A New Friend?

   Standing in the dark, right next Charlotte, was a large man, with no features, only a shape.  Charlotte stepped back as she looked up trying to see the face of this strange, scary looking figure.  She looked, but she saw no face, she saw nothing.  She thought she should run, as if she were supposed to be frightened, but she wasn't.  Charlotte was, instead, intrigued with this strange new person, someone who looked familiar but she had no name for.  She felt as if she knew this person, if you can call him that.  As if he were a friend from a younger time.

   "Who are you?" The small girl asked the figure.

   "You may call me Tom, as I fear you will not yet be able to pronounce my real name.  I have been watching you young Charlotte, for many years I have been watching you.  But why do you cry so?"

   "My mommy and my daddy," she said "they died."  Tears began to slowly fill her eyes once more, though she tried to fight crying again, she felt as though she could not. 

   "Why does that sadden you so?"  Tom said in clear misunderstanding.

   "Because I loved them," Charlotte said very sternly.  "Don't you love YOUR parents?"

   "I do not have parents," he said in a neutral voice.  "None of my kind do, that is just the way our life works."  Charlotte looked at him as though he were alien, to her he clearly was. 

   She did not know what she would do, she did not know who this man was, or what he was even.  She sat down on the ground, grabbed onto her knees, and placed her head on the top of her knees.  "What am I going to do?"  She began to cry to herself.

   "That is why I am here," Tom said in a calming voice.  "I have come to take you in as my own, to give you a new life." 

   "What do you mean?  I don't even know you," she exclaimed through sobbing lips.

   "Yes you do," the figure said in simple explanation.  "You have known me since you were but a young infant.  I am the one who hides in your closet at night, and who follows you in the shaddows as you walk through the hall." 

   "But you aren't scary," she wondered.  "The man in my closet is scary, and the shaddow in the hall is scary too." 

   "I am only scary because you did not see me, or know what I was."   Charlotte climbed back up to her feet, and began to circle around this newly announced "friend."  She looked at him, he had no face, no clothing, he didn't have any features at all.  Suddenly she stopped in front of him, she looked up at, what was supposed to be his face, and quite to his surprise, wrapped her arms around him in a hug. 

   "So you will come, come and live a new life?  Become a new person and let me take care of you?"  He inquired with surprised words.

   "Yes!"  She unwrapped her arms from around his waist, looked at him once more and said, "where are we going?"

   "I though you might ask that my young friend.  We are going to my land, the land of my people, the free roamers.  There you will remain in my home, and be taught by our mentors, and play with our young."  He said as he knelt down to see into her face. 

   "How do we get there?"  She questioned with careful words. 

   Tom smirked a small smile, kneeled down and looked Charlotte straight in the eye and said, "we will believe.  We will close our eyes and view the land of my people, the land of large trees and long valleys.  A land where many wild but graceful creatures roam the fertile land." 

   Charlotte, though curious she was, closed her small eyes.  She listened to the words of her new friend and began imagining color, color and life at it's greatest.  She imagined tall trees and giant mountains, Charlotte imagined birds of every color, flying through the deep blue skies.  She saw, behind her thin eyelids, large cats, and dogs with spots, she imagined life beyond life, the way she hoped it would be.  As she did this, Charlotte for a moment forgot about time, about her dead parents, and about the pain she felt but only a second before.

   "Now open your eyes my young friend, open your eyes and see where you are."  Tom spoke with a clear smile on his face, apparently very pleased that he had brought her to peace.

   Charlotte opened here eyes slowly, taking a second to remember what she was doing.  She opened here eyes and saw that she was clearly not where she was but only a moment ago.  Instead she was in the land Tom had spoken of.  A land of tall trees, graceful creatures that roamed the thick, long, majestic landscape.  She saw giant mountains towering over long valleys, and birds of all sizes flying through the deep blue skies, full of all sorts of color. 

   Through her barely parted lips Charlotte spoke, "wow," she whispered in total awe.  She turned round several times, just trying to grasp the new land that surrounded her.  The creatures she had seen, were of nothing she had ever seen before, some small, some large, all looked rather frightening but at the same time graceful and pleasantly friendly. 

   "What do you think?" Tom asked, witnessing Charlotte's enlightening face. 

   Charlotte's mouth began to play around with a smile, finally deciding on a large, beautiful grin, missing two teeth separated by one in between.  "This is where you live?" She nearly yelled out.

  "Indeed it is," Tom spoke with pride in himself.  "Would you care to see your new home young one?"

   "Yes!"  Charlotte screamed this time, but with joy not anger.  She looked hopefully up at what was supposed to be his face.  But by the time she had found it, Tom was running away playfully, "well come on then my young friend!" 

   Charlotte grew another smile and then followed him to where ever it was he was leading her to. She soon found herself in a small cottage, but unlike it's surroundings it was dark and dim.  Charlotte was very curious of this single floored, four roomed castle. 

   Tom showed her around the small building, the kitchen, bathroom, his room, and of course hers.  Charlotte's room, although inside this dark, mysterious building looked just as her old room did.  With dark blue walls covered in a series of painted, sparkling stars.  Her bed was covered in the same bright green sheets that she loved so very much.  Sheets that reminded her of the day her mother brought her to the store to pick accessories for her very first room.  She was so excited when she saw the bright green sheets, and the purple lamp that had flowers all over it. 

   Suddenly she realized that, sitting on her familiar bed, was her stuffed elephant.  Pink was it's normal color, but it was old and dusty.  Charlotte remembered the time that she had forgoten her old friend in the small garden she had in the back yard.  She loved to garden with her mother.  One day she forgot the stuffed toy lying in the small garden of flowers.  When she went to bed that night she could not find her friend.  She searched all night with her parents to find it.  It wasn't until the next day that they found the stuffed toy. 

   Charlotte ran to the bed and grabbed her old friend, laying on the bed as if to wait for the child.  She held him close and closed here eyes, trying to decide whether this was real or whether she was imagining it.  A few moments passed and she agreed with herself that if she opened her eyes and it was there that it was all real, and if not that she had been dreaming and that she was still in the alley way. 

   She opened her eyes slowly, not wanting to know what was what.  She looked around her and saw only darkness, only nothing.  Then she heard Tom's still voice, whispering in her ear, explaining the truth.  "It is only real, if you believe.  You will only see what you want to see, and you will only be where you want to be." 

   Charlotte thought for a short moment, trying to piece his words together and make it real in her mind.  Then she thought what she wanted, as a little girl she didn't really know. She opened her mouth to speak, to ask a question but before she could speak figures appeared in front of her.  A short woman and a tall man, figures that the child recognized without a second thought.  They were her parents, her beloved parents that she loved so much and had lost only hours earlier.  She slowly reached out to grab her hands, to hold them close and see if they were real. 

  "You cannot touch them, they are not real."  Tom interupted grabbing her hand.  "They are simply images of your imagination, you wanted to see them and you did, but you cannot have them back alive." 

   Charlotte closed her eyes again, and in her mind she imagined her room, the place she wanted to be the most.  She opened her eyes and was in the new house again, holding her teddy bear and begining to cry.  As the tears slowly fell from her eyes she ran to the bed that she knew so much. 

   She looked up and saw Tom standing in the doorway, no facial expression, no emotion, just watching.  He began to slowly walk towards her, and sat on the foot of her bed.  "I don't know what you're feeling, and I don't know what it's like to lose someone you love.  But I understand that you are alone at this time in your life, and that you don't want to be alone anymore."  He slowly began to say.  "I can't give you your parents, or your life back.  But I would like to try and give you something back, to help you as much as I can."

   Charlotte sat up in her bed, still holding her stuffed friend.  She leaned forward and reached her small arms around the large shadowed body in a hug.  Tom jumped slightly in a startled action, and after a second of thought he reached his arms around her as well.  "I'll take that as an acceptance."  He muttered under his breath.  They sat there, alone and talking for many hours, until eventually Charlotte fell asleep, hugging her teddy bear and resting.

  

  

Author's Note

This is only the second chapter of the book, more is yet to come but please leave a comment on how it is so far.