"Take a seat, Cooth." Sarah said, pulling a seat out for me in the library.
I was active within Charlie as I took a seat as to not disturb people in the library.
Sarah sits in front of me and takes a book out of her bag. "This is the alternate guide to nightmareship. This is what destroyed their legacy last time, and it's what is hopefully going to cancel your line of the loop now."
"How do I start."
She smiles. "Nightmares have a way to reverse their color and leave to the light. They are not required to leave to the light when their color is reversed, but it gives them the option to. Does this make sense?"
"How do I get my color back?"
"Feeling the true opposite of your stationery emotion will return you your color. So if your stationary emotion is hate..."
"I have to fall in love?!" I yell louder than I intended to and stood quickly from my chair. I looked at the people starting to look at me and quickly apologized before returning to a sitting position. "I have to fall in love?? What kind of bullshit is this fairy tail crap???" I said, softer this time.
"Remind yourself what other nightmares have to go through to get their color back, Cooth. Try feeling Brave when all you've known is fear, try feeling happy when there's no reason to anymore, try feeling closure when all you've known is regret, Cooth. You should consider yourself lucky."
"How. The. Fuck. Am I supposed to fall in love? I'm a nightmare! Even if I did fall in love, it wouldn't be reciprocated!" I said. I don't know what kinda rules this has, what it needs to be.
"You don't just fall in love, Cooth. You have to show for it. You need to prove that you truly are in love before it will reverse your color." She said.
"So not only do I have to fall in love, I have to show for it too??? This is fucking ridiculous."
"Its your only other out, Cooth." She said.
"I know...." I thought about it for a second.
"May I see your guide? There are some pages I need to help you see in order to get the information out of them." Sarah said.
I nodded and pulled out my book from Charlie's bag. I handed it to her.
She takes out a pin and pricks her finger with it, allowing a drop fall onto the blank pages where the other chapters were located. She mumbled something in a language I don't understand and smears the blood across the page.
The pages light up a bit and words suddenly appeared across the pages. "Read these when you have a chance. It's the secret stuff added by a part of the coven that's working to betray these acts." She said. "Thats why they are in there. There's also a lot of fun little things you can do to bond with your host in there as well." She said, smiling. She handed me the book and I tuck it into my bag. I'll have to look through it later.
"Alright. Now that you've been scolded and helped along your way, I hope the next I see you, you'll be a bit more colorful." She said, beginning to leave.
"Thank you Sarah." I called to her.
"No Cooth. This is a good deed on you. I'm in your gratitude." Then she left.
I tap my fingers on the table in front of me in pure excitement. I take a breath. "You know what this means right?" I whisper to Charlie.
'That you can get a chance at closure?' I hear him ask.
"Exactly!" I whisper.
I get up and put on his coat and grab his bag as I begin to leave. "I should read that book for a bit, Charlie. You talk to your brother, okay?" I recede back into his head, away from control and he regains it.
"Tell me what you learn, okay?" Charlie tells me and I open the book to read the new chapters revealed to me...
Chapter 5
Another way out
....
As Cooth is reading his book, I'm making my way to my old home. I had taken a taxi back to the town I live in, but decided to walk the rest of the way because of the fresh air.
As I expected, Cooths business from reading kept him fairly silent so it allowed me time to just calm down and take in the morning. I was exited to hear that Cooth has another way out of this situation. He deserves it.
As I approached the house, I see the door open and my brother bursts out and screeches my name, tackling me.
I laugh, me and my brother hitting the ground together and rolling a bit.
"You're gonna get me all dirty, Chastopher!" I said, laughing.
"You're back! The police said you got hit by a runaway driver! Then the doctor said you were fine and it was a roller coaster of emotional things!" He said. "I mean like- a car going 45 miles an hour hit you head on and you came out without a scratch?! That's amazing!!" Chastopher said, blown away. "Scientifically that's practically impossible!"
"Well, science is weird sometimes." I laughed. I wasn't gonna expose cooth like this. Chastopher wouldn't know how to deal with it if I did.
"Come inside! Have a seat! Drink some tea!" He said, helping me up.
I took the hand and we both stumble inside, happily.
"Tell me about what happened, Charlie!" Chastopher begged.
"I mean, not too terribly much I would know about it, I got hit by the car, was flung out and maybe somebody caught me and broke my fall?" I lied.
"Who?!"
"Uhm... He was..."
I didn't know it now, but Cooth was listening intently.
"He was really nice... and sweet, and he left me a card in the hospital... Cooth evergreen..." I told him. "He has dark black hair... yellow eyes... and a sweet attitude that just attracts, ya know?"
"Ooooo~ does my brother have a crush on his little hero?" Chastopher teased.
"W-What? No! I... I appreciate what he did! You know, if it wasn't for him I would be dead!" I said, trying to defend myself.
"Have you met him since?"
"Ahhhhhh uhhhhhhm.... yyyeesss." I said, trying to figure out my explanation.
"And?"
"He's quite the gentleman." I said. God, I sound like I have a crush on him.
'Hahahahahah'
Shhhh Cooth. I'm trying to lie here.
'You suck at it~'
Well fuck you, why don't you try?
'Oh Charlie, you don't want me to do that.' I can hear him laugh mischievously.
"Charlie?"
My brothers voice got me snapped back into reality. "What?"
"I asked you if you asked him on a date~ then you stopped asking like you were thinking about him or something~"
I blushed. "No, no. Again, it's not like that. He's a good friend. I appreciate him."
'Please let me try.'
I will have a mental breakdown if you make him think I'm dating you.
'No you wont, you'll be fine.'
I inwardly groan and let Cooth have his way.
He grins. "I mean maybe... I'm kinda into him."
'Cooth evergreen you motherfucker.'
Learn to live a little, Charlie.
I roll my eyes.
"Oh! So you do have a crush on him?" Chastopher said, sipping tea.
"Maybe." He said, taking a sip of the tea on the table in front of him.
"So How is London so far?"
"Crowded. Kinda rude. Like New York, but they use 'cunt' more often."
"Well that word used there doesn't mean as bad of things as it does here." Chastopher said. "Hope you haven't picked it up?" Chastopher jokes.
"Not really, I'm not one for cussing all that often."
"Mm... oh! Charlie there's some news I had to give you!"
"What's up?"
"Mom and dad are gone. They left to a resort, but they wouldn't explain where... said it was... some kind of secret. They left money and anything I would need to take care of myself till it was time for me to go to college with you. Said when it was time they had someone to buy the house off me and that I could split the money with you."
"Wait" I stole back control from Cooth. Sorry buddy, this is important.
'Understandable'
"Wait, so they just left?!" I said. "And they didn't tell you where?"
"No..."
"What the fuck?! Who just leaves their 17 year old son at home?!"
"Mom and dad I guess..."
"That's fucked up!" I said. Why would they make such a rash decision?! He's not even legal to be on his own yet! What the hell could they possibly have been offered that would cause them to just Fucking abort like that!?
"I don't know, it was kind of sudden..." Chastopher said. "I know it's kinda hard to hear, but the guy is willing to pay a lot of money for the house. Plenty to get us both through college."
"Well it's good to hear that they at least thought a little about you... they just... disappeared?"
Chastopher nodded.
I thought for a second. "When is the guy ready to buy the house?"
"Whenever I give him the go ahead."
"You should come with me to London. So that you aren't alone anymore. This was a shitty decision on their part... I can't believe they would put a child in charge of selling the house and taking care of himself... do you raven have a job?"
"No, mom left me with food and money when the food runs out..."
"Please come with me to London... I'll help you sell the house and we'll go together."
"Where will I stay?"
"With me in my apartment." I told him. "There's an extra room. You just have to be careful in there, it's got some of my school stuff in it."
Chastopher nodded. "Okay... okay. I will."