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CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
Charlie moves to sit on the floor and picks up one of her dolls. I look around the room and see the floor is littered with toys. I smile to myself as I see the joy on Charlie’s face. Despite what Hex said on the phone, I think she’s perfectly happy here.
“Charlie,” I say gently. “How’s it been going these last few days?”
Charlie shrugs and starts brushing her doll’s hair. Then she sections it out and braids it messily.
“One time Miss Juliana braided my hair,” she says quietly. “I liked when she did that.”
I smile and help her by braiding another doll’s hair. We sit like that while I wait for her to get a little more comfortable. The poor girl has experienced trauma after trauma in the last few days. It’s no wonder that she’s barely spoken. She’s probably run out of words to say.
“So, you like being here?” I ask after a few moments of quiet braiding.
She looks up smiling, her eyes shining brightly. She nods effusively, and it makes my heart swell. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her.
“Remember when you were at Mr. Pocus’s house and we would do some magic tests together?” I ask her.
She nods again, more hesitant this time.
“Remember how they weren’t scary?” I remind her, because she looks very scared at this moment. “You once told me it kind of tickled.”
“That’s true.” She nods, looking down at her doll. “They weren’t bad.”
“I was wondering if we could do some of that now,” I say. “I think it might make you feel better.”
“Okay,” she says and goes to lie down on her bed.
She’s a very compliant patient. The first time I told her that she had magical gifts, she thought that was so cool. She said she always thought her gift was bad, and I was the first person to tell her otherwise. I worry she may have started having those thoughts again. After everything that happened, she may think it was all her fault.
As she lies on the bed, I sit next to her and hold her hands. I close my eyes and fall into a trance, guiding Charlie with my words. We meet in the spirit world, and I make sure we’re in a place where Charlie feels comfortable and safe. As a matter of fact, we meet in this very room and start playing with her dolls.
In the spirit world, I see Charlie’s aura, but it’s cloudy. It’s like a dark sky in the middle of summer. A storm rages around her, keeping her hidden from me.
“Charlie, are you afraid right now?”
“Not of you,” she says sweetly. “I like you a lot, Miss Tory. I like you as much as I like Mr. Hex and Miss Juliana.”
In the spirit world, she’s more talkative. It costs her no physical or mental energy to express herself. She’s able to simply exist.
“What are you afraid of?”
“Me,” she whispers. “I’m afraid of me.”
Even as she says it, the cloud dissipates. Just by naming her fear, she’s more able to control it.
“Can you tell me why?” I probe gently. “You’re such a sweet girl. Everyone who meets you loves you. A lot of people out there just want you to be happy.”
“When the bad man had us, I heard him talking. He told Meredith all these horrible things that I can do, and it scared me. It’s bad enough that I can see when people die, but he told her I’d be able to kill people. I don’t want to kill people, Miss Tory. I don’t want to ever hurt anybody. I want to be good.”
The cloud grows weaker. I can see her face now. She cries as she says this, burdened by this fear of herself. I could kill that man for saying that in her earshot.
Truthfully, Charlie does possess that amount of power. She’s a strong girl, and she’s bursting with potential. Her gift is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. She could be a powerful weapon. If that horrible Damien had gotten a hold of her, he would have made sure of it. Right now, she’s just a little girl. She needs to know that she’s allowed to be that.
“You know, Charlie,” I tell her. “You are one of the kindest little girls I’ve ever met. I don’t know if anyone has told you that, but it’s true.”
She looks up at me in surprise.
“And you’re really brave,” I tell her. “When you saw Mr. Graveyard was hurt, you helped him even though it made you sick.”
