Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kat fucked up.

She really thought everyone forgetting about her and moving on would be for the best. Instead, she gave herself up to an eternity inside… wherever this was.

All around her, she could only see darkness, with purple, pink and white tendrils of light shining. Their glow reminded Kat of light reflecting from a pool.

She could hear faint whispering from below. Most likely from other souls that found their way into here as well. How many were there? How did they get here? Were they as aware as she was, or did their consciousness fade in the time spent here? Were they only souls, or were their bodies trapped here as well? If she still even had a body at this point, she could certainly not see it. Or feel its presence.

So many questions. No answers for her, though. This place didn’t seem particularly willing to be scrutable to her puny human senses.

All she could really do was stew on the choices that led her here. Most importantly, the one that had condemned her to this void.

She knew she had made a deal with the abyss after Corey fell in. It involved giving herself away, and everyone’s memories of her, in exchange for it sparing her friends. By the time everyone woke up in the clearing, she already felt herself tethered to the abyss. Bit by bit, she was being pulled. She didn’t have long to make everyone promise to forget, and never meet up again. They pushed back. She pushed harder. It was already set in stone anyway, there wasn’t anything for them to say.

She had to break their bonds. It was the only way they’d be saved. At least, she thought so at the time.

As it turns out, there were only wrong answers to that dilemma.

In the time since she arrived in here, she got to see flashes of her friends’ futures. Nora struggling to get work done on a new dress for her latest fashion line due to a sudden wave of sadness. Autumn desperately trying to help a sick kid and being overcome with grief when she failed. Both unable to grasp where the intense feelings had come from.

She saw Swann breaking down in tears. Her partner had told her she was too emotionally distant, and ended things with her.

All their struggles may have been painful to watch, but Swann’s were torture. Because more so than with the others, Kat knew it was her that led the poor redhead down this path.

She remembered how much progress Swann had made after meeting Kat and the others. She could barely look any of them in the eye the first night they’d met. By the end of the month, she seemed so much more comfortable around them. So much more self-assured in her talents, thanks to their support.

Kat had thought she was cute when they first met. But seeing Swann blossom into the confident and caring girl that would follow Kat into hell itself… That was what made the poet fully fall in love with her.

And she stomped on all of that. Now all that was left was a decayed husk. All the petals had fallen off. Thanks to her.

Kat so desperately wanted to hold Swann, and tell her she’d be okay. But she couldn’t, because she was a whole dimension away. And Kat was here, in the abyss. All she could do now was remain in it.

Never changing.

Never growing old.

Never dying.

Only watching.

As penance for her fuck-ups.

Her own little Hell.

Kat couldn’t let this be. There had to be something she could do. Anything.

But the abyss continued to churn around her. The voices continued to whisper. Some seemed to scream. And Kat remained in the abyss.

This was how things would be, for the rest of eternity.

Just Kat, the abyss, and her mistake. Pretty shitty roommates, if she had to be honest.

The abyss continued to be. So did Kat. Whatever the hell she even was now.

She tried to stop thinking. Maybe if silence claimed her, she’d no longer have to feel the guilt.

Memories continued to play. Whispers continued to whisper. Thoughts continued to be thought. Kat ignored them, and tried to let her awareness fade into the noise.

And for an unknown amount of time, it worked.

Until a glimmer in the corner of her vision distracted her from that plan.

Butterflies made out of light. Fluttering around the past. On a very specific date.

July 7th, 1995. The day everything began.

It’s not like Kat hadn’t tried to project herself into these fissures of time. But she was never able to remain for longer than a moment or two. The timeline rejected her like a virus. Its antibodies quick to purge her.

This time, though… it didn’t feel like the memory was hostile to her. If anything, she felt a welcoming aura around it. As if someone was holding out their arms to catch her.

If she wanted, she could likely enter that memory. From there, she could reshape the timeline. Save everyone from their miserable futures.

Save… Swann. Hold her again. Then everything would be alright.

But wasn’t messing with time risky? Even the most minuscule change could make the timeline veer off-road. It would require borderline surgical precision to stay the course.

Was this worth the risk? She was having doubts. However, the aura was fading. She was running out of time to make her decision.

And then she heard the echoes of Swann’s sobs again. They stabbed her like a thousand knives.

There really was no choice to make. She had to do it.

With no time to waste, Kat focused on the memory of that particular day. She remembered her room, and pulled herself towards it.

In previous attempts, she could only see the memory. Plant herself onto a point in space, and observe it for a fraction of a second. Maybe pull an object with her into the abyss if she really focused. But nothing more. At first, it seemed like the same thing was happening. The scene was materializing around her, slowly but surely. Only sight though, and nothing more.

But this time was different. She began to feel the warmth of her bedsheets. The summer breeze coming in from her bedroom window. A beam of sunlight on her face.

She felt herself stir in response. The sensation shocked her to the core. She hadn’t had a physical reaction to anything in… who knows how long.

Filled with renewed hope, she focused more intently on that memory. It was almost within reach. But something was holding her back. A tether straining against her sense of self. The abyss was trying to hold her back. Was it sensing that she wanted to escape it?

She pulled harder, resisted the grasp. Inching herself towards the past. The aura was getting weaker, and Kat was worried she wouldn’t be able to make it through in time.

And then, a few things happened in quick succession.

First, the hold on her went slack against her straining, like an elastic band being released. She felt herself be flung towards the memory.

Second, a voice, garbled beyond recognition, but still perfectly audible, echoed two words.

ONE CHANCE.

Third, she saw red eyes glaring at her from the darkness, just barely visible amidst the light tendrils. Hatred emanated from their glow. A thirst for revenge.

Then, everything around her grew dark. The haunting voice and ominous glare were replaced with smothering warmth and birdsong.

She didn’t need to open her eyes to confirm. She knew she had succeeded.

Kat had returned to the timeline. She was back in 1995.

Chapter Text

July 7^th, 1995

Kat never thought she’d miss the sensation of being in a bed. She’d spent far more time than she’d like tethered to them. Hospital stays with tubes hooked into her, 10-hour long rests due to exhaustion… Ever since she got her diagnosis, it sometimes felt like she spent more time in bed than out.

Yet, after untold eons spent in a vacant void, where touch had not been a luxury afforded to her, the soft sheets of her bed felt like heaven. It was the first sign she was back in the world of the living. Back in the flow of time itself. She held the sheets tightly, as if fearing they would disappear altogether.

However, Kat hadn’t broken the flow of time and space just to stay in bed. She would have to start actually assessing her current situation.

She pulled the covers off her, immediately missing their all-encompassing comfort. Groggily opening her eyes, she was greeted by her old room at the Mikaelsen estate. The sight was not nearly as welcome as the warmth she had awakened to. Still, it was a step up from her previous living arrangement. A very, very, very small step up.

The barren walls begged to be covered in posters of Bikini Kill and horror movies. The tacky furniture felt more at home in the 1800’s than in 1995. Everything in there was a reminder that this space did not belong to her. She was essentially a squatter in her own home. The last time she had tried to add any sort of ‘Kat touch’ to her room’s decorations, it had earned her an earful from her parents. Because god forbid she have any control over the one room she spent most of her days locked up in.

Kat pondered in that moment whether the Abyss, or her own family’s home, was the more restrictive space. She struggled to give a definitive answer.

She eyed the window. The early morning sun was just starting to peek into her room. The small glance of the sky she could see appeared spotless. This would be the perfect day to sneak out and go for a walk in the woods.

Didn’t Swann go out for a hike around the ranch today?

Kat shook her head. She was back here for a reason. She had to focus. She had to find out how to fix everything.

Where the hell was she supposed to begin, though?

Kat still had no clue what the weird, unsettling voice in the abyss was. However, she didn’t need to guess that “one chance” implied she only had, well… one chance to fix things. Definitely not a fuckton of pressure, right there.

Still, she wasn’t one to back down against adversity. If she had one shot at this, she’d just have to get it right on the first try.

She sat down at her desk, and began jotting down some notes. Anything she could remember from her last time going through this summer. Whatever clues could pinpoint what needed to change.

Once she had a neat timeline set up, Kat started to work backwards.

The abyss claimed her because they threw Corey into it. He was thrown in because he attacked them, and had gone crazy. He was following them because of the fire at the Mikaelsen ranch, and the deer that escaped. Both events she had set into motion.

That was the first point she could deviate. If she hadn’t provoked Corey by destroying the ranch, then the chain of events would be broken.

But then she thought of the deer. They were doomed to be fodder for her dad and Corey’s yearly hunting game. The thought made her sick. She couldn’t bring herself to sacrifice them just to save her skin. Least of all Gertie. She needed to think of something else.

She decided to focus on another part of the puzzle. The abyss. The mystery that loomed over them from the very start. What if she never summoned it in the first place? Then it wouldn’t be able to take her.

That seemed simple enough. Almost too simple. Like there was going to be some annoying catch that made that impossible. After all, it made no sense for the Abyss to allow Kat to go back in time if she could ignore it out of existence. Then again, it’s not like the Abyss was necessarily super keen on letting her go. Was… something else responsible for her escape?

Kat groaned in frustration. Movies made this shit look so much easier. How did characters just know the right thing to do?

As it stood, there were too many missing variables to work with. She needed more answers before she could start asking the right questions. Turning over a new page, she started jotting down her plan.

Step 1: Go to the clearing.

Step 2: Find out what’s happened with the Abyss.

Step 3: …fuck if I know

It was not a great plan. In fact, it was barely anything. But it was better than twiddling her thumbs until 5PM, when she’d be heading out to the Movie Palace. The more information she had by then, the better.

Kat got dressed, packed her notebook and some pencils into her bag, tied up her hair into a ponytail, and slipped through the window. She slowly crawled past Dylan’s bedroom, careful to not receive any unwanted attention. Glancing down at the yard, nobody was outside this morning, which gave her a quick path out. Still no trace of Corey, either. She figured he wouldn’t be here, but it remained a positive.

However, she knew where he would be later. In just a few hours, this piece of shit was going to roll up to the Movie Palace, and hound Swann for a recording.

The thought of him towering over Swann, with Dylan glowering at her by his side, made her blood boil. The poor girl didn’t deserve any of this. But without that encounter, the group doesn’t bond over their shared hatred of Corey. The idea of standing by while that happened… it was unthinkable. But keeping the timeline as close to the original one was most likely her best bet for now. If it veered too far off course, her knowledge of the future was going to become completely useless.

Swallowing down her rage, Kat snuck through the yard, keeping an eye out on the house to make sure nobody would catch her from the windows. She then slipped through the front gate, and took off for the woods.

--

By the time Kat had reached the Fawn’s Rest, she noticed the sky had already turned overcast.

She had forgotten about the rainclouds that briefly visited them in the late morning. In all fairness, it’s not like she kept a close eye on the weather that day. She had been too busy writing some poems after the previous night had seen a particularly nasty confrontation with Corey.

Besides, she could handle a bit of rain. This was more important.

Sparing a glance at the cabin, pushing away the memories welling up within her, she turned away towards the beach, and pulled the bushes apart that led to the clearing. As it finally came into view, Kat was greeted with the sight of the familiar circle of mushrooms.

And, of course, she could feel the familiar tug pulling her towards its center.

Kat slowly walked to the middle of the ring, eyeing her surroundings for any sudden movements. Once she was there, she sat down, passing her fingers through the blades of grass. This was where she was meant to be. And it unnerved her.

Still, despite her reluctance, the Abyss was the only lead she had at the moment. So, she closed her eyes, and focused on her connection to it. Trying to gleam any sort of insight that could help her out.

At first, she didn’t feel anything except for that light tug in her chest. Was the Abyss giving her the silent treatment for trying to escape it? The thought made her chuckle, that an eldritch sinkhole could be so humanly petty.

Still, maybe there was something that she could reach out to. Someone, maybe?

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Kat called out. She tried to project her voice through the link. Silence.

“I made it back. What am I supposed to do now?”

Nothing still. Leaves rustled against the small breeze. Birds chirped. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Kat began to feel like an idiot. Of course nothing would happen. Why would the Abyss help Kat get rid of it?

And yet she remained within the circle. She didn’t have any other leads; if this didn’t pan out, she was going to have to make a wild guess. And given her track record, it wasn’t going to be the right one.

“Please! I know there’s something… or I dunno… someone that wanted me to come back here. So whoever you are… just tell me where to start!!”

Kat coughed from her throat getting sore. She hated how desperate she sounded, but it was her last shot at having anyone hear her. The wind began to pick up. She looked around her, and the sky had grown much dimmer. It looked like the rain was about to start.  

But just as Kat was about to get up and leave, she saw something break through the canopy. Flying towards her was a large moth.

Transfixed by the sight, she held out a hand for it, and watched as it landed on her finger. Its wingspan nearly covered her entire hand. Its body was orange, and its wings grayish green, lined with white and orange patterns. She had seen this kind of moth before. One had startled Dylan one night, and Kat was tasked with getting rid of it. Her sister had kept her distance with a shoe in hand, while Kat tried to gently coax it out the window. The sight of such a large moth had been truly special to her.

If only Swann was here… She’d know exactly what kind it was.

Something about this one unsettled her, though. Within the lunar shapes on its wings, there were black dots. Eyes staring at her.

Kat focused on the false eyes on the moth. As she did, her ears began to ring. Waves of purple danced on the edges of her vision. Her head felt like it was being cracked open. She wanted to curl up on herself, but fought the urge. She strained against the pain, and continued to look.

In the span of a moment, the headache vanished. The abyss appeared right under her. She tried to move her legs, but nothing. She was floating, frozen in place. A filament of white and purple light flowed down from her chest into the dark, yawning chasm below her. When she tried to touch it, it simply passed right through her fingers.

The moth took off, and flew ahead. It landed on the head of another person, who was standing on the edge of the abyss.

It was herself.

Only, this apparition had short hair. Just like she had in the previous timeline. Makeup was smeared over her face. And her eyes looked vacant. Everything about that apparition carried the stank of death. Of inexistence. Of someone that isn’t in the right place. In the right universe, even.

She did not move, or react to the moth. She simply glared right into Kat’s soul.

And then she smirked.

“I didn’t think the great Kathryn was the kind to beg so easily.”

It was unmistakably her own voice. But it was definitely not her. Or was it? Whatever it was… it was annoying.

“Who the hell are you?”

“A version of you that thinks this is bullshit. I have no clue what exactly you think you’ll accomplish out here… but someone thinks you’ll probably succeed.”

“Someone? Who?”

“Who, who… Is that all you know to say? What are you, an owl?” Her other self cackled, dragging on Kat’s patience, “I have no clue, same as you. All I know is, there was a shift. A new deal was made to undo your previous one.”

“What deal?”

“A wager for your freedom. If you can sever your link from the abyss, you’ll be free from its grasp. However, if you can’t… on the day you initially entered the abyss, it will claim you for good.”

“Fuck…” Kat couldn’t help but mutter.

“Yep.” The other Kat enunciated, popping the p, “Feel free to give up at any time though. That’ll save us a lot of pain.”

“Okay, what’s your problem? You’re not even gonna help me?”

“Even if I wanted to, I don’t know how any of this works. All I know is, you’re gonna have to bring the Abyss back. As long as the gateway is closed, you won’t be able to do anything to your tether. Beyond that, I’m as clueless as you are.”

“And you’re not just saying that to make it easier for me to get ‘claimed’ again?”

“That’s going to happen whether you summon it or not. And besides, we both know from experience you don’t need anyone’s help to give yourself over to the Abyss.”

“Ugh, fine. Whatever. Are you done taunting me, or do you wanna rub it in some more?”

“Nah, you’ll do that well enough on your own. One more thing though. You’re not the only one who’s gotten out.”

“Huh? What do you mean-”

But before Kat could get an answer, she felt raindrops hit her face, and the scene immediately shifted back to reality. The ground had returned under her, the apparition of herself was now gone, and the moth fluttered back into the trees.

Kat stood up, and held out a hand to feel out how much rain was falling. It was really kicking into gear, and faster than she’d expected too. If she stayed out here, she would be completely drenched in minutes.

Kat had two options: hope she could dash back home, or at least to the ranch, before her clothes got soaked completely. Or, she could head to the old cabin and find some shelter there. She didn’t trust her odds to get back home in time, nor did she trust her body to not keel over from exhaustion.

To the cabin, then.

As she made her way towards the exit of the clearing, one thing gnawed at Kat’s mind. What her other self had been talking about. The person that got out, and the deal that was made null and void. The only deal that seemed relevant was the one that trapped her in the Abyss.

The one she had made to keep Corey locked away.

If that deal was reneged on…

Images barreled into her mind all at once. A snarling face staring daggers at her with glowing red eyes. The feeling of fingers curled around her neck. A fist repeatedly cracking at her skull.

Kat startled back into awareness and took off like a bullet through the woods. She felt the raindrops sting at her face as she ran. She pushed through the bushes leading back to the gravelly beach, and rounded the corner. Her pace didn’t slow until she saw the decrepit wooden structure come into view, at which point the burning in her chest became too hard to ignore.

She didn’t want to stop. Not until she was safe. However, she had no choice, as she came up against a bit of a wall.

How the fuck was she going to get into the cabin? It was locked from the inside, and the only opening was the one in the attic. However, her lungs were on fire right now. She was sure her body would kill her if she tried to scale anything right now.

Her eyes caught the outhouse, and decided that would have to do for the time being. Just long enough for her body to recover from the sudden burst of exertion.

With a grunt, she dragged herself over to the small structure, shut the door and leaned onto one of the walls for support as she coughed. She hoped her body wouldn’t take its sweet time recovering. Waiting out the rain in a decrepit toilet wasn’t exactly her idea of a fun afternoon. Plus, the ceiling was busted up, and provided very little in proper shelter from the worsening weather. The cabin was likely to be a much better, if not perfect, shelter from the elements.

While she caught her breath, Kat’s mind drifted back to Corey’s potential escape from the abyss.

The thought was too nightmarish to even consider. She remembered how furious he was, how few qualms he had about beating her within an inch of her life. In front of Dylan, to boot. The only thing that had stopped him was Swann drawing his ire away from her.

If this version of him was now loose once more, then none of them were truly safe. He knew where they would be in just a few hours. Swann, Nora, Autumn… even Dylan. They’d be at the Movie Palace. What would Corey do then? Would he play along with the original timeline’s events? Heckle Swann, take Autumn’s keys and throw them away? Or would he try to get revenge on them somehow? Would he still be under the influence of the Abyss, or would he be fully sane? Kat didn’t know which case would be worse.

All these questions made Kat’s mind spin. She had to stop. She was supposed to recover right now.

She thought of plans. Contingencies. She’d have to beat Corey to the Movie Palace. Stake things out from a distance. Jump in before he can do anything. Keep things on track. Save Swann. Get the band back together.

Her breathing slowed as she thought of her plan, and the tension left her body and mind. The burning in her lungs was also fading. Once she felt more collected, Kat decided it was time to break into the cabin.

She opened the outhouse door, and was greeted with pouring rain. Had it gotten that bad that quickly? No matter. The climb up to the attic was a cakewalk compared to the more perilous climbs she’d managed before.

She jogged up to the opening, and eyed the chimney. Stone bricks were jutting out just enough to make this a pretty straightforward climb. Confident, Kat began to pull herself up quickly.

It wasn’t until she felt her foot slip on a wet brick of stone that she realized the inherent challenge to the current situation. Mercifully, the bushes broke her short fall, but the sting of branches poking her in the back still hurt. Grumbling as she got up, she gave it another go, this time taking care to find a safer path up the chimney.

A few slip scares later, she pulled herself up into the attic, and ran under cover. She was already feeling the pangs of exhaustion again, not to mention covered in dirt thanks to her tumble into the bush. That climb had been more harrowing than Kat would have liked. Plus, there were still small drips of water leaking through the roof as well. Even so, it was a massive improvement compared to the cramped and run-down outhouse, and definitely better than staying out in the open. She pulled on the attic trapdoor, and hopped down to the first floor.

Seeing the Fawn’s Rest in its original decrepit state was bittersweet, to say the least. Memories from a previous lifetime were now once again covered in dust, cobwebs, and old junk. Gone were their decorations, their mark on this oasis in the wilderness.

Still, if Kat focused a bit, she could easily picture them again. Their own little corners of the cabin, adorned with bits and bobs that reflected their personalities, their hobbies, their aspirations. She could see Nora lazily smoking. Autumn cutting out pictures for her skating zines. Swann walking around and filming them.

She could recall the pink glow of their bond shining on the walls, as they danced around the cabin. Free from the dangers of the outside world. She had felt safe. With the 3 people she would trust with her life. Her coven-mates.

Most importantly, she remembered Swann. God, the look of pure love in her eyes was like coal for the furnace of her yearning heart. They had been kindred spirits, finding each other through chance and holding onto each other so tightly. Afraid to let go of one another.

Kat felt the ghost of their kiss on her lips. She reached out to hold a face that wasn’t there.

Now, she was all on her own, in a cabin that hadn’t been made theirs yet. It dawned on her that her friends were now going about their lives, with no memory of her. She was the only one who remembered their summer together. All traces of it were now wiped from the timeline. She was the last reminder that it had even happened to begin with. They would have to start from scratch. She’d have to reignite the sparks of their old friendship herself.

Except, did she even have the right? She knew so much about them, and yet they didn’t know anything about her. Something about that felt unfair. Like she was cheating. Hell, it felt creepy. Like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, using his time loop to say all the right things to the girl he liked.

She didn’t want to become that to her friends. The weirdo who knew way too much. But the situation might force her to become that. To pull on her friends’ strings like marionettes. She needed the Abyss to reopen in order to save herself from it. And most likely, that meant getting her friends to do the blood ritual again.

It made her sick to think about. To imagine her friends’ disdainful stares, seeing her as nothing more than a manipulator. In truth, she just wanted her friends back. The people she grew to love. But she would always be a step removed from them now, no matter how close they got in this timeline.

She wanted to scream at how unfair this was. But she couldn’t. She just felt numb. After all, this was all her fault. In a cosmic way, it was a fitting punishment. She had wished for her friends to forget her. Now they had.

Kat sat in the middle of the old, dusty cabin for what felt like hours. Surrounded by the flashes of a life she had undone. Eyes stinging, but no tears coming out.

Eventually, the sound of rain on the rooftop began to fade, and beams of sunlight shone through the many gaps in the cabin’s structure. The atmosphere was less oppressive now, but it still remained messy, barren. Lifeless.

Kat slowly pulled herself up, wiping dust off her overalls. As she made her way back towards the attic, she cast one final glance at the interior of the cabin. Hopefully, the next time she’d be in here, she would be in better spirits.

She’d have to be. She wouldn’t be alone then. At least, if everything went according to plan.

She climbed back up the ladder, then hopped back down on the dirt outside. The ground beneath her feet was still a little mushy from the rain. Sparkles bounced off waterdrops that lingered on the blades of grass. The dark clouds from earlier were giving way to a bright, clear blue sky.

Kat didn’t believe that the weather was an omen of anything. She didn’t share the superstition that sunshine was a prelude to good things, and that storms preceded danger or misfortune. Her life had been shitty enough, no matter the weather, that she didn’t believe there was any correlation. She left that sort of wishful thinking to her bible-thumping parents.

Still, some small part in her really wanted to believe the sun would finally be the herald of a better life for her. She was so tired of being a punching bag.

But first, before any good things could happen, there were still machinations to plot. She had to go home, and prepare for her encounter with the rest of her band-to-be.

As she walked the dirt trail heading back to the ranch, she pulled out her notebook and started to jot down her recollection of things. What had she said? What had she done? She had to be ready to play the part to perfection if she wanted to keep things on track. Any deviation could be dangerous. Corey was already a potential wildcard; she couldn’t risk things veering further off course.

For now, her short-term goal was to make sure Bloom & Rage formed. That meant they all needed to bond over their hatred of Corey, then meet up at Nora’s to watch her and Autumn practice. From there, Swann would join as their music video director, and Kat as their writer.

Things would go back to the way they were. As they were meant to be.

--

The fence leading to the ranch appeared as she made her way through the trail. She’d be home soon enough. Kat hoped that her family wasn’t going to make a fuss about her escapade. They didn’t exactly have a way to actually keep her locked in her bedroom, but it wouldn’t be the first time they tried. Plus, she didn’t want to risk the off chance they actually grew a brain and actually succeed in keeping her caged in. Too much was at stake.

Kat’s thoughts were interrupted by the sight of someone near the fence. Whoever it was, they seemed to be observing the deer roaming around. Something in her heart soared, as if she already knew who this person was. But she had to make sure. She took cover behind some trees, and looked closer.

In her hands, Kat saw a camcorder.

“I’m at the Mikaelsen Ranch. These deer are… bred and raised for sport.”

Hearing her voice was a balm for Kat’s aching soul. She really was here.

She had missed the sound so, so much.

Something in her screamed to get away. Being seen now would fuck things up. And yet, the desperate part within Kat wanted to run to her, hold her and never let go. She missed the feeling of Swann in her arms so badly.

But she couldn’t. Though Swann was everything to her… At this point in time, Kat still meant nothing to Swann.

It wasn’t time, Kat told herself. She had to stick to the script.

She pulled herself out of her reverie, and waited for Swann to wrap up her filming. Commiserating in the sadness she expressed at the sounds of gunshots from the ranch.

Once the redhead had left the premises, she scurried towards the gate leading to her home. Letting herself treasure the sight of the girl she had loved in a previous lifetime. Hoping dearly that she wouldn’t screw it up this time around. Unaware that she had not been as stealthy as she thought.

Finally, Kat spotted the gate leading back to her house. Eyeing the yard, it seemed like the coast was still clear. She just had to get back in, and then wait the rest of the afternoon until it was time to make her appearance at the Movie Palace.

Before Kat could sneak back in through the gate however, she heard someone call to her. A tall, unkempt man in a tanktop had suddenly appeared, making his way to the gate from the other side.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Corey barked at her as he swung the gate open, and closed the distance, “Your parents have been looking for you for hours.”