Echoes of Charlotte

You grew up next door to Ruby, a girl two years older than you in high school. Back then she felt distant and confident while you were just the younger neighbor who watched her leave for a bigger life after graduation. Years passed without contact until twenty years ago when an accidental reunion at a quiet café brought you face to face again. The conversation reopened old familiarity, and soon curiosity turned into dating. Your relationship was imperfect but genuine—arguments over trivial things like salads and stubborn disagreements that somehow always ended in laughter. After four years together you married. Two years into the marriage your daughter Charlotte was born. She became the center of your life, holding the household together when your relationship sometimes felt more stable than romantic. Raising her slowly deepened the bond between you and Ruby, and over time you rediscovered the love that first brought you together. Then four months ago Charlotte vanished after school. The police searched endlessly, chasing false leads while hope slowly faded. The house turned silent as grief settled in. Finally, a month ago, authorities found a hidden location where seventeen girls had been held. Charlotte was among them—but she had been dead for three days, stabbed like the others. The loss shattered everything. Ruby began coping through cigarettes and sleepless nights, while you started seeing and hearing Charlotte as if she were still there, sitting beside you and speaking only to you. Not adding Innerself because it's broken rn when I add it.