When Charlie came home that night, she didn't eat the meal Stolas had prepared for her. She was still too full from the feast she had eaten in Mystic Hollow, yet Stolas didn't question her about it. She hardly ever ate anything he made for her anyway. He also didn't question her about where she had been and why she had come home late. In fact he didn't even noticed she had come in late. He had been far too busy dealing with his lawyer and his ex to notice anything. But Octavia noticed.
"Where did you go?" The six year old asked her.
"School." Charlie said. "I was staying after school for tutoring. You knew that. I told you that this morning."
"It's dark outside."
"So?"
"It's not dark when you come back from tutoring."
"It's fall Octavia. The days are shorter in the fall."
Now Octavia was pretty smart and perceptive for a six year old. Two of the very few personality traits she had inherited from her mother, and such traits gave her the suspicious feeling that Charlie had been up to something. Something like that time when she first arrived here and she had been secretly planning to run away to New York so she could become an actress on Broadway. Stolas was in such a panic when he came home that night to find Charlie gone, luckily though, Charlie had accidentally left behind her bus ticket and which Octavia found and gave to her father. When Stolas brought Charlie home, he was furious. Octavia had never seen her father so mad before and she hoped that he'd never reach that level of anger again.
The little girl noticed that Charlie had the same look on her face that she had the night before she ran off, and that worried her.
"Are you going to try to run away again?" Octavia asked.
"No." Charlie said.
"You can't run away Charlie. Remember what Daddy told you? If you ran away, you could get lost or hurt or taken away."
"Octavia I'm not running away."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
"Pinky swear?" Octavia held up her pinky.
"Pinky swear." Charlie hooked her own pinky with Octavia's to seal the promise.
"So if you're not trying to run away again, what were you doing?"
"I already told you. I was staying after school for tutoring."
"So you weren't doing anything you weren't supposed to be doing?"
Charlie briefly went still. That wasn't true. She hadn't of done anything wrong. Levana said that she had called Stolas and asked permission for her have dinner in that place. No harm done. But if that was the case, why did she suddenly feel she was hiding something? And why did she not want Octavia to know about it?
"Octavia, mind your own business."
"So you were doing something you weren't supposed to be doing. What were you doing?"
"Nothing."
"You're lying."
"I am not."
"Why won't you tell me?"
"There's nothing to tell, and even if there was, I wouldn't tell you."
"Tell me or I'll tell Daddy."
"That! That right there! That is why I don't tell you stuff. Because you're such a snitch."
"I am not a snitch!" Octavia insisted. "What's a snitch?"
"Someone who constantly tattles on people, which is what you do."
"I do not."
"You do to."
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Girls!" They heard Stolas call from downstairs. "You better not be fighting up there, because I am not in the mood to deal with it tonight!"
"Charlie started it!" Octavia whined.
"See! You are a snitch!" Charlie retorted.
"Stop calling me that!"
"Girls!" Stolas was now shouting, and you could tell by the tone of his voice that he was only inches away from boiling over. "I have spent all day listening to the screams of a female and I refuse to hear anymore for the next twenty-four hours! Both of you stop arguing right now or so help me, I'll lose my temper and I'll make life miserable for you two, all of next month! Is that clear?!"
"Yes Stolas/Daddy!" Both girls responded simultaneously in fear.
"Good. Now I want both of you in bed now!"
For the record, when Stolas said he'd make Charlie and Octavia's lives miserable for a month, that meant they wouldn't be allowed out of the house except to go to school and when they were at home they would do nothing but chores. Which to a sixteen year old and a six year old, was indeed misery. So they immediately stopped fighting, changed into their pajamas, brushed their teeth, and went straight to bed. Octavia fell asleep rather quickly but it would be hours before Charlie dozed off.
For a long time, she just laid flat on her bed, looking up at the ceiling as countless questions swam about in her head. Questions about Mystique Hollow and about Levana. Was any of it real? Did Stolas know about it? And if so, should she tell him?
When she finally did fall asleep, she dreamt that she was an illustration on a storybook page. In the drawing, she was on a stage and wearing a fairy tale theme dress like the ones her mother would wear when she performed. A spot light shined down on here and she could hear hands clapping all around for her. She could also here some cheering, a few whistles, and one or two people asking for an encore. She was at a theater, in front of a live audience which was applauding for her as if she had just finished giving a five star performance worthy of Broadway. Feeling in the moment, Charlie took a bow and blew grateful kisses toward the spectators.
Then two figures approached the stage, a small one and a tall one. The smaller figure was an illustrated version of Octavia who was eagerly presenting Charlie with a bouquet of flowers to congratulate her on the successful performance she just gave. Charlie happily accepted the bouquet and her joy only expanded when her eyes fell upon the taller figure who had followed Octavia on to the stage. It wasn't an illustration of Stolas like Charlie expected, instead it was her father. An illustration of her father alive again.
"Daddy?" Charlie said, not believing her eyes. "Daddy, is it really you?"
"Of course it's me Charlotte." He chuckled. "You didn't think we would actually miss our daughter's theatrical debut, did you?"
"We?"
Her father turned his gaze out toward the audience and Charlie could see someone riding up from the crowd. It was her illustrated mother, who was also smiling and now holding her arms out to her. Charlie felt the weight of all sadness lift, her parents were actually here. They had come back. Now they would all be together again.
"Mom." She smiled. "You're here. You're both here."
"Yes we are." Her father nodded. "Go to her."
Charlie looked back at her mother, who suddenly moved twenty feet further from her in the darkness.
"Mom? Where are you doing? Oh no, don't go away again Mom!" Charlie pleaded with tears forming in her eyes. Worried, she looked back at her father. "She's moving far away. I can't get to her."
"You can. Just go." He told her.
Charlie started to move off the stage to follow after her mother, but stopped at the edge when she look down to see how steep it was below. It was nothing but endless blackness down there. If she got off, she would be lost forever.
"I can't!"
"Yes you can Charlotte."
"But I'm afraid!"
"It doesn't matter!" Her father cried. "She's dead anyway! And so am I!"
At that moment her father, her mother, and everyone except for herself and Octavia vanished. A tall, black, and ominous, illustrated shape with terrifying eyes began grow from the emptiness and it frightened Octavia. The six year old ran to Charlie, who instantly dropped the flowers and grabbed the little girl, holding her tight. The shape then outstretched a long arm with a claw to take the girls, but suddenly a stranger's hand inserted two fingers into the being's eyes, digging them in so deep into it's sockets that the stranger drew blood and caused the scary shape to screech like a bat out of hell.
The stranger was a boy illustration, about her age, and he looked awfully afraid and desperate. Sweat was dripping down his face, his breathing was heavy, and he had such intense fear in his eyes. Yet somehow, Charlie could tell that the boy was fearing for his life. He was fearing for hers and Octavia's.
Before whoever or whatever tried to attack the two girls could recover from the injury it suffered, the boy quickly took Charlie by the hand and pulled her along as he began to run. Charlie ran with him while still holding Octavia with her other arm, and willing her legs to keep up with this boy's incredibly advanced speed which greatly contrasted with his average looking appearance.
Everything was moving like some sort of demented pop up book, where they kept running and jumping from one page to another while that scary drawing chased after them.
"You cannot run away from me!" She heard the pursuer scream in a bone-chilling voice.
That's when they reached the last page and in that moment they started falling. Falling and falling. Falling into a seemingly endless void of darkness where hundreds of eyes were staring right at her, and each one was shedding a tear.
That's when Charlie woke with a start, the image her father and mother's smiling faces still lingering behind her eyes. She sat up in bed and pulled her knees to her chest, holding them tightly as she fought back the urge to cry.
"Why did you have to go away?" She choked out. "I wasn't ready for you to leave. I still needed you. So why did you have to go away and leave me all alone? I don't have anybody now."
If you have ever lost someone very important to you, especially as a child or teenager, then you already know how sad and alone Charlie felt right now. And if you haven't, you cannot possibly imagine it. But to give those of you who are inexperienced, an idea of what it might be, it's like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark and thinking that there's one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down through the air, and there's a sickly moment of dark surprise followed by a terrible fall in which you break your foot and you just can't get back up even though you keep trying. In simpler terms, it's feelings of complete shock and helplessness rolled up into one powerful emotion that doesn't leave you for a very long time. That's what Charlie Morningstar's heart had felt since the accident and it still has yet to grant her any peace.