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MASK ON

MASON LOCKWOOD SKIPPED TOWN, AND IT FELT LIKE CHARLOTTE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO FOUND THAT A LITTLE STRANGE.

Okay, was it in Mason's character to skip town for a surfing adventure? Sure, but the timing was off. Richard had just died, so in her mind, there was no way he would up and leave Tyler during a time like this.

Tyler held his own opinion on the matter when they'd spoken about it on the phone, but agreed that it was unusual for him to say goodbye to his mother over a mere text. He thought they were all closer than that, given recent events, but perhaps he was wrong.

Though, she could tell that deep down, Tyler was beyond upset over the situation.

"Do you think I'm being crazy?" she asked her brother, the girl straightening her hair while she sat at her vanity.

The boy, who'd been listening to her rant over the situation for the last thirty minutes, shrugged. "I think I'm the wrong brother to ask," Joshua answered. "Nate knows the dude better than anyone."

Her shoulders deflated at the mention of their older brother, the one off doing yet another year of graduate studies all the way out in Boston. "I don't wanna bother him with this sort of thing," Charlotte sighed, putting the straightening iron down in front of her. "You know how he is... besides, he's always busy."

Nathaniel Henry, or Nate as they called him most of the time, had been an attentive older brother when Joshua and Charlotte had been younger. There was quite the age gap between him and them, but that didn't stop him from having a strong bond with his siblings.

Yet, the minute he left town for college the first time around, both of the youngest Henrys noticed that he grew distant. He stopped coming home on most weekends unless it was a holiday, and phone calls with him only lasted a few minutes if you were lucky.

He was being prepped to take over their father's business, after all, so could they really fault him?

Joshua scoffed out a noise of agreement. "I'm lucky if I get a text once a week."

"Try once every two weeks," she said with a shake of the head. "It doesn't matter, because who's to say that the Mason he knew in high school is the same one we saw last week?"

"True," Joshua hummed. "Still, I don't think it's something you need to worry about, Charlie."

"If Tyler's worried about it, that means I am automatically worried about it," she quipped back, standing from the vanity to migrate over to the closet where her dress was awaiting her.

Joshua had a lopsided grin on his face when she emerged, dress in hand. "That's definitely dedication," he said, clearly a statement made from his own observations.

"I do the same when it comes to you, don't think I don't know your tells," she responded with a raised brow, setting the dress down onto her bed and reaching across to ruffle the top of his head. "I can read you both like the back of my hand."

He tried swatting her hand away with a grumble. "You make it sound like it's some kind of talent you have."

"Uh— that's 'cause it is," she snarked in response. She went to her vanity and plucked two different bracelets, showing them to her brother. "Does masquerade scream family heirloom or ninth grade charm bracelet to you?"

Joshua looked between the two, pursing his lips before pointing to the bracelet that had once belonged to their great grandmother. "Heirloom for sure."

She smiled at him, nodding. "Exactly what I was thinking."

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The Lockwood masquerade was in full swing by the time Charlotte and her mother entered through the main doors. They were immediately greeted by something bubbly in a flute by a man wearing white gloves, and while Charlotte declined, her mother certainly did not.

"I'm off to find Carol," she said to her daughter, a gentle hand going to her shoulder while the other held the champagne glass. "I trust you'll behave?"

"When do I ever misbehave?" she asked in retort, only to earn a playful eye roll from her mother before she ventured off into the large home.

Charlotte wandered, stopping to say hello to people she passed and vaguely recognized with their elegant masks on. Some of her peers were hard to spot, some making it a little too easy for the theme being a damn masquerade.

One face she did recognize right away had been her blonde friend, the one who hadn't returned any of her calls as of late. With determination in her step, she approached the girl who looked like she was searching for something, or perhaps someone.

"Caroline," she called out as she approached, the girl's eyes snapping toward her incoming figure. Once she got close enough, she asked, "can we talk?"

"Now's not really a good time, Charlie," the girl winced, her attention obviously focusing on something else. "But, uhm, I'll call you tomorrow and we can—"

"I've been calling you for the last how many days," Charlotte couldn't help but snap, her arms crossing over her chest. "Are you avoiding me?"

"No, I'm not avoiding you," Caroline quickly dismissed, though her tone was pitched higher than it normally was. Based on the way she sighed after Charlotte gave her a flat look, she knew she was caught in the lie. "Okay, maybe I've been M.I.A lately, but it's for a good reason!"

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Okay? What kind of good reason?"

Caroline hesitated. "Things have been a little weird since I... almost died," she said, rushing out that last bit haphazardly, "and I just, I don't know, needed some time to readjust?"

The Henry girl's brief spurt of anger dissipated. "Oh," she mumbled. "You know you don't have to deal with that sort of stuff on your own, right? You've got me, the girls, Matt."

"I know, it's just—" She cut herself off, her head subtly craning towards a nearby hallway. "Do you hear that?"

Charlotte strained her hearing, but shook her head. "No, what is it?"

Rather than answer the girl, Caroline merely started speed-walking in the direction she supposedly heard something in.

Charlotte was hot on her friend's trail as they approached Mr Lockwood's study, and the closer they got, the louder the noises from within became. Darting into the study after the blonde, she was quick in identifying Matt and Tyler fighting one another. No, it was like they were pummelling each other.

Caroline all but threw herself into the mix, and with a sort of strength Charlotte had never seen her display before, she ripped Matt off the Lockwood boy. The blond practically flew across the room, sliding across the floor as Charlotte watched with her jaw slack.

In fact, he went down so harshly that for a split second, Charlotte thought he wasn't moving at all. The blood pooling from his nose wasn't a good sign, either. Caroline rushed toward the boy, while the Henry girl turned to Tyler. "You good?" she asked, eyes scanning his figure only to not find any bruising.

"Yeah," he brushed off, though his chest was heaving. He looked at Caroline, confused, "how did you—"

"Matt failed."

Charlotte's head whipped towards the other voice in the room, a girl she knew ran with Tyler's large circle of school friends named Sarah. "If Matt fails, I can't."

It wasn't until she noticed the sharp object in Sarah's hand that her blood went cold. It seemed like Caroline clued into it too, as they shouted in an odd unison.

"Tyler, look out!"

"Watch out!"

Sarah surged for Tyler, embedding the sharp object into his shoulder. Though, when he pushed her off of him rather harshly, her body tumbled into the desk.

Her neck hit the corner, making an odd cracking noise that made Charlotte's hand fly to her mouth in order to silence an impending scream from bubbling out.

While she was having her own freak out, barely registering the way Caroline rose from her place on the ground next to Matt, Tyler was also freaking the fuck out.

Charlotte had never seen a dead body before, and now she was face to face with one that her best friend was responsible for. Arguably, it was an act of self defence, but that didn't matter in that very moment. No, Charlotte's mind was moving a mile a minute.

Mind moving so quickly, that she was oblivious to the way Tyler began to convulse, angry and unnatural, until Caroline's shouting finally reached her ears. "Tyler? Tyler, what's happening?!"

Charlotte's eyes snapped forward, spotting Tyler hunched on the ground, breaths coming in heavy and wracking his entire figure.

His eyes were different, different in the same way Mason Lockwood's were the night of the carnival.

"The Lockwoods are a normal family, just like we are."

"Maybe it's not a family thing."

"Oh my god," the brunette began to mumble. "Oh my god, oh my g—"

"Hey, hey," Caroline suddenly appeared in front of her, her eyes locking with Charlotte's. Vaguely, she felt like someone was panicking. "You won't remember any of this, alright?"

Charlotte's head shook on its own. "He– he just–" her words were coming out rushed, distorted. She spared a glance at the body on the ground, "and she's–"

Caroline Forbes had the sudden urge to panic, because for some reason, Charlotte Henry was unable to be compelled— she would remember all of this.

And oh she would, judging from the sudden urge she had to throw up her dinner all over the floor of the study.

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[ wyn's note ]

and cue the freak out! LMAO

thanks for 2k my loves! hope you enjoyed this slightly longer chappy

all my love xx