Author's Note: Standard I don't own I'm just playing statement. This story is part of the Heart series of stories so reading those might give context. The OCs are mine. And if anyone catches a change in my canon shoot me a PM to let me know? Thanks :) Enjoy :) ~Reese
Univille South Dakota had one of everything, one ice cream parlor, one coffee shop, one diner, one movie theater with one screen, so there really wasn't much for the kids of Univille's one high school to do after school. When the students filed out of the building that looked like a throw back to the 1950s they broke off into groups and headed to the only places they had to hang out, the ice cream parlor, coffee shop, and diner. Newly turned sixteen year old Charlotte Penelope Bering-Wells, known to family and friends as Charlie, headed for the coffee shop following the final bell of the day. It was her favorite place in Univille because it was the town's only real music scene. She'd been all of five years old when her Aunt Claudia had brought her to listen to the locals playing and singing almost every type of music one could imagine a small town crowd would know and be into. She'd been ten the first time she sang with her aunt on the tiny stage. They'd sat on stools and Claudia played guitar while they sang Landslide together. Thanks to Claudia, Charlie had a deep love for all things Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Sometimes that affinity came out in Charlie's wardrobe; she had several handkerchief skirts and kimono jackets, and boots with heels that made her mothers nervous, but she also had a bit of her Mum's tastes as well. Walking up to the counter in her black fitted jeans, pale purple button down, and black unbutton waistcoat, her Mum huffed whenever she called it a vest, Charlie ordered her usual, a London Fog which was a tea latte made with Earl Grey.
Pulling a battered looking notebook out of her bag Charlie made herself comfortable on a stool at the end of the counter. The notebook was full of half written song lyrics and poems, detailed story ideas, doodles and sketches. None of it was a finished product, just a collection of jumbled thoughts and ideas that she needed to get out of her head. Maybe one day it would be more but for now it was just what it was, a notebook full of head vomit. When her drink was placed in front of her Charlie looked up to say thanks and give Mako a smile. She's just taken her first sip when she heard the door open and felt a sudden shift in the feel of the room. Looking over towards the entrance she raised a quizzical eyebrow as she watched Austin Turnfree walk in. Austin was a jock; he played on both the basketball and soccer teams and he was also a gamer, which Charlie knew because every time she walked past him in the hall he was talking about this game or that and his wardrobe consisted of a lot game related t-shirts and hoodies. He was tall and slender, kind of lanky but clearly more fit than awkward. His hair was a dark red, not long, not short, kind of wavy and always neatly styled. His eyes were technically hazel, they were mainly dark green with accents of brown and golden spring green. His voice, like her own, was uniquely accented because of their parental influences. Her Mom had a kind of middle of America American accent with an oddly Canadian inflection to her pronunciation while her Mum clearly had an English accent, so naturally their way of speaking had influenced the sound of her own voice. Austin was the same way. His mother was from Austin Texas so there was a bit of a Texas twang to his voice, but there was also hints of his English father's accent in there too.
The coffee shop wasn't were the jocks hung out, they normally laid claim to the diner, but the coffee shop did attract some of the gamers so maybe that was the reason for Austin's visit. There weren't any official rules on who could go where it was more of a socially agreed upon arrangement that started long before any of them came to UHS. Charlie watched as Austin went over to a table in the corner where a group of guys had been talking loudly about the latest first person space shooter and then turned her attention back to her notebook. Without really thinking about where she was she started writing a lyric about a boy walking in and finally seeing a girl who'd noticed him a long time ago. First day of ninth grade, Charlie had lived in Univille all her life so she took notice of a new student with red hair, hazel eyes, and way to much Axe body spray. She cringed at the memory of the lingering cloud of the Apollo scent and then picked up her drink to replace the memory of it with the warm spell of Earl Grey. She was just stetting her mug down when she heard his voice in her left ear.
"Charlotte, right?" Austin said with a warm smile. When Charlie jumped he quickly pulled his hands from the pockets of her midnight blue letterman's jacket and threw them up in the universal sign for my bad as he apologized. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
Was he talking to her? Her dark eyes darted around looking for anyone else but then she realized he'd called her by name. They were a small enough school that she was the only Charlotte in attendance. "It's alright." She finally replied to him when her brain finally figured out how to make her voice work. "I should probably be more aware my surroundings when I'm in public." She offered him a shy smile before saying, "And yes, it's Charlotte, or you know Charlie is fine too."
Austin smiled. "Charlie." He said with an approving nod. "I'm Austin."
"Yes I know." Charlie said to quickly and then added, "You're in my European history class."
"You seem to have a knack for History." Austin said with a charming smile.
"History and English are kind of my thing." Charlie replied.
"So is music." Austin said. "I've heard you here before."
Before Charlie could say anything her cell phone buzzed and a cartoon voice yelled out "Yahtzee!" in her pocket. She flinched a little, kind of embarrassed at her message tone.
"Do you have Harley Quinn in your pocket?" Austin teased with a chuckle.
That made Charlie smile. He knew who Harley Quinn was so was he a nerd, gamer, jock? Being more nerd and gamer would make him a little more her level. She watched sports on tv from time to time but she was in no way a jock, unless archery counted. "No, I have her trapped in my phone." She replied just as her phone alerted her to another text. Pulling her phone out she apologized, "Sorry I need to see who this is." Checking her messages she saw that it was from her little sister. Figuring it wasn't anything important she put her phone back in her pocket.
"Everything ok?" Austin asked.
Charlie nodded. "It's just my sister, Emily."
"Charlotte and Emily." Austin said with a smirk. "Which parent is a fan of the Bronte sisters?"
That impressed Charlie. Apparently there was more to Austin than he led on. Not many people especially people her age, catch that little easter egg. "Both actually." She was about to tell him her mothers were book nerds when her phone started to ring.
Austin laughed. "You're ringtone is God Save the Queen?"
"I happen to be very proud of Her Majesty." Charlie said lightly but seriously. "At one hundred and five she's not only the longest raining monarch she's the oldest ever, so she needs all the god saving she can get." She smiled at the way he smiled at her and sighed, "I'm sorry I need to take this." He nodded his understanding and stepped back a bit so she could take the call. Charlie tried not to sound to biting as she answered, "This better be important."
When he saw her hung up Austin stepped close again. "Everything ok?"
"I'm sure it is." Charlie said as she started putting her things away. "I guess my parents are working late or something, and my sister's freaking out for some reason, so I need to get home."
"Oh, well, I hope she's ok. I guess I'll see you around." Austin said.
Charlie smiled. "Yeah, see you around."
She made her way out to the old restored El Camino her aunt Claudia had given her for her sixteenth birthday muttering under her breath about how dead Emily and Mykayla were when she got home. Mykayla Erin Lattimer was the eldest of Pete and Clara's three kids and their only daughter. She was younger than Charlie and older than Emily. Like her mother and her grandmother Jane, Mykayla had red hair and her father's brown eyes. She also seemed to have her father's ability to sense things which is why Charlie was on her way home rather than finding out what had finally made her crush come over and talk to her. Mykayla was having one of her bad feelings and for some reason it was freaking out Emily, so Charlie was on her way home to see what was going on. Emily Ophelia Bering-Wells like Charlie had dark hair, though Charlie's was black like Helena's whereas Emily's was a darker brown like Myka's. Her eyes were brown like Helena's while Charlie's were hazel like Myka's. Despite the subtle coloring difference though the girls were very clearly sisters, and very clearly perfect blends of their mothers.
Several miles out of Univille, past any real human presence, Charlie turned off the main road onto a smaller private road that would take her further from what past as civilization in small town South Dakota USA. The road was just big enough for two cars to pass each other going in opposite directions and heading away from the main road would take one to a grand old Victorian home. Leena's Bed and Breakfast wasn't really a B it was a private home that housed government agents who worked at a near by government warehouse. Her Aunt Claudia lived there, so did her Uncle Steve, as did Agents Dev Nayar and Renee Delgado. Doctor Tiberius Jackson, Steve's boyfriend and Vanessa's medical partner, also lived there. Abigail ran the place, and Grandpa Artie and Vanessa had a room there too. Charlie wasn't going to the B&B however; she was headed to one of the other two homes on the massive property. There was a Craftsman style house the kind easily found in the Midwest suburbs where Pete and Clara had grown up, which is where her Uncle and his family lived. And then there was the English style cottage she called home.
Walking into the house Charlie called out, "Emily? Kayla?" As soon as the two younger girls came out of the living room she asked, "Ok, what's going on? Why did I need to rush home?"
"No one's around." Emily told her sister.
"What do you mean no one's around?" Charlie asked.
"Mom, Mum, Uncle Pete, Aunt Clara, no one's around." Emily said.
"The B&B is empty too." Mykayla said. "And no one is answering their phones or replying to texts, and no one is picking up at the warehouse."
As far as they knew the warehouse was just that, a government warehouse where things like IRS records, confiscated goods, evidence, and the like were stored. They knew that traveling was apart of their parents work and that sometimes they brought random stuff back to the warehouse. Charlie never really thought more about it than people have really weird junk. The only thing that really mattered when it came to the warehouse and their parents work is that someone was always there for them, so it was odd that they couldn't reach anyone. "Maybe their in a meeting or something. You know they can't really drop everything if Mrs. Frederic's popped in."
Mykayla shook her head. "Something doesn't feel right, Charlie."
There was real concern in her cousin's eyes. She was use to Mykayla and her Uncle Pete having odd feelings about random things but she'd never seen it effect the younger girl so deeply before. She was seriously unsettled over this. "Where are the boys?"
"Cub scout sleepover at their school." Mykayla replied. Peter Aaron and John Arryn were Mykayla's younger brothers and giant handfuls that they didn't need to deal with right now if something was as wrong as she thought it was.
"You're sure the adults aren't at the B&B or your house?" Charlie asked next.
"We rode our bikes to both." Emily cut in. "No one's there."
Charlie looked at her younger cousin and her little sister for a long moment before finally saying, "I'm sure everything is fine, but we'll drive over and get someone to come out and show you two everyone's ok."
Emily and Mykayla nodded and seemed to relax. The three of them made their way out to Charlie's car. Before pulling away from the house Charlie tried calling her moms but there was no answer, so she headed to the warehouse as promised. They weren't allowed inside the warehouse but they'd been there a handful of times. They normally waited in the car for whichever parent they were with. Grandpa Artie and Mrs. Frederic made it perfectly clear that there were things in the warehouse that were classified which is why the warehouse required secret service agents, and that meant it was off limits to off spring. Charlie trusted the adults in her life and had no reason to question what she'd been told even as she got older and began to wonder if there was something more to the warehouse and her parents' work.
The old El Camino came to a stop in front of the warehouse in a cloud of road dust. The first thing Charlie noticed was that everyone's cars seemed to be there, or at least everyone who was in town, so clearly that meant everyone was inside. Dev and Renee were on assignment, Abigail was out of town, and Ben was with Vanessa. That left what her Uncle Pete called the OGC, the original crew. "See," She told the others as she turned the engine off. "They're here. They must be in a meeting or something."
"Why is my Mom's car here?" Mykayla asked. "She wouldn't be at a meeting here. She doesn't work for the warehouse."
"Maybe she brought Uncle Pete his lunch?" Emily offered reassuringly.
After getting out of the car the three girls walked up to the door of the rusted a-frame entrance of the warehouse. Charlie started looking around for a buzzer or comm. system but didn't see any. There was a keypad however so she took a closer look at that while Emily banged on the door. Mykayla spotted a security camera so she waved her hands over her head while calling out for her parents and aunts. There was no response from either of the younger girls attempts at getting someone's attention. Just when Emily and Mykayla were starting to get flustered the door suddenly popped open, causing them both to yelp and jump back. Emily looked around with wide eyes for her sister and saw Charlie standing sheepishly by the keypad.
"Sorry." Charlie said.
"What did you do?" Emily asked.
Charlie pointed at the keypad. "I guess I unlocked the door.
"You knew the pass code?" Emily asked.
Charlie shook her head. "No."
"Then how'd you unlock the door?" The younger Bering-Wells asked.
Now Charlie looked confounded. "I had a hunch?"
"You tease me about feeling things and you went on a hunch?" Mykayla said with her hands on her hips, which made her look very much like her mother.
"What kind of hunch?" Emily asked.
Charlie reached up to push her hair back in a manner very similar to a habit Helena had. "You know those adventure stories Mum use to tell us when we were little?"
Emily thought about it a moment. Helena was always making up grand stories for them so it took a minute to sort through them all. "You mean the ones about Lady Jaime and her loyal companion Joanne?"
Charlie nodded. "Lady Jaime traveled the world looking for fantastical relics and priceless works of art. When she would find something she would store it in her vault."
"Her vault, which was built under a mountain." Emily said as all three girls looked up at the small mountain the warehouse was tucked into. "It had a special lock and needed a particular pass code that only she and Joanne knew."
"I tried that code." Charlie said with a shrug. "It worked."
"So Aunt Helena used the warehouse in her stories?" Mykayla asked.
"Mum says that writers often write what they know." Charlie replied. "She knows the warehouse."
Stepping through the door the last thing the girls expected was the stark white passageway. The outer building was coming out of a mountain, they were expecting a cave not something out of sci-fi show. The girls took it all in and when Charlie got to close to one of the pipes Mykayla said, "Don't touch those."
"What?" Charlie replied. "Why?"
Mykayla shrugged. "My juju sense is tingling. Those things have bad juju."
When they got to the end of the bright white hallway there was another locked door and another keypad, only this one was slightly different. While Charlie looked it over Emily and Mykayla banged on the door and called out for their parents. Again there was no response. Mykayla walked over to see what Charlie was looking. She pointed to what looked like a tiny scanner. She picked at it for a moment and said, "It's a scanner."
Charlie looked at the redhead and asked, "A scanner? What kind of scanner?"
Mykayla shrugged. "I've seen Aunt Claudia working with little bits like this." Mykayla liked to spend time with Claudia's geeky side. She could easily spend hours with Claudia and Helena building and tinkering. She excelled in math and science, which Pete found amusing since neither he nor Clara were tech minded. "The sensor pad looks something like the fingerprint scanner on our tablets, and the little bulb looks like it could be some kind of refractor."
Charlie chewed on her lip the way Myka sometimes did when she was thinking. The dark haired teen turned once again to the stories her mother use to tell them. She combed through looking for the smallest detail and then said, "There's an imperial lion outside the hidden entrance to Lady Jaime's lair. In order to open the hidden door Jaime or Joanne presses the gems on the tag of his collar."
"Then they press their thumbs to the center of the tag." Emily said with a nod. "Then something scans their eye."
"If that was another borrowed fact then we'll never get this door open." Charlie said. "They wouldn't have our fingerprints."
"They might." Emily replied. "Mom had our fingerprints done, remember? Just in case."
"Yeah, just in case we got lost or kidnapped." Charlie replied. "Not just in case we needed to break into her work."
Mykayla and Emily shared a look and what seemed like a nonverbal conversation before looking at Charlie again. "What if it was just in case we needed to get inside?" Mykayla said. "What if Aunt Helena put all those little clues in her stories for a reason?"
"To help us get in if we ever needed too." Emily added.
Charlie wasn't sure about this. Why would her mothers seed such a cloak and dagger way for them to get into a warehouse full of junk? Unless, of course, there was more to that junk than just being junk, but what more could there be? Charlie turned to look at the door again and wondered what exactly was behind it.
"Charlie." Emily said to get her sister's attention. When Charlie was looking at her she pointed to the keypad. "You try."
"Me?" Charlie replied. "Why me?"
"You're the oldest." Emily said simply.
Charlie rolled her eyes. Stepping over to the keypad once again she thought back to the story to remember the sequence used on the lion. She was biting her lip again as she pressed numbers on the keypad. There was a soft beep when she finished and the fingerprint scanner came to life. Biting her lip a little harder she pressed her thumb to the pad. There was a second soft beep before a series of little red beams came out and scanned her eye, which was opened wide in surprise. A third soft beep and the heavy sealed door popped open.
"Ok this is getting weird." Charlie said in hushed tones as she crept over to the door and slowly pulled it open.
Stepping into the office was as jarring as stepping into the unexpected umbilicus had been. It was oddly warm and comforting. There were things in the room that they knew without doubt belonged to their Grandpa Artie, and things that screamed Claudia. Charlie took a careful step further inside as her dark eyes looked for someone, anyone. "Hello?" She called out. "Mum? Mom? Grandpa?"
"Dad?" Mykayla called.
"Aunt Claudia?" Emily tried. Nothing. "Not exactly what I was expecting."
Charlie moved over to a round table near some old file cabinets. There were three stacks of papers placed in front of three chairs. In the center of the table was a tray with a proper full tea service on it. There were two teacups beside two stacks of paper and can of Dr. Pepper at the third. The Dr. Pepper told her that her Uncle Pete had been sitting there, and the handwriting on the closest stack of papers told her it had been her Mum's seat, while the pack of Twizzlers let her know the third seat had been her Mom's. Reaching for the teapot Charlie cupped her hand around it to feel for warmth. "Tea's gone cold."
"Look at this place." Mykayla said as she took in the hodge-podge décor. Her eyes lit up when she saw the desk by the window. "Looks at those computers."
Emily had found another door and had opened it and stepped out onto the catwalk. She stood at the railing looking out over the Warehouse with huge eyes. "Guys." She said but wasn't loud enough to be heard. "Guys!"
"What?" Mykayla replied as she stepped out onto the catwalk. "Wow. So not what I was expecting."
"Is that an airship? A ferries wheel?" Emily asked.
Charlie had stepped out onto the catwalk behind her cousin and was simply thunderstruck. She wasn't sure what she was looking at but she knew she was looking at something amazing. Once again her mind flooded with her mothers stories and she gasped. "A world full of remarkable things." She whispered. "A place of endless wonder. Its real."
The two younger girls had gone back into Artie's office, to overwhelmed or to young to understand what they were seeing. Most likely it was both. They were looking at things on desks and tables when Emily spotted what looked like an old music box, a really old music box. It was square, made of wood that was varnished dark. There were intricate designs around the middle of the sides of the box, and around the edge of the lid. In the center of the lid was an oval that looked as if it might pop open. Emily reached for the music box but stopped when two voices called out at the same time.
"Don't touch that."
One voice had been Charlie's. She couldn't explain it, she didn't get feelings like Mykayla, but she had sudden understanding that you didn't just randomly touch anything in this place. The second voice belonged to the looming figure of an older black woman whose sense of fashion had gotten stuck in the fifties.
"Mrs. Frederic." Charlie said as she looked at the woman after watching her sister back away from the table with the music box.
"Hello children." Mrs. Frederic said with a curt nod of her head.
The three girls felt a rush of panic and fear. They knew they weren't supposed to be in here so there was an internal struggle going on in all three of them, the concern over their parents and the thought of getting into trouble for being there. Charlie was the first to push the struggle aside. "I know we're not allowed in here, but we were worried about our parents. No one's at home and it looks like no one's here either. Where are they?"
For a long moment Mrs. Frederic said nothing. She simply stood there with her purse over her arm staring at Charlie. Charlie, to her credit, didn't look away no matter how badly she wanted too. Mrs. Frederic had been apart of their lives; she was a family friend, a distant great aunt of sorts. The children loved her, respected her, but much like their parents found her to be kind of scary. After several more long moments of looking at Charlie she finally spoke. "You can feel it can't you?"
"Feel what?" Charlie asked, confused and starting to feel a little frightened. Mrs. Frederic simply jerked her head towards the open door and the warehouse beyond it. Charlie looked over her shoulder, out into the seemingly never-ending depths of the warehouse, and then turned back to Mrs. Frederic. "I'm not sure."
Mrs. Frederic smiled. She was sure. Then the smile disappeared. "You're parents and the others are in danger. I'm going to need your help to get them out."
"Get them out?" Emily asked.
"Out of what?" Mykayla added.
Charlie's gaze went right to the music box.
Mrs. Frederic nodded. "Yes Charlotte. We must get them out of the music box, and we must do it quickly before they're lost in their memories forever."