Title: Useless (Charlie)
Rating: T
Summary: A character study challenge ficlet. Charlie reflects on being duped by Shannon over a fish.
Warnings: drug references
Status of Fic: Completed. One-off
Author's Notes/Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Lost". They were created by JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof and they belong to them, Touchstone, and ABC.
Useless. The very word ricochets with reckless abandon off of his heart, his brain, his soul. His essence is filled to the brim with it, overflowing. Shannon didn't care. He had fooled himself into believing otherwise. When they crashed on this island Charlie had come back down to earth, down from the merciful heavens, where the music and the drugs and the women were.
There he was loved. He had a purpose in heaven. In heaven he could reach out and touch the stars, harness their power, and allow their energy to pulse through him at his command. A bloody rock god. His brother needed him, the band couldn't exist without him, the groupies adored him, and if there was ever any pain in heaven, the heroin took it away.
Useless. His brother once told him, face full of spite, if you're not in this band, what the bloody hell use are you. Even in heaven words could hurt. But Charlie still knew he had a place among the stars.
Now he was back on earth, dry unforgiving land, hard and cold. The music was gone and so were the adoring throngs, vanished like dying stars. He had survived the cruel separation from his guitar but Charlie had hoped that companionship would be lying just around the corner to fill the endless void. Out of the many people who had survived, someone here had to have heard of DriveShaft. Could he really be a nobody on earth? Isn't the earth supposed to be as it is in heaven?
Charlie hadn't gone looking for his purpose, his place among the anonymous crowd. Shannon had sought him out, asked for his help. She was stunning, enticing and she remembered his name. She needed him, or so she said. Charlie thought he recognized the scent of opportunity when approached by a beautiful blonde. He knew how the game was played. Then she turned the tables on him and walked off with her brother, catch of the day in hand. Charlie felt as skewered as the dead fish she held. She needed what she could get from him but cruelly, she didn't care. Charlie had always been good natured, eager to please. Shannon reached in and removed the fruit of his soul with the skill of a surgeon's knife. The pit she left behind ached, its emptiness a living, breathing thing. He was nothing.
Useless. When you have no purpose on earth, and the music and the women are gone, all you have left are the drugs. Because earth is full of pain and just as it is in heaven, heroin makes it all go away.