The Faceless Saviour

“For God’s sake!”

Charlie threw her curlers down into the sink with more force than was necessary. She ran her fingers desperately through her hair, groaning at the tangles which she was attempting to transform into flowing locks. Her phone flashed angrily beside her. Anne.

“How are you feeling?” Anne asked through the speaker, ever the mum of her friends.

“Fine., I’m stressed, obviously, but I’m excited!” Charlie replied. It was a lie, but one she hoped Anne didn’t pick up on. She had felt odd since waking up this morning, like some stranger had taken up residence in her body and was controlling her every moment. It wasn’t as if she had no experience with dating, but for some reason, this specific date with this specific man was putting her on edge.

“That’s good! If you weren’t stressed I’d be worried about you. Ooh,” Anne suddenly interrupted herself, “I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Yes?” Charlie responded hesitantly. She’d put her speakerphone on and gone back to attempting to make herself presentable.

“His name is Andrew. He’s ridiculously hot but don’t you dare tell anyone I said that because he’s my cousin and that’s getting into all sorts of weird incest territory.”

Charlie snorted loudly at her response.

“Don’t you dare snort when you’re at dinner tonight! I want this to work, you know. You deserve someone good. And you know, we’d basically be sisters if things work out with you and Andy.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. Of course Anne would assume everything would work out like a fairytale. Charlie, however, would settle for decency: a man who treated her like a human and wasn’t innately jealous of her every action.

“I’ll be on my best behaviour, Anne.” Charlie replied. “Now, hang up and leave me to get ready. I’m determined not to be late for once.”

“Okay Charlie. Best of luck, and I expect a full report on Monday.” Anne hesitated. “Well, maybe not full if you go back to his place, you know, I don’t want to hear all about –“

“Stop waffling.” Charlie interrupted her, laughing at her friend’s inability to stop her mind wandering to the places it really didn’t want to go. “I’ll be fine, Annie. And I’ll give you a PG run down on Monday morning, I promise. Much love.”

“Much love,” Anne said and then hung up. Charlie looked at her phone: quarter past five. She had 15 minutes till she was meeting the mysterious ‘Andrew”. She took a deep breath, but still couldn’t quite shake that uncomfortable feeling she’d had earlier. Her hands grasped the edge of the bathroom sink, and she looked her reflection straight in the eye.

“You can do this, Charlie. He’s just another boy.” She nodded at the her she saw looking back at her. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and started to walk out of the bathroom to get dressed. She stopped, and glanced back to the mirror quickly, “Also, you look like a damn goddess.” 

With a wink to herself, she walked back into her bedroom.

Andrew’s foot tapped nervously as he stood on the path. He checked his watch – not quite half past five; she wasn’t late quite yet. He, of course, had been early. Ever the gentleman, he liked to think. Running a nervous hand through his hair, Andrew looked up and down the street. A taxi passed by and his breath caught – could this be her? The mystery girl for whom he had only a photo and a name: Charlie. But the taxi did not stop, instead speeding past him and on to some other destination. He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket, scrolling through his recent messages.

His finger stopped at Anne’s name. Clicking onto the texts she had sent him, he scrolled up a little till a face stared back at him from the phone. 

“I know you’ve been single for a while now, so I thought I’d arrange a date for you! This is Charlie, she’s in the accountancy department, and she’s about your age (though a lady never tells!). In all honesty, she’s quite outgoing and loud and has an appalling sense of humour, but she has a heart of gold. I’ve reserved a table at that nice Italian place you like next Friday at half five. At least think about it?” 

A long message, as was typical of Anne. And below that message was a picture of a girl – a woman. She was beautiful, that was undeniable, but even across a phone screen Andrew could see that her eyes held secrets and charm. He was nervous, god he was terrified really. But he needed to do this, he needed to get used to socialising again. He hadn’t been on a date for almost three years now - not since that night when everything when wrong.

Andrew had been drinking that night. Not much, but enough that he didn’t quite have his wits about him. He’d been flirting and dancing (he was abominable at both); a perfectly normal Friday evening after work. Andrew had been with mates, he thought, maybe four or five or so of his coworkers. He’d downed his drink and said his goodbyes, deciding that a walk would sober him up enough so that he wouldn’t spend all of tomorrow in bed recovering. He only realised his mistake looking back, but as he walked he held his phone and his wallet in his hand. He thought he had arrived with a jacket, but it had seemingly disappeared into the crowds at the pub. He would head back there on Monday with the hope of raiding their lost and found cupboard, but ultimately it was just a jacket. A nice one, albeit, but a jacket wasn’t worth a five minute walk back to the pub when all Andrew was fixated on right now was the microwave mac and cheese in his fridge and soon to be in his stomach. Turning a corner, he stopped at the traffic lights and watched as the few cars travelling at 4am sped past (he wasn’t drunk enough to ignore the stop, look, listen that had been ingrained in him from childhood). He had waited for maybe 2 or 3 minutes by the lights before he gave up and decided to take a cut through between some houses. He’d walked the path in daylight, surely at dawn it wouldn’t be so different? There were some noises from the edge of the alley which Andrew tried to ignore. A cat, surely. There were always cats lurking around the houses this far north in the city. He shook his head and kept walking, thanking his tipsy mood for his lack of fear. 

All that Andrew remembered was the feeling that someone was following him. And then a warmth at the back of his head. He placed his hand to the warmth and brought it to his eyes: blood. His body seemed to give way beneath him, as unknown hands roughly searched every inch of his person. He thought he felt a few more flashes of pain at his sides and down his legs, but the combination of adrenaline and alcohol only served to disorient and confuse him. Andrew watched as feet ran past him, leaving him alone and bleeding out slowly. He groaned as loud as he could, desperately praying that some heavenly saviour would find and rescue him. As he slipped into unconsciousness, the last image blurrily etched in his mind was that of a girl, holding his hand and reaching for her phone. 

A voice emerged from her phone, and he knew he was safe. “999, what emergency service do you require?”

“Hi? Are you Andrew?” A person stood in front of him. Andrew glanced quickly down at his phone, then back up to the woman speaking to him. He tilted his head inquisitively, noting the similarities of the face in front of him and the face on his phone screen.

            “Hello?” The voice startled him again.

            He swore under his breath. This was her: Charlie. She was beautiful, more so than his phone screen could hope to describe.

            “Hi? You are Andrew, right? I’m Charlie.” She offered her hand out to the man before her, but he was still not quite meeting her gaze.

            “God, yes. I’m so sorry, I was completely out of it,” Andrew blurted, taking her hand and shaking it. “It’s a delight to meet you, Charlie. Shall we head inside?” He released her hand and walked towards the door, holding it open for her.

            “Of course,” she responded, walking in through the doorway.

Charlie couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. That funny feeling she had that morning was still lingering, and it was only when she laid eyes on him that she realised: this was the man she had found all those years ago.

            She was with her sister that night. They were watching films (likely a trashy rom-com), eating horrendously salty microwave popcorn and drinking prepackaged cocktails in a can.. Charlie’s beverage of choice was the humble gin and tonic; her sister pushed the boat out and usually favoured a mojito or something else with lashings of rum. At some point, they’d both fallen asleep, likely from a combination of alcohol, food and exhaustion. Charlie had woken at maybe half past three in the morning, thanks to the light streaming in through the windows as the sun rose slowly. She looked over to where her sister was still sleeping, and knelt down beside her.

            “I need to go. It’s morning already and Mike will kill me if I’m not home when he wakes up.” 

            Her sister groaned in response.

            “It’s okay, darling. Keep sleeping, I’ll take the main roads and text you when I’m home.”

            “Okay Charlie. You’re going to break up with Mike, right?”

            “Yes. He’s a dick. I just need to…find the right time.” Charlie ran a hand through her hair. She didn’t like Mike, to be perfectly honest, but he deserved better than for Charlie to run away without another word. She’d break up with him, it was just a case of finding the right moment that wouldn’t hurt either of them.

            “Good girl. Love you. Sleep well.” Charlie’s sister rubbed her eyes and burrowed into the sofa to block out the night.

            “Sleep tight.” Charlie grabbed her coat and threw it on, wrapping it tightly around herself. She opened the front door quietly and slipped outside, pulling it closed behind her. She shook it a few times to double check it was locked then walked out along the street and back towards the small flat she shared with Mike.

            Charlie had been walking maybe 5 or 10 minutes when she heard what sounded like a person crying out. It wasn’t audible words as such, closer to groans. She shook her head and kept walking. Likely another drunk student passed out; their friends would be along soon to help them, she was sire. But the groans continued to grow more insistent, moving closer to cries of pain. Her heart broke. She didn’t like going down the alleyways – they were too dark and she’d heard too many stories of bad things happening to girls like her alone at night. The groan came again, quieter this time but more anguished.            

            She broke into a run. She flew round the corner of two houses and emerged into the alleyway between them. Her breath caught in her throat. There before her lay a man, maybe minutes from death. Blood was pooling around his head, and there were rips and slashes across his torso and legs.

            “Hello? Anyone? We need help here!” She shouted, using every bit of energy in her body. She knelt down beside the man and put a hand on his chest, feeling it rise and fall gently. He was breathing, at least.

            “It’s okay. It’s okay, I’m going to get you help.” Charlie stroked his hair gently, trying desperately to keep him conscious. The man groaned once more as he tried to move his arms. 

            “No, no. Stay still – don’t move. I’ll call you an ambulance, okay? Stay still.” Charlie placed his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. She pulled out her phone and dialled three numbers.

      A voice on the other end of the phone responded, “999, what emergency service do you require?”

She walked inside the restaurant, it’s dim lights casting shadows on both their faces. Shadows similar to those cast upon the face of that man in that alleyway.

            Charlie’s heart stopped as she looked back over her shoulder. She stumbled, her body refusing to move at what she saw before her. The man, this ‘Andrew’, he was the man she had found all those years ago. She was his saviour. 

            “You okay? I think you tripped over something,” Andrew asked, his concern evident and strong. He reached out a hand to help Charlie regain her footing, which she took. But as she looked at him, Andrew noted a strange look pass over her face – caring, but concerned. As if she was looking into the face of a ghost. Charlie coughed as if she was removing some lingering discomfort.

            “Of course. I’m fine, just clumsy. How are you doing?” Charlie asked. She took the chair Andrew pulled out for her. Ever the gentleman, she thought once more. How strange, to see the life she saved unfolding before her.

            “I’m fine,” Andrew said crisply. “No, sorry. That’s a lie. I’m more…nervous than anything.” Charlie broke into a smile, pleased at his honesty. An unusual quality in a man, that is for sure. “This is the first date I’ve been on in almost three years. Sorry, that’s an embarrassing thing to admit. Not very manly, I’m sure.”

            Charlie laughed again, clearly enjoying Andrew’s desperate flustering. “No, I appreciate your honesty, truly. It’s refreshing. And, I haven’t been on a date in years either.” Charlie stopped, debating what next to say. She took a breath and continued, “There was an incident for me, too. Three years ago, as it happens.” She knew she was prodding a beast, but she had to know – did he remember her as she remembered him?

            “It seems we both know our share of troubles.” Andrew reached for his glass and filled it with the carafe of water sat between them. He raised the carafe in a silent question, and at Charlie’s nod he filled her glass too.

            “Can I ask you, what have you done differently since that day?” Charlie asked. All she wanted to know, truly, was if she had saved this man for a good life. If her actions that night had saved his life for more than ordinary.

            Andrew took a shaky sip of his water. “I’m ashamed to say not much. To be honest, what happened terrified me. It terrifies me still. I –“ Andrew stopped, tears starting to well in his eyes.

            Charlie reached her hand across the table and squeezed Andrew’s hand reassuringly. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything more if you don’t want to.”

            “No, I do. I want to keep talking.” Andrew ran his thumb gently over Charlie’s. “I have flashes of that evening, well, it was more like a morning. I was attacked, you see. Mugged. And now whenever I see a shadowed alley or if I see a group of people moving to fast, I…”

            “You remember that night,” Charlie said, finishing his sentence. 

            “Well,” Andrew responded, “what about you? What have you done since your…event.”

            Charlie scratched her cheek  in consideration. “Nothing. It wasn’t traumatising for me, as such,” she said. “More, educating. That moment when everything happened, it taught me the worth of life. And that knowledge has only been solidified…recently.”

            “God. I’ve been so stupid.” Andrew stood up from his chair and offered his arm to Charlie. “Let’s get out of here. Let’s stop hiding in the shadows and let’s live. Properly, fully, unequivocally. I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

            Charlie hesitated. “It’s okay to be afraid, Andrew. Fear makes us strong sometimes.”

            “But fear also makes us hesitate. It makes us miss out on the little moments – those times when we could have grasped the moon but we stopped ourselves for fear of upsetting the stars.” Andrew was becoming more animated, spinning Charlie round and then taken her into a close grip and swaying gently with her.

            Charlie looked up at Andrew, directly in his eyes. They held that gaze for a moment. A beautiful, pure and eternal seeming moment. Then she broke into a smile. “Deal.”

            They ran out together into the night.

Hours later, the two would sit atop a small hill in the north of the city. Andrew would stretch out a hand, pointing to the constellations and naming the ones he could see. And Charlie would laugh, clutching his jacket close around his shoulders and shuffling closer to Andrew as he continued his narrative. She would look at him, and think thank goodness she saved this man. This beautiful, educated, passionate man with a heart of gold and a head full of dreams he had yet to explore. Charlie would take over the speaking, telling Andrew of the history of the streets and buildings littered around them. And Andrew would look at her, thinking his grateful he was that this woman would come into his life and deliver him the greatest gift: hope. And as Charlie gestured to one specific lamppost, her voice rising in excitement at its vivid history, Andrew looked at her. He wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t quite shake the feeling he had seen her before. Or maybe it was just the gentle embrace of the moonlight, casting them in the shadows of the past and the joys that the future held.