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Charlotte Emily had always thought that serial killers, especially those who end up falling in love with one of their victims, were lies. It was impossible for someone who killed people mercilessly to have feelings for anyone.
Until she met her.
Cassidy Brooks. She was a student at her school, two grades younger than her, smart, kind, pretty, and confident. She seemed more like a victim than a killer. She seemed so helpless, and Charlie loved it.
They met so simply, at a student gathering; the whole school, or most of it, was there. Cassie and Charlie were no exception. They were playing "Seven Minutes in Heaven," and fortunately, or unfortunately, it was their turn. Nothing happened in that closet, but they talked a lot.
Cassidy liked robotics, and she did some small projects that she didn't tell her what they were about, —she later found out what they were—, and she was hyper-fixated on her father's franchise, Fazbear's Pizza. When Cassie realized that, she went hysterical. It was...nice. Cassidy was nice.
And then it happened. News of murders came in. It was strange that it would happen in a place like Hurricane, but it did. The murders were horrific, and the people who survived described the killer as a young, thin person, wearing a suit shirt with suspenders, probably with a bulletproof vest underneath, a purple vest like his pants, and what caught people's attention the most, a Fredbear mask.
They said it had no eyes, but the sockets were completely black; sometimes you could see a flash of the attacker's purple eyes. Based on physical descriptions, they estimated it to be under eighteen. It was a shock to everyone in town that such a young child could have such a perverse mind. Charlotte Emily didn't want to believe it.
After several insistences, her father agreed to let her go to a party. He made her promise to go and return with someone. He wasn't going to let his daughter wander around alone with a murderer on the loose. How ironic that this murderer was the same girl he let into his house so many times, letting him live with his wife, children, and sleep with Charlie.
After a last-minute text, Cassidy went to pick her up, assured Henry that Charlie would be safe, and took her to the party. She went in with her, but Charlotte didn't know if she had stayed, well, until later. A guy, whose name she forgot but who she knew was her boyfriend at the time, was trying to force her into having sex in one of the rooms, and just as he was about to do his job, Cassidy appeared. She stuck a fork in his eye and then buried it in his throat, just above his Adam's apple so that his screams were so faint that no one could hear them.
Charlie was mortified as she watched this. If she'd been in her right mind, she would have seen how Cassidy already had specific gloves, and how her clothes had already had blood on them beforehand. It would have been a coincidence, yes, but planned. Cassidy turned to her after making sure the guy was dead, another sign she ignored. If it had been her first time killing someone, as her Oscar-worthy performance had indicated, she wouldn't have known so well when the guy had died, where to stab, and be certain that turning around was a good idea. So many clues, and she didn't see any of them.
Cassidy approached her, raising her hands in a sign of peace, a worried look on her childish face.
Charlie was mortified. For God's sake, she'd just seen her boyfriend, almost a rapist, being murdered by her best friend. What the h-how was she supposed to react? If she screamed, people would come and jail Cassie, and she didn't want them to jail Cassie.
"Charlie, I..." Cassidy's voice pulled her out of her reverie. Her hands were covered in blood, and her white shirt was—well, not white anymore—, she had a few small drops of blood on her face. Subconsciously, a part of her thought it looked hot. "I swear I can explain, just wait."
Cassidy got up and quickly went to the bathroom. Charlie could see through the crack in the door that she was trying to clean up the blood before going back outside and searching the closets for a much-needed change of clothes. If Charlie had looked closely, she would have noticed how Cassidy never took off her dirty clothes, a way of not leaving any traces, how she put the fork in her pocket, but, well, she wasn't very observant that day.
"Come on," Cassie told her. "We have to go."
Charlotte is grateful she went with her that day. Perhaps she would have become Cassidy's next victim if she didn't go with her. They had walked quickly toward the exit, Charlie was shaking, no one noticed them because of her drunkenness. When they arrived at the Emily's house, Henry asked them why they were so early, Cassidy told him what had happened, skipping the part where she stabbed her ex-boyfriend in the throat with a fork, for obvious reasons.
Henry had gotten so upset he almost called the police, but Cassie managed to convince him not to, otherwise her facade would be shattered. Cassidy promised she'd see her at school on Monday, and Charlie could talk about what happened between her and her boyfriend if she wanted. Charlotte, still somewhat shaken by what had happened, agreed and went to her room. Officially, she wouldn't wake up for the next 18 hours.
The following Monday, Cassidy and Charlie talked about the attempted assault, ignoring the murder. Does Charlie regret not bringing it up? Yes. Would she have done so now if she had the chance? No. She wasn't going to let Cassidy go to jail. After the murder, people started investigating them both, and she knew they might be on their tail. And Charlie knew that if she asked her, Cassie would confess everything, and she couldn't allow her to get arrested. Cassidy was staying with her, not in a rotting cell.
The murders will continue, and she will continue. Because Charlotte won't let Cassidy go so simply, even if she's the devil in disguise.