When Charlie heard Angel calling her, she quickly left the kitchen and followed his voice. He sounded so afraid, and if you know Angel, it takes a lot to scare him.
"Angel what's wrong?" Charlie asked.
"Oh good you're still alive." Angel said.
"Of course I'm still alive." She said confused. "What's going on? Why are you shouting? And why are you carrying Vaggie?"
"It's finally happened Charlie!" Vaggie said. "Angel has lost his mind!"
"I have not! Now come on toots, we gotta get out of here while we still have our heads." Angel said.
"What are you talking about?" Charlie asked.
"Okay I'll try to make this short." Angel said. "I accidentally got sent up into the attic, and I saw my face fall off, was attacked by a floating gypsy head, and creepiest of all, I saw a painting of a woman who looks just like you."
"What?"
"Yes I swear! In the attic there's an oil painting of some lady from long ago who has the same hair, same face, same body as you Charlie!"
"You didn't mention this before." Vaggie said.
"I was too freaked out about my face and the floating head."
"Angel why would anyone here have an oil painting of me?" Charlie asked. "I've never even been here before."
"I don't know and we can discuss it later, but now let's leave!"
"Angel you really need to calm down." Charlie said.
"And put me down!" Vaggie demanded before finally wriggling herself out of his hold.
"Look I know this sounds insane but it's the truth! I swear on my mother's grave!" Angel said.
"Your mother is still alive." Vaggie said.
"Okay bad thing to swear on, but you have to believe me!"
"You want us to believe you? How about some proof then?" Vaggie asked. "Take us to the attic and show us what you saw."
"Vaggie we're not supposed to go up there." Charlie reminded her. "It's dangerous."
"I know but if we don't clear this up, the only danger here will be me to Angel."
Charlie protested but in the end they followed Angel to through the secret passageway and up the stairs. He showed them the gallery but none of othe paintings changed and none of them were of anyone who looked familiar. Furthermore, none of the paintings changed. After that Angel looked for the mirror but there was no trace of it. Next they went into the room where he had seen the floating head. Of course, no head was there. No head, no table, nothing.
"It was here!" Angel said getting really panicked. "It was all here! I saw it!"
At last he led them into the attic and showed them the oil painting he found. It was of blond woman but she didn't look like Charlie. She was older, wearing a Sunday bonnet and fanning herself.
"That doesn't look anything like Charlie." Vaggie said. "Are you going blind as well as crazy?"
"I am not crazy!" Angel insisted. "And that's not the painting I saw! It must've been switched!"
"Switched? Seriously?"
"Angel you were hit on the head very hard the other night." Charlie said gently. "Maybe it's causing you to see things that aren't really there? Also there are a lot of shadows and weak lighting up here. You could hallucinate alomst anything in these conditions."
"I am not hallucinating! There was something seriously paranormal and dangerous here!"
"Angel I think you're becoming dangerous to yourself." Vaggie said. "Now I'm not going to call anyone to go after you with a butterfly net but you keep this up, someone will and I..."
She paused for a moment, sincere concern and fear was in her eyes.
"I couldn't bear to see you locked up in a place like that."
"Vaggie I am begging you, believe me. Please believe me! For once!" He pleaded desperately.
He was quivering so hard, and for a moment it looked like he was about to cry. Vaggie also looked like she was about to cry. This was the first time Charlie had ever seen either one them feeling anything toward each other except bitterness, annoyance, or amusement.
"I...I want to believe you." Vaggie sighed. "I do. But I can't."
This entire scene was reminding her of something. An old wound that was being reopened now. Vaggie couldn't bear to let them see her or tears, so she hurried out of there before the dam broke.
Poor Charlie felt torn, she didn't know who to comfort at the moment. But at the same time she felt confused. Was it her imagination or did Angel care more about Vaggie believing him than Charlie herself? Furthermore it never occurred to her until now, but despite seeming only like random neighbors who met only through Charlie, they certainly knew a lot about each other. And the way Vaggie spoke her concerns, it wasn't just out of genuine kindness, it was out affection.
"Damn it all." Angel muttered with his head hanging low. "Why did I think you'd ever believe me. You've never believed me about anything. Not back then, so why would now be any different?"
Charlie carefully read the look and the feeling in Angel's eyes. She would recognize that type of look and feeling anywhere. Her father's eyes always had the same look and the same feelings whenever he had unintentionally hurt her mother or she had unintentionally hurt him. That's when it clicked for Charlie.
"Oh my God." She spoke in a surprised whisper. "How did I not see it sooner? You...You love her, don't you? Vaggie?"
For what seemed like forever, Angel said not one word. It wasn't until Charlie started to open her mouth to ask if he was okay, when he spoke again.
"We met when I was out finding myself." He explained. "I had grown up in the cold city of Brooklyn so I decided to visit the warmer areas of North America. Like Georgia, Florida, Mexico, Guatemala, and of course El Salvador. I arrived when they were celebrating the Day of the Dead and she was dancing in the parade dressed as a calavera. Most people can't understand it, but I thought she was gorgeous. I tried to come over and introduce myself but I ended up trampled by a stampede of calavera drummers."
Charlie willed herself not to laugh as she envisioned the scene.
"Luckily though, she stopped her dance to help me up and when she saw that my nose was bleeding, she decided to buy me an Oaxacan Hot Chocolate. We talked, she asked me what I was doing in El Salvador, I told her and I told her about my hobbies. She said I was weird, but interesting. She also liked that I had taken such an interest in the holiday and culture of her country."
"Did you two start dating right away?"
"No. A lady that fine, you gotta romance first. And romance I did, of course she rejected me countless times. She liked me but she just wasn't sure if I could be trusted and if you know about her father you can understand why."
"So how did you win her over?"
"About a month after we met, she called me one night saying that they let her father out on parole so she and her aunt were going to leave the country. Problem was she didn't have a lot of money and her aunt was pretty much half blind. So I offered to take her with me on my travels and I sold my father's gold cigar box to get enough money to pay for her aunt to have protective care in a home. For the next eight weeks, we traveled and we were lovers. Only thing we ever fought about was my drug addiction."
"Is that why you broke up?"
"That was part of the reason why she left me."
"What was the other part?"
"I'd rather not say. But I will say this, her leaving me finally got me to go clean. But even so, she'll never forgive me and she's disgusted by the fact that she was ever with me. That's why we act like we barely know each other and why she's always so insulting toward me."
"Oh Angel I'm so sorry." Charlie said sympathetically.
"Look it's not important okay? What is important is that we have to leave this place. Something is not right, I know Vaggie wouldn't believe me even if Jesus himself backed me up. But, do you believe me Charlie?"
"Well I...I..." She said. "I do believe there is something not normal here but I just can't run out of this house screaming about the stuff you've mentioned. Not without proof, Vaggie's right, we could get locked up for that."
"Does this mean you believe me?"
"Sort of. But for now let's just remain calm and...And let's get out of here before someone sees us. We could get thrown out for this."
"Good. We shouldn't be here."
"We'll talk about it later."
"When?"
"I don't know. Tomorrow morning?"
"Morning? Oh no I'm not waiting til morning."
Then tonight. After dinner, we'll meet in my room and talk about it. Okay?"
"Okay."
They left the attic and went back downstairs.
"Stop." Charlie heard an unseen voice say when she was in the middle of the stairway.
She did as the voice said and slowly looked around for a face. Instead she heard a sound like something slowly sliding out. Then there was a loud BAM! Something hard had fallen onto the stairs.
"What was that?" Angel called from the bottom of the stairway.
"I don't know."
Charlie looked down at where the sound came from. She saw a brick on the steps and discovered that it had been remvoed from the passageway wall. Curious, she looked through the rectangle shaped hole and saw something hidden in that wall. She placed her hand through the hole and picked it up.
"Charlie I thought you wanted us to get out of this place." Angel said.
"I'm coming!"
She didn't know why, but she hid what she found inside her jacket and returned to her room quickly. Now alone, she opened her jacket and studied her lasted fiding. It was decades old, a diary with a red-leather cover and at the front were the initals CM in gold, cursive lettering.
"CM?" Charlie thought. Initals just like hers.
She opened the diary and read the first page.
Diary of Charlotte Magne
Next she read the first entry.
April 15th 1874
Dear Diary,
Today is my birthday and my mother has just given me the most wonderful gift ever.
My very own diary, I've always wanted one, and so she had Nanny Sara go pick out one with the prettiest cover and have my initals engraved on it.
Now I can write about all the wonderful things that happen to me. Like today, today was the best birthday I have ever had.
We had a tea party using my grandmother's china tea set and Randall bought a bouquet of Tea Roses to set the table with. I wore a pretty white and chiffon dress that Mother wore on her 8th birthday and Mother said that Nanny Sara's daughter, my friend Annie, could come to the party. She even gave Nanny Sara money to buy Annie a new dress to wear at the party.
Annie and I had such a wonderful time. We felt like real ladies, wearing pretty dresses and little white gloves. With the tea there was cream, and sugar, and little petit fours. And while we sipped tea, Nanny Sara told us a story about a panther who could turn into a woman. But best of all, we had the tea party in the master bedroom so Mother could attend. I was so happy. She's always been too sick to get out of bed and that's why she could never come to my other birthday parties. But she came to this one. If only Father could have attended, then it would have been perfect.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Magne.
"Charlotte Magne." Charlie wondered. "Hmm."