FrAcTuReD (Part One) (Completed continued in Part Two)

Chapter. 26

Joshua was quite for a moment. "I hope your right..." he muttered and then lit his cigarette before leaning in close to Claud offering a light, only instead Claud obliged by pressed his unlit cigarette to Joshua's before blowing a puff of smoke. "A thank you would be nice."

Claud made an amused sound before turning serious once more. "He's in a cell right now, and will be questioned in the morning, I just wanted to give you some heads up in case you have the misfortune to run into him."

"Thanks for that," he paused and looked to Claud. "Didn't you say you quit smoking?"

"Old habits hard to brake when bad memories come up," he admitted. "I only took one because you offered it." He said before stubbing the rest out and putting it in a garbage can near by and went back to leaning on the wall.

"Noted, won't offer it again." Joshua looked at Claud once more before asking. "Do you... mind if I stay over at your place for the next couple of days?"

Claud looked to Joshua and smiled. "You know your always welcome too, you don't even have to ask me."

The next morning Charla had been surprised to see her uncle still home, on top of that her uncle wanted to sit down with her and talk thinking the worst only to be asked how she felt. If she was okay and if ever needed to she could open up to him about her problems.

"Why are you telling me that?" she asked. "Did I do something?"

"Hmm, no you didn't do anything. Well, Claud told me he saw you at a bar, but you were just there to see a friend from school. But you didn't seem to remember Claud at all when you spoke with him."

"Oh..." she said as she lowered her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't think my condition would resurface here so quickly. When I see him again I'll apologize."

"I don't think he was offended Charla, just concerned, like all of us. We don't want you to get hurt while you wander around at night, especially now with what's happened."

Charla frowned and looked to Isaac. "You make it sound like you've seen me leave the house at night." When he said nothing it confirmed what she thought. "I did, didn't I? Why didn't you say anything then."

"Because you didn't seem to recognize me. If anything, you looked at me as if I were your enemy." He then saw the look of shock and horror on her face, her eyes moving around as her thoughts were in a whirlwind. "It's alright Charla," he said as he placed both his hands on her shoulders to reassure her. "You didn't do anything arrange, you just went for a walk, in the pouring rain mind you but that's all you did. You came back shortly after and went to bed." She gave a sigh of relief. Isaac wanted to ask her why Charla thought that she might have done something but recalled what his brother Johan told him.

"Don't push her with probing questions," Johan said. "It'll just make things worse for her, with her blackouts she's prone to walk around with no memory of her actions. So, asking her after the fact will do you no good but hurt my daughter, your niece. She's fragile, even though she pretends not to be, she's been through a lot."

"Uncle?" Charla's voice drew Isaac back to reality. "I'm sorry for not recognizing you ether Uncle. I know stress causes it, but at night... I know I can act like a different person, but that isn't "Me" so I don't know what I can tell you. I'm sorry."

Isaac was surprised, it was like Charla had read what was on his mind, though she was aware of people around her, and much like Johan, she could read people with ease. With a smile, he ruffled her hair. "You really are your father's daughter." Isaac then got up and poured a cup of coffee. "I'll be heading to the station today, so you and Nina have to guard the house okay?"