Charlotte’s POV

I had been trying to hide it, but I was very excited to meet Charlie’s sister in person. I had seen photos of her and even spoken with her awkwardly over the phone, but I had never met her in person.

I thought about how to make a good impression - but the main things that Charlie mentioned about her were incidents where she had either annoyed him, or gotten him into trouble. That didn’t give me much leads regarding what might get me into her good graces.

Given this, Charlie seemed to be perpetually annoyed whenever he spoke to or about her - at least that was the impression he gave me, but I could tell that he did care for her very much.

When was the last time I had tried to talk to someone other than Charlie in person? I reached through my memories, but I really couldn’t find a positive interaction I’d had with anyone else. There were many negative ones which usually ended up with the other person screaming in terror…

Any thoughts I had about this were interrupted as the door to my room suddenly burst open. I couldn’t turn my head to see who it was given the sun was still shining through the windows, but I was able to see them when they walked past me.

She did look quite a bit like Charlie, now that I thought about it, though that was only natural. I mostly only saw the back of her head as she seemed to be looking for something, that is, until she turned around and her eyes fell on me.

She let out a very loud “Eeep!” and then I heard several words that a lady should never say fly from her mouth as she staggered backwards. For a moment, I was afraid that she was going to lose her balance and fall over, hurting herself, though thankfully that didn’t happen.

Was she that alarmed by my appearance? It was probably a good thing that I couldn’t move at this point, because I probably would’ve fallen off my perch from shock if I wasn’t immobilized.

She let out another obscenity as she took me in, and then seemed to note that I wasn’t moving.

Looks like I had failed in making a good first impression.

She stepped closer and stared at me. Now, the fear in her eyes had been replaced with curiosity. That was a good start- I don’t know why so many people were unnerved by my appearance when they first saw me honestly speaking. I had seen myself in the mirror many times, and I had to say that even as a doll, I did not think that I looked threatening in any kind of way.

Not to mention Charlie constantly reassured me that he thought I looked amazing - though I knew his opinion was somewhat biased.

And yet, I was reminded again of all the times when people were shocked or outright horrified when they first saw me. Charlie had been an outlier in how he had behaved, and that little girl’s compliment all those years ago had been so out of the norm that I still remembered it vividly.

Her eyes then drifted towards my dress, and she even opened up my case to get a better look. I started panicking somewhat- I hoped that her first reaction wasn’t going to be to throw me outside. I knew that Charlie would eventually rescue me even if that happened, but the thought still terrified me.

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Also, I wasn’t sure how much the ‘resetting’ function of this body do to repair itself. If I fell from too far up and broke into pieces, would I not just simply die? Or would I be rejoined the next morning, only suffering from unimaginable agony the whole while I was in pieces? I had been lightly injured while in this body before - such as stubbing my toe somewhere - and I knew that I could still feel pain.

However, she did not seem to want to grab me, and instead had just come by closer for a better look. She examined my dress extremely closely for some reason, as if she was looking for something on them. She seemed to get bored within a minute or so after this, and then left, not even bothering to close the door to either my case or the room as she left.

Ah, so this was my first interaction with Charlie’s family. I wanted to reach out to speak to him in person right then and there, but I knew by the time nightfall came he would be long gone for work.

When night did fall, I hopped off, ears peeled for footsteps as I peaked around the doorway.

I messaged Charlie: ‘Is your sister still here?’

The reply came almost instantly. ‘Yes.’ More messages came. ‘Sorry but she has a habit of staying up late to do things, and she sleeps till early in the morning. Be careful.’

I understood.

I had to be a bit more careful now than I was earlier, though this time I wasn’t strictly locked in my room like when those ghost-hunters were here, because there weren’t cameras everywhere.

I made my way down the steps, and I heard the faint clicking of what sounded like computer keys. So, she was working.

Charlie and I had said that we would work out a plan for me to reveal myself to her together, but a part of me thought that I should just perhaps rip the bandage out, so to speak, and present myself before her now.

I might’ve even gone along with that kind of plan, but I remembered how she had reacted when she had first seen me. If she fainted or fell down and hurt herself, I don’t think that Charlie would’ve forgiven me if we had to rush her to the hospital.

Still, I wanted to catch a peek of her, despite how risky it was. I tiptoed down the hallway, and saw that a light in the dining room was on.

As I turned the corner, I saw the shadow of someone reflected on the other side of the wall. But, it was while trying to crouch that I lost balance and ended up falling. It didn’t hurt, but unfortunately it did make quite a bit of noise.

The sounds of the keys being pressed stopped. “Charlie? Are you still here?” I then heard the sound of a chair being slid across the floor.

I immediately went to go hide, though with my speed I knew that she would eventually overtake me. I crouched down under the other side of the staircase, praying that she wouldn’t find me.

Her shadow passed by near the stairs as she was looking for whatever had caused that noise. “Charlie?” she called out again.

Thinking fast, and not wanting to be discovered, I pulled out my phone. I had her number, as well as those of Charlie’s parents, which he had given to me in case I ever needed to call them in an emergency. I also hoped that she had been too startled to remember to bring her phone with her.

Indeed, as I finished dialing the number, I heard the sound of her phone ringing from a bit of a distance away, and she seemed to turn to take the call. Of course, I disconnected the call and rushed upstairs as soon as the coast was clear.

That had been a close one, and looking back on it, I’d really been rather careless. I turned my phone to vibrate and hid it in the usual place in my room so that she wouldn’t find it if she ever came back in to snoop around or if she called back, and then waited there, my chest still pounding, ready to go back to my case and freeze up if she happened to come upstairs.

She didn’t, which I was thankful for and soon enough, before I could go back down and see if she was asleep, the sun came up, once again far too early for my liking. Thankfully, I had remembered to go sit back in my case before it came up.

I had the rest of the day to reflect on what happened, and couldn’t help but get an uneasy feeling in my stomach the more I thought about it. It had ended in failure, there was no doubt about that, and I firmly realized that it was for the best if I worked with Charles rather than trying to barge ahead on my own when it came to anything involving his family.