Chapter Text
Vanessa stands at the doorway, eyes wide and glassy. Mike and Abby’s backs grow smaller and smaller. Her hopes for healing, for a better future, for a peaceful life, all shrivel smaller. The wounds littering her heart seem to gape open a little bigger.
Vaguely, she hears a rustle behind her– the distinct sound of a spirit hovering in the air. It seems to be whipping forward, rushing. Vanessa realises what’s coming, and fear grips her for just a moment. Only for a moment, for then a thought seizes her careering mind, and a heavy acceptance settles on her chest instead. She closes her eyes.
“Vanessa,” a strangely soft voice whispers behind her. Charlotte’s tone seems raw and almost…pure, no longer an undercurrent of something lethal lurking beneath it.
“Just finish the job,” her monotonous plea hangs in the air like a guillotine blade.
Next to her, a slight chill rests on her shoulder, and her gaze flicks to see that it’s Charlotte's spectral hand there.
“I…I can’t do that. I won’t,” there's a childlike stubbornness in her voice.
“You didn’t seem very hesitant when it came to Abby. Or all those adults.”
“I remember. I felt so angry, for so long,” she sounds wistful now, which catches Vanessa off guard, “But the music box. The special one my dad made. That's what that guy played.”
“Yeah, Mike. He…” her eyes go hot and her vision blurs as she bites her lip, trying to swallow an emerging sob.
“...Well, dad’s music box helped me. I can think clearly now,” her friend’s voice is both restrained and gentle, like it belonged to a girl who mostly kept to herself, who often sat sullenly at the corner of a crowded pizzeria, who only seemed to light up in the presence of a special few. The sudden pang of nostalgia makes her heart ache even more.
“So it looks like I'll have to go on, huh?” the tears come loose now, and Vanessa grips the doorframe with clammy hands. A bleak, wintry feeling fills her.
“I’m sorry,” whether Charlotte means to express her sympathy or remorse, Vanessa isn’t sure. Still, she feels the earlier chill envelop her entire body now, embracing her.