Chapter 6: lizards!!!

The ten minutes Shadow Witch gave her turned out to be more like three. She stood in the corner impatiently, arms crossed tightly, as Charlie gathered up everything she could and shoved it into a backpack that Shadow Witch had given her.

Shadow Witch was back in her suit, helmet included, despite the fact that it wasn't working. Charlie thought that was particularly odd.

"Aren't you worried that the suit might electrocute you?" Charlie asked as she zipped the bag up.

"It's turned off." Shadow Witch said. Her voice came out muffled, and Charlie snickered.

"But you're still going to wear it? Why?"

"It's none of your concern." Shadow Witch said.

Her voice was even and stern now, not wavering unsteadily like it had been earlier. Charlie assumed this meant one of two things; either she had just been shaken from the shock earlier or...

"You're shy aren't you?" Charlie said mischievously.

"I have no idea what you're getting at." Shadow Witch snapped.

"Why else would you wear it when you don't have to? Plus, you said you don't need a secret identity because no one knows you, so why did you refuse to show me your face? Not to mention how awkward you are when you try and talk to me anyway. It must have something to do with me seeing your real face because—"

Shadow Witch grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Enough of this nonsense. We need to go."

She snapped, and when Charlie regained her composure she saw that they were in a room that vaguely resembled a garage. There was a concrete floor, brick walls, and shelves covered with (outdated) technology all along the walls.

In the center of the room, there was a hoverboard. It was an old model, but it was well taken care of, and, judging by some of the more unusual features, illegally upgraded.

"You've worked on this yourself?" Charlie asked.

"I removed the safety features." Shadow Witch said as she grabbed a few things from the workbench.

"What?" Charlie coughed out. "That's not only illegal, it's also extremely dangerous! I would know, my dad's company makes these boards."

"It shouldn't be." Shadow Witch said. "Why's it the government's business what I do with something I own? If I fall out of the sky and end up a stain on the sidewalk that's my prerogative."

"You're not going to make me ride that death trap, right?" Charlie asked, taking a step back.

Shadow Witch walked over and pushed her back towards it.

"It's the only option. I don't have a car." She said. "And I don't know how to drive one anyway."

"If you want me dead, can't you just shoot me or something?" Charlie scoffed.

"I've never had a problem with it before. Now get on."

She pushed Charlie onto the board, and the leg bracers immediately popped out and wrapped around her ankles.

"Is this even a two person board?" Charlie asked, struggling against the restraints a bit.

"It is now. I made it into one." Shadow Witch said, stepping on to the board. A pair of metal bracers snapped around her feet as well.

"Oh my god. I'm going to die. I'm dead. This is really it."

"I almost forgot something." Shadow Witch said, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a white strip of fabric and twisted around to face her.

"You're not going to—"

"I can't let you see where we're going." Shadow Witch cut her off as she brought the fabric up to Charlie's eyes.

At least I won't be able to see the ground rushing towards me when i plummet to my death. Charlie thought bitterly as Shadow Witch finished off the knot.

"Alright then. Hold on tight, and don't let go."

Charlie blindly fumbled her hands around.

"Wait! Hold on to what?" Charlie cried desperately.

"Me, duh!" Shadow Witch snapped.

Charlie felt her reach back and grab her hands, quickly pulling them around her waist.

"Oh." Charlie felt her face burn a bit. "Sorry. I promise I'm not as dumb as I seem."

Charlie heard a high pitched squeal as the board powered on, and then the sound of a metal door sliding open.

"Try not to move too much." Shadow Witch shouted over the noise. "Unless you want to send us toppling over."

The board lurched forward, and Charlie squeezed Shadow Witch even tighter. Charlie could feel the taut muscles of her stomach flex as she leaned forward, increasing their speed.

The humid Georgia air slapped her face as they left the garage. Though it was warm out, she couldn't feel the sun burning down on her skin, so she assumed it must have been nighttime.

She tried to pretend that she was just riding in her convertible, safely on the ground and not flying hundreds of feet in the air. When she couldn't see, it was easier to stay calm that she thought it would be.

"You seem pretty strong." Charlie shouted to her.

"Shut up!" She shouted back. "I'm trying to keep this thing airborne."

"Oh, right." Charlie said, more quietly this time.

They flew for a while, exactly how long, Charlie wasn't sure. It could have been an hour, or it could have been a few hours. Charlie was always bad with keeping track of time.

Eventually, the board came to a stop, and clattered against the ground with a metallic thud. Charlie grabbed a hold of shadow Witch as she nearly toppled over.

Shadow Witch, surprisingly, helped support her as the metal bracers released her from their hold. Charlie stepped off, and started to take off her blindfold, but shadow Witch stopped her by abruptly teleporting them.

Charlie reeled for a moment before regaining her sense of balance and finally taking the blindfold off. She took in her surroundings, and immediately noticed two things.

One: there were windows here.

Two: they were boarded up, along with two of the doors.

"Really? I can't even look outside?" Charlie sighed. "I might as well drown myself in the bathtub for real!"

Shadow Witch ignored her, and walked over to a small desk and started to sort through her bag. Charlie sighed, and looked around the room.

It looked like an apartment, but it was much, much smaller and older than Charlie's. The kitchen, eating area, and living room were all basically the same cramped room room, but there were actually two doors toward the back that weren't boarded up.

One thing that caught Charlie's attention, was the fact that, unlike where they had been before, this place actually seemed lived in. There was old furniture, pictures, books and clothes strewn about.

"Is this where you actually live?" Charlie asked, walking around.

Shadow Witch still ignored her, and Charlie looked over to see her grumpily tinkering with her helmet at the table.

Two aquariums perched on a table caught her eye, and Charlie wandered over to them. The inside was filled with dirt, and grass, and she could see a little creature peeking up at her.

"Ah sweet!" Charlie said. "You've got lizards in here!"

"They're not lizards." Shadow Witch said. "They're salamanders."

Charlie shrugged. "Same difference."

Shadow Witch turned around from her work, eyeing Charlie with a frown.

"No it's not. Salamanders are amphibians. Lizards are reptiles. They're not even remotely the same."

"At least it's getting you to talk to me." Charlie said.

Shadow Witch's face grew pink, and she quickly turned back around to her desk. Charlie smirked and sauntered over to her side.

"By the way, what does 'B' stand for? That's what Copper Knight always calls you."

Shadow Witch continued to ignore her.

"Maybe I can guess!"

Shadow witch muttered something that sounded like 'you won't' under her breath.

"Bethany? Breanna? Barbara? Bree? Brook?" Charlie asked, leaning in as she listed off every name she could think of.

"Bertha? Bunny? Bella? Brittany?"

"Ew, do I look like a Brittany to you?" Shadow Witch grumbled, still not looking up.

"Sure, I guess." Charlie shrugged. "Where was I again? Oh yeah. Brandi? Blue? Bailey? Beatrice?"

Charlie cut herself off as she tensed up at the sound of that last name. Charlie bit back a chuckle.

"Beatrice? Is that really it?" She asked.

"Could you leave me alone? I'm trying to fix this." Shadow Witch said, gesturing aggressively to the pile of wires and circuit boards laid out in front of her.

"I can't believe you're a super villain named Beatrice!" Charlie snorted.

"Well, at least I'm not a spoiled brat that dresses like a fuck boy!" Shadow Witch snapped.

"Okay, Okay." Charlie said, lifting her hands up and backing away. "I'll leave you alone then. Beatrice."

Beatrice groaned and smacked the table, but mostly just ignored her as she turned back to her work.

Charlie wondered around the apartment for a little while, trying to pull the boards off of the windows and doors every now and then. Beatrice eyed her, but said nothing, clearly not believing she any real chance of getting away.

It was strange to see how normal all of the things in the apartment were. There were plenty of books— most of them non fiction. It seemed like most of them were either about animals or electronics, without much variation from those topics.

Eventually she walked over to the two doors. The one on the right led to a small bathroom, and the one on the left led to a small bedroom.

"So where am I supposed to stay?" Charlie asked. "Are you going to lock me in the bathroom or something?"

"I don't have any extra rooms here." Beatrice said. "So I'll just have to keep an eye on you."

"But where am I supposed to sleep?" Charlie pressed.

"The bed or the couch. Take your pick." Beatrice said. "The couch pulls out into a bed."

"You'd let me have your bedroom?" Charlie asked.

"It's not my bedroom— technically."

"So this isn't your place?" Charlie asked with a frown.

"No, it is. I just—" she paused, and for a moment Charlie thought she looked sad. "—I just prefer to sleep on the couch. You can have the room."

"Uh, Okay." Charlie said.

Well she was certainly weird about that. Weirder than she normally is, even. I'll have to add that to my list of things to investigate.

Charlie decided to leave her alone for a moment, and brought her backpack into the small bedroom to unpack. She hadn't grabbed much, mostly just some clothes, her notebook, her wallet, and toiletries from the bathroom.

She laid them out before deciding to snoop around a bit more. She peaked out at Beatrice, and found her absorbed in her tinkering. She shut the door to the bedroom as quietly as possible and looked around.

Besides the bed, there was only a dresser and a small desk. Charlie looked through the dresser first, finding it was mostly filled with (what she assumed) were Beatrice's clothes. They were almost all black, and wadded up in the corner instead of folded.

After not finding much of interest, she walked over to the desk, only to find the top drawer locked.

Ha! That's not going to stop me!

Charlie walked pulled a paperclip from the jar on the desk, and unfolded it.

Back in private school, she and her friends had always snuck down stairs and picked the pantry lock in the chef's kitchen to get late night snacks. She was practically a professional lock picker at this point.

After fiddling with it for a moment, she heard the lock click, and she pulled the drawer open.

She didn't know what she expected to find inside. Money? A gun? Sex toys? A deadly virus? What was actually inside was much more... boring.

It was an old photograph, and a pile of... drawings?

Charlie pulled out the picture first. Beatrice was dead in the center, and really young, probably just a preteen, smiling and holding what looked like an award for school. It felt weird to see her smiling at all. There was a man beside her, with similar features and the same blonde hair.

A relative, possibly even her father? He looked a little young to be her dad, but also significantly older than her.

Charlie set the picture aside and shuffled through the drawings. Many were sketches of landscapes or animals, and a few were portraits of Beatrice. But the last few of the stack were much more puzzling.

Pages and pages of carefully done watercolor portraits of the Copper Knight. Or, well, Linton, she supposed. He never wore his suit in them, and in some he was even shirtless, or sleeping. It felt very intimate, like something she shouldn't be seeing.

Charlie's face burned and she quickly shuffled them back into a neat stack.

She said they weren't a couple! I knew it! He is a lot older than her, though. He's in his thirties and she looks even younger than me. Maybe she's embarrassed about that...

"Are you going through my things?!" Beatrice shouted as she bardged in.

"Uh," Charlie panicked. "Yes. I am."

"What's wrong with you? Why would you just go through my stuff like this!"

"Well you didn't tell me not to." Charlie said with a sheepish laugh.

Beatrice snatched the papers away from her, and gently tucked them back into the drawer. She looked up at Charlie with an accusatory frown.

"Listen, I know you're a spoiled rich girl, who's been taught her whole life that rules don't apply to her, but I need you to listen. Don't go through my things."

Charlie defiantly crossed her arms. "I don't think that rules don't apply to me. You think the rules don't apply to you. You kidnapped me!"

"Just—" Beatrice sighed tiredly. "Just please don't go through my stuff okay? Especially this stuff. It's important."

She locked the drawer back and put the key into her pocket. Charlie raised her eyebrows as Beatrice slowly turn and left, quietly shutting the door behind her.

She didn't yell at me or anything? Weird.

Charlie shook her head and decided to call it a night. Tomorrow was a new day, after all. A day where she might get rescued. A day where she could find out as much as she could about Beatrice.

She was going to get to the bottom of this. She was going to figure Beatrice out.  No matter what.