Chapter Ten: Absolute Darkness Accepted

Charlie sat on a tiny foe velvet covered seat, wishing the horror was over. She gritted her teeth as Cassie piled more dresses on the top of the door. This was all too, too much. There was no way she be caught dead in any of them, they were all too childish or girly. It had been a while since she wanted to strangle someone for something trivial, but now she was very close to shake the life out of Cassie. Two hours of dresses, dresses and more dresses was enough. All she wanted to do was go home and rest her weary feet.
And don't get me started on the shoes… Grabbing her phone, she made a call. "Haruka, you need to save me from Cassie. She's shopping me to death. I really need your help."

"I'll be right there. Give me five minutes." Haruka hung up and Charlie thumbed through the dresses Cassie had given her to see if any of them might be a possibility, but she didn't see anything she liked. Dropping back onto the stool, she waited to be rescued.

Five minutes later she heard Haruka's voice. "Charlie, are you back here?"

"Yes, Haruka, I'm in number three."

"Here these are for you. Choose one and let's get out of here. You too, Cassie."

From Cassie's change room, there was a squeal of delight. "Haruka, this one is perfect!"

From within her cubicle Charlie heard Cassie unlock her door and step out. Haruka spoke, "It is. Good choice, Cassie. Charlie, are you going to try on a dress, I thought you wanted out of here?"

Charlie took a deep breath and chose one of the dresses Haruka had chosen. Although she hated it Charlie could hear her mother's voice ringing in her ears. "No one will ever love you. You're too much like your father. Besides you have the figure of a twelve year old boy."

She stepped out of her own change room. She slowly lifted her head to meet Haruka's gaze, hating the emotions this dance was causing to churn within her and was surprised to find a smile on the older woman's face. Her eyes filled with tears and Charlie didn't know what to say.

Haruka watched Cassie twirl in a burgundy red one-shoulder-one-sleeve cocktail dress.

"So that's the one then?" She leaned forward and caught site of Charlie standing looking nervous in the doorway of her own change room and she knew exactly what was going on in the Cadet's head. "Good; then go get changed while I talk to Charlie."

"You look beautiful; I knew that dress would be perfect for you. Turn around and let me make sure."

Hesitantly Charlie spun slowly, wearing a teal halter-neck dress with a medium-length flaring skirt. The dress suited her perfectly, and made also clear what she had over the other cadets – age and maturity. Cassie wouldn't be able to wear something like this for a while by sheer personality. Nevertheless, the young woman seemed to be utterly uncomfortable in her own skin, appearing to be feeling exposed.

Reaching out Haruka put her hands on Charlie's shoulders cause her to stop. "You really don't know how beautiful you are, do you?"

Charlie looked away, staring down at the floor, but Haruka wouldn't let her retreat. Gently, she grabbed her chin and made the younger woman look up at her.

"You are a smart, beautiful and strong woman. Never forget that and stop listening to the bitch! She was wrong about you then and she'd still wrong about you now."
"Charlie!" There was a squeal and then Cassie gushed, "That dress is perfect for you. You're going to steel the show. Shall we pay for these?"

Haruka nodded to Charlie. "Off you go, I'm in need of a ginger mint tea and I think you are as well."

Cassie gagged but wisely said nothing as they left the store, dresses draped over their arms and headed to Haruka's favorite tea house.

The homecoming game turned out to be a blowout, and not for the home team. It so was bad that no one wanted to talk about it which was fine with Charlie. As always she didn't care these things, they just didn't interest her. She'd much rather curl up in her dorm and read the autobiography of a sniper she'd found at Barnes and Noble the other day (or continue on the Divine Comedy), but she made a promise to Nate, so she'd attended the game and would be attending the dance later tonight.

Shifting in her seat, she caught sight of her dress hanging on the closet door. It really did suit her and she loved how she felt when she wore it after losing the awkwardness, but she hated the crowds and the dance tonight would be packed.

Sighing, she gathered up her hair, wondering what she should do with it. Charlie knew that she really should cut it off to a much more manageable length, but like Jo in Little Women and medieval Japanese Court Ladies, she felt it was her one true pride and beauty.

She was about to roll it up into a Chignon and secure it with her kanzashi when there was a knock at the door.
Frowning, Charlie let go of her hair, letting it fall loose as she answered the door.

"What?!" she snarled as she wrenched open the door, expecting to find an overly excited Cassie to be on the other side.

Cadet Paris jumped looking ashamed as he backed away. "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir. I'll come back another time."

"Hey Paris, I meant what I said to you the other day. Come in, it's not you I'm annoyed with." She told him as she waved him in.

The younger Cadet looked back and almost smiled. "If this is a bad time I can come back; but you said if I ever needed help I could come to you."

"No it's fine. I know you wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. I assume this has to do with Ashgar?"

"Yes it does but it's not me who needs your help. He's been harassing another cadet, but he's gone too far this time. This must end."

Charlie looked into the hallway behind Paris to see the other victim but there was no one there. "Where are they?"

Paris looked down the hall. "Kyla come inside, I told you she'll help you. You need to talk to someone about what happened. You can't let Ashgar get away with this. If we don't stop him he will keep hurting people."

A slim blond girl stepped around the corner and proceeded cautiously down the hall. Turning to Paris she told him, "Go three doors down and get Cadet Frasier. Tell her to bring her camera. We're going to need to take some pictures. Do you mind?" She directed the question to the female cadet. She didn't speak but the girl did not and then she smiled.

"Thank you, god speed you."

Even with her blackened eye, Charlie was sure she'd seem Kyla in some of her hand to hand combat classes but she couldn't place the girl's last name… But as Kyla smiled it hit her. "Come in Cadet Hammond. Tell me your story."

Kyla's eyes widened and she smiled again. "How did you know my last name? I didn't think you even noticed me in your classes other than to cringe when I try to do the moves."

"No, everyone is like that at the beginning. As for General Hammond, I met him once and you have his eyes." Then Charlie did something she rarely did, she reached out and wrapped her arm around Kyla's shoulder, leading her into the room. "Tell me what happened. I'll make sure Ashgar pays for whatever he's done."

Kyla sat down on Charlie's bed and began looking around the room instead of speaking.

"Talk when you're ready, I'm here to listen. I'm not going anywhere."

Pointing to Charlie's dress, Kyla got to her feet. "You were planning to go to the dance, I shouldn't have come here. This will ruin your evening."

Charlie stepped into her path. "If you leave without talking to me I will worry about you and that would really ruin my evening. My escort will understand if I'm late. Tell me what happened or he will hurt someone else." She motioned to Kyla's darkening eye.

Sitting back down on the bed, Kyla took a deep breath. "Ashgar has been pushing me to be better, which wouldn't be bad, but his ways of motivating aren't Academy accepted practices. I have the slowest time in my class on the obstacle course. So I use all my free time to try and improve, but up until a few days ago there was no real progress. I think the difference is the hand to hand I've been taking.I try hard to make sure I'm not dragging everyone else down but I've never been really that good at sports." She played with her hair, betraying her nervousness. "Anyway this afternoon I was about to start my second lap of the course when Ashgar found me. He told me that he was going to time me and if I didn't beat my time by at least three minutes he was going to make sure I wasn't allowed to go to the dance tonight and I would have to continue to run the course."

Charlie could tell this was difficult for Kyla, so she stayed quiet and let her continue.

"I know TIs have a lot of power but he can't do that. I told him so. I'm not sure where the confidence came from but I didn't back down, even when he hit me the first time, splitting my lip. I just stood tall and then walked away." Kyla closed her eyes before starting to talk again.

It was then that the door opened and Cassie and Paris slipped inside, but Kyla didn't look at them or opened her eyes to see who it was.

"As I walked away he grabbed my hair and threw me to the ground. I tried to defend myself but he was too strong. He kicked me in the stomach first and knocked the wind out of me. He did that a few times. That's the worst of the bruises I think." She lifted her blouse to show them the multiple boot prints on her torso. Cassie's camera flashed, but no one spoke again, waiting for Kyla to continue. "He said that no one would believe me about what happened. He told me I didn't deserve to be here at the Academy and I had only go in because of my grandfather's influence. Finally he stopped and walked away, leaving me there on the ground. There I stayed until Tom found me a while later. He brought me here to you."

Silence descended and Charlie reached out taking Kyla's hand. "We'll deal with this and General Shark will believe you, but it will be difficult to prove."

Kyla started to speak but Charlie cut her off. "I wasn't done. I was going to say without a confession and I know how to get it. We'll do it tonight."

Cassie spoke for the first time. "Just how are you going to do that?"

The steely look of icy fury and grim determination in Charlie's eyes made everyone in the room very glad they were not on the receiving end of it. "Vanity and pride. I've watched Ashgar long enough to know these are his Achilles heel. Now here's the plan."

There are two more chapters up on my site and if you would like to check them out Google my penname and you will find me. I love to hear from you whether you liked it or loved it. :0P

Also I have published two original pieces of work on Kindle you can find a link to them on my website as well.

if I get enough review I will be pushed to add the chapter early, like Friday, instead of later next week. I have one so far this week but I think I could handle a few more.