Stranger Seven (Mike Wheeler)

0.98

Running. Running without stopping. Constant burning in the legs. The feeling of immense exhaustion. A daily experience for the girl.

She'd been there for a year. Surviving off of scraps, that she somehow managed to obtain. The boy had been there for about a week. His name was Will, and since he was a fragile person who had been living in the main dimension, the atmosphere did a number in his health. The girl had to get him back.

As the girl bolted past the grayish forest, she took note that this running experience was much different than usual. There was the boy, running behind her. He was scared, and tears were welling at his eyes and running down his pale cheeks.

His hair was messy and it looked like a bowl, turned over on his head. He had been taken to the dimension by the monster. Yes, she had powers, but she never brought herself up to kill it. She was always too weak.

Sooner than she expected, they arrived at the portal.

"H-hey this place looks just l-like my house!"

She didn't utter a word back and leapt through the portal, throwing the boy in first. She could feel herself falling into the real world- right in front of the monster. The girl realized it had latched it's horrid, spiny, fingers onto her ankle, as it let out a horrid roar.

The portal closed on the monster, killing it. But due to it's grasp on her, she plummented onto the concrete line, faster overall than the boy did.

In the rush that was transferring dimensions, she skidded to the ground, hitting her head once hardly on the road. As the girl lost consciousness, she sensed the boy going over to her. She could feel his worry like a radiant wave, and the last thing she saw as she blinked out of consciousness, was one car in the distance, slowly inching towards her and the boy.

Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep

A monotone beeping noise plagued her ears, and she allowed her eyes to open. White. The first word that came to mind was white. She let her weak blue eyes travel from the ceiling to in front of her. At the door of the strange room was a man in a blue coat, and a woman with shoulder length brown hair. 

Confused and overwhelmed, the girl layed back to hear what they were speaking about.

"Well, this girl doesn't seem to be registered as a resident... and we haven't tracked parents anywhere in Indiana. Anywhere in the states! Anywhere! It's like she just... appeared! But since we couldn't find any parents, we-"

"I can take her in. maybe she could be company to my youngest."

Everything was confusing the girl more and more. She sat up, and rubbed her head, feeling her (now clean) golden hair once again. She opened her brown and looked to her bedside, where an odd machine sat. The machine must've been the cause of the beeping noise.

The woman turned around and saw her, then gasped. She went over to sit down by her bed, and take the girl's left wrist in her hand. 

"Hi, sweetie, I'm Joyce!"

The girl nodded. She liked Joyce. She had a surpsised and happy air about her, and it seemed contagious.

"You..you saved my son! I don't know what from. He goes on about some monster, but you know... boys!"

She nodded again. She really didn't know boys.

"Do you have any parents?"

The girl distinctly remembered papa, but immediatlty shook her head no. 001 had told her that papa was not their dad. He was their captor.

"Oh. Well, I'll be taking you in. Do you know what year you were born?"

She nodded for the third time. The girl remembered breaking into the office and looking at the tan folder. Or trying to read it, since she wasn't old enough to do too well.

"Good! 1972? Maybe?"

The girl nodded again.

"Ah, I figured as well. My son is the same age, so you two should get along nicely. The hospital cleaned you up, and you should be out of here by tomorrow. What's your name?"

 She wondered what her name was. All she could remember was being called Seven. That's all. So she showed Joyce the only form of identification she had. The girl slowly showed Joyce her right wrist, and there it was. The permantent mark. The three black numbers that were etched into her skin forever.

007

"Seven? What a peculiar name... where'd you get it?"

Seven shrugged. She had guessed that her name was Seven... was it really odd?

Joyce moved her own hand to seven's and squeezed it lightly, smiling.

"Well, welcome to the family. Anyway-"

Mirthful yelling was heard, and a lock clicked. Will was at the door, grinning. Seven watched him lightly nudge another boy, that caught seven's eye.

He wasn't too tall, but still shorter than him was Will. He had floppy, straight, black hair, and freckles of such a large number that seven was strongly reminded of stars in the sky. He had deep brown eyes that she realized were lingering on her, yet she ignored the tingling feeling at the pit of her stomach. H

She smiled lightly, causing him to give her a grin that caused her to widen her smile. Will walked over to her.

"Hey, what's youwr name?" Will asked, skipping over. For a five year old, he had good speech. Minus the slight 'w' sound that he added in.

She turned her gaze to him, and answered- "Seven."

"Seven? coowl."

Lastly, the freckled boy walked over. He had an air about him that Seven had never felt near any other person, ever. He was also calm and collected. But his emotions had a barrier of... something like fog, clouding them. She couldn't read him. That she didn't like.

"Oowh, we have to show her that bwook we bwought 'bout dungeons and dragons!"

"Will, is she gonna be your sister?" The freckled boy said. "Yeah." Will grinned, swinging his feet from the side of the bed that he was sitting on.

"I havennt intro-ma-duced my self yet." Freckles stated proudly, showing off his new word, "I'm Micheal "Mike" Wheeler. What's your name?"

"Seven."

"Cool." Mike said. Will liked that word, and he repeated it in his tiny voice. They then began to chat about the book, and said that Mike's older sister had helped them read it. Seven was now sitting cross-legged on the the white bed, enjoying the playful, happy, chatter. Of course, when that was asked, she thought about her odd name. And she didn't want to say it.

Joyce had left the room, to let the kids chat.

"Well, I'm gonna gwet mommy to see if I cwould get Nancy to wead with us tomowwow." Will said, hopping off of the bed and skipping out. He had a blissful happiness radiating with him, and it lingered after he left.

"You don't really talk much." Mike said, thoughtfully looking at her. He climbed fully onto the bed and sat cross-legged in front of seven.

"True." Seven said, tilting her head slightly.

"Why are you named Seven?"

She showed him the wrist, again. The curious boy reached forward, and moved his hand to touch the little tattoo and see if it was real, but Seven snatched her hand back, and said,

"Don't touch."

His eyes widened, and he said- "Oh, I'm sorry. I should've asked..."

He scratched the back of his neck. Seven then realized that the air around them was completely clear. She couldn't detect any of his emotions. The only other person she'd met like him was papa himself. Papa gave a cold, unloving air whenever he was around... but that wasn't the same for mike. And seven was usually frustrated by these people, but strangely, Not in this case. Not with Mike.

"Anyway, if you do become Will's sister then you can hang out wif us. We're pwetty lonely some-a-times.

W.C:  1378