“Sin City,” Scarlet noted.
“And she was desperate to land this role,” Pam said, “to make her big comeback.”
“Comeback from where?” Scarlet bit. “I’ve never heard of her.”
“She convinced her friend they needed some underarm Botox shots, which she’d gotten on the black market,” Prue explained. “So their sweaty pit stains wouldn’t show on camera during the audition.”
“Tested on actresses, never on animals,” Scarlet said dramatically.
“Anyway, within hours of giving each other the shots,” Prue said, “Maddy came down with all the symptoms of botulism. Dry mouth, blurred vision, trouble breathing, muscle weakness. The whole deal.”
“Did the friend say if she crapped herself,” Scarlet asked, rankling Maddy. “I hear that happens too.”
“She was hospitalized and missed the audition, obviously, and her friend got the role.” Prue concluded. “Maddy died two days later from complications.”
“I don’t get it,” Charlotte asked, probing Prue for more information. “What did Maddy do wrong?”
“Her friend didn’t believe it,” Prue said, “but the police determined that the overdose injection was meant for her, not Maddy. The Wacktress mixed them up and saved her own life in the process.”
“Must have been a killer role they were fighting for,” Scarlet opined snidely.
Even in the huge, open outdoor space, Maddy felt her world closing in on her.
“Dying like that,” Prue added, “follows you forever.”
“She needed to corrupt someone else,” Pam said. “So she could …”
“Go to Hell!” Maddy said as if she just power-gargled with gravel.
“Exactly,” Prue said. “It is the only way for her to advance in her world.”
Charlotte kept her cool and listened impassively to the gossiping ghosts, processing the reveal taking place.
As they rolled slowly toward the reviewing stand like some kind of supernatural clown car, Charlotte stared over at Scarlet, who was fixated on Damen, who was gripping both Petula and the headrest of the Corvette, preparing manically for he didn’t quite know what. Charlotte could almost see the time ticking away as Scarlet’s and Damen’s pupils both widened, bigger and bigger, in response to the growing mania of the crowd and their own increasing desperation. She’d heard enough. It was time for her to come clean too. The calmness of spirit and peace of mind she’d achieved at Fall Ball last year returned to her, and Pam, as usual, was the first to notice her change in demeanor.
“You don’t look very surprised, Charlotte?” Pam asked quizzically.
“I’m not,” Charlotte said, shocking the girls around her, including Maddy. “I’ve suspected it from the beginning.”
Maddy lowered her eyes, shamed not so much at being outed as the underminer she was but at her own defeat by someone she considered so pathetic. She’d underestimated Charlotte, taking her for an easy mark.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Pam asked. “We could have gotten rid of her.”
“Keep your friends close,” Charlotte instructed, “but your enemies closer.”
“Gangsta,” Scarlet mumbled, approvingly. “You wanted to know what she was up to before you made a move.”
“Before Scarlet came, I was the only one in danger from her,” Charlotte explained. “But once she offered to come to Hawthorne, I knew Maddy wanted to take us all down.”
“She planned the whole thing?” Scarlet asked.
“Not exactly,” Charlotte explained. “At first, getting to me was enough. But the call Maddy took for me was from Scarlet,” Charlotte continued. “When she figured out what Scarlet was planning to do to save Petula, she saw a much bigger opportunity.”
“She figured Scarlet would get stuck in Dead Ed trying to cross over,” Pam nodded, everything making sense now. “Filling a seat not meant for her.”
“She would have stopped them all from being able to cross over,” Prue concurred, “taken that whole class out and kept her from reaching you.”
“But when Scarlet actually showed up,” Charlotte continued, “it changed her plan.”
“She offered to help,” Pam said, “because by convincing you to bring Petula back, she could have damned not just your soul, offing Petula’s and Scarlet too.”
“I got greedy,” Maddy said offhandedly. “Sue me.”
“You saved our lives,” Scarlet said solemnly, Charlotte’s sacrifice just beginning to sink in. “And more.”
“Wait, so you called in sick to signal us to come find you?” Pam said, putting all the pieces together.
Charlotte smiled acknowledging Pam’s theory.
“And you knew that whichever way Maddy suggested we go, I’d go the opposite,” Scarlet said.
“Yeah, I was relying on your Oppositional Defiance Disorder,” Charlotte chuckled.
“So it was all an act?” Prue asked. “Moping around, possessing Petula.”
“Not entirely,” Charlotte explained honestly and a little ashamed. “Just because I knew what Maddy was up to doesn’t mean I wasn’t tempted. She offered me everything I missed, everything I wanted. It was hard to resist … and I almost didn’t.”
“I was just doing my job,” Maddy croaked to Charlotte. “Don’t take it personally.”
“That’s what people say after they screw you over,” Scarlet rebutted.
“What’s so great about doing good anyway?” Maddy propositioned. “What did it get any of you? A telemarketing job?”
“Some people say good deed is its own reward,” Charlotte responded, her moral compass totally reset and working overtime at the moment.
“And the road to Hell,” Maddy spouted, “is paved with good intentions.”
“Drop me a postcard when you get there,” Prue quipped.
Maddy didn’t see any reason to stick around much longer. She may have lost round one, but the battle was far from over, and she’d have other chances to earn her horns. She eyed Damen and Petula on the trunk of the Corvette, winked snidely at Scarlet, and made her move.
“If Charlotte doesn’t want a comeback,” Maddy exploded, “I do.” Maddy thrust herself into Petula’s body and brought her to life as if she’d just been shocked by a 10,000-volt defibrillator.
“Stop her!” Pam and Prue screamed helplessly as Maddy slipped their grasp, but it was too late. This didn’t need to be consensual.
Petula’s body rose slowly from her seat into a standing position and raised her arms triumphantly to a massive roar from the crowd.
“I’m back!” Petula shouted, uttering her and Maddy’s innermost feelings.
Damen jumped up and roared, too, his scheme appearing to pay off at last. A second later, he thought it might be paying off a little too well, as Petula reached for his face, opened her mouth wide, and pulled him close for a sloppy wet kiss.
“No, Petula!” Damen shouted, struggling to keep her at bay as her tongue flicked the air in front of him.
The crowd roared even louder in anticipation. This was much more than they could have ever bargained for.
Even with all his strength, Damen could barely hold Petula back. It was like she was possessed or something. Scarlet was freaking.
“Charlotte,” Scarlet screamed, “please, do something!”
Before she could think about it, Charlotte zipped inside Petula, just before the liplock, and broke it up. The first time she’d tried to get inside her, they were in a car as well, she recalled, but this was not Driver’s Ed. As Markov so rightly said, “Now is not then.” Inhabiting Petula was everything she’d imagined, putting Charlotte on sensory overload. It was like being in the priciest department store ever with an unlimited charge account. Everything was available. Anything seemed possible.
The screaming crowd, the camera flashes, the chants and cheers, the flat belly, the perfect boobs, the toned legs, the hard butt, the fit of the dress along Petula’s taught body, all felt like blaring music pumping from the DJ
booth in an empty club. It was dizzying, addictive, saturating, as if Petula’s being itself fed on the approval and the excitement. The world really was different through Petula’s eyes. Damen was right — if anything could bring her around, it was Homecoming.
It turned out the most exciting thing of all was not inside of Petula, but outside of her. It was Damen’s touch. She could feel his warm hands on Petula’s shoulder and forearm, holding her tightly, forcefully in the car seat. It had been a long while since she’d felt him, and feeling him now reminded her of just how long it had been. As Charlotte continued to feel with Petula’s skin, see with her eyes, hear with her ears, Maddy’s obnoxious giggle somehow broke through. Charlotte turned around to face her. In a weird way, Maddy had gotten what she’d been after, hadn’t she? Charlotte thought. Maddy had lured her in. Charlotte had taken over Petula.
“How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?” Maddy asked seductively.
Silently, Charlotte approached Maddy, as if she were about to embrace her in gratitude.
“That’s one role you’ll never have to worry about playing,” Charlotte whispered in her ear as she struggled to overpower her traitorous roomie, holding on for dear life — Petula’s and Scarlet’s both.
As the car cruised around the track toward the winner’s circle, Petula’s entire body was tossed, forward and back, by Charlotte and Maddy’s faceoff. To the mesmerized crowd, it appeared as if Petula was headbanging to the music, and they all began to follow suit. Soon the bleachers were a sea of bopping heads and rock horns, that was until Charlotte kicked Maddy out like an underage drinker at the LCB Christmas party.
“You’re out!” Charlotte yelled as she gave Maddy the boot.
Suddenly, Petula went limp. Damen, surprised, caught her before she hit the trunk of the car. Maddy evacuated Petula and Charlotte followed, chasing her away.
“Later, Lose-ifer,” Scarlet mocked.
“I’ll be seeing you,” Maddy said ominously as she exited into the crowd.
Charlotte got high fives from Pam and Prue and a big hug from Scarlet.
“What happened in there?” Scarlet asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Charlotte said.
“Well, I know you kicked her crazy, has-been self outta here,” Scarlet crowed, proud of her friend once again.
“And you thought I was a bitch!” Prue joked, getting more groans than giggles from her ghostly gal pals.
Once the laughter subsided, Scarlet looked at Charlotte and felt it was time to mend fences.
“I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Charlotte said, honestly. “I don’t really know what I would have done if you guys hadn’t shown up when you did.”
Scarlet understood Charlotte’s doubts.
“Besides,” Charlotte modestly reminded her, “Damen is really the one you need to thank. He knew the way back for you was through Petula. He tried to bring her back too, but mostly for your sake.”
Not to mention, Scarlet thought, he had held off Maddy and Petula from that kiss. No small feat.
“He must really care for you,” Pam added.
It meant so much to Scarlet that the girls were supporting her, pumping her up. Before she had a chance to ponder it any further, however, Petula’s ankle monitor went off.
Damen was panicked but wouldn’t leave. He’d almost brought her all the way back and the only trick he had left up his sleeve was the crowning. If that wouldn’t work, she was good as dead anyway.
“We are staying here if it kills me,” Damen said as the ankle bracelet continued to monitor Petula’s own life slipping further and further away. “Or you.”
Suddenly the Wendys showed up in their hot rods, racing toward Petula. They pulled up alongside her car and realized things were not looking good for her.
“Give me that,” Damen ordered, pointing to the ribbon around Wendy Anderson’s neck.
Without thinking, she tossed it to him and he tied it around Petula’s ankle monitor to muffle the relentless beeping that felt like a countdown to a very unhappy ending.
“Asshole!” Wendy screamed, realizing that Petula would always get whatever she wanted, conscious or not.
The ribbon held tight for a while and then flew out of the car onto the ground.
“Hurry,” Scarlet yelled urgently, realizing the urgency of the situation. “We have to find Petula’s spirit right now.”
Charlotte picked up the ribbon and kept it as a memento of one unforgettable night.
Chapter
21
We Will Become Silhouettes
I’ve seen you laugh at nothing at all
I’ve seen you sadly weeping
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was you asleep and dreaming
—The Magnetic Fields
You can only feel unloved if you’ve been loved.
Once you have loved, your soul can never forget it, even if your mind does. Love becomes part of your DNA, your
e s s e n c e.
It is as much knowledge as feeling, possessed by the deepest part of your heart and soul. This can be a blessing and a curse. There is no way to fill the emptiness, no treatment for the persistent pain of love that’s gone missing, except its return.
Gary was waiting outside Scarlet’s room when Charlotte, Scarlet, Pam, and Prue arrived.
“Where have you guys been?” he asked frantically. “I have to get back.”
“Thanks for waiting,” Scarlet said, “and for keeping an eye on me. You really recycled my faith.”
Gary chuckled and noticed a stranger in the pack.
“You must be the Famous Charlotte.”
Charlotte nodded. She liked that moniker quite a bit.
“I’ve heard a lot about you and your classmates,” Charlotte said. “Thanks for your help.”
“Did you find the intake office?” Prue asked.
“Yep,” Gary replied. “Ready when you are.”
Scarlet peeked into the room and took a look at herself. She looked bad. It wasn’t just Petula who was running out of time.
“Ready,” she said as they all followed Gary downstairs.
As they walked, Charlotte and Scarlet had a chance to talk, smooth things over, even though it seemed all was already forgiven.
“I wasn’t being completely honest with you at Homecoming,” Charlotte admitted.
“What do you mean?” Scarlet asked.
“I mean, I did sense Maddy was trouble from the beginning,” Charlotte said, “but she still tapped into something that was happening inside of me. Seeing Damen again, watching Petula at Homecoming, another few minutes, and I might really have gone all the way.”
“All that matters to me is that when the time came to do the right thing or the wrong thing,” Scarlet assured her, “you did what was right.”
“I guess,” Charlotte answered. “But it’s more than just that.”
“I’m listening.”
Charlotte was talking to herself as much as she was to Scarlet now.
“I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I’ll be trapped here,” Charlotte said, feeling a bit sorry for herself. “The phone bank, apartment, bunk beds, lights, elevators, they are still just little illusions of the past, shadows of reality, created to keep us oriented. We don’t talk about it, but we all know it.”
Scarlet closed her eyes for a moment, both sympathizing with Charlotte’s predicament and feeling guilty that she was able to return home, back to her life.
“I’ll never go to college, fall in love, or get married, Scarlet,” she continued musing in a contemplative tone.
“If anyone could find a way to fall in love over here, it’s you,” Scarlet said.
Charlotte forced a little smile.
“Look at it this way,” Scarlet said, lightening things for a second. “You’ll never have to pay rent, get divorced, or go through menopause either.”
Charlotte laughed. She could always
count on Scarlet to spot the dark cloud.
They stopped walking and continued to talk, looking directly in each other’s eyes.
“Maybe that’s why I don’t get any calls at the phone bank,” she added. “I can barely keep myself together, let alone help someone else.”
“I know what you mean,” Scarlet said, thinking back on what she’d just done for her boyfriend’s sake.
“I guess I’ve accepted losing everything,” Charlotte said. “But I don’t know that I can let go of you again.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Scarlet said. “I know I won’t let go of you.”
Charlotte knew that she meant it. They had different lives now — actually, they always had different lives, but the forces that drew them together were even more powerful than the forces that kept them apart.
Petula and Virginia had been telling stories and laughing, passing time so easily that they’d almost forgotten they were still waiting to leave. The fun and games were broken up by a trampling sound coming, yet again, from down the hall.
“I hear footsteps again,” Virginia said excitedly. “Maybe it’s finally time to go.”
Petula heard them too, but it sounded more like a mini-stampede than a nurse.
“Maybe,” Petula said anxiously.
With that, the footsteps got closer and closer until they could be heard right outside the door.
“This is it,” Petula said quietly, holding Virginia’s hand tightly.
“This is it,” Gary said, grabbing the doorknob and giving it a turn.
The door swung open like it had been bashed by a SWAT team.
“What the …” Petula shrieked as she saw a gang of strangers and then her sister blaze in.
“Petula,” Scarlet shouted with a feeling of joy and happiness she had not felt at the sight of her sister since they were kids.
“Scarlet,” Petula yelled with equal enthusiasm.
The sisters ran toward each other and just as they were about to grab each other in a giant clinch, they hesitated, circling each other with their arms in an air hug.
“Took you long enough,” Petula griped, then looked over and saw Charlotte.