Dreamcatcher

Chapter Thirty-Four: Goodbye Arcadia, Goodbye Lover

For the first time ever Rachel truly felt alone.

After the whole controversy regarding Rachel's existence and the woman in the white dress who turned out to be Rachel's biological mother, having Clark Price by her side the whole time brought Rachel comfort. Now that she had nobody she loved by her side, she felt scared. 

The limousine that picked her up at eight in the morning played music for her to listen to while she made an attempt to enjoy the ride to the airport. She watched the town she grew up in slip past her to the point it disappeared from sight - even after being determined to look for a single thing to identify the town, Rachel became disappointed - and slumped in her seat to endure the long ride. 

After a good few hours drive, the limousine drove towards the airport where Rachel became more lively now that she wasn't stuck sitting in a car. She actively prepared to jump out of the car once it pulled over for temporary parking. Rachel got out of the car and collected her luggage in the boot before heading inside to find her way to the Los Angeles terminal.

"Terminal 4... now where is that?" Rachel pondered aloud.

People clamoured all around her; folks entering the airport for business of leisure. It was very noisy, in spite of it being much louder inside than outside. Composing herself, Rachel headed inside and observed the scene.

It had been so long since Rachel had been through an airport that she practically had no clue as to what she was doing. Even as a well educated ex-student of Blackwell Academy, she was lost. However, she asked the staff on her way through customs the direction which she was supposed to go to. 

Given that the airport was regularly busy - packed with eager travellers, hoping to get a proper start on their holiday - it took Rachel a good part of an hour and a quarter to get through airport security to get to her terminal. Once she'd found Terminal 4, Rachel took a seat next to a large window and stared blankly outside at the runway when she got interrupted by her thoughts. Originally, she assumed she could distract herself from the boarding waiting time by taking in as much of the airport as she could, but eventually her thoughts brought her back to her boyfriend, whom she missed terribly. 

Just as she was getting comfortable daydreaming about her significant other, there was a white flash out of the corner of her eye right before a person sat down in the chair beside her interrupted her thoughts, bringing her back to reality. 

"Ms. Amber. Good morning, good morning!" A man spoke enthusiastically.

To Rachel's surprise, Charles arrived to see her much later than she'd assumed. She initially thought that they would meet at the drop-off or somewhere a bit later than that but she was pleased to see that she wasn't left entirely on her own to navigate through her trip.

"Hey Charles. Surprised to see you here." Rachel greeted him casually.

"My most sincerest apologies for not arriving any sooner. I'm afraid I took the wrong turn on the freely but thankfully I was able to make my way back to where I wanted to go. Thankfully no cops were around to see me make that illegal U-turn. How are you faring?"

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "I'm getting by. Just a little anxious, I guess."

"I suppose it would be, having to leave your home after sixteen years. It is scary, I'll admit, but eventually you'll find it's going to be one hell of a ride. You'll meet new people, make new friends. After all, you got six months worth of exploring LA and other parts of the world like New York City for example. Once you're done, you can come right back here to Oregon and be with your boyfriend." 

Now by simply mentioning Clark, Rachel felt disheartened, knowing that she didn't have a hand to hold or lips to kiss or a body to hug or a shoulder to rest on.