It Is You I Have Loved

Chapter 31

It was very dark that night. So dark that as Alastor was carrying the firewood back to the camp, he had to take very careful steps. He was used to nights such as these, they were fairly common in the forest he lived in. He had learned to rely on sound and touch on nights such as these. Though he hoped that Angel and Vaggie wouldn't have any trouble finding their way back to camp.

By the time he made it back, the fire had been snuffed out but before he could sit down to start a new one, the night air was suddenly pierced by a bloody scream.

"Oh God no! No please! Not again!"

The scream was coming from inside the shelter he had built earlier and Alastor recognized that the scream belonged to Charlie. He instantly dropped the firewood and ran inside the shelter. He couldn't see a thing but as I mentioned earlier, he had learned to rely on sound and touch when his eyes could not be useful at the moment.

"Charlie what's wrong?" He called.

"Let me out! You can't leave me in here again! You just can't! Please! Oh please let me out!"

His arms and hands searched for her, his ears picked up the sound of fabric crinkling. At last he felt her arms and he felt that her body was tossing in turning. She was asleep and having a nightmare. He grabbed hold of her.

"Charlie wake up!"

She fought against him.

"No! You can't keep me here! I'll die if I have to stay here again!"

"Charlie wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" He shouted as loud as he could and gave her a good shake. Finally the princess jolted awake.

"Where am I?!"

"Calm down." Alastor said.

"Who is that?! Daddy?! Oh Daddy please don't lock me up again! I beg you!"

"Charlie it's me. Alastor."

"Alastor?" Her hands went up to his face and she felt for familiar features. "It is you."

Overcome by emotion, she threw herself into his arms and clung to him. She began to cry.

"Oh Alastor it was so awful! I dreamnt that my father was alive but he had come back as some horrible, unfeeling tyrant and he had locked me right back in that tower! He told me that this time I'd never get out!"

"It was a nightmare." Alastor whispered softly, holding her tight. "It's alright. You're safe now."

"I can't ever go back there! I just can't!"

"And you won't. I won't let that happen. I promise."

As he held her in his arms and listened to her voice, he could not help but feel great anger and disgust toward Charlie's father. How could he do something like this to his own daughter? What kind of a father would lock their child away in a tower and leave them there for God knows how long? Why if this devil of a parent wasn't already dead, Alastor would have killed him himself.

That's probably the one thing Alastor hated more than being hated by others. Parents who were cruel to their children. He had been so loved by his own mother, that the very idea of any parent not loving their child the way his loved him, made him ill with rage.

"Here, why don't I start a fire and let some light in." He suggested.

"No!" She screamed. "No light! I don't want you to see me!"

"Why not?"

"I'm...I'm...I'm in my undergarments! I sleep in them!"

Alastor blushed.