Charlotte Gaspel: Demons and Ghosts

XIX: Shine of Hope

The moonlight imposed its presence in the orphanage, waking someone up in the middle of the night. From so much madness Charlotte felt tired and confused. Feeling that anger was not normal, much less the pleasure she felt afterwards, so the wisest thing to do was to talk to the demon that now possessed her soul, but Charlotte did not know how to summon it. She thought for a long time in her bed until she came to the conclusion that if she broke a cup like she did last time, maybe she could get his attention somehow. Since she was losing nothing by trying, she headed for the kitchen in the middle of the night in maximum silence.

There were all kinds of containers in the kitchen, and Charlotte began to search through them cautiously. She found pots, pans, glasses, teapots, coffee pots, bowls, bottles, plates and oddly deep spoons until finally she found a porcelain mug. Impatiently, she picked it up and closed her eyes, thinking of everything she could think of to make the forces of the afterlife notice her presence, then placed the cup on the floor and stepped on it, making a noise too loud to be missed in the middle of the night. Luckily, it didn't wake anyone, but it wasn't necessary to get into trouble, as Mincy's brothers were already prepared to take revenge, searching the rooms for Charlotte, and that broken mug managed to divert their attention to the kitchen.

Charlotte wasn't expecting any of that, and understandably so, she's still a child fighting with other infants, and oddly enough, that behavior brought her notable consequences, like two twelve year old troglodytes hanging her by her feet at the entrance of the orphanage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, she barely realizes that the trick of stepping on a cup in the dark didn't work. Turning around she saw the two brothers standing on the other side of the kitchen, and she quickly started thinking about how to get rid of them.

The most logical thing to do was to grab any object around her as a weapon, which would be easy, because kitchens are practically minefields for children, but the brothers went running towards her as soon as they saw her trying to find a knife. They grabbed her by her limbs and covered her mouth with stockings. One held her arms and one held her legs, rendering her completely helpless. The first brother whispered terrifyingly calmly, "Since you like pranks, we'll play an even funnier one on you," and just as you read in the previous paragraph, the two brothers, with all the joy in the world, tied Charlotte's hands with those black stockings and lifted her with a rope up to the iron pipe holding the sign with the name of the orphanage. A great presentation for the prestigious Red Sea Orphanage.

They stayed for about twelve seconds or so underneath her to make sure she couldn't escape, and outside of wanting to, Charlotte's priority was to survive, because being upside down for too long can cause permanent damage to her cranial structure. After spending enough time watching their victim dangling in the cold of the night, the two brothers decided to go inside. Charlotte knew that if she didn't change her position soon, her eyes were going to turn red and her blood would ooze out of every available orifice in her head until she died horribly.

The situation was as following: Her feet were tied with a rope under a stable iron extension welded to the building; the other end of the rope was held by a fire hydrant, so it could not be overlooked, but since it was the early morning hours, there were not many people who can be of help. She was ten feet fourteen inches above the ground, so the height would not kill her, but something that could save her would be a sharp object to cut the rope, however, she did not have time to grab the knife from the kitchen, so that option is out of the question. The last alternative would be to scream for help, but her hands tied behind her back did not allow her to remove the sock that silenced her screams. The only thing left to do was to force her abdomen to divert the blood going to her brain to her back.

Since Charlotte has been pretty lucky these past few days, waiting for someone to show up wasn't a crazy idea.

Nine minutes and no one showed up. Time for plan B: Swing until her head hits the bell next to her. There is only one problem, and that is that the bell is three feet away, and to get there, she will have to act as a pendulum for quite some time to get the necessary momentum, which will not be healthy for her white sclerae. There was no other way out, so she proceeded to swing with all her strength and coordination. Gradually she felt more and more strange, but she held firm and as if she were a rustic toy, she managed to rise high enough to collide with the bell.