Chapter 14

Charlotte

I felt shaky the whole day and thought about how I was not ready to die. I had my whole life ahead of me. I was still so young...

I went to school and tried my best to focus on my work. There was no point in thinking about the ghost and scaring myself even more.

Yet, I could not get the Red-eyed Lady out of my mind. I could see her in my thoughts as clearly as a painting.

After school, I did not want to go home to my family who loved me but never believed me. My parents were working, and my sister was coming home late from college. I did not want to be alone after everything.

Amore would be waiting for me. She must have sulked the whole day, and I felt slightly guilty for not going home directly. I drove to the hospital where Ethan was, and I hoped I would meet Dimitri there.

It was time he got a new phone. They looked like a wealthy family, and I was surprised that he did not have a new one already. Maybe he was being punished for breaking the old one.

I entered the hospital and greeted the nurse with whom I had spoken yesterday. I went to Ethan’s room, past all of the beds, and noticed that the old lady, the one who had stared at me, was not there anymore.

Ethan was awake and sitting upright in his bed. He looked at me when I stopped in front of his bed.

“Hello.” I offered him a warm smile and hoped it would lift his spirits. “I’m Charlotte. I am a friend of your brother’s.”

Ethan had a pretty face—round cheeks and a strong chin with full eyebrows. If he had the chance to grow up, he would become a handsome man. His arms were wrapped around himself and his eyes looked empty.

“I miss him,” Ethan said.

The two brothers clearly loved each other very much. They were the most important people in each other’s lives.

I had not come here to talk with the little boy. I had hoped to see Dimitri, but now that I was here, I could not leave the sad child. I stood close to him and gestured to his leg. “Are you alright?”

“I am,” he said. “It looks worse than it is.”

“I like your positivity,” I said.

Ethan proved to be a talkative boy. One would not say that he was dying from the way he began to smile.

We spoke about movies he watched, and I did not realize how quickly the hour passed until the nurse told me that visiting hour was over.

“Thank you for coming to visit me,” he said. “My mom never does.”

“It was my pleasure,” I said. I felt pity for him. If I were in the hospital, my family would visit every chance they got. But my family weren’t alcoholics . . .

“I will see Dimitri soon. I’ll tell him you said ‘hi’.”

“Thanks.”

I left the sweet little boy to rest.

When I walked out of the hospital room and into the hall, I saw Dimitri. He looked at me with bright, hopeful eyes.

“I have not seen Ethan smile that much in a long time.”

“I did not see you there!” I said. “Are you hiding from me?”

His smile turned sad. “I’m hiding from my brother. If he sees me, he won’t want me to go. I don’t have the heart to tell him that I have to.”

“When are the next visiting hours?”

“Tonight,” Dimitri said. “I visited this morning, and he is going home soon.”

“Really?” I asked. “But he looks so sick.”

“There is nothing more they can do for him,” Dimitri said. “The best thing for him is to be home so that he can be surrounded by people who love him.”

My throat felt tight. I was at a loss for words, and I was thankful when Dimitri spoke.

“Why did you come here?”

“I was hoping to see you,” I said. “I had a bad night, and I need a friend.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dimitri asked.

“No,” I said hesitantly.

A part of me was dying to tell someone. The death of the Red-eyed Lady was eating at me, but I was too scared to open up. What if I told someone, and they told the police? Would I get arrested?

Dimitri was not a pushy person. I liked that. He never nagged or begged, and it is one of the reasons why I had become so comfortable with him.

“How about we go somewhere?” he suggested.

“Where?” I smiled.

He thought about this for a moment. When he decided where he wanted to take me, his face lit up. “I know just the place.”

We headed to my car, and I asked Dimitri if he wanted to drive. From my experience, guys liked to be behind the wheel. I wondered if it was a dominance thing.

“No thanks,” Dimitri said. “I’m not on your insurance.”

“I’m sure you are a good driver and won’t crash my car.”

“But you never know what other idiots are on the road,” he told me.

He was way too wise for his age. My father would approve. We left the conversation there.

Then I wondered if he had turned down the offer because he was responsible or because he had a scare after his accident. It was probably normal if he was scared. Had he dared to drive again after he wrecked his car?

“Are you going to tell me where you are taking me?” I wondered.

“Did I tell you my stepfather is a businessman? He works in real estate. He owns a lot of vacation homes which he rents out.”

“He sounds successful,” I said.

“He is,” Dimitri said. “He knows how to work with money. Anyway, one of my favorite properties—that he owns—is not too far away.”

“Can we just show up? Won’t we get into trouble?” I asked.

“No one is renting it at the moment. He won’t mind if we go and sit there for a while.”

“So, your great plan is to go and sit in an empty house?”

“Not exactly.” Dimitri smiled.

I followed his directions, and we drove further and further away from the city.

I switched on the radio and discovered that both of us enjoyed 1980s music. We sang along to our favorite songs, and I only turned the music down when the road got rough.

“My small car isn’t made for gravel roads,” I said.

“We are almost there,” he told me.

We drove past tall trees with beautiful-colored foliage. The leaves spiraled down like puzzle pieces falling into place. I could see the place now.

It was a brick house, three stories tall, and it had a balcony reaching over the side. The doors were closed, the curtains were drawn, and it had been built next to a big dam filled with water plants.

I wondered if this place had inspired Dimitri to draw flowers for me. Little rivers flowed into the dam, and there was a boathouse with a pier.

“This is so beautiful!” I exclaimed.

“I’m glad you like it,” Dimitri smiled.

We parked next to the house under a big tree. I jumped out of the car, and my shoes crunched on the fallen leaves. “There is so much water!”

“My stepfather likes water. He has a knack for buying properties that have a lot of it. If you ever want to go on a short vacation, he is the man you should contact.”

My parents wanted a weekend away, and I would keep Dimitri’s advice in mind. “I’ll do that.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have the keys to the house,” Dimitri said.

“It’s not a problem,” I said.

I walked to the water, kicked off my shoes, and stuck my toes in. The water was cold. Birds were chirping above me, and the trees reflected in the water.

“Aren’t you going to stick your feet in?” I asked Dimitri.

“No way,” he told me, and kept his distance. “I don’t really like the cold.”

He passed the boathouse and went onto the pier. He continued until he reached the end. That was where he took a seat and gazed at the horizon.

I admired him from a distance. What was he thinking of while he sat there?

I went to him and found that some of the planks were loose. I took a seat next to him and let my bare feet hang off the pier. I swung them back and forth, but they did not touch the water.

“Do you come here often?” I asked.

“When my stepfather and mother started dating, we did,” Dimitri explained. “My stepfather put in a lot of effort to be a part of the family. He had both my and my brother’s approval when he asked her to marry him.”

“That’s good.” I liked the man because Dimitri spoke so highly of him.

“I thought it would be,” Dimitri said. He was clearly not a person who opened up easily. He looked at the water as he told me about his family.

“My mom is a wreck. If I were him, I’d regret marrying her. I don’t think she fulfills any of his needs. She’s always out with friends. She does not cook or clean. She does not support or cherish him.”

He was not only talking about how his mother treated his stepfather. He was talking about how his mother treated him and Ethan.

~“Thank you for coming to visit me,” Ethan had said. “My mom never does.”~

What must it be like to grow up in a broken home? How much psychological damage did it do to a person if their mother neglected them like this?

“As a result, my stepfather started to work more and more. He spent less time with his family, and we stopped going on nice holidays. My mother always turned our weekend trips into fights.

“Now, I hardly ever see him. And I don’t want to see her.”

“I am sorry.” I looked at him with sympathy. His words tugged at my heart, and I wished there was something I could do to help.

He did not want pity, he just wanted to be understood. Like I wanted to be understood. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

“I trust you.” He finally met my gaze.

A breeze played with my hair, and the water rippled as leaves fell into it. I looked at Dimitri, and in that moment I wished we could stay there, on that pier, forever.

“That’s enough about me,” Dimitri said.

He had opened up a lot and I should feel special that he chose to tell me. I had never had a friend like him before. All of my previous friendships felt shallow compared to this.

“It’s your turn to tell me a secret,” he said.

The biggest secret about myself was that I could see ghosts. I was too scared to tell people because I feared judgment and laughter.

“I don’t have a lot of secrets,” I said.

“Everyone has secrets,” he said.

I looked into the water, and it was quiet for a moment. Trust went both ways. It was only fair if I told him my biggest secret, but I was afraid to tell him.

I was scared how it would make him react. I could not stand the thought of losing him. What if he ran away like Quinton had? What if he did not believe me, like my mother, father, and sister?

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” The disappointment in his voice was clear.

“I want to tell you,” I said. “I just don’t want you to think that I am a liar.”

“Try me.”

“Dimitri, I can see things that other people can’t see.”

“Like what?”

~Say it now~. “Ghosts.”

I met his eyes and waited for him to start laughing or teasing or assume I was joking. Instead of laughing, he maintained eye contact and said, “I believe you.”