As Charlie backed away, Cat stepped forward, though she withdrew her hand, not sure if the younger woman was having some kind of episode, not wanting to alarm or frighten her further. Just then, though, another presence made itself known, emerging as though it had always been apart of the impenetrable dark, but now walked, given form. She turned as it - he, certainly he spoke, and she felt as though she'd been struck impossibly hard with no pain at all. His voice - it was perfect, deep, shadowed -
And then gone.
"Are you -" she didnt' know where to turn. Charlie seemed lost in a world of her own, and now this stranger whose presence was compelling she found herself at a momentary loss - seemed in his own kind of distress.
She laid a hand on his arm and said, "Wait just a moment, sir."
Sir was all wrong, but there was no time to consider this further. She turned to Charlie, and, though she had the strong sense that the woman did not appreciate extraneous touch from strangers, took her hand. "Charlie, should I call someone?"
All the while, she could feel the presence of the man at her side, and despite his distress, found it at once comforting and wholly unsettling.