A Note From Lara: Well, I'm gonna be honest, I haven't seen Once Upon A Time In Texas yet. But my bff Erin (known to you as the fabulous and cracky Airin0) told me what went down. And although she's not the best at explaining stuff clearly, what she said about Charlie being lost in time or whatever just made me think of this almost immediately.
The wind was blowing- that was the first thing she noticed. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on a hilltop overlooking a wild gray sea. The sky was overcast, but it somehow didn't make the scene dim or gloomy; they were just those pale, watery clouds that only barely obscure the sun. Sea gulls wheeled overhead, screeching, and she could hear the forlorn cry of an albatross somewhere beyond her range of vision.
She stood up and looked around her, pushing a strand of scarlet hair out of her eyes. The grassy, gently sloping rise ended with a sheer cliff of spray-licked black granite that plunged down into the surf. A small lick of panic curled up inside her as she realized that she had no idea where she was.
But the fear subsided as she realized she wasn't alone. At the crest of the hill, standing right on the very edge of the cliff, a tall, dark-haired woman stared out to the horizon. She was wearing a cornflower-blue dress that fell all the way to her toes, and ribbons were woven through her long hair. Her gray-green eyes were distant as she peered out to sea.
Wading through the knee-high salt grasses, she approached the watcher. "Hello," she said tentatively.
The woman turned to look at her, a warm smile on her face. "Hello yourself," she said, in a lilting Irish accent. "I'm Caitlin. What's your name?"
"Charlie. Charlene, really, but everybody just calls me Charlie."
"It's good to see you, Charlie. It gets lonely sometimes. How long have you been here?" Caitlin asked.
She shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I just sort of woke up and here I am..." Charlie gestured at the empty space around them.
Caitlin nodded. "Not long, then. That's how it happens, you know."
"How what happens?"
"Getting here."
Charlie was beginning to get irritated with the other woman's dreamy, faraway attitude. "Where's here?"
"Elsewhere," Caitlin said, as if that explained everything. But when it became clear that Charlie didn't understand, she continued. "It's the place you go when you get lost in time with no way back," Caitlin explained. "So how'd it happen for you?" Charlie didn't actually know for sure, so she didn't answer. Caitlin seemed more than happy to fill in the empty silence, though, so it didn't matter. "I was abandoned in an alternate future right before he went back to the past to change it. I've been waiting a long time for Peter to come find me. He will, of course. I know that much. Eventually he'll find the way. Things won't go back to the way they were, not now that he's found Emma, but I don't mind. Everyone has to leave here eventually. It's just a question of when..."
She lapsed into faraway silence again, and Charlie took the opportunity to ask a few of the questions that had popped into her mind while she was speaking. "So... how do you know that?" she asked. "About... what did you say his name was? Peter?"
Caitlin looked at her, and her eyes were even more unfocused than ever. "You know things here," she replied. "You don't really see what's happening, but you get a sense of it. You get a sense of everything, really. You know a lot of things, and not all of them are related to how you wound up here or how you'll leave. It's very confusing. It'll drive you mad if you don't let go."
"Let go?"
Caitlin nodded. "You have to separate from yourself or you'll go crazy. I used to try to fight it. I used to try and remember it all- to try and find a way out, you see? But it's too much for one person to know. It hurts, trying to hold it all in your head, and I finally realized that to survive you have to let go of it all. Let it pass through you and be gone, just like that."
"That doesn't sound like a good idea," Charlie said doubtfully. "Maybe we're supposed to remember it to find our own way home, like you said. I love Hiro, and I know he would come for me if he could, but what if he can't?"
The dark-haired woman stared at her, and for a moment Charlie thought she saw a flash of someone else behind the distant, wistful eyes. Someone wild and brave and fearless and determined to have her own way. But then the moment passed and Caitlin just smiled blandly. "I thought the same way once," she said. "You'll understand, in time. Now, watch with me. Maybe Peter will come today."
Charlie fell silent, crossing her arms as she joined Caitlin's watch across the sea, but inside her heart was thrumming in her chest. She had always wanted to travel, but she didn't want this. There had to be a way to figure this out on her own, without Hiro and without Peter, whoever that was. There had to be more to this elsewhere place than just this windswept cliff above the sea, and she was going to find out just what it was.
I know, I know, I really shouldn't be starting something new. Again. But this is just going to be short, like Stuck or Jealousy, so it should only take a few weeks to finish. Less than ten chapters, okay?