Part Two: Chapter Ten

Part Two: The Tiger

“Chuck?” Danny rested a hand on her shoulder. “You okay? You haven’t left your room in a few days,” He noticed with a furrowed brow.

She was curled in a tight ball clutching her stomach. Her knuckles were white. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse. “Don’t touch me. Please. Don’t touch me.”

“What the hell did she do to you?” Danny queried, removing his hand. Delicately, he pulled back her hair. “Chuck, what the hell did she do?” He repeated.

Her eyes were clenched shut. “Please, Danny, leave.” Her voice shook. Perspiration dribbled down her forehead. “Please.” Her face was pallid and disturbed.

“Chuck, it’s been four days. You need to eat something.” He stroked her cheek, watching her wince away from his touch.

She whimpered, “Please, don’t make me eat dog food.” Pain shot through her entire body. She held her stomach tighter and moaned.

“Dog food? What are you talking about? Why would you…Jesus, that’s disgusting!” He exclaimed. “She’s disgusting! Are you okay? What else did she do to you?” He sat on the bed next to her and stroked her back.

“Stop, please, stop.” Her voice was high and helpless. She opened her eyes, which were filled with tears. “Please, Danny. I want to be alone.”

“Chuck, tell me what’s going on.” He kissed her cheek. When she didn’t reply, he continued to speak. “I came in here to ask you something. Will you be my girlfriend?”

Violently, her shoulders tensed even more if possible. “No,” she cried.

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I won’t tie you to a girl who won’t put out.” Her voice became a whisper. “Please, Danny. Go, please.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Put out? Chuck, don’t listen to Eve! She’s…nuts! I don’t want you to put out. I just want to be with you.” He said tenderly. “So will you?”

She relaxed. Her body uncoiled. “Yes.” Her voice was still soft, but held such sweetness and excitement. With a groan, she tried to sit up, but fell back on her pillows.

Danny saw the struggle in her face as she moved. “What did she do to you?”

“Some things are better left unsaid.” Chuck muttered more to herself. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her hair was in disarray. Her wrists were rimmed with red from the ropes. “I need to go to sleep. I haven’t slept since then,” She exhaled. There were dark smudges under her eyes.

“You want me to grab you something from the fridge?” Danny offered, hovering over her face. Gently, he kissed her after she shook her head. “Rest up.”

She offered him a haggard smile.

Danny scuffed down the stairs to the kitchen where everyone was already eating. He shot Eve a disgusted glare and sat next to Nat.

“What was that look for, Daniel?”

He snapped, “What the hell did you do to Chuck?” Springing up from the table, he glowered at her.

She snickered. “That’s all that’s bothering you? I bet she’s too prissy to talk about it anyway. I hollowed out her c**t like a canoe, burning it.”

Danny cringed. “You did what? Do you have any idea how…how dangerous that is?” He roared. “She could…you…you make me sick! Do you even care how badly she’s hurt? She can’t f*****g move! You only wish you were a witch!”

Eve threw a plate at Danny. “That w***e doesn’t deserve that kind of power. I should have Evan’s powers! Look what you did!” She screeched, seething.

Danny lowered his eyebrows. “Who’s Evan?”

“I meant Charlotte. Someone has to clean up that plate, Daniel.”

Danny snarled, “Well, it sure as hell won’t be me, Eve.” Defiantly, he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I thought you might say that. Charlotte! Charlotte, get your a*s down here right now! Charlotte!” Eve called up the stairs. “Someone has to clean it up.”

“Wait, Ms. Lane, I’ll do it, okay?” Danny pleaded, thinking of Chuck’s inability to even sit up in bed.

“Too late for that.” Eve pointed at the stairs where Chuck clutched the wall, limping down the stairs.

She looked pathetic. Glasses on the bridge of her nose, bags beneath her eyes, knees shaking, limping worse than ever, some of Eve’s baggy clothes draped over her small frame, she looked very frail and old. “Y-yes, Ms. Lane?” She relied heavily on the wall for support. With each step, she winced.

“Clean up that mess.” She ordered locking eyes with the girl. “On your hands and knees. I want every piece of that plate picked up and all of the food that was on it.”

Chuck had lost her heart to fight back. Her voice was deflated and weak. “Yes, ma’am.” She replied, falling on her hands and knees in a crumble. Unsteadily, she picked up the shards. Another whimper passed her lips as everyone watched horrified.

“Hurry up!” Eve kicked her from behind, enjoying Charlotte’s fall.

In shock at the new explosion of pain, her mouth hung open and her eyes squeezed tightly shut. “Why?” She said so softly as if talking to the floor. “Why?” She repeated, husky with tears. “I just want my mom and dad.” She sobbed into the floor.

Even Eve wasn’t cruel enough to hurt her again. She merely walked away.

Everyone else felt the discomfort and left.

Charlotte lay on the floor for hours. In agony, she cried incessantly until the pain eased up and she was able to close her eyes and fall asleep there.

“Fourteen! And one for luck!” Robbie finished slapping her and leapt on her bed. “Good morning, Chuck!” He ruffled her hair. “Good morning! The sun is up!”

“Ugh, Robbie, why are you hitting me?” Chuck mumbled.

“Why am I hitting you? Silly girl! Surely you realize what today’s glorious date is? It’s the day that Mom and Dad ruined my life! They told me that they were adopting!”

Chuck giggled. “I knew you were too weird to be related to!” She joked, sitting up. “What’s up?” She rubbed her eyes, reaching for her neglected glasses.

“Aw, there’s my little nerd! You look so cute all bespectacled!”

“Bespectacled, really, Robbie?”

“Really, Chuck.” With her laughing protests, Robbie lifted her out of bed and carried her down the stairs. “I brought the goods!”

The woman at the kitchen counter laughed, “Robbie, I told you to wake her up, not drag her out of bed. Good morning, chicken.”

“G’morning.” Chuck muttered with a dazed smile. She looked at the counter in front of her curiously. “Cake?” She wondered, staring at the plate.

“Chuck, every year! I don’t know how you always forget your own birthday!”

“Oh, right! Thanks, Mom.”

A surging pain brought Chuck up from the dream. She pushed up her glasses. Holding the counter, she pulled herself up from the floor. 12:38 AM. Charlotte counted off the days since she’d last seen the calendar. “That’s what brought that back,” She sighed at the day that was only thirty-eight minutes over. The seventeenth of August. Her birthday.

Author's Note

That's bleak.