Chapter Three

In Chapter Three more letters come to Charlie, this time with more information than the last. Charlie gets a feeling that Lucas might like him but he tries to push it away.

Lucas was out for the night when a knock came at the door. I walked over and opened it, outside the door on the floor sat an envelope. I looked down at it and swallowed hard. I knew it was from the person who sent the later letter, the same type of printed address was on the label as I picked it up and shut the door. As I walked over to my bed, I ripped it open and unfolded the paper;

     "Hello Charlie. How have your few weeks been lately? Good? That's great. I just wanted you to know that Joshua was not the man everyone thought he was. He was in stuff so deep that nobody could ever get him out. On the flash drive, that I included in the envelope, there is some school report cards. Some that you have never seen before. Think Joshua was such a smarty pants huh? That he was passing everything? Sometimes, the smartest people fail under the silliest mistake"

I sighed as I took out the little, black flash drive. I grabbed my laptop and plugged the flash drive in and waited. A folder popped up and in that folder was another folded labeled "Joshua". I double licked it and a few pictures opened up. I clicked on them and began to scroll through. This didn't make much sense to me, every report card Joshua showed me and his parents were all A's and C's, the ones I was looking at were D's and E's. He was failing everything and it started about half way through our junior year. He didn't tell anyone and no teachers said anything, why did he hide it? I narrowed my eyes a little, it made no sense. "I'll have to call Mr. Humel tomorrow" I said softly, just then Lucas came through the door. I shut my laptop quickly and looked at him. I could he had a buzz going, he wasn't really annoying when he was a bit drunk, but he acted different and it didn't sit well with me. 

"We need a rug talk" his voice soft but a bit slurred as he smiled at me. I nodded and got onto the floor, the soft carpet caressed my back as he laid down beside me and put his hands under his head. 

"Whatcha need?" With a smile I looked at him. He smiled back. I loved when he smiled it made me feel happier.

"There's this guy and I kind of like him. I don't know if he likes me back and it really drives me nuts. Everything about him is..." he began. He smiled and let out a big sigh "Perfect" he finished with a chuckle. I smiled at him.

"Do I know him?" hoping to get a little information about the man who had obviously won Lucas's heart. Lucas nodded. His hazel eyes studied the ceiling and I nodded a bit. 'Whoever this guy is, is really lucky. Lucas is such a nice guy and serves someone special' I thought to myself. Eventually, "Well, just ask him or even have a friend do it?" he looked at me and I saw he had an idea. He smiled.

"Thanks, I'll do that" he said. "You need to talk about anything while we're down here?" I knew he was talking about the letters, he knew something was up because I would always act weird when one came and I didn't want him to find out about them. He didn't know anything about Joshua and really, I didn't want him to. I had thought about telling him and Ella about the letters, but I wasn't really sure. 

"Not right now" I looked up at the ceiling with a soft sigh. He smiled back and got up to go to the bathroom. I heard the shower turn on and I sat up. I took the letter from under my pillow and looked at it as I shook my head gentle. "Joshua, what have you gotten yourself into?" I whispered softly.

          "Aw come on!" Lucas begged. I smiled and rolled my eyes. Ella was over at our dorm and they wanted me to play some board game with them. I didn't want to, but their cute pouty faces made it harder to resist. 

"You are such a stickler" Ella grumbled playfully. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

"I just don't want to play" Lucas smiled and looked at me, his eyes sparkled with a sort of interest and I didn't think I'd like what he was thinking.

"How about we play something else?" he suggested. The look in his eyes told me he was up to something, and I just shook my head.

"And what is that?" She opened a can of soda and pressed it to her lips. Lucas smiled and bit his lip gentle as he leaned against the white frame of his bed.

"We could play 20 questions" I rolled my eyes, Ella smiled and nodded quickly.

"Yeah!" she agreed "We can get closer as friends" she added with a cute smile. They both looked at me, their pouty faces working me and I hated when they did that.

"Fine!" I grumbled as I sat down in the middle of them on the rug. I could tell from their exchange of glances that they were up to something, I was a bit nervous, but I did want to know what it was.

"So, I'll go--" Ella began as a knock at the door interrupted her. I looked at the door as the footsteps walked away and Lucas got up to open it. He picked up a small brown box and shut the door behind him.

"For you" He sat the package in my lap.I started down at it, my heart sank. The same type of labeling was on this package as were on the letter, so I knew exactly who sent it. It had only been a week since the last letter I had gotten, they were coming closer and closer together and I hated the feeling they gave me. 

"Open it" Ella had a smile on her face smile. I looked at her, I couldn't share her excitement about opening a package because I knew something bad would be inside. I slowly opened it and inside was a letter and a DVD in a clear case. Ella took the DVD and looked at it as I opened the letter;

     "Good evening Charlie. Are you enjoying your night with Ella and Lucas? I hope you are. Anyway, I included a DVD with this package. I would like you to watch it, what you may see will not what any of you want but I'd love for you to watch it. You'll think of Joshua in a whole new light afterwards. Goodnight Charlie"

I swallowed hard as Ella looked at me, her face had changed and her eyes filled with worry as she kept looking at me, I could see she was a bit angry as well. Lucas was completely lost. "Charlie..." Ella began softly, she crawled over toward me and leaned against me, her arm body sending heat to my own cold body. "Are you not telling me something?" I looked at her and sighed softly. I began to explain everything; The letters, how I felt about them, how I called Mr. Humel and he told me that the school system was hacked and that's why Joshua's grades were changed. I finally finished, they both looked at each other with their eyebrows raised.It felt great finally telling them what had been eating me up inside. 

"You are telling me that the person who killed your boyfriend is now sending you weird a*s letters and packages?" Lucas's eyes flashed with anger. I looked down at the floor and nodded, I felt their stares getting angrier at me, I wasn't sure if they were mad at me for keeping it a secret, or just for the fact that someone was doing this. Ella grabbed my laptop and set it down in the middle of us and put the DVD in. It loaded to a black screen and she paused it, she looked at Lucas and then at me.

"Nobody will talk until it's over, got it?" I could tell from Ella's face she was serious, we both nodded. She took a deep breath and hit play, the DVD began;

     It was Joshua's bedroom,Joshua was focusing the camera. His beautiful eyes looking into the lens and his cute smile shining brightly. He coughed and pulled up a chair to the middle of the room, right in the camera's view. "Hi Charlie, if you are watching this then I must be dead" he began. He looked around his room and his eyes slowly went back to the camera, bits of tears showed up in his eyes.  "You are most likely watching this with Ella and whoever else you have trusted. I want to begin with, I am sorry.I am sorry I left you, I never meant to. I loved you so much that I would of gone to the Moon and back for you" he said, his voice cracked as he coughed again. "I have gotten into some trouble, big trouble. I never told you because I didn't want you to worry. I was in with the wrong crowd and things got serious" he continued. He ran his fingers through his shaggy brown hair. "Ella, I am sorry for all the s**t I put you, mom and dad through. The fights we had were bad, but the laughs meant more to me. You are my sister and I will always love you. I am sorry I left so early, mom and dad will take it hard, I died young and I know" he continued, his voice filled with soft sobs as he tried to control himself. "Charlie..." he started again after a few minutes. "What you will learn about me will make you hate me. You will wish you never met me and that's completely fine. I want you to move on from me, I want you to let someone have your heart like you have let me have it. I am giving it back, let someone else take hold of it and make sure not to break it. I want you to love someone just as much as you loved me" he gave a sad smile. The sad smile turned into a happy smile. "If they hurt you, I will come back and haunt their a*s" he said with a soft chuckle. "I will miss you both so much. Tell mom and dad I love them, and Ella, make sure Charlie doesn't do anything stupid, if he meets a cute guy, don't let him f**k it up" he finally finished. He stood up and smiled at the camera. Tears ran down his face as he shut off the camera and the screen went black. 

I was crying by the time it ended and Ella closed the laptop. I had my face buried in my hands as the tears poured out of me like they would never end.What the hell was that? Joshua was in trouble and he never told me? Hes dead because of it and he wanted to protect me? What the hell was he thinking! "Charlie" I heard Ella's sweet voice, I felt her hand on my shoulder. I looked up, tears blurred my vision and I blinked them away. We all just sat there, Lucas rubbing the back of his neck, Ella rubbing my shoulder and me crying.

"I am sorry, but can I speak honestly?" Lucas finally said after what seemed forever of my cries echoing in the room. Ella nodded as she held me tightly in her arms. "What the f**k was that? Was Josh in some sort of gang or Mafia type deal?" Lucas asked with a smirk on his face. Ella shot him a glance, but shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

"To be honest, I don't know. I never thought he was in trouble, he never showed any signs.He never even told us he was failing school" Ella laid her head on my shoulder, her brown hair tickling my nose a little. Lucas began to pace back and forth in front of us, rubbing his arm.

"Then who hacked the grades?" Lucas asked. Ella shook her head again. He had just learned about this, yet he acted like we knew everything. How in the hell were we suppose to know?

"I know nothing..." she said softly as she kissed my cheek. My sobs slowly started to go away as I wiped the tears onto my sweater.

"How often do the letters come?" Lucas asked.I took a ragged breath and sighed.

"They come every few weeks" I shrugged my shoulders. He looked at me, our eyes locked and his gaze was filled with sorry, compassion, and helplessness all in one. I wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about this, he didn't even know Joshua existed until we told him.

"And each one contains more information?" Lucas continued. I nodded. He ran his hands through his hair and then rubbed his chin. "Then we wait, we continue our lives until the next ones comes" he finally said. Ella's arms around me were replaced with Lucas's and his grip was tight. He held me close to his chest, and I couldn't help it. My arms found their way around his waist and my tear soaked face buried into his chest. "We'll figure out something alright?" he whispered softly. I just nodded my head, hoping that he was right.

         I started at my laptop, ever night when I got home from class I would re-watch the video of Joshua. How he said he loved and missed me, it made me cry every time but it gave me a sort of comfort by hearing his sweet words. I wiped my eyes quickly as Lucas came through the door, he set his bag down and went into the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush and he came out, drying his hands on a towel. "Are you watching that again? he asked softly. I looked up at him and nodded my head slowly, I knew I shouldn't be watching it, but it made me happy. I closed my laptop, feeling the cold plastic against my finger tips. "You need to stop that" his voice was gentle.

"How can I?" Everything was too overwhelming for me. Joshua was murdered, the murderer was basically haunting me with letters, videos, and packages and I couldn't do anything about it. What if he killed someone else I cared about? Ella? Lucas? Mr. or Mrs. Parks? I wouldn't be able to deal with it.

"We'll figure it out okay? The letters will eventually stop and you'll be fine" his arms were crossed over his chest as I looked at him, something about me just hated what he said to me, but another half wanted to believe him.I long to believe him, but I knew it was true. There was nothing alright about this whole thing. Joshua was dead, my love was dead, my life was dead and he just looked at me as his expression grew more soft as the silence between us expanded. "I'm just trying to help"he finally said, noticing my long pause.

"I know okay? I just...Don't need it" My voice was dark and I just wanted to be left alone. I set my laptop on the floor and turned over clicking off my light. I cuddled into my bed and buried my face into my pillow.I heard him sigh deeply and walked over to his bed.

"Well, I need you"I heard him say softly but loud enough for me to hear it. I just stared at the wall, shook my head, closed my eyes and began to drift off into a deep sleep. 

    "Hey Charlie" Joshua said sweetly. I blinked blankly at him, he was standing in front of me. 

"You are dead" He smiled at me, nodded his head and walked toward me. It was like he was walking on air.

"It's true, I am gone Charlie. That doesn't mean I stopped loving you" he whispered. I felt his fingers lace through mine and it was like he never left. He held my hands tightly in his. "You have to be strong"he whispered again, his eyes gazing into mine as I shook my head.

"You made me strong, I can't" I looked at the ground, it was a cold gray color. He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up until our eyes met. I felt his lips press against mine and it felt like fan blowing air at your face, he pulled away with a soft smile.

"You were always strong. You were my rock when you didn't know it. I love you so much Charlie" his voice seemed to echo. He suddenly began to fade, the grip on my hands lightened up and I shook my head fiercely. The panic set in.

"Please don't leave me!" I yelled it was too late, he was gone. A cold air blew up my spine and the whole room turned pitch black.

"He's never coming back" a dark voice called, it echoed throughout the room. "e's gone forever, get over it" it growled again, getting louder. I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes tightly as the voice grew louder and louder. 

I shot up in my bed in a cold sweat. I looked around the room, it was still dark outside. Lucas was sound asleep but I was panting heavily. "God" I said weakly as I ran my fingers through my sweat filled hair.

"You okay?"I heard a sleep voice ask, I looked over to see he was leaning up on his elbow.I smiled at him,he did look adorable with all his hair messed up and half asleep.

"Yeah, just a bad dream" I was hoping he would take my word for it, he smiled sleepily and laid back down. I turned over and looked out the window down at the campus courtyard and sighed softly. What was going to happen?