𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ; 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

TWENTY EIGHT

It was around nighttime when they arrived at the lighthouse, Charles dropped the music thing onto the floor with the white bag full of meat scrapes. "here goes nothing" Niko bent down onto her knees and picked out a piece of meat that was inside the white bag, she tried to put it onto the sphere but it wouldn't stick on. "I knew this wouldn't work." Frances said with a sigh as she watched Niko's hands turn into a bright red from the blood "how does Jenny do this everyday? It's disgusting.." Crystal commented, Frances agreed with her. She could never imagine working as a butcher with all the blood.

"We might need to get some more twine. Being a detective is much messier than it ever looked on Scooby Doo." Frances chuckled at the last bit, Scooby Doo was one of Niko's favorite cartoons, hence why she likes to solve cases. 

"hey Crystal.. look" Charles got the attention of Crystal, in front of them stood a short woman with bright red hair, the woman Jenny described back at the butcher shop. "hm" Frances hummed while staring at the woman, who could she be. "Can you guys come with me?" Crystal turned around, her nerves acting up "Of course" Frances nod her head.

Frances followed shortly behind, keeping a distance. "Uh hello? Are you the one that came by Jenny's shop? Do.. do you know me?" Crystal questioned, wanting to get more information out of the woman. The woman turned around, she looked a bit older than Crystal. "Well hello Crystal, sadly, I don't know you. You were just bait." Frances glanced at Charles, confused. "Unfortunate, but I don't have time for your trivial human emotions. I've come for the two dead boys behind you."

The woman stood in front of Charles and Edwin with a smirk on her red lips "You're not death. Why are you chasing us?" Edwin asked, also confused on who the woman was. "I am the night nurse on duty. I run the afterlifes Lost & Found department, placing errant dead children where they're met to be. And you two are errant." Crystal wanted to see inside the Night Nurses head, she put her hand on the lady's arm but she started to scream "you don't want to look in there" She pushed Crystal out of the way.

"What did you do to her?" Frances shouted at the night nurse, hating that she hurt her friend "Oh nothing, that was all on her. Maybe she shouldn't look in peoples heads." The night Nurse looked down at Crystal before looking back up at Frances, she tilted her head to the right "You look familiar.." The red head froze, putting her index finger on her chin before her eyes lit up "I know your brother! Samuel? Ah yes. Such a sweetheart. You know, he was snooping around in the lost and found department, luckily we caught him." Frances felt her heart beat rapidly in her chest, Samuel? "What did you do to him?" She balled up her first, getting angry by every second "Oh, nothing. We just... sent him back to the afterlife. He wanted to find a way to come back to earth to be with his sister. He found nothing" The night nurse laughed before her eyes going to the two dead boys that stood by Frances sides.

"Every dead child has their place." The night nurse said to them both "I'm not going back to hell." Edwin said with a serious tone,  Charles pushed Frances behind him, not wanting her to get hurt. "You wanna take him, you gotta go through me first" Charles took out his wooden paddle and twirled it in his hands, threatening the red head. The night nurse started to laugh "oh don't worry. I come for you both! Don't dilly dally. Enough delays. Edwin knows where he's going but let's get you processed, find out what your afterlife has in store."

Charles shook his head "no, we're not going anywhere, are we?" Charles looked behind to look at Edwin "We're staying here. Staying together." Frances looked up at Charles, she needed him to stay. He was her friend, one of her best friends. 

"Everyone has a place. Don't you want to know what yours is? It might be wonderful. I can tell you that its not here.You do not belong here anymore"  "you don't know anything about us"

All a sudden, a vision showed up. A vision of Charles in a freezing cold lake with a few boys tossing rocks at him "what the fuck" Frances cursed out loud, what was she seeing? What did the night nurse do?

The next few visions were nothing but violent, a harsh vision of his father beating him up with a belt was shown, that made tears fall from Frances eyes. She couldn't believe how bad his life was when he was alive, he put on a happy face all these years even though he went through a lot. 

Frances wiped her tears when Charles got up from the ground after those visions played "what type of pain would you like to relive?" The night nurse said, Charles got the ball that makes music and twirls the knob "Good on you, yeah? With your nightmares and your sick smile. If you wanted me to be crushed or devastated, I am.  I'm also bloody angry and you won't be taking us anywhere" He took out the knob from the sphere, he hit the night nurse face harshly with it "holy shit!" Frances yelled, her sadness from Charles pain now replaced with surprisment.

The night nurse grabbed the ball from Charles grip after he repeatedly hit her "Those memories are not why I chose to stay here! I still have a purpose! I'm a dead boy detective!" He pushed the night nurse down in the ocean with sphere as the music played over her screaming. Frances ran over to see what happens next, the large fish with the light above its head jumped up and ate the night nurse with the music playing.

After that, everyone was staring at Charles, even Frances. "Why are you all looking at me like that?  I did that for us. She was going to take us" Frances tugged on her coat as the breeze got colder and the atmosphere got more tense "Charles... that was extreme." 

"was it too extreme Edwin? So was me dying at 16,mate. I don't wanna be dead. I hate it. Everyday, I'm fucking smiling. Cause who else will hold it together and keep the spirits up? You? Are you gonna do that,huh?  What good am I even doing? I couldn't stop Devlin from murdering his family over and over. I can't stop Crystal from hurting!  I cant stop anything! Sure as hell couldn't stop my dad from beating the shit out of me" 

Frances slowly walked over to the boy sitting on the ground,  she bent down and placed her hand softly on his back "Charles, you are doing things. You're helping us solve cases that no one else can. That's something. It's not your fault that your dad was an asshole, I may not have known you when you were alive but I know you are a great person. Don't put too much pressure on yourself." Her calm words slowed down his rapid breathing, he looked up at her with his tears falling down his caramel face, Frances wiped away his tears with her thumb "I'll  be here for you, Charles." 

A/N

Charles needs a big fat hug :( I cried during this episode :(