Heathcliff was finishing his breakfast as Ronald and Carl entered the dining room. He motioned for them to sit without turning his attention away from his omelet. As they sat down, he finished his last bite.
Once he swallowed the last bite, he turned to look at Carl in the eye. "What really happened last night?"
"We were examining the Heart of the Forest to see if there was anything we could determine with why it wouldn't work when we were at Berthoud Pass, when suddenly it lit up. We watched to see if anything would happen, then that girl entered the room. As she did, the light from the Heart went out. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it had been calling her, but I don't know why it would call her," He replied without hesitating.
Heathcliff nodded. "It might because she lives next to the forest, but I doubt it would be that simple of a reason. We might need to keep an eye on her, but since she's not going anywhere soon, we have time to move slowly with her. However, that brings to mind why didn't you see if she could use magic."
"I cast the spell on her as she was leaving the room. It had an effect on her, but I can't say why she didn't fall asleep then and there. I can't say that I've heard of anyone remaining awake after that spell is cast," Carl replied, drawing Heathcliff's gaze.
Heathcliff leaned back in his chair as he turned his gaze to the chair the girl sat in the night before at dinner. Finally, he looked back at Ronald after a minute. "See what you can find out about the girl without raising suspicion. Any information will do, as long as it's accurate. If we need to pull her into opening the gate, we'll need to know as much as we can about her. If nothing else, we might need her to open the gate herself. If the Heart did respond to her and called her, she might be what we were missing when you tried opening it yesterday."
"Where should I start looking?" Ronald asked, scratching his beard.
Heathcliff sighed as Carl shook his head in exasperation. "Where you do start with anyone? See if there's any police record for her, check the city and state files to see if you can find anything. You've done this before so this shouldn't be that difficult of a task."
Carl nodded sheepishly, clearly embarrassed at the rebuke. "I'll get right on it."
_
Charlie opened her eyes. It took her a moment to realize she was in her bed, though she had no memory of how she'd gotten there. She still wore her dress, but as she started to sit up, she realized the only thing she wasn't wearing that she had at the dinner was her shoes. That alone told her that it had to have been her mother who put her there, which further told her that she had to have fallen asleep at either the dinner or the car ride home. She put a hand to her head as a sudden dizzy spell came over her. She thought about the night before and couldn't remember anything after seeing that strange crystal. All she could hope at the moment was that she didn't get in trouble for entering that room when she had been directly told by Heathcliff not to.
As Charlie started to stand up, she had to grab hold of her bed as the room started to spin and she felt like she was about to fall asleep again. She'd never felt like this before and couldn't think why this was happening now.
Then when the room was stationary again, Charlie started to remove her dress and pantyhose before going to her clothing and started to get dressed. Then she made her way downstairs and began to get herself breakfast, which was typically a bowl of cereal, unless one of her parents was making something special, like pancakes. The kitchen was empty when Charlie entered, so she began getting what she needed for a bowl of cereal. Coco Puffs was always what she preferred, and while they didn't always have it she knew they'd gotten some recently enough that they shouldn't have run out by now.
Charlie was getting the milk out of the fridge when Cherie entered the kitchen, in her pink polka-dotted nightgown, and started getting a bowl and spoon for herself as well as her own cereal. Cherie didn't like Coco Puffs as much as Charlie, preferring Honey Nut Cheerios, but would still eat it if that was all they had.
"You might want to get dressed, we'll need to leave for school soon," Charlie told Cherie, making her way to the table where she'd set her bowl and cereal down.
Cherie looked at Charlie strangely. "Are you okay, Charlie?" She asked, speaking slowly enough that it sounded like she was afraid Charlie might attack her at any moment.
Charlie looked at Cherie as she set the milk on the table, confused. "Of course I am," she replied. "What makes you think I'm not?"
"Well," Cherie replied, in the same tone and pace, "It is Saturday, and there isn't any school today."
Charlie stared at Cherie as she set her bowl and spoon on the table as she processed what Cherie told her. Finally, she realized exactly what Cherie had said meant and couldn't help but feel her face flush in embarrassment. "Sorry," she apologized. "I'm not sure why I didn't realize that."
Cherie was already pouring her cereal into the bowl. "You were really tired last night, I guess you might still be tired." She paused for a moment. "What did you do to get so tired? I mean, you only went to the bathroom. How did you get that tired so quickly?"
Charlie shook her head. "I wish I knew. I have no idea what happened. I don't even remember leaving last night," Charlie replied. Then a moment after, in a quiet voice, she added, "I just hope dad isn't mad at me."
Cherie shook her head again. "Don't worry about it. I think mom and dad are more worried at how tired you were. I mean, you never get that tired. I think they're more worried than angry."
"Thanks," Charlie said, hoping Cherie was right.
While they were eating, but after they'd finished over half of their bowls of cereal, Charlie saw her mom enter the kitchen, fully dressed, clearly ready to leave to go to work at the hospital. "Morning, mom," Charlie called out to her, briefly pausing in her cereal bowl.
"Good morning, dear," she replied absently, her mind clearly on getting ready to leave. "How was your sleep?"
"Not bad, I just hope I didn't mess things up for dad last night," Charlie said, wanting to get these worries out of her mind as quickly as she could.
"It's fine. Your father has been on the phone with Heathcliff for about an hour now, and he assures us that you didn't do anything that would make him not consider giving you father's company the contract, but we would like to know what you did to get so tired. We've never seen you like that," She replied, as she was getting her own breakfast out of the fridge: frozen microwavable breakfast sandwiches.
"Told you," Cherie said quietly.
Charlie didn't give her sister a glance. "I'm sorry I couldn't ask him about an internship, mom," she added, hoping that wouldn't be a problem.
"Don't worry about it. We were hoping that it would help you with your college applications when you graduate. If it doesn't happen, then we'll look for something else you can put on your applications that will help."
Great, Charlie thought to herself. She really didn't care about college, especially since she wasn't sure what she would want to study. There were just too many options out there that she couldn't think of what might actually interest her that she would at least have a chance to be passable in.
"By the way mom," Cherie asked, pausing from her cereal, "when will you be taking Charlie to get a new formal dress?"
"Why? Do you want to come with us?" their mother asked, making quick work of the eggs.
Cherie shook her head. "Not really, I just wanted to know. If both of you are gone, then maybe Amber would be able to come over and we wouldn't disturb Charlie again."
Amber Jamison was Cherie's best friend. They were very close. Amber at times seemed more like a sister to Cherie than a friend from how it seemed to Charlie, but she didn't begrudge her sister that. The problem that had occurred last time Amber was there was that they'd accidentally broken Charlie's window while Charlie was changing after a shower, then when Charlie looked out the window, wearing a towel, she saw them leaving her garden, not keeping to the paths of the garden, and… the kindest way of putting it was that Charlie just lost it.
"Just leave my garden alone and I'll be fine," Charlie replied to her cereal under her breath.
"We'll see about that. Right now, I have to get to work. This morning's shift was the one I had to take in order to get last night off," their mother replied, taking her breakfast sandwich out of the microwave and starting to eat it. Then she noticed Charlie. "You're ready to go awfully early today. Do you have plans for anything?"
"Not anything specifically, I just didn't realize it was Saturday when I got up," Charlie replied, wanting this new subject to just disappear.
"You must really have been tired," their mother cooed in between bites.
Wanting out of this situation, Charlie finished the last of her cereal and began to drink the leftover milk straight from the bowl and then took it to the sink, where she rinsed it briefly before setting it on the counter with the other dirty dishes. "Well, I'm going to my garden," Charlie informed her mother, turning to the side of the kitchen that would be the quickest path to the front door, the closest to her garden.
"Hold up, young lady," her mother said, causing Charlie to stop after taking a couple steps. She walked over and embraced Charlie, which Charlie then turned into the hug and returned it. Then after her mother kissed her head, Charlie was released and let go. "Have a nice day. I love you."
"I love you too, mom," Charlie replied as she made her way out of the kitchen.
The morning sun shone clearly as Charlie made her way over to her garden. There wasn't much Charlie expected to need to do. She'd set up a watering system that was on a timer, so she wouldn't need to worry about watering it. The plants were young, so there wasn't any need to do much about them. The thinning was already done last week. So, all that was left was to take care of any weeds that had decided to take up residency there. Charlie always tended to her garden first, then would deal with the garden that her family kept together, which was smaller than Charlie's personal garden.
After Charlie finished the weeding, she sat in her garden, in the center path, just enjoying the morning, not wanting to move just yet and take care of the other garden. However, her peace was shattered after a minute of its existence by Beth calling out to her.
"Good morning, Charlie. Up early, I see."
Groaning inwardly, Charlie looked in the direction Beth's voice came from and watched her leave the bushes that sheltered Petals. "You're up early too," Charlie pointed out, wishing that Beth hadn't gotten up as early as she would have had to, to be here already. That way she could be in her garden in peace.
"You garden?" Beth asked, what Charlie thought would be obvious.
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Still as testy as yesterday, I see."
Charlie couldn't help but wonder what point Beth was going to get to, if she ever did. "What do you want?"
"Just heard you here and thought I'd keep you company while we waited for everyone else to show up."
"And you have to talk while you do this?" Charlie asked as she reached out to a flower that was starting to bud.
"Why not?"
Charlie looked at Beth and could tell she was serious and not just messing with Charlie. At least that's what she saw from her expression.
"Maybe because I was sitting in the morning quiet and not talking myself," Charlie replied as politely as she could.
Beth walked over, only walking along the paths Charlie had in her garden, and sat next to Charlie.
"May I ask you a question?"
Ignoring the fact that she just had, Charlie nodded. "Sure, might as well, since I'm clearly not going to get the peace and quiet back."
"Why don't you have any friends? Did something happen in the past, or do you have friends no one at school knows about?"
Out of everything that Beth could have asked, Charlie couldn't have been more surprised. It even took Charlie a minute to even make an attempt to respond. Partly because of the surprise and partly because she never really thought about it.
"I- I…" She started but couldn't come up with anything that she could put into words.
It was Beth's turn to be surprised. "Wow, I never thought you'd have this hard a time of answering." Charlie heard a click and turned to see Beth taking a picture of her.
While she wasn't happy to see Beth taking pictures of her again, she couldn't bring up the anger that had fueled her when Beth did that the day before. Maybe it was just from her being so tired last night and today, but she just didn't feel like she had the energy to lash out right now.
"So, do you have a response, or do you not know?"
Charlie shook her head, her gaze resting on some of the flower buds in the garden, not moving as she found a response that came to her as she spoke. "I guess I just never really felt like I had anyone I could consider a friend or even open up to and I'm sure I tried when I was younger, but I guess eventually I didn't try anymore. I really don't remember. I just remember always being by myself, not being around others."
"Wow, didn't you ever get lonely?"
Charlie looked at Beth, her eyes full of concern. "Yeah, sometimes it was, but because it was a choice I made, I was fine with it and it didn't bother me that much."
Charlie wasn't sure why she was saying so much, maybe it was because she was still tired from the night before, but she was surprised that it didn't bother her as much as she had thought it would.
"Did you grow all of this yourself?" Beth asked, after thinking over what Charlie had said while looking out over Charlie's garden.
"What makes you think this isn't my family's garden?" Charlie asked, not sure if she should admit that it was hers.
"For one, there's another garden over there," Beth replied, pointing at Charlie's family's garden. "And another, you were working in this one rather than that one. Then lastly, I've seen you working in this garden over the past few months and rarely in that one."
Charlie couldn't think of how she could refute those observations, so she decided to admit it. "Yeah, I did. It's what I spend pretty much all of my allowance on."
"How much is your allowance?" Beth asked.
Charlie merely looked at Beth levelly, not saying anything, merely just looking at her in response.
Finally Beth got the message. "I see. Yeah, I probably wouldn't tell you how much I get either," Beth replied, laughing.
–Is everyone almost here?– Charlie heard Petals ask in her mind suddenly.
"I'm sure they'll be here soon," Charlie called out to Petals, thinking the thought at Petals as well, starting to brush off any dirt, straw, grass, and whatever else might have stuck to her as she sat in her garden.
"I take it Petals is ready for us to meet and see if we can get into her forest," Beth said, brushing herself off while standing up as well.
"Yeah, I think she senses everyone else is nearby, so we probably should show up and see if anyone else has an idea."
"What makes you think I don't," Beth replied, as they started walking towards the bushes.
"Do you?" Charlie challenged.
Beth laughed. "Yeah, you're right. I don't have an idea."
Charlie wasn't surprised that only Petals was in the bushes when she and Beth entered. It's good to see you, Charlie thought at Petals, walking over to her and putting her hand on Petals' shoulder.
–It's good to see you too.– Petals replied. –Were you able to figure out what the problem with my forest is?–
Charlie was taken aback at the sudden change of topic, but she wasn't really surprised. "I haven't come up with anything yet," she answered aloud.
–You are trying to think of something, aren't you?–
Charlie leaned her head against Petals as she thought, Of course I am. I just don't know what could be keeping us out, let alone what we might be able to do about it.
Charlie was vaguely aware of the others showing up as she conversed with Petals, when suddenly Petals tensed against Charlie. –Why do you have the same smell as the one who attacked me?–
Charlie stepped away from Petals, so they could look each other in the eye. "What do you mean that I have the same smell as the one who attacked you?" Charlie asked aloud, alarmed at the question.
–You just have a smell that I've only ever smelled with the one who attacked me. It's faint, so it took me a minute to recognize it, but it's there.–
Charlie relayed what Petals told her to everyone else. She was finishing up when Ralph entered the bushes, the last of the group to show up. "Maybe she encountered the one who attacked you without even realizing it," Amelia suggested.
–Where could she have encountered them?– Petals asked, then her nostrils flared in alarm. –Unless you're with them?–
Charlie stepped back to Petals, still translating for everyone. "The only ones I can think of that I encountered enough to maybe get some of their 'smell' on me was at Heathcliff's last night."
"Who's Heathcliff?" Tim asked, walking to stand next to Petals, facing Charlie.
"He's the operator of a business my dad is trying to get his business hired by," Charlie answered, certain that Tim was probably going to be suspicious of her, regardless of anything she said. "Then…" Charlie trailed off, starting to wonder about the crystal. She remembered it emitting a light that then was going out when she entered that room, but it didn't look like there had been anything connected to it, like a power cord or the like.
"What? Did you think of something?" Amelia asked. Her intent gaze making Charlie a little uncomfortable.
"Well… I may have seen something last night," Charlie began before she related to the group what had happened as well as how it felt like she wasn't the one in control of herself as she went from the bathroom to the room with the crystal.
–That might have been the Heart of the Forest.– Petals commented, causing Charlie to look at her.
"What's the Heart of the Forest?" Charlie asked, not bothering to translate for everyone.
–That's the core of my forest. If it was removed, then my forest will disappear if it doesn't get put back in the center of the forest.– Petals replied, her mental tone telling Charlie that this development really troubled her.
"How long do we have?" Charlie asked, motioning for the others to wait, as they were getting impatient with only hearing half the conversation.
–I don't know,– Petals replied despondently. –I've never taken it out, but I always knew that it needed to remain there and if I removed it I would need to put it back as soon as I could.–
Charlie walked over to Petals and hugged the unicorn, her arms only making it about halfway around Petals' neck. "It'll be ok," Charlie soothed, closing her eyes as she leaned against Petals. "We'll find a way to get it back. I don't know how, but we won't let your forest disappear."