Charlie sat in her room, staring at the butter knife that was sitting before her on top of her bed's covers. She needed to find a better hiding place for it. That was for sure.

Even if Monroe was distracted for the time being, that didn't mean that he, or someone else, couldn't realize that she had taken it at any moment. Besides, she was sure that whoever it was that regularly cleaned her room, oh so thoroughly, would definitely find it. She needed to find a better hiding spot or use it before she would lose it, but she felt a little hesitant to use it when she still wasn't sure whether something had happened to Miles or not.

She'd grabbed Monroe's knife when Captain Baker had shown up, with whatever news it was that had devastated him, after he'd left. She'd hid it in her sleeve on the way back to her room and, ever since, she'd been struggling to hide it.

She'd kept it on her at almost all times, but when the guard had come to take her to the first breakfast with Monroe in a long time, she had panicked and shoved the knife behind the mattress since she hadn't been at all confident that she'd be able to hide it on her person for the whole meal.

It was sheer luck that it had still been there when she'd gotten back and she was afraid to risk leaving it behind again. Still, she knew that having it on her was also a risk and she needed to figure out how to keep it more subtly on her person.

As she heard a guard knocking on her door, she made a snap decision and pulled on her jacket. She snatched the knife up off of the bed and stuck it up her sleeve, leaving the handle poking out just enough that she could discretely hold it in place with her hand.


As she waited for Monroe to walk into the room, Charlie remained standing. As soon as he stepped in and the doors shut behind him, she charged straight at him. She knew that she couldn't keep the knife hidden, so she was going to use it.

She didn't even manage to reach him with the knife before he had her pressed against the wall with his hand gripping her tightly by the wrist.

"Drop the knife, Charlotte," he hissed out as he stepped even closer to her and tightened his grip on her even further.

Charlie glared up at him in defiance as she clenched her jaw in anger.

"I said drop it," Bass growled out as he squeezed down on her wrist painfully tighter.

Charlie let out a pained whimper, which she quickly covered up with a snarl, before reluctantly dropping the knife. It fell to the floor with a clatter.

He loosened his hold, but didn't let go of her as he remained hovering over her, glaring down at her.

Charlie felt her heart pounding in her chest, but she resisted the urge to press herself further back against the wall and instead took a small step forward, making the space between them even smaller.

She took a second to compose herself as she stretched her body upwards in an attempt to make herself appear bigger, with the hope of hiding that she was intimidated by him.

"Where is Miles?" She demanded through gritted teeth, speaking slowly as she glared daggers at him. She was going to do everything in her power to try to intimidate him into giving her answers.

"What?" He questioned, taking the slightest half-step backwards before composing himself again.

Charlie was a bit surprised by his reaction, but didn't let it show. She wasn't going to back down until she knew whether her uncle was alright or not.

"What makes you think that I know where Miles is?" Monroe questioned.

"Don't play stupid," Charlie told him angrily. "You're obviously upset about something. All you care about is yourself and Miles. So what the hell happened to him?"

"Miles is fine," he insisted. "As far as I know."

"So then what the hell are you upset about?" She hissed out angrily.

He let out a disconcerting laugh as his expression hardened and he leaned over her to warn her, "You don't know me, Charlotte. Don't pretend to."

Charlie still felt pretty uncertain, but she did feel a little bit of relief at the idea of her uncle being okay.

Monroe took another step back from her and then bent down to pick up the knife. Charlie knew that she could take the opportunity to attack him. She wouldn't be able to kill him, that was certain, but she could at least injure him. Yet something held her back.

She remained pressed back against the wall as he took the knife with him over to the table and sat down as if it was just any other meal.

He looked up at her expectantly as he questioned, "Still refusing to eat, Charlotte?"

He was under her skin. That much was for sure, but she hated the idea that she was letting it show.

She took a deep breath, hoping to calm her nerves and racing heart rate before stepping forwards towards him. She sat down across from him and, without hesitating or breaking her glare, began to eat.

He seemed surprised by that, but said nothing.

Charlie certainly was not going to be the one to break the silence, so they went on eating in silence for the rest of the meal.


At the beginning of each meal that followed, Charlie glared across the table and asked what had Monroe upset. He always responded with a glare and an annoyed response.

One morning, when she was pressing the question especially hard, he finally snapped and demanded, "Why does my personal life interest you so much, Charlotte?"

She scowled at him for using her full first name once again before pointing out, "There's not a lot to do around here. The only entertainment I've got is trying to solve the mystery of what you could have lost that made you act almost human."

"If you want entertainment, just think of something and ask," he insisted through gritted teeth.

"Fine," Charlie responded a little too calmly. "I want my bow."

"No." He responded bluntly. "Especially after that stunt you pulled with the knife."

"You keep saying that I can have whatever I want, and yet you turn down every request I make," she pointed out angrily.

"That's because you purposely make requests you know I won't fill," he retorted.

"And you claim that you'll give me anything I want because you know there's nothing I want that you'll actually give me," she pointed out before leaning forwards over the table as a cruel smile formed on her lips. "Does it make you feel better about yourself? Does it make you feel like there's still something human left in you, pretending to be so generous? …Do you think Miles is going to believe the lies that you tell yourself? Do you think he's going to thank you for taking such good care of me?"

He slammed his fist down on the table before demanding, "Why the hell are you so stubborn? Why can't you just be happy with what I'm giving you?"

"What you're giving me?" She repeated with a humourless laugh. "You're insane."


After that, they went back to their regular meal routine. Before each meal, a guard would show up to escort her to eat with Monroe. Once there, neither would mention any of the arguments or strangeness. Instead they were back to their ordinary routine.

Monroe would attempt to make small-talk. Charlie would respond with angry retorts. They never maintained anything that could be classified in a conversation without using the loosest form of the term… At least not until the night that he showed up in her room unannounced.


A/N: Please read and review! So I didn't have time to update because of school stuff, but now I have the rest all written (and it turned out to actually be six parts total, not three) so there should be daily updates now. Also, a huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, perfectmanhattan, BassCharlie, ThreeMagpies, JM2788, LemonSupreme, Wolf9lucky, Dee809, ToTheSkyAndBack, and Modernscarlett for reviewing the first chapter! :)