by R. R. Banks
As I went back to cleaning her forehead and putting a bandage over it, my mind continued to search through memories to find her. I saw her again, standing in the hallway, looking at me around the arm of a girl standing much closer. The girl standing closer to me was Staci Boyer, a cheerleader who was eyeing me to finish her football team bed-hopping bingo board. She was bold and forward, willing to do and say anything that she thought that I wanted her to just to get my attention. That had been thrilling when I was younger and first discovering my place in the popular crowd of the high school, but now it was boring at best, disturbing at worst. What was catching my attention at that moment was the shy, quiet girl.
Charlotte.
Her name came to me suddenly, rushing back into my mind as I remembered her noticing that I was looking at her. Her cheeks had reddened, and she had turned away suddenly, scurrying away down the hallway. There had been something about her then that had piqued my interest, making me wonder about her, and I was still wondering about her now as I watched her sleep for a few moments. Why was she on my mountain? What had brought her up this far to a place that I had chosen specifically because of its distance from people? I didn't know what might have brought her to the narrow, dangerous road that led down the mountain, and the thoughts and feelings that were coursing through me were strange and tangled, I couldn't determine if I was glad that she was there, glad to see her again, or if she was an intrusion in the solitude that I had carefully crafted for myself in the lodge.
Scout appeared back at the door to the bedroom and then walked to the bed, hopping up and resuming his position curled up at Charlotte's feet. He looked up at me as if to tell me that my services were no longer needed, and I smiled.
"Alright, boy. You go ahead and watch over her. Make sure she's OK. I'm going to go and try to relax a little."
Scout watched me walk out of the room and when I glanced back in after looking away he had his head rested on his feet again. Confident that Charlotte was safe and comfortable for the time being, I walked out of the guest room and through the lodge to the room in the back hall, a room that I often kept locked even though no one else came into the house. Locking it somehow seemed to keep what was inside more secure, as though it couldn't affect me as much when it was locked away. That way I could go into it when I wanted to, when I needed to, and avoid it when I didn't.
Chapter Five
Charlotte
I didn't immediately open my eyes when I woke up. I laid there for a few seconds, feeling strange and disoriented. I couldn't remember falling asleep or what had happened in the minutes before I laid down. I felt the soft pillow beneath my head and the blanket draped over me, and realized that I didn't know where I was or how I had gotten there. I slowly lifted my eyelids, not knowing what I was going to see when my eyes opened fully, and found myself staring at a window. The curtains were pulled back and the space beyond the glass was impenetrably dark. I couldn't see anything beyond the blurry reflection that was created by the light filtering from an open door behind me. I sat up, looking around, trying to orient myself in the space, but there was nothing around me that was even slightly familiar. I didn't know where I was or what had gotten me there. I looked back at the reflection in the window and a sinking feeling came to my belly as unfamiliar eyes stared back at me.
I didn't know who I was.
See how Micah and Charlotte’s story unfolds. Get Damaged HERE.
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