Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So here we are, chapter 10. And it's getting interesting. I hope you guys like Charlie's reveal and what's going to happen next. Don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or follow and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 10

New Years was not as fancy an affair as Christmas. With her foot still technically healing, they had settled for watching the Ball drop on TV and counting down together.

Except none of them got a New Year's kiss.

Vincent had been staring at her for the entire countdown, no doubt wondering if she would kiss him in front of Bo. She didn't of course because if Bo found out about them he'd be angry and she was avoiding making him angry because everything had been so good between them. She didn't want to wreck what they had. Vincent understood that, of course, but it didn't mean he wasn't upset that she didn't kiss him.

At the end of the night they all went to their separate beds, but Charlie didn't stay there. Vincent had lain in bed counting, waiting, Bo would fall asleep soon and then maybe he'd sneak over, kiss Charlie in her sleep. Not on the lips, on the cheek. It wasn't a polite to steal kisses from sleeping women, Bo stole more from some of the other women that wandered into their town, but Vincent was not one of those people, never would be.

But a kiss on the cheek wasn't bad… right?

He didn't have to worry though, because Charlie came to him. She almost always came to him. His door opened and Charlie quickly slipped in. The door was shut behind her for like two seconds before she scampered the distance between them and crashed into him. Lips first.

Vincent held her tightly kissing her back.

"One," she whispered. "Happy New Year!"

Vincent couldn't help but laugh, because it was well after midnight, but he held her to him, kissing her over and over.

This was common for them. They would kiss and writhe against one another, their hands wandering all over. Enough was never enough when it came to her, not for him anyway.

Oh how he loved holding onto her, how he loved the feeling of her under him. Every time she was in his arms his heart would lurch up into his throat, his temperature would sky rocket, his fingers would itch and twitch and seek out the warm places that made those soft little moans slip between those perfect lips of hers.

Every time she was around him his stomach would fill with butterflies and a smile would grow on his lips.

This emotion, it was new and frightening but it made him happy, except for the moments where it didn't. But that was mostly because he didn't like sharing Charlie and he now had to do that with Bo. Still he wanted her to know how he felt about her. Wanted to know if maybe she was feeling something similar.

"Charlie… I… I think I love you."

Charlie stopped, she pushed him away, hands on his shoulders, slim fingers digging into him. He surprised face stared up at him and he suddenly wished he hadn't said anything at all. He waited to see if disgust would cross her face but her lovely face stayed the same.

"Those are very heavy words, Vincent," she whispered. "You shouldn't say them unless you know for sure."

"But I'm pretty sure I am."

She put a hand out to him. "Thank you for telling me. That was very brave, can I ask for something?" he nodded eagerly. "Can you save it for when you know for sure?"

That was fair. He nodded carefully and she smiled. "Good. Ready to see my surprise?"

"Of course."

"I stole something from Bo," she said, pulling something out of her pocket and showing it to him. He recognized the silver foil immediately. "What do you say?"

In a flash, Vincent had framed her face with his hands so he could kiss her. That night, he and Charlie became one and in his heart he knew that love was true and growing steadfast and quickly. Like the ivy he had painted on her walls.

-HOW-

It was the end of January when her ankle stopped twinging when she walked. She got up and down the stairs by herself, though she did let the boys carry her sometimes because they seemed to like doing that for her and sometimes she was lazy.

But today she hadn't felt a single twinge at all.

Both her boys had left the house today. A few days ago a car they didn't recognize had come into town. Bo had worried about cops, Charlie had worried that her ex-partners were looking for her and the money.

But the new people were just passing through. When they left the worry left, or at least it left Charlie. The boys started acting weird though.

Vincent had been weird since they had slept together, more attentive at first and then pulling away. But after the new people left he disappeared entirely.

A new project for the Wax Museum, he had said. So she tried not to bug him when he was gone for a long time.

Bo, on the other hand, had been oddly happy. Then, when Charlie asked what had him so happy, he had gotten angry and stayed that way.

She was starting to worry that maybe they were getting bored of her, she was annoying after all. She was going to show them that it was okay for her to wander around the town and that she could help them out or something. Like maybe, instead of paying rent, she could be the new cashier in the wax museum. Then they wouldn't have to pay a staff.

They had told her that she wasn't ready, that the town would talk, would figure out who she was. But she wasn't going to take no for an answer, so to prove them wrong she left the house.

She waited for them to leave the house, Bo to go to his garage, Vincent to work on his newest creations, which he still wanted to be a surprise. The plan was to walk down to town, buy a soda from the convenience store with the change she had stolen from Bo and then saunter into his shop to prove that no one in town cared about her.

Then they were going to go up to the museum to see Vincent, and if he was really worried about ruining the surprise, she'd keep her eyes closed the whole time, or just stay out of his workshop. Though, she wished she could see the workshop, it was the one place, aside from the basement that she hadn't seen yet.

She walked down the hill and into the town waiting to see… anyone. But no one was out and about. She had picked this time of the afternoon because it was the hottest time of the day. She figured that would mean less people but not no one at all.

She got into town, passed a little house and saw an old woman pull back a curtain. Right so that was how this town was. Maybe… maybe this was a mistake.

Still, she didn't want to prove Bo right after all so she kept going. She got to the convenience store and found that though the door was open there was no one in it. She went to the standing coolers to pick out a soda and then went to the counter.

"Hello!" she called but no one answered. "I just wanted to by a soda!"

Still nothing. Well she didn't want to get accused of stealing on her first trip to town so she put the money down on the counter. Probably more than the soda was worth and then said: "I left money on the counter… uh… if it's not enough I'll be at the gas station… in the garage?"

Still nothing. So she left the shop and carried on to the gas station/garage which was where Bo worked. As she walked she opened up her soda and took a sip.

Charlie spit out the sip immediately. God it tasted terrible. It was sticky flat and way too sweet. She had never tasted a pop like that. Ever before. In her life. She stepped to the side and poured it out onto the grass and flecks of disgusting mold came out.

"Ugh, ew!" she cried almost throwing up then and there. Do you know how old a can of soda needed to be to go that moldy on the inside? Cause it was like years.

Oh she was going to talk to Bo about getting her money back. But she kept the can of soda to prove it to him.

She jogged the rest of the way to the gas station/garage and opened the door, clocked the key holder she made him hanging on the wall and called out: "Bo?"

Despite the door tinkling, despite her calling his name, no one answered her. Damn where was everyone?

She shut the door and wondered where he could be. Then she heard church music. Oh, maybe everyone was in church. Was it Sunday? No she could have sworn it was a Wednesday. People didn't do church on Wednesday… did they? Did her boys? She hadn't thought that they were all that religious. She would have thought it would come up at some point. Religious people were like that, wanting to impose their religious beliefs onto people. She had been in enough religious foster homes to know all about that.

She quickly hurried over to the church, thinking she'd just poke her head in see if she saw Bo or Vincent and then duck out.

Which she did. And then promptly froze because it was a funeral. She had just interrupted a funeral. The speaking all stopped the second the door opened.

"Oh… I'm… I'm sorry!"

And then the door loudly banged shut behind her and she turned. Damn she was not making a good impression. But the second the door shut the music started again as did the crying and the talking.

When she turned around, just to mouth another apology, and to slide into the back now that she was clearly committed to this, not like she could open the door again and slip out, she found that no one had moved.

Literally not a single person had turned towards her, they were all still looking forward and the priest giving the sermon over the coffin was in the same position, staring at her as if she had just rudely interrupted him, his mouth not moving. Which was weird because someone was talking.

Something was off about this. About all of this.

She moved forward, her eyes darting to each person in the pews. Still no one moved. She got all the way to the front and the priest still hadn't moved. And that would make sense because he was wax.

Charlie found herself laughing. Wax, it was all wax. She peered into the coffin, dead man, all wax. Everything was wax. She could tell it was Vincent's work too, it was so life like.

Wait... did that mean the whole town was wax?

Wow… well if that was the case why the hell would the boys keep her from this for so long? It was obviously weird but she wouldn't have cared that they had filled an empty town with wax figures. Though if they were in charge of stocking the convenience store, they were going to pay her for drinking that stupid cola.

The door opened again, the music and the voices stopped again which she realized must have been a recording tied to the door.

"Charlie what are you doing in here?" Bo asked. The door shut behind him and the music and voices started again and she found her self laughing because she was right.

"It's all wax!" she cried and a frown creased his face. "Is the whole town wax? Why wouldn't you tell me that?"

"It's uh… it's weird I guess…" he said. "Can you uh… just come on, let's get out of here."

Charlie shrugged and headed towards, she fully planned to show him the cans he had in her hand. To tell him all about the disgusting soda she had drank because he and Vincent hadn't told her the truth about the town. Almost, because she paused when she saw a familiar face sitting in the church pews. She came to a stumbling halt and Bo almost lurched for her thinking she had fallen.

Max.

She took a step back thinking that he had risen from the dead and was about to get revenge but then she remembered that Vincent had killed him so there was no way that he should have been standing there but he was. Sitting statue still in the pews, eyes staring forward.

"Is that Max?"

"What?" Bo asked. "No, we got rid of him. Come on we need to…"

She slapped his hands away and moved to the pew in front of the wax version of Max. She reached out, afraid that he'd grab her. That he was really alive, but nothing happened. Except for her finger poking his cheek.

And it was spongey. Not in the waxy sense of the word, but in the sense that it was something soft under the wax. She withdrew her finger, looking the wax figure up and down a sort of feeling of dread sinking down into her stomach.

"Did you cover Max's dead body with wax?" she asked her voice flat. That was because she knew exactly what they had done. Which was cover Max's dead body with wax. But when she said that something in Bo's jaw pulsed. It suddenly clicked in her head. "Not you. Vincent. Vincent covered him in wax… is that… are… is everyone a dead body covered in wax? Is that what's in Trudy's House of Wax? Have I been sitting in there reading books surrounded by dead bodies? How are you… how are you even keeping them from rotting?"

She turned to Bo and saw that he had hung his head. Though he shook it, he hadn't looked at her, and he, for some reason, had started to laugh.

"Is this what you do? You kill people turn them to wax and then… just stay here in an empty town? Is it?" she cried. When he turned back up to her that same grin on his face she knew that it was true. "Oh my god, that is sick. You guys are sick!"

She shoved her way past him. The plan was to leave. Leave and go anywhere that wasn't there with these crazy people.

"I'm sorry Charlie, I really was hoping you'd never found out but uh… now we have no choice."

Charlie turned around, got half of: "Yeah, and what choice is that?" out of her mouth before Bo punched her. Hard enough to knock her right out. And as he let her hit the ground the only sound she heard was the soda can rattling against the ground.