Chapter 42
Charlie
I tried to struggle when Chuck and Brad pulled me from the trunk.
But it didn’t do me much good with my arms tied behind my back and Brad squeezing my legs together.
I must have blacked out again because all of a sudden I’m sitting in an old, rickety chair in a dark and dingy concrete room.
A basement, probably. I try to shift my arms and, unsurprisingly, find them tied to the back of the chair, along with my legs.
My head throbs, along with the muscles in my limbs from being stuck in one position for so long.
A shadow crawls across the floor, and I look up to see Chuck hovering over me, staring at me intently. I gaze to my left and see Brad leaning against an old cube freezer, smirking.
I am so fucked.
This Chuck is far more terrifying than the boy I knew back in high school.
And I never thought Brad, colossal asshole that he is, would be dangerous.
I’m so dizzy and anxiety courses through me.
My brain is replaying every fucked up thing that these two have ever done to me and I want to vomit. As if this moment wasn’t bad enough.
Then it hits me. There was a time when I could appeal to Chuck’s good side. I hated begging him to be better, but it was better than the alternative. What have I got to lose?
“Chuck, I’m sorry about what Ben did but please let me go. This is so messed up. Even you must see that,” I whine, wincing at my words. “Please.”
“So, his name is Ben? He didn’t seem to feel the need to introduce himself before he beat the shit out of me.
” Chuck runs his cold, calloused finger across my lower lip.
“Lucky for you, I don’t really care about that.
All I’ve wanted is to talk to you. Now I finally have a chance, and you can’t run from me. ”
I look over at Brad. He looks blurry as tears cloud my vision. “Please help me.”
Brad snorts. “You’ll find no help from me, skank. I’m just here to beat the shit out of whatever boyfriend decides to come save you.”
Chuck turns quickly, glaring at Brad. “What did I tell you about calling her names?”
“Sorry,” Brad mumbles, throwing his hands up in defeat and averting his gaze.
Chuck turns back to me slowly. His gaze on me is petrifying.
“After you left town, I was lost. You were my one and only Charlie. I spiralled into a deep, dark pit of despair, with no hope of getting out. I tried getting your parents to tell me where you went, they wouldn’t budge.
I asked our old friends from high school, but you had ghosted them too.
You changed your number. I couldn’t find you. ”
Chuck takes a deep breath, as if this is painful for him, before continuing.
“I thought about ending it all. If I could never see you again, what was the point in continuing my twisted existence? And I almost did it too,” He uses his fingers to mime putting a gun to his head. “But then I met Claire.”
Chuck looks to Brad for a moment, then back at me. “She looked a lot like you. I figured, if I couldn’t have you, she could be the next best thing for me. And she seemed to like me too … at least at first.”
Chuck’s expression darkens, and he leans in closer to me.
His breath is rancid, and it’s clear that it’s been a while since he’s showered.
I look down at my lap, too afraid to make eye contact with him but he grips my chin roughly and pulls my face to meet his.
He tilts my head side to side, as if examining me and then takes a deep inhale of my hair before continuing his monologue.
“Claire liked the gifts I bought her. The perfume was the one you used to use. The clothes were a similar style to what you used to wear. I even bought her a treble clef pendant to wear around her neck like you did in high school. She liked all of it, until she saw a picture of you.”
Chuck walks around behind me and I can feel him fiddling with my hair. I try and jerk my head from his fingers, but then he just grips tighter, pulling a few strands from my scalp and forcing me to look up at him from behind me.
“She accused me of trying to turn her into you. I couldn’t be mad at her because she wasn’t wrong.
She already looked like you but needed some finishing touches.
So, I lied. And lied. And lied. Eventually I wore her down and she kept the gifts, but she never trusted me the same.
I could feel her slipping away from me, just like you did. That’s when I started to get angry.”
Chuck releases my head, and I glance over at Brad again. He’s looking very uncomfortable now. Imagine how I feel, you fucking asshole.
“I thought if I told her all about you it might make her understand. That it might make her realize how special you are and make her want to be just like you. But she didn’t like it.
She didn’t want to be like you, and she threatened to leave me.
I couldn’t let her do that, but she just wouldn’t listen.
I hit her and hit her and begged her to stay.
Then she finally stayed still. She’s stayed with me ever since.
” Chuck glances over at the freezer Brad is leaning against.
My heart turns to lead in my chest. He killed her. What's going to stop him from killing me? Certainly not Brad. He’s probably dead too, just for getting involved.
“Chuck, please, please don’t do this!”
“Do what? I would never hurt you Charlie,” he says with a smile that I assume he thinks is comforting. It’s actually probably the most terrifying that I have ever seen him look. Then he pulls a knife from his pocket.
“Woah man, this isn’t what we-“ Brad’s words are cut short as we all hear the sound of thundering footsteps from upstairs.
“Go check that out,” Chuck growls. Brad grabs a metal baseball bat that was leaning against the wall and heads upstairs.
This has to be my boys. It just has to be. I let out the loudest, most blood curdling scream that I can manage which causes Chuck to slap his dirty, disgusting hand over my mouth.
“Hush up Charlie, or our fun is going to end,” Chuck murmurs in my ear, pressing the cool metal of his knife to my throat.
“Put the knife down Chuck,” I hear from the top of the stairs. Ben stands there, his fear masked by the pure rage in his eyes which flicker between me and the blade.