The bridge seemed different this time around. The way across it pitch black, so dark that you couldn't even see the other side. In fact it looked less like a bridge and more like some tunnel descending deep into some forbidden darkness that one may not return from ever. Charlie was frightened. She could already feel the urge to just turn away and go home. Just to stay where it was safe and let the police handle it. But in her heart, she knew she couldn't do that. She knew the police would never figure out what kind of evil lived in this town, at least not until it was too late. And she also knew that she'd never be able to live with herself or face Stolas again if she didn't do this.
"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Charlie asked Angel.
"No." He replied, as he loaded the pistol he had swiped. "I don't want to do this at all. I wanna go home and pretend this never happened."
"You can, if you want to."
"No I can't. Not if Vaggie and Molly really are over there. Face it toots, I can't just ignore this anymore than you can."
She watched him load in another bullet.
"Do you know how to use a gun?"
"Yeah."
"But I thought your grandmother didn't allow weapons in the house."
"She doesn't, but my old man did. And when you have an abusive prick for a father, you need to be prepared for when he snaps. Late at night, I used to take his old revolver and sneak outside to do a little target practice. Unfortunately I never had the gutts to actually use it on him."
He put in the last bullet, put the safety on, and concealed the weapon into his bag. Then he moved to stand next to Charlie, at the front of the bridge. He was just as scared as she was. All his life his grandmother had told him stories about this bridge and the evil connected to it. Bad enough that her stories turned out to be true, but now he was actually going to face it.
Charlie lit one of the candlesticks she had brought with a match, watching the flame sputter and light on the fuse. Then she stared at black abyss ahead and slowly took a step forward. Then another, then another, and another. Angel moved at the same place and he was right behind her, neither one of them could speak at the moment. They just kept walking, as the candle cast huge, flickering shadows all around.
"My, children certainly are more courageous than most adults give them credit for." Came a voice.
"Who said that?!" Angel gasped, reaching for the pistol.
But Charlie knew exactly who it was. Louis flew out from a dark corner and landed carefully on her shoulder.
"Don't be afraid." Charlie said to Angel. "He's a friend."
"What do you mean?" Angel asked. "You're not gonna tell me that it was the owl who spoke."
"What if she did?" Said owl replied.
Angel jumped suddenly and just stared at Louis for what seemed like the longest amount of time, but in truth it was actually quite short.
"That bird just talked to me."
"Yes Angel, he can talk." Charlie said.
"But that doesn't make sense. Birds can't talk, unless they're parrots. Are you half parrot or something?"
"No. I am an owl and I can speak. And technically all birds can speak, you humans just can't understand our language. Well that is, in your world you can't understand our language."
"So how is it that we can understand you in this one?" Charlie asked.
"Because this world was designed specifically to cater to dreams, desires, and imaginations of all children. It's meant to be a place where the impossible is possible because that is what a child wants."
Charlie's face made a puzzled expression and she was tempted to ask Louis more questions. But then she remembered that there were more important matters to deal with now. So she withheld her questions and kept moving forward.
"You know you're walking right into her trap." Louis warned.
"I know." She said. "But I have to go back. Vaggie is my best friend and Octavia is my family, and it is my fault that Via is over here in the first place."
"You won't be able to get away as easily as you did last time. In fact you're the first one who ever got away and that just makes her blood boil. You've made her very cross and she's going to be merciless."
"Sore loser, much?" Angel said, trying to distract himself from how uncomfortable he was with the fact that he was talking to an owl.
"You have no idea." Louis said. "She hates to lose and she hates being out-witted. Especially by children. You see she thinks that all children are stupid, so if one child turns out to be clever enough to get the best of her, of course she's going to be furious."
"What exactly does she want?" Charlie asked. "I know she says that she wants a family to love but she can't possibly love anyone."
"That's where you're wrong. She does want a family to love, but she has a different idea on what love and family should be, as opposed to what most, sane people view it to be."
"Meaning?"
"Love and family is about compromise, being selfless, having empathy and patience, mistakes, forgiveness, sacrificing for others. However she doesn't expect such things in her family. She expects constant obedience to her, constant gratitude to her, constant adoration to her, and nothing less of sheer perfection. In other words, she always knows what's best and if anyone disagrees then they're her enemy."
"So she's a narcissistic sociopath?" Angel deduced.
"That's one way to put it." Louis said. "But those aren't the words I'd use."
"Well what would you use?"
"She's the devil."Charlie could feel the poor bird shivering. "You can't even imagine the kind of cruel, twisted, inhuman, evil she's capable of."
"All the more reason to get Vaggie and Octavia, and anyone else we can save away from her." Charlie said. "Do you have any advice?"
"As I said she thinks all children are stupid and sometimes that can be used against her. You escaped but she still underestimates you, use that to your advantage. Also she uses mirrors to see, she can look though any mirror in the world. That's how she spies on her victims. But if you go some place where there's no mirror at all, then she can't see you. In fact without a looking glass she's completely blind."
"Then we don't go where mirrors are."
"Yes but at the same time if you want to find your friends, the best place to look is where a mirror is nearby."
"Why?"
"Well the little one, your sister, you can probably get her out of here no problem but the others, if you want to rescue any of them then you need to get their eyes and their hearts and she keeps them all locked up in a mirror."
"And if she can see through every mirror then that means she could probably see us trying to get them."
"Correct. I told you it was tricky."
"Do you know where this mirror is?"
"No. I've tried but I've never been able to get close enough. But Alastor might be able to locate it. He can look through other mirrors just like she can."
"How?"
"When he lost his eye and escaped, he smashed one of her mirrors and I took a shard. Then I taught him how to make a glass eye from that shard. Makes him more advanced than her, he can see with and without a mirror. That's how he's always able to know where she is and when she's going to strike."
"Louis, in the mirror at my house I saw Alastor holding Octavia. Does that mean she's with him?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where they are? Could you take us to them?"
"Sure."
"Hold on, who's Alastor?" Angel asked. "And please remember that I just found out about this crazy shit today."
"In short, he looks like your worst nightmare but he's probably your best ally in this entire place." Louis said. "Trust him and his toys."
"His toys?" Charlie wondered. "What toys?"
The sun was just beginning to rise when Stolas finally came home. He was exhausted, knowing that his body and brain needed sleep but also knowing that he couldn't sleep until he knew Octavia was home safe. He was still mad at Charlie, at times he thought she could be just like her father. Lucifer had a nasty habit of just impulsively doing things without considering that consequences. Like that time he drove drunk and almost hit a car. He could've killed someone that night and when everyone he knew called him out on it, he just got angry and wouldn't take responsibility. His daughter was just the same.
But after thinking it over and remembering his last conversation he had with Charlie, he finally noticed that she wasn't as similar to Lucifer as he first thought. She wasn't angry when Stolas called her out on her mistake, she was crying and apologizing, and had realized almost instantly the mistake she had made. Before he had even scolded her. She had made the realization and confessed. She admitted that she was wrong and felt remorse, something her father never did.
And there was also the fact that sixteen or not, Charlie was technically still a child. A child who was still coming to terms with losing her parents and having to deal with high school and bullies, and puberty.Then her best friend went missing. Of course none that excused what she did but that was a lot for a girl her age to handle and mistakes could be made when you're under that much pressure.
"I guess I was kind of harsh." Stolas thought.
After thinking it over, he decided to go upstairs and talk to Charlie.
"Charlie? Are you awake?" He knocked on the door to her bedroom softly. "Charlie I hate to wake you up this early but I think we need to talk now."
There was no answer. He opened the door slowly and carefully.
"Charlie?"
She wasn't there.
"Charlie!" He started to call out while looking around and checking the other rooms. "Charlie! Charlie, are you here?!"
When he came back to check her room a second time, he saw the note on her pillow. He sat on her bed, picked up the note, and read it carefully.
Dear Stolas,
I've made a horrible mistake and you're right when you said that if anything happens to Octavia then it's all my fault. So that's why I'm going out to find her myself and make things right, and I can't come back until I do.
I'm so sorry for how selfish I've been and for how I've treated you and Octavia. I hope you know that I never meant to hurt either one of you and that I love you both very much. I can't promise that you'll see me again but I can promise that one way or another Octavia will come home. Have faith in me and you'll have your little girl back.
Love,
Charlie.
Stolas crumbled to the floor once he had read the last word. In that moment he felt like he had just thrown away something precious and didn't realize the value of that treasure until it was too late. He ran outside, praying to God that she hadn't of gone far and that's when he came upon the scene of the police investigating a break in at the taxidermy shop. As he made his way to ask one of the officers about what had happened, he couldn't help overhearing the rumors and gossip of townsfolk standing nearby.
"I heard two kids sneaked in and that poor fool shot em both dead."
"Yep. I heard it from Marcy and she saw the whole thing. It was that weird, cross-dressing kid and that orphan girl."
"He shot em both?"
"That's what I heard."
"Well I can't say I'm surprised. I mean he did kill his own son and then chop him up."
"Do you suppose he did the same thing to those two?"
"Why not? He's always been a psycho."
Stolas felt sick and he couldn't stop breathing so hard. It couldn't be true. It was all just gossip. Charlie wasn't dead. She wouldn't just break into a store like that and he had heard that Etienne Devalcourt had issues, but he didn't think he was crazy enough to just randomly kill someone and cut up their body. It was just a misunderstanding.
"They're wrong." He kept telling himself. "They're just trying to cause trouble."
Then he saw the police talking to Mr. Devalcourt and he saw the blood on his hands. That's when the terrible images of "what if" went through his head and that combined with the lack of sleep caused him to lose it. Before anyone could stop him, he lunged for the taxidermist and began to shake him senseless, almost strangling him in the process. The whole time he was crying out,
"What did you do to her?! What did you do to my daughter?! Tell me! Where is she?!"