rhaspody [editing]

iii.

Charlotte

+

CHARLOTTE felt like she was melting.

She was inside the small tub, surrounding by silence and water. Her body wasn’t her body, but rather the water was her body. Her thoughts weren’t her thoughts, but the silence all around her. The rosy aroma in the air, the continuous dripping of water.

Drip, drip, drip.

A single drop fell from the bath tap, falling down, down, through an empty void, only to splat into the aqua ocean that lay below. The concentric circles ran outwards, a wave through the clotting ocean, only to hit the shores of this liquid of warmth, and rebound off; an endlessly intricate pattern of interferences. Destruction and creation in one.

Mountains… Heavy mountains. Things that change over time.   

Sky… Blue sky. What your eyes can’t see. What your eyes can see.

Sun…

Water? Something comforting.

Commander Rune.

Charlotte opened her eyes.

.  .  .

“I’m hooome!”

The First Child paused. There was a string of curses that came from the front door, followed by stumbling and more incoherent mumbling.  She quickly left the sink full of half-cleaned  dishes, and took off her rubber gloves, going to the door to see Lisa struggling to take off her high heels.  Charlotte noticed her face, which was as red as a tomato, and the way she was walking. She was so off balance that it took Charlotte a hard time to escort her to the living room couch.

“Thanks, duddde,” Lisa said, her speech slurring. The First Child smelt the stench of rising alcohol from her breath, sure and strong.

“Could you give me a bucket?” the drunk women asked. Charlotte nodded, and fetched a bucket from the kitchen, immediately giving it to her. Lisa then stuck her head in heaved. Her whole frame shook as she violently vomited into the bucket. When she finished, she asked the girl if she could have a glass of water to rid her of the aftertaste.

“Man,” she said, wiping her mouth. “I haven’t drank like that since my college years.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Charlotte replied, swiftly taking the bucket from her hands and quickly disposing it. She walked back into the living room and saw Lisa sprawled out on the couch with a hand to her forehead.

The girl went back to the sink and slipped on her rubber gloves.

“You know it’s bad for you.”

“I know, I know, its poison, it’ll turn you into a jerk, but hey,” Lisa glanced up at her with half-closed eyes, and a goofy smile. “The whole gang got together to celebrate the defeat of the first Angel. You should’ve been there. It was made possible by you.”

“If I’m ordered to go, I will,” The First Child said bluntly. “You need more water.”

Sometimes, but mostly every day, she wondered how Elizabeth Whitehall, the Captain of ZELLE, Operation’s Director for the Children in Combat against Angels, and also guardian of Charlotte, got to be where she was in life. She was a party goer in reality, a wild youth-like woman with an uninhibited personality, and messy lifestyle. When Elizabeth, or ‘Lisa’ as she liked to be called, was assigned to be Charlotte’s full-time guardian, her apartment was a complete and utter mess. There were clothes and scraps of junk food wrappers strewn around the place. Charlotte couldn’t believe her eyes. Upon her arrival, the hygiene in the apartment had been restored considerably.