Snowflake and Frost (Abandoned/On Hiatus)

#14 What happened to Charlie

—-Caitlin's dream—-
I go downstairs. Charlie walks over to me and hugs me.
"Happy birthday, sis."
"Thanks, Charlie. Mom already at work?"
"Yeah. So what do you want for breakfast?", he asks walking towards the kitchen.
"Pancakes!"
"How many?"
"As my age! Ten.". Charlie nods and makes pancakes. He turned fourteen last month. He always takes care of me. Mom had stopped caring for us when dad died five years ago.
We eat our pancakes. "Wanna play in the forest like yesterday, Caity?"
"Yaay! Let's go!"
"But don't you want to open your present first?". He hands me a small box with a red ribbon. I open it and smile. It's a necklace with a heart-shaped locket. I open it. It has a two pictures in it. One of dad and one of Charlie carrying me on his shoulders. I stand up and hug him. We clean the dishes and leave into the forest near our house.
"Wanna play hide and seek, Caity?"
"Yay! I wanna count first. One. Two. Three." I begin to count. I hear him run into the forest.
"Ninety-nine. One hundred! I'm coming." I shout and run into the forest. I start searching until I hear a his voice.
"Caity?" He coughs. I follow the sound. I see Charlie lying on the ground.
"Charlie? Charlie!". His sweater is soaked in blood. I rush towards him with tears in my eyes.
"Caity. Listen to me. I love you but you need to run.", he coughs blood and closes his eyes.
"Charlie. Please don't die, too. You're the last part of family I have. Charlie!". I shake him but he doesn't move. I began to cry. Then somebody hit the back of my head and everything goes black.

—-Unknown amount of time later—-
My head pounds. I open my eyes and look around. I'm in a small room. It's completely empty. A small lightbulb hangs from the ceiling. My hands are tied behind my back and my mouth is gagged.
I hear a clicking sound and the door opens. A young man steps in. He looks at me.
"So you're finally awake, Caity."
"Mhmpf mpfu?"
"Oh right." He moves the piece of cloth from my mouth.
"Who are you?"
"My name doesn't matter. But I want you to know all this is not my fault. It's yours, Caity."
"Why?"
"You ruined my work. You and your brother played in the lab and mixed some of my chemicals. Your mother fired me because you couldn't keep your fingers from them. Now I'm gonna make you pay for it. You shouldn't try fighting back. Your brother tried and failed."
He put the piece of cloth back in my mouth. The next two weeks he kept hurting me. He punched and kicked me.
I was covered in bruises and small cuts but had bigger cuts across my back when the police found me. They arrested him and brought me into a hospital. I didn't even flinch when they examined my bruises. I was completely numb. The big cuts turned into scars.
Mom didn't visit me once in the week I had to stay there.
When I was released I thought mom would at least come and get me but why did I even believe she would bother with it. I walked a hour through the rain until I finally arrived home. I entered but it was empty so I walked upstairs into Charlies room. I dropped onto his bed and cried. I remember him lying on the ground in pain, covered in blood.

Frost's POV
I wake up to Snowflakes muffled sobbing next to me. I turn to her and see her lying on her chest with the face in the pillow. Vibe boy was stroking her back.
"It's a bad idea to touch her back now."
"Why?"
"I won't tell you but I can show you, if you want.", I say as I sit up. He nods in response. I lift her t-shirt a bit. She has many big scars on her back. Vibe looks at them in shock. I put her t-shirt down again.
"I didn't know she had all these scars. Where and how did she get them?", he asked concerned.
"I don't think she wants me to tell you but you can ask her because she will wake up screaming in three. Two. One.", I say and Snowflake shoots up and screams. "Nooooo!"
"Good morning to you too, Snowflake."
"It happened again?", she asks rubbing her eyes with one hand.
"Yup. By the way Vibe wants to ask you something. I could've answered but I didn't know if you would be ok with it."
"Caitlin where and when did you get those scars on your back?"
"Why does he know about them, Frost?"
"He was stroking your back because you were sobbing and I told him it would be a bad idea to touch your back while you're dreaming."
"Will you answer my question or will you ignore it Caitlin?", Cisco asked calm.
"Cisco...Look I...", she tries to say.
"Caitlin. We've been best friends for more than five years and I thought I know you. But lately I start to think that's not true anymore.", he says sadly and starts to leave.
"Cisco.", she answers in sympathy. "Even if that's true what you said, you do know me well enough to know that I always try to shut the things out that hurt me. I've been trying to shut this out since I was ten and it hurts to talk about it so nobody knows expect my mom. She has a idea about them but doesn't really care."
"I can do it. Those are your memories not mine and I don't really care about them anymore. I'll tell him, okay Snowflake?". She nods.
"But I'll leave and go get us some coffee. I don't want to hear it again.". Vibe and I nod and Snowflake leaves.
"So what happened to Caitlin?", Vibe asks returning his attention back to me.
"Well it was her tenth birthday and Charlie wanted her to have fun so—", I explain but he cuts me off.
"Who is Charlie?"
"He was her big brother. He took care of her since he was nine and Snowflake five. Their mother stopped caring when their dad died."
"Wait. Caitlin has a big brother?! How come we didn't meet him?"
"Will you just let me explain?", I ask him annoyed.
"Yeah yeah. Sorry."
I tell him the whole story. He listens carefully but is shocked.
"...and that's when she started to have nightmares every night. Well until she and Ronnie fell in love but when he died they came back. That's why Snowflake was always cold. Don't grow attached, don't get hurt."
"I had no idea...And I've been mean to her earlier. You were right back then. I am a horrible friend, Frost."
"I can sense her emotions so don't worry she isn't mad or anything."
"I'm back!", Snowflake exclaims as she enters the cortex with our coffees.
I stand up and snatch my coffee from her. She walks over to Vibe and hands him his. He hugs her and whispers. "I'm sorry Caitlin."
"It's alright Cisco. I'm not mad.". She pats his back.
"Whats going on? Why should Caitlin be mad at you, Cisco?"
We turn around. Flash is standing in the doorway.
"Cisco can tell you later."
I huff and carefully sip on my coffee. I have to be careful or it would burn me because my and Snowflakes body temperatures are still very low. It's annoying. We both can't even take a nice hot shower without getting burned.
"Ouch!", Snowflake and I complain.
"What's wrong?"
"This coffee is goddam hot!", I exclaim and hand the coffee to Flash. He takes a sip.
"It's warm but not hot."
"Well for me and Snowflake it's fucking burning!"
"Frost and my body temperature are still lower than normal which causes us to get burned very fast and easily. It's been like that since you defeated Savitar.", Snowflake explains.
"Why didn't you tell us?", Cisco asks.
"Because it's nothing major. Just some annoying thing. Where are Joe, Wally and Iris? I haven't seen them today."