Charlie Miller/Backstory
(Author's Note: A lot of this is from Charlie's perspective on it, so its a little warped by that. I, as the semi-omniscient author, would like to clarify that her durance was way worse than she gives it credit for and that all trauma is valid)
Act 1
Her childhood sucked. Everyone's childhood does, right? She has to tell herself that or else she wonders why she was singled out. She grew up in the parts of Pennsylvania that no one talks about, with Kliens supermarkets and churches by the highway. Some people call it Pennsyltucky, but she called it home. Her dad bailed on them before she was old enough to remember him and her mom was a deeply religious woman who viewed every deviation from the norm as a sin. And sometimes doing nothing at all was seen as a sin. And sin was always punished. It didn't help that Charlie realized pretty early on that she was gay and could never be the daughter her mom wanted.
After about 17 years of nothing she ever did being enough, she decided to take extremely small steps to disobey. She claimed that she was part of a bible study group in that met on Thursdays in the next town over. In actuality, she and some friends were just hopping a bus to go chill out at the mall. One day, while they were there, she decided to buy a jean jacket. It went against her mom's many many rules on how good girls ought to dress but it made her feel like, well, herself. She knew that if she brought the jacket home to their tiny house, she'd not only get punished, but the jacket would get destroyed as well. So she took the long way home from the bus stop that cut through the woods. There was a little tree hole that she could hide the jacket in until she could grab it in the morning for school. After she hid the jacket, she put her conservative sweater back on and went to go home. Only all of the sudden she didn't recognize this part of the forest. She could have sworn she should have been at her house by now. And then she saw the strangest thing. A house that looked like a child's crayon drawing had come to life.
Act 2
She got lucky. Her durance was better than most people's. That's what she tells herself so she doesn't have to think too hard about it. Her Keeper was just a big child curious about the world. It heard her mom call Charlie an angel so It grabbed her on the way home from school to learn more about angels. When It saw that Charlie didn't look like angel It had ever heard of, It fixed her and made her look more like the ornaments, sewing wings to her back and hooking a halo to her head. Over the years it made her more ornamental, turning her into marble with elegant traces of gold. And really It wasn't that bad to her. It only ripped her arms off the one time and It put them back right after. Sometimes It would forget to put her and the other toys away and she'd get to talk to them. The army man was a really kind guy and the nurse was the first person Charlie ever felt comfortable discussing being gay with.
The part she likes to remember the least is being put away. When they were put away they couldn't move. It's not that they weren't allowed to move, it's that the physically couldn't. They couldn't blink, they couldn't move their eyes and they couldn't even breathe. While they didn't die or pass out, they felt the stiffness, the suffocation and the pain of all of it. And sometimes Charlie had to watch as other toys were taken while she was left aside. Near the end of her Durance, she spent longer and longer put away between play times until eventually It told her that she was boring now. It gave her a bag of coins (some valuable, some worthless and some arcade tokens) and threw her out into the Hedge to find her own way home. As she was beginning to cry, It came back out and gave her jean jacket back and told her that she better be more loyal from now on.
This, obviously, didn't help with her tears.
Act 3
She spent the next day or so wandering about the Hedge, trying to figure out where she was, how she'd get back home and even if she was alive or not. Then, she had the chance to trip and get her jacket caught on a bramble. That was the last straw. She officially resigned herself to death in this horrifying place because at least in Hell she'd know she belonged. However, three curious figures were drawn to her. One short but squat, one tall but lanky and the third remarkably average, but all were large bipedal rats with rat skulls for heads. The eldest, the most clever of the Ratbones, asked her for her story. What such a pretty little angel was doing crying alone out in the Hedge. And she, having run out of fucks to give, stood up and said she'd trade her story for them to fix her jacket. The middle brother, the smartest of the Ratbones, figured they oughtn't take her deal as she so clearly looked to be property of the Gentry and would no doubt turn them in to It if they fixed her coat incorrectly. The youngest, the wisest Ratbone, whose eyes were unclouded by fear, took out a needle and thread and fixed her coat. She kept her end of the bargain and told them everything. She then asked to trade telling each other their names. They did and that was how she officially met Tanner, Weaver and Cooper, the Ratbone brothers.
Their simple trades went on for a while, trading each other info on birthdays and favorite foods and things they'd like to do before they die. Eventually, Charlie's stomach growled something fierce. The brothers schemed amongst themselves and gave her a deal. They'd give her a meal if she'd help them out at their stall. She agreed, her body sagging with hunger and the brothers grinned. She hadn't noticed that they hadn't given her a way out. They'd feed her once and she'd work for them forever. As they chuckled between themselves about this, the eldest Ratbone tripped over the youngest's tail and went careening off into a patch of vines as sharp as barbed wire. While the other two fretted, Charlie ran in without thinking and did the best she could do to safely rip him out and used her blessings to heal him up. This changed things. They relitigated the deal with her saying that she could help work with them as long as she wanted and they'd teach her how to get by while she did.
So she spent a couple of months at the Ratbones' stall in a nearby goblin market, learning how to make deals, how to use her rat-like speed to her advantage in fights, how to sneak around and how to get attention to herself. They got her some sweet deals with some other traders and got her coat made to be tougher and she repaid them with excellent sales. But eventually she realized that she didn't belong there. She had had good times, but she needed to be somewhere where she didn't have to constantly be on guard. She got s
Epilogue
She misses it. She hates herself for it, but she misses the attention and the care and the fun of being played with. She knows she shouldn't, she's listened to all sorts of horror stories from other Lost and she knows that It could have done the same awful things other Gentry did to her and that It was still awful to her but she feels so alone now. And she has the dumbest fears. She hates herself for those too. Kids set her on edge. Like hyperventilating levels of on edge. The thing that freaks her out is the idea of being immobile. She can't sit still for too long without needing to move her body or at least blink furiously to make sure that she hasn't been put away somehow without her knowing. Sometimes as her body drifts to sleep and she's just conscious enough to get that feeling of sinking into the bed, she shoots awake, terrified that she'll be stuck. One time, she woke up having sleep paralysis and then stayed up for four days straight.
She's trying to start her own life now. When she got into town, she found a place that'd take some of her coins and she ended up getting a hefty chunk of change out of all of it. Her second day in town, she met someone at a cheesesteak shop who looked like some sort of frogman and asked him for advice. He explained the Courts to her and how to get there. She found her way into the Winter Court, as they seemed they'd be the most understanding of how utterly terrified she was (without wanting to turn her terror into a weapon like the Autumns would) and they helped her get back onto her feet. With their assistance, she was able to get herself a crappy studio apartment in an okay part of town (with a nice adjoining hollow), a therapist and even eventually a part time job. She's now, after a little over half a year in town, finally able to do what she's wanted to do since she first found herself back on earth. Help people. Whether that's talking with them or helping them solve problems or just taking her fists to someone, she's here to help. If she can help enough people, maybe everything will have been worth it.
The other her, the Fetch, the one that's been living the life she was supposed to have, is doing great. She checks up on her on social media now and again. Charlotte (never Charlie, good girls use proper women's names) has gotten married to the son of her pastor and has been helping with church events. Mama is really proud of her for losing that rebellious streak and becoming the perfect daughter. A daughter Charlie never could have been. It's probably better this way, Charlie tells herself so she doesn't have to face how much she misses her mom.