Red, White and Green: A (Horror) Love Story

Scene of Spiels

(POV of Eleven) (SWEAR WARNING)

Some introductions and an oddly specific count of Ten Million and Five-Hundred Fifty-Three footballs later, and we are done Boarding the place. Footballs are, as I've said earlier, not good for anything other than football. We've more so built a shelter within the library than really boarded it up. We've made a chamber entirely out of thick layers of my spare footballs, relying on the quantity of them alone to keep the threatening humans at bay. Only laptops and our glowing blocks illuminate the extraordinarily mysterious place we have ourselves in.

I hold Fourteen's hand, loving him evermore. For the first time in a while, I feel hopeful. Just me and him, and the five strange white humans who have joined us. Greg, the bulky rude guy, Dave Matthew, Elise the furry, Ruby the pretentious one, and, last and likely least, the quiet, twelve year old, bearded Gott.

They all feel off to me. Within the comfort of Fourteen I'm safe, but that doesn't mean we trust any of these people. Numberland has been through some tough times, clearly, but no one ever acts as out of line as quickly as these rowdy people just did.

Without prompting, the hunk of rancid human known as Greg challenges me again.

"What do you want with us? Have you come to... Abduct us, or something? You'll have to fight me if you wanna do that."

"Slow down, idiot." Elise smacks him across the face with a small hand, much like a cat's paw. "Let em speak. Go on."

"We aren't here to hurt you dudes or anything wild like that." Fourteen attempts to confirm. "We're here because we're in a jam ourselves. Things for us are totally messed up back at home, and we think you guys know why. Sure, we're kooky aliens, or impossible, or whatever. But, again! We aren't here to hurt you guys."

"We're sorry we snapped." I breathe, reflecting on the things I just did to them in rage. "We're struggling, you see?"

"Okay, but who the hell is 'us'?" Greg frets, fear starting to show in his face.

"I'm not afraid of you. I know you guys are Numberblocks." Gott softly confirms. He types a little, then turns back to face us. I look at Fourteen, then back to Gott.

"You're Eleven and Fourteen. That's what it says on your heads."

"Thanks Captain Obvious. Next you'll tell us they're made of blocks." Ruby snickers.

"Shut up! I know these numbers and you don't." Gott snaps. I grew sympathetic for him.

"Yeah that's because you watch baby shows. You need to watch them to learn how to do basic things." Greg laughs. "You probably think nasty things about them too, huh?"

"No one asked you to speak." Elise snapped.

"No one asked you to be born, furry." Greg rudely retorted.

Eleven and I get visibly tired of this nonsense. Did humans really bicker over things this small? No wonder whoever came up with our stupid love story really didn't have any better ideas.

"I really just... Don't want to be here right now, can we be more virtuous and speed this up?" Dave Matthew sighs, rescuing our time. "What duties bring you here, weird Numberblock organisms? Don't waste the most precious resource of all. I'm talking about time, of course." Dave begs.

I'm so enamored with Fourteen I forget what to say for a second. The expectant and unwelcoming stares from the humans snap me back into reality. I begin to swing Fourteen's hand.

"We think that a human somewhere on this planet is influencing us." I say. "See, I'm in love with Fourteen." I say more blankly than ever. And I say a lot of things blankly.