Cycles [A Charlie & Elizabeth AU]

Chapter 10- Out Of Time

  The sun had already painted the sky pastel hues of blue and pink by the time Charlie opened her eyes. She would've enjoyed the view, if her vision wasn't obscured by long locks of orange hair in her face.

She quickly blinks in response, trying to get a sense of her bearings, but finds herself tangled in a mess that is blankets, some pillows, and someone's hair. She sits up in haste, her head feeling slightly foggy as she attempts to piece together what happened last night, or even that day. It had all been a blur.

Then a voice huffs and turns around in their sleep, alerting Charlie of their presence. Her eyes fall on her friend, Lizzie, who's laying right beside her, no space between them.

Hands immediately go up to cover her face, whether that's in shame or overheating she can't discern and decides to end that trail of thought before it can even start. Lizzie doesn't even stir. She looks peaceful in that moment. Tranquil.

That peacefulness doesn't last long, however, as Charlie's sight then lands on a blurry figure sitting on the edge of the bed, an unimpressed look on her translucent face.

"Good morning, sleepyhead, or should I say, good afternoon, because I mean, come on, it's almost evening-" Cassidy points her head to the bedside clock, which reads 1 p.m. Then she stares down at Charlie's friend and blinks. "I see you've... been productive."

It takes a second to click before Charlie's face deepens to a beet-red and she physically recoils from the comment. "I-It's not-!" She hisses, hushed to a sharp whisper.

  Cassidy sighs loudly. "I don't like your girlfriend. She seems pretty secretive, if you ask me. Something isn't right."

"What do you mean... Hey! She's just my friend-!"

Elizabeth stirs and Charlie tenses.

Cassidy brushes off the other comments to raise her hand, which was barely visible in contrast to the rest of her. Charlie leant in closer to see it better, but it didn't help.

"I... We... We're losing time by the second, Charlie." She tries to keep her voice level but some panic bled into her tone. "...He. He's successful in whatever he's trying... Please tell me you've at least found out his identity, or where he is-"

Charlie drops her gaze. "I'm sorry, Cassidy... I haven't."

She stiffens, not bothering to hide her hurt expression.

"I promise. I'm going to find- no, I'm going to look today. We'll fix this."

The girl nods slightly, and when Charlie blinks she's vanished.

"...Who were you talking to?"

Charlie jumps and stares down at a now-awake Lizzie, "Uh... Sparky. Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No I've been awake for a while," she admits, "Couldn't hear what you were saying, though."

Charlie's heart does a loop-de-loop in her chest. Today, she would have to get a lot of work done. Fast. It would be a large help to have Lizzie assist her, but she wasn't going to drag her into this wacky, supernatural mission of hers so recklessly. She would need to do some research today, and for that she would probably need to use a device. The library. They had computers at the library.

"Do you wanna go to the library today?" She asked.

"Uh... sure, alright." Lizzie sat up, shuffling away from her, the spots on Charlie's legs where they had touched tingled. "By the way... you kicked me in the stomach in your sleep."

~~

The library had turned up nothing more than Charlie already knew. There were only two suspects still related to the case of the Freddy's Diner's missing children's case, and bitterly she refused to believe either of them had done it. Those two, of course, being Lizzie's father and her own, respectively.

The missing children's case of 1987 had puzzled the public for years now, only recently falling out of the public eye's watching view.

The only thing found in the back room of a Freddy's Pizzeria chain was a bloodstain containing the DNA of 5 children. That was it. No corpses, no notes, nothing. Heavy cleaning supplies had been used to clean the room, that of course coincidentally leaving behind the one stain.

The conspiracies hadn't ended with that tragedy however, as some self-proclaimed theorists attempted to tie in various workplace accidents and other coincidences into the mess of a case, only creating a web of confusion and spiraling lies. Some went as far as to tie in the tragedies of Lizzie's parents and younger brother, and Charlie's mom and Sammy-

No.

She shook her head, clearing the unwelcomed thought from her mind. She couldn't bring herself to think about them right now.

Besides, both suspects had to be wrong, anyway. Her father would never do something so atrocious, he only wanted to make others happy, and she watched, firsthand, the fallout of him and the company as it begun to tear him down to the core. He would never have done that to himself. Yet he had to clean up that mess singlehandedly, only to be forcibly removed from the Fazbear's name and years later be caught in a deadly fire, in one of his own restaurants.

And William, well... Charlie admits that he can't remember him all too well, but she could recall him as kind, and the aftermath of the incidents had taken a toll on him too, as he hardly ever showed himself to the public afterwards.

"Charlie?" Lizzie asked, and snapped Charlie out of her daze. They stood on her father's old porch, Charlie blinking a few times. Her aunt used to joke that Charlie was zoned out more times than she was zoned in, and that was especially true whenever she had a pressing issue on her mind.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Lizzie's expression only became a twinge more concerned.

"Yes. I'm sure. I just need to finish up some... work things." She lied. Honestly she didn't quite know where to go next, she was only holding onto a shoestring of hope that maybe some clue could be found in her father's old notes from years ago. Though the thought of going in that house made her shiver, she knew she'd have to return to it sooner or later.

She took out her housekey from her pocket, which quickly slipped out of her fingers and fell on the ground. Both girls bent down to pick it up at the same time, reached, and their hands landed on top each other.

Charlie felt some heat rise in her cheeks and turned away quickly, hiding her face with her hand and she snatched the key again.

"Umm... sorry about that." She said awkwardly, and refused to make eye contact.

"Yeah, I'll be off now. Maybe we can meet up again later?" Lizzie suggested, ignoring the rising feeling in her own chest.

"Yes. I'll call you."

And with that they bid their farewell.

~~

Lizzie was walking down the usual route she would take back to her home, before she felt a presence and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes looked towards a nearby alleyway.

"Where were you last night." Vanessa's usual voice, so teasing and playful, had turned uncharacteristically serious. Vanessa crept out from behind a broken fence, her form half hidden by the darkness.

"Simply playing the part." Elizabeth said. "...I need her to trust me."

"I don't understand any of the theatrics. Why can't we just cut to the chase and off her right now? Why do you need to be all buddy-buddy?"

Elizabeth faltered. Shoot. "Because... we don't even know if she has it! And besides, don't we need Henry's research still?"

Vanessa cocked a single eyebrow, pondering for a single moment.

"If she has it, we'll go through with the plan. If she doesn't, we'll find someone else. I just think she's valuable to us alive, right now." She was driving herself into a corner.

"No. We don't need Henry's research anymore, and the girl is more valuable to us dead rather than alive." Vanessa said simply. "I'm giving you one more day. Bring her to me or I'll handle this myself." Her words stung like venom before she turned around and walked away.

Elizabeth felt herself sink into the pavement. God, how was she going to get herself out of this mess? She could still fix this...

Right?