CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT:
CHARLOTTE
--
Althea hit her until Charlotte begged and apologize, saying she was just kidding, and she knows Tyler.
Althea huffed and squinted her eyes on her; of course, how could she forget about him? Charlotte
rubbed her arms that were reddening from her pinches, honestly, Althea felt bad, but she didn’t show it.
Serves her right.
Charlotte complained that it stings, she sneered at her. “You want more?”
“No thanks,” she mumbled while flinching away. She continues to rub her arms and look at her. “Is he
really with him? Of all people?”
“Hmm.” Althea just hummed in agreement and recounted the events of what happened as how Becca
did to her. Charlotte nodded in understanding before turning silent, it was brief, but Althea saw guilt
flashing in her eyes.
She pursed her lips and smack her with the pillow. She didn’t dodge and let the soft thing smack her
face before saying; “I really need apologize to Kyle, I almost made him motherless.”
“Shut up!” She hit her again, not bothering to correct her.
She frowns, “I don’t want him to be motherless after being grandparent-less-“
“Charlotte- just shut up- never mind that- come here, let me pull your hair out.”
“Don’t, my husband will not like me even more. But- kidding aside,” Charlotte stole the pillow and
hugged it. “Why did you let him go with him? Can I safely assume that your over-“
“No.” She answers immediately, not even letting Charlotte to finish her sentence.
The temperature in the room dropped by several degrees again, it was okay after they broke the ice
earlier, but the atmosphere changed for the second time. Unlike a couple of minutes ago, it was
Charlotte who’s refusing to have an eye contact with Althea, but now, Althea was looking anywhere but
her eyes.
She looked at her in silence. Her heart aches every time she sees her like this, like she was trapped in
an endless maze. Charlotte thought she was already okay after therapies, but it seems like she was
blind enough or pretended to be blind to not notice.
The silence was madly suffocating, Althea begun biting her lips again and holding the ring finger- but
the ring that keeps her nerves in check was gone. It made her sunk into a dangerous pit. She started to
overthink things in her head, and it got darker and darker. In silence, she began fretting over things.
Months ago, she should have stopped it early and not fall into something she wont like, but the past
events unearthed memories that accelerated her fall even more.
Lost in the sea of her past memories;
She lost her reasoning.
-
Charlotte pursed her lips into thin lines before breaking the silence.
“Althea-“
“- Charlotte, I only gave him back to Tyler temporarily, okay? Take him- take kai from him later- hear
that?” Althea begun to mumble almost incoherently. “I- he- he should not know that we got-“
“Althea?” Charlotte stood up, alarmed. Althea was having an anxiety attack. She called her out again.
“Althea?”
“He must not know- he mustn’t!” She almost shouted, but she was catching her breath as it becomes
ragged and uncontrollably short. Her chest aches and she can feel her head spinning in spiral. Althea
wants to vomit.
She was staring at the wall, and it was swirling spirals and shapes until a silhouette of a man was
standing by the wall. It had no facial features, it was just a hazy, black, smoky silhouette, but Althea
knows it was looking at her. He was looking at her with his usual cold with amusement smile.
It was him.
The smile sent thousands of shivers in her spines. Like a broken switch, she saw different places, a
hospital, and an old, abandoned factory. The places she saw switches every second, distorting with her
vision. The only thing that remained standing there, unmoving; was that one particular black silhouette.
Then she heard a familiar chalky voice.
“I told you,”
It’s him.
Althea widens her eyes, and she can feel her throat tightening; she was choking. Her mouth was dry,
and she was sweating heavily. She can feel big beads of sweats dripping down on her forehead.
He smiled even more, stretching his lips in an impossible length.
“I would come for you.”
He’s really here!
“Althea- good god!” She can hear Charlotte’s voice faintly, she felt- or maybe it was just an illusion- her
holding her trembling hands and squeeze it weakly before calling for the nurses up.
Whether it happened or not, Althea doesn’t know.
Her head was throbbing in pain, and she was fighting from being unconscious and not. Althea wants to
calm down, but the shadow of that man was walking slowly towards her. She tried calming herself by
breathing in and out deeply but her breathing stuck in her throat. It was swirling, it was only a distortion,
she knew it was an illusion, because he can’t be here, it was impossible, but her mind still panicked,
and she can’t take her eyes away from it.
Someone shook her and called her name many times.
She remained fixated over the incoming image. As it advances, she moves backward on the bed. Her
eyes were reddening from not blinking too long and tears were peeking out. She was struggling to give
more distance between the two of them, she was trying to escape. But like a rubber band, the man’s
hand stretched out towards her and goes longer and longer, it was nearing her.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. She watched in horror as his hands inched closer to her throat. It was
about to choke her. “No-!!!”
Slap!
-
“Goodness Althea!” A crisp slapping sound penetrated the cold atmosphere as Charlotte’s delicate
hand landed on her face. She was now facing on other side, her neck looking broken. Charlotte
panicked, thinking she accidentally killed her with her slap. She placed her hands on either side of her
cheeks and forcefully turn them to make her face forward where her body faces.
Seeing no reaction, she grasped her shoulders and shook her furiously, her one knee is even on the
bed’s mattress now, embedding. “Althea- Althea snap out of it!”
-
Like being fished out from the water before drowning to death, air madly attacked Althea’s lungs that it
hurts. She gasped for air, and she realized that she was breathing again. With her heavy breathing, she
looked around and saw that the distorted place returns normal. That man was not there anymore, like
he never existed in the first place.
Her breathing was short and fast. Her whole body is cold. She was still shaking.
The only thing that made her slowly calm down was the gentle caresses of Charlotte’s thumb on her
shoulder. “Althea- are you okay?”
Althea raised her head and she saw her looking at her with concern. “I…”
Charlotte pursed her lips after hearing the crack of her voice, after some hesitation, she finally asked
what she was meaning to. “So I was right, you’re still hung up in the past.”
Althea did not speak. Charlotte tightened her hands on her shoulders. She gently shook her. “I let you
stop your therapy just because you said you’re already okay, but- what’s this?”
Althea’s jaws tightened and she gripped her arms and tried to pry them away. The other is usually
weak but she had a little bit more strength today, she won’t budge. Her grip tightened even more.
“Althea, it’s been years-“
“Do you think it’s easy to forget it, Charlotte?” Althea spat at her after being silent. The surpassed
anger in her made her voice cracked and shaking. “Do you think it is? If it was- I would have forgotten it
already!”
“Ha!” Charlotte sighed loudly and looked at her. She was still shaking, and her hands were cold. She
doesn’t know what she saw or imagined but basing on the fear in her eyes and voice earlier, it was
related to ‘him’. “Your mother will not be happy to see you like this…!”
Glaring, Althea responded. “She’s dead.”
“And so is ‘he’!” Charlotte shook her. “He’s dead! No one’s coming for you just because you get closed
to him again!”
“…”
Sighing, she clasped her cheeks and stared dead on her eyes. She spoke softly, as if trying to coax a
child. “I know why you are hesitant. Because of what he said to you, but Althea, he’s dead! You told me
yourself-” Her voice lowered. “-you killed him…!”
“His body wasn’t found Charlotte. It was never found.”
“But still-“
The door opened. The two stopped and looked at it. Becca was standing next to the door,
awkwardness on her face.
“Uh,” she pointed outside with her thumb. “Uh, sorry- I’ll just come back-“
“No.” Althea said, brushing Charlotte’s hands away from her face. The latter looked at her helplessly
and sat on the bed, defeated. “It’s okay.”
“Althea-“
“Charlotte, I don’t want to talk about it now.”
Sighing, she stood up. “Okay fine.” She hugged her tightly and Althea responded weakly. “I’ll get going
now, then.”
Althea nodded and said nothing more. Charlotte broke the hug and looked at her in worry. Seeing that
she has no plans talking to her, she went for the door, an expression slowly formed in her face.
Before going out, she looked back at Althea. “By the way. I’ll be busy for the whole month. I can’t take
care of Kyle. Let him stay with him for a while- shut it, don’t think for yourself only- ask the kid whether
or not he wants to be with him. If not, okay, take him away, but if he took liking, why not?”
Then, she left.
-
Becca, who was standing by the door did double take before wondering about whether her brain and
eyes were playing tricks on her or not. Althea noticed her standing frozen, with creased brows, she
called for her.
“Close the door, what are you spacing out there for?”
Becca snapped out of it and looked at Althea, asking herself;
What was that? Did that lady just smile? Why does that look mocking and amusement?
“Oh, nothing.” She mentally shook her head. Stupid, she might just be imagining things. “Nothing at
all.”
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