Events and strong emotions had the power to turn ordinary objects into extraordinary items that could do unbelievable things. For example, a run of the mill antique music box could have the ability to hold memories. It could also have the ability to transport a physical person from the real world into itself, trapping that person inside by locking them into a loop of their bad memories. Or at least that was what Mrs. Frederic was trying to explain to Charlie, Emily, and Mykayla. Emily, the youngest daughter of Myka Bering and Helena Wells, and Mykayla, the only daughter and oldest child of Pete Lattimer and his wife Clara, looked as if they were totally buying what Mrs. Frederic was saying. Myka and Helena's sixteen-year-old daughter Charlotte, who went by Charlie most of the time, looked as if she were trying to believe what she was being told but a part of her was fighting against it. It was a look, a reaction, that Mrs. Frederic had seen the girl's mother go through so many years ago when Myka first arrived at the Warehouse. Mrs. Frederic didn't know what exactly it would be but she was absolutely positive Charlotte Bering-Wells would have a connection to the Warehouse in her future.
"I know this is a lot to take in." Mrs. Frederic began.
Charlie sank into a chair at the table where her mothers had been having tea at some point that day. She reached for what would have been her Mum's cup and down the cold milky sweet earl grey and then grimaced because earl grey was not meant to be drunk cold. A lot to take in was a clear understatement. Charlie wasn't sure where to even start sorting this all out. Did she start with the fact that her mothers and all her loved ones worked for a magic warehouse full of magic junk? Or maybe she could start with learning that all the fantastical stories her Mum had told her for as long as she could remember were actually true? Lady Jaime and her companion Joanne were so totally her Mum and her Mom. Thinking about all the things the characters had done in the stories and linking them to her mothers, the adventure, the danger, the near misses and close calls, made Charlie reach for her Mom's cold tea and down it as well.
"Should you be drinking that?" Emily asked her sister with concern. She was freaking out but not nearly as badly. Being thirteen meant she was still child enough to believe in wondrous things a little more easily. "What if you get like sucked into the tea pot or something?"
"It's fine, Em." Charlie reassured.
"How can you be sure?" The younger sister asked.
"I bought this tea set for Mum for mother's day last year." Charlie replied with a reassuring smile.
Mrs. Frederic took the girls in and sighed inwardly. They had been so careful about the children's knowledge of the Warehouse's true nature. Everyone, epically their parents, wanted to keep them safe. With the others trapped she had no choice but to tell them the truth and help them deal with it, so it wouldn't do to have her façade crack now because the girls would need her to be the imposing figure she was. "I know this is a lot to take in." She repeated. "But we don't have the luxury of time."
"Of course." Charlie said with a firm nod as she stood. She put her hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her another reassuring smile before walking over to stand beside Mrs. Frederic. In that moment Charlie had shifted from a confused, overwhelmed, frightened child into a young woman who was every bit every great thing about each of her mothers. "What do we do?"
"Luckily this has happened before." Mrs. Frederic explained. "So for once we know exactly what to do."
Mrs. Frederic explained that one of them would have to go into the music box, and reassured them that she had safety precautions that would keep the one going in from getting trapped as well. She told them that the adults were trapped inside by their bad memories, that it was being focused on those and the weighted emotion that came with them that kept them trapped. Each of the girls realized that whoever went in would have to face things they were sure their parents wouldn't want them to know about. It was a lot to ask of children. Charlie spoke up before the other two had a chance. "I'll go."
"I was going to choose you anyway but thank you for volunteering." Mrs. Frederic said approvingly.
"My parents are in there too!" Mykayla argued.
Mrs. Frederic nodded while retrieving several boxes from what seemed to be random file drawers. "Yes, but your skills are needed out here."
"My skills?" Mykayla asked. "What skills?"
The larger of the two boxes Mrs. Frederic had fetched held what looked like a large leather cuff with an iWatch attached to it. She pulled the cuff out of the box and held it out to Charlie. "That will keep you from getting trapped in your own memories. It will allow you to be outside memory itself so you can interact with who you're there to get."
"Interact with them?" Charlie asked as she took the cuff and looked it over.
Mrs. Frederic nodded. "They'll be outside their memories, watching them, reliving them, but not interacting with them. Memories are the past and can't be changed though I'm sure some will try."
Charlie put the cuff on her left wrist and looked up. "Ok so how do I break them free of the trap?"
"You make them remember their good memories." Mrs. Frederic explained. "You remind them of their connections to this world. When they get to a certain point they'll be able to break free of the trap and once they realize what's going on they'll reappear here, in the real world." Mrs. Frederic could see the fear and uncertainty in Charlie's eyes. She opened the second box and pulled out an earpiece. "You won't be alone, Charlotte. We'll be able to hear you and you'll be able to ear us."
Charlie took the earpiece and held it in her hand while she tried to prepare herself for this. This all felt like some wild dream caused by one of her mother's outrageous stories. Only there was a heaviness in her heart that told her this was no dream. Her moms were in danger; the people she loved most in the world were in danger. Charlie nodded to let Mrs. Frederic know she understood and then put the earpiece in.
Mrs. Frederic nodded her approval again. Then she turned back to Mykayla. "I'll need you to help keep the connection to the cuff and the earpiece. Claudia and Helena created both the tech and the programs to use them, and you've learned a lot of from them."
Mykayla would still rather go in after her parents but she understood. She nodded. "Ok."
"What about me?" Emily said quietly. She was the youngest of the three, still a kid, but she wanted to help. She wanted her moms back.
From her purse Mrs. Frederic pulled out a velvet pouch. She opened it and poured two stones into the palm of her hand. "You have a very important role to play, Emily. When we deal with anything that involves the memory we always use the buddy system. Its so very easy to get trapped inside our memories." She placed one stone in Emily's hand before turned to give the other to Charlie. "Your job Emily is to be an anchor for your sister, her link to the real world, her way back when she's finished."
Charlie could read her sister's fear and smiled at her. "I'm in good hands."
Emily looked up at her big sister with wide eyes and then she smiled and nodded. "I got your back."
"Ok then lets do this." Charlie said after taking a deep breath.
Mrs. Frederic did her best to prepare Charlie but how prepared for something like this could one so young be? Charlie gave her sister and cousin one last reassuring look and then Mrs. Frederic, Mykayla, and Emily went outside to wait. Everyone who was near the music box when it was activated was sucked into it, so they couldn't be there when Charlie activated it. Once she was alone and could hear Mykayla and Mrs. Fredric on the earpiece she reached for the oval on top of the music box and after a deep steadying breath she popped it open.
Everything went blindingly white.
"Charlotte?"
"Charlie?"
"Charlotte, can you hear me?"
Charlie groaned. She was on all fours with her eyes closed. She could still see the flash of light brightly on the backs of her eyelids. "Not so loud. Yes, I can hear you."
"Are you alright?" Emily asked.
Again Charlie groaned. "Yes, I'm alright. Just waiting for my vision to clear."
There was a long pause and Charlie could hear Mrs. Frederic explaining something about suddenly flipping a light on after being in total darkness all night. Then Mrs. Frederic asked, "Where are you Charlotte?"
Charlie had given up when she was five when it came to getting Mrs. Frederic to call her Charlie. The woman insisted on calling her by her actual name and it was only just starting to not annoy her. Opening her eyes and getting to her feet Charlie looked around. Everything was in black and white but her, which was really weird. "I'm not sure." She replied at first. Wherever she was it wasn't someplace she'd even been. "Outside some kind of hanger maybe?" She began walking towards the front of the large building she was outside of. "There's an suv outside and I think I hear something inside."
There was undisguised sadness in Mrs. Frederic's voice as she said, "Charlotte, I think you're in Claudia's memories. I need you to keep something in mind. Everything you see is in the past and no matter how unexplainable it might seem it can be explained and will be when this done if you need it to be."
That sent a shiver down Charlie's spine. What was she about to see? She was already feeling kind of guilty for intruding on personal memories, but now she felt a deep sense of dread as well. Children don't see the adults in their lives as people with lives and experiences of their own that have nothing to do with them and Charlie was still enough of a child not to want the gilded images of her loved ones tarnished. She knew she needed to go inside, that she would find Claudia if Mrs. Frederic was right about these being her memories, but now she was frightened by the idea what she might see.
"Charlie?" Emily's voice cut through Charlie's trepidation. "Are you ok?"
Charlie took a breath. This wasn't only about her. These were people she loved but they were also people she needed, people her sister loved and needed, people her cousins loved and needed. She could face this, she had to, there were no other choices. "I am now Em. Thanks."
She walked into what she realized was an airplane hanger. It was massive and empty except for three people by the stairs across the room. She moved further in and could now see who those people were. "Mom!" She cried out when she saw Myka standing at the bottom of the stairs, but there was no reply. "Uncle Pete! Aunt Claudia!"
There was no response because it wasn't them; it was a memory of them, Claudia's memory of them. Charlie watched helplessly as the black and white memories of her mom and uncle and her aunt played out.
"Pete?" Myka called out as Pete came down the stairs. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Pete replied, his voice breathless and shaken. "They're gone. Lets get back to the car."
"What's wrong?" Claudia asked.
"I said get back to the car!" Pete demanded.
There was a crack in her uncle's voice that Charlie had never heard before and it felt like a dart had been thrown at her heart. Charlie began to tremble as she continued to watch.
"Pete? What is it?" Claudia asked.
"Please get back to the car." Pete whispered.
She didn't know why, though she soon would, but there were tears in Charlie's eyes. The tone of Pete's voice, the look on Claudia's face, more thrown darts that hit painfully and made her move closer to the black and white echo of her mother. She watched as Claudia ran up the stairs. Then there was a scream, a scream unlike any noise she had ever heard, a scream that took her breath away even though it hadn't come from her. Charlie ran up the stairs behind her Mom and her Uncle without even thinking and what she found she simply couldn't comprehend. "Uncle Steve? Uncle Steve!"
"Its in the past, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic said in her ear.
"He's dead!" Charlie cried.
"He got better." Mrs. Frederic said firmly. "You saw him just last night didn't you?"
Charlie nodded numbly as if she could be seen and then remember she couldn't be seen. "Yes." She said, her voice trembling. "Yes, he helped me with my diversity homework. We did a power point on Buddhism and finished off all the caramel tim tams. Before he left for the airport Toby called us heathens for using cold milk rather than something hot. "
"Ground yourself in your own memories, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic advised. "You will see things like this again I'm sure of it. When you do, remember the last time you were with that person and remember that what you're seeing are memories of the past. Agent Jinks isn't dead. He's waiting for you to find him and help him just like you're going to help Claudia."
Claudia. This was Claudia's memory. Charlie blinked away the tears that were blurring her sight and looked around the room. At first all she saw was the black and white echo of Claudia as she stood there staring at Steve with her eyes full of tears and shock. Then in the far corner of the room she caught a flash of color, a streak of electric blue. Claudia was experimenting with her look again and had gone back to putting strips of color in her hair, which was now much longer and often worn up in twists and buns. Charlie slowly made her way over to the far corner of the room and sighed softly when she saw her aunt in full living color. "Aunt Claudia?" She said gently as she approached. "Aunt Claudia, it's me, it's Charlie."
There was no response from the real Claudia either. She was too focused on watching her younger self and reliving the horrific moment. Charlie reached out and put her hand on Claudia's arm. "It's not real, Aunt Claudia, at least not anymore. This happened a long time ago." She tried to make her aunt look her in the eye but it felt like Claudia was just looking right through her to the scene behind her.
"Mrs. Frederic." Charlie's voice shook with doubt and pain. "I don't know what to do."
"Get her to think about a happy memory." Mrs. Frederic replied. "A memory you share together."
Tears streaked down Charlie's cheeks. "How do I know how to pick a happy memory we'd share?"
"Every person inside that box loves you so very much, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic reassured. "And any memory you have with them that's happy for you is going to happy for them too."
Charlie swallowed the lump in her throat. "Are you sure?"
"I am very sure." Came the firm response.
"Ok." Charlie replied. She closed her eyes and took a breath and thought of a memory where she and her aunt were happy. When she had one in mind she opened her eyes and was about to start speaking when things around them began to blur. Mrs. Frederic said that the memories would be on a loop, that the box would make them see all the worse moment of their lives. Charlie wasn't sure she could handle what was coming up next but that didn't stop her from looking around to see where they were now. The airplane hanger had morphed into the inside of some kind of wooden structure. Artie replaced Steve, Pete, and her Mom in Claudia's memory and now Charlie watched, confused, as Claudia stabbed the man she considered her father.
"Whoa shit!" Charlie said before she could stop herself.
"What?" Mykayla asked. "What's going on?"
"Claudia just stabbed Grandpa Artie in the heart!" Charlie replied.
"Share your memories, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic said firmly. "Now if you please."
That wasn't really something one saw and shook off but Charlie turned to look at the real Claudia and said, "Do you remember taking me to my first comic con, Aunt Claudia?" Charlie took hold of her aunt's hand, surprised to find it felt warm and real. "We spent weeks binge watching Once Upon a Time and making our cosplay outfits. When we walked into the convention center on Saturday I was the Evil Queen and you came as Emma because I got a kick out of yelling, Ms. Swan!" She smiled, her voice tainted with a soft chuckle. "You made me my very own glowing heart, remember? I had so much fun that day. I still don't know how you got us in to that signing so I could get Lana's autograph and a picture. I still have the heart and the picture in a frame on my bookshelf." She paused to once again make Claudia look at her. "We ran into Uncle Pete, remember? He was dressed like Stan Lee. We spent the whole weekend there. It was amazing."
The black and white memories playing out behind Charlie began to burr and flicker again. Slowly the bad memories were being replaced with the good, black and white with flickers of color. A flash of red from the pulsing red heart Charlie had carried around, some sparkle from her dress, and a dash of blue from Claudia's jacket. It was working but Charlie needed something stronger, a stronger memory, a stronger connection.
"The very first song you ever taught me that wasn't a kiddy song was Mercedes Benz. You thought it was funny to teach a three year old to sing like Janis Joplin. Then you taught me that song in Russian so we could sing it for Grandpa Artie's birthday." That was it. That seemed to be getting through to Claudia. The memories behind Charlie became more colorful, more vivid. She could hear herself as a little girl stumbling her way through learning new songs, new cords on the guitar, new notes on the piano, and the unmistakable sound of a five year old learning to play bagpipes. Music was her link to Claudia.
Charlie closed her eyes and began to hum the opening notes of a song they'd sung together since she was little. Then she began to softly sing, "Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean ties? Can I handle the seasons of my life?"
She makes it nearly through the whole song and could feel panic creeping in when Charlie hears the crack of Claudia's voice, "Time makes you bolder, even children get older, and I'm getting older too."
Claudia's still hands began plucking out the notes as if she were playing the guitar and Charlie nearly cried. "Aunt Claudia?"
"Charlie?" Claudia questioned as she blinked her eyes as if awaking from a bad dream.
"Oh thank god." Charlie said with a heavy sigh of relief as she threw her arms around the woman to hug her.
Claudia's arms went around Charlie tightly as realization hit her. "The music box."
Charlie nodded but before she could explain Claudia was gone and she was engulfed in the blinding white light again.
