"Yeah… I guess… no, wait… I remember now, it was… first I thought it was a girl, she was covered in mud and she sounded… like she was crying or… panicked or something… but as I… got closer, she… attacked me? I'm not real sure, it was so… fast…"
"Did you see what she looked like?"
The girl shook her head, frowning, mumbling something about how fast it had happened, but then… suddenly she tensed and hissed in pain and terror, her eyes opened wide.
"Hey, hey, calm down!" Max comforted her, holding her tighter. "Calm down, you're safe here! What's going on?"
"I remember!" Stella squealed in fright. "I remember, it was… a zombie… she looked like a zombie, a… a zombie Rachel Amber!"
Chloe had such a violent start she almost drifted off the road. The three girls stared at each other.
For the rest of the trip, Max and Victoria kept soothing Stella back to sleep, and fortunately, she did fall back asleep before she got enough of her sense back to ask who was driving.
The lighthouse was casting its beam of light over to the horizon in regular sweeps, a placid stone giant oblivious to the distress of the three girls at its foot.
Chloe was sitting on the bench, staring at the ocean with wet, desperate eyes, a lit cigarette between her fingers. Her jaw was clenched so tight and her hands shaking so hard she could hardly smoke. Sitting by her side, Max was gently rubbing her back, whispering comforting words about how they'd find her soon enough, don't worry about it. Comforting words that Chloe's ears picked up but her brain didn't register. About thirty feet from them, Victoria was on the phone with Taylor. If Max tuned her ears in her direction, she could easily hear Taylor's voice, but she didn't feel like it right now. She wanted to remain focused on comforting her friend. So the only words that came to her were her girlfriend's:
"I'm good, Tay, don't worry… yeah, that was pretty freaky, but we're okay. How's it for you… really? What the fuck? She alright? Okay, great. God you scared me here! Okay, so how's everyone now? Good, and you, how are you? You sure? Nothing unusual happened, like, in your room? Just asking, I wanna make sure you're safe! No, I'm fine, I told you! Yeah, of course I sound worried, I'm getting tired and this whole… weird… magnetic shit or whatever freaked me out! Okay… yeah, okay, talk to you later. And, uh… make sure you lock your door tonight. I dunno, just… make sure, okay?"
"How's it looking?" Max asked after Victoria had hung up and joined them.
"There was a problem at the dorm too… the music glitched during the party, and Kate had a panic attack."
"What?"
"She's fine, don't worry! The paramedics came to check on her and she's okay, she's asleep now. Everyone got pretty spooked, so the party's over now. As for Rachel, it looks like she didn't try to get back to the dorm… not yet, anyway."
Chloe huffed: "Just great, our last hope's just gone up in smoke!"
"Chlo…"
"Stop 'Chlo-ing' me, Max, yes I'm pissed and it's pretty obvious why! It took us so long to get Stella to the ER that by the time we got back to the boardwalk, the trail had gone cold! Then we tried everywhere, all of our usual hangouts, zip, nada, jack shit! She's not at the junkyard, not at Two Whales, not at Caliban Cove, not at the lighthouse, and now she's not even at Blackwell! This is getting so fucking old! Where the hell is she hiding?"
"Maybe she's not hiding after all?" Max asked tentatively.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we know she went to the junkyard, and then the boardwalk… maybe she's still on the move and that's why we can't find her."
"Oh, just great then! So we can't find her cause she's always one step ahead? Fuck! Why couldn't she just stay in one place where I could find her? What the flying fucking fuck is she doing?"
"Wait a second," Victoria intervened, "I think I have an idea… Price, earlier at your clubhouse thing in the junkyard, you said her scent stopped at the doorway?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"If she was looking for a safe place, why didn't she even try to get inside? Why just stop at the door, take a peak, and take off?"
"Because she saw the shrine and it triggered her?"
Victoria shook her head: "The shrine was much further inside the junkyard than your clubhouse, coming from that part of the forest. Logically, she must've seen it afterward."
"Chase, I'm too tired and stressed out to play Sherlock, where are you heading at?"
"I was thinking… she's probably in horrible pain and fear right now, and looking for safety, but her idea of safety… maybe it's not a place. She went to your clubhouse, but didn't stay because she didn't find what she was looking for. Same for the boardwalk. And probably same for all your usual hangouts. Price, she's not looking for a safe place, she's looking for you."
Chloe's eyes bulged at this revelation. She darted up and, in her euphoria, yelped out:
"Fuck! Guys! I know where she is!"