And after Charlotte, anyone else? No. Charlotte was the last. But she turned out the strongest.
Others left, but she stayed. Clung to our world. And now pulls others to her.
By evening, Robert returned home heavy-hearted. The picture was getting gloomier. But the scary awaited at home.
Lily met him at the door, and he immediately knew something was wrong. The girl looked strange—too pale, with an absent gaze. «Dad, where were you?» she asked, and her voice lacked usual liveliness.
«In town, sunshine.» Handling business. «How do you feel?» «Good.»
Just slept a lot. And had strange dreams. What dreams? Lily went to the window and looked toward the well: Aunt Charlotte came again.
Said you met her. And now we’ll be friends. Robert’s heart skipped.
So contact was made not only with him. And what else did she say? Told about her place. Says it’s very beautiful there.
Underwater there’s a little house, and fish swim. And it’s not hard to breathe underwater if you get used to it. Lily turned to her father, and Robert saw her eyes were different.
Not in color—the color was the same. But something foreign, hungry appeared in them. «Dad, can I go look at the well?» Aunt Charlotte said she’ll show me something interesting.
«No.» Robert said sharply. Can’t go to the well.
It’s dangerous. For the first time in her life, his daughter looked at him with displeasure: Why not. Aunt Charlotte is kind.
She doesn’t want harm for me. «Lily, listen carefully. Charlotte!» Aunt Charlotte isn’t who she claims.
She might hurt you. «Not true.» Lily flared.
«You don’t know her. She’s lonely and sad, and needs a friend.» This was their first real quarrel.
Lily ran to her room and locked herself in, and Robert stood in the hallway, realizing the situation was spiraling out of control. In the evening, he talked to Aunt Mabel, who finally returned. The old woman listened to his story and paled.
«Worst is she latched onto the girl,» said Aunt Mabel. Charlotte always loved children. Dreamed of her own.
And now? Now she thinks she can take someone else’s child. What to do? Need to call a priest. But he won’t come soon.
And time doesn’t wait. Charlotte gets stronger every day. She feeds on the girl’s life force.
Then we must do something ourselves. Aunt Mabel was silent long, then took an old book in tattered binding from the cabinet. There’s one way.
But very dangerous. Need to descend to her again. And not just talk, but make her release the girl.
How? Give her what she wants. Not the child, but peace. But for that, need to learn what holds her.
What pain won’t let her go. Robert took the book. It was a collection of local legends and beliefs, handwritten, with yellowed pages.
Read, said Aunt Mabel. It’s written about ones like Charlotte. Maybe understand how to handle her.
But when Robert returned home, Lily wasn’t in her room. The bed was made, clothes in place, but the girl herself nowhere. And only then he heard the voice from the yard: Dad.
Dad, come here. Aunt Charlotte wants to talk to you. Lily’s voice sounded strange—distant, echoing, as if she shouted from underwater.
Robert ran out to the yard and stopped dead. Lily stood by the well. But she stood not on the ground, but in the air, a few centimeters high, as if an invisible force held her.
The girl’s eyes glowed with the same bluish light coming from the well. «Lily!» he shouted, rushing to her. But the girl raised her hand, and Robert felt he hit an invisible wall.
The air before him became dense, impenetrable. «Don’t come closer, Dad!» Lily said, and foreign intonations sounded in her voice. Aunt Charlotte said for now keep distance.
«Lily, this isn’t you talking. Where’s the real Lily?» «I’m here, Dad. Just…
Just now I understand better.» Aunt Charlotte showed me the truth. Bluish mist began rising from the well.
It swirled and thickened, gradually taking human shape. And before Robert stood Charlotte, but not the fragile girl he met in the well. This was majestic and terrifying at once.
Her dress billowed though no wind. Hair streamed around her head as if still underwater. And the eyes! Eyes like two wells, bottomless and cold.
Robert, she said, and her voice echoed across the yard. «We meet again. Release my daughter, he said, trying to speak firmly.»
Charlotte laughed, and this laugh was like shattering glass: your daughter. «And did you care for her when your wife left you? Didn’t you bring her here, to my place, knowing it’s dangerous?» «I didn’t know.» «Didn’t know? And the town folk were silent by chance? Or they warned, but you didn’t listen?» Robert realized she was right.
Aunt Mabel said from the start the place was restless. But he didn’t pay attention. «You yourself brought her to me,» Charlotte continued.
«Yourself gave her into my hands.» «So fate decided.» «No.
I’ll take her back. Try.» Robert tried again to approach Lily, but the invisible wall was insurmountable.
Moreover, with each attempt to break through, it became denser, and the air around him thickened, making breathing hard. «See?» Charlotte said. «You’re powerless.
And the girl?» «The girl is already half mine. Look at her closer.» Robert peered at his daughter’s face and was horrified.
Lily was becoming transparent. Through her skin showed bluish veins, and in her eyes flickered the same cold lights as Charlotte’s. «What are you doing to her?» «The same that was done to me.
Turning her into what I became. She’ll live underwater in my house. She’ll like it there.
She’ll die. No. She’ll become like me. Not alive, but not dead…
Eternal. Isn’t that better than short human life full of pain and disappointments?» Charlotte approached Lily and placed a hand on her shoulder. From the touch, the girl became even more transparent.
Besides, she’ll be bored alone. «I thought I could take you too. You’re a kind person.
Descended when I called. Helped me out. Isn’t it fair if I repay the same? I don’t want to.
Want or not, doesn’t matter. What matters is it will happen. But you have a choice—agree voluntarily or resist.
From that depends if it hurts.» Robert realized he had very little time left. Lily was becoming more transparent, her breathing slowing.
A bit more, and changes would be irreversible. He remembered the book Aunt Mabel gave, and words that the spirit can be appeased by giving what it really wants. Not a child, but peace.
Charlotte, he said, trying to speak calmly. I understand why you do this. You’re lonely.
It hurts. But taking us won’t rid you of pain. It will.
I’ll have a family. But we won’t love you by force. Love doesn’t work that way.
You know yourself, Ethan didn’t truly love you, or he wouldn’t leave. Charlotte’s face twisted in anger: don’t dare mention his name. Why? Because it still hurts…
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