Charmed into Darkness

two

NOT EDITED. Prepare yourself for grammar mistakes and weird wordings.

It's been a week. A week full of heavy heart and fake smiles.

A week since Catherine's parents, or should she say, Dani's parents had passed away along with Terry, Dani's sister. It had been a painful seven days for Catherine, because she basically lost another parental figure in her life. Catherine had never felt so cursed, wondering why everything she had was taken away.

That night, Cathy didn't waste no time and immediately left Pelle, Mark, and Josh. She didn't even wait for Christian as she ran outside to catch a ride to Dani's house. Her heart was beating so fast, she almost thought it might die of exhaustion. She almost wished it did, she'd rather face that than the look on Dani's face confirming that her family's death were true.

When they arrived at Dani's house, there was a huge difference in how the girls reacted to the situation. Dani was wailing, voice and heart full of mournful sorrows. While Catherine was quiet, numb. Cathy watched as Dani moaned in pain, tears damping her cheeks—no matter how long those tears fell, it never did lessen the ache in Dani's chest. It was too much. Too fucking much.

Catherine sat quietly, watching as Dani weeped painfully against Christian's lap, while he rubbed her back gently. The girls were too preoccupied with their own spacial emotion, they never did noticed the look on Christian's face. Eyes wide with worry, not just for Dani or Cathy's well-being, but for what laid ahead. His eyes bored into space as he imagined the future he would be chained into. He knew there was nothing he could do, for he was trapped in a relationship with Dani. So while Catherine's cousin was sobbing in pain, Christian was consoling Dani in autopilot, while his mind was far away wanting nothing more than to escape his prison.

Catherine Bradford had left hours later. She went back home to her apartment, all alone. No one was there to lend her a shoulder to cry on, no one was there to pick her up as she lay on the ground, mind completely detached. No one was there to rub her back soothingly, telling her it is going to be okay, and that they will always be by her side no matter what. There could be, but Cathy was too busy trying to erase her past memories to even realized the lack of it.

Cathy slept there on the floor and woke up the next morning unbothered, and went straight to shower since she had a class in the upcoming hour. There were tons of missed calls and messages left unread, almost all of them were from Pelle—asking her to open the door, to text him if she needed anything, and so on. Others were from her male friends, giving their condolences to her.

Cathy didn't even read them as she went through her day, she didn't even check her phone once to see the time, for her mind was blank. It was like her body was on autopilot, while her mind was just there, observing. Everyone who came across Catherine's path would see how dazed she looked, but whenever someone interacted with her—they will see her fake smile convincing them that she's okay, and they believed her every single time.

Days went on and Cathy was shutting everyone out. Her cheeks were getting tired, but she had to keep appearances. Every shaky breath, every tears welling in her eyes had to be concealed. Despite Cathy being a completely open person, always living her life care free, she had a bad habit of running away from her problems —she would always act like nothing had happened. The only person who could even possibly understand her was Dani, but she was dealing with her own pain and Cathy didn't want to burden her with her own—besides, Cathy felt selfish to say that she's been in a lot of pain when the Ardors weren't even her biological family. Sure, Cathy lost her second parents, but Dani had lost her actual parents and a sister. A sister whom Cathy never really bonded with.

So when Pelle texted her, asking if he could come over, she immediately rejected the offer, telling him that she's fine and that she doesn't need company. She even went as far as telling him that she wasn't home, when in fact she was rotting on her bed.

It had been a week since that day, and Mark had invited her for lunch, as everyone was getting worried when their best friend was locking herself alone during one of her lowest times. To the boys, it was a miracle that Cathy accepted the offer, especially after pushing them away the past few days.

The lunch they shared was fine. In fact, it was too fine. The boys were expecting a disheveled Cathy, completely depressed and haven't bathed for days. But imagine their surprise when she came in, looking beautiful as ever—she literally had their jaw dropped and breath taken away. It turned out to be one of the best lunch they had, smiles and laughters were shared. Fortunately for Cathy, Christian and Dani weren't in attendance. So, it was a good distraction—especially when none of them commented about the obvious elephant in the room.

Well, not all of them.

Cathy literally had to avoid eye contacts when it comes to Pelle. Despite her facade of normalcy, Cathy knew that Pelle could see through her. She somehow knew that he was aware that the emotions she displayed for them weren't 100% genuine. Not to mention, the times Catherine Bradford had to change the topic when Pelle subtly trying to bring up about the loss. It was tiring for Cathy. Eventually, after spending two hours with her boys, she excused herself. Telling them she had things to attend to, not that she was lying, she really needed to attend her bed and just sleep the day away.

Moments after she left, the boys began to speak. Josh shook his head, telling them that something was definitely wrong with her. Mark butted in and agreed, he pointed out that throughout the whole dinner, not once did Cathy flirted with Pelle. It may be a weird reasoning for others to hear, but to the boys, it was valid. There was never a moment where Cathy wouldn't tease their Swedish friend, even small subtle winks counts—so for them to see her avoid eye contacts, not even facing him at all was alien. Mark and Josh continued to laid out why they think Cathy was acting different while Pelle just sat there, staring at the table with a small frown. Mark even asked Pelle if he did something wrong, which to his knowledge, he was sure he didn't.

Pelle's mind was in turmoil. He kept trying to find answers as to why Catherine was avoiding him. Pelle actually went to check up on her the day Dani's parents passed, he knew they were like Cathy's second parents too, so losing them would definitely affect her greatly. However, when he arrived and knocked on the door, there was no answer. He tried calling and messaging her, but to no avail, Cathy didn't answered him. It was a new experience for him, because usually Cathy would text him back within seconds. Not getting any news from her at all made him slightly anxious. He reasoned himself that maybe she just needed space, some time alone to grasp her grief—so the first few days, he gave it to her. He texted her from time to time, to which Cathy dryly answered him—just to feed his worry. As days passed by, he decided to check up her in person, but it wasn't easy as it sounds. Cathy was always there texting him that she was fine, that she didn't want to be with other people's presence, and one time when he texted her he was at her front door, Cathy told him she wasn't home.

If they weren't close, Pelle might have probably let it slide and wait for her to come back to him—but they are close. For months, Pelle and Cathy were joined to the hips, always hanging out and clinging onto each other. The only times they were apart was when they were hanging out with their friend group—even during those moments, Pelle always find it difficult to keep his hands to himself, especially when Cathy would always flirtatiously tease him to see if he breaks. If he were honest, Pelle actually have taken a liking to Cathy. It wasn't supposed to happen but he cares for her, dare he even say, loves her. At one point, he even thought of asking her to be his girlfriend but he didn't want to push it, afraid he might lose her incase she didn't feel the same way.

Pelle listened as Mark and Josh spoke, suddenly sighing in worry when they pointed out that she didn't even finished her lunch. She barely even touched it.

That was when Pelle knew he had to see her, he needed to see her—he needed to know if she's holding up alright. And maybe, just maybe, she needed him too. So he took his chance, decided to push past the boundaries Cathy had placed between them the past few days, and showed up unannounced on her doorstep exactly one week since it happened, with his arms full of groceries for them to enjoy. And gracing her with a cute smile that Cathy once told him she adores.