𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ✪ 𝙬. 𝙗𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙨

★01

chapter one.
the arcade
━━━:*𐐪𐑂 ﾟ*:✧

𝙀𝙈𝘽𝙀𝙍'𝙎 𝙀𝙔𝙀𝙎 𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝘿 in the darkness, the only light in the sea of black that was the forest. The pale moonlight narrowly cut through the gaps in the trees, reflecting in her misty brown eyes. Everything hurt. Her chest felt close to collapsing, her legs shaking and exhausted from all the running she was doing. Her breath was coming out in pants, long hard gasps for air. But she couldn't stop now. She had to keep running. A voice inside her spurred her onwards, as fast as her legs would permit.

Eventually, the forest came to an end, and Ember found herself at the side of a road. She winced as her bare feet made their way onto the pavement, stepping on a sharp pebble. She had seen pictures of roads like this in her storybooks. If she kept going, she might find houses, and people. So she carried on along the dashed yellow lines, her head feeling light and her body weary. 

A car eventually came racing along, completely unaware of the small girl who was trudging along in the middle of the road. Ember turned around at the sudden noise of brakes screeching just in time to see the car halt just in front of her, a mere few inches away from death. 

A woman hopped out of the car, racing to her. "Are you alright, dearie? My goodness, you gave me quite a scare! What are you doing out here on your own at this time of night?" Endless questions upon questions that made Em's head spin. "I-I'm sorry." was all the poor overwhelmned child could stutter out. The woman tutted in sympathy, hugging her with one arm and bringing her towards her car. "Just take a seat, love, I'll get you to wherever you need to go."

━━━:*𐐪𐑂 ﾟ*:✧

It was growing dark by the time the car pulled up to the arcade. After some broken conversations with Ember, who had asked the woman where people like her would be, she had suggested the arcade ("That's where all you youngins' hang out these days, spending all our hard earned money on video games!"). So Em had asked to be brought there, in the hopes of finding someone very dear to her.

The bright neon lights lit up the dark sky, and the loud music and the chatter of people broke the dull silence of the night. Ember stopped to peer at her reflection in the front window of the building. The tiredness in her large, doe eyes was illuminated by the bright colours of the arcade. Her long blonde hair now fell limply past her shoulder in untamed curls. The freckles splattered across her cheeks were now accompanied by flecks of dirt from her journey, and her hospital gown was wrinkled and smeared with mud around the hem. She sighed. So much for a good impression.

She turned towards the door again only to find a boy about her age staring out across the road. His back was turned to her but he seemed off, almost as if he was in a trance. Ember hadn't noticed him earlier as she was too busy inspecting herself. She approached him slowly, not wanting to startle him, and tapped his shoulder lightly. His eyes suddenly snapped back into focus as he jumped, scared by her unannounced touch.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.." she started.

The boy turned to her, and Ember got a proper look at him. His large, dreamy, chocolate brown eyes widened in surprise as he stared at her odd hospital gown and dirty appearance. His light brown hair was styled in a bowl cut, framing his thin peaky face. He had a sense of softness and vulnerability about him, and Ember suddenly felt as if she should protect him.

He smiled gently at her. "Its ok, I wasn't really that scared. I'm Will." He held his hand out to Ember. She glanced down at it for a second before grasping it with her own. She felt a connection instantly, and as their eyes locked, she could see sparks dancing around in his beautiful brown eyes like fireworks. They both seemed almost reluctant to let go, as if they were bound together by an invisible string. This was a new feeling to Ember, but she quite liked it.

The door swung open behind them, causing the two to jump apart quickly. Another boy, this time with black curly hair, and freckles.

"Will!" he exclaimed. "You okay?"

Will's eyes darted between his friend and Ember, before looking back to his friend and muttering "Yeah I uh- just needed some air." Ember could feel Will's friend staring at her, his eyes burning a hole in her head. Her cheeks flushed with colour as he coughed slightly. Will realised what he had seen. "Oh yeah, um, this is Ember" He said her name softly, much quieter than the rest of his sentence. "Cool." His friend said, barely glancing at her. He threw his arm around Will, and began to lead him inside. "Come on, you're up on Dig Dug. Lets get that top score back, huh?" Will smiled over his shoulder at Ember, as he and his friend made their way back inside.

 She realised she hadn't even got to ask them about her missing friend, and she quickly ran in front of the door, blocking the two boys' path. "What the heck dude?" Will's friend exclaimed. "Wait please, I need to ask you two something." His expression softened as he saw the desperation in her eyes.

"What is it?" Will asked gently.

"I'm looking for someone, she's my bestfriend, almost like my sister. She ran away last year.. and I miss her so, so much." She could feel the tears burning in her eyes, but she blinked them away determinedly.

"Well, whats her name?" Will asked softly.

"El"

The two boys looked at each other as their mouths fell open in shock. Will's friend suddenly grabbed her shoulders, staring at the girl desperately "El? As in, Eleven? You know her?"

Ember, slightly taken aback by this sudden physical contact, nodded, not breaking eye contact with the boy, who's own pupils had dilated and became filled with a look of equal desparation.

"Mike-" Will started "You're scaring her."

His friend, Mike, loosened his grip on Ember slightly, but still had his eyes locked on hers, desperately searching them, as if El was trapped inside of them. He snapped out of it, and dragged Will back inside. "We'll be back out in a minute!" He yelled to Ember.

She stood there, dazed. They knew El. She was one step closer to getting her back.

So why could she only think about Will?

authors note wooh first chapterrr