The Nine's

¹

I scratch another mark into the wall, another night spent here.

I've stopped counting how many there are, I stopped counting at a year. It's just a therapeutic habit now, the only bit of routine I had left.

Before this cell, my routine consisted of waking my two younger sisters before breakfast, and then going to tend to the small garden my older sister let me grow. I was only allowed to grow stuff we could eat.

"Flowers are a luxury" she said, but now, just sunlight is a luxury for me, feeling the rain against my skin is a luxury I crave so much that sometimes I think my hysterics trick me into thinking it's raining just so I'll stop crying.

The breakfast at the compound is just a bland tray of toast and apple sauce, which really makes me miss the burnt bread my sister fed us when we first started staying at the small cabin.

When the portal opened, we were on a Christmas trip to Colorado, the first trip we'd been on together in years, and luckily enough, we were so secluded the orcs didn't dare brave the cold to get us.

The elves however, found a way to stay just far away enough for us to not hear or see them, but they could see us.

I was the first to notice them, I think since I was the one who turned first, my senses heightened first. When I first saw them, I had gone outside after a fight with Cate, my younger sister, the third out of the four. She had thrown the book I was reading into the fire because I said she was annoying me. So rather than throwing her in the fire.

After five minutes outside, I saw a shadow out of the corner of my eye, a very tall slender figure, with long jet black hair with ears pointed out of them.

"You know, you humans have such ugly tempers for such small creatures." he had said to me.

I froze when I heard his voice, it was like a melody, the sweetest tune I had ever heard, but there was a cold edge to it.

"I always thought elves would be snarky." I whisper.

"Oh we definitely are." He stepped closer.

Only then did I turn, and man oh man did he tower over me.

"Are you not scared little human?" he said as he took a strand of my hair between his fingers.

"I'm terrified, but my father taught me to never show it, it gives your opponent a leg up."

"Is your father ethereal too?"

"My father is dead."

He just stared after that, as if trying to pinpoint the words to say next.

"Little human these woods are not safe for a girl such as you."

"My name is Clementine."

He just laughed at me after hearing it.

"Such a fitting name, either sweet or sour, no in-between, and covered by a thin shell."

"You know it's common courtesy to tell your name to the person who told you theirs."

"Elves are different from element witches." And after that he left.

I never saw him again, but his words haunted me for a long time after, until my sisters and I turned.

Element witches? What in the hell were those?

The door to my cell creaks open, revealing the head doctor and, a newer boy beside him.

"Clementine, you have an appointment, come on now."

I slowly turn around staring at Dr. Stevens, my tattered sweatpants twisting around my legs as I do.

"I had an appointment yesterday." I mutter, not looking at him, but at the new guy behind him.

"Ah yes Dr. Andrews has been... relieved of his duties."

That means Dr. Andrews is dead.

I move to put my feet on the floor and hear the shuffle of the guards behind Dr. Stevens.

"Then who ever will ask me the same three questions about where my sisters are?" I run my hand through the small bit of hair that has started growing back since the shaved it the last time.

"Our new recruit Amaury here." He gestures at the boy with his clipboard.

Something about this is wrong. They never let "new recruits" do sessions with anyone, let alone me.

Never one of the precious nine's.

"Fine. Come in new doctor! I don't bite."

"That's not what one of the nurses outside said." I hear him say with a laugh in his tone.

Thank god, someone with a sense of fucking humor.

"Then I guess you should stay six feet away from me at all times." I say.

Dr. Stevens gives him a look as he steps in, a warning look, and then closes the door, leaving just new guy and me.

"So Ms. Davies-"

"Clementine please Doctor."

Then he pulls the chair into where the light can actually hit him, and I'm taken aback. He's tall, not lanky, but well built, I bet they trained him for combat. He's got dark brown hair and brown eyes, which seem even darker given his pale skin, he can't be much older than me, maybe a couple years.

He's one of the most beautiful creatures I've seen since the elf in the snow.

"So Clementine, I see you haven't been eating."

"I hate apple sauce."

He just looks at me.

"Do they not offer anything else?"

"It sure as hell doesn't feel like it."

The corner of his mouth lifts slightly.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" he says.

"I'm sure you've studied me extensively, given your now in charge of me."

"Well yes I have the basics but I want to get to know you."

"Then ask away Doc."

"Amaury is fine."

He's bait. They're trying to see if I'll soften up.

Ha, fuck that.

"Let me save you your breath Amaury , my name is Clementine, I'm the second oldest of four girls, I'm 5'3, my favorite food is anything with pasta, my favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, I'm a Nine."

"Now what is a 'Nine'?" he asks writing something down.

"An old prophecy made by a coven of old witches. They said that after the creatures stories were made of vanished, four siblings would be born, each of their birthdays relating the the number nine. We'll each have a power of life given to us by the Mother based on our hearts."

"And what is your power?"

"The rain." I say, and even uttering the word makes my heart ache.

"Your sisters powers?"

"My older sister Cerys got Earth, Cate, the third youngest, got fire, and Cassandra, the youngest, got wind."

He scribbles something down in his notepad, and gets up to get a glass of water. And when he walks by I smell the strangest thing.

He's not wholly human.