Guess what, I actually wrote something the other day. This scene is from Charlie's POV, it's when Christopher comes back from the summer trip, and when she first meets Ulrik.
Charlie jolted awake. She sat up in bed, her breath came quickly, she was alone in the dark room.
Why had she woken up? Was it a bad dream? She couldn't remember what she was dreaming about.
She slowly scanned the dark room, everything looked normal. Was she worried about Christopher? Maybe that was it, that would make sense.
She hugged her elephant stuffie, she should go back to sleep.
She fell back onto her pillow and shut her eyes.
She heard a voice downstairs, it was a man's. It wasn't Dad. Her eyes shot open again.
Dad's voice sounded low like a bubbling brook, overflowing in the smile he always wore, this one sounded low like the growl of a feral dog, it made her body tense like prey.
What was he doing at their house so late? Who was he talking to? She strained her ears, trying to catch his words, but his voice mixed with the hum of her fan and she couldn't make anything out.
Suddenly the growl was interrupted by a higher voice, almost high enough to understand, it sounded familiar, so very familiar…
“Christopher!” A little voice in her head said.
Christopher? How could Christopher be here? He was far away right now, fast asleep in a room full of a dozen other boys. He couldn't be here.
Unless something had happened. Maybe he had to be taken home, and that man had brought him back, maybe he was explaining it to Mom and Dad right now. Why hadn't they said anything? And why did Christopher sound upset?
She heard the growl again, Christopher’s voice was gone.
She squeezed her elephant. She didn't want to meet the man, but she was worried. It was probably nothing, they would probably tell her in the morning, but she couldn't sleep, not anymore, not with how her skin crawled with every word that slipped out from between his bared teeth.
She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She paused for a second, then slowly stood up, clutching her elephant close to her chest. It would probably be fine, they would explain it to her, she could hide behind Christopher, and then she could go back to bed.
She tiptoed across her bedroom floor and slowly opened the door. A light was on in the dining room, she could see it spilling out into the hallway through the crack under the door. She could hear the man's voice still, but she couldn't make anything out over her pounding heart.
Slowly she stepped down the stairs, and up to the door, it had been pulled to almost shut, she slowly grabbed the handle, but stopped to listen before opening the door.
“-you must understand.” The man finished.
There wasn't any reply. What had happened? Was it bad? Charlie swallowed, and slowly turned the handle. She heard the noise of someone quickly turning around, she heard the thud of hurried and heavy footsteps, and she saw two strangers, an enormous man, and-and-
“ULRIK, WAIT!!!” It was Christopher, he was yelling, why did he look like that?
The man stopped, towering over Charlie, his eyes were buried under his scowling eyebrows.
“And what would you have me do?” His head was turned to Christopher.
“She's my sister!” Christopher’s hand was spread out, reaching for her. A blue mist surrounded it, Charlie followed up his arm with her eyes, the mist surrounded his whole body, wrapping around him like a cloak, flowing with his movements like a rushing river.
"Your sister…?” The man's cold gaze boar down on her again, she lifted her eyes to meet his- or thought she had, but they dropped down to his fur trimmed boots. He made her want to run. “My apologies then.” He took a step back, his shadow slipping off of her again, like the hand of death. She released a breath and had to stop herself from gasping.
"Charlie!” Christopher was by her side, his hands were cold on her shoulders- or maybe it was leftover from the piericing gaze of the man -he looked worried. Why did his eyes look like that? Where did his face go?
“Why are you up? Are you okay?”
“I heard a noise.” Charlie heard her own voice say, it sounded so very pathetic and weak, like the whimper of a rabbit, “What- what happened?”
A wave of movement swept through Christopher’s body- that's weird, why could she see through him?
“Please don't be too surprised,” Christopher was saying, he had no mouth, “I- something happened on the way there.” She knew that, that was obvious, if something hadn't happened, he wouldn't be here, that man wouldn't be here. Who was he?
“The bus- the bus crashed, Charlie, and I-I-”
Oh. He didn't need to finish his sentence, she could tell, please don't say it. But he still did.
“I died, Charlie.” His trembling voice matched the movement of the mist surrounding him, was that a coincidence?
Something warm slid down her cheek, she lifted a hand to wipe it, her hand trembled. Oh, she was crying again, wasn't she?
“I'm sorry, Charlie, I-I-” Christopher didn't know what to say, that's okay, she didn't either. How could she, anyway?
She heard herself gasp, and felt the rattling sobs over taking her. She didn't want to cry in front of a stranger, he didn't seem to care.
"Fear not, child, I have come to help your brother.” Charlie hardly heard him, she didn't want to, anything coming out of his mouth couldn't possibly be good.
“Yeah,” Christopher wasn't crying, but his voice showed the strain of surpressing it, “he knows how to bring me back.”
Bring him back? Why would he do that? Who was he? Why did he look like that? Where were Mom and Dad? Shouldn't they be here?
“Yes, your brother possesses Essence Draining magic, he's truly blessed. With his magic, and mine, we can easily bring him back.” But why? Why would he help them? Did Mom and Dad know? Were they still in bed? How did they not wake up? Why couldn't they be here?
"Where's Mom.” Charlie managed, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, she didn't want a stranger to see her like that. They both grew quite. Why? He had been talking so much earlier. She looked up at them, Christopher had turned away, his hair hid his eyes, but the mist trembled again.
The man stared down at her, his expression betrayed nothing, but she couldn't hold his gaze for long, she didn't realize how long she'd been staring at his boots again.
“Your parents…” He spoke at last, “were not who you thought they were…” What did that mean? Did they leave?“I hope you can understand, I already discussed this with Christopher-” she hated the sound of his name in his mouth, “-but they are no longer an issue.”
"What does that mean?” She asked the floor at his feet. Why couldn't they be here?
"You understand what happened to your brother on that bus, yes?” Of course she did, she was well acquainted with death, what did that have to do with their parents-?
Her eyes snapped up to meet his, he didn't mean-
"They're dead?” Her voice was hardly above a whisper.
"Not the same way as your brother, but yes.” He said it so causally, so coldly, with no more emotion than anything he had said before, did he not understand what they meant to her?
She opened her mouth to say something, what it was she wasn't sure, but a suppressed sob came out instead, causing her to double over. Why did this happen?
She felt a sudden chill wrap around her body, with a gasp her eyes snapped open to see Christopher, he was hugging her. The trembling mist licked at her and crawled around at her knees. It was uncomfortable, and made her tremble, but it also felt better, it felt like the hug he used to give her before, after he'd chased off the mean boys, and after any bad day. It had always made her feel warm inside. But now it felt like a piercing cold threatening to stab her through the heart. But she didn't pull away, Christopher needed it as much as she did, so she wrapped her own arms around him, sobbing into his cold shoulder, watching her tears slide down his cold glow.
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
andulkaphoto
amandla