It's not every day that you get kidnapped on the first date.
But then again, not every girl is Charlie Delacqua. The daughter of a millionaire who made his fortune off of Superhero technology, it was really only a matter of time until someone...
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Charlie barely slept that night. Every time she would finally doze off, her dreams would jolt her back awake, sweating and panting in Beatrice's tiny room. The walls seemed so close together that she felt like she might suffocate.
She dreamt of the smell of smoke and drywall dust, of the sound of people screaming and yelling. She dreamt of people laying on the ground, their arms striped with red like candy canes.
She could hear her mother telling her not to look, but the words sounded wrong somehow, like they were played in reverse, or in another language.
She could never see her mother. She could only hear her yelling.
After she woke up for the fourth time, she decided to give up on sleep. She had no idea what time it was, since there wasn't a clock. She only knew that it was pitch black dark, save for a few slits of pale moonlight that drifted in between the boarded up windows.
She pulled herself up, thinking a glass of water might be enough to calm her frayed nerves. She took care not to let the door squeak as she opened it, and she tiptoed as she walked out, not wanting to wake Beatrice.
"Trouble sleeping?"
Charlie went rigid.
Beatrice briefly looked up at her from a chair, where she was reading under a dim lamp. She was holding a thick book, one about salamanders by the looks of it. Charlie blinked and rubbed her eyes tiredly.
"Yeah. How'd you guess?" Charlie grumbled as she walked towards the kitchen.
"You seemed agitated before you went to bed." She said. "Not to mention I could hear the mattress creaking as you tossed and turned for the past five hours."
Charlie wanted to ask her why she had been awake the whole time, but decided against it. Instead, she went over to the fridge and pulled out a soda, scraping the glass of water.
There was a snap and Beatrice was suddenly directly behind her.
"Is it insomnia or nightmares?"
"What?" Charlie said with a frown. Beatrice walked over to a cabinet and started to pull a few things down.
"Insomnia or nightmares?" She repeated.
"Uh- nightmares." Charlie said, somewhat embarrassed. It wasn't a very cool thing to admit, after all.
Beatrice nodded. "I usually use Benadryl if I just can't fall asleep, but if it's nightmares, I use this."
She opened up what looked like a small jewelry box to reveal a lighter, a couple small plastic bags, and-
"Is that weed?!" Charlie yelped, taking a step back as if the cops might show up. Though she supposed it would probably be good for her if they did.
"Yeah." Beatrice said. "You're telling me you've never smoked before? Not even in college?"
