The Curse of Elkwood

Chapter 5

Wren awoke with a painful jab into their side. They gasped for clean air, and coughed out the brown muck that came into their mouth while they were out cold. Pain engulfed their chest as it moved up and down with Wren's breathing.
"Wren!" A male voice rang out from over them, "Charlie, Wren's awake!"
"Wren! Holy shit, are you ok!?" The blurred form of Charlie, and her orange colored hair was too bright and painful to make out, "How many fingers am I holding up-Wait, no...BLINK TWICE IF YOU'RE ALIVE!" Charlie demanded as she gently buried a hand under Wren's head and carefully lifted them to her chest. In pain still, Wren slowly blinked twice.
"Oh, thank shit!" Charlie exclaimed as she hugged Wren closely. "I am so glad you're ok..." she added with a relieved tone in her voice. A flutter of warmth attacked Wren's chest and cheeks at Charlie's words, earning a pained smile from the child. "Margo help me get them out of here, before it starts storming again!" Charlie ordered, "Can you make something to make it easy for them? Shit this has to be the worst time for your hot older brother to be on a date huh?" She asked Wren. Wren finally regained their proper sight to see their two closest friends looking over them with concern, and smiled at them warmly. I'm ok now that my friends are here! They wanted to say, but were unable to. Blasted mutism! They cursed their disability with a passion. How could they reassure their dear friends without the use of a voice? They were in too much pain to use sign language!
Margo let out a relieved sigh, and gently hugged Wren when they sat up a bit on their own. Wren only melted into his warm body, and Margo gently stood with them in his arms. Wren's vision began to blur once again, and they felt sleepy beyond belief. Uh, oh...I'm sorry friends...

Charlie pulled the thick blanket over Wren's overheating body. It was only natural that Wren would develop a fever after being out overnight in the storm. Shit...I'll have to call Mama Miller over to help. Charlie thought tiredly. If she let Margo help care for Wren, he would only overdo the caretaking and exhaust himself. Charlie has only let Margo help by getting Wren some clean clothes for after the bath she gave them, and he did carry Wren's box on the way back.
Charlie brushed her thick ginger colored fringe from her face and placed a hairpin to keep it in place. To the far right of Charlie amongst her gothic decorations, sketchbooks, band posters, and clothing fabrics; the terrarium holding her pet snake flickered. It was about time she changed the heating light. I'll do that really quick, and get back to Wren afterwards. Charlie decided. She walked over to, and opened her wardrobe where she kept extra heating bulbs and lamps, and took out one of the packages. She opened it carefully and walked over to the terrarium, and worked on changing the bulb.
The orange head of the curious beautiful blue snake peaked out from it's little plastic cave as Charlie finally changed the bulbs. She quickly checked the heating pad as well, and nodded when she felt it was still very warm. She smiled at the snakes cute scaly face before she turned back to Wren. "If only I got your hot brother's number..." She whined to herself, "Or your hot dad's." She added with a sigh. Charlie pressed her hand against Wren's forehead, only to rear back with shock and bewilderment at how hot they felt. Shit! Where the fuck is the thermometer!? Charlie rushed out from her room and barreled into the bathroom. She dug around the cabinets, throwing out their contents as she searched relentlessly for the thermometer.
Eventually Charlie found the device, and cleaned it thoroughly before using it on Wren. 104!?

Relief overcame the exhausted nineteen year old as she answered the door to see the beautiful middle aged woman. Anita looked into Charlie's house worriedly at Wren's sleeping body that was moved to her couch.
"How are they?" She asked. Charlie let Anita into the house, noting her deep reddish brown hair was tied back into a loose braid. "Wren hasn't woken up once since Margo and I got them here," Charlie replied tiredly, "Will you really be ok taking time off of work for this?"
"I am this child's godmother for a reason Charlie. Go ahead and go to your thing." Anita gave Charlie a reassuring smile. Charlie nodded her head, and gave one final look at her younger friend before she closed her front door and left for the studio.
Almost immediately Margo came from nowhere, and walked beside Charlie. "Shouldn't you be at school?" Asked Charlie.
"How's Wren?" Margo asked dodging the question. Charlie let out a sigh. The two tall goths walked through London hastily. "Wren's fever has gone down a little, and I left them with Mama Miller."
"Oh, they'll definitely get better with her caring for them." Margo commented thoughtfully. "How's your fashion thing going?" He asked. Margo's olive green eyes glazed over at the sidewalk. "I got Jason to agree to be a model for me. Turns out we both want to beat that bitch Brian with a passion." Charlie chuckled, "I was thinking of asking Wren, but..."
"Wren's too sick." Margo finished for her.
"Yeah." Charlie huffed, "If Brooke was still around, or if Barren didn't..." Charlie bit her inner lip and clenched her fists tightly, "Anyway, I got one male model, but I need one more, and two female models."
"What about William?"
"William doesn't do well in front of large crowds."
"Ashley?"
"Ashley will do nothing but complain about what I'd make her model. You realize the theme is goth right? Kinda the opposite of Ashley's style." Charlie groaned. "Her eyes would look great for closeup photos though." She admitted.
Ashley had heterochromia. One brilliant blue eye, and one olive green. To add to that, she was very beautiful for a sixteen year old girl, but she had a...spoiled mindset.
Margo was quiet for a while, but soon spoke up once they where inside the studio Charlie was using for preparing the clothes and photo shoot. "Have you tried Mr.Stone? You and Wren are close to him, and he looks really good for his age."
"Nah, I don't want to bother him with it. Besides, what if his hip gives out or something, and he gets hurt?"
"He'd smack you for assuming that." Margo teased poking her arm.
"Yeah. He would fuckin break MY hip if he heard me!" Charlie laughed as she set up her work space. "Jokes aside; Jason should be here in half an hour, so I have plenty of time to get some final things ready..." Charlie came to a complete halt as her jade green eyes landed on the man quietly reading in a sofa in the far corner of the studio. "Shit...," she muttered, "I'm not one to say this normally, but why did you have to show up early!?"
Jason looked up from the book he was reading, and rested his chin in the palm of his free hand with a friendly smile. He closed his book after putting in a bookmark, and sighed out from his nose.
"I just want this to be over and done with," he began; dropping his smile for a more bored expression, "I still have a shop to run you know."

"So, I hear you're acquainted with Anita." Jason stated as Charlie fit the dark unfinished shirt over his broad shoulders. "Yeah," she replied, "She teaches kids how to care for plants at the school greenhouse."
Jason nodded his head in response. "Keep still J." Charlie ordered calmly. She didn't want to accidentally prick him with a sewing needle. Margo sat in the chair Jason was in before; doodling in a sketchbook quietly.
"So, you one of Mama Miller's admirers?" Charlie inquired of the toymaker.
"We went to school together as children." Jason replied, "If I were to go by that school you went to, would I happen to run into her?"
"No, she's taking the day off." Charlie responded as she finished the stitching she was doing on the long grey sleeve, "She's taking care of Wren until their brother eventually finds them."
"Oh, Wren?" Jason perked up upon hearing the fourteen year old's name, "I haven't seen Wren in quite some time. Is Anita her mother?" He asked. Charlie her cocked her scarred brow as she turned the maroon headed man to work on the fabric on his back. "No...," Charlie replied feeling unnerved for some reason, but she shook it off. "Anita is Wren's godmother, but I know she dreams of stealing them from their dad."
"I didn't know Wren was close to Anita," Jason spoke softly, "How close are Anita and Wren?"
"Why don't you ask Wren yourself? Sure you guys didn't have the best first impression of each other four years ago, and there was the thing with Brooke-", "Wren hasn't even spoken to me." Jason interrupted with a huff. Charlie chuckled. Did Jason really not know?
"Is something funny Charlie?"
"It's just," Charlie walked in front of Jason and crossed her arms with a curious smile, "Don't you know that Wren is mute?"