Dreamcatcher

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Feast

A full week had passed and Clark had fortunately made a speedy recovery. 

By the time he was permitted to leave the hospital, Clark was keen to get out but was physically depleted of energy. It was just after lunch time when Clark was escorted by his daughter and girlfriend. 

For the inconvenience of having to cover a shift for a fellow co-worker, Joyce was incapable of being there to see her son get out of hospital. 

With Ophelia in her father's lap and Rachel steering the wheelchair Clark was temporarily bound to, the three made their way out of the hospital and out the front door, the same way Clark looked after when she got stabbed in her brachial artery. 

The passing thought of the last time Rachel was in a hospital numbed her for but a short while until they reached Clark's truck. 

Given that Clark still didn't have full physical capability, Rachel steered the wheelchair over to the right side of the car and opened it before lifting her daughter inside and strapping her into a booster seat in the centre seat. Clark followed after, but not without struggle. 

There was a series of grunting as Clark struggled to climb into his truck. Once he was comfortably seated in the passenger seat, Rachel delivered the wheelchair back to the hospital, leaving him and Ophelia to wait for her to return just a full minute after. As soon as she returned, she climbed into the driver's seat and turned on the ignition before accelerating out of the parking lot and away from the hospital. 

Clark looked to his right out the passenger window with said window rolled down. He watched and stared blankly at the passing trees and bushes that made up the forest expanding towards town. 

Items on the dashboard remained exactly the same; untouched on account of the long period Clark had been in hospital for.

They drove in silence, unable to start a conversation also due to the fact that they were too distracted and lazy to come up with anything to talk about, given that that was all they could do for the whole week Clark was in hospital. 

Buzz, buzz! 

Clark pulled out his phone and examined the message that was sent to him. 

From: Super-Max
Clark, I didn't get to tell you this before, but it's about Chloe. 

From: Super-Max
There's no easier way to tell you this, but... she's dead. 

From: Super-Max

Clark, I'm so, so sorry that you have to read this. I wish it were otherwise, but it's true. 

In disbelief, Clark read over the three new messages over and over until his mind wrapped around the fact that Max had shared this controversial information with him. 

And just when he felt a splinter of doubt, another message was sent, but with a link. 

By opening the link, the phone opened a web page addressing the recent discovery of Chloe's body being discovered in the junk yard. 

Rachel wasn't sure why, but she got a bad feeling something bad was happening. Even while she was driving, she looked over at Clark for longer than she should have, every so often looking back at the road to ensure she was still in the centre of her lane. 

"Babe, what's the matter?" Rachel asked. 

Tears swelled in Clark's eyes. His bottom lip trembled as he subconsciously forced himself to stare at the photo in the digital newspaper of his sister's corpse wrapped up in a plastic bag and disposed off just below the surface of the ground.