Chapter Text
“Chloe!!”
“Chloe!!”
“Price, get your ass out here, now!!”
Victoria, Dana and Juliet had headed for the junkyard while Kate, Taylor and Stella had gone to the lighthouse. The trio of young women who went to the junkyard had a much tougher job ahead of them than those who went to the lighthouse since there was little to no light in the junkyard as it wasn’t a clear night. Victoria also knew that Kate wouldn't have liked clambering around a filthy junkyard even though she would’ve done it for Chloe. “Girls?” a soft yet rough and slurred voice called back after a few tense moments of frightening silence. “What are you doing out here?” The owner of the voice had heard the three girls yelling out for her but had hoped they'd leave her to her misery. Victoria knew that but had sorta taken Chloe under her wing so was obliged to look out for her, privately though she knew it wasn't just obligation, it was a hope to start anew, a hope for friendship that drove her
“Looking for you” Victoria looked around the pitch-black junkyard, the only meager source of light came from the phones of the three girls who were trying to follow the sound of the grieving blunette through the maze and the scene that greeted them was pretty macabre. A hastily dug shallow grave was set back into a slightly wider area of one of the paths through the discarded junk. A recent police cordon had been torn apart most likely by a distressed blunette, desperate to see the body of her beloved one last time. Rachel's parents had been called in to identify the body and that was the last thing they did before shipping out to California and since they hadn't yet set a date for her funeral or visitation which was almost certainly going to be closed after six months of her being buried, Chloe hadn't been able to see Rachel one last time. The grave in the junkyard was empty save from some puke, the punk’s stomach had clearly rebelled against her, reviled by the fact that their safe haven had been desecrated by such a horrific crime against the pair, not just Rachel who had been abused and buried in the one place she thought she could escape the real world, but Chloe too. The junkyard was their safe space, their sacred hideout and for such disturbing crimes to occur to one of them in their sacred hideout had changed their very reality.
“Price...” Victoria began in her usual clipped tone, but soon the bitchy blonde found herself shaking her head and trying again, “Chloe...” she breathed, moving closer while trying to be careful not to step on or trip over anything. Out of respect for the duo, Victoria and the other girls had been very protective of the old hideout as soon as they had learned of it. Dana and Taylor, along with a former student named Steph had gone there on a throwaway comment by the academy's Queen Bee late one night and removed everything from the small building to prevent the local police or FBI from removing any of the duo's belongings as evidence. While they recognized that they would be interfering in the investigation, protecting Chloe and Rachel’s safe space from further damage was their only concern and Taylor had kept quiet about how they had known to do so, at least until Victoria had owned up. Victoria respected Rachel and Chloe, albeit reluctantly and hadn't wanted their legacy to be totally robbed from them by the events of her former best friend and former teacher. Save from that one instance when they were rescuing the duo’s belongings, the girls avoided going into the little building and only stepped over the boundary once given permission. “Chloe...” Victoria sat down on the temporary carpet they put down once they had cleared the small space of everything save Rachel's letter of confession which formed an important part of the investigation. Chloe had been so overwhelmingly grateful once she knew what the girls had done for her, their belongings that they had kept in the little building would most likely be the sum total of Rachel’s stuff that Chloe could hold on to with any certainty.
“I'm okay, Tori” Chloe whispered, wiping her eyes hastily.
“Chloe...” Victoria whispered, the other two girls were hanging back respectfully, aware of how important the junkyard was to the duo. How Victoria had learned of the junkyard hideout was likely to remain a mystery even for the blunette who had spent a good portion of a few years at the junkyard, personalizing it, turning it from a dilapidated and worthless little shack into the home away from hell it had become. David, who knew about the hideout from following Chloe after Rachel went missing, had only mentioned it to the police after the hideout had already been cleared, unaware that it had been cleared
“I'm not okay” the blunette corrected herself, “I haven't been okay for over six months, Tori”
“I know, Chloe.” You mean over five years, right? The words were left unsaid, merely vaguely hinted at by Chloe's comment. “Hence me sitting here, in a junkyard, in my favorite cashmere. Me. Cashmere. Dirty junkyard”
“Hey” Chloe grumbled quietly, “don't mock my home away from hell” a small upward pull on the blunette’s lips betrayed her snark. A mock glare that had no bite to it was shared between the two young women. It had certainly been a shock to Victoria to learn that not only was the victim of her bullying, Kate Marsh, the victim of such a disgusting crime but that she herself was one of his targets as well. It had come as another shocking wake-up call but the former Queen Bee had to suppress all her horror to help the two girls she had neglected and abused
*****
Kate gazed helplessly over the ocean far below her, terrified that, despite the absence of the truck, Chloe had done something recklessly stupid like throwing herself off the cliff. In the period of just a few short years, she had lost everyone who had ever mattered to her, to hope that she could open up enough to allow in a whole group of new people was almost unbelievable. Kate knew Chloe had lost her father in that horrible accident, her best friend when she moved away the day of her father's funeral, her mother when she married The Step-Douche, her girlfriend who had vanished over six months beforehand when she was murdered and her best friend, again, when she too was murdered by Nathan Prescott. No, that girl had lost too much to openly trust again. Kate being Kate though, she hoped and prayed that everything would turn out okay, that either she, Taylor and Stella or Victoria, Dana and Juliet would find the blunette and that they'd be able to connect to her, be able to coax her into having friends again. The other search parties spread out over the Bay were less likely to be successful but she still prayed.
When her cell phone rang, piercing the tranquil night, Kate jumped but soon fumbled with the piece of technology, lifting it to her ear. She was hoping against hope but suddenly warmth raced through her despite the chill of the fall night. We found her. The three words lifted almost all the weight off of Kate’s shoulders and allowed her to breathe easier.
“We’ll meet you back at Blackwell?” Kate asked. The turnaround that Victoria had gone through all stunned the Christian but she found herself being nothing but grateful
“No, Chloe wants to get some food, we’ll meet you at the Two Whales”
The Two Whales? Chloe doesn't frequent there often anymore, well, she hasn't gone there since Max died. Chloe had loved the diner, and it did do the best food in the entire bay so she understood why Chloe had gone there every day despite her antagonistic relationship with her own mother. In a way, Kate was relieved but she also felt trepidation at the blunette's first appearance at the diner in weeks, especially when almost everyone who went there would know who she was. “Okay, Tori, see you there, shall I invite the others?”
“No, I think it’s better if we keep it just to the three of us, this time.” Victoria’s response was expected but also slightly saddening and since Kate could see Victoria’s reasoning she agreed without hesitation.
“Okay, Tori. Goodbye”