Seven

Nathaniel

A siren woke Natalie up in the middle of the night. An ambulance siren. She sat straight up in bed, glancing around in the pitch darkness. The sound slowly faded away, and as it did so did her pounding heart beat. The castle wasn't on fire, her mom hadn't called 911, everything was fine, for her at least. For a moment, Natalie felt bad for being relived, the fact that something wasn't happening to her home and family meant it was happening to someone else and their family.

Natalie wasn't particularly religious, but her contact with the Seven had forced her to acknowledge that something did occur after death. She sent a quick prayer to whoever might be up there, that wherever the ambulance was going, it wasn't going to pick up a corpse.

Feeling like she'd done her part she collapsed back into bed, falling back to sleep instantly, not to remember this incident the next morning.

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Three days later, it was a friday, and Natalie was very happy. Her mother had gotten the weekend off and they were going to drive into the city (it wasn't really a city, just a town much bigger than their own.) and get Natalie her driver's license. They only had one car, and Natalie knew she wouldn't be driving it often because her mom had to use it but still, it was a big step.

On top of that, she hadn't seen the Seven in a full two days. She thought that was a good thing but in their absence, she found she rather missed their antics.

That morning though, when she had gone down to the kitchen her mother had appeared rather somber.

"What is it Mum?" Natalie asked worridly, was she getting called into work? Could they not get her license?

"Do you remember our neighbor? Clarissa?" She asked.

"Clarissa Elver? Yeah I remember, she has a son right? Nathaniel." Natalie replied. Who didn't know Ms. Elver? she was rather infamous.

"Yes, well, a few nights ago, she passed away. I saw the obituary in the paper this morning." Her mother pointed to a newspaper on the table." Natalie frowned and picked up the gray paper. She saw a picture of a beautiful woman with a smirk on her rosy red lips.

"She died in childbirth." Her mom said just as Natalie reached that part of the article. Nathaniel was going to be a big brother, and now he was an orphan. Natalie felt absolutely horrid for worrying about her drivers license when a boy the same age as her, 17, had just lost his mother.

Natalie had been friends with Nathaniel when they were little. He was the only other kid she knew who only had a mother. They had bonded over that, but once middle school came around, she began to understand the difference between their mothers and like everyone else that knew, she turned away from him. Natalie hadn't even seen him in over a year.

When faced with raising a child on her own, Natalie's mother had worked her ass off and gotten a good job and moved all the way to Ireland to give her child the best. Clarissa on the other hand, had arrived in the area with an infant and no skills. She had worked at the pub in town, and sold more than just drinks to the men who walked through the door, to make ends meet.

Natalie understood now how hard it must have been for the poor woman. She had obviously run away from something, and in her search for shelter had succumb to desperation and been shunned by society. She wondered what was going to happen to Nathaniel now.

Her mother patted her on the shoulder, blue eyes filled with honest sorrow. It had been a long time since Natalie had seen her mother look so sincere. It was just a shame that it only came out at a time like this.