l'appel du vide (henry creel fanfiction)

013

Amelia was following Dr Brenner down the confusing halls of Hawkins Lab, violin case in had. It was very evident that her father had mixed feelings about what was going to happen today. But she didn't let his stress stress her out.

"Amelia are you sure you want to do this?" Dr Brenner slowed his pace and looked at his daughter.

Amelia laughed softly. "Yes, why wouldn't I?"

"It hasn't even been a day since your last test." Her father tried to reason with her to not do this today.

"But this isn't a test. I am just meeting with Eleven." Amelia reasoned back. She gave her father a warm smile. "We don't even know if this is going to work. She could just completely ignore my attempts." She shrugged and watched her feet as she walked.

Dr Brenner shook his head. "She won't."

Amelia looked up at her father. "How do you know that she won't?"

Dr Brenner sighed, deciding whether or not he should tell her. "She has been drawing you, Amelia."

"I'm sorry, what?" Amelia stopped walking and looked surprised.

"Eleven has taken a liking to you. She tried to hide the picture from me. But she has been quite keen on drawing what she can remember of you." He said before turning to his daughter. "You don't feel weak or nauseous, right?"

Amelia laughed at her father's concern. "Father, I am fine. I feel fine." She paused. "I promise." She added with a smile.

"Ok, I believe you." Brenner threw his hands up in surrender. "Are you ready then?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." She smiled and tucked her violin case under her arm as she walked into observation room numbered 11.

~~~~~~~

Eleven was known as the most difficult out of the children, obviously ignoring Amelia as she has always been the worst.

Eleven rarely spoke. She had trouble forming words. And unlike the other children, she wasn't around people who would help her learn.

She was always made fun of for being weak and powerless compared to the others but she never stopped trying her best to please Papa.

Today, Eleven was in the Rainbow Room drawing. She had lessons soon, so she was really just wasting time. She drew what she always did, her and Papa in the Rainbow Room. Her drawings never really branched out from that.

Eleven was so caught up in her drawing that she didn't notice Peter Ballard pull up a chair and sit next to her.

He sat and watched her for a moment before speaking up, "What are you drawing, Eleven?"

Eleven looked at Peter for a silent moment then stated. "Me and Papa." She pointed to herself and then Dr Brenner respectively as she respond to Peter's question.

"It looks very good, Eleven." Peter encouraged causing a small smile to form on Eleven's lips. "Do you mind if I join you for a little while?"

Eleven didn't mind so she rolled some of the colored pencils between them and Peter picked up a brown. Eleven watched him for a second before continuing on her own drawing.

"You really like drawing, don't you Eleven?" Peter asked, semi-paying attention to his own drawing.

Eleven nodded. "Yes."

Peter smiled. He put down the brown and picked up the green. "Eleven, have you ever climbed a tree?"

Eleven's face contorted into confusion.

"I'll take that as a no." Peter chuckled. "I did it all of the time as a child. Before I was stuck here."

"Stuck?" Eleven repeated in her own form of a question.

"Yes, I am stuck." Peter sighed and showed her his drawing of a tree. He folded up the paper and handed it to the girl. "But that is a story for another time, I'm afraid." Peter nodded to Eleven and stood up. Walking back to the front of the room to keep watch over the children.

Just as he got to his post, Dr Brenner walked in looking for Eleven. His eyes briefly landed on Peter and Brenner instantly knew he had done something. He decided to deal with that later and kept his search for Eleven. When he finally laid his eyes on her, he walked up to her and greeted her.

Eleven was in her own thoughts when Papa walked over and sat down next to her. She looked up at her Papa and gave him a small smile.

"Good morning, Eleven." Dr Brenner said with a warm smile.

"Good morning, Papa."

"How did you sleep, my child?"

"Good Papa," Eleven said in a monotone voice. She says the same thing every day.

Eleven kept messing with the pencil in her hand. She was always nervous when her papa came to get her for her lessons. But today felt different.

"Are you ready?" Dr Brenner asked the young girl, standing up and offering her his hand.

"Yes, Papa." Eleven took his hand and stood up next to him. She kept her eyes straight ahead while Dr Brenner led the way to her lessons room.

"Eleven, I have some other things to tend to today, so you will be having lessons with someone else, ok?"

Eleven nodded. It wasn't like she had much of a choice either way.

Dr Brenner opened the door and ushered Eleven in. Her eyes lit up when she saw Amelia sitting at the table, patiently waiting for the younger girl.

Amelia looked up at the girl and smiled. Eleven sat down beside Amelia and watched her expectantly.

Dr Brenner left the room and Amelia let out a laugh. "He is so professional, all of the time."

Eleven smiled at her laugh, despite not knowing what professional meant. Amelia must have sensed her confusion and nodded. "Meaning he is not like me. He wants everything to be perfect. I am just here for the sake of being here. Like with the disk game. He would expect you to get it each time, whereas I don't care. All that matters is that you find your own way to succeed."

Eleven nodded, somewhat understanding what she meant.

"But nevermind Dr Brenner, onto us." Amelia pulled her violin over and started opening the case. "You haven't heard me play before right?"

Eleven shook her head. "What is that?" She asked as Amelia pulled out the stringed instrument.

Amelia displayed the instrument on her lap. "This is a violin. It is an instrument used to create music." She picked it up and held it like a guitar, strumming her thumb across the four strings.

Eleven reached out and plucked one of the strings. She had a smile on her face when it made a noise.

"These four strings are all tuned differently. And from those four strings, you can press down in certain spots to get different notes."

Amelia demonstrated this by playing a scale.

Eleven was entranced by the instrument, listening contently as Amelia explained how it worked.

Amelia picked up the bow and ran it across the rosin. "This makes it so the bow will make noise as it goes across the strings."

Eleven blinked and watched her.

Amelia brought the bow up to the metallic string. She glided the bow across it and an out-of-pitch G rang out. Amelia's mouth twitched with discomfort as she immediately tightened the string, plucked it again, and sighed with relief when the note was in tune.

And with that, Amelia lifted the violin up again and began to play.

~~~~~~~

This is like part one of four other parts. This took me so long to write, the about 5,000 words that is.

Je t'aime.

~Author