Don't Blame Me | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 16

The girls didn't know how much time have passed since Robert left them in the basement, but the house has been really quiet for a while now. Diana managed to nap a little. She was cold, hungry, uncomfortable and tired. She was dreaming about a soft bed and her boyfriend's warm body which she could cuddle all night. When she came back to reality, Angie was still sobbing behind her.

"You should calm down, you're going to dehydrate yourself if you keep crying" Diana spoke up with a sweet voice, trying not to sound like a know-it-all.

"I can't believe he did this to me" Angie whispered, sniffling. "Or to you. He wasn't an angel but I never thought he's capable of anything like this"

"What do you mean? He's the aggressive type of guy?" Diana asked curiously, hoping to get as much information from Angie as possible. Every little detail could help them escape.

"He was a classic school bully when we were kids. Stealing lunches, forcing others to do his homework, pulling girl's hair. I thought he grew out of it, since we went to high school he stopped making other people's lives difficult. He punched a hole in the wall a few times, threw some plates but he was directing his anger at anything but people"

"Okay" Diana sighed, unhappy with the answer. "So we can't possibly try and attack him. He's stronger and we're tied up, he's gonna hurt us. What about his work? Does he leave the house?"

"Not really, he goes to the gym when he feels like it, but I haven't seen him go for quite a while. He's unemployed, doesn't even get groceries. He's mostly playing video games in the living room"

"We're fucked"

"Yeah"

The girls tried to think if any kind of solution, but every idea was shut down pretty fast. The cabinet in the basement was locked so they couldn't get their hands on the scissors to untie themselves, Robert was home all the time so they didn't even try to break the door with the weight of their bodies and no one from the outside would hear them scream.

"You have to apologize to him" Something in Diana's head finally clicked, but it seemed like Angie wasn't exactly happy with the idea.

"Fuck no, I don't want anything to do with him now, let alone admitting he was right to feed his delusion" She raised her voice, clearly upset.

"Just pretend. When he comes here again, beg for forgiveness and thank him for thinking about your future. Tell him you were stupid for not understanding his great plan and agree to meet with Charles"

"And when I'm free, I'll let the police know you're here! Brilliant!" Angie finally understood the plan, but Diana knew it might not be that simple.

"I hope we'll be able to fool him. To make it even more believable, I'll cry and beg you not to take him away from me. Just promise you won't leave me here all alone without any help"

A tingle of fear went down Diana's spine at the thought of Angie taking advantage of the situation and actually trying to get back with Charles. She said she wouldn't and Diana wanted to believe it, but Charles was a dream of a man and she couldn't comprehend why anyone would reject him.

"I promise, okay? Don't worry. I don't want to be in the spotlight, be recognisable and photographed on the street and Charles comes in a package with all of that. He's wonderful, but this is not the life I want" Angie sighed, feeling nostalgic at the memories of her relationship with him.

Charles didn't manage to get a lot of sleep at night. At first, he couldn't fall asleep. He tried drinking warm milk, listening to calming music and even meditation, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, about 1 AM he went to his gym room to lift some weights. He hoped that if he gets tired enough, he'll be able to rest for a bit. He was constantly thinking about Diana and didn't focus on what he was doing, which almost led to him crashing his foot with a dumbbell.