All Dolled Up!

Charlie

I opened the door with my key, and went inside quickly. Charlotte was there in her case, nearly motionless, and would’ve fooled the others if they had walked in, but I knew what her normal position before had been like. Again, it was not something you’d notice unless you paid close attention to her like I did.

“Shh… it’s just me, it’s okay,” I told her.

She burst into life immediately - and I was reminded that it was the kind of thing that could be quite terrifying if you hadn’t known about it before. I thought of what the prior residents had written about their experiences while in the house. If Charlotte were to appear, like that, at the foot of your bed one night when you didn’t know about her… yeah, I could see how that would be nightmarish.

“You could’ve messaged me first! I thought I was nearly going to have a heart attack when I heard the doorknob rattling!” she hissed at me. It looked like she was the one who had ended up scared this time though. “I barely got into my case in time!”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, I forgot,” I said. “But they’re all asleep now, and I thought I’d show you this.”

I showed Charlotte the points that I had highlighted. “I… found out a bit more about your family. It looks like your cousin, May, did get married but she died of childbirth around seven years after you passed away. And the last person who-”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as Charlotte began reacting in a way I hadn’t expected - she began tearing up. The papers in her hand were spattered by the drops pouring out of her eyes. “They… I… Uncle Gregory was always the nicest. He wasn’t always around, but whenever he’d come back from trips he’d always have something for me… he… he didn’t deserve to die like that… he never drank while I was alive but… he nearly lost the house, and lost May too… I…”

The floodgates opened, and I took the papers away from her as she laid her head on my shoulder. I was somewhat used to people crying given my earlier line of work, but this was someone I knew well. And someone I cared about, which made it much harder to keep my own emotions under control while comforting her.

“I - I’m sorry for crying like this…” she said. “You must think it’s silly… for me to feel this way… when it’s been decades…”

“No, no, not at all,” I reassured her. “It’s totally fine. And I understand.”

“I just… the thought that they had not only died, but they died with their lives ruined like that…” She then lifted her head to look at me. “And… it says here that Aunt Emily passed away from tuberculosis, didn’t she? That means… that I killed her… I killed May’s mother!”

“No, no you didn’t,” I reassured her. “Charlotte, there was a small epidemic at that time in this area, you both probably caught it from the same source, like one of the servants. You can’t blame yourself for something like an infectious disease!”

She once again lowered her head onto my shoulder, and we stayed like that for what felt like hours until her sobs turned to gasps, and she seemed to have found a hidden source of strength somewhere inside her as she got up, wiped away her tears on her sleeve, and then gave me a small smile. Her eyes were still clouded with loss, but I wanted to believe that that smile was real. “Charlie… thank you for being here with me.”

“I would do it anytime,” I told her. I now regretted showing her that section. I had thought it would be wrong to hide things from her, but I also probably could’ve shown them to her later at some more appropriate time. Then again, what would’ve been an appropriate time to break this news to her? I couldn’t think of any. I just… didn’t want to do anything that would cause her such pain.

Charlotte then glanced out the window. “The sun’s coming up soon.”

She then went back into her case, gave me another small smile, and then sat perfectly still, just like a toy whose batteries had run out.

I knew I had to do something to cheer her up, and I had the rest of the day to figure out what that was going to be as I walked out of the room, remembering to lock the door behind me.

Sam and his crew were still fast asleep, and I ended up falling asleep on the kitchen coffee table myself, and Peter had to shake me awake when it was about ten in the morning.

“Ah, sorry ‘bout that, just ended up thinking I’d have a quick nap and it turned into a full-on snoozefest,” I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Hey, not a problem,” Peter said. “I worked the graveyard shift once myself, and I know how it’s like.”

“So, did you guys get anything?” I asked.

“Nope, unfortunately no,” he said.

“Right,” I said. I guess, despite any other criticism you might have of the show, you couldn’t fault ‘Supernatural Sam’ for being fake, because despite getting no genuine spooky footage there was no attempt to try to manufacture some.

That surprised me as I thought that that was likely what they did on some of their earlier episodes that I had watched, though it looked like I was wrong. What also surprised me was that they were undeterred by this apparent failure.

However, while they were busy, a thought struck me.

Charlotte might not be able to move right now while she was 'hibernating', but she could still hear and see. What would she be thinking of right now? Of course, she would be ruminating on what she had been told last night. The poor girl was likely torturing herself, finding all manner of convoluted ways to blame the deaths of some people in her family upon herself.

But, there was still something I could do for her.

I walked off to see Charlotte. I usually didn’t speak to her when she was like this, because she couldn’t react and I felt that was quite rude, but I didn’t want her stewing in her own negative thoughts for too long.

“Hey, Charlotte, I know you can hear me… I’m sorry about what you heard last night… but, there was something I wanted to show you,” I said as I waved my phone in front of her immobile eyes. “I meant to show you this earlier, and I don’t know if it’ll cheer you up, but I sent that photo of you to my family. My mother has heard your real voice by the way, and both of my parents had nothing but praise for you. I know, the face in this photo isn’t exactly yours, but it was close, right? I… what I mean to say is that I’m sorry about the loss of your old family. You don’t need to feel dumb for crying like that, I can totally understand feeling that way.”

“But remember that you don’t have to go through this alone. And they might never be able to replace your family, but I’m sure that mine will welcome you with open arms when they get to know you. I know that was something that was bothering you before as well, but I want to let you know that you don’t need to worry about it.”

I finished saying all that, but of course, Charlotte couldn’t respond at all. I didn’t know what more to say other than, “And… you don’t need to blame yourself for anyone else’s death. Disease spreads without discrimination… and sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason as to why one person gets sick and the other doesn’t. And… if there’s anything else I can do for you, please let me know when you come back to.” I couldn’t think of anything further, and if I was gone too long Sam’s crew would ask questions, and if someone happened to stop by the outside door they’d wonder who it was that I was talking to. Maybe I could probably get away with pretending to be on my phone, but I would prefer for it not to reach that point.

I fell asleep again in the afternoon while they were editing some footage for some other episode of theirs, and I woke up at seven in the evening. The sun was still out - but I chose to bide my time until it was finally dusk, and while Sam’s crew were busy setting things up again for the night, I took off to see Charlotte.