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Her hands are over her ears, and she’s rocking, her bony form wracked with sobs.
What the hell? Charlie almost shot me?
I let go of the bowl, and it thunks into the thick carpet. “Baby Girl?”
“Charlie?” It’s Lila’s voice again, but it’s different from the tinny sound I still hear echoing around the foyer. “Charlie, you’re safe. Put your gun down, Charlie.”
Charlie continues to rock and cry.
“Mark, are you okay? Mark?”
I frown at the sound of Tucker’s voice. What the hell is going on? Where are they?
“Charlie, you’re safe. Put down the gun,” Lila says again, and this time, Charlie releases the gun from her right hand. It clatters to the floor beside her.
I ease into the foyer, utterly confused. Charlie’s wrapped her arms around her head, knees now drawn to her chest, still sobbing, moaning “No, no, no,” over and over.
I lower my crutches carefully as I sink to the floor beside her. “Baby Girl? I’m here. You’re safe.” I speak softly, not touching her. I just sit beside her, repeating myself.
“Thank God.” I hear Tucker breathe a sigh of relief, and this time I follow the sound of his voice to the ceiling. There’s a camera and speaker there I didn’t notice earlier.
Why do Lila and Tucker have a camera feed to Charlie’s foyer?
“We’re headed over, Mark,” Lila says. “We’re only five minutes away. If you can unchain the front door, it’ll help. If not, we’ve got bolt cutters in the truck.”
Bolt cutters?
And why don’t they sound shocked? Has this happened before?
The tin-can-Lila voice continues, and eventually it dawns on me it’s coming from Charlie’s phone. I find it on the floor and silence it. Charlie gives no indication she’s aware of my presence, continuing to rock and moan, arms locked around her head.
I have no fucking idea what to do or how to help. I simply recite the same things over and over, telling her I’m here and that she’s safe. I don’t touch her or get too close. I do push her gun beneath the foyer table, though.
It’s not even three minutes later when I hear Tucker’s big truck sling gravel as he slams to a stop. I open the door, and they sprint up the steps two at a time. Lila’s wearing yoga pants and a baggy shirt, her jacket inside out. Tucker’s in shorts, a tee shirt, and running shoes. He hasn’t bothered with a jacket or socks.
“I’ve got this,” Lila says decisively, pushing past me. “Tucker, take Mark into the other room.” She drops to the floor beside Charlie and slips a hand under her chin, murmuring in her ear.
Tucker squeezes my shoulder. “Head back to your room. I’m grabbing a couple of beers. We need to talk.”
I lock the front door, hesitating. Lila speaks in a soothing tone, stroking Charlie’s face with her thumbs. I watch, transfixed, as she convinces Charlie to lower her arms.
Charlie looks directly at me, and the raw pain in her startling green eyes hits me squarely in the chest, so hard I nearly stagger under the weight of her anguish. Lila cups her cheeks. “Look at me, Charlie.” Her voice is gentle. “Are you with me?”
Tucker appears in the hallway, beers in hand. “C’mon, Mark,” he says in a low voice. “She’s in good hands, I promise.”
I don’t want to leave her.
But Tucker nudges me, so I amble forward after another uncertain glance at Charlie. He follows, closing my door. I perch on the edge of the bed, adrenaline rocketing through my veins. He sits cross-legged on the floor, twisting open a beer and passing it to me before opening his own. I wait impatiently as he rubs his hand over his face, then takes a deep breath.
“Charlie has night terrors, Mark.”
I try to reconcile his words with what just happened. “She had a flashback?”
He half-shakes his head. “Not exactly. Flashbacks happen when people are awake, and there’s usually a trigger, like a sound or smell. Night terrors are a cross between nightmares and flashbacks. There’s not necessarily a trigger, and she’s usually disoriented when she wakes up.”
I swallow hard. “So her night terrors, they’re about the bastards that took her.”
There’s a brief silence. “Charlie relives what they did to her, Mark.” He’s quiet for a moment before adding, “Everything they did to her.”
