Author's note: this is not where I thought chapter two would go. In fact, I started something else, but that has been pushed to three because it felt like something was missing. Like this was missing. I think that this fic will really challenge me and perhaps I wasn't quite ready for it, but after it being on the edge of my mind for years, I really just had to start. Thank you for your patience as I write it!
Chapter Two
Ten years later
Sacramento, California
There was darkness. Then the sound of footsteps. She called out, voice echoing in the nothingness. "Hello?"
The footsteps seemed to pause, then they continued. She shuffled back, but her shoes seemed to slip in something. Looking down, her stomach lurched. Sticky red fluid seeped all around her, spreading further and further. Dark and shiny and staining into her shoes.
"No!"
She tried to step back out of the blood. But it was everywhere. It seemed to seep into her sneakers, into her jeans, darkening the denim as it climbed her legs.
Her hands felt wet, tacky with it. In a panic, she swiped at her shirt, trying to clean her hands of the dark red blood. Tears overflowed onto her cheeks.
The constant click of the footsteps seemed to get faster, louder. It pounded against her ear drums in time with the quick beating of her heart.
The tears dripped off her face, mingling with all of the blood.
It was everywhere. She couldn't get away.
"No, no, no," she muttered. "Please…"
Suddenly, another pair of hands reached out from the darkness and grasped her own fidgeting ones. She jumped, her heart leaping up into her throat. "No, please, don't!"
"Shhhh."
The hands were strangely calming. The voice gentle as it crooned. "Shh, it's okay. Hey, you're okay. You're safe."
The hands wiped the tears from her cheeks, rested solidly on her shoulders. Her heartbeat slowed. The blood seemed to have disappeared from her clothes, from her hands, from the floor underneath her.
She felt safe. Protected. Comforted.
Charlotte looked up and had a fleeting vision of kind green eyes and auburn curls before she was gasping herself awake, the bright sun flooding out all the lingering visions of her dream.