Charlotte Parris was not supposed to exist. Her mother Madeleine Parris nee Warren was said to have never gotten her period due to amenorrhea that she suffered with in her youth so children were not likely in her future. However after being married for seven years, she finally became pregnant despite having never bled which confused and puzzled many of those who relied on logic and reason. As for those more opened minded to the supernatural, some say that her pregnancy was a miracle from heaven others say that it was the work of the devil. Either way both Madeleine and her husband Reverend Gabriel Parris were overjoyed to finally be expecting a child. Then on Sunday September 13th at exactly 3 a.m, Medeleine gave birth to a healthy daughter who they christened Charlotte.

The reverend and his wife loved her right away and at first she seemed like a perfectly normal baby. But it was not long before the couple noticed something about their child. Something that made her vastly different from all other children and when they finally found a conclusion for why the girl was so different it frightened them. Frightened them so much that they became protective of Charlotte or Charlie as she preferred to be called, and gave her a very sheltered upbringing.

She did not attend public school but instead was taught by private tutors and she was taught two things: Basic education and the bible. Of course that was to be expected as the daughter of a very religious preacher especially one who relied on God's word for everything. Now Gabriel doted on Charlie but he was also very strict with her. He allowed her to go outside but never by herself or after dark and he forbade her to talk to strangers ever. She could have friends but they had be her age and her parents had to learn their background first. Unfortunately the chances of Charlie having any friends was very weak. The other children did not want to play with her. The other children did not want to talk to her. The other children did not like her because Charlie was not like most little girls.

Although she did enjoy playing with toys and games like other children, she would most often just sit and talk to herself. Or at least that's how people perceived it. In actuality she would hear voices with faces she could not see but she knew that they were there and she could understand the strange words they would say. They told her things. Sometimes it was things that she found interesting and other times it was things that she thought were scary. She called them her invisible friends.

When other children would ask their parents about it they would say that she was probably schizophrenic or had some other mental disease so the children in turn would tease and taught her. Calling her names and spreading nasty rumors about her. Yet despite this, it did not stop Charlie from trying to befriend them.

"Get away from us you freak!" Shouted one of the neighborhood girls when she saw Charlie approaching her. She and the other girls were outside making cards and hearts for Valentine's Day. Charlie desperately wanted to join them but not a single one of them wanted anything to do with her.

"Oh please Delilah." Pleaded the rosy cheeked girl with blonde pig tails. "I just want to make a Valentine but I don't know how. Can one of you show me? I won't be any trouble! I promise."

"No way!" The girl called Delilah snapped. "We don't like you! You're crazy!"

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are! You talk to yourself!"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do! I saw you do it yesterday after church."

"I wasn't talking to myself. I was talking to my friends."

"You're a liar! I didn't see anyone!"

"They're invisible. I can't see them but I can hear them."

"I told you all she was crazy!" Delilah said to her friends. "Besides no boy would want to get a valentine from you. All the boys in school give me valentines because I'm the prettiest girl in town. But no boy will ever give you a valentine because you're ugly."

"My valentine isn't it for a boy."

Oh no, no she dare not get involved with boys. Boys were dirty minded, silly, and they would only lead to trouble. Or at least that's what her father always said. So she avoided them the best she could and did not ever think of them.

"It's for my mommy and daddy." She said.

"Just go away!" Delilah demanded. "You're a home schooled freak who hears voices in her head and no one, absolutely no one wants to be around you."

"Why are you so mean to me?" Charlie asked. "I've never done anything to you."

"So? that doesn't mean we have to be nice to you."

Delilah then picked up a clump of dirt and threw it at Charlie's face. The other girls did the same, throwing dirt at her and calling her freak. Poor Charlie burst into tears and ran home crying.

"Daddy why am I so different?" She asked her father later that day as her parents were comforting her.

"Everyone is different Charlotte." He said. "It's just that some people's differences can be seen while others can't. Sadly most people like to think that just because their differences can't be seen, they're not different at all."

"But Daddy I think I'm really, really, different. I think I can see, hear, and do things that other people can't."

"That's ridiculous." He said. "You are a perfectly normal girl."

"Then why can't I go to school like everyone else?"

"Because you're special dear." Her mother said holding her. "You need to live a special way with a special education."

"But why am I special?"

"It's hard to explain right now. We'll tell you when you're older."

"I just wish the other girls liked me. But they think I'm a freak."

"Well maybe they wouldn't if you would stop talking to yourself." Her father said.

"I'm not talking to myself." She said. "I'm talking to my invisible friends."

"Charlotte there are no such things as invisible friends. You're imagining them. If you stop talking to them your brain will stop making you hear them."

"But they're my only friends."

"They're not real and the sooner you accept that the better off you'll be."

Her father did not like it when she would talk to her invisible friends. He told her that they were not real and that she had only made them up in her head. But she always wondered, if he was so sure they weren't real why did he always get so upset when she spoke of them?

"I won't be back til morning." He said as he grabbed his bible and a bottle of holy water.

Aside from being a preacher he was also a top exorcist. One of the very few protestant exorcists in this town and every night he would go out to the cemetery, claiming that it was to purify the graves of those who died un-Christian.

"Keep the doors and windows locked. Let no one in while I'm gone."

"Year dear." Her mother said.

He was gone after that. Her mother quickly got started on dinner while Charlie just sat on the stairway drawing in her notebook. Sometimes she would have strange dreams, weird images that would just flash in her head and she didn't know what they meant so she would draw pictures of what she saw in hopes of figuring out their meaning later. Her latest image was what she thought was an angel. It was of a lovely woman with white feathered wings and she gave off the feeling that she wasn't human so Charlie assumed that she was an angel.

She had just finished the drawing when she heard a knock at the door. At first she just sat there and waited for her mother to respond because she wasn't allowed to answer the door in the evening. But her mother didn't hear the knock over the sound of the cooking pot. After waiting for five minutes, Charlie carefully approached and slowly opened the door.

There wasn't a person on the other side but on the front porch just a few inches from the door was a heart-shaped, red satin box. The kind that had assorted chocolate candy inside. Charlie picked it up and found a note on the back. It had her name written on it but nothing else which meant the candy was for her but she didn't know who it was from. She brought the box inside but she didn't tell her parents about it because she didn't want them to worry.

After that day, Charlie began to notice a boy riding his bike by her house almost everyday. She didn't know his name but she was aware of who he was. He lived down the street with just his mother and according to a lot of folks he was born mentally retarded but he seemed perfectly normal to her.

The first time she saw him it was at a church picnic and he was trying to find a spot for him and his mother. Nearly everyone who had attended went out of their way to ensure that he wouldn't be sitting anywhere near them. As if he had the plague or something. She saw him start to walk away with his head hanging down in rejection, so she approached him and said that he and his mom could sit with her family. During the whole picnic he never spoke to her but he did stare at her. Stare at her and smile.

In fact that's all he did whenever she would get a glimpse of him coming by on his bike. Just staring and smiling. Then one day she decided to smile back and wave at him. In response he made a gesture with his fingers that ushered her to come out of the house and over to where he stood by the apple tree in the middle of the field. At first Charlie just shook her head because she knew she wasn't allowed outside without one of her parents or a trusted adult and right now her father was gone and her mother was in bed with the flu. But his mahogany eyes seemed to be begging her to come out.

She hesitated then checked to see if her mother was asleep. She was and Charlie figured that there was no harm in just going outside alone for a few minutes. She quietly crept out of the house and over to the apple tree.

"Hi Charlotte." He said with a shy smile. "You're name is Charlotte right?"

"Yes but I prefer to be called Charlie."

"Oh...Okay...I'm...I'm Alastor Devalcourt. I don't know if you remember me but we met at the church picnic a few weeks ago."

"I remember." She said keeping her distance from him. "Um...I'm sorry but...I'm not supposed to talk to boys."

"Really? Oh. Well I don't want to get you in trouble." It was like his eyes were trained to follow her every move.

"Why are you staring at me?" She asked nervously.

"I'm sorry it's just that, you're so beautiful."

She blushed a little and looked away from him. Truth be told, she never really thought of herself as pretty or beautiful. But she was a lovely child. Probably the loveliest girl under the sun. She was often described as having an angelic face, a fair and rosy complexion, bright blue eyes framed by long lashes, and lustrous blonde hair. Her mother Madeline had been quite a beauty in her prime so this was to be expected and while Charlie did share many physical traits with her no one could figure out where her blonde hair came from because both her parents were black haired as were her grandparents on both sides.

"You know that's why she's so mean to you." The boy called Alastor said.

"Who?"

"Delilah. She's mean to you because she's jealous. She's looks and acts ordinary. There's nothing special about her. Not like you."

"Don't all the boys give her valentines?" Charlie asked.

"Not all of them. I didn't give her one. I bought the prettiest red satin heart shaped candy box I could find and gave it to you."

"The box of candy? That was you?"

"Uh-huh."

"Why did you give them to me?"

"Well I saw how they treated you and how sad it made you. I just wanted to make you smile. You made me smile when I was sad. Why not return the favor?"

Before she could answer she suddenly heard the voices in her head. But there was something different about the way they spoke to her this time. This time they were telling her to do something. Before all they did was just give her information about things but now they were demanding that she get away from the boy right now.

"Run away!" They said.

"Don't trust him!"

"He's dangerous!"

"He just wants to hurt you!"

"Leave now!"

"Run!"

"Stop it!" She shouted covering her ears. "Stop it!"

"Stop what?" Alastor said.

He saw her trembling, he moved his right hand slowly toward her but she flinched.

"Don't come any closer!" She cried.

"No please! Don't be afraid of me." He pleaded. "I won't hurt you. I promise."

"No! Leave me alone!"

She wasn't sure if she was talking to Alastor or the voices in her head. But the next thing she knew was that she was running from him and back inside of her own house. The voices became silent after that but the world around her did not because as soon as the voices hushed, she heard the sound of her mother screaming in terror.

She found her frantically running about in one room, looking as if she was about to have a meltdown. But as soon as she saw Charlie she ran to her and threw her arms around her, pressing her as close as possible.

"Charlotte where were you?!" She cried out. "When I woke up you weren't here! You weren't in the house!"

"I'm sorry Mommy." Charlie replied as she returned the hug. "I went outside for a little bit."

"By yourself?! We've told you not to do that!" She was completely hysterical. "Your father's abilities can only protect you within a certain range! When you leave the house you're not protected! What if they came for you?! What if they took you away?!"

Charlie didn't understand what her mother was talking about. Protection? They? What did that mean? Did it have something to do with why she was never allowed to go to school? However she chose not to ask those questions right now because at the moment her mother was an emotional wreck and she didn't calm down returned later that day.

"You know you are not allowed outside alone." Gabriel scolded.

"I was still close to the house." Charlie said.

"That doesn't matter! While you are still a child you are to never ever leave this house without me, your mother, or anyone we trust with you! What were you even doing out there anyway?"

"A kid wanted me to come out and play."

"Who?"

She didn't answer because she knew it would anger her father.

"Charlotte who?" He asked again strenly.

She didn't look at him when she finally spoke.

"Alastor Devalcourt."

"A boy?!"

"He didn't do anything. He just wanted to say hello."

"I'm sure he did. You're not mature enough to be getting friendly with boys. So stay away from them, especially that Devalcourt boy."

"Why?"

"Nevermind why. Just know that it's for your own good." He said. "Now go get ready for bed."

She nodded and went upstairs to do as she was told.

"It's not going to work Gabriel." His wife said as soon as her daughter was out of sight.

"What?"

"Forbidding her from seeing that boy. It'll just make him all the more irresistible to her. She's a child now so she probably won't try anything but what about when she becomes a teenager? If you deny her access she'll defy us."

"Madeleine you know why I'm doing this."

"I know but we have to be careful. She's already disobeyed us because of him. If we restrain her it'll only get worse. I know the boy's mother, she's a decent woman, God-fearing too. I don't see any harm in letting Charlotte play with him."

"His mother maybe decent but his father certainly isn't."

"He died when that boy was too young to remember him. He's had no influence on him at all. Besides he's probably the only child in this whole town who wants to be her friend and if she has a real human friend then she'll stop talking to them."

"You do have a point." He said. "I'll think about it. For now let's just get some sleep."

With that said the couple went upstairs to retire for the evening.