A New Girl

She felt so sorry for him. She had never seen him like this. Never. And she had seen him during some of the worst periods of his life.
"I'm sorry.." she whispered and went by his side to hug him tight.
"I'm here for you, if you ever need me.. you know that right?" she said softly, not knowing what to say to make him feel better.

'Thanks' he mumbled. 'But I don't think theres much you can do..'
How had he coped with everything in here before? There was always someone to distract him.. and when he ruined that there was escape. Now both seemed hopeless...

"It's ok Dim.." she said, using his nickname which she found adorable.
"You're so strong, I have no doubt you'll get through this," she smiled at him.
"Besides, I won't leave your side until you feel better, and probably not even then. You're not getting rid of me that easily," she giggled, poking his side.

He smiled weakly. 'I guess not.. although I really don't see why. Guess you'll have to put up with my whining for a little while longer... the Villain doesn't seem to want to kill me just yet..'

"Good," she smiled, but his words stung. She didn't even want to imagine him die. He just couldn't.
She laid his head on Dimitri's shoulder.
She had missed him so much when he was gone.
"I'm sorry there's nothing else I can do..." she muttered, really wishing she could give him everything he wanted.

He sat there in silence.
'I just wish I'd never been in this place..' he said finally. 'Nothing good has come out of any of this.'

She couldn't agree with him. She was overly happy just to see his face again, no matter where they might be. She decided it was nothing she could do to help him though, so all she did was hug him tight and stroke his back the way she used to. She wouldn't let go until he calmed down. She just wanted him to be happy...

After what felt like forever he finally broke the silence.
'So.. enough of me.. how are you?' He asked, eager to change the subject.

"I'm... as good as I can get in here, I guess," she smiled weakly, not even wanting to think about herself.
"No major traumas yet..."
She had witnessed a girl die in front of her, but she had not reacted too badly to it. She had not known the girl, and it had all happened too fast to even take in. She had just.. stopped thinking about it. The only major reaction she made to it was fear of dying herself or having Dimitri die.

'Thats good...' he mumbled, not really sure what to say. 'Who knows, maybe you'll get out of here relatively sane.' He smiled weakly.
'So, met anyone you recognise in here? Apart from me, obviously... Its just, well he seems to like to show us a familiar face.. and then use it to mess with your head.'

"No.. no one but you.." she said with a smile as she pronounced the last word.
"I know you found Odette though.." she tried to seem nice, but her voice shivered a bit at her name.

He thought back to Odette.. 'I don't even know if that was a good thing anymore... or if shes alive, although from the sounds of it Ariel didn't cut her up that much...' He shook his head. 'I'm hearing one story from Ariel, another from Sinbad. I don't know whats going on in all honesty.'

Sinbad? What did he have to do with Odette? And was Odette the one who got cut on the TV...? She was so confused, and she felt like a stupid kid who had been left in the dark.
"Sinbad?" she asked, wondering what he had to do with it all.

He told Charlotte everything before, he didn't see why now was any different.
'He was your roommate, yes? Well turns out he and Odette... well he got her pregnant in here, and Ariel was his girlfriend. I don't even know the details, but it all ends with that tv broadcast- if you saw it.' He sighed, looking down as he added miserably, 'I promised she wouldn't get hurt, and in the end all I could do was watch from my room.'
He looked up. 'A couple of room changes ago I was with Sinbad and Ariel... and we fought. He just didn't seem to care that his girlfriend had done that. Or the fact that in he manages to sleep around with everybody in here without a care in the world. And then I had Ariel telling me things about Odette that I don't even know if are true or not... Its just difficult to know who to believe in here... Like I said, complicated.' He didn't really know what to say. 'Sorry if I'm rambling.'

She couldn't believe her ears. She couldn't believe a word of it. And still, she could never think Dimitri would lie to her. The reality hit her like a hammer. That was what Sinbad was like...? And she had let him... touch her...
The heartbreak and disappointment was clear on her face when she asked once again, just to make sure:
"He... sleeps around...?"
She realized that was not the thing she should be worried about considering everything Dimitri had told her, and yet this was what had hit her the most.

'Well I'm only going by what I've seen.. but first time I saw him was on a tv broadcast in which he was sleeping with a roommate of mine's girlfriend, Ariel before she was going out with him.. but my roommate told me she had also slept with him. So thats 2 people.... and then I was roomed with Eric, and the TV broadcast him and Anya together. So thats 3. Oh and he was married to Cinderella before we were all kidnapped... And then theres Odette... and, well you see my point.' He sighed. 'I'm not going to get mad at him again.. theres no point..'

Her heart broke, and she couldn't speak a word. She knew that if she did, her voice would break and Dimitri would notice. Instead, she turned her face away once she felt a tear run down her cheek hoping that Dimitri wouldn't notice. The last thing she wanted was for Dimitri to find out what had happened.

'Hey' he said, noticing she was oddly quiet. 'Whats wrong?' He pulled her around.
Then he remembered that she had been roomed with Sinbad, so he could have guessed what happened. Afterall thats what he had assumed when he had first saw the broadcast, so it was more than likely something could have still happened when the tv screen turned off. 'Oh..' he said, trying not to act like he was bothered by it.

She was just about to calm herself down and say nothing when the realization hit Dimitri and it was too late. At that point she couldn't help herself, but threw herself into Dimitri's arms and cried.
"He... touched me..." she sobbed.

'He did what?' he said in shock.
He gritted his teeth in anger, and looked Charlotte in the eyes. 'What happened?'

She couldn't look at him. Not after what she had just told him. She looked down, her face wet with tears and red.
"He... he put his hand..." she sulked, but couldn't finish, hoping Dimitri would be able to figure out the rest without her having to tell him.

Bastard.. he thought to himself.
He rested his head against hers, hugging her. 'How are you now?' he said.

She was so glad that he didn't seem mad at her. But why would he be mad? Not like he cared who she was with or what she did.
"I... I'm fine..." she stuttered, calming down just a little by the touch of Dimitri. She chose to focus on that and drown anything else out. Only Dimitri was important now. Only him.

'I just don't understand that guy..' he muttered under his breath. He thought to himself how sometimes he reminded him of Phoebus, and it was ironic in a way that Sinbad had been the one to kill him for that very reason. However he didn't think telling Charlotte about there being a rapist in here would comfort her at the moment. So he just sat in silence.

She couldn't help but hate Sinbad a little. He had fooled her. she had honestly believed he was a good guy. And now that she knew the truth she felt... cheated.
"I'm so sorry..." she said softly, ashamed of herself as she let more tears run down her cheeks.

'Why?' he asked. 'Its not your fault.. I mean, he did this, not you.. You have no reason to be apoligetic.' He smiled in an attempt to comfort her, even if it meant she turned bright red again.

She hugged him tight before letting go, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.
"Thank you. For everything," she smiled. She knew she had helped him through a lot, but he had helped her equally the same, just by being there for her.
"Thank you for everything you've done for me."

'No need to thank me.. I'd probably be dead in a gutter if you hadn't helped me out..' Then he realised that he was talking about dying again- and he was trying not to be morbid.
He looked around the room. 'So, think the spiders are still around somewhere?'

She didn't want to think about it, but looking over his shoulder she noticed a few.
"I can see at least three... four... how many do you think there is?"
She didn't want to think about that either. She had always been phobic about spiders, and being in a room with just one was enough to freak her out.

'I don't know... I was kind of hoping they would go away eventually..' He tried to find something to throw at them. 'I can try and kill them if you want?' he offered, although all he had was his shoes. 'But they might just get annoyed and attack us... Just keep a look out- Just shout if they come close and I'll hit them.'

She didn't like what he was suggesting. The whole reason she was phobic was because they were disgusting and looked freaky, not because she was in any way afraid of them.
This meant, the only thing she could think of that freaked her out more than a living spider.. was a squeezed, dead one with broken legs sticking out. Still, she realized that if they were poisonous, this would be the best idea.
She simply nodded, color draining from her face.

She started to get paler. 'Um well.. lets just hope they stay away from us?' he said, squeezing her hand.
'So.. I went missing end of February. You said it was September when you last remembered. Thats over 6 months catching up.' He looked at her to keep her distracted from the spiders. 'So- anything interesting happen in the life of Charlotte?' he said, smiling, while keeping aware that the spiders were still around.

His hand and smile comforted him more than anything else ever could.
She couldn't help but smile, even though the spiders were constantly in the back of her mind.
"You remember how boring my life was," she laughed.
"Not much really changed after you left except.."
She had slipped up saying the last word. Except what? Except from the excrutiating pain she had gone through after he disappeared? She couldn't tell him that.

'Hardly boring, Miss Life-of-Luxury. Now me, sitting around in self pity- thats the definition of boring' he insisted.
'Except what?' he said, although she didn't reply immeadiately. 'Come on, you can't leave me hanging' he said teasingly.

"Except..." she blushed.
"I missed you... a lot..."
She blushed even more, not even wanting to look at him as she said it, so she looked down instead and mumbled the last couple of words.

'Oh..' he said slowly, sitting there awkwardly.
'And here I was thinking no one had missed me...' he spoke quietly.

She couldn't believe he had thought that. She had missed him more than all living hell. She cried herself to sleep for weeks and months after his disappearance, and she had still been a mess when she was kidnapped. He had no idea how grateful she was to be able to see him again, did he?
She didn't want to go deeper into it. She would most probably never tell him how she really felt. Just hugging him, holding his hand and seeing his smile was more than enough to keep her satisfied and happy.
"I did," she said softly and smiled at him.

'I know..' he said quietly, before realising what he had said and mumbling something about inconherant as to explain why. But it was probably too obvious what he had said.
Conveniantly a spider appeared, and he hit it away from Charlottes leg which momentarily paused the conversation.

She jumped as soon as she noticed the spider, forgetting everything he had said up until that moment.
"Can you please... kill them?" she begged, voice shaking.

'With what excatly?' he asked. He only had his shoes, and he hestiantly stamped on a couple that had got near them. 'Well thats a few out of the way...'

"With anything, just get them away from me..."
She sounded so fragile and vulnerable again, just like she had wanted to stop doing, but with spiders, especially poisonous ones, she couldn't help herself.
It was getting late and she knew she would not be able to sleep knowing there were so many spiders crawling around.

He stood up and walked around, looking for them. Taking a shoe off he tried to hit a few he found in the corner, as well as try not to get bitten. He then walked to the bathroom and found another 3.
Eventually he had got rid of around 6 or 7. He wasn't sure excatly, but there were certainly alot less spiders by the end of it.
'Better?' he said eventually.

She calmed down, trying not to look at the dead spider guts, and focus on Dimitri's face instead. Much better.
"Yeah," she said and smiled.
"Much better."

'Good' he said, sitting on the mattress away from the dead spiders. He checked but he didn't seem to be bitten. 'Lets hope theres no more hidden away in here..'

She laid down on the other mattress, resting her head, looking towards the ceiling. She was looking for spiders, but couldn't see any.
She yawned. She was so tired. Seemed like she was always tired, but not the drousyness was overpowering her.
"Do you want to go to sleep..?"

'I don't mind... if you are tired and want to sleep I can watch out for anymore spiders..'
She looked exhausted. He didn't remember when he had last slept, but he had had more time to get used to it.

"Actually..." she said softly and blushed.
"I don't have Teddy anymore..."
She was referring to the teddy bear she had once gotten from Dimitri a long time ago. She still slept with it every single night, and she felt so empty without it.
"Would you mind if..." she blushed deeper.
"If you held me till I fall asleep...?"

'Oh right..' he said, 'of course.'
He remembered that Teddy, although he hadn't realised she missed it, or even owned it anymore. It was so long ago now...
Dimitri moved over to lie next to her, lying parallel. He was still paritally sitting up, trying to stay awake to keep an eye on any potential spiders. But he was next to her, with his arm around her, and he let her rest her head against his chest.

This was surreal. The happiness she felt lying next to him was too much to describe in words. Just like that one night. The night she had always treasured.
The comfort of his arms around her made her feel safe and warm, and even though there might be other spiders around, for now she didn't care. She had Dimitri to protect her.
She clinged to his arm that he held around her, and with a smile on her lips she slowly began to fall asleep.

Eventually he could feel Charlotte begin to fall asleep, until eventually she went limp in his arms. He too began to feel tired, as much as he tried to stay awake. He was sure the spiders were all but gone now... and slowly he felt his eyes begin to shut until he was lying asleep next to Charlotte.