"Just let her sleep in for today, Drissel," Andrew said as he got in the car, accompanying him Charlotte who had a warm smile. "See you later, Drissel." Drissel gently waved at the pair. "See you later, Charlotte, and it's not like I can wake her if I wanted to anyway." Her figure receding back into the house. The car brought to life snaked into the road before driving back into the city.
"Don't you have anything that you wanted to carry?" His query caught her off guard before she recovered. "No, when Drissel found me, it's not like there was much that I wanted to bear with me from that house." Her tone turned somber as the surrounding buildings looked a lot more familiar.
"Regardless, it's nice of you to look into your past to know where you came from. Something that you humans like to say from time to time to prevent what Brittany has: pride." Charlotte gave a light chuckle before the car came to a stop. Around them, apartment complexes swallowed them aside from the silence that threatened to swallow them whole.
"Knowing you, I doubt you would take me to a place like this without a purpose in mind." Her mind ticked off the first time she met him. 'He talked little because what he ended up saying was more than enough to draw me in. To think that I would be in a position like this right now.' Forwarding in her memories, she recalled the day the sky bore its eye and looked down on the world.
She was at home, minding her own business before screams echoed through the air. Most of what happened afterwards was blurry, as she was shortly after assaulted with headaches, the same ones that claimed her parents, who ended their lives from the pain.
She followed Andrew up the stairs, each of her steps more hesitant than the last as he led the way. It wasn't long before the two arrived at her room. She looked at the door, the same one she thought little of before Andrew pushed it open. "After you." His hand gestured for her to take the lead. She drew in a big breath, her chest puffed out before she walked in. The small hallway sparked memories: how she would rush to school, the counter where she would have meals, and the living rooms a blend of both fond memories and others that she would like to forget.
It was then that it crept into her system. "The smell!" She held her nose while Andrew moved without hindrance before the two bodies on the floor came into view. "Mom... Dad..." She murmured, her tone turning soft as she fell to her knees. Tears trickled down her cheeks, Andrew watching her with his blank patience of a face before voices echoed in the complex.
"Charlotte?!" Charlotte, who was busy cradling her parents, stopped, a look of shock and disbelief winding up on her face. "Mom? Is that you?" Charlotte shot up, making her way to the exit and up the flight of stairs. Andrew, still in the room, looked at the two bodies before something odd registered in his eyes.
The two corpses were missing their lips. A detail that Charlotte didn't pick up. His scalpels gleamed in the faint light that bathed the room, chasing after Charlotte, who was chasing the source of the voice. "Charlotte, come here, it's Mommy." The voice cooed on, growing louder and louder while Charlotte's steps grew faster.
Andrew stepped out of the room, his eyes landing on Charlotte; however, there was no rush on his face as he watched the girl make her way up. "Mom! I'm coming to you!" Charlotte cried out in joy, tears streaming as she entered a room before her smile died on her face. What she looked at made her want to vomit; the figure that her eyes were now scanning was something she couldn't quite name.
It was a figure with the body of a child; however, that was where the similarities ended. Unlike a regular child with regular skin, the one in front of her was constituted of mouths as its skin, more so lips that all had ear to ear grins. "Come here, Charlotte, mommy loves you." A voice from the back of the figure's head beckoned, but Charlotte, in her stupor of shock, remained in place.
As if realizing its cover was blown, the creature lunged at her, a bloody knife gleaming in its hand. "Argh!" Charlotte shouted as she hurled the child-like figure back. "You bitch! You were supposed to fall for my words and add you to my collection of lips! Ah! Lips! So soft and tender, how yours will be a fine addition to my collection!" All kinds of voices echoed in Charlotte's ears: the rough and dry of men, the thin and tight curves of women, as well as the small and cheery of children.
"What the fuck are you?!" Charlotte asked, a frown on her face as she prepared herself for another attack. "I'm something that should drive you mad at a glance, and yet you can withstand this. Interesting..." Charlotte expected another lunge from the child-like figure, but what she got was a yell that nearly made her deaf.
"GRAAAGH!!!!" All the yells from all the voices forced her to cover her ears. The being using this window made its advance, this time attacking from the side and out of her range of telekinesis.
*Swish*
The knife found its way into her flesh, reaching her ribs before she retaliated by throwing the figure out of the room and down the eye of the complex all the way to the ground floor. Charlotte fell to the floor, blood spraying out of her side before Andrew walked in, unhurried. "You didn't find it odd that your mother was still alive even after you saw her die back then?" His hand outstretched to her, ready for her to draw his blood to which she did in greedy sucks.
"Gah! I thought maybe I was seeing things back then! After all, who knows exactly what happened? It could have been a hallucination on my end." Her words earned her an eye roll from Andrew as her flesh mended, the blood ceasing before she was back on her feet. "Argh! Do you think that throwing me off like that will kill me?! You'll have to try harder than that!" The child-like creature stated as it screamed once more.
*Whoosh-Whoosh-Whoosh*
Andrew sent his scalpels and diced the figure. "Do you think that cutting me with these puny blades will be more than enough to kill me? Think aga-" Before the kid could gloat, it fell to the floor and a mouthful of blood came from each mouth on its skin. From its eyes, ears and nose were all lips which were now stained with blood. "What the- How is this damaging me?"
The kid wondered as more blood began p trickle out of each orifice before it was dried of any blood in its body. "Your first encounter with a rogue weave was laughable, to say the least. However far better than how Brittany would have done it." Andrew stated, grading Charlotte's near-death experience like a test. "Come with me." He urged, making his way out of the room, to which Charlotte followed.
The two went up two more floors before entering an innocuous room where a body could be seen bleeding. The stench of blood in the air was fresh. "Do you see the red weave trailing from his head? This was controlling the weave. People who cannot awaken have a chance of becoming this abomination. Expect to see more of these kinds of transformations. They'll only get stronger from here."
His figure pacing to the kitchen where he grabbed a knife and with a throw beheaded the man. "If you want to kill rogue weaves, you'll have to find the main body and kill it. Severing its head will do; however, this won't always be the case. There will be times when the body is protected or just the head remaining and well hidden." His figure making its way back to the body before, with one step crushed the head, the sound of bones crunching filling the air.
"However, should you have my blood, you should be able to damage the weave and eventually kill the head, but I won't always be with you, so you'll have to learn how to trace such heads and get rid of them." His gaze landed on Charlotte, who was lost in his words. "A bit much at the moment, but you should be able to get it later on with practice. Let's go, that's enough for today."
The two shortly after made their way to the car, Charlotte still digesting what he had said before a question jolted her back. "Back when your parents died, were you sad?" A very ridiculous question eliciting a strange gaze from Charlotte. "What do you mean if I were sad? Of course I wasn't exactly leaping for joy, but... was I actually sad?" Her brows furrowing as she tried to recall the moment.
"I was experiencing hell from the headache but sadness... was I actually sad? I recall looking at their dying bodies, but I wasn't sad... more so just... looking at them. I... don't even remember feeling anything when they died now that you mention it." Even now she wasn't that bothered but stunned by her reaction back then. "Maybe it was because the spur of the moment was too much for me to process what actually happened for me to be sad. It explains why I broke out into tears back there."
Andrew had yet to turn on the engine. "It didn't seem like you were crying out of sadness but compensation. As it is carrying out a favor." She looked at her own hands, unsure of what was happening to her. "I guess you're right. The moment I heard her voice, I stopped, and after that, I didn't cry after realizing that it wasn't her." Her expression turned into one of horror. "Am I cruel to be like this? Even when you were bullying Brittany and saw her die, it just failed to click for me back then that she was dying and revived. It just seemed normal to me."
Andrew took a long look at her. "With you humans, I know little about your emotions, so don't ask me." The car now revved, but before he could drive off, she cut him off. "Andrew, I know you may not be human, but I am, and I'm not crying. When my parents died, even my best friend is missing, and it's not bothering me! Is there something wrong with me?"
Her tone growing restless, Andrew's hand now drifted from the wheel to her hand. "Charlotte, I'm sure that you love and care about them. It could be shock delay, you mind could be simply in a state of disbelief or refusing to acknowledge it all. I'm sure with time that you should be able to process this, and I'll be there for you." She flashed a smile that was shot back to her before the car made its way back to the mansion at the beachside.
Unbeknownst to the two, a pair of eyes watched them from the shadows, following their car speeding out of the city.
. . .
"I thought she died of exhaustion, not that I would be pleased or anything, but just lying like that for hours on end, would you blame me if I thought she was dead?" Drissel had a playful smile shot at Andrew, the two looking at Brittany's figure which had yet to wake up. "Brittany! Stop faking it already and get up! Your attempt at avoiding training tomorrow is nothing short of laughable!" Drissel shouted before a doorbell rang through. "I'll get it," Charlotte said as she made her way to the door before falling silent.