Part Two: Chapter Three

Part Two: The Tiger

Music blasted into Chuck’s ears. She shot up in bed. Fumbling for her glasses on the nightstand, she turned to Lauren. “Could you please put headphones in?”

“No, this was my room first and you being in here won’t change that.”

Charlotte pulled her glasses on. “What time is it?” She rubbed her eyes.

“Three twenty-four,” Lauren said, drawing on her nails with a permanent marker. “Wipe the f*****g look off your face.”

Irritated, Charlotte glared. “I just woke up. Leave me alone.”

Lauren capped her marker and stood. With a grip on her tee shirt, she slammed Chuck into the wall. “Go f**k yourself! I heard you whining to Daniel about how much you miss your parents! It’s funny how low some people will stoop to get a little action.”

“Because it’s not at all possible that I actually miss my par-” A hard punch to the gut silenced her, followed by another. She exhaled, winded and shocked.

“Shut the f**k up!” Lauren hollered and shoved her fist into Chuck’s stomach again. “Maybe, Eve’s right. Witches should be chained down and taught their place.”

“Maybe you should go back to being dead,” Chuck sneered.

Lauren step back and wound up her next hit, a quick and forceful smash to Charlotte’s nose. She grinned maliciously when it cracked and blood poured out. Lauren dropped her when she heard footsteps coming.

“What the hell is going on in here?” Eve snarled. She only saw Chuck. “Making trouble already. Lauren, what was she doing to you?”

Chuck just lay there, staring at the ceiling. The pain hadn’t set in yet. Mostly, she felt the urge to puke. Her head felt light. Black dots speckled before her eyes. A rough hand on her hair yanked her up. Merely, she watched her lap. Another grip of her hair jolted her gaze upward.

“I said keep your goddamn head up!” Eve commanded. “Charlotte, you f*****g idiot. Look what you’ve done!” With the same hand, she slapped the girl. Then she tightly grasped her shirt collar. “You’re going to pay for f*****g up. Do you know hard it’ll be to cover this up if there’s an inspection? No, of course you don’t. So you’re going to f*****g pay. I’m going to take you downstairs and give you the walloping you deserve. Tomorrow, you’re going to scrape and paint the side of the house and no eating. Wouldn’t want you to get fat like that cow over there.”

“Don’t talk about her like that! She’s not fat or a cow.” Chuck earned herself another slap as she came through for a moment. As her nose swelled, she was reminded of her sick feeling. She vomited on Eve’s shoes. “I-I’m sorry.”

Lauren simply watched. The smile was long gone from her face, but it wasn’t replaced with remorse. She simply wore a blank expression.

With a growl, Eve snatched Chuck’s ear and dragged her out of the room and down two flights of stairs into the basement. Viciously, she tore off the girl’s glasses. “Be grateful that I don’t shatter these. One week without them should do you some good.” After throwing Charlotte on the cold cement ground, she gripped a metal baseball bat.

 

Chuck tucked herself into her covers refusing to sob. Tortured tears leaked from her eyes. Pain shot through her entire body, especially her leg; Eve had taken extra care to thoroughly smash in her knee. In fact, the only places left un-bruised were her forearms, neck, and face. Her face was already decorated with a broken nose with two black eyes hastily in pursuit. Fearfully, her hands trembled.

“Chuck?” Lauren called out unsurely. “I didn’t think she would…she never…that hard. I overreacted. Are you okay?”

She didn’t reply. With a grunt, she rolled over to stare at the wall.

“Th-Thanks for you said. She always plays that card on me. She knows how much it bothers me. Do you really think that or were you just-?”

Chuck interrupted, “Stop talking. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. Now, it’s four thirty in the morning. Goodnight, Lauren.” Chuck tried to sleep, but aches and pains kept her awake until Eve dumped a metal bucket of ice water on her. She shivered violently and peered up at her blurred face.

“Six AM, scraping time, sweetheart.” Eve tossed a tool at her followed by a paintbrush. “That’s your shower for the day too, so don’t even think about wasting anymore of my water, b***h.” She left the bedroom after Chuck sat up.

“Wow, she really hates you,” Lauren noticed, tossing Chuck a towel.

Sarcastically, she grimaced, “Gee, you think so?” She wiped her face with the dry towel, causing her nose to throb in pain. Even without her glasses, she saw her left knee swollen and purple. She lifted her shirt to examine the dark splotches on her stomach. Upon standing, she nearly buckled over with all of her weight on her battered legs. Peeling off the wet tee shirt that she had been given for phys-ed class last year, she fumbled to replace it with a fresh one and to pull on a pair of silky basketball shorts.

“Chuck, are you okay?” Lauren asked tenderly.

Charlotte kept her voice calm, but corrosive. “Well, I can’t see a damn thing. My nose is probably broken and I can barely walk. I haven’t felt so good since the car crash.” She plucked the paint scraper off the bed and headed outside. For hours, she worked tirelessly to remove the paint starting at the bottom. Between being barely able to see or walk, and completely forbidden to eat, her efforts seemed futile as she sliced the paint from the house. Near a complete nervous meltdown, a gentle voice soothed her.

“Here,” Danny whispered, handing her a tall glass of cold water and an apple. “You look so sad. I tried to warn you that Eve would try to break you. Are you alright?”

Chuck nodded. As sweat trickled down her forehead and soaked her neck, she took a long sip from the glass. “Thank you.” Her stomach rumbled even after devouring the entire apple. “Thank you,” she repeated.

Much to her dismay, Danny turned to hide his face in his dark hood. He didn’t even show his legs buried in a pair of black jeans. “You’re welcome, Chuck. It’s the least that I could do for you. I’ve never seen Eve so harsh before.”

“So I’ve heard,” Chuck stated. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead.

Danny laid a hand on her shoulder, still facing the opposite direction. “I think you can handle her. I mean you’re a witch after all.”

“Daniel, get away from that filthy w***e, now!” Eve yelled out the window.

Chuck returned to her scraping. “Bye, Danny.”

“I’ll see you later, beautiful.” He parted with a wistful tone.

A deep blush rose in Charlotte’s cheeks. “Did you just call me…” Her voice trailed off when she noticed Danny was already inside. She smiled, surprisingly happy for the pain that she was in. “Beautiful,” She repeated his words, closing her eyes to daydream. The last time a boy had called her beautiful had been over a year ago, almost two.

When the sun had finally set, Eve finally called out, “Charlotte! You’ll finish tomorrow. I shouldn’t have expected someone so stupid to finish in one day.”

Chuck clambered down the ladder and tucked it into Eve’s cluttered shed. When she entered the house, her skin that wasn’t bruised was scarlet with sunburn. Unable to see well, it was a task for her to walk anywhere without bumping into anything. She stumbled her way into the bathroom to wash her face. Curious, she dug through the medicine cabinet, checking each tube for aloe by squinting and smelling. Though it was hazy, she could make out her reflection. Darkness shrouded her eyelids. Her nose was swollen. Her face was sunburned.

Danny had seen her in such a state that afternoon, and yet, he’d called her beautiful.

Chuck beamed at her reflection. “Beautiful,” She muttered to herself again.

Author's Note

Hey, sorry about the swearing in Part Two. I know it bothers some people, but enjoy! Thanks for reading!

Reviews

[Ardeth Lane]

I think Lauren has a crush on Danny. I hate Eve. I think Chuck is good at being strong. How did she manage to work in that condition? I love Danny.

With that said, I would like to add a few things. Why has no one noticed what's happening? Social workers and stuff I mean. And why has no one run away? I would have expected something like that to have happened. Maybe she had a past witch cast a spell to keep them from running off. This is a semi-sad chapter. Semi-sad because I pity Chuck. She seems like such a fighter. Respect. I wonder what Lizzie would do if she knew..