Wish of Collapse

by Balendalin

When given the opportunity to wish for anything, a detached god cares not for if it is a wish for good or evil. Following the struggle of two Magical Girls as they fight to survive and put a stop to the horrors unleashed by a single girl's wish. All whilst society and the world begins to collapse around them. OC sequel to previous story "A Burning Castle"

3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

The way out was much more straightforward than the way in had been earlier, with the slide, that had lead them into the seating area, being replaced by a steep set of stairs. Directly at the top of the stairs was a wall with the glowing pink entryway of the labyrinth, the hallway that they had entered from seemingly gone. Charlotte pushed through it, side by side with Victoria on her right, and braced herself for the loss of sensation and weightlessness that came with moving in and out of labyrinths.

The brief moment of blindness and numbness was followed by Charlotte's eyes having to adjust to a much darker space. They had been placed at the bottom of the set of stairs that stood a few meters behind the front doors in the main entrance of the theatre. The place was empty and silent, with no sign of any of the red uniformed attendants or of any members of the public.

Along with there being no lights turned on in the building, there was very little sunlight coming through the windows and glass front doors. Even with no way of knowing exactly how much real-time had passed since they entered the labyrinth, Charlotte was certain that the darkness outside couldn't have been due to the night. An assumption that was quickly aided by the sound of heavy rain hitting against the panels of glass around them.

Victoria walked up to the middle set of front doors and pulled both of these doors inwards and open. The sound of the rain instantly grew in volume and a veil of spray began to float in through the opening. "The rain isn't my fault." Victoria had turned to Charlotte with a slight smile.

Charlotte moved up to the open doors and looked out and up at the sky, now completely covered in a layer of dark grey storm clouds. "I would never suggest such a thing." Charlotte attempted to sound offended, although they both knew that she would jokingly blame Victoria for the rain on a regular basis, due to how often the rain seemed to follow wherever Victoria went.

"Lets just rush to the station and figure things out when we get home." Charlotte continued as she watched the rain drench the road outside, already in the process of creating puddles on the uneven stones.

"Might as well make a run for it, whenever you're ready?" Victoria leaned her head forward through the doors for a moment, but rushed to pull her head back inside as her hair had almost instantly become soaked through. She made a pained sound as she tilted her head and tried to wring out some of the water.

Charlotte turned to look back towards where they had entered the labyrinth, where she could just see a faint pink glow reflecting off the walls at the top of the stairs. She stared at the pink light with unease and worry. Filled with a distinct feeling that something bad was going to happen and they had decided to walk away from it. Charlotte pulled at the gemstone on her necklace, still humming and vibrating slightly, and rolled it around her hand, before abruptly letting it fall back to her chest and turning to Victoria.

"Lets go." Charlotte turned from the labyrinth and with Victoria ran out into the downpour. The paths back to the tube station were already partly flooding, the few drains that Charlotte saw were barely keeping up with the rush of water flowing down the road. Yet, even with the rain and the ever growing puddles, there was still a number of people rushing around. Some with umbrellas, some with heavy coats and others joined Charlotte and Victoria in having no protection from the rain.

The underground station was packed with unhappy looking commuters. With a large number, of mostly dry people, idling near the front doors, waiting in vain for the rain to ease up before they left. To get down to the platform took a small while of budging past people and trying to avoid collisions with fast moving commuters, who seemed to have magical powers of instantly finding and rushing through openings in the crowd.

Once onto the platform Charlotte was able to see the schedule board which showed that the time was 15:32. It definitely hadn't seemed like they had been in the theatre for over three hours, but it wasn't as late in the afternoon as the darkness outside suggested. She was also pleased to see that the next train to London Victoria station was only a few minutes away, no sign of any kind of delays yet.

Once the train did turn up it was already almost full, leaving no seating and only a few spaces near some hand railing to stand. The two of them managed to squeeze their way onto the train where they found a spot near the doors where they could stand. Although for both of them to be able to reach for the rails without nudging into other people, Charlotte had to press up close to Victoria, with Victoria left almost hugging around her back for it to work.

The trip to London Victoria station was quick and uneventful other than Charlotte constantly bouncing back into Victoria as the train moved around and changed speeds. It was simply lucky for Charlotte that Victoria had managed to find a much better footing and was better able to keep her balance even with Charlotte pushing into her.

When they arrived, the underground portion of the station was much busier than it had been in the morning which created a hectic atmosphere of people rushing around in a disorderly fashion. Just to get through safely Charlotte had to stand single file behind Victoria as she almost had to start pushing her way to get past people. Charlotte had to hold onto Victoria's her arm to make sure she didn't lose her.

They were eventually able to make their way through the station and onto platform 5. Their train was already stopped on the platform, although the scheduling boards had said that it was at least another 10 minutes before the train would depart. This let Charlotte slow down and relax slightly as both the platform and the train itself had far fewer people than they had just come through. And unlike on the underground, they were able to find seats in a quiet carriage, with Charlotte taking the window seat.

When Charlotte first went to sit down, she had felt slight guilt that she would be getting the mostly clean and dried seats wet, but there was very little she could do to avoid it. To her side, Victoria had flopped into the seat and it had looked to Charlotte as if she had fallen over onto the chair by accident. It wasn't long though before Victoria pulled herself up somewhat and leaned over to rest her head on Charlotte's shoulder, from which she started staring out of the window.

They had stayed like this in silence for the rest of the way back, with only Victoria every so often shifting her position. Not wanting to break the quiet or risk being overheard, Charlotte was Charlotte stuck with just her thoughts and the occasional intercom announcements as they pulled into stations.

This quiet was eventually broken as they got closer to home by the sound of rain pounding against the top of the train. It was however loud enough to draw Charlotte's attention. It was the loudest Charlotte had ever heard rain be and outside of the window a thick wall of opaque mist was forming, blocking her from seeing too far from the train and completely masking the sky. And while it wasn't too uncommon for heavy storm rains to batter the area after periods of heat, the last time Charlotte had checked the weather forecast it had said nothing about a storm.

It wasn't long before Charlotte could no longer see past the window itself, making it so that she had no indication of where exactly they were. It was only when the intercom announced that they would be shortly arriving did Charlotte move to get up. On hearing the announcement, Victoria let out a loud sigh before slowly dragging herself up from the chair and to the doors.

The station had a few drenched and unhappy passengers waiting in shelters on the platform and only a single staff member by the ticket turnstiles. Charlotte was half surprised that the turnstile allowed their tickets through, given that the tickets were now distorted from the damp.

They made their way through the station but stopped by large glass automatic doors just as they opened for them. Charlotte looked outside with a feeling of resignation knowing that they were going to have to spend at least the next half hour walking to get home. Victoria swore out loud and pulled an expression that to Charlotte made it seem like she was regretting every decision that had led them here.

Yet they didn't linger at the doors and pressed on into the rain. They were able to see further ahead of them than they had in the train, but it was still much darker than it should have been for this time of day.

Much like the previous day's walk, the way back was all up hill walking, although Charlotte was thankful that the train station was a shorter distance than the university. It was still long enough that the rain had started to sting as it repeatedly hit her skin that over time became more and more numb to the sensation.

By the time they had made it to their front door it felt as if they had been completely submerged in water for some time, with no part of them remaining dry and their hands starting to wrinkle up. Charlotte went for her keys and reached to open the door, whilst Victoria stood as close as she could to the closed door as she could. The moment Charlotte managed to turn the key Victoria pushed the door open, grabbed hold of and dragged Charlotte through, and slammed the door shut behind them.

Charlotte took a step inside, not completely sure what to do with herself given that water was already starting to pool on the floor beneath both of them. Getting her shoes off seemed like a good start, but she turned to Victoria to check if she had enough space to lean down to her shoes without bumping into her.

Instead she saw Victoria leaned with her head against the door and her entire body shivering alongside her taking long and deep breaths. Charlotte rushed to put her arms around Victoria's waist, making sure she wasn't about to collapse. She hadn't considered the rain being cold at this time of year, especially as she wasn't properly capable of feeling temperature changes any more.

"Victoria!" Charlotte tried to not shout at Victoria, but needed to make sure she could be heard over the rain hitting the door. Victoria giving a thumbs up from her left hand confirmed that she had been heard. "You need to go take a hot shower now." She was much more forceful than she normally would have been, expecting a normal amount of pushback from Victoria.

Charlotte was relieved when Victoria pushed herself up, still shivering, and nodded, "Yeah. Just could you get some towels out." She sounded as exhausted as she looked, but after a deep breath in she managed to get moving and started up the stairs.

Charlotte kept close behind her on the stairs, worry getting the better of her even though she knew Victoria wasn't going to fall backwards. Although Charlotte felt spikes of pain across her legs as she moved up the stairs which almost caused her to lose her footing. She was able to avoid the cold that Victoria was suffering from, but not the muscle strain and lack of energy.

Victoria dragged herself up the last few steps and almost threw herself through the bathroom door and Charlotte rushed round to the room opposite the bathroom. She turned sharp into the room, opened a large wardrobe door and pulled out a large stack of pink and white towels of all different sizes. Not knowing how many Victoria would want, Charlotte grabbed the top two with her right hand and carried the rest with her left. As she moved back across the landing she threw the two loose towels into her own room and continued to the bathroom.

Victoria was sitting on the floor of the shower that she hadn't turned on yet, facing outwards, and was in the process of taking her shoes off. Charlotte didn't come too far into the room before she placed the stack of towels down on the floor.

"Thank you." Victoria looked up with a smile before going back to dealing with her shoes.

Charlotte returned the smile before backing out of the bathroom and entering her own room. She only took a few steps in, enough to close the door behind her, before she similarly dropped to the floor to take her shoes off. Once her shoes and socks were off she moved them out of the way, trying to avoid getting too much of the carpet wet, and reached for one of the towels to dry her feet off.

She then went over to her dresser and pulled out a pink pyjama shirt and trouser set, that were fluffy on the inside. Charlotte put them to the side of her as she went through the motions of pulling her clothes off and drying the corresponding area off, taking extra time to avoid looking at her exposed left arm. This included taking her keys and phone from her pockets and promptly throwing them on her bed. But before putting the pyjamas on she made an attempt at drying her hair, but quickly gave up, leaving it in a state of damp but not dripping.

Her necklace had been hidden under her top for most of the day, but it was now on top of her pyjama shirt, resting quietly at her chest. Charlotte stood still and fiddled with the gemstone dangling from the golden chain. It was still shining but it was no longer making a humming noise or vibrating, it was back to a state of calmness.

Charlotte spent a few moments rolling the gemstone across her hand before letting it rest back on her chest. She then turned to the pile of wet clothes that had been unceremoniously thrown in a pile together. A pile she decided could be dealt with another day. So she grabbed her phone off the bed and moved back onto the landing.

Passing by the bathroom she could hear that the shower had been turned on and she hoped that it would work in helping Victoria feel better. She made her way down the stairs, trying to ignore and avoid the trail of water that they'd have to clean up later, and into the living room. The rain was still echoing violently off the windows and it was dark enough that Charlotte had to turn the lights on in order to see properly.

On muscle memory, Charlotte sped through the gap between the armchair and the sofa straight towards the mantelpiece. With her left hand she reached for the TV remote and with her right she pressed the power button on. The TV had been left on BBC1, so the moment it had finished warming up the picture round of Pointless blared out of the speakers and forced Charlotte to take a few steps back from how bright it was.

She landed backwards on the sofa behind her and navigated the TV through to their recorded movies. A long list of somewhat curated movies that her and Victoria were slowly making their way through, even if progress was slowed by them regularly rewatching a small number of their favourites. Charlotte wasn't in the mood for scrolling to find a specific movie so she just hit OK on the first on the list, The Hunger Games.

Satisfied with the selection, Charlotte pushed herself up from the sofa and wandered into the kitchen, once again having to turn the lights on. She reached down for the whiteboard attached to the fridge and placed on the counter-top so she could see, even though she already knew what it said.

The blue writing in the Thursday section confirmed that Victoria was meant to be making the food for today. It had been listed as fried chicken with rice, but it wasn't unusual for Victoria to test many changes and additions to the dishes she made, so there was never a certainty of what they'd end up eating, only that Charlotte had never found it bad.

Charlotte put the whiteboard back in its place and pulled out her phone. Given how late it was already and how the day had been, Charlotte wasn't sure whether Victoria would want to spend time cooking nor if she would have the energy and patience to do it. So instead, Charlotte went into her recent contacts and called their local Chinese takeaway and ordered sweet and sour chicken balls with egg fried rice, a combination they frequently had.

The voice who took Charlotte's order stated that they were having a very quiet night, so would be able to deliver the food reasonably soon. This prompted Charlotte to take out a few plates from the cupboard next cooker and place them into the oven on a lowish heat, before returning to the living room and put her phone down on the table.

She sat down at the same time as a flash of white light lit up their curtains, followed eventually by a quiet and long rumble. The noise from the thunder was easily replaced by the continuing sound of the rain, that at least by now had stopped getting any louder.

Charlotte turned to look at the curtains, waiting for the next flash of light and rumble of thunder. In the past Charlotte had excitedly enjoy thunderstorms, the rarity of them making them like a different kind of firework show. However now she was filled with a mixture of some of her normal excitement, but mostly apprehension over how Victoria may react.

She had only been with Victoria during a thunderstorm only once before and it had led to Charlotte being more worried for Victoria than any of the times they had fought Witches. Charlotte looked up at the ceiling behind her, towards the bathroom. She could just about hear what sounded like the water still running and there hadn't been any shouts or unusual noises from upstairs, so Charlotte hoped that Victoria hadn't noticed the lightning.

Charlotte debated on whether she should go up and check on Victoria and stay by the bathroom, but she was unsure whether Victoria would just get annoyed at Charlotte for being paranoid and babying her. So instead she tried to settle her worry by turning the TV all the way down and moving further over to the door and started paying more attention to the noises in the house rather than the TV.

This lasted for some time before the door bell rang loudly, causing Charlotte to jump in shock. Assuming it was their food delivery, Charlotte pushed up from the chair and on habit hid her necklace beneath her shirt. On her way to the door she also picked up a few ten pound notes that they kept spare for deliveries.

Opening the front door let in both the horrendous sound of the rain as well as what was almost a wall of water rushing to the ground. Behind the door was a man in a thick waterproof coat, with his hood up and a large umbrella held above his head. Charlotte recognised him as the normal delivery driver for the takeaway, so she made sure to give him an extra note as a kind of apology for making them come out in such bad weather. The bag Charlotte was handed in return was soaking wet on the outside, but the contents were most certainly still hot.

Charlotte rushed back inside but stopped when she heard a voice above. "Someone was at the door?" Victoria was poking her head, wrapped in a towel still, round the corner at the top of the stairs.

In response Charlotte lifted the bag up so that Victoria could see, "I ordered some food." Although Charlotte was happy to see that Victoria seemed fine.

"I'll be down in a minute." The suspicious and somewhat accusatory tone Victoria started with had vanished and was replaced by one of interest. She promptly vanished back around the corner and Charlotte continued on her way to the kitchen.

Charlotte placed the bag on the counter-top and reached for their pair of oven mitts, before going into the oven to pull out their plates. Next she rifled through the drawer, next to the oven, to find clean utensils, a large serving spoon and two forks. This followed onto the easy part of opening the trays containing their food and splitting it roughly evenly between the two plates.

As she was nearly finished with splitting the food, Charlotte heard Victoria walking into the kitchen. Victoria moved into the kitchen and wrapped her arm around Charlotte's waist and rested her head on her shoulder. "Thank you for ordering. This is much better than whatever mess I'd have ended up making." To Charlotte she seemed much more relaxed and awake, now wearing pyjamas the same as Charlotte's but in dark purple.

"Your messes are never bad anyway." Charlotte knew the reassurance was redundant. "Yours is on the one on the right." Pointing with the big serving spoon to the one with slightly more rice placed on it. Victoria let go of Charlotte and tested how hot the plate was, leading to her picking up the plate with her hand covered by her sleeve.

Charlotte followed Victoria's lead and used her sleeve to protect her hand, not that she could feel any extra heat coming through to her hand. The two of them moved their way onto the sofa, with Victoria starting to stab at her food before Charlotte had even sat down.

Charlotte had expected to feel at least an amount of relief or calm. They were both home safe, eating food in relative comfort and most importantly she hadn't sensed any indication that a Witch was anywhere near them. Yet instead she was filled with a nauseating feeling, that felt as if it was both physically pumping pressure in her head as well as slowly making it harder to breathe. This was made worse when every few seconds she would impulsively look over towards the windows, both the front and back ones, anxious as to when more lightning would illuminate the room through the curtains.

"Should we have stayed and done something?" Charlotte asked after putting her fork down and turning to Victoria. She knew that it had been both of their decisions to leave and Charlotte had no argument against it at the time. But she couldn't help but feel that they should have done something different.

Victoria finished the food in her mouth and similarly put her fork down, she then waited a moment before speaking. "I don't know." There was a distinct sound of reluctance in her voice. She then waited another moment and turned to Charlotte, an amount of conviction returning. "I don't think there's anything else we could have done though."

Even if she knew Victoria was most likely right, it did very little to ease Charlotte's worries. "We're meant to stop bad things from happening right?" She knew she sounded childish saying it.

"We still don't know what they're actually going to do." Although Charlotte could tell that Victoria wasn't completely convinced with her own words.

"We know its nothing good though." Charlotte was reluctant to share Victoria's optimistic view, regardless of whether Victoria actually believed it herself.

Victoria sighed and attempted a smile. "The only options where to leave, like we did. Join them and hope we can make a difference. Or, considering it seems like Kyubey is already involved, stop Penelope from being able to make any wish."

Charlotte deflated slightly, she knew that Victoria was right, leaving her now with a mood of hopeless resignation. "Only way to stop her making a wish is by convincing her otherwise or by force."

"And to me, she didn't seem like someone who could be convinced." Victoria turned back to what remained of her food, although did little more than move her fork around the plate.

Similarly, Charlotte couldn't manage more than just looking back down at her remaining rice, as she let her thoughts escalate through scenarios. In particular thinking about how many girls rushed forward at the theatre, all looking very ready to fight. She turned back to Victoria and quietly asked something the two of them had never spoken about. "Have you ever fought another Magical girl?"

Victoria continued to move the rice around on her plate as she responded. "No, I've never fought a Magical Girl and I don't really have any intention of changing that. Even without you stopping me from doing stupid things, I doubt I could actually do it."

Victoria's answer was what Charlotte had been hoping to hear, but it was a relief to hear the confirmation. "Neither of us wants to fight, so that then leaves the option of should we have joined them. Try find some way to make some good of whatever they end up doing."

"I'm not the biggest fan of having to take orders from some knock off scouts as they try to take over the world from their evil lair in the middle of London." Victoria's put on voice of mock disgust that was heavy with sarcasm along with waving her fork around in an exaggerated motions.

Charlotte couldn't help but smile a little at Victoria, regardless of if she was intending to lighten the mood or not. "It did feel like an evil lair."

Victoria continued, her voice back to being serious, "And I'm going to be selfish here. She said nothing about changing the situation with the Witches. We'd still have to keep fighting and risking our lives no matter what. And I don't mind having to hide away from 'Scary adults', as being with you is all that's important to me, which is going well so far. No point risking it f-"

She was cut off mid word by a flash of light, closely followed by a loud cracking noise and the low rumbling of thunder. Charlotte flinched slightly, almost throwing rice off her plate, not expecting the sound to be so loud or close by. A competitively minor reaction compared to Victoria.

Victoria had reacted almost instantly to the flash of light, but it became more severe as the sound hit the room. She had jumped up and forwards off of the sofa, to where she was now standing awkwardly in front of. Her arms had flown up to her head, as if moving to protect her face. In the process of this, she had lost grip of her plate and fork had been launched to the ground, spraying amounts of rice over the floor but luckily the plate didn't shatter.

There was a moment of silence where Victoria was breathing heavily as she slowly moved her hands away from her face and sat back down. Charlotte was frozen with shock and could only manage to watch Victoria for that moment, but was fast to regain her composure. She quickly stood up, putting her plate on the seat, and moved so that she was kneeling in front of Victoria.

"Victoria?" Charlotte raised her voice to make sure Victoria heard her, as Victoria was sat there with her eyes closed, even if her arms were away from her face now.

"I'm fine" Victoria responded very quietly, although her frightened expression and shaky voice suggested otherwise.

"I'm fine Charlotte." This time her voice was much steadier and she had opened her eyes, even if she was looking past Charlotte and at plate on the floor. "I'll be fine, let me sort that out." Her voice was steady, but Charlotte could tell that it was taking up all her effort just to manage that.

"I can clean it." Charlotte tried to be more forceful with her words and moved her arms to the plate beside her feet. But Victoria was already up off the sofa and trying to move around Charlotte to get to the mess on the floor.

Charlotte stopped reaching for the plate and moved them back in front of her, reaching out to help steady Victoria, as she wobbled on her legs as she tried to crouch down. Yet any attempt from Charlotte or Victoria to keep her steady was made useless when another flash of light lit up the room simultaneously with a horrendously loud cracking sound exploded through the house, followed by the rumble of thunder.

Victoria let out a short cry of fear as she once again raised her arms in front of her face while her body jolted forwards. This time though she fell towards Charlotte, past her outstretched arms, and landed hard against Charlotte's chest. A dull pain went across Charlotte's chest and the force had very nearly knocked her over backwards.

Ignoring the pain in her chest was easy though when she looked down at Victoria shaking against her chest. She wrapped her arms around Victoria properly, trying to ease how much she could shake, and lowered her head so that her face was against the top of Victoria's head.

"You're okay, its happening outside. Nothing can get to you." Charlotte spoke softly but had no idea if her words would in any way help or even if Victoria was hearing her. But after a few seconds of silence Victoria had stopped shaking and instead it had been replaced by her taking long and heavy breaths.

"You're safe here with me Victoria." Charlotte continued as Victoria started to pull her hands away from her face and around Charlotte's waist.

"I'm sorry." Victoria sounded as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. Charlotte hated it, knowing that there was little more she could actually do along with Victoria feeling the need to apologise. Unable to command the weather, all she could do was hold Victoria tighter.

It was another few seconds before Victoria pulled her head back slightly and moved her arms so that were resting around Charlotte's shoulders, helping Victoria pull herself upright. It was a few moments of Victoria staring somewhat blankly past Charlotte at the ground, before she turned towards Charlotte proper. She tried to smile but the clearly forced and strained expression did very little other than worry Charlotte further.

"Your hair is still soaking wet, let me get the hairdryer on it." Victoria's voice was shaky and quiet, but it was clear that she was working to get through each word without stopping.

This caught Charlotte completely off guard, and while she knew that she hadn't properly dried her hair she didn't see why it was important enough for Victoria to mention it now. But much like with the plate Victoria had thrown, Charlotte assumed that she was trying anything to ignore and distract herself from the storm.

"Victoria, please?" Charlotte's pleaded with Victoria, wanting her to stay put and talk or at least not ignore what was happening. But Victoria had already grabbed onto Charlotte's arms and was on her feet pulling Charlotte up with her, her head already turned in the direction of the doorway.

At first Charlotte didn't let Victoria move her, but Victoria simply kept tugging without looking back at Charlotte. But she did eventually relent not wanting to push or upset Victoria when she was already clearly stressed, so she let Victoria pull her across the room and up the stairs. Victoria led the two of them, without letting go of Charlotte, up and into the spare bedroom, which was a slight surprise to Charlotte.

The room itself was much simpler and much more empty than any of the other rooms. The walls were painted a simple white colour all around, accompanied by a light cream coloured carpeting on the floor. To the right of the door were the large windows that looked out the front of the house and down the road, currently covered by curtains the same colour as the carpet.

In the middle of the room, pressed against the wall to the left of the door, was the large double bed. The frame was unpainted wood and much like the rest of the room the mattress, covers and pillows were a light cream colour. The only other piece of furniture was a wide but short wardrobe that stood below the windows, once again made of unpainted wood panels.

As they entered Victoria let go with her left hand to turn the light on, a singular bulb in the middle of the room with a cream shade around it, before reaching behind her again for Charlotte's hand. She continued forward until reaching the edge of the bed where she pulled Charlotte next to her and gently pushed for her to get onto the bed.

"I'll get the hairdryer, can you check the plug?" Victoria had fully let go now and gestured to the back corner on the other side of the bed, towards a plug socket Charlotte wasn't sure if she'd ever even seen before.

"Sure." Charlotte replied as she sat down on the bed, swung her legs up and crawled to the other side to look over the edge. Charlotte could hear Victoria making her way over to the wardrobe and could hear her taking things out from it, but Charlotte's head was already over the edge of the bed looking towards an unused and undamaged looking plug socket. "Plug is fine."

Charlotte leaned back up and shuffled into a sitting position, back towards the headrest and looking at Victoria. She had already managed to pull out a large black hairdryer and a purple hair brush made from a shiny plastic. In her left hand she held the handle of the hairdryer and the hairbrush, whilst in her right was the plug with the wire trailing down and back up towards the hairdryer.

Victoria tossed the plug, ahead of her onto the bed, before climbing onto the bed herself. Whilst Victoria was shuffling up along the bed, Charlotte took the plug, leaned back over the side, and pushed the plug into the socket and gave it a couple of whacks to make sure it was in.

As she whacked the plug for the second time a loud vroom sound accompanied a blast of air aimed near Charlotte's feet. Charlotte pulled herself back into a sitting position at the same time as the hairdryer winding down. What was more surprising to her though was the slightly embarrassed expression on Victoria's face.

"Sorry, the switch had been left on." Victoria sounded as awkward as she looked, probably made worse by Charlotte continuing to look at her in confusion, not really knowing why she was saying sorry. Victoria looked away from Charlotte and down at the bed where she stabbed down at a spot in front of her with the hairbrush.

"Move closer a bit and turn around please." Victoria sounded much closer to her normal self to Charlotte, even if still quiet. Charlotte picked up the wire so that she could keep herself from being caught up in it and shuffled forwards to where Victoria was pointing and span herself around. This ended up being as close as she could get to Victoria without actively sitting on her legs.

Charlotte was now stuck looking at the empty wall but she could feel Victoria adjusting herself behind her before the sound of the hairdryer blared out again by Charlotte's ears. She couldn't feel the burst of air, seemingly Victoria had angled the dryer away from Charlotte, but she could feel the brush found its way to the top of her head.

Victoria started pulling the brush through Charlotte's hair in long sweeps, at first only catching the outer layers of hair but with each sweep brushing deeper until she was pressing the brushes' bristles gently into Charlotte's scalp. Victoria went about this in a methodical clockwise circle starting from the front, but every so often having to repeat a movement multiple times to deal with knots of tangled and stuck together hair.

Eventually she was happy with the job she had done and turned the hairdryer towards Charlotte's hair. And while Charlotte could feel the stream of air, on what felt like a slow setting, she had no idea how hot it was now that Victoria had given it time to warm up. Although now with the hairdryer Victoria seemed to focus on small sections at a time, aiming the hot air and then brushing through that small circle a few times before moving the hairdryer along.

The relative calm allowed Charlotte to relax slightly as the strain on her muscles slowly faded and she almost gave into the temptation of closing her eyes, only the knowledge that she'd for sure fall asleep stopping her. Combined with the methodical, strangely meticulous and constant brushing from Victoria, giving the impression that she was also feeling better, put Charlotte more at ease than she had been for most the day.

Much to Charlotte's displeasure this calm was eventually broken by a flash of white light momentarily illuminating the room. And whilst this time they didn't hear the loud crashing boom that accompanied lightning it was only a few seconds before the long rumbling thunder reached them.

Victoria flinched instantly at the flash of light. She jolted violently backwards at an angle with the hairbrush, causing Charlotte's head to be pulled back with the brush. As Charlotte had her head pulled back she felt the edges of the hairdryer smack into the back of her head, causing pain to swirl around her head and an ache in her neck.

"Ow" On instinct Charlotte reacted to the pain even if it was only minor. Victoria was quick to pull the hairbrush and hairdryer away from Charlotte, stopping any further damage and leaving only a slight pain on the back of Charlotte's head.

"Sorry! Charlotte I'm sorry." Victoria was no longer quiet, her voice almost at shouting levels, and there was a genuine upset and guilt to her tone.

Charlotte turned around as fast as she could to see Victoria shaking, in a way that looked like shivering, and with tears already in her eyes. She was holding the hairdryer with such a tight grip that Charlotte wondered how the plastic hadn't cracked. Her other hand, still holding to the handle of the hairbrush, was in place to steady her shaking left hand.

The sight upset Charlotte along with making a wave of numbing nausea spread through her body, it was no better than any of the times she had seen Victoria injured. She felt though that nothing she could say would manage to calm Victoria down or make her feel less guilty. Instead she reached forward to hug Victoria, not caring if the hairdryer or brush got crushed between them.

A flash of light, a crackling bang and the rumble of thunder managed to reach the room before Charlotte could reach Victoria. And while it didn't stop Charlotte, outside of a slight flinch, Victoria reacted much worse and much more violently.

She had shouted out in fear, loud enough to be heard over the noise of both the lightning and the hairdryer. At the same time as throwing both of her hands up over her head, using her arms to cover her face, whilst her body jerked forwards and down so that her head was hiding on top of the bed covers.

Victoria seemed to move out of fear and reflex, with no thought to her actual surroundings. This led to Charlotte getting smacked hard in the face by both the hairdryer and the brush followed up by Victoria's head butting into her legs. Charlotte was mostly able to ignore the pain pulsing across her face, but she had to pull her head back from the daze that came from being hit.

"Sorry. Sorry. Sorry." Victoria started repeating over and over, her voice being muffled by her arms and the bed covers. Even through the daze and muffled sound, Charlotte could tell from her voice that Victoria had started crying.

Charlotte was still slightly dazed, with a horrible feeling between and behind her eyes stopping her from properly being able to focus in.,but she started moving regardless. She went straight for Victoria's hands and somehow managed to pry both the hairdryer and brush from Victoria's fingers, her grip loosening in response to Charlotte's hands. Charlotte kept hold of the brush, but turned the hairdryer off and, using the wire as leverage, managed to slowly drop it to the floor over the side of the bed.

She kept moving even when another lightning strike boomed through the room, causing Victoria to flinch violently and scream out in fear. It was hard for Charlotte not to jump straight to Victoria to make sure she knew she wasn't alone, but she hoped that her idea would be worth it in the end.

Charlotte grabbed for the covers at the top of the bed and pulled them down towards her, she was quick to shift her own legs up and over the covers but ended up being blocked by Victoria. And although she wasn't completely enthusiastic about it, Charlotte grabbed hold of Victoria's left side and pulled hard so that her left leg was slightly in the air. With her free arm she pushed the covers under her leg, before switching to Victoria's right hand side.

With the covers now free Charlotte threw them over the top of both of them, with the hope that it'd block out most of the light and at least some of the sound of any more lightning strikes. Charlotte then tried to grab hold of Victoria once again and drag her further up towards the head the bed. Yet even though Victoria wasn't actively trying to stop Charlotte it proved too hard, given that Charlotte didn't want to be too forceful.

Instead, Charlotte grabbed the pillows from the head of the bed and with some effort managed to get one placed under Victoria's head, with the other in a space further up for Charlotte to lay down on. From there Charlotte lied down on her side and shifted the covers again, giving them a vent for air, and then placed her arm around Victoria which she used to pull herself close around her.

Victoria was still trembling and Charlotte could still hear her crying, whilst also giving Charlotte no indication that she was paying any attention to her surroundings. The only thing Charlotte could think to do was to take the brush, and whilst holding Victoria tight, started to slowly brush through her hair.

She tried to mimic the slow and deliberate method that Victoria had used before hand, making her way piece by piece around Victoria's head. Her hair was in a much better state than Charlotte's had been, primarily only a small amount of tangling that had come with her throwing her head forwards from the lightning.

Charlotte kept brushing though, not knowing if it was doing more than just keeping herself occupied and distracted. She kept on with the meticulous brushing even without any kind of response or calming down from Victoria. Even when more lightning strikes illuminated the room and sent booming sound at them.

She spent what felt like many minutes brushing through Victoria's hair before she had gone through the process at least two full times. The lightning had become more frequent and more violent, seemingly getting closer and closer to their house as time went on. The only relief that Charlotte found was that Victoria didn't seem to be getting any worse in her reactions, but her trembling and crying continued to make Charlotte feel sick.

After brushing through Victoria's hair once more, Charlotte let go of the brush and instead started using her hand to stroke Victoria's head. Charlotte didn't expect much reaction from Victoria, but it was still upsetting to know that not even she could get through to her.

The storm outside gave no indication that it was going to stop, if anything it was getting more vicious as the minutes went on. Charlotte felt resigned to the fact that there was little else she could do for Victoria until the worst of the storm passed them. So, as she continued to stroke through Victoria's hair, she closed her eyes until exhaustion eventually pulled her into sleep.