Charlotte Gaspel: Demons and Ghosts

XXIII: Vigilante

Purple was the color by which The Coffin was identified. All the men in the mob wore that color denoting their authority, but, although that hand touching Charlotte's shoulder belonged to a man wearing a suit of that color, it was actually Clyde, the blond psychopath, wearing a costume for a character he was going to play in a play that afternoon.

"I know it's hard," Clyde said, to which Charlotte is speechless, as her head kept spinning. "I myself saw how the roof of that mechanism descended on those poor souls. It is, no doubt, the result of several lustrums of stubborn attitude, a total indifference to life, and the atrocious perseverance towards money and its material benefits."

Life before the escape to Spoirtown was quite limited. Most of Charlie's time was spent reading in the library and playing with his parents in the park or at home, so he didn't have much opportunity to get to know the members of the group, but he knew how they looked, talked, and behaved, and Clyde has never opened his mouth offstage. "Please forgive my sudden intrusion, but I felt compelled to comfort another person related to the victims. You know, my cousin also passed away in that accident."

Charlotte looked down at the wreckage and wiped away her tears.

"It wasn't an accident," she said seriously, still looking at the tombstones.

"It wasn't?" asked Clyde.

"The one responsible for the collapse of the whole mechanism was a simple rodent. A raccoon was the executioner of all those lives. I know because I saw it."

"It's not wise to draw that conclusion. The machine was composed of sensitive materials; its mechanisms were old. It is obvious that the attraction was in no condition to be used."

"If we keep pretending that nothing happened we will never learn. If we keep leaving nails sticking out of the wood, our feet will keep getting stabbed with tetanus. Ignoring what's in front of us will bring unhappiness and misery unless we act."

Clyde watches Charlotte as she stands up and puts her mask back on. "Is there going to be a play this afternoon?" she asked. Clyde looked a little more serious and after a few seconds replied, "Giselle. You might like it, we're going to add dialogue."

The blond psychopath walks away from there. Charlotte still doesn't know why they called him that, but she's not going to bother to find out. To her, everyone in the group deserves to die.

At home, Steven was looking for Danny, as he was no longer in the garden. He searched the kitchen, the dining room, the bathrooms, the main living room and the guest room, but ended up finding him in the library, eating one of the glass on the shelves.

"Dannyel!" Steven exclaimed.

Danny, trying to chew what was in his mouth, looked at him and chewed faster.

"What are you doing? Let go now, it's dangerous!"

"No," he said with some difficulty.

"That's a crystal of gluttony! If you swallow it, it won't do any good! Ironically, though, you're eating its effects."

As he tried to pull it out of his mouth, Danny resisted, like a dog biting the handle of a knife. After much struggling, Steven managed to get it out without it breaking.

"Did you swallow something?" asked Steven agitated.

"No," he answered, looking at the floor.

Steven looked to see if there were any other small artifacts missing. Luckily, he had only eaten part of a glass container that was lying on the floor.