Charlie

Chapter II - New Friends

So now that you know the story behind Claire and her peculiar friend Charlie let me tell you about more recent happenings.

Claire woke up from her bed with a frantic scream. She was sweating like crazy and her mind was still hazy from the dream she had. It was a recurring dream, more like a nightmare, she kept getting them since she met Charlie and that was a long time ago. You'd think she'd be used to the night terrors by now but they were still terrifying, one always scarier than the last.

The dream went a little like this: Claire would be standing right outside her room and, she would hear screaming coming from downstairs. She walked down the stairs but she wasn't the on controlling her legs, she tried to stop herself but her legs always carried her toward the screaming no matter what she did. Once downstairs Claire could see Charlie standing in the living room his hands and mouth were covered in blood, and on the floor next to him were her parents, they both laid there dead, their organs coming out of their cut up bodies. Charlie just stared at them laughing maniacally.

Claire would look in terror at Charlie. Then he would look up at her.

"Let's play hide and seek Clairey." He'd say, "Go hide."

At this point in the dream Claire would always be able to control her legs and regain control over her body. So this meant that she had to choose a hiding spot. Claire had tried every single hiding spot in the house but Charlie always found her no matter how good the spot was. Claire would go hide, Charlie would find her and this is the part that was almost traumatic.

Once Charlie found Claire he would grab her by the shoulders and lift her up, slowly opening his mouth filled with sharp teeth and would give her a broad smile. Claire would scream and try to wiggle out of his grasp but Charlie never let go. Charlie then would become this monster, with pointy ears, and completely black eyes except for small white dots that resembled pupils. He was a shadow, no features could be seen on his face or body. Just a simple black silhouette, and those damn pointy ears similar to a donkey. His smile would never go away and Claire could see the sharp yellow teeth in front of her almost as if they were real.

Then Claire would wake up, sometimes she'd see the monster crouched on the corner of her room but after blinking a couple of times it would be gone. She had told Charlie about it multiple times but Charlie would always reply with the same thing.

"They're just dreams, if you're lucky maybe this one won't come true."

Claire woke up this time looking around her room, waiting to see the familiar hunchbacked monster crouched on the corner. But this time she saw Charlie there instead.

"Happy Birthday Clairey." He said in a sinister tone, "I brought you something."

Charlie handed Claire a dirty gold ring, it had a star engraved in the middle, around the star was a circle with the letters SST on the top left and right. Claire looked at it in awe, it was beautiful, and although it was a little big for her finger it looked perfect almost meant to be.

"What is it?" She asked Charlie as she examined the ring.

"It's an entry." Said Charlie with a smile on his face.

"An entry? Entry to what?"

"To my family Claire, they hide in the deep of the woods near the lake you love to play by."

"Oh yeah? How come I've never seen them?" Said Claire accusingly almost certain Charlie was lying since she always spent most of her days by the lake and she had never seen anyone there.