Hey people! Just a one-shot focusing on Charlie, a medium in Darkness is Falling. I thought it might be of interest to DiF readers. Hope you enjoy it xo
Her father had called it a curse. Her mother had looked at her with grief-stricken eyes and refused to acknowledge it. They used to fight – her father and mother – her mother would smell of alcohol and blood when she came to kiss her goodnight. Charlie had tried to be good. She tried not to talk to the strange people who others couldn't see. She tried not to shy away from the dark colours surrounding people on the street or to gape admiringly at the dazzling beauty of others. One of her earliest memories was being slapped by her mother, a hard quick movement, the crack of her mother's hand against her face. It was the first of many, especially when her mother had been drinking, but it was the one that was most vivid in her memory. Because of the words that came in a hiss from her mother's mouth. "Don't you ever speak of that again!" It was at that moment, at just four and half years old, Charlie realised she wasn't normal. She saw things that other people couldn't see.
It was difficult being the odd child in her class. Even without her unusual abilities, Charlie was never going to fit in. Other people's prejudice towards the colour of her skin saw to that. Then when her mother left and her father couldn't cope, it was her family situation. Children in the playground jeered at her, asking her why she lived with her Nan, why her 'Mummy' didn't love her. And yet years later when her mother turned up, sober with three wide eyed half siblings, Charlie had turned away.
It was her Nana who told her it was a gift. Her Nana who took the time to explain an entirely new world to her, a world where immortals drank blood, where men became wolves, where all that was thought impossible was reality. They would lie in the park together, her Nana's arm around her shoulders, the powdery scent of her perfume tickling Charlie's nose as she taught her to interpret the colours of an aura. Her Nana had taught her that supernatural abilities could be a force for good but sometimes they had to be kept secret because people feared what they couldn't understand. For her own safety, Charlie had to pretend she wasn't different.
But Charlie, aching for acceptance and tipsy from her first taste of vodka, had confided in Kelly Armstrong her very best friend. Or so she had thought. That split second decision led to years of taunts and accusations lasting all the way through secondary school and only quietening down into whispers when she moved schools to do her A-levels. Charlie had spilt many tears over Kelly's betrayal but it had taught her a valuable lesson. Ordinary people, normal people would never accept her.
And then Oxford changed all that. Suddenly there was no normal. First there had been Scarlett, so dazzling one minute and then the next sobbing, swamped in darkness, teetering on the edge. When she had reached out, Charlie had found herself unable to lie, unable to pretend. And then there had been Robin Branagh. Dark eyed, beautiful Robin, dust on his hands, vampires in his mind and a smile which blew her away the first time his lips quirked upwards. Her Robin.
But now there were vampires and slayers stalking the streets of Oxford. The Grand High Vampire was propping up the college bar, Countess Dracula was borrowing her shoes, the Guild was lurking around in the shadows and they were all being stalked by a sociopathic four hundred year old vampire called Bertrand. Compared to this lot, Charlie felt relatively normal.