Connection

Chapter Eight: Charlotte

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Chapter Eight: Charlotte

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The rumbling beneath her felt like it had gone on endlessly. Despite the fact that she'd been given food and Appelendius juice, her mouth had grown quite dry once again and she felt the sharp pain in her stomach from hunger growing and growing. As far as she'd been able to tell, her captors hadn't yet had food either and she wasn't sure how they were functioning in such a normal way.

Her resolve to strike back against them was stronger than ever, though she knew she had to be careful about when she did what she was planning to. If she tried now, she'd collapse from the energy it took within seconds.

Her captors seemed to be fooled once again into believing that she wasn't a threat; that she trusted them. And Charlotte was sharply aware of the fact that it would be easiest to work upon that.

Not one of her captors had spoken to her. The spell which they'd used multiple times on her wasn't casted, which conveyed even further that they convinced themselves she wouldn't try to attack again, and she knew from years of experience that to build up trust like this first would help create the hardest hit requiring the least effort.

Charlotte's mind was restless, constantly switching between various thoughts completely unrelated to one another. For the majority of the time she found herself thinking about food and drink no matter how hard she tried to prevent the thoughts from invading her head. She also found herself dreaming about her normal life, for no matter how flawed it was it looked much more appealing than the events that were occurring at that moment. Thoughts of her plan to take her captors down were the thoughts that seemed to pop up most often besides those of nourishment she needed. Endless plans and different ideas on ways to make them suffer as much as it felt like she was began to make appearances more often than she'd like to admit. There were times that some of the things that drifted across her mind terrified even her.

Her blonde hair had grown to be thinner and extremely dry, appearing and feeling like straw. Many cracks ran through her hand and the desiccation of her skin continued up her arms, causing it to flake off often. She didn't think her lips had ever been as dry as they were. The little sleep that she was able to steal was never pleasant, nor sufficient.

Charlotte couldn't help but feel as the truck rolled endlessly on that she was just laying in the back of it decaying; like her captors had thrown her back there and were just waiting for her to waste away. She had been dizzy and lightheaded from the lack of water for what felt like months.

Her perception of time was completely lost in that van, so when it finally rolled to a stop Charlotte had no idea how long she'd been there and how long it had been since she'd felt so refreshed in that cave.

She lifted her head optimistically as her captors climbed out of the van, all stretching their legs but looking completely all right with the lack of food and drink.

She wasn't sure when she came to the back of the van, but Aria yanked the door open and Charlotte stumbled toward the exit, the world swimming as she did so. She effectively fell out of the car and realized with a large blossom of dread running through her veins that she wasn't in any shape to get her revenge. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right; she was going to build up her energy and their trust even more and when they least expected it, she'd hit hard.

Though it was hard to keep such a steely resolve when Charlotte didn't have a clue where she was. Harsh wind ruffled the tall pine trees that were on all sides of the van. There wasn't a road anymore; the van had been parked in a minuscule clearing between the dense forest. She wasn't even sure how they'd gotten to this point, though she was positive she wasn't in Mallowkeep and hadn't been for a long time.