A Horrific Fantasy

Chapter 48

Have you ever known that feeling where you say something awful to someone? Say something that was taking it too far and you instantly regret it the second it comes out of your mouth? Ironic that we often realize our mistake after the word has left our lips rather than before. And that's exactly what Charlie felt when she had called Alastor a coward. She didn't mean to call him that word, and she really didn't think he was a coward. She was just desperate, desperate to say anything to get him to either help her save Vaggie or at the very least, not try to prevent her from doing so. But that was no excuse, especially if she had hurt him as bad as she feared.

"That was a very cruel thing you said to him." Millie had told her calmly. "Cruel and stupid. You're lucky he has standards, otherwise he would sent you flying out the window for what you said."

"I know." Charlie sighed, ashamed of herself. "I didn't mean it."

"That doesn't mean it didn't hurt him. You should start showing a little gratitude. He's risked a lot for your sake. Levana has been after him for years yet he actually went right into her territory just so he could warn you about her. If he had been caught, there was a slim chance he'd live to see the age of nineteen."

"You're right." She admitted.

"But I can understand what led to say that. You're scared, confused, and young. You don't know what's happening, you don't what's going to happen, and it you're not even sure if you're going to see your best friend again. That's an awful situation to be in."

"I just don't understand everything. I mean, how did this happen? How did I get to this point? And how is it that I wasn't tricked but Vaggie was? Between the two of us, she was the more realistic one. The more worldly one. She should have seen through the deception better than I ever could."

"Levana is a calculating manipulator. She doesn't just choose any random child to ensnare. She spies on everyone in town, looks for any child who has the most problems and difficulties, then she studies them carefully. Learns all their strengths and weakness, their deepest issues, their great wants, and she uses it against them. Not to mention as worldly as your friend is, she's still a teenager with emotions and problems, and like all teenagers she just wishes for an easy way out."

"But I'm more naive than she is. How was I not caught?"

"Well I don't know everything about your friend, only what Al has told me from his observations but it seems to me that Vaggie doesn't really believe she has any family that loves her."

"What? That's crazy. Her mother loves her more than anything."

"But she's been having problems with her mother right? And from what I hear she has an absent father as well?"

"Yes she does."

"Well when someone has one parent who is absent while constantly fighting with the parent who stayed, it can lead to doubts. That poor girl probably didn't think anyone would miss her if she left for good."

"But how could she think that? I love her! She knows that!"

"But your friend wasn't lacking in reassurance of the love one receives from friendship. She was lacking in the reassurance that she had parental love and that's the kind of love Levana pretends to give, because when you're a child that's the kind of love you need the most. Luckily in your case, you have that reassurance."

"I do?"

"Alastor told me that you never doubted your foster father's love for you. True you may have had doubts about him wanting the full responsibility of raising you, but not about his love. I suspect that's how you weren't fooled, at least not completely. Also your parents may have died but at least you know death is the only reason they're not with you. That if they were still alive, they'd be loving and looking after you for the rest of your life. Her father chose to leave her, giving her the fear that he didn't want her and that there's something wrong with her. And believe me sweetie, street smarts doesn't do anything for you if you believe you're unloved and on your own."