Chain

When Charlie woke up her whole body tingled in a strange way. It wasn't painful, but neither was it pleasant. It felt as though something heavy moved through her veins. And also as though spiders were crawling around on the inside of her skin. It itched, but at the same time it didn't. And her whole body felt light, almost nonexistent. She shook her head and was surprised by a liquid whooshing in her ears. It made her dizzy.

Whathappened to me? she thought to herself. Have I been drugged? Or... I don't know. What a crazy dream. She sighed, pushing the strangeness of how it felt aside for the moment. After all, the girl had told her she'd feel different.

"Stop that!" She said aloud, pausing a minute to marvel the strangeness in her voice. It sounded... ethereal. Like.... Like.... Like the girl's voice. "No! Stop it, Charlie! You did not die! It was a dream! A dream!"

And are you certain of that?

Shut up, I'm alive!

"Oh, God," she whispered, ignoring the new ethereal tone to her voice. "Now I'm arguing with myself. But seriously, what the heck is going on with me?" She stood and felt a small tugging sensation pulling her in the opposite direction as her home. She followed it without much thought. She didn't even recognize that she wasn't already home.

Maybe I should call the doctor? she mused to herself. Perhaps I hit my head? The tug pulled into a building. It was then that she realized she'd been moving.

"Where am I?"

"This way Mr. and Mrs. Matherson," said a soft voice. Charlie swung towards the noise to see her mother and father following an somber looking woman. They looked scared. "We found the body down an alleyway near the theater. She appears to have died of natural causes, though she also appears healthy. There aren't any signs of a struggle, and there wasn't any evidence of foul play on the body or in the surrounding area. She was completely clean. It seems her heart just... stopped."

"Anyway, your daughters friend, Brier Daniels, called the police to inform them that your daughter hadn't been showing up in school, nor had she been answering calls. She went on to explain that you had called her a few times to ask if Charlene was at her house. It's my understanding that your trip was supposed to last for another couple days?"

Charlie watched her mother nod. The confusion she already felt magnified. Why we're her parents home? And what did they mean? It was only Saturday, wasn't it? We got worried. It had been three days since we had been able to get ahold of Charlie. And then Brier told us she hadn't seen her since Friday evening. So we came home."

The somber woman nodded. "Are you ready to see the body?"

Charlie stepped closer, shocked. Hadn't they seen her by now. And had she really been sleeping that long? What was going on?

Then it hit her. Body. The woman had asked if they wanted to see the body. Charlie's breath caught in her throat. No, damn it! It was a dream!

She looked to her mother. Mrs. Matherson had gripped her husbands hand in a white knuckled grip and he held a comforting arm around his wife. "We're ready."

The somber woman turned on a television screen and Charlie saw her own face fill the screen. It was pale, dead. It wasn't her, but at the same time it was. Charlie drifted closer. "No," she whispered in a weak protest. She felt the prick of tears at her eyes, but blinked them away.

And then the most anguished cry she had ever heard filled the room. Startled she turned and saw her mother collapsed into a chair, sobbing. Her father had a stony mask on his face. It looked as though he felt nothing, but sixteen years of living with the man had taught Charlie that he only showed that face when he was most upset. The last time she had seen it was when her grandmother had died two years ago. The sight of them acted as confirmation of what she had seen on the screen.

It wasn't a dream. I actually died. Charlie went numb. She watched her mother cry and her father's stony face. And then, her father crumpled as well. This, more than anything, shocked Charlie. More than finding herself dead, more than finding out chain mail could actually mean something, watching her father drop his stony mask and break apart hurt her. Her mother she had seen cry, but her father was strong. He was her pillar. He would put on that stony face and make everything alright, but now he too cried.

Charlie spun on her heel and ran from the room. Her father's face, she new, would stick with her until she was able to pass on to wherever it was that she was supposed to. She ran until she reached her home. She wrenched open the front door and slammed it shut, then stomped up the stairs, threw herself on her bed and cried until she fell into oblivion.

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When she came to she was watching her coffin being lowered into the ground. Her father's stony face was back, though her mother still cried. Brier was there, staring at the coffin as though she thought she could bring me back if she just wished it enough. She leaned heavily on Brian, her boyfriend for the past year. He even looked sad. Charlie closed her eyes. She didn't want to look at the faces of these people. She didn't want to feel the heavy sadness.

Long after everyone had left Charlie still sat next to her grave. She could feel the weight of reality pressing down on her. She wouldn't wake up from this. She was really and truly dead. She was six feet underground.

Charlie slowly walked from her grave. More than anything she wanted that hateful master the girl had talked about to search her out. She wanted to know just why she was still here. Why did she have to linger? Why did she have to see the sadness on the faces of everyones she cared about?

She walked further into the cemetery and then right to the back of it, which was against a small wood. She walked through the cemetery gate and into the woods. She wandered until she reached an area so thick the light could barely make it through the trees. The light that did make it through shone in shafts. It was beautiful and green. It was exactly what she needed.

She sat down on an old fallen tree that was covered in moss. She held her head in her cupped hands. It's all sostupid! she thought to herself. She sighed and lied back, filling her nostrils with the smell of the woods. Soon she fell into her oblivion.

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She was brought into awareness by a tugging at her navel. It turned her bowels in an uncomfortable manor. Before long, her whole body felt like it was spinning and her vision faded to black.

And then everything stopped. She opened the eyes she had squeezed shut and found herself in a dark room. Standing before her was a tall man with a charming smile. He was handsome. Then she saw his eyes. They were a cold, hard gray. She new that the color could also be warm. Her father had similar eyes. These eyes were even colder than her father's were when he was angry. Charlie shivered.

"Then you, dear child, are my new pet?"