Hey! I just wanted ot update something and found this like 600 word drabble on my computer and decided to finish it. Since I wrote the other pairs, I went with another romance couple I haven't shown a lot in my other stories. But here you go, fresh off the press. A Charbeck one-shot. Hope you enjoy!
Maybeck's P.O.V
A scream echoed from somewhere deep in the forest of tropical trees. I cursed myself for letting her leave my sight, even for a moment. Turning around, anger washed over me, finding myself totally unable to find my partner.
"Charlene!" I shouted, hoping to get a reply, something to tell me that she was okay.
Nothing.
My heart was thumping uncomfortably quickly in my chest at the moment, and I couldn't stop my eyes from darting, with all expectations of seeing her. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, but that just wasn't processing.
"Charlie." I whispered desperately to the empty nothingness surrounding me. I was sinking in a mound of solitude immeasurable distances deep. I sighed, leaning against a tall palm tree and glared at the sand below me.
The sky, now a mirage of pinks and purples from the sunset, swirled in the wind above me. Dark clouds were setting in, but I didn't make a move to go anywhere.
We had been searching the island for clues, anything, literally anything, that might lead us to what the O.T.'s plan was. Seeing as the fairlies had joined in our little over-seas vacation somehow, the teams consisted of Philby and Willa, back on board in case of any necessary assistance and Amanda, Finn, and Jess searching the island by the perimeter.
Then there was my group. Charlene and I had been paired together because the Overtakers had already targeted Finn and Willa, and the O.T.K's with me, so I should make sure nothing would happen to her. Aren't I great at my job?
Charlene and I had been looking for hours, without a sign of activity, also known as trouble. That is, until few moments ago, when she suddenly disappeared in thin air and was gone. The breaths I drew in were deep, trying to subdue the hasty anxiousness that had established over my nerves.
"Maybeck?" I heard someone call out, making my heart leap with joy.
"Charlene!"
"Um…no. It's Jess. Where are you?" All hopes plummeted, sinking farther than they had before, now penetrating profounder than rock bottom. I was about to reply, when the strawberry blonde suddenly emerged from the trees, into view. "Oh, there you are."
Her eyes seemed to slowly adapt to the dark, and she was able to recognize that there was one, not two but one, person there with her. "Where's Charlie?" She whispered, urgently.
I groaned, "I have no idea." I shouted, kicking the tree nearby, ready to yank my hair out, "I can't believe I lost her!" I yelled out, enraged with myself.
She moved forward, cautiously as though she were uncertain of her actions, and touched my arm lightly. "Hey, it's okay. It happens."
I shrugged, unable to remember a time it had happened to the others, though that may just be because my mind wasn't really working as well as it should have been at the moment. "Where are Amanda and Finn?"
"They got a call from Philby and Willa that we should be heading back by now. They wanted me to come and find you guys." She explained, with a subtle distress in her voice at you guys.
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have let her out of my sight! Now we're never going to find her." I mumbled a few swear words that she tried to ignore.
"That's not true, it's the O.T.'s fault. And we are going to find her, we just need to make a plan, or something. But not right now, come on, we should be getting back to the ship. We'll arrange search parties for tomorrow."
A moment of silence passed, in which she stared at me with expectant eyes, waiting for a sign of agreement. I shook my head. "I'm looking for her today." I retorted, stubbornly.
"Oh, come on, Maybeck. We shouldn't even be out here now. They're expecting five DHI's back on the ship. Four, we can pass with. Three, not so much. We have to go back to the ship."
"You do, sure. I can do whatever I want."
"But-"
"I hope you realize that nothing you say can change my mind. Frankly, I don't care. She was kidnapped on my watch and I'm looking for her!" Jess seemed to catch on to my determination, thinking over what to do.
She sighed. "Fine. We'll stay and look for her." Moving past me, she began to push tree branches and leaves out of the way, clearing a path.
"I said I would look for her. Without your help." I protested, following her.
With a scoff, she retorted, "Yeah, as if I'll leave you out here alone to look for her. If the O.T.'s are involved, which right now I'd believe is the only option, then this is going to be dangerous. Plus, Keeper Rule number one, we stick together."
"Forget about the stupid rule!" Except, I didn't say stupid. "The others will be worried where you are."
She shrugged. "Let them worry. There's no signal so there's no way I could text them. And I'm sure they'll be just as worried if I go back and tell them you're looking for a disappeared Charlene."
No matter how many times I get paired up with this girl, her defiance to listen, especially to my commands, never fails to surprise me.
By the time the night grew darker than the most concentrated black I'd ever seen and I couldn't make out my own hand in front of my face, the encumbrance of Jess's presence was unbearable. We had never gotten along, and often we did argue, but now, in our deep-set silence, I was most frustrated.
"We're never going to find her in the dark," Her voice chimed, though seeing her was near impossible. "We should call it quits for the night."
"No, we should keep looking." I argued, continuing. The last thing we needed was dilatory actions, despite the obscureness.
"Well, I'm gonna stop for the now." Suddenly, she appeared in front of me, making me jump. Her smile shined back white, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She teased.
"You didn't scare me." I snarled. "And that's not fair. You know I can't leave you here alone in the dark. Who's gonna protect you?"
She gave a sarcastic laugh, as always, sending me the sense of feeling I had deprecated her. "Wow, Donnie, sexist much? I don't do without your help at the moment, but thanks for the concern."
I groaned, hearing the crunch of leaves and the shift of dirt. In ersatz, I sat as well, making myself comfortable, or so as much as I could, on the forest floor. Of all the Keepers, to me she may have been the most adamant.
"Come to join me, have you?" She snickered from beside me. "Good. I was worried I'd have to beat you senseless with a fallen coconut to have my way." Her insouciant attitude was calming, easing away the panic, somehow.
Though I attempted to remain stoic, it was difficult. I gave into her nonchalant demeanor. No matter the amount of concern I felt at the moment for Charlene, I knew that there would be no use in panicking. Now, as much as often, Jess was puerile; maybe not a desideratum but a necessity.
A thought popped into my head, but just as it had, Jess commented, "Don't go off wandering in the middle of the night. I know you want to find Charlie, but if you leave, who's gonna protect me?" Her winsome jest had enough apposite to catch me off guard. Though she could predict the future and enjoyed mind games, never had she done something close to reading my mind.
But when I opened my mouth to ask how she'd done it, I heard her soft snore and knew she had fallen asleep, wayworn from our search. In the perfect silence, it was not long before I had followed suit.
…
A loud boom of thunder woke me, along with a bombarding of bullet-like drops of water. I rubbed the rain out of my eyes, squinting to see. Jess, leaned against a tree beside me, shaded from the rain, was still fast asleep, showing no sign of waking soon.
I knew she'd be insanely pissed later, but taking her with me just wasn't an option any more. The O.T.'s weren't taking mercy, they would kill us if they had to, and having Jess accompany me, maybe straight into our deathbeds, was definitely not something I wanted to happen.
There was a short while when I couldn't decide whether to leave her or let her go along with me in the expedition. Though true our arrogances had been incongruous in the past, it would not be the first of my choices to abandon her to complete defenselessness.
It didn't take long for me to remember the way back, my artistic skills allowing me to visualize things in a way that most of the others couldn't. I fled quickly before she could wake; leaving her directions in the sand and convincing myself she'd find her way to the ship safely.
A gray sky resisted any light from coming through, not even the thinnest of rays penetrating the tenebrous layer of ashen somberness. What a shame because at the time, I could have used effulgence.
Until then I hadn't realized my gregarious requisite, but after the long unaccompanied passage, seclusion made dwelling in me.
Charlene…
I can't believe I let her get captured. It was me, not Jess, not Finn, not Amanda, but me who was paired up with her. My job was to make sure she wasn't hurt or taken. Of course, I was just a big screw up. I couldn't do anything right.
My footsteps were hard on the dirt beneath my shoes, sulking into the ground, almost as though Hades himself were tantalizing me by slowly allowing me to descend into the fiery abyss of the underworld.
Heart beat cold with self-hatred, mind blanked with an overwhelming aggregation of thoughts. Why did I always have to mess things up? The plans, supposedly impeccable, can always be ruined by moi. And this time, I put someone else in danger because of it.
Charlie, of all people. Perfect, beautiful Charlene. Sporty and smart and sweet. Too perfect to be mine. Too flawless to ever be mine. She never messed things up. Never failed. Never made a plan go wrong.
But my penchant to her went far beyond what everyone else liked about her. She was that rara avis to me. It wasn't just her appeal, beauty, or charm. It was the way she smiled, the way she lit up a room, the laugh of a thousand ringing bells. Her wit and charisma. It wasn't just this and that. There was no one thing I loved about her. It was all the above.
Out of nowhere, I was yanked out of my day dreams. A loud whimper, a cry, muffled. It had to be her. There wasn't a possibility that it had been in my imagination, or at least not one I was taking into consideration.
"Charlene?" I called out, trying to ignore the voice in my head telling me to shut up or else I'll attract O.T.'s. Listening, in the distance, somewhere to my right, I heard a subdued scream. Without any hesitation whatsoever, I ran.
I continued to shout, making her respond, the sounds aiding in my aim to find her. What she was saying was still not making it to my ears with clarity. When a flash of blonde, easily spotted in the jumble of greens, came into my view, I knew I'd found her.
At the moment I saw her, I was overcome with alarm. She was tied to a tree trunk, legs bound together, as well as her mouth. Her blue eyes radiated with vast relief as I raced forward and released her. She threw her arms around me, shuddering into me, her soaking form clasped onto mine as though she had no intention of letting go.
Her white skin was rubicund of exposed flesh and blood, which angered me. How could they do this to her? How could I let this happen? She began to cry, whimpering every so often making me believe she was in pain.
When I leaned her back against the tree to inspect her, she averted eye contact, diffident. She was obviously ashamed by her awful state of being. Her clothes were torn and stained, caked with dirt and it must have seemed to her the most awful of things to be seen like that, nearly exposed. Though her abandonment had been sojourn, it nearly looked she had been tortured for days on end.
But I didn't care, the chance of finding her laudable enough to make me happy beyond understanding. However, some of the gashes were still open, and by the way she looked so weak, I was sure she moribund. I had to get her back to the ship, get her mended by paramedics.
"I see you've found your friend." I voice came from behind me. Not cringing or flinching, I turned around, portraying myself as fearless, even though underneath I wasn't. At all.
"You really should do something about that dreadful stench of fish and death on you. I could smell it from a mile away." I remarked, earning a glare from her.
"Think you're funny, boy?" She yapped. When Charlene emitted a sob of agony, Ursula's face lit up. "You're lucky. I could have killed her the minute I got my hands on her. But fortunately for her, I enjoy whips too much." She cackled. "Plus, two for the price of one seems like a pretty good deal to me."
"That's not happening." I snapped.
"You have no weapons. Your partner is a frail little girl who couldn't fend for herself if she wanted to. You have nothing. No chance. Zip."
There wasn't water in sight. Starfish wise couldn't help me now. All that could even pass as aquatic was the rain. And for all I know, that was probably working to her advantage right now.
"Don't have a smart remark to that, do you?" She laughed, her tentacles swiping at the floor impatiently, waiting to wrap themselves around our necks and strangle us.
The rain wasn't giving me the ability to see very well. But, with artist's eyes, when I actually paid attention to our surroundings, I realized where we were. Maybe I didn't have nothing.
But I had to take a big chance.
I leapt forward and attacked her. Not seeing it coming, she was surprised, making it easy for me to tackle her. But then, without hardship, she pushed me off. I heard Charlene scream in alarm, but Ursula and I were too concentrated in our fight to even acknowledge her.
Suddenly, Ursula overpowered me, grabbing her by the throat with her arms and lifting me up, over the side of the cliff I had only moment before noticed we were on.
"I told you this would be easy." She growled, slowly easing her hold on me, ready to let me fall. But then, abruptly she let out a shrilled shriek, wavering. But her ginormous body tipped forward, taking us both over the side.
Yet, as she fell to the oblivion, likely waiting to meet an array of sharp rocks, I latched onto the edge. Charlene, tossing aside a sharpened branch, jumped frontward, helping pull me up and over.
"You okay?" I asked, only getting a slight nod in response.
Without a word, I picked her up bridal style, noticeably much to her disliking, judging by her minor thrashing. But soon she just gave in, leaning into me, allowing me to tend to her in her nadir.
"I'm gonna clean your cuts, okay? It might be a while before we find the ship and I want to make sure there's nothing major."
She objected, trying to slip out of my hold as I carried her to a vacant beach nearby, dipping her, clothed, into the ocean. The salt water must have stung, or she the chagrin of my taking care of her was intolerable. Charlene kvetched, attempting to get out only exacerbating the lesions. But the ablution did fix her wounds to some extent.
By the time I took her out, she was too tired from resisting to ward of sleep. Even at returning to the cruise, she lay still in my arms.
When I entered Finn's suite, all five keepers stared at me, then at Charlene, in bewilderment. I walked past quietly, leaving her on the large bed before returning to speak with the others.
"Where the hell did you go?!" Jess shouted, angrily. But she didn't say hell.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to come with me, it wasn't safe."
"So? I had to wander for hours, looking for the way back! You should have just let me go with you."
"I left you directions." I said.
"They must have washed out with the rain." She mumbled, glowering at me. "What happened?"
I told them everything. Beginning to end.
"This isn't good. We have to beware of her now too. Overtakers are infesting this vacation." Finn grumbled.
"Yeah, we need to make sure no one is left alone or anything." Amanda added.
For a while, we all sat, discussing what to do in future attacks. While the others hadn't noticed, deep in debate, I heard Charlene call my name and slipped soundlessly into the other room.
"Hey, Charlie. How're you feeling?" I asked.
"Better. Thanks for saving me." She whispered. "I can't talk really loud, can you come closer? I have to tell you something."
I leaned forward expecting her to whisper something to me. But, before I could react, her lips caught mine in a kiss. When she pulled back, blushing, I smiled. I loved everything about her. All the above.