Her Altered Personality

Chapter eight - Gang Chains

"What are you doing with my phone and who's chasing us?!"

"I'll tell you later, take the next left." Although her heart was racing, Lilia's voice didn't quiver once.

Charlotte did as she was told and skid ever so slightly as she veered left. 

The road ahead of her was not registered and was a dirt one. After the first few potholes her stomach stopped lurching.

Cee lost track of how many miles she had driven - the car tailing the two girls slowly disappeared from sight.

Once Lilia was sure they had lost the car she instructed, "Follow the road signs to Birmingham."

Lilia knocked twice on the old, rusted door- that looked close to falling right off its hinges.

There was a long pause and an eventual creaking noise as the door was pulled open to reveal a dark, hooded figure concealing a switch blade in their sleeve. The figure ushered the two women in and slammed the door shut - earning a wince from Charlotte.

A light flicked on and more figures entered the room. Each one pulled down their hoods, there was one girl, one androgynous person and three guys, all looked as though they belonged to some type of street gang. 

One of the guys took a few steps toward Lotte's sister, "Good to see you Lia," he smiled. 

"And you Hunter, do you have space for me and Charlotte for a few nights?"

"There's always space for a member of the pack and her.. sister?"

"Yes, I'll explain our situation in the morning but now, I really need to make some phone calls." Lilia replied.

One of the girls tossed a black burner phone at Lia, uncovering her arm which was previously hidden by her hoodie, on her forearm was an intricate padlock and chain tattoo, identical to the one Lilia had on her calf. "Maybe this is a gang," Charlie thought.

"Cheers, where should we put our stuff?"

"What stuff?" Cee finally spoke.

"I packed us some duffel bags, they're in the trunk of the car."

One of the other males nodded and left the room, presumably to get the duffel bags from the car. He came back a minute later with the two drawstring bags, handing them to Charlotte with a friendly smile on his face- which was somewhat encouraging to her.

Then, the burner phone girl gestured for them to follow her, and they did. Down a narrow hallway and into a small room- containing minimum furniture. There were two air mattresses and a small chest of drawers, Cee dropped the bags and thanked the girl, she smiled at Lilia and left the two sisters.

Charlotte shot Lilia a look to which her sister sighed and drew the dusty curtain shut, the light overhead giving off minimal light.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

● ● ●

Lotte woke up to her sister opening the curtains, spilling sunlight all over her.

"Rise and shine, it's almost midday."

In response, or rather protest, Cee threw a pillow at her sister, who doged out the way. Charlotte then slowly recalled the events of the night before.

"I have to catch up on the case!" She shot up, making her vision blur and head spin.

"No you don't, you can't. We aren't going back home yet," Lilia sighed.

"Can I have my phone then, I need to call a few people, tell them I'll be gone a while."

"Here, use this," her sister handed her a small black phone, the burner she had used the night before. Charlotte raised her eyebrow, "I don't know anyone's numbers by heart."
Lia rolled her eyes and handed her a piece of paper with six numbers and names written down, "I knew we'd have to leave for a while, I wrote down a couple numbers that I thought you might want to call."

"Thanks, where's the bathroom?"

"Down the hall on the left."

Charlotte pulled on some jeans and shuffled to the bathroom, the piece of paper in one hand and the burner in the other. She found the bathroom, it was small and barely fit a sink, shower and toilet.

She dialed the first number, it rang twice before Professor Grenway's voice sounded, "Hello?"

"Morning Cath, this is Charlotte."

"I've been calling you all day, where in the heaven's are you?!"

"Look, I'm going to be honest with you, everything's gone to crap."

"Right, well, we need you to work on the case."

"I know and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me and I will work on it but I can't be there in person, or I'll be putting myself and everyone else in danger."

"Good heavens, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"I can't tell you, not over the phone, I'm staying in Birmingham for the next few days until I have a solid plan. I'll send you whatever I find on the case via 10 minute mail, you know that untraceable mail thing--"

"I know what 10 minute mail is but I trust you and if you're in danger, we can manage by ourselves for a while, stay safe. You've already done more than enough to graduate anyway."

"Thank you, it really means a lot, I will be back as soon as possible."

"Call if you need anything."

Charlotte smiled as her professor disconnected, she then slowly made her way down the list of names.

● ● ●

"Hey baby, it's me," Lotte smiled as she reached the last number on the paper.

"Charlie!! Why didn't you call last night? Who's phone are you calling from? Where are you? Are you okay? Heidi said you didn't show up at Uni," a familiar voice replied.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. I've got a bit of a family emergency, I'm calling from a burner, it's a long story and I'll tell you when I know everything's okay. I'm currently in a safe place, crashing here for a couple days, I'm not going to lie to you babe, I'm on the run from someone, they're dangerous and apparently back from the dead. So far I'm okay, I promise to call you every evening on a different number, if I don't call, you need to talk to Malik Teurjip, he's in my Uni class, he'll know what to do."

There was a moment's silence as the voice on the other end of the call took in the truck load of information, "I love you babygirl, don't you dare die on me."

Charlotte let out a dry chuckle, "I love you too, I'll try," and with that she hung up.

...

As she entered, what she assumed to be, the kitchen, everyone's eyes darted over to her direction; those huddled around the tabletop attempted to conceal whatever lay on the surface of the worn brown table.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and strolled over to the huddle of hooded figures, slightly intimidated. "Care to show me what's so interesting?"

All five pairs of eyes shifted their focus from Lotte to Lilia, "Just show her, she deserves to know."

"Deserve to know what?"

The map was laid out on the countertop once more, it displayed a series of crossed placed on certain locations. There was a smaller map alongside the map of England, this was a detailed map of Birmingham city with a circle drawn around a single warehouse. Dumbstruck, the only sentence Charlie could muster was a meek, "Who wants some coffee?"

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A/N
This got a little confusing to write, hope it's not hard to read xo
Characters in this chapter:
Charlotte/Cee/Charlie/Lotte Hunt
Lilia/Lia Hunt
Hunter
Two females
Two other males
Catherine Grenway
Voice 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~
song for this chapter-

Trouble - Sleeping With Sirens