𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 - 𝑓. ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑠

002. DAWNING FUNERAL

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DAWNING FUNERAL  ☂︎︎

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TEN MINUTES after waking from a psychologically complex sleep, Charlotte Beaumont sat utterly confused in the kitchen of an abnormal family.

Despite her body feeling somewhat well-rested, her mind felt heavy.... weighted. How could she have let this happen to herself? A comatose sleep, the one her parents, dead parents, had worked so hard to prevent. Fifty years in time dilated sleep, wasted. None of it had been real yet, here she was awake, alive and feeling much older than her body reflected.

Charlotte clutched the blanket the short woman with the soft smile and brown hair had given her. The spinning top was stuck harshly in her hand and she spun it once more on the table, watching as it spun and hit the table as it had earlier.

This reality was real.

But that didn't mean it was any less easy to grasp.

The siblings eyes darted from her to the boy who had woken her. He wore the same clothes as he had in Lyon; knee high socks and a schoolboy uniform. The boy had known how to wake her, something that had taken her years of study and research to conclude. Charlotte had so many questions, her mind was on hyperdrive, the particles that made up reality becoming once again harder to ignore.

The clatter of dishes snapped her back from her daze.
"What's the date? The exact date."

"The 24th." the woman who gave her the blanket replied.

"Of what?"

Charlotte watched the boy, a loaf of sliced bread in his hands. Her eyes drifted around the room attempting to capture where she was and who she was with. The people around her didn't seem at all threatening. A bit odd, but not a threat. A man with messy hair and smudged eyeliner sat cross legged on the table. Across from her was a large man in a trenchcoat. Next to her, the quiet woman with the blanket. Behind stood the remaining two, a tall lady with curly hair similar to her own and beside her a man in an oddly tight black bodysuit.

"March."

The boy hesitated for a moment, thinking something that by the look on his face, was not particularly positive. "Good."

The large man across from her looked over at her timidly, his eyes moving back to the boy's after Charlotte sent him a glare. "So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?"

There was silence as the boy refused to look up at what Charlotte now assumed was his brother. She glanced oddly around the room, realizing that all these people must be family... siblings, weirdly enough.

Everything about them was odd, Charlotte was beginning to see.

A groan came from across the table as the man stood up angrily. "It's been 17 years."

The boy scoffed. "It's been a lot longer than that."

Charlotte's eyes widened as the boy disappeared in front of his brother in a warp of blue light, reappearing behind him rummaging in the cabinets. "I haven't missed that." the man murmured.