[img]https://i.imgur.com/aHWHQEs.png[/img]

Interactions: "Carl" [@Zombiedude101], Lily [@Punished GN] & Dr. Harkness

[code]Sybil A Harkness MD.[/code]

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[quote=Dr Harkness]"If your mother's also black, she's no relative of them. The Black Family are, despite their name, white as they get." [/quote]

"Yeah, got that from the past slave owner thing," Charlie snorted. "But she's white, it's my dad's side that- yknow, that doesn't matter. She told me bout this place, so unless there's another Quintin Black family..."

Any humour she'd felt quickly left as Dr. Harkness continued. She hadn't quite believed it from Odessa, who was a weird stranger approaching them on the street, but the town doctor? Her words were more credible. But didn't Jennifer had mentioned that the last girls went missing after they talked to Dr Harkness... Had she really just warned them?

Fuck. This was a lot more than Charlie was equipped to handle. Keeping her head down she could do, but they'd already screwed it up with keeping their mouths shut when there were a whole bunch of other people just like them around town asking questions. It may not actually be them, but they'd made themselves targets by being in that group. 

"You're right, I ain't leaving," Charlie ran a hand through her increasingly messier hair, pulling half of it out of the bun it had been in. "It's my mum, yknow, not just anyone..."

What was out there that was worse than an alligator? Rich, angry white people with guns? Surely it didn't matter when the end result was the same? Both Dr Harkness and Odessa seemed so certain Eleanor didn't exist. Was it a family coverup? The problematic child they'd abandoned, wiped from the records? Something town wide? 

Charlie suppressed a shudder. The whole thing didn't make sense, and the death of multiple girls just a night ago felt like a lead weight in her stomach.

Stay calm. It was fine. She pushed away the anxiety creeping in as "Carl" talked. She didn't know what he meant about keeping them out of trouble, but it was a small comfort that he probably wouldn't just abandon them. Sure, he was practically a stranger, but he was probably best equipped to deal with small town mass murderers. If any of them could.

"We need to know what we're dealing with to protect ourselves," Charlie said quietly, agreeing with "Carl". Not that she could protect herself against anything but mundane threats. Her only self defence experience was one free judo class when she was ten. She really should've bought pepper spray when she got here like her dad suggested. "And..." She paused, trying to figure out how to say this. Jennifer had said to not trust Dr Harkness, but Jennifer also had told them a lot of things. "How come you're warning us when talking to everyone else in this town seems to be a death sentence?"

Her head really hurt trying to think this all through, but she had to figure it out. If Doctor Harkness couldn't tell them, she'd go to the next person. Then the next, and the next, until she found her mum. Or Eleanor Black, whoever she actually was.