Hannah sat down hesitantly at the table of the two individuals Merrick had brought into Scarletts' interrogation, her former friends apparently. It was a long shot she knew but perhaps Hannah reasoned or at least hoped that maybe they knew something they had not already mentioned for whatever reason.
"Hi, I'm Hannah," she began brightly. The girl gave her a weak nervous smile in reply and the guy with her regarded her suspiciously, but neither of them spoke. Desperate Hannah decided the deep-end was a good place to start. "Look I don't mean to be rude, but I know you are or at least were friends with Scarlett and..."
But far more rudely than she was being the young man, whose name she remembered was JJ cut her off. "You're right, it is rude, now leave."Hannah was taken aback, she wasn't used to being spoken to in this manner by anyone at Circle Daybreak, unconsciously she had almost come to expect respect and reverence when spoken to.
An awkward silence ensued from JJ's words, but did not last as Nicky – the girl – burst out, "Her name it Charlotte! Not Scarlett, Charlotte!" Hannah's highbrows rose at her vehemence.
"Pardon?" Hannah said confused, she failed to see what the issue was between calling her by Scarlett or her lesser known name of Charlotte. She was ignored however; JJ and Nicky seemed to be talking to each other alone.
JJ rolled his eyes at Nicky, "She hasn't been Charlotte we knew since Merrick turned her and you know it." he spat out the words like they had left a bad taste in his mouth. JJ made to leave, Nicky in his wake.
Hannah thought perhaps she's misheard, Charlotte was half vampire, half witch by birth wasn't she? A Redfern and Harman. "Wait." She practically ordered, wanting clarification. Either there were two people who both looked like Scarlett Redfern, or else something else was going on here.
"I think perhaps there's some confusion her Scarlett...Charlotte – whatever – is Lamia, not made." JJ snorted in disbelief and turned away again, Nicky simply replied lamely, "Charlotte is...was a witch." And it clicked in Hannah's brain. Why they were so angry at Merric and to an extent Charlotte and why it had taken Daybreak so long to connect Charlotte Dunlath to Scarlett Redfern.
Clearly Charlotte had kept up the facade of being just a witch to everyone but Merric and then when she'd left her family and friends as a vampire they had assumed that Merric had turned her. "Charlotte is a witch, on her mother's side." Hannah began slowly, "But her father was Hunter Redfern, making he both."
JJ and Nicky looked stunned and then the denial began. "You've got it wrong, if Merric told you that he's only trying to get out of blame for whatever she's done since."
But Nicky looked a little more receptive. "So what Merric revealed her to herself?" she said with real bite in her tone.
"I don't know all the gory details just that she knew before she met him and that when she left she was tempted away by her father." This time Hannah's revelations were met with only silence. Perhaps it was wrong for her to interfere like this but between her experiences with Chess she felt Charlotte's friends deserved clarity in nothing else.
Deciding to leave them alone with their thoughts she got up said a polite goodbye and left.
Chess had proven difficult to persuade to return home, still not reassured about Hannah's sanity, but Hannah, worried for her friends safety has pulled the guilt trip card out. Chess, not wanting Hannah to have to worry about her as well as the whole world had finally agreed.
Now if only she could come up with a way to convince Charlotte to their side and she might actually have a good nights sleep for once.
Rashel's patience was really beginning to wear thin with Scarlett Redfern: she was clearly staying on her own accord yet not saying or doing anything to help them. Moreover Merric's shock tactic of bringing her former friends along had fallen completely flat other than a brief fisticuffs incident
Quinn asked another of their standard questions to be met with the usual silence when a voice came over the com in Rashels ear. "We're going to try a new approach. Ash has volunteered to try." She frowned but did say anything, Thierry would have his reasons as incomprehensible were at the moment.
"Ok, Scarlett we're going to take a break." Scarlett made to rise but Rashel shook her head. "Not you, us." She said shortly and left, Quinn behind her. They passed Ash on the way out and he gave them a cheeky grin, but a shadow in his eyes made it a little false.
Taking two recently vacated seat in the observation room it didn't take long for Rashel to become quickly bored with Ash's interview technique which was basically small talk. Normally she would've allowed her attention to drift but something in Ash's face made her suspicious.
It was a little too bland, like he was actually concentrating very hard and then it clicked: they were have a simultaneous mental conversation! "Thierry." She said a little too loudly. "Can I have a word, in private." then as an afterthought, "Please?" with raised eyebrows he followed her from the room to the deserted hall outside.
"I think Ash is talking mentally to Scarlett." She burst out as soon as the door to the observation room was closed. Thierry didn't looked overly perturbed by this news however.
"Do you think he's betraying us?" he asked slowly.
"No, of course not." Then she had an idea, "Is it part of the plan?" Now he looked a little more contrite.
"Not exactly, Ash simply pointed out that Scarlett has shown him unusual sympathy so far and so perhaps might prefer talking to him." That said, they returned to the observation room to the continuous uninteresting nonsense chatter. After only twenty minutes however Ash consented to Scarlett's request for a break and left. His excuse was that he was taking things slowly.
Rashel wasn't the only one to be unhappy at that given the rather precarious amount of time they were playing with but Thierry shook off their protests and ordered Scarlett returned to her room.