Chapter Text
Charlie had thought things were going better. He truly did.
It had been five months since the dreaded incident on the island and he was slowly beginning to recover. He went out more, met up with the crew almost weekly, he was even beginning to catch up on outdated payments. He barely woke up screaming anymore and those hollow eyes didn’t seem to stare at him from the shadows everywhere he went. Life was good.
Which was why the car was unexpected.
He had been crossing the road to make his way towards the new coffee shop downtown when he had heard a horn blaring and a flash of colour before pain filled his entire body and every crevice within. People would be told the car had sped around the corner doing 50 in a 20 zone. As he lay there, he was just glad he hadn’t been on his way to meet with the crew. He didn’t know if he’d be able to cope with them knowing he had died on his way to hang out with them. The darkness closed in and Charlie Lonnit exhaled for the final time.
Or so he thought.
Instead, he jolted awake but felt like he hadn’t been asleep at all. This was proven by the door that almost met his face. He flinched as he flung an arm out to support the sudden change in gravity, causing a dull thud to resound from the door. He didn’t even have time to consider where he was before the door was flung open and he was met with a rather angry looking Jamie. “Having fun being a fucking peeping tom out here?” She snarked, glaring at him. He responded on impulse, furrowing his eyebrows, “I didn’t see a thing, the door was closed.”
She rolled her eyes but faltered as she thought of an appropriate response, “A…listening tom?”
“Eavesdropper.” A rather disappointed voice sounded from behind Jamie and Charlie frowned as he caught sight of Erin and…this room looked scarily familiar to him all of a sudden. “Yeah, have fun listening in on us?” Jamie was still giving him attitude and Charlie had never been so confused in his life, “Did I- did I interrupt something?”
Erin was quick to state that they had been discussing work. But…hadn’t they all left Lonnit Entertainment months ago? He had lost the studio and everyone had gone their (mostly) separate ways… He took a step back and took in his surroundings more. Something was wrong. He knew this place. He knew this entire scenario, actually. Because he had gone through this entire day five months ago.
“What, can you not find your room?”
Jamie’s voice brought Charlie out of his quickly spiralling thoughts and he shook his head to clear his mind, “Uh- No. No I can’t.” Right. His room. He fished his room key out of his jacket pocket (he didn’t even realise he had been wearing it. It had gotten burned in the incinerator. Oh right, Du’Met’s probably out and about now too.) and held back a sigh when Jamie began ridiculing him about numbers and corridors.
He hesitated before speaking, feeling like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, “Uh, Jamie, what day is it?”
Jamie looked at him like he was actually mad, “October 26th? What, are you pretending to be as senile as you look so you can try and avoid the fact you were being an eavesdropper?” She scoffed as Charlie stepped back, mumbling a quick ‘thanks’ as he nodded to himself. He didn’t know how he was back in this horror hotel but he knew he had to keep it cool, somehow.
Charlie turned and quickly began walking to where his room was located, ignoring Jamie’s grumblings about him being ‘rude’ and ‘batshit insane’ as she closed her door again. His hands were trembling as he opened the door and stepped inside. This all felt too real to be a dream, had he really gone back in time somehow? He’d say it was impossible but then again they had all been chased by a psychotic murderer who survived impossible circumstances and got back up (relatively) unscathed (he still remembered how Du’Met had just stood up like he had merely fallen to the floor despite Kate having stabbed him with her crystal).
The room looked ordinary enough. Charlie didn’t know his next plan of action and sat on the bed heavily, attempting to brainstorm some sort of coherent plan. He ended up getting up and pacing around the room as he muttered to himself until he just happened to catch his own reflection in his mirror. Hadn’t Jamie mentioned something about the mirrors all having secret hallways behind them? Bingo. Charlie felt nauseous as he fished his business card from one of the bags thrown on the floor and stepped towards the mirror. Maybe she was wrong? Maybe his room wasn’t connected? If either of those were correct then he’d have to think of a new plan. A plan less sudden and surely less stupid.
He ‘flew by the seat of his ass’ according to Kate and right now he supposed he was proving her right as he stood fumbling with the card shoved in the side of the mirror. He hadn’t even thought of what he’d do if he saw Du’Met. Run? The man did like his chases after all. He didn’t have anywhere to hide and it’s not like he knew what would be behind the mirror, if anything at all, so running seemed to be his best bet.
He held his breath as he focused on sliding the card down against the mirror and he felt lightheaded with anxiety when he felt it catch against the latch. A moment of awkward fumbling later and the mirror swung open. Charlie stared into the room in front and was thankful to see that, at that moment in time, Du’Met was nowhere to be seen. He stepped through and closed the mirror behind him, hoping to remain on the down-low for now.
The plan was simple: avoid Du’Met like he was a large, scary, silent plague and find a way to sabotage all the traps or controls or whatever the hell he found. After that? He…wasn’t exactly sure.
Oh well, Charlie Lonnit was never really one to think before acting anyways.