Chapter 2 - Charles

Charles lived in a tall brick apartment. Metal beams and copper wires reached up the sides and his roof had solar tiles on it but yet he still had an electric generator. His front door was dark oak and had a lion's head on the door knocker. Layton knocked three times but no answer. The windows had dust covering them and the curtains were tattered.

"Professor?" Flora adjusted her ribbon. "Are you sure he lives here?"

Layton looked at her then the door again. "I'm not entirely sure..." soon the door began to creak open, causing Luke and Flora to jump back.

"P-Professor does Charles live in...there." Luke stuttered. He stood up straight again after almost falling down from fear.

The door swung open but there wasn't anyone there. Layton stepped inside the dusty apartment. Luke and Flora shared glances and quickly followed behind him.

"Charles? Charles are you in here?" Layton called, looking around the dank room. It was dark with minimal signs of life inside. Half-eaten fast food was across the floor, a boxy television was on, playing a gameshow, and a bunch of broken glass strewn across the floor.

"It looks like nobody has lived here for a long time.." Luke looked around.

"Be careful you two, there's broken glass here." Layton cautioned.

"O-okay!" Flora nodded, picking up her skirt.

"Gotcha Professor." Luke carefully tiptoed past the glass. They made their way to the kitchen where a set of spiral stairs was waiting. The kitchen had orange everywhere. Orange cabinets, orange backsplash, orange floors. The only thing that wasn't orange was the walls: which were white. In the middle was the staircase leading to the upstairs.

"I'm scared to go up there..." Flora stepped backwards in fear.

"Don't worry you two." Layton coaxed. "I don't believe we have anything to be afraid about." He led the group up the stairs, which creaked whenever someone stepped on it. As they made their way up, they saw a hallway covered in red wallpaper.

"Huh, I didn't know there was an upstairs." Luke looked around the dimly lit room and noticed a door. He tried to open the door but it was clearly locked. "Professor! The door won't budge." Luke peered at the knob of the door, which had some writing on it. "Aha the door is locked with a puzzle!" Layton and Flora walked over to Luke while he tried to solve it.

"Got it!" He grinned after finishing the puzzle. He turned the doorknob and opened the door, inside was a man sleeping at a desk by an oil lamp. The man was in what looked like a nightgown.

"Who is that?" Luke said in a whisper, careful not to wake the man up from his doze.

"That my boy, is Charles." Layton walked over to the man called Charles.

"Really? That can't be right!" Luke reeled back carefully. "He doesn't look like him! Oh...oh no." Luke shook his head.

"People look different when they're sleeping Luke." Flora explained.

"He's not dead Luke, don't worry." Layton gently nudged the sleeping Charles.

"Phew..." Luke wiped a sweat off his brow as the man began to stir.

"Who's dat..." he mumbled. His messy red hair looking worse for ware.

"It's me Charles, your friend Hershel Layton." he said in a calm voice. "You contacted me, remember?" Charles lifted his head and stared at Layton, then Luke, then Flora.

"Layton..." he smacked his lips and groaned. "I need a coffee..." he shook his head and took a sip from a random mug. He then spit it out with an uncomfortable "PSSSSSSFWWWWWWWHAT!?"

"I don't think that was coffee..." Luke joked while Flora shook her head.

"Clearly! I don't think coffee is supposed to be rainbow-colored." Layton examined the stains on the desk.

"He just drank some paint water, nothing too toxic." Layton helped Charles up from his seat and down the winding stairs. "Luke, could you heat up some water please?" Layton asked while helping Charles into a new seat.

"Okay got it Professor!" Luke began to fill the kettle with water. Flora searched the cabinets for coffee beans.

"I LIKE MY COFFEE WITH 1/2 OF THE CREAM AND 1 CUP OF SUGAR!" Charles yelled from across the house in the dining room.

"Well, now I don't have to worry about that." Luke shrugged.

"I got you your coffee Mr. Charles!" Luke said as he and Flora carefully brought over the kettle and mug, both filled with piping hot coffee.

"Thank you...uh" Charles began. "Luke, Luke Triton!" He put his hand on his hat. "Professor's number one apprentice!" he smiled cheerfully.

"and Flora Reinhold! Professor's...uh...what am I Luke?" she turned to him.

"Hmm.." he thought. "Perhaps you're his..assistant?" Flora nodded her head, her ponytail swinging back and forth.

"I like that!" she smiled. "Flora Reinhold, the professor's assistant!" Layton laughed at this interaction.

"Got your hands full dontcha Layton?" Charles took a lengthly sip of his coffee before slamming it down on the table. "Alright, I suppose you want me to tell you why I sent that letter." Layton nodded.

"Yes, I was wondering what you meant by "statues moving on their own" or "water turning into red liquid"." Charles sighed before grabbing a large leather book.

"This is the full story, it's quite long but I'm betting you're gonna need it." he turned to the first page in the book. Large letters spelled out: CHARLES LINESBURROW'S DOCUMENTATION OF STRANGE OCCURRENCES IN BARCROMBE.

"It was spring of this year." he began. "I was out on my daily grocery shopping when I heard this scream from inside the alleyway. I saw a young girl crying so like any kind person would do, I went up to her but she ran away from me! I followed her through the warping streets and into the park, where I saw the Fountain to be spewing red water! It wasn't wine, I'm sure of it because when one of my bar buddies tried to drink it, he fell to the ground, twitching." he shook his head, trying to rid himself of the sight.

"And then after that, the girl was gone! I walked up to the Fountain but the statue on top of it bent down to look at me!" He was breaking out into a cold sweat. "It whispered in my ear "You better stop that research.." I was so scared!" His lip quivered.

"Don't worry Mr. Charles, we'll help you!" Luke jostled the tea tray. "Oops!" He caught it before he managed to spill it.

"Heh..." Charles let out a horse laugh. "Hey, I have something cool to show you guys!" He smiled, snowing his coffee-stained teeth. "C'mon!" He ran up the stairs and dashed into his room.

"What is he going to show us?" Flora asked. She had never met someone as excitable as this since leaving St. Mystere.

"I'm not sure, perhaps something about that fantastic thing he mentioned in his letter." Layton re-read the letter once again. The three of them looked up when they heard a loud crash then Charles cursing, and then the door opened.

"Sorry about that, come inside!" He was out of his old nightgown and now was dressed in khaki slacks, a white button down, and a brown vest. His hair was less messy now as he had brushed it(or at least tried) however, his scraggly beard remained. He opened the door wider and led them in.

"It's so dark in here.." Luke felt around for a light switch.

"Mhm, it's to keep all of my precious artifacts in tiptop condition!" Charles raved. He reached up and pulled down on a small chain from the ceiling. The room suddenly filled with a warm light as the bulb clicked on. "This is my study!" He walked over to his desk and picked up a fossil. "I found this while I was out in France, oooooh, and This one was in America and-"

"Sorry to interrupt." Layton interjected. "But you brought us here to show us something correct?"

"Oh yes! Sorry I got side-tracked...over here." He put down the fossils and led them over to a room in the back. It was pretty small with only three notable objects: A small leather chair, a large bookcase with a television, and on the other side of the room, a large suit of gleaming armor.

"Woah..." Luke gasped after seeing the armor. "That's something alright.."

"I find it a little bit scary." Flora confessed but Layton laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Flora. While it may seem scary, there's nobody inside to move it. We should be perfectly safe." Flora's posture relaxed as she turned back to the suit of armor. They then heard a loud sound which jerked their heads back to Charles, who was now struggling under the large suit of armor.

"Help..." he groaned under the weight of the armor.

"Ah! Mr. Charles!" Luke ran to him and began to try and lift the armor off of him. "This thing's heavy-hey look!" Luke lifted the helmet off of the armor, reveling a small drawing inside the armor.

"Hm, a drawing?" Layton helped pick up the suit of armor off of Charles. He took a closer look at the drawing inside of him.

"Eughh...thanks guys." Charles got up and dusted himself off. "Every single time I try and clean inside of that thing, it always falls on me or suddenly disappears!" Charles looked towards a curious Luke, Layton, and Flora.

"So every time you clean it, it falls on you?" Luke pulled out his notebook.

"Uh-huh." Charles nodded his head as he put the helmet back on the armor. "Very strange isn't it."

"Very strange..." Layton commented.

"Oh! Since you guys are going to be in town for awhile, Ruby is having a concert and I have free tickets!" he pulled out a large handful of paper tickets.

"I've never been a big concert fan but perhaps it would be fun to go, what do you think?" Layton answered.

"I don't mind, whatev-" but Luke was swiftly cut off by Flora yelling.

"IWANTTOGO!" She began to almost hop up and down from excitement.

"You do?" Luke looked at her. "Sure then, let's go!"

Layton smiled and then looked back at Charles. "I suppose we'll be needing those tickets."

"I suppose you will." Charles beamed. "Alright now how about you go explore around Barcrombe? There's lots of stuff for you to do-here I'll circle them for you." he pulled out a map and circled a few different locations. "Here!" he pushed the map into Layton's hands. "Now I'm working on something big for everyone here in Barcrombe so you're gonna have to leave, unless you want to see the surprise?"

Layton raised an eyebrow. "What is this thing exactly?"

Charles eyes flashed. "Oh so you wanna help?"

"I uh-" Layton began before being whisked off to the back room of the house. Charles yelled to Luke and Flora from across the room. "Hey! Take that map and look around! People won't mind, everyone is nice here in Barcrombe-OKAY BYE NOW!" He shut the heavy wooden door to the backroom.

"Well..I suppose we have no other choice." Flora sighed.

"Alright, let's go explore!" Luke began to run down the stairs to the outside.

"Wait for me!" Flora cried, trying to keep up.

A/N:

How are you liking the chapters? I'll try and post twice in a week.

I have some big twists planned for later in the story so I hope you'll like them when they come! If I finish this story and enough people like it, I may turn it into game perhaps...maybe? What do you think.