Who: Kaysen and Charlotte.
When: After school.
Where: Phone call.

Charlotte had spent her entire school day trying to find Kaysen between classes or at lunch, all to no avail. Lulu had sent her a text message that everyone was back, but Charlotte hadn't heard a definite story on what had happened. She was antsy and couldn't concentrate, and then she heard at the end of the day that Kaysen had gotten into a fight. When the bell rang, Charlotte ran home as fast as her feet would carry her. She really wanted to just show up on Kaysen's door, but she had a feeling her family would not at all appreciate that. And there was the chance that Kaysen wouldn't want anything to do with Charlotte. So she hurried to lock herself in her room, and quickly dialed Kaysen's number on her cell phone.

Kaysen flinched when she heard her phone ring. It was automatic, and she cursed herself for it. She'd been kind of staring out her window, all curled up on her bed. The mirror above her dresser had been covered over with a sheet, though she kept imagining she could hear things moving behind it. Which was ridiculous. Even when they'd been there, it had been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that no one could hear them. Why would she hear anything? She wouldn't. She was just an idiot. She let the phone ring twice before she picked it up, and looked at the callerID first. If it was Chance, she didn't want to talk to him. Not yet. But it wasn't. It was Charlie. So she answered. "...hello." she said, holding the phone to her ear as she went back to laying down again.

"Kaysen?!" Who else would answer? Idiot. Now that she had her on the phone, Charlotte found that she didn't have any idea what she was supposed to say. "Are you okay?" she blurted out. "I mean... are you?"

Charlie sounded really concerned. Which was sorta newish to Kaysen, so it took her by surprise, even if logically, she should have expected it. Charlie hadn't dropped her when school had started, after all. So...yeah. Things were weird. "Um. I dunno. Are you okay?" she asked lamely, totally unsure how to behave towards someone who was concerned about her. She was still getting used to it from Chance, and she still didn't even know how to deal with it from him either.

For a moment Charlotte felt like something in her head was threatening to explode. "Yes, of course. What happened? Where were you? We didn't know how to get you back! Do you hate me? Are you okay?" Okay, she'd asked that last one before but she hadn't really gotten a good answer.

Kaysen tried to keep up with the questions. For really she did, but she didn't do that stellar a job. Crap. "Um. There was a cave in, and then we were stuck in this place with windows that were mirrors. And like, endless hallways. The chick with Kurt opened the door to it. I dunno. I'm um...home. No, I don't hate you." She skipped out on the 'are you okay' question. 'Emphatically, screamingly not' wasn't a good answer to give anyone.

Charlotte blinked a few times, and finally sat down at her window. Mirrors? She looked across the room at her own mirror with a puzzled look on her face. There were so many questions overloading her brain now that she couldn't figure out how to establish priority. "How did you get out?" That seemed like a logical big one.

"Um. Someone found us." Kaysen said. She didn't say who, though she felt immediately guilty for that. She didn't really wanna start lying to Charlie about things, but she didn't want to give Chance up as someone weird either. She still didn't even know how he'd done it or what he was or if he just had a crazy mirror walking ability. It was possible, right? "And took us back out at that book store, Nevermore. I dunno. Things are kinda...confused."

Someone found them? Someone found them in a crazy mirrorwindow land? It wasn't that Charlotte didn't believe Kaysen, but... wow. This is one of those werewolfs-are-real surprises, isn't it? "I... er... okay." Really, what else could you say? "What did you tell people? Your parents?"

"Um, Isaac kinda took care of that. Just that there was a cave in, and we had to find a different way out, and it took us a while." Kaysen told her. And it occurred to her late that it hadn't so much as crossed her mind to tell Charlotte that too. Like, not at all. "So we're both really grounded. And I'm kinda more grounded cuz of school today." she added, rubbing lightly at her cheek, but it hurt so she stopped. "So that's the official story, but y'know. It's totally not true. I can't even tell you what that place was like. It was...awful." She felt a lump forming in the back of her throat. God, was she going to start bawling again?! Hadn't she done enough of that?

Charlotte had been about to ask about the fight, but lost thought of it when Kaysen went on. Charlotte frowned and pulled Amok into her lap for a hug. "I'm so sorry." she said, quietly. "I'm so sorry I asked you to go and got you into it. I tried to go back with Chance and Herbert to find you but it was just... do you want to talk about it?"

Kaysen wasn't sure. Weirdly, she kinda felt like she might be able to talk about it more with Charlie than she had been with other people. Maybe it was a girl-thing. She had no idea. Or maybe it was being on the phone, and that meant she didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her all messed up. "Don't be sorry." she said first. "It wasn't your fault, you din't know it was gonna happen, so..." she trailed off, taking a second to try and even out her breathing enough that she wouldn't burst into hysterical tears at any moment. It was more difficult than she would have imagined. "An I dunno. I...everyone keeps trynna make me, and I don't even know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything." Charlotte said, leaning against the wall. Amok was scrambling to get away and go pounce something, so she let him. "But... if you do need or want to talk any of it out... you can. I wouldn't tell anyone or anything."

That made Kaysen feel a tiny bit better, even if she didn't know how to say that. "Thanks." she mumbled. "I just...we thought we were all gonna die. Like, we weren't hungry or starving to death or anything, but that didn't matter. We didn't have a way out, and there were things in there, Charlie. An we don't know what they were, but they were there, and closing in, and..." she broke off, sniffling a touch.

Charlotte was pretty new to this opening up to someone about something traumatic herself, but she wished they weren't on the phone and she could hug Kaysen or something. Or try. "What did they do?"

"Which...the thingies? They were just like shadows or something. Or like, light bits, I dunno, they were one of those stupid out of the corner of your eye things? But we were all havin them, so we couldn't have all been hallucinating the same thing, right? And it was just scary, and I don't feel very good. I'm sorry. And...I'm sorry." She knew she was rambling, and probably not making sense. Kaysen was good at that, but even now she thought she was making less sense than her usual non-sense.

"What are you sorry for?" Charlotte asked. "Don't be. I mean... God knows where you were, you probably did see... things. I mean, not see things, but there probably was something there, and..." How comforting. "I'm just glad you got out. We were all really worried about you."

"I dunno, I'm sorry I'm a mess." Kaysen mumbled, not sure that was the fully story there, but she didn't have enough words that would clarify it. She didnt' even know, how could she explain it to Charlie? "It was awful. I...kinda wish I could rewind time and like, tell everyone to stay home." Wasn't that an understatement. "I had to keep the light going. We had a..a torch, I guess. And I kept it going."

"I wish I could, too." Charlotte offered. "It was all... for nothing. The dreams just stopped." she offered, almost apologetically. At the mention of Kaysen's light she smiled a touch. "That's good." she said. "Maybe you gained a level. Was it hard?"

"Um...kinda not, actually." Kaysen said, weirdly feeling slightly better for getting praised, and having something more dealable to talk about. It shifted her focus, and it was a good thing. "Like, it was sorta...recycling?" she suggested, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Like as long as sometimes I'd concentrate on the fire to pull energy out, I could just rechannel it back in and it was okay. So I was like...a glorified flashlight battery. But it worked."

"Sounds like it came really easy to you." Charlotte replied. "I guess everyone was pretty lucky you were there. I wish earth stuff came as easy to me, the whole time everything was going on I wished I could actually do something."

"Well, it was get it done, or have us all wander through hell in the dark." Kaysen said, downplaying her bit a little. She thought because it hadn't been that hard, that maybe it wasn't so amazing or anything, but again, it felt good to be praised. "I'm sure you can get there, we'll...we'll keep practicing." she said. It was tentative on her part. It was like she was admitting that Charlie might not actually drop her at all. Which was...weird. Good-weird, but weird.

"Soon as you're ungrounded." Charlotte offered, with a small smile. "Sounds like you don't need as much practice anymore, fast learner!" This was much easier to talk about than all of the other stuff that made absolutely no sense. Charlotte wanted to know everything, and she had the feeling that even if she did, she still wouldn't understand it. "Is everyone else okay? Or at least... you know... sort of okay?"

Edison climbed up her bed, and came to plunk down in the crook of her neck, purring away. Kaysen wondered if Charlie could hear him, but concentrated on their conversation as she scritched the kitty's head. "I think it was kinda more I needed to get that done than I learned fast. 'Sides, it wasn't that hard, it was just...like I said, recharging and then leaking energy back through? It's so weird to try and explain. Um...honestly, I don't think so. I think all of us are kinda fucked up. 'cept maybe Thom. Thom's like...the strongest, most stoic person ever. I don't even know if the place bothered him. An...actually maybe it's just me n Isaac who suck right now."

Charlotte winced a bit. "I'm sorry." she said. "Everyone's kind of got a reason to be freaked out." And Charlotte had no support or answers or explanations to offer. She wondered if she went to visit Dorian if he would know, but at the same time, if they'd come back at his store, he might not be willing to share any information. It was something to think about. "And um... I'm really sorry... but I had to tell your boyfriend what happened while you were gone."

Kaysen kinda choked. "My boyfriend?" she asked. Cuz she knew Chance knew. Though she realized that she hadn't actually figured out how he'd known. That had gotten lost in the shuffle somewhere. "I um! And! He's not--and there's the stupid--and things!" Wow. Total vocabulary failure. She couldn't have made less sense if she'd had a gun to her head.

Charlotte blinked, winced, and felt her face turned red. Oops. "Sorry, I kind of assumed, coz he-- well-- ... I'm stupid? Sorry." And yet Kaysen seemed to know she was talking about Chance. High school was so confusing. "I didn't mean to tell him but... yeah. Sorry."

"I mean..." Kaysen sputtered. "You're not stupid! An he's...he likes me and I know like, before he wanted me to go out with him but I dunno and today I kept hearing that he was with another girl and she was all clueless about me and I suck because I totally don't have a right to be jealous when I keep putting off answering him on the going out thing but I totally was really upset and I yelled at him today we fought and then there was the fight and I dunno what to do anymore." she blurted, then had to stop for breath. Yeah, maybe she really did need a girl-friend around. All that stuff she'd been holding onto and bleck. It all came out right there.

Charlotte blinked again. Several times. "Oh... my." she finally settled on. If it weren't for how dire things had been lately, Charlotte would have been queerly happy. Her high school experience was almost complete, and in under a month. She was like a real teenager, talking about boys on the phone! ...I... am a nerd. "Do you like him?"

Kaysen opened her mouth, then made a pained sound, and let out a sigh in a rush. "...lots of times, yeah." she said quietly. "I mean, he makes me really mad, and he doesn't understand me most of the time. And sometimes I wanna hit him only I did once, and then he kissed me." She explained, knownig that whole not making sense thing was happening again. "And...I guess I for really do. But I've never had a boyfriend, and like I said, he like, makes me mad and cry all the time too, though tha's cuz i'm stupid and crazy, not really his fault, I guess, and things are messy. I'm prolly not making sense, I'm sorry."

"You're making sense." Charlotte offered. "Well. Um. Kind of. Um..." She should probably say something helpful. "I've never had a boyfriend either?" she tried. "But he really seems to like you. He was very scary when you were gone, and I'm not positive but I think he might have threatened to kill everyone involved if you didn't come back. I'm not sure if that's a healthy relationship or not, but he cares about you. Why does he make you cry?"

Kaysen might have answered the question, but there was that other bit she was hearing. "Um." she said intelligently. "...what?" She was left blinking, and even sat up, which Edison was not impressed with, but she had to. "Run that again?"

It took a moment for Charlotte to figure out which part she was questioning, but that was easy enough to figure out. "He was really mad." she said. "And I couldn't give him good enough answers as to what had happened to you, and he was mad at me for not doing more, so he said he'd get you out himself and I ended up yelling back at him and he seemed to respond to that. But he said if you didn't come back that people would have to answer to him. Then we went out to the mines again, but obviously we didn't get anywhere."

"You said he threatened to kill people." Kaysen said. Which was really what she was stuck on. In fact, she didn't think she could move forward from that at all right now. Cuz...um. Woah. She had no idea how to feel about that. Besides surprised, and creeped out. Jesus. That was...heavy. And like, crazy.

"I don't know. I didn't really ask for clarification. It was one of those sketchy implication things." Charlotte said, frowning. And he scared the crap out of me. "He said... um..." She wanted to be sure to at least quote him right. "He said he was going to find you, and if he didn't find you in one piece, then the group would pay for that. He didn't say how and I didn't ask, I just talked him into letting me try to help."

"Oh." Kaysen said, at a loss for words. She still didn't know what to think. She also didn't know if he would really have gone through with anything, or if he'd just said it when pissed. "Um. Did you feel like...threatened?" she asked lightly. "I'm really sorry..I um...yeah. Did you?"

How on earth was Charlotte supposed to explain how she felt? Of course she felt threatened, but she didn't know if she'd needed to be or not. She didn't know Chance. He cared about Kaysen, and he had a right to say threatening things when he was angry. Or maybe he really was just crazy. Charlotte didn't feel right saying either way. She could say that yes, it had freaked her out, and Kaysen could hold it against Chance and maybe he didn't deserve it. Or she could say no, and... Chance could just be crazy. "I don't know." she finally answered. "I just felt guilty. He didn't try to hurt anyone or anything... he let me go out to the mines with him, and Herbert came along. He was angry and snarky but he kind of had a reason to be."

"Herbert? Oh. Wait. I remember. He's the big guy, right?" Kaysen asked. That was easier than thinking more on the Chance thing. "...I really don't know what to do anymore, Charlie." she said, sounding miserable. "Like, about anything. Or everything. The whole world went weird on me." Then she paused. "...I think you're the only person I can really talk to about this for really."

Why did that make Charlotte so stupidly happy? It did. An hour ago she'd been worried that Kaysen might hate her or blame her, and now it turned out she was traumatized, but Charlotte was still very happy. "I'm glad you can talk to me." she offered. "I was really scared when you were gone too. I'm sorry about what happened, but I'm really happy you're back."

"It's okay, it really wasn't your fault." Kaysen said. "I guess when all this stuff was going on it didn't actually occur to me to blame anyone." she said, sounding like that had just dawned on her. Which it had, really. "So. Um. Yeah. Don't worry about that. It's okay. I guess, this stuff happens. Or it does now. It totally didn't last year, but it definitely does now."

Charlotte laughed loudly at that. Kaysen said it so casually! But, well, it was true. Last year she'd been a boring book nerd, and now there were disappearing mines and cats-that-weren't-cats and werebears... it was definitely a very weird year. "It definitely does."

"I swear, last year, everything was normal, and now all of a sudden, we live in like, the twilight zone. Ever get the feeling that the universe is just fucking with you? Like some wheel of fortune landed on your name, and you won the grand prize of having an interesting life for a while?" Kaysen asked. "That's that it feels like here. Like, bang. You're the next contestent on the Amazignly Fucked Up Life Awards! There are grand prizes of being eternally traumatized! Aren't you lucky!"

Charlotte grinned a bit more. "Yeah, I guess it does seem that way sometimes." Even if Charlotte didn't have the guts to quite use those words. She'd definitely felt that way after the cats-that-weren't-cats. Still did at night when it hit her just right. "I guess we are kind of lucky. I mean, you came back. And Chance didn't kill me! It's a start."

That managed to get a little bit of a laugh out of Kaysen, which surprised her. Jeeze, when was the last time she'd laughed? Felt like forever. She might have claimed it would never happen again. "Yeah, it's a start." she agreed. "Um...hey Charlie? Thanks for calling." she said, feeling weirdly nervous about saying it like that, but she didn't know how else to.

This did feel weird. Awkward and everything. But normal, or like it was supposed to be, despite everything else. "Of course." she said. "I tried to find you at school. Are you going tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I have to. I'm like...grounded for the rest of my life, and I have a bunch of detentions I have to go to too cuz of the fight. I've got this big black eye and a cut on my face now too--you can't miss me." Yes, that was Kaysen's way of saying it was okay if Charlie found her tomorrow. With the hoodie, she felt safer doing that. Like, even if people saw Charlie, they might not know who she was with, so that was okay.

The offer didn't go unnoticed. It was a pretty huge one for Kaysen. Progress! "I could hang around and walk with you to classes if you want." Charlotte offered. "I can... um... stare blankly at people for you. I'm good at it. Not very intimidating, but... you wouldn't have to be alone?"

Kaysen hesitated, then decided with how she was feeling, she really appreciated the offer. "...okay." she said. "I'll um. Do you know where my locker is?" she asked. "Or I'll find yours. But I'll see you." she promised. And she might even be looking forward to it.

The first day Kaysen had been missing Charlotte had hunted the girl's locker down, so she knew where it was. "I know where. I can come find you before class starts." She wouldn't be any help in a fight, but hopefully it wouldn't come to that. I could just scream for Herbert. If he comes barreling down the hall anyone in their right mind would go running.

"Okay, sounds good. I'll um...see you then." Kaysen said. And she hoped that by tomorrow she didn't chicken out and make herself scarce. But she didn't think she would. The talk with Charlie had been really good for her, so she was feeling a lot more inclined to hang around it her. That included making new leaps into weirdness and maybe being around her at school.

"I'll see you then." Charlotte echoed. "You can call me if you want someone to talk to, too. Not just tonight, but whenever." Charlotte said. "I'm really glad you're back." She'd said it before, but it wasn't a bad thing to say again.

"Thanks. I'm...I'll definitely call n stuff. And see you tomorrow. For now I think I'm gonna like...go lay down again. Edison says hi though." she added, petting the kitty again. "See ya tomorrow, have a good night, Charlie." Kaysen felt like the whole conversation had helped in ways she couldn't put a name to, but she appreciated.

"Hi Edison," Charlotte replied, grinning a bit again. "Get sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, Kaysen." Charlotte hung up feeling immensely better about everything herself. She had friends now, and if bad things would just stop happening to them, all would be right.