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?"
Charlie's face burned all the more. "I mean, yeah..."
She supposed there was no point in lying to her. Though Charlie had never been extremely wild or rebellious, she definitely had her fair share of fun growing up.
"Well, it always works for me. I never have any dreams when I smoke." Beatrice said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her head leaned slightly back. "I just close my eyes, and when I open them it's morning."
Charlie bit her lip, before finally letting out a sigh. "Okay, sure."
If my dad knew I was smoking weed with my kidnapper, he'd absolutely kill me.
Nevertheless, they ended up sitting on the pull out bed together, silently passing a joint back and forth as they watched some nature documentary. Beatrice seemed really into animals, and Charlie tried to tell her brain to remember that when she was sober again.
Charlie watched it intently, not really listening to the words, but mostly focused on the brightly colored frogs, and the way their throats thrummed like drums.
The soda she had gotten fizzed pleasantly in her mouth, and the lumpy mattress almost seemed comfortable.
"Do you ever just...feel like you don't understand things?" Charlie said as she squinted at the television.
There was a long pause before Beatrice turned to her.
"What?"
"Just like, stuff. Do you ever feel like you don't, like, know it?" Charlie attempted to clarify.
Beatrice furrowed her brow like she was thinking.
"Yeah, I think so."
"Yeah." Charlie agreed.
"What?"
"Huh? I dunno."
The looked at each other in confusion for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter. Charlie laughed even harder at the fact that this was the first time she'd ever seen Beatrice so much as smile, let alone laugh.
She had a dimple in her left cheek. The sight of it made Charlie's heart race.
"You've got a really nice smile." Charlie said. Without thinking, she reached down and grabbed a hold of Beatrice's hand. Charlie let out another stupid laugh at the sigh of their intertwined hands, but Beatrice suddenly looked less amused.
"I think we should try and get some sleep." Beatrice said quietly. She pulled her hand away from Charlie's and she grabbed the remote to turn the television off.
"That's a good idea. I almost forgot why I was here." Charlie said.
She laid down, and pulled the tattered comforter up to her shoulders, before curling into a ball.
"Wh-not here!" Beatrice said. "In the bedroom!"
"You go sleep in there." Charlie grumbled. "I'm too tired to get up."
"I told you, I don't like to sleep in there!" Beatrice said.
Charlie scooted over to the very edge, but stayed bundled up in the covers.
"Then you take that side, and I'll stay over here." Charlie mumbled. "It's a sleepover. Sleepover. Sleepover. Fun fun fun."
She felt Beatrice, probably reluctantly, crawl under the covers beside her. The last thing she heard before she fell asleep was Beatrice grumbling to herself.
"You better be glad I'm high."
"What is this?"
Charlie groggily pulled herself up and rubbed her eyes. Was that a man's voice? It sounded like it. Why was a man here?
"Is this a sleepover now, or something?"
"She couldn't sleep, Lin." That was definitely Beatrice. "We smoked and she crashed on the couch."
"You gave her marijuana?!"
Linton snapped. "B, you can't be serious. You must be joking with me right now!"
Charlie snapped upright, and looked at the scene unfolding in front of her. Beatrice and Linton were arguing back and forth with each other. The door to the apartment was blown off its hinges, splinters of wood littering the ground around it. Apparently she'd slept through a good bit of noise.
"Beatrice don't tell him!" Charlie whined. "I don't want him to be disappointed in me!"
"Good morning." Beatrice said flatly.
"I'm not disappointed in you." Lin said softly, glancing over at her. His face hardened and he looked back to Beatrice. "You on the other hand-"
"I'm doing what I have to do, so save it." Beatrice said. "You want her? Take her. Be the hero, like always. Follow the rules. I'll find another way to get that vial."
"B, I don't think you understand. I'm literally putting my ass on the line to keep you out of a maximum security prison for the rest of your life. If I help you any more than I already have, I could go to prison as an accessory to kidnapping. The authorities are already getting suspicious."
"Then stop sticking your neck out for me!" Beatrice snapped. "I never asked you to. I don't need you to take care of me! I never needed you to take care of me!"
Beatrice grabbed her suit from off the desk in the corner, and stormed into the bedroom. Charlie awkwardly cleared her throat and rubbed her forearm.
"So, uh. It's nice to meet you again." Charlie said to Linton. Though she was a little less starstruck in this situation, she still felt nervous about talking to him.
He opened his mouth to respond, but before any words could come out, Beatrice emerged from the bedroom in a puff of smoke. She started to gather things up, and hastily throw them into a backpack.
"B, what are you doing?" Linton said, running after her.
"Getting my shit together. I can't stay here. There's a goddamn hole
where my front door was!"
"B, come on. Come with me and, uh-" he glanced apologetically back at Charlie.
"Charlie." Charlie said awkwardly from the couch.
"Yes. Right. Come with me and Charlie. We can work together and stop the SFA. Me and you. I promise. Just don't do this to me. Please don't do this to me again."
"No." Beatrice said, pulling out her hover board from underneath the couch. "I intend to get actual results. If you want another repeat of the Citizen Bank incident, be my guest. But from my experience, the best way to get rid of weeds is to pull them up by the roots."
"B, please." Lin said. "Think about what TJ would have wanted."
"I'm going now. Please take care of my salamanders while I'm gone."
A jolt of anxiety shot through Charlie, and her thoughts began to race.
What if she's right? What if there's a repeat of the bombing at citizens bank? I couldn't bare thinking about someone else going through that. If there was a way to stop it before it even began...
Beatrice prepared to snap, and the words were out of Charlie's mouth before she could even really process them.
"Wait! I'm coming with you!"
"What?!" Linton said, mouth agape.
Beatrice gave her a look of utter exhaustion.
"I'm confused as well. Are you still high?"
"No!" Charlie said defensively. "I don't think so anyway!"
"Charlie, you don't want to do this. Your father is worried sick about you." Linton said. "You need to go back to him."
"I-" Charlie looked at his pleading face and felt an immeasurable sense of guilt wash over.
I can't disappoint him. Not him and my dad.
But a bigger part of her was telling her that there was a more pressing issue. An issue that ran deeper than just disappointing her friends and family.
"Well If you're not coming, I should really-"
"No!" Charlie said, walking determinedly over to Beatrice. "I'm coming." She turned to Linton and gave him an apologetic look. "I'm really, really sorry. Tell my father I have Stockholm syndrome or something. I promise I'll make this up to him."
"Remember to take care of my salamanders." Beatrice added.
Charlie let her gaze linger on Linton's distraught face a little bit longer. It was the last thing she saw as Beatrice snapped her away into what was either going to be the start of the best or worst decision she'd ever made.