Haunted: A Lockwood & Co Story

Chapter Eight: Italian, Arguments and Burglaries

"He doesn't like you very much does he?" Charlotte asked, pulling her jacket on as her and George caught up to Lockwood outside the archives.

"He's an irrelevant prick. Ignore him." Lockwood gave the girl a look from where he was in the middle of the trio.

"We need to track down Hugo Blake." George said, as they walked away from the Archives. Lockwood stopped and turned around to the two.

"There's something else I need to do first. Why don't you two grab dinner? My treat." He pulled out his wallet from his pocket, providing 20 quid from it and handing it to Charlotte. She took it and then Lockwood immediately left the two behind. Charlotte and George stood there in awkward silence. The two had never really been left alone and it usually ended in some sort of argument that Lockwood usually had to intervene to end.
"Do you like... Italian?" George asked finally. Charlotte nodded.

"If you mean pizza then yeah." Charlotte responded. This niceness scared her honestly.

"That's exactly what I mean. Follow me I know a really good place." George then pushed past her, leaving her to run after him to catch up. He led her through a few streets of London before they turned down a dodgy looking alleyway. Above them a railway creaked as a train went across. From where Charlotte was behind George she could see the pizza place. It was a very suspicious looking building but like Felicity's mum, Chrissy said: "If it doesn't look like it has about seventy health food regulations that have been broken then it's not a good restaurant."

She followed George and handed over the 20 quid. He went in to order their pizza and Charlotte sat on the bench outside as she waited. She wondered what was so important that Lockwood had to ditch them for. She heard the door open and George come out, carrying a pizza box. He handed it to her and stood in front of her. Charlotte raised her eyebrows at the pizza but ultimately her hunger won out and she took a slice and bit into it. George took his own slice and started eating it.

"Hmm. This is the best Italian restaurant I've ever been to." Charlotte said as the cheese pizza slice she had quickly vanished. George was silent as he ate his pizza. Charlotte took another piece. "So... have you always lived here?"

"Zone six. Much nicer and much safer." George answered.

"How come you left?" Charlotte asked. If the place Charlotte had grown up in was nicer and safer than it had been she would have stayed.
"Mum and dad are lovely, but I couldn't stay." George said, making his way over to sit next to Charlotte, the pizza box separating them. "They had four boys. Engineer, engineer, engineer, weirdo."

George chuckled as he pointed to himself.

"So have you always been a bit..." Charlotte started but was cut off by the boy.

"Obsessed?" He asked and Charlotte nodded. "Yeah. The Problem's all I've ever known. All any of us have ever known really. That's not okay, so I wanna find out..."
"Find what out?" Charlotte asked as he cut himself off. He must be used to being teased by his obsession but Charlotte was genuinely interested.

"Everything! That's why I got fired from Fittes." Charlotte looked at George confused. "Did Lockwood not tell you?"
"No he did not!" Charlotte said in surprise.

"It's true." George said, nodding and smiling. "For asking too many questions, visiting floors above my pay grade."
"George Karim, I am shocked!" Charlotte exclaimed, hitting George in the arm. "Who knew you would be such a rebel!"

"Don't worry. I took the skull as compensation. I think I deserved a little prize for leaving a place like that." George said. The two started laughing. Charlotte then turned serious.

"So... do you think that we are being lied to about like everything?" Charlotte asked the boy.
"Oh absolutely. But by who? And why? And what can we do about it?" George told her. She listened as the boy expressed his opinions about the Problem.