Autophobia

Chapter 16: Trapped

When Charlie woke up, it was pitch black outside. Her body still hurt and her eyes burned from the many tears she'd shed over the course of the previous night and that day. She kicked the covers off and sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at her phone. Zero missed calls, zero new messages. A pang of guilt struck her in the chest. She'd been incredibly unfair to Marla and Jessica, but they also couldn't know about William- she knew that they'd likely try to get Chief Clay involved, and she worried about possible retaliation. I don't want them to get hurt. She justified to herself, idley scrolling through her texts. She stopped on John's thread and let out a pained sigh.

I think she's going to break up with me. No no no no. She couldn't lose him, especially not in the midst of all this chaos. She went into her directory and selected his contact. One ring, two rings, three rings, and then his voicemail. He'd declined the call. She bit her lower lip hard before speaking.

"Hey, please call me back when you get this. There's... a lot I need to tell you. Bye, I love you." She exhaled sharply. The smell of spaghetti wafted through the house and she realized that she was starving. She made her way down the stairs tentatively and paused on the landing. Her father was situated on the couch, reading the newspaper. Nonchalant, completely unaware that his twisted, dirty secrets were now exposed.

He spotted her and put down the paper.

"Hey there. You hungry?"

Charlie nodded and made her way down to the living room. He followed her into the kitchen and lingered in the doorway as she helped herself to a large portion of pasta and sauce. She sat down at the table and started to eat slowly.

"How were Marla and Jessica?"

"Fine." She sighed.

"Jen said there was some shouting. Did you have a fight?"

Charlie twirled some pasta around her fork.

"Sort of. I was just tired and they kept asking me questions."

"About?"

She put her fork down.

"Dad, I don't remember anything about my car accident. That's weird."

"It isn't, really. A lot of people have memory loss after head trauma."

"Yeah, but... I almost feel like I wasn't in a crash at all. How did I hit my head? The airbag should've gone off."

Henry visibly tensed and attempted to play it off by walking to the fridge.

"Well, the Honda was pretty old. The officer who responded to the crash said that it didn't deploy." Enough of your bullshit! Charlie took another bite of pasta in order to hold her tongue.

"You want some milk?"

"...Yeah." She said defeatedly. Her anger was surging but she remembered Michael's words. You have to stay close to your father. It was time to drop it, at least for now.

"Do you have another shift tonight? I don't remember." Her father set a full glass in front of her.

"No, but I have one tomorrow night. I'll be at Junior's tomorrow during the day."

"Well, that's good, because I have a few interviews lined up."

"What for?"

"Oh, mainly waitstaff. But there's also a new experimental position."

"Experimental?"

Henry looked ponderous.

"I'm hiring a technician. Someone else to help with the upkeep of the robots."