“I thought you were my friend.” Without waiting for a response, she pushed past him and started back out into the early morning. She’d made it to the living room when she saw Aiden’s sister, Molly, blocking her exit. “Excuse me.” Charlotte warbled.
“Not until you apologize to my brother.” The little Elf stamped her foot.
Charlotte turned back around to see Aiden leaning sadly against the wall, watching her darkly. She looked back to his sister. “Maybe later, Molly. I really have to go.” She smiled, though the action felt plastic.
The little girl frowned.
Aiden walked over to where his sister stood. The sound of his heavy footsteps thumping on the hardwood seemed more overpowering than normal.
“Come on, Molly.” He hoisted her up in his arms.
“But Aiden!” Molly whined.
He grinned at his sister.
Charlotte’s face burned. “Goodbye, Aiden,” she said definitively, and walked out into the night.
She jumped off Aiden’s porch and onto the path toward home. The bleeding hearts that normally grew a vibrant red and orange along the white fence turned brown suddenly before Charlotte's eyes and shriveled to a gray dust. She gasped and glanced over her shoulder to see Aiden peering at her through a window before disappearing back inside his dingy cottage.
She hugged her wounded shoulders tightly and walked briskly, once in a while jogging for some added speed. The angular eyes of the jack-o-lanterns that had been placed on street corners for the holiday seemed to have begun following her movements as she swept past them. Witches were beginning to decorate. All Hallows Eve was the Witches’ favorite, Charlotte recalled, trying to distract herself from her paranoia. Suddenly, she became painfully aware of just how human and alone she was. She glanced around for followers, when she caught the eye of a particularly wicked looking pumpkin grin.
“Charlotte. Charlotte,” the enchanted thing called after her musically. “We know why you are running, Charlotte. Run faster. Run faster. Until you are safely at home.”
Charlotte let out a soft yelp. The Witch community only enchanted jack-o-lanterns for entertainment. Just a mere prank. Charlotte had to remind herself they weren't actually intelligent.
The rest of the pumpkins that lined the other side of the street repeated like the first one had. “Run faster. Run faster. Until you are safely at home.”
Charlotte crinkled her forehead, and did exactly that. She broke into a fast run. It seemed as though the things were following her. She passed dozens of them in a haze of orange as she ran out of the residential district and finally into the town square.
“Charlotte!”
She screamed and fell backward, slamming into a burlap figure. She let Edwin help her up, dusted herself off. She beamed seeing Edwin, sewn neatly back together, and immediately threw her arms around him.
“Edwin! I’m so happy to see you!”
“Jeez, why are you in such a hurry?” he asked, adjusting his glasses that had been knocked askew.
Charlotte cleared her throat. “I was just on my way back home.” She peered back toward where the jack-o-lanterns were. They were again lifeless and staring blankly forward.
The shiny, black eyes behind Edwin's bottle cap goggles, now repaired at the bridge with duct-tape, went blank. “N-no. I–I don’t th-think that is the b-best idea—” he began to warn again.
Charlotte sighed. Not again, she thought. “Edwin? What's the matter now? Is it Valek?”
“No! No! No!” He scratched his head feverishly back and forth. “No! It’s n-not! It's n-not Valek. V-valek. Tr-trouble!” Edwin's head shook violently from side to side like he was about to short circuit. “No!” he said again. His head quickly convulsed to the left once more. “N-no! No!”
Charlotte looked around for someone she possibly knew. Something was going seriously awry in her town. And according to Edwin’s half-baked warnings, it was about to get a lot worse.
No one in the square seemed to be paying attention. There was nowhere else to go but home.
“Valek is in trouble, Edwin,” she concluded. Clouds moved past the moon and thunder sounded somewhere miles away. She wrapped her arms around herself — not to keep warm, but rather to keep herself together. “I have to go.” She proceeded walking again in the direction toward home while Edwin continued to spew.
“N-no! No! No!”
Chapter Nine
Bronze Light
Charlotte burst through her front door, causing the surrounding walls to shake when she slammed it behind her. She glanced down at her trembling fists and held them tightly to her sides, trying to keep them still. She scanned the room for her Vampire, the skin on her arms and face tingling.
“Valek?” Her voice broke when she called him and couldn’t see him anywhere.
Valek poked his head out from the library, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Everything all right?” He took a step from the study to stand before her.
The awkwardness between them reappeared when their eyes met. She quickly looked away, however, relieved.
“No.” She breathed. “Just leave me alone, okay? And stay out of my head!” she ordered as she stomped past him into the kitchen.
Valek said nothing as he watched her go by.
Charlotte tore open the refrigerator door, scanned the shelves for something edible, overlooking the certain drawers Valek used to stash emergency medical supplies. Her stomach started talking to her, which was just part of the reason for her rage. She was always testier when she was hungry, another trait she picked up from Valek.
She pulled out a fistful of carrots, celery, and a chicken breast, and laid them each out on a cutting block. The silver butcher knife she pulled out of the wooden knife-holder glistened off the soft light above the old, gas stove. She feigned unawareness of Valek, who stood in the entryway watching her, concerned.
She started chopping the celery into small, green chunks and then pushed it into a heap on one side of the counter. She pulled out a lackluster pot from the cabinet above the stove, filled it halfway with water from the sink, and set it on the burner. Taking the celery chunks by the handful, she dropped them in the pot. Miserable, ignorant Elf. How could she have allowed herself to be so trusting? How was she going to escape the Occult with Valek now that the Regime was watching for him? She needed to devise a plan.
Next, the chicken. She cleaned the meat and dropped the breast in whole — the best way to flavor the stock. Steam lifted into her eyes as she stirred, and she could feel her pores opening. She closed her eyes and inhaled, attempting to calm herself, knowing ultimately, she had to tell Valek what happened.
Finally, she started chopping the carrots, her hands moving fast and furious as she thought about Aiden and the things he told his father. She saw the Wizards’ cogs turning from their high, holy place in the city, and the plans they were plotting against her now. It was only a matter of time. She had to get Valek out of the Occult very soon. She saw Aiden’s lips releasing the secret she had kept for nearly nineteen years. She saw them kissing her—
“Damn!” she blurted out as the silvery knife plummeted to the floor, splattered with blood. “Damn it!” she said again, clutching her wounded finger. She ran over to the brass sink and started rinsing it under warm water.
Valek, who had been lost in thought looming against the threshold, tensed. His pupils engulfed his pretty, blue eyes — gone black as pitch and cold as death. He silently stalked up right behind Charlotte and quickly punched down on the faucet handle, stopping the flow of water.
She spun around, surprised to meet his chest at her eye level. She cautiously looked up into his sable gaze; the blood feeling like it was draining out of her face. She gulped. But his glare wasn’t hungry or scary like she expected. This time it was different somehow.