Introduction: Charli learns about life under the horizon. She has a lot of time on her hands, and she wants to maintain the fiction that she is dead. Her major effort continues to be survival.

This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling; and Randi and the College Professor,. The time frame of this story parallels Cynthia and the High School Years.

Once again I must thank Holly H. Hart for her encouragement and invaluable help in proofing and straightening out my poor English.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Chapter 3

Now, the time for fun and games was past. Charlie was fleeing for his life. The two murderers might have fled the scene, but Charlie knew they would be back. They had seen Charlie, and tried to kill him. That only made Charles determination to become Charli stronger. He was sure that the word had probably already gone out and that many of those who operated on the dark side would be looking for him.

He worked his way to his sanctuary around the small trees and shrubs that had grown considerably over the last two years between the fence and highway. It was still light, and Padrona had not yet been released from her pen. Charlie hastily unlocked the metal door, and settled into the pile of blankets, quilts, and one sleeping bag. Sobbing himself to sleep, he was oblivious to the noise of the traffic above. He awakened only slightly as the massive bulk of Padrona snuggled up to him.

The rumbling of his tummy woke him up rather early, as he had not had dinner the previous night. He remembered the comfort Padrona had given him during the night; however, she had returned to the yard. He would talk to her in a while. Right now, he had to assess where he stood, and determine where he was going to go. First of all, Charli determined that his transition began at that moment. At least for Charlie, there were some obvious reasons. The murderers knew who he was, and if he could pull off looking like a girl, they might ignore him. Charli was going to have to look as much not like Charlie as possible. This was going to take some doing.

By this time, several luggage bags, and plastic boxes lined the side of the cave. In them, Charli had carefully placed the garments she had gleaned from the bins and bags in the area. Most of the garments were too big for her twelve year old frame; however, a few fit nicely. She was especially pleased with a couple of the 'training' bras she'd found in one sack left out for a charity pick up. Another case held several pairs of shoes. Her feet had been growing over the years, as had the rest of her, and the shoes she had outgrown had been placed back in the charity bins where she had found them.

Her inventory taking was interrupted by Padrona entering the cave. 'What happened last night? All I could tell was that you were very upset. Did you run away?'

Charli explained the previous day's events through several bouts of tears.

'What are you going to do now?' a concerned Padrona asked. You should go to the police. They will help you. I imagine they are looking for you right now.'

'What are you going to do about bathing and the other things you humans do?' Padrona asked, probably testing Charli about how well she had thought things out.

'I hadn't thought of that.'

'I didn't think so.'

Charli did realize several things. One was that she was going to have to remain hidden during the day, and do any foraging she had to do at night. Another was that she didn't have any money. Well, she did, and she didn't. She had been saving money for a new computer, and had nearly $200 hidden away in her bedroom. If the police hadn't sealed the house, it wasn't a crime scene, she might be able to get the money and some other items she needed from there. She would have to be careful, though, as she didn't want anyone to realize that someone had been in the house before she got what she needed. There was another problem. The only thing she had to carry anything in was here book bag, and it couldn't hold very much. She did have some old suitcases and plastic bins, but they would be far too heavy for her once they were loaded. She was going to have to be satisfied carrying smaller loads, and making more trips. There was a possible solution, and she was, at the moment sitting next to Charli.

'I think that will work just fine. What do you think?'

'How much are you going to put in these things?' Padrona asked as she looked over her shoulder at the two book bags that Charli had hung across her back.

'Just a few things from here, it can't look as if anybody's been here.' Charli had found her money right away, and it was obvious that no one had been at the house other than the police. They had probably been looking for him. She noticed that a couple of the family pictures were missing from the mantle. She had a feeling they might be in the newspaper the next day or so, if not already.

She balanced her laptop and accessories with a small electric two element hot plate, a pot and pan, and some utensils. Additionally, she packed in some food items; enough to tide her over for a few days. They were able to make two more trips that night while sticking to the back alleys and 'secret' shortcuts.

They would have made additional food runs the next night; however, when they approached the house, Charli's mind changed rather quickly.

"Shit, it's them," she said as much to herself as it was to Padrona.

'Who?'

'Don't try it, they have guns. They tried to shoot me before. They must have taken a key to the house. We've got to get out of here.'

Padrona started a low pitched, throaty growl.

'Padrona, you have to be quiet.'

'Not tonight, maybe some other time.'

Their conversation was interrupted by the two lowlifes exiting the house. Charli and Padrona crouched as low as they could behind a bank of empty trash cans. Fortunately, the car was facing the opposite direction.

"Crap Otto, I thought you said they would have all sorts of stuff in there."

"We should get some good bucks for the silver. Besides, we needed to make sure that brat wasn't there. I wonder where they stashed him? The newspaper said he was missing, but I'll bet they said that just to keep us off guard."

"Shit, sometimes I think you're as stupid as Donatello says you are. If the kid had spilled his guts, they would have our names plastered all over the place. Naw, the kid's hiding somewhere. He knows we'll kill him if we find him.

"Come on, the place is going to blow in just a few minutes. We'll find the kid. If we don't, one of the others will. We have his photo, and we'll pass out copies to all of them. We'll find him. What is he, twelve years old? He's got nowhere to go."

'I will kill them!'

The house erupted in flame when they were about halfway back to the cave. As Padrona made her way through the hole in the fence and Charli unlocked her front door, the sky to the east was tinted orange as the remnants of the only home Charli had known collapsed into the basement.

'Tomorrow night, we have to go to the store. I hope they haven't changed the locks,' she thought as she snuggled into her nest. The sound of the early morning commuter traffic was a lullaby that sang her to sleep.

Chapter 4

'You need a bath,' Padrona said rather indelicately the next evening.

'I know, I thought I could use the ditch. The water is still warm enough.'

'Yes, we can get more food and stuff if they didn't change the locks. All we can do is to try.'

Waiting until after midnight the two friends made their way to the rear of the grocery store. It didn't take long to realize that their plans had been somewhat thwarted. Charli was able to unlock the rear door; however, the bar had been replaced.

'What do we do now?' Padrona asked.

'Since the key worked on the back door I'm pretty sure they didn't change the locks. I'll go around to the front door, and go in that way. Wait here.'

Fortunately, it was late, and there was little traffic. The trouble was, there was a bar across the street, and there was considerable activity.

"Aren't you out a bit late?"

Charli turned to see a policeman towering over her.

"Yes sir, my mother needed me to pick up some stuff for her at the drug store. She's not well, and couldn't drive."

"Well, don't dawdle around here. It's not safe for a young girl to be out this late at night. Where are you heading?"

"The Walgreens down the way; they have a prescription ready for her."

"Be careful. I'd take you except we've had a little trouble here tonight. You might want to go home on a different street."

"Thank you, sir, I'll be careful."

Charli walked deliberately to the next block before looking back. There was a second police car parked in front of the bar, and they were loading some people into the back seat. She turned the corner, and raced back to the rear of the store.

'Shit, there're a bunch of cops there. I forgot all about the bar. That's the bad news. The good news is that one of the cops thought I was a girl.'

'I think we need to wait. The bar will close in a little while, and with the cops being around, most of the people will probably leave. Darn, I wanted to make three trips tonight. We'll be lucky to get two.'

They were able to get two trips in. They got a lot of relatively non-perishable foods like rice and mashed potatoes, although the latter would be a problem without having milk available. She'd have to make some grocery runs to one or more of the convenience stores in the area. They were also able to get some canned meats. The real prize was three prosciutto hams. If she could keep the bugs out of them, they might last quite a while.

They were more successful the next night. Charli had taken a chance the night before, and left the bar off the back door, so they were able to get in without delay.

'What are you getting that stuff for? You can't eat it.'

'This is hair dye. I think I was lucky that I wasn't recognized last night. I need to change my appearance even more than what just the makeup does.' Charli had spent several minutes checking out the colors in the small selection available, and selected several shades of blonde that were considerably lighter than her light brown hair. 'This should last me at least six months. After that, I can think about other colors and styles. I'll have to read up on how to do some other things later on.

'Okay, we're going to have to go out the front door. If we leave the bar off the door, they're liable figure out someone has been here over the weekend. We're going to have to chance leaving by the front door.'

Charli hoisted the heavy bar over the brackets. She looked over the store room, noticing the place where the last view of her parents had been of their lifeless bodies. She looked at the office area as she returned to the front. The mostly empty safe hung open just as the police had left it. 'The safe, I wonder if they got to the drop safe!'

'This'll only take a minute.'

If there had been anything in the registers, it was long gone. Pilonetti and Luca had probably taken the bills; however, the drop safe was a different matter.

'It's starting to get light. You'd better hurry.'

Of course, the combination was the same as the big safe; however, the two murders had not opened it, nor had the police. Charli found more than $400 plus many checks that were unusable. The checks were returned, safe locked, and they made their way to the front door.

The city was starting to stir, and they had to wait in the darkness of the entry way for the newspaper vendor to fill the boxes with the latest edition. It wasn't a quick process, as the vendor had to remove the large number of coins deposited from the previous day. By the time they returned to the cave and the salvage yard, the first workers were unlocking the front gate. Padrona quickly ducked through the opening in the fence, and raced to greet the first of the laborers to arrive.

Before Charli went to bed, she had a number of things to take care of. Over the years, she had accumulated several plastic ice chests, and these were important for storing things, especially some of the semi-perishable food items she had just accumulated.

Until the recent events, she had never spent a night in her cave. Suddenly a whole new world was opened to her the first few nights there. Her sadness over the loss of her parents and aunt and uncle, and just the fatigue of having escaped death and having to flee had enabled her to sleep through that first night; however, a night or two later, sleeping wasn't quite as easy.

'Food, food, food. Smell food. Human child there. Danger. Must find food.

Charli awakened to a cacophony of twittering conversation.

'Flee, it is awake!'

The sound of scurrying raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Her weak flashlight was able to illuminate the forms of several rats heading for the far reaches of the tunnel.

That had been a couple of days before. Among the packages of hair dye were several packages of rat poison, the systemic poison kind that contained an anticoagulant drug similar to Warfarin. She placed several trays of the poisoned bait outside her private area. It was several days before the results were noticeable.

'You need a bath. As much as I hate baths, I know you need one. It is different with humans. It's time you saw my side of the fence. Do you have any clean clothes - underwear?'

'Yes.'

Padrona led Charli through the maze of wrecked cars towards the office building and shop.

'The workers come in here. This is where they change clothes, and this is the shower area. I have seen them bathe here. I know what it's for.'

Charli looked around the locker room in awe. 'This is wonderful. We won't be caught?'

'There's a truck that brings clean towels and work clothes every week. I don't think they would notice if you used a few. As long as I've been here, I've never seen anyone come in at night. Sometimes the office people stay late, but once they've gone, there's nobody until the next morning. I think you're safe here, especially if you come in late.'

Charli took the longest shower of her young life while Padrona stood guard just in case. As she dried off, she appraised her body. Puberty hadn't started yet; at least any overt signs weren't there. The men in her family hadn't been particularly large, but they were generally strong bodied and well muscled. The women on her mother's side of the family were generally of average height and average build. They weren't particularly large in the bust, but having anything was better than what she had now. She was going to have to figure out what to do about things. She'd already done some research on the internet, and thought she knew quite a bit about hormones and what the effects of some of the main ones were. She had a serious problem with the hormone issue, though, and that was how she was going to get them. There was only one direction she wanted her future physical development to go.

Her main priority for the moment was to change her appearance as much as possible, and she began to formulate a plan that might work for at least a little while. Now that she knew she had access to the shower and bath facility, she would be able to start taking some steps that went past the makeup and plucking her eyebrows.

The next night she took the next step. She had read the instructions many times, and she felt she was ready. She didn't really want to be a blonde, but she felt it was the best way to distract any potential pursuers. She really wanted to have dark brown or nearly black hair, but that was too close to her natural color. She followed the instructions as best as she could. She sectioned her hair, and applied the dye from about a half inch out. Then she went back and did the roots. She put the plastic cap on and waited.

While the time was passing, she took a look around the building. There were three small office areas and a counter where most of the transactions probably took place. Each office had a computer, and there was another computer at the counter. Charli had no desire to take anything. The last thing she needed was to have anyone find out that anyone was using the office area at night, and she certainly didn't want anyone to think that Padrona wasn't doing her job. She checked things out as best as she could, and realized that the computers were on a wireless network. This was a great opportunity. Her computer had run off the network at home.

The router was plainly visible, and she copied the access code off the plate located on the back of the unit. She knew that the signal wasn't going to be very strong where she was hiding, but there were some options available to help things later on. She had been away from the net for only a week, and she missed it. Besides, she wanted to do more research. She needed to learn more. She couldn't go to school, at least for the near future, and it was already becoming very boring. Hopefully her change in appearance would enable her to get out during the day more often.

'How long do you need to keep that stuff on? It really hurts my nose and eyes,' Padrona said blinking her eyes.

'I think it's been long enough,' she said checking her watch. 'Actually it's been on about 15 minutes over the recommended time. I'd better wash it out.'

Padrona watched as Charli removed the clear plastic cap, the inside now covered with the viscous, smelly dye. The change in her hair color was immediately obvious. Even wet, it was many shades lighter than it had been before. She shampooed it twice, cleaning her skin where the dye had tinted it around her neck. She gently combed it to get the tangles out as she dried it under the electric hand dryer that was mounted on the wall. She had kept her hair long in spite of the admonitions from her father and mother, and now she was pretty sure that this was going to work to her advantage.

'What do you think?' she asked shaking her hair out a bit. It had been dirty and greasy before her shower the previous night, and she'd always kept it in a boyish pony tail before the tragedy of her parents' deaths. She had played with various styles a little bit when fantasizing in her cave; however, the fantasizing was over. Now she back combed it a bit, giving it a bit more body.

'Well, I'm not sure what to say. You definitely look different, quite different. But, we see things differently than you humans do. What do you think?'

'Oh my God, it's so different! I never thought it would be like this. I need to do something.' Charli did a quick look through one of the desks in the office, and found a pair of scissors. She returned to the mirror, parted her hair across the front of her forehead, and proceeded to cut off the locks that were hanging over her eyes, leaving bangs that extended to just above her eyebrows. The effect was amazing; at least it was as far as she was concerned. The old Charlie was gone. Before her was a pre-teen girl, a rather attractive one as far as she was concerned. She felt a degree of happiness and self satisfaction that she had never felt before. The only thing that could have possibly made it better was if her parents were still alive and they were welcoming her into girlhood.