The deserted delivery yard at the back of the hotel was drenched in sunlight. It bounced off the windows of the surrounding buildings, hurting Charlotte's eyes as she moved cautiously out of the shadows. Lifting her hand to shield her gaze, she blinked furiously, trying to accustom herself to her surroundings and the undaunted sunshine.
She had trapped the security guard in charge of the yard behind a meagre projection, leaving him completely unaware of her presence. He sat in his boot, unmoving and dazed expression on his face, unwittingly duped in the easiest of ways.
The sunlit delivery yard was open to the hotel, though Charlotte could see that there were more obstacles still in her way. Across the concreted space, ten-foot high gates loomed, discouraging any unauthorised visitors from entering the hotel grounds and now, trying to deter Charlotte from her attempts to escape.
She sighed squinting at the gleaming, silver gates, trying to figure out a means of getting past them. It wasn't that she wanted to escape for good, it was just a break she needed. It was a break from all the uncertainty and the mistrust. She had thought at least James would have seen the futility of hiding stuff from her anymore. It had hardly worked for him before. It only ever seemed to make their life harder. And yet he still seemed to have his secrets.
Charlotte scuffed her shoe along the concreted ground, glancing back into the colossal garage beneath the hotel. Two large, open roller doors revealed the delivery area hidden beneath the building, now empty of all signs of life or recent deliveries, apart from the distracted security guard. The room was a gigantic concrete box, lit with buzzing fluorescent lights and with a huge service elevator at the rear. Clumsy concrete steps led up to the door through which she had entered the loading bay, where she now expected Ian to appear with Annakiya or Carrie. They seemed to be taking a terribly long time to return, longer than Ian would be proud of.
Charlotte turned away from the door and gazed up at the azure sky, closing her eyes to the rays of the sun and relishing in the heat creeping back into the world, creeping into her bones. Spring had descended on Washington without a look back to winter. The unrelenting cold they had braved at the compound seemed to melt away from Charlotte, reminding her that warmth did still exist in the world. She took a few more steps into the yard, away from the shade of the garage and allowed a smile to form on her lips.
A noise behind her disturbed her musings and she turned, hoping to find Ian and one of the others finally ready to escape for a short while, but it wasn't her friends that stood there.
"Miss Owens, where are you going?"
Charlotte met the stern expression of Alastair Ramsey, the corners of his lips forever twitching. He didn't seem at all too surprised to have found her standing on the edge of leaving the hotel. And it was with an unsettling unease that she realised she had had no sense of his approach. For all she knew he could have been following her, watching her the entire time.
"How do you do that?" she hissed, anger washing over her. She wished beyond anything that he would just leave her alone.
"Do what?" he sighed, stepping towards her, his polished shoes clicking on the concrete floor of the loading bay.
"Sneak up on me," she breathed, without thinking, her irritation getting the better of her. "I can sense everybody else, but not you – not anymore".
"Miss Owens, honestly, what are you talking about? And I will ask again, where were you planning on going?"
"I was going for a walk," she exhaled, folding her arms across her chest, daring him to tell her she wasn't.
He smiled gently at her, almost apologetically. "I'm afraid, Miss Owens, I can't allow you to do that," he sighed. "I know it seems unfair, but it's for your own good. You don't seem to realise how your fame has rocketed, or how dangerous it is for you out there, unprotected. If they recognised you..."
"Who said I was unprotected?" she asked.
He gazed at her for a moment, considering her response. "You would use your alteration against defenceless spectators?"
Charlotte sighed and closed her eyes, but refused to answer. Of course she wouldn't, but it still didn't mean she was helpless. She had ways and means of slipping by unseen. As long as she could stay in control... She bit her lip. Control was always tricky, without absolute focus.
"I knew you wouldn't, Miss Owens," he exhaled, interpreting her silence. "I know you don't mean any harm, but sometimes you have to realise your actions can be reckless. This moment is one of those times. Leaving now could damage the rest of your life. It could gravely alter their perception of you, if anything were to happen".
Charlotte glanced back at the blue sky. She could hardly ignore the growing need to be alone, to find somewhere safe where she could think and not worry about being watched.
"Do you know what it's like to spend your entire life in captivity?" she breathed. Silence hung in the air, though she didn't want Ramsey to reply. She turned back to him, meeting his dark gaze. "We have gone from one lock up to the next, from the island to the compound to here. We have had to deal with enough shit along the way. We have had to put up with more crap than most people would stand for, but we have always given you the benefit of the doubt. And now..."
"Now what? What have we possible done wrong? How else can we try to please you? Tomorrow, Miss Owens, you are to be reunited with your families. You will be home and as free as you like in no time at all, once you say the word. Hell if you want to leave tomorrow with them, we can organise it". Charlotte's stomach clenched angrily, the frustration nearly overwhelming her.
"You don't get it," Charlotte breathed pressing her fingers against her eyes. "They are not my family. I don't know them..."
The words hung in the air and for a painful moment Ramsey's empty expression twitched and contorted with white, hot anger.
"That, Miss Owens, is one of the most selfish and callous things I have ever heard from you," he hissed, biting the ends of his words with harsh teeth. "You may not remember them, but they remember you. Losing you destroyed them. Losing you cut them deeper than any knife. They have spent over a decade trying to come to terms with your loss and by some miracle, some pure, unbelievable chance you were found. They may not be your family, but you are theirs, and the most horrible thing you could do now is take that away from them".
"As if you care," she hissed, clenching her fists. She could feel her cheeks burning. She could feel his words churning her stomach. Her head was spinning and she was doing everything she could to cling to some hope he was wrong. She wanted to blame him. She needed to blame him. "I know that you hate us, that you fear us. I know what I felt when you first arrived at the compound".
Ramsey gazed at her, his twitching lips stilling for a brief moment. "You what?" he repeated, his words carrying traces of the outrage that seemed to pass across his eyes.
"Your fear was so damn strong in the beginning," she growled. "How could I not notice it?"
"In the beginning," he replied, emphasising those three words. "Damn it, Owens, everybody was bloody frightened of you in the beginning. The way Maxwell told it, you might as well have been murderous robots on the rampage. We didn't think you were... human anymore. We thought so many things – things we now know were wrong. I like to think I've been able to get to know you over the last few weeks. I have done everything I can to try and show both you and the world that we trust you, that you deserve to be trusted," he exhaled. "But now... Miss Owens I can't abide you threatening everything we are trying to do for you like this. I want to believe that you are willing to listen to us, to work with us..." he gazed at her. "I really am disappointed in you".
Charlotte frowned. She didn't know what to say. Of all the responses she had expected, this had not been it. He seemed genuinely disappointed in her. She could feel guilt bubbling in her stomach. She could feel doubt begin to poison her thoughts, casting shadows of uncertainty over her mind. She felt she should apologise, but she couldn't bring herself to utter the words.
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" he asked, prompting her towards repentance, but she didn't have it in her.
"I will not apologise," she whispered, meeting his black gaze with a new determination. "If you are so eager to protect us, how did that journalist know all those things about us? He was trying to tell the world that we are monsters," she breathed. "And you act like it is nothing".
"It is nothing," he exhaled. "And we had nothing to do with the questions he asked you".
"At the press conference, you waited until that moment and you left," Charlotte stated.
"And that proves what?" Ramsey laughed. "I left to find out how on earth he had been allowed into the hotel in the first place. I was doing damage control".
"I don't believe you," Charlotte exhaled.
"Fine, don't believe me," Ramsey replied shaking his head. "Honestly Miss Owens I'm getting very tired of trying to prove myself to you". He turned for a moment, as if readying to leave her, before pausing once more.
"I would suggest you stop trying to cast us in the same light as those who took you to Kingston. We are the good guys here. Everything we do is for the benefit of all". He looked at her as if she was petulant five-year-old; he made her feel as if she was a petulant five-year-old. "Now I suggest you return to your room, Miss Owens. If you try to walk out of this hotel I will have you locked up until you are to meet your family. For your own good, I swear I will do it".
"I would like to see you try and stop me," she growled. She could hardly believe he was willing to go to such extremes. She couldn't understand how or why he had such a vendetta against her. Though a distant, rational part of her knew that she was giving him the vendetta. From the moment he had arrived she had been nothing but difficult. She was doing as much as she could to derail his efforts, to believe he was fighting against them. Maybe she was wrong.
"No you wouldn't, Miss Owens," he sighed. "And for once could you think of the others?" he paused looking at her coldly. "How would Mr Alexander feel if you didn't return to your room this evening? How would he feel if he heard you tried to leave? What would he risk if he thought we had incarcerated you?"
Charlotte clenched her teeth, balling her fists. She had no argument left and she felt increasingly idiotic the longer she spoke to him. Ramsey was beating her. He was smarter than her. And what frightened her most, he was right. Everything he said was perfectly logical. It all made sense and she was coming across no better than a tantrum child.
Charlotte cast her eyes to the ground and stalked back towards the door to the hotel, passing him without a word.
"That's what I thought, Miss Owens," Ramsey sighed, but she didn't have anything left to say to him.
She felt utterly helpless and guilty. She could feel her eyes brimming with tears. She had been so certain he was the bad guy, but perhaps there was no bad guy anymore...
Or more worryingly, perhaps she was becoming the bad guy...
Okay so firstly, apologies for the delayed update and secondly, thank you so much for reading ;) I would love to hear what you have to say about this chapter - your feedback and comments, even if small, really mean a lot and can help me so much in focusing the next stages of the story! In any case, I would love you to press the little star before leaving! And I will do my best to have the next chapter up as soon as possible! Thanks again, Sorcha x
And also if you are getting impatient for updates please check out http://thesorchadebrun.tumblr.com/ It revisits important moments in Altered from Charlotte's POV(first person) with songs chosen for the mood and pictures and loads more media! I would love if you could all check it out and let me know! You can find a direct link on my wattpad profile in the about me section!