The Strange Man

Where's Charlie?

  "Where's Charlie?", Mac asked. "He's been gone for hours. Is he just really mad at us?" "Maybe she killed him," Dee said. "Yeah," Frank agreed, "maybe she ate him." "Let's make a bet," Mac suggested. "Who says mad and who says dead?"
  Dennis stopped what he was doing and slammed his hands on the bar. "Why are we still talking about this?!" He wasn't angry about the whole situation. "That woman is a lunatic and Charlie just wants attention!" Everyone was silent for a bit, then Mac said, "Is it just me, or does it just seem as though Dennis is upset because Dahlia doesn't like him?" Frank and Dee mumbled in agreement. Dennis slammed his hands again. His anger worsened. "I don't care about whether or not she likes me! I have gotten much better looking women than her to sleep with me." He laughed. "I'm golden god! All women wish to be with me!" The rest of the gang mumbled again, this time in annoyance.
  When Charlie woke up, it took him a second to realize where he was. He looked around a bit before noticing Dahlia beside him, still hugging him. Her face was a bit tear stained, but she still looked nice. She was an anxious person a lot of the time, but she looked calm in that moment.
  He didn't want to wake her, but he knew he needed to tell the gang where he was. 'They probably made a bet about whether or not I'm dead,' he thought to himself. Then, he remembered what Dennis had said about the rats multiplying. He was the rat master. The rest of the gang couldn't kill the rats. He knew those rodents were clever and wanted to take over the entire bar.
"Dahlia," he whispered, "hey, Dahlia." He moved her hair out of her face, waking her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Sorry about what?", Charlie asked. Just then, Dahlia realized that she was hugging Charlie. She jumped off the couch and almost knocked over the TV. "What happened?", she asked anxiously. "We fell asleep," he said, smiling a bit at the thought. Dahlia stood there with a worried expression. "Was... was I crying?", she asked. Charlie nodded.
'Oh, god,' Dahlia thought, 'I'm such a crybaby! What's wrong with me?!' She covered her face with her hands and put her head down in embarrassment. When she looked up at Charlie, she was surprised to see that he wasn't angry. Instead, he seemed confused and concerned.
"What's wrong?", he asked. "I didn't mean to cry. I probably made you really uncomfortable, didn't I?" she answered. "No," he answered, "I cry a lot, too. You're a pretty crier anyways, so I don't mind." They smiled at each other, then Charlie remembered the rats.
"S***!", he yelled, "I've gotta kill the rats!" Dahlia was confused. "What?", she asked, laughing slightly because of how odd he was. "Well... you see," he began, "I'm kinda a rat king and Paddy's has lots of rats, so I'm the one who kills them to keep them from multiplying and taking over." "That's really cool, Charlie," Dahlia said. "Yeah," he responded, "I love my job." He turned towards the door to leave, but turned back towards Dahlia before opening it. "You wanna come and see?", he asked excitedly. Dahlia smiled and nodded happily. "I'd love to!" She then stopped and thought for a second before saying, "Would your friends be okay with me coming though?" Charlie himself stopped and thought a bit, then shrugged and smiled. "I don't care what they think."
  The gang was on edge the entire day and didn't have any problems or news to launch them into sticky situations. Plus, without Charlie, they were missing an important part of their group. Considering it was a surprisingly good day business-wise, they were stuck doing something dreadful: work.
  Frank exited his office and stood in the middle of the bar. "Someone's gotta say something!", he yelled out suddenly, breaking the tense silence. "What are you talking about, Frank?", Dennis asked with an annoyed tone. Frank flung his arms up. "Today has been horrible! Charlie isn't here, we've gotta do our jobs, there aren't any ruses or schemes, there are rats everywhere...", he began wildly. "Dee's being a b****," Mac added. "Exactly!", Frank responded. "Why are you attacking me?!", Dee asked, offended by their comment. Dennis shook his head. "Shut up, bird!", he yelled. "Frank is right this time. Today's been hell," he continued. "What are we gonna do?", Mac asked. Dennis thought for a moment before dramatically saying, "We need to bring back the balance... We need to get Charlie back."