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Saturday morning had started in Hurricane, everyone was bustling around their houses getting ready for the day ahead of them, cooking breakfast, showering or getting dressed. Other’s preferred getting a nice lie in, snuggling up to a loved one or with a stuffed plushie if they were a child. Then there was Michael Afton. Laying his bed, staring holes into the ceiling above while he was deep in thought about everything that had been recently happening in his life.
At twenty years old and a college student who was now half way through his third year of his education into law, it was natural for Michael to be deep in thought questioning everything recently after having Christmas off and now having to deal with the pressure of his work but that’s not what Michael was thinking about. No, that was the least of his worries, in fact Michael found his college work to be the escape that he desperately needed from this time of intense stress. The thing that Michael was actually thinking about was Charlie Emily. It also wasn’t uncommon for him to think of her on a weekend as he lazed about in his room but those thoughts were positive, they gave him motivation to get out of bed and to start up his day but recently these thoughts weren’t anything positive, they were feelings of confusion and grief.
Six months ago at Charlie’s cousin’s birthday party her aunt Jen had been found dead, stabbed over fifty times. It was a murder and Charlie had been found at the scene of the crime. With this Charlie got arrested and her trial began earlier in the month. To say that Michael had this sinking void in his stomach about the whole thing was an understatement. In the half a decade that Michael knew Charlie, murder wasn’t something he thought that she was capable of so her just being charged and on trial for killing her Aunt was…uncharacteristic in Michael’s opinion. That didn’t factor into how his father William Afton felt about the whole matter. Ever since the arrest of Charlie, William had become scarily enthusiastic, no matter what had happened during the day William always had a smile across his face because of the trial that was about to happen and was now finally happening. It didn’t matter what was going on either as the raven haired man would always bring up the trial and how finally, an Emily was getting a comeuppance after all this time.
Michael couldn’t help but scoff to himself as he remembered how he would have to deal with his father’s bragging about the trial in a minute when he would have to go down to get breakfast. Honestly he should just try and get back to sleep to avoid that from happening. Realising that, Michael closed his eyes hoping that he would be able to zone out or at least pretend that he wasn’t awake but suddenly his door swung right open, slamming into the wall next to it.
“Michael, my boy are you up?” A giddy voice shouted out as the person stomped to Michael’s bed in a rush. It didn’t take Michael a second to realise that it was William. Groaning, Michael opened up his eyes to see his father beaming from ear to ear.
“Yes, Father I’m up.” Michael sighed. Despite his tired sigh, William didn’t pick up on his son’s displacement.
“Great, now I want you to get up and go eat breakfast.” William said. “I know you need your lie in after getting the train back here for the weekend but I have to go to the station and go over the evidence for Charlotte’s trial again just to make sure I cover my bases and I just finished breakfast so would be go downstairs and eat it please.”
“That’s a very odd request.” Michael sarcastically grumbled, rolling his eyes.
“Elizabeth also needs to be dropped off at Cassidy’s house in an hour's time and since I can’t do that it’s up to you to do that.” William continued. “So that’s also why I need you to be up.”
Michael let out another sigh, of course there was something to it there always was something else with William. “Fine, I'll do it.” He said.
“Oh perfect.” William grinned and leaned down to hug his son. “I knew you were reliable. Right I’ve got to dash, I’ll see you later tonight.”
And with that William darted off just as fast as he came into the room, leaving Michael alone. Rolling his eyes and scoffing, Michael got out of his bed and grabbed his clothes and walked to the bathroom to get showered. As he showered, he couldn’t get out of his mind this feeling of contempt towards his father. Now, William wasn’t a bad parent at least in Michael’s opinion. When he was young, William was anything a child could have wanted but that all changed when William’s youngest son and Michael’s younger brother Evan went missing and would later show up dead. After that event seven years ago, William became a shell of his former self. He became obsessed with his work, his marriage with Michael’s mother Lisa became astringed and the two would shortly divorce afterwards with the two taking it turns looking after Michael and Elizabeth. Well taking it in turns was being generous to William, he was too busy with his work whenever it was his turn to look after Michael and Elizabeth so it fell onto Michael to look after his younger sister on those weekends.
But of course that wasn’t the end of it; the worst of William’s fall in Michael’s opinion was his downright obsession with the Emily’s, Henry and his daughter Charlie.
Michael couldn’t understand it but there was this intense bitterness towards the Father and Daughter duo that William had. He had always had it but it was more of a rivalry with the two working the same job and both having strong opinions on justice but after the death of Evan, that rivalry turned into something ugly. It didn’t matter what the case was, William would just try his hardest to and defeat Henry no matter the case and no matter how bad the actual case was or how obvious someone was innocent or guilty, William would try as hard as he could to beat Henry. So now that Charlie was on trial it was like everyday was Christmas for him and Michael hated it.
He despised the constant gloating that his father was doing and wished for it to end but he didn’t say anything. There was a part of him that knew that a few years ago he would have done the same thing but that was before he truly knew Charlie.
“Mike, just stop thinking about it, get on with your day.” He mumbled to himself and stepped out of the shower.
After getting dried and dressed, Michael walked into the dinning room to see that his breakfast was already on the table and that Elizabeth was there as well, sipping her strawberry milkshake while she glared intensely at the newspaper, with her notebook right by her empty plate. Michael couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. At the age of sixteen, Elizabeth’s personality was very humorous to Michael. Despite her always demanding to be treated with more respect and that she wasn’t a child, she still had that childish streak in her so seeing her act like something out of a mafia film while still sipping her strawberry milkshake out of her child sippy cup was a tonal whiplash but that’s what made Elizabeth, Elizabeth.
“Morning, Elizabeth.” He said, as he sat down in his seat and picked up his knife and fork ready to eat. Elizabeth didn’t respond, instead flicking to the next page of the newspaper, continuing her analysis of whatever she was reading. “Liz?” Michael repeated.
“Yes, yes I hear you.” The strawberry blonde hissed out, waving her hand off. “Morning, good day whatever.”
Michael couldn’t help but laugh at his sister’s bluntness. Just everything about it was so funny to him but for Elizabeth she didn’t like the laughter one bit.
“Excuse me.” She huffed, folding up the newspaper and turning to Michael. “What’s so funny?”
“You.” Michael whizzed out. “You’re acting so serious reading that newspaper but instead of something like tea, you’re drinking a milkshake out of a sippy cup that you’ve been using since you were eight.”
“That’s because coffee and tea are disgusting.” Elizabeth huffed again, crossing her arms. “My milkshakes are amazing and they taste wonderful unlike stupid coffee and tea.”
“This is why you’re still a kid.” Michael teased, grinning at his younger sister.
“I am not a kid!” Elizabeth fumed, stamping her foot on the ground to make herself heard. “I am sixteen years old, seventeen this year-”
“In September, which is in nine months time.” Michael interrupted.
“I am applying for a drivers licence this year.”
“Congrats, that doesn’t make you an adult.”
“And I can go to different towns without you or Daddy’s need to look over me.” Elizabeth finished. “So I am in fact an adult now.”
“You’re forgetting the fact that you’re allowed to go into other towns with Susie and Cassidy but not by yourself.” Michael added. “Also legally you’re not an adult yet.”
“Urg don’t use that against me.” Elizabeth groaned. Michael loved using that reason any chance he could to tease her and to Elizabeth it was the worst thing to hear ever.
“Don’t keep saying you’re an adult then.” Michael chuckled. “But why are you reading that newspaper so intensely?”
“Oh it’s for research purposes.” Elizabeth clarified. “So you know that I'm in the journalist club?”
“No, I don’t know that.” Michael sarcastically replied, smiling. The journalist club was Elizabeth’s pride and joy. There was no one as passionate about the club as Elizabeth, she talked about it constantly about how important it was and what it meant to be an actual journalist. It was extra funny knowing that the strawberry blonde girl didn’t want to be a journalist, instead she wanted to be a detective when she was an actual adult but since there was no way for her to play detective in school, she settled for journalism to pass the time and work on her research skills.
“Don’t get snarky with me, Michael.” Elizabeth snapped back. “But I’m researching a case that I want to write about for the school paper and so before anything I need to look at what the news coverage is saying and then do my own research.”
“And what case is that?” Michael smirked.
“Charlie Emily’s case.” Elizabeth replied bluntly.
Michael’s smirk dropped as the void in his stomach grew three sizes. “You’re doing what?” He asked, all his upbeat snark vanishing instantly.
“Researching Charlie’s case.” Elizabeth repeated, saying it as though it was the most obvious thing on the planet.
“Wh-Why?” Michael spluttered.
“Because something is up with this case!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “There is something here that just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s all the talk at school about how the golden student, the famous Charlie Emily is actually a murderer but no one knows why. It just doesn’t seem right, you talk to Charlie in your college class, you know her better than me and surely you know that she couldn’t kill someone.”
Michael opened his mouth to respond but no words came out of it. For some reason his mind had shut down and his vocal cords just wouldn’t work. Elizabeth didn’t realise and instead carried on.
“That’s not even mentioning that she’s a very smart person.” She added. “I mean you two were tied for all of high school for being the top two students so killing her Aunt at a party is laughably moronic for someone of such intelligence-”
“Elizabeth, stop it!”
The younger Afton flinched at hearing Michael’s sudden outburst. The two stared at each other taking in deep breaths as time seemingly slowed down before Michael finally spoke.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Michael apologised. “I…just don’t want to hear about that trial right now.”
“Right, sorry.” Elizabeth whispered softly.
The two sat in silence until Michael finally finished his breakfast and by that point it was time to take Elizabeth down to Cassidy’s. Elizabeth had rushed upstairs to get her backpack that was filled with stuff necessary for the supposed day trip that Elizabeth and Cassidy were going to do. As she packed up that bag, Michael walked into his room and gazed at a case that he hadn’t touched since the Friday in December where he got back home.
He stared at the case debating what to do with it. He had brought it home from college for a very specific reason and he knew that now was probably the best time to take it to where he wanted to take it. Taking a deep breath, Michael grabbed the case and quickly rushed it to the back of his car and put it in the trunk. Slamming the trunk shut, he took another sigh as his anxiety rushed back to him but before any truly negative thoughts could sneak in, Elizabeth opened up the front passenger seat and slammed that shut, startling him. When he got into the car, he noticed Elizabeth giggling.
“What’s so funny?”
“You, getting startled.” Elizabeth giggled. “I didn't think that would spook yah.”
“Yeah har har.” Michael mumbled, rolling his eyes.
The car ride was surprisingly peaceful, instead of the two siblings teasing each instead Elizabeth went on about everything that had gone on while he was away or busy helping William with his cases. She started off by telling him how their mom and step father were doing and Michael couldn’t help but feel a prideful smile with the way Elizabeth described the two. After the divorce, Elizabeth took it the hardest and grew a lot of resentment towards Lisa and especially her boyfriend, now husband Nathan Schmidt but now Elizabeth was beaming with joy when describing everything. She told Michael about how Nathan had taken her and Cassidy to go see their favorite band for her birthday present. It was delightful hearing now that Elizabeth had such a loving relationship with her mother and step father.
The other stories she told came from the many cases she had researched. To Michael’s surprise the cases would occasionally go way further than he thought with the girls sometimes having trouble which would lead them having to flee the scene or get Cassidy to deck a person before the trio would sprint off to safety. Maybe Michael should be concerned at his little sister’s hobby getting her into potential danger and he did but from how Elizabeth described the stories, Michael couldn’t help but have a sense of pride at his little sister’s accomplishments.
When the two arrived at Cassidy’s, Elizabeth had to refrain from squealing with joy the moment she saw Susie and Cassidy sitting outside the darker brunette’s house. Jumping out of the car, Elizabeth sprinted towards her two friends and tackled them into a big hug.
“Oh my gosh, how long have you two been waiting for me?” Elizabeth asked them.
“It has to be hours now.” Susie answered giggling.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Cassidy mumbled, a bright streak of red slowly forming across her face. “It’s just been five minutes that’s all.”
“Well I’m sorry for making you two wait.” Elizabeth said and gave Cassidy an extra hug which only made the darker brunette blush even harder.
“Hey Liz.” Michael called out, starling Cassidy, Susie and Elizabeth that he was in fact there watching them and that they weren’t alone doing…whatever that moment was. “Before you do anything else, don’t you want to get your bag?”
“Oh right yeah.” Elizabeth sheepishly replied and quickly dashed over to Michael’s car and got her bag out of the backseat. The two siblings looked at each other with Elizabeth giving her older brother a shy look and then quickly ran inside Cassidy’s house with the two following her.
Michael couldn’t help but chuckle at his sister’s sudden shyness but now he was all alone. He knew what he had to do, what he brought the case for but instead of going to his destination, Michael paused for a long time until finally saying to himself.
“I need to get a drink.”
**************
It took Michael twenty minutes to drive from Cassidy’s house to the town centre where the cafe he was thinking about getting a drink from was. Pfaff’s Coffee drop. It was a small café chain that started in Hurricane and slowly expanded around the state of Utah over the coming years. It had been Michael’s favourite café ever since he was thirteen years old and was disappointed when he found out the nearby town by his college didn’t have one there. Entering the café, Michael's mind began wondering what to buy for himself. Should he just get water? Maybe a Coke Cola? Or perhaps he should get the amazing coffee instead. As his mind began debating the choices he should pick for a drink he got snapped out of it as he heard a similar masculine voice talking to someone behind him.
“How is that drink Sammy?”
Hearing this, Michael turned around a light ginger haired man who looked like he was in his forties, with a similar light brown jacket sitting at a table with a cup of coffee in front of him. Michael immediately knew who the man was. It was Charlie’s father, the man that William had a downright obsession for Henry Emily. Michael felt his throat immediately dry up as he glared over to the lawyer who had taken no notice of him, instead his main concern was a younger slightly darker ginger haired boy that looked around Charlie’s age and a girl wearing a bright purple blouse with blonde hair with dyed dark brown dips in at the bottom. If Michael had to guess, the seemingly clone of Henry was Samuel Emily, Jen’s son and Charlie’s cousin.
Michael watched over the trio as the younger light ginger nodded his head in response. Henry smiled at his nephew and reached over to him and ruffled his hair.
“That’s good to hear.” Henry said, smiling.
“You got just the right flavour he likes.” The woman giggled, wrapping her arms around Sammy. “Normally he’s super picky but it seems like you got lucky and picked the right one.”
“Well, I remember…someone told me the kinds of drinks Sammy likes and I don’t want to mess up anything with my nephew.” Henry replied, with a small chuckle that, at least to Michael, rang hollow. “Though I don’t suppose you can give me any tips Jessica on what snacks to get Sam when we are out but you’re not available.”
The woman, Jessica, just laughed. “Oh he’ll tell you even if he doesn’t say anything. Though you’ll have to ask him and tell him to be honest.”
Sammy shot the woman a confused look and shook his head. Michael couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the younger man’s actions. Sammy so clearly had a mouth so why wasn’t he using it or more importantly why weren’t they treating him like he could talk. That’s when it hit him. While he was spending time helping father at the office, he had heard rumours that someone close to the case and who was at the party had gone mute due to the trauma and would only talk to one person. Michael had written off the rumour as nothing but nonsense but now as he was standing nearby Sammy, he believed it fully now.
Michael felt sick to his stomach at the retaliation.
How could Henry deal with this?
In all of Michael’s seven years of being aware of the rival lawyer there was something about him that always fascinated him. Henry’s mentally. From a distance, Henry had always seemed strong. He was a man that was seemingly unphased by anything and unlike William who wanted to rant from the top of his lungs and had to refrain from cursing out his opponent. Michael couldn’t imagine how the mental struggle Henry was probably going through.
He had lost his wife to an illness when Charlie was three. Now his sister was murdered and his daughter was the main suspect and was on trial.
As he stared at Henry, Sammy and Jessica he completely forgot at the fact that he was in a queue waiting for his order until.
“Oi, are you going to order or what?” He heard a shorter teenage boy rudely ask him. Blinking rapidly, Michael just scowled at the younger boy and headed to the counter to order but instead of a warm friendly face at the counter instead came a cold grumble.
“Oh it’s you.”
Michael froze and looked up to see a short plump brunette woman behind the counter wearing all grey clothing with a name tag saying, Marla Pfaff. It took Michael a second to recognise the name before it clicked. Marla was the daughter of the founder of the café and was the main manager of this particular café but that wasn’t how Michael remembered her, no she was one of Charlie’s closest friends. The sudden cold reply made sense now but that didn’t mean Michael wasn’t a little surprised at it.
“Um, yeah?” Michael awkwardly replied. “Uh…can I have a coffee please?”
“Is that to help you with assisting your father?” Marla replied, bitterly as she turned to the coffee machine not even facing Michael to see his shocked face. Despite not knowing her too well, Michael knew that Marla was one of the friendliest and nicest people on the entire planet from, sure most of that was from how Charlie would talk about her while the two were studying together for class but still, seeing this colder side to the woman was surprising.
“What no, it’s for myself.” Michael answered back. “I just wanted a drink.”
“Of course you do.” He faintly heard Marla mumble before she turned back and gave him his coffee. “Well have a nice day and maybe one day you could be a good friend to Charlie.” She finished and gave Michael what he could only describe as the fakest smile he ever saw before calling for the next person in line.
Realising that there was no point in trying to explain anything to Marla, Michael went to a table and sat down and began sipping the coffee in his cup. The coffee was wonderful but his mind couldn’t help but wander for the umptieth time that day as he gazed back over to Henry’s table when he got up followed by Sammy and Jessica doing the same thing though the two were giggling at something while holding hands. As he examined them, memories of seven years came flying back to him. He remembered his old hatred towards his Dad’s rival when he was thirteen and how it all started.
It began with one simple day in the park. Michael was thirteen and playing with his younger brother. After playing for a bit, Michael decided to go to the toilet and then get a drink, he remembered telling Evan to stay in the park while he quickly rushed to the toilets and with a quick nod from the youngest Afton, Michael ran off to the toilets. He didn’t know at the time that it would be the last time he would see his younger brother alive again. Michael still remembered the feelings of bubbling dread as he searched all over the park, then running back home and telling his mother before rushing back out to try and find his brother. It took him all afternoon searching all over town until he reached the outskirts of the town he saw the thing that would forever haunt him.
Evan’s dead body.
After finding the corpses of his brother and alerting authorities, William began his crusade to find the murderer of his son and would demand that justice would be served to whoever had brutally taken the life of his seven year old son. Despite that crusade, William would never get it due to one man.
Henry.
Through the many trials over the years for so many suspects that would eventually get charged with the murder of Evan Afton, Henry would be there to defend every single one of them. When he was young, Michael couldn’t understand why Henry would do such a thing. It was as though Henry just hated them and didn’t want the killer to get sent to jail and suffer the right punishment but now as a twenty year old and without having to deal with his father’s constant ranting that influenced his own hatred, Michael understood Henry’s position.
Those people Henry defended weren’t guilty of anything and Henry knew that and did his job but for a thirteen year old Michael he didn’t understand it or rather couldn’t. Through all the rage that he had for Henry, for seemingly defending what at the time Michael wanted to be guilty people, it was all from the lens of the weight of guilt Michael had at the time. For so long after Evan’s death he blamed himself for it. After all he let his eyes off of Evan for a few minutes and the poor boy wound up dead. It was this guilt that led Michael down his path of hatred of the Emily’s and why he wanted to become a lawyer himself. Now, seven years after the death of his brother, Michael couldn’t bring himself to hate Henry. In fact now he sort of admired him for his strong sense of justice and doing the job no matter what. Though that only happened thanks to Charlie.
Charlie.
As his thoughts moved away from Henry and onto Charlie, Michael felt his throat dry up again as tears began forming in his eyes. Since Charlie’s arrest, Michael didn’t dare step foot in the prison to go visit her. Any time before coming back from college, Michael’s heart would tighten up and his stomach would go into knots. He wanted to see her but the idea that she might actually be a criminal and a murder had shaken him to his core especially since he…
No, he didn’t, he couldn’t not right now anyway. He was feeling dread because the person who helped him with Evan’s case half a decade after when it started, the women who assisted him in research, investigating in their free time and…the girl who let go of any rivalry to make sure he was okay years after this mental wound had been inflicted onto him was okay was a killer, another monster that was so willing to take a life was too much for him. It broke her perfect image that he had built up for her and he did the only thing he could.
Run away from her.
He did the same thing he had done the exact same thing William had done and built up a fortress so he could disassociate from this entire thing, throwing himself into his college work, exhausting himself by forcing to do anything and everything he could to distract himself from her but now after months of doing that he knew his heart was yearning for her. He needed to see Charlie. Taking one last sip of his coffee that was now finished, Michael got up and walked to the counter again buying two drinks. One for him and one to take to Charlie.
************
Driving to the prison was taking Michael a lot longer than he wanted it to. Michael’s expectation was that the drive was going to be a standard one, not getting stuck in traffic for nearly half an hour now when he was only twenty minutes away from the prison. Michael didn’t know why but he felt as though there was a cosmic enditity forcing him to suffer when all he wanted to do was to talk with Charlie.
“Might as well do something to make sure I don’t fall asleep.” Michael grumbled to himself, and examined everywhere around him to see what he could latch onto. That however was a fruitless endeavour as he knew he couldn’t actually do anything to keep himself from being bored out of his mind. He couldn’t get his sketchbook out to draw since he was on a road and he couldn’t read up on anything, instead he just gazed around the scenery both inside and outside of his car until his eyes landed on his passenger holder by his door. It wasn’t anything amazing but in that pouch was a cd, Ozzy Osbourne’s The Ultimate Sin, as he gazed upon the cd memories of how he got the cd. It was a CD that Charlie had gotten him for his twentieth birthday a few months ago.
Michael had never been a big music guy, a lot of that was due to the fact he was so obsessed with trying to find Evan’s killer and taking care of Elizabeth that he forgot to experience other forms of media until his birthday. As memories of the gift came rushing back to him, Michael couldn’t help but have a small smile on his face, if he was being honest it was probably his favourite gift that he ever got. After a day of family popping in and wishing happy birthday to him, Michael didn’t really expect anything else to happen until 8pm when he heard a knock at the door. He could remember the confusion he felt when he heard the knocking on the door and opening it up to see Charlie in her signature green jacket and jeans, beaming from ear to ear.
Nothing could have made Michael expect the amount of joy in his heart when he heard Charlie say “Happy birthday!” and then tackling him into a tight hug. Charlie always gave the best hugs and this one was probably the best one he ever experienced. The rest of the evening was just as good with the two cooking a meal together, talking about cases, classes and how Michael had joined the twenties club finally (even though he was only a month younger than Charlie). After eating that meal, the two sat down on Michael’s sofa with the two snuggling up together.
Oh how Michael missed those times, he missed laying on his sofa with Charlie laying next to him, snuggling into him and seemingly snoozing peacefully.
But that time was different as when they snuggled down ready to turn on the tv, Charlie pulled out something from her bag. It was a present and inside was two CD’s, both of them were of course from Charlie’s favourite artist Ozzy Osbourne with The Ultimate Sin and No More Tears . After giving it to him, the two spent the night listening to the CD’s and talking about the songs the two completely crashed on Michael’s sofa. It was the highlight of his entire birthday if Michael was being honest. Just remembering that brought back memories of how the two actually became friends.
Michael had been aware of Charlie’s presence for years before they were friends. They were in the same class for most of their time in school and were rivals in many classes, always trying to get the better score on tests and exams in high school. Charlie would do better in Maths while Michael would do better in English and the two were practically tied for science so the two naturally butted heads a lot. That rivalry sparked even further when the two found out that they were related to their fathers. Looking back on it, Michael couldn’t help but find it really funny and how petty he was back then.
If he wasn’t so stupid to hold grudges over a girl who did nothing to him maybe they would…
‘Don’t think about that. ’ Michael hissed at himself, gripping the car wheel tighter. ‘You don’t even know if she does view you in that way so shut up and don’t think about it.’
Distracting himself again, Michael forced himself to go back to the memories of the time when they became friends. It happened when they started college and began taking law together. Looking back on it now, Michael could confidently say that was the lowest point of his life. At that time there had been a spike in kids disappearing and being found on the outskirts of the town dead, it was just like what happened to Evan. Getting wind of this, Michael began researching the case obsessively, going over everything that he could get his hands on. It got so bad to the point that he was forgetting to eat and to even go to class. All he could think about was the case and how his innocent young brother was a victim of a serial killer. Days had become interchangeable from each other with the only thing Michael doing was going over documents and mapping out everything involving the case. He had become a shut in, with him asking his lectures to send over the work. It should have been that but that was until he got a knock on the door that would change his life.
Michael remembered opening the door to see Charlie. Unlike most of their other encounters Charlie didn’t have a stand offish, morally superior tone to her, instead she just stared at the hermit that Michael had become. She was there just to drop off some work but instead after seeing him like that, Charlie immediately dropped any sense of rivalry and began begging for Michael to let her help him. At first Michael declined any help, of course he had been pushed to the side out of everyone after Evan’s death and in his mind he deserved it so having someone try to help him let alone hear these chains of torment that had plagued him for half a decade at that point was too much for Michael to comprehend. But of course if Michael knew one thing there was this.
Charlie Emily is the most stubborn yet kind hearted girl in the whole world.
There wasn’t a question of helping Michael, it was a demand. A demand that out of everyone in Michael’s life she wasn’t going to throw his troubles back at him and ignore him when it was so obvious that he was in pain. No she was going to listen and actually help him and for the first time since Evan’s death Michael talked about everything. The guilt, the rage he had at the world and he had for Henry. By the end of the rant, Michael had tears streaming down his face and to his surprise Charlie’s was the same. Michael remembered the silence they had before Charlie lunged forward to hug him and told him that everything would be okay. At the time Michael thought those words were moronic after all his family had told him and Elizabeth the same thing multiple times but to Michael’s surprise, Charlie was right.
After telling her everything about the case, Charlie became determined to help him out and with some help from other people, the killer was eventually convicted and sent to jail. Everything seemed perfect until now.
“Oh Charlie.” Michael muttered under his breath as he resisted the urge to cry again. He looked at his sat nav which told him that he was now ten minutes away from the jail where Charlie was being held up in. Taking a deep breath Michael readied himself for what was going to happen there.
********
After what felt like forever Michael took a sigh of relief as he finally parked his car in the car park in front of the jail where Charlie was being held. It was weird coming to such a place when his whole job was locking up criminals but here he was, standing in front of the jail that held his friend. Michael went to the back of the car and pulled out the case he had put in earlier that day. Gripping the case tightly, Michael also grabbed the spare coke bottle he had in the front and walked into the prison. It took longer than he wanted going through all the checks to make sure he hadn’t brought anything to the jail that could be used to break Charlie out due to the case he had which only had files and files of school work that Michael had asked their lecturer Mr Nixon for. Even then it’s not like Michael would do such a thing despite a nagging urge to get her out of here. Walking down the corridor to the visiting room Michael felt his throat get drier and drier. He hadn’t spoken to Charlie since the arrest so walking down this place and finally seeing her after all this time was anxiety inducing for him. Entering the room was weird as well, what he had expected was just a table and a few chairs instead there were telephones on the sides with glass in front of a stool.
“She’ll be here soon.” Michael heard the guard say from behind him. “We just need to bring her here since we weren’t expecting her to get any visitors today.”
“Oh right.” Michael replied way more sheepishly than he wanted to sound.
The next five minutes for Michael was tortuous. He didn’t expect a small wait to drag on as much as it did but he was wrong. As he sat there waiting for Charlie to show, Michael kept practicing in his mind what he should say. There were so many potential ways this talk could go and he wanted to be prepared for all of them. Eventually after so much time, the door on the other side of the glass opened and out came Charlie.
Michael felt his heart tighten as he saw the ravenette walk towards the glass. Instead of smiling and wearing her signature all green outfits, instead Charlie looked timid and wore all orange. Michael couldn’t help himself but immediately feel sorry for his friend.
“Hi Charlie.” Michael said once Charlie had sat down and picked up her telephone.
“Hello Michael.” She replied, her emotions were unreadable for him. Michael bit his lip, trying his hardest to not mess anything up.
“How are you?” He asked. It was a basic question and he knew it but he still had to say something, just anything to make sure this conversation kept going but Charlie’s response was surprising.
“Are you seriously asking me that now?”
The reply was blunt and devoid of any of Charlie’s cheerful energy. Michael couldn’t help but flinch in surprise at the tone. “Uh…um…yeah, it’s been seven months since we last saw each other so I…wanted to know how you’re doing.”
“What changed, Michael?” Charlie asked, bitterness seeping into her tone after every word she spoke out. “Why have you only now wanted to come see me?”
Michael felt his throat tighten again. “I…I wanted to see you for a while Charlie-”
“Did you actually?” Charlie hissed out. “Because I’ve not heard anything from you for several months, Michael and I’m not going to lie and sit here and say that didn’t hurt me!”
“I…I got busy.” Michael spluttered out.
“How much of it was actually being busy and how much of it was you throwing yourself into it?”
Michael couldn’t respond. Charlie had completely read him and what he was doing for the past seven months. As he sat there with his mouth open trying to think of something Charlie just leaned back in her seat and scoffed.
“You forced yourself to be busy didn’t you?” She asked again.
“Yes.” Michael feeble replied. He felt ashamed just admitting it to her that one of his reasons was because he was forcing himself to be busy.
“Then what changed?” Charlie questioned. “Why are you now showing up despite being busy?”
“I…I’m not busy today.” Michael answered. “And…I have wanted to talk to you for a while but I just…got scared every time I planned on coming down.”
“You think I did it don’t you?”
That one question made Michael’s stomach turn into the tightest knots that Michael had ever experienced. It wasn’t an unreasonable thing for Charlie to think, after all they had been friends talking daily for a year and a half so him not talking to Charlie after the arrest was okay grounds for her to think that he believed she did it.
“I don’t!” Michael blurted out, his voice peaking a little. “I don’t think you murdered Jen-”
“But the evidence says otherwise doesn’t it?” Charlie injected, causing Michael’s stomach to twist tighter. That was Michael’s signature catchphrase, he had used it many times in courtrooms, in class and just in general when the two would be talking about cases in general. Normally Charlie would tease him about it when he was about to say it or if the catchphrase applied to situations but here was different. There was no playful teasing, it was full on judging, there was venom in her tone.
“No it’s not that!” Michael carried on.
“Then what is it Michael?” Charlie shouted, slamming her hands on the table. “Why haven’t you shown up? Out of everyone I expected you to be here for me. I can understand Dad not being able to show up but he’s been here more times than you. Jessica, Marla and Carlton have been here more times than you! Do you know what it’s like waiting for someone that you truly care for not showing up? After everything we have done I thought that you would be here by my side but you weren’t.” The ravenette paused as tears were streaming down her face while she stared down Michael before very quietly continuing. “Before we became friends, I thought that I was incapable of forming a relationship with someone but then we became actual friends. We cooked together, we cuddled and even kissed several times…I thought you loved me like how I loved you.”
Michael couldn’t say anything. Tears rushed down his face as his heart shattered into several pieces. The one thing he thought he was completely wrong about was true. She was in love with him, the same way he loved her and yet he couldn’t face her for so long. He had chosen to run, to bury himself in work instead of being with her. He knew he couldn’t justify anything he did now. He had failed in every way.
“I…do Charlie.” He croaked out. “I really do, I love you more than anything else. I was a coward and I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that now.” Charlie hissed out through her tears. “I thought you trusted me but you don't? You can’t tell me without one hundred percent certainty that I didn’t kill my Aunt and that’s why you didn’t come to see me? You couldn’t stand the fact you might have loved a killer?”
A long silence entered the room with the two twenty year olds frozen in place, crying, their emotions too strong for either of them to say anything. Eventually Michael just nodded his head, confirming everything Charlie had said.
“Well, it’s good to know now.” Charlie said, now holding back from her voice cracking from tears. The silence returned for what felt like years until Michael spoke up again.
“Charlie, I can’t say that you’re fully innocent but I think you are.” He said. “And I will try to help to get to the bottom of this case no matter what.”
“Sure you will.”
“Before I go, um I got our lecture to give me a case of the coursework for you, so if you do get out you won’t miss out on everything in college. The guards say they’ll deliver it to your cell.”
Charlie took a few seconds to respond, processing what he had said before finally nodding. “Thank you.”
“Alright…I love you.” Michael finished and got up from the stool and put the phone down, on the other side Charlie did the exact same thing and the two left the room.
************
Michael didn’t know what to do as he walked back to his car. Everything that had just happened in those ten minutes was more than he had ever expected. That bitter rage in Charlie was nothing that he had ever seen and more than anything, he was mentally kicking himself for it. This was the lowest Charlie had ever been to his knowledge at least so the fact that after several months of her struggling he hadn’t gone to her, to comfort her to make sure everything would actually be okay. Instead he chose to run, to abandon her when she needed him most. He was pathetic, he had one role but he messed that up by just seemingly ignoring her focusing on himself again when she was the one suffering the most. He was pulling the exact thing he hated his father and mother for after Evan died to Charlie.
Sitting in the car, Michael grabbed a tissue and wiped his face to get rid of the tears but they just kept coming and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. As he wept to himself, his mind couldn’t help but bring back rushes of his time with Charlie, the joyful smile she had on her at all times, the way she had uplifted him. It was all too much.
As memories all flowed into Michael’s consciousness, one stood above the rest. It was right after the serial killer that had ended Evan’s life had finally, after half a decade, been sent to jail with the final verdict being a lifetime in prison, the two celebrated. He remembered the joy he felt when he was in the room when the verdict was given. The rush he experienced as he sprinted towards Charlie and picked her up, swirling her around without the care in the world as she beamed and squealed with joy. It didn’t take long for the two to rush back to their college campus and did the only thing they could do, celebrate.
That celebration party the two of them had was probably the highest point of Michael’s life. The amount of laughs he had that night was unmatched as the two joked around, drank and cooked together. He wished he could go back to that night, he wished he could experience everything again but he couldn’t. Instead he was trapped in a purgatory where the woman he loved was stuck in limbo and despite knowing deep down Charlie was innocent, it would take a miracle for anyone to get Charlie out of this situation. The evidence was too much against her at this point and it was frustrating. There was more to the story, Michael knew it deep down but he didn’t know what there was.
All he could do was sit in his car and cry. His mind quickly darted back to that mini celebration the two had, the moment when Michael should have said the three words to Charlie but he didn’t. Instead as Charlie left to go leave for her dorm Michael stopped her and without thinking he pressed his lips against hers. In the moment it felt weird, like he had been possessed by something greater than he had ever experienced but when he pulled away once he realised what he had done, Charlie didn’t smack him or laugh at him instead she grabbed him and pulled him to kiss him again. It wasn’t Michael’s first but out of any kiss he had before nothing had anything on what he felt in that moment with Charlie. When the two pulled away, Michael remembered the rush of euphoria and confusion on both him and Charlie’s faces before she took her leave for the night. Instead of saying what he wanted to say, he said nothing.
He remained quiet, somehow telling himself after any kiss he and Charlie had afterwards that there wasn’t anything there and that they were just friends after all they had been through but he was wrong. He was wrong about Charlie Emily again. He doubted her and what she felt for the third time and it was now eating him up. Michael had always heard that someone saying “I love you” was meant to make someone feel better, to make them feel loved but in this moment there was no joy. All Michael felt sorrow and pain that he never said that phrase in time for her.
Now all he could do was cry to himself as her words echoed in his mind.