Blissful Misery

CHAPTER 06 - Quick to forgive

***

It was July of 2014. I was just short of my nineth birthday when Charlie and Lucas had avoided me for a whole week.

One day, in the early mist of morning, the boys knocked on my fogged window and called me to our woods. I followed without question. Still in my white sleeping dress, I held Charlie's hand as we followed Lucas to our hide-out.

I knew what they wanted to talk about.

"Lucy, I'm sure it wasn't so bad," Charlie said. "Lucas is just a scaredy cat."

Lucas only briefly glanced over his shoulder, his dark curls brushing past his brow.

"She has to see what she did," he said.

I lowered my head. It was cold. And the dew from the thick grass made my legs clammy.

"It's okay," Charlie hugged me as we trekked over fallen branches and beds of leaves. "I wouldn't get mad at you. And if I was there, I would've helped you."

"Don't say that, Charlie... I did a bad thing..."

We finally arrived at our little fort. A house made of scrap wood and metal with four trees holding it all up. Lucas walked ahead and opened the creaking door. Charlie still held on to me as we walked inside.

There was something different about our fort. It was darker than I remembered.

Lucas turned around — his eyes cold as winter.

"Lucy..." he said. "Close the door."

***

TEN YEARS LATER

***

I was frozen where I stood, like all the blood in me hardened to marble. The auditorium was dark, and Lucas' words echoed in my ears just like that day.

"Close the door, Lucy," he repeated.

I couldn't see where he was.

I wished Charlie was here to hold my hand.

With stiff legs, I turned around. I placed both my hands on the heavy double doors and pushed them shut, snuffing out the last of the light.

Just as the doors clicked shut, a weight pressed into me from behind. I inhaled sharply, my cry stuck in my throat.

"I need to know, Lucy..."

Lucas grabbed my wrists that were still on the doors and turned me around to face him. My back pressed against the varnished oak so hard I thought I'd have bruises on my spine by tomorrow.

"I swear to you, Lucas, I didn't..." the end of my sentence got stuck on my tongue.

Doctor Whitlock's words along with that horrible note rushed into my mind and I wasn't so sure if I could truly claim my innocence.

Don't you think it could be possible that you might suffer from dissociative amnesia?

It's not possible...

Lucy... My lovely Lucy... Don't you remember how you killed Charlie Whyte?

I wouldn't...

"Tell me, Lucy. I have to know," Lucas repeated, pulling me back to reality.

The faintest light crept in from the high windows above. Dust danced down with the soft rays. The light was so dim it gave a ghostly glow to the man before me. His white hair and pale skin made him feel a little less real.