Down By The River

19

𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕜 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕥𝔸𝕟𝕕 𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕤

Charlotte eventually mustered up enough courage to make her way over to the Fletchers' house. She was still terrified and she knew that it was getting late, which probably wasn't great and which just made her more nervous, but she had to do it, before meeting Zach tonight. She would have gone back home, if she had the time for it, but she was already late and she figured that if she was to draw her parents' rage, she might as well make the best use of the time she had. After all, she couldn't be sure whether she'd even have a chance to go back to see Zach if she managed to get in trouble now. Her parents might make it impossible for her to leave again, even if she was to sneak out. They had their ways and Charlotte knew it all too well.

So she made her way to the Fletchers' house straight away. The closer she got the more nervous she got as well. She didn't really want to go there. She didn't want to spend any time talking to Ephraim, she didn't want to see his wife or his two other daughters with their hollow eyes. She didn't want to see the old, dilapidated house that was falling apart. She didn't want to smell the stench of alcohol coming off Ephraim, she didn't want to smell his nauseatingly sour breath.

The only thing that kept her going was that she wanted Zach to make the right choice. She didn't want him to regret anything at any point later, so that was why she had to talk to Ephraim again, even if it was scary and possibly risky, and find out what was going on with that family. She wouldn't really be surprised if it turned out that Ephraim had murdered Grace. It seemed a little unlikely to her at first, because... well, she was his daughter. But the more she had been thinking about it, the more sense it made. She just hoped that her gut feeling about this was right. Somewhere at the back of her head she was wondering whether she just believed every word out of Zach's mouth, because she had fallen head over heels in love with him. Whether he was a killer all along and just acted charming like this to wrap her around his finger.

And the truth was that there was no real way of finding out at this point. She could either trust her gut feeling or whatever everyone else was saying. And she had decided to go with her gut, even though that was pretty likely to be a very stupid decision. But at least she was aware that whatever consequences this would have - she'd be the one suffering them. She'd have to put up with it and that somehow made it much easier to accept that she might be making a mistake. She just really hoped that whatever Zach was saying was true. She'd hate having to come back home, admitting that she had been wrong all along. It would be embarrassing.

She was standing a good distance away from the Fletchers' house right now, wondering whether she should really do it and trying to muster up the courage to go there and just straight up ask Ephraim if he had killed his own daughter. Charlotte was sure that this was probably not the best course of action, but she couldn't really think of anything else to confront him face to face and see his reaction to the accusation. She just had to know before she blindly followed Zach and her gut feeling. She had to see if he was really as suspicious as he had seemed.

Charlotte took a deep breath and slowly made her way towards the house, trying to look confident and like she knew what she was doing. Like she had a purpose for coming here that was completely justified. Which she had, but it was just... it was hard for her to figure out what her own end goal was. She didn't have much of a plan what to do if she found out that Ephraim was actually guilty. She couldn't just go to a sheriff and tell them about it. They'd call her insane and send her off on the train to the city, to one of those huge brick buildings that loomed on the outskirts of big industrial complexes like haunted mansions. She'd rather die than be chained up in one of those places. They scared her a lot and she tended to avoid them when she saw them.

But she also wasn't sure what else to do. She couldn't possibly just stay in town. Ephraim would be a constant threat to her, if he knew that she knew his secret. She could run away... hopefully with Zach. But they hadn't talked about any of this and she didn't just want to assume that he would be happy to have her to take care of. He sure seemed happy to have her around last night, when they kissed, but Charlotte couldn't just follow him around if he didn't want her there at all.

"Thought I told ya not to show up here again." she suddenly heard a voice behind her. Charlotte jumped a little and turned around, just to see the reddish face of Ephraim Fletcher. He was frowning at her and he looked like he was just drunk enough to get angry easily. Charlotte's gut was telling her to just run, run, run as far as she could, but her brain was forcing her to stay where she was.

"You can't tell me where to go and what to do." Charlotte replied. She had no idea where the hell these words came from. Maybe it was the pure fear running through her veins right now that was making her unusually brave, maybe it was just stupidity. Ephraim didn't look impressed at all.

"I can't tell ya where to go out in public, that's right. But I can tell ya to stay away from my property. And yet here ya are." he said, crossing his arms and taking a few steps towards her. Charlotte walked backward, trying to keep her distance from him until she bumped into the wall of the house. She was trapped. She was trapped between the wall and Ephraim Fletcher.

"Well, I came here to talk to you. That's all. I don't know why you're so opposed to that." she answered, giving him her best defiant look. Ephraim glared at her and then began to laugh loudly in her face.

"Ya wanna talk, huh? You're being awfully quiet for one who just wants to talk. What if I don't wanna talk to ya, hm? Can't a man just have his peace and quiet?" he asked, once he had stopped laughing. Charlotte could see his eyes wandering over her figure. It made her feel nauseous.

"Sir, I just... I just want to know one thing. Can I ask you just one thing? Please?" she wanted to know. She could hear how her voice was dwindling. She was scared and anyone would have been able to notice it from her voice and the way she was pressing into the wall. She was shrinking into herself, trying to make herself look smaller. It didn't seem to help, quite the opposite.

"Only one thing, huh? Go ahead then." he answered. Charlotte took another deep breath and looked up, straight into his eyes. She needed to watch his reaction, no matter how scary it might be.

"Sir... Was it you that killed Grace?" she asked. There was a long silence. She could see his eyes widening slightly, before his lips formed a wide grin. He was shaking his head, as if what she had said was incredibly amusing. Charlotte wasn't sure what to do. She had no way to get away from him if he got angry at her. She knew that she had been unprepared, but right now it hit her just how unprepared she had been for all this. She needed to get out of here right now.

"Did that scumbag Wright tell you this?" Ephraim asked. His voice sounded low and had a strange growl to it. Charlotte didn't like it. She just wanted to get away, but she knew there was no way out.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've never spoken to him." she lied. Ephraim probably knew that it was a lie. Where else would she have gotten this theory from? Either way, it didn't matter. Charlotte knew that Zach had been right all along. She knew that Ephraim had murdered his own daughter, she knew it from his reaction, from the look in his eyes. He nodded slowly and grinned before leaning in to whisper in her ear. Charlotte's eyes widened as she heard what he had to say to her.

"I can promise ya one thing. You're gonna wish you'd never asked that stupid question."