➮ seven

┊͙ ᴘɪʟᴏᴛ ┊͙

eden coldwell stared at the half-empty cup of camomile tea that sat in front of her on an office desk. water vapour no longer swindled through the air, and she couldn't bring herself to drink what was left.

the chair she sat in felt like a padded rock, and she couldn't shift to make it any less uncomfortable. the swivel chair that sat across from her was barren, and after checking the clock for what felt like the hundredth time, she crossed her legs atop the table.

the door that rested ajar suddenly creaked, winding its way open to reveal a tall, chubby man with furrowed brows. eden snorted in a failed attempt to hide her laughter when his disgruntled face turned to her.

the man, better known as mr. farley, must've been having an okay day because he didn't bother bellowing at her this time. he walked in short, stumpy steps to his side of the desk, giving eden a death glare after noticing her feet on the table. she didn't bother moving them.

"you're awfully quiet today, bob," she snarked, meeting his eyes as he sat in the butt-stained swivel chair. eden faked a sympathetic gaze, "everything okay at home?"

"i swear to god, seven, you better stop it with the comments. or else," he warned with an exasperated look in his eyes.

"or else what?" he only glared at her in response. "fine, fine, i'll stop," eden — or, as everyone liked to call her, seven, reluctantly complied. she drew her legs off the table.

mr. farley sighed, "do you know why you're in my office, by any chance?"

"nope."

"well, seven, according to your pal twelve, you used your bullshit on the damn guy for a fruit by the foot. a fucking fruit by the foot. what the hell were you thinking?"

eden gasped lightly, feigning hurt. "used my bullshit? that's awfully discriminatory, sir."

"you know the rules, and since you don't know how to follow them, your lunches will be  cut short until—" the hairs on eden's neck rose.

and then it happened. eden didn't know what to call it — a miracle, a coincidence — whatever it was, she couldn't be more thankful.

the speakers in the office started blaring wildly, and as if on cue, the door swung open to a frantic man. the "fruit by the foot" man, or the piece of shit rat. either name worked for her. he stared at mr. farley with wide eyes and breathed out, "everyone's runnin' sir, it's like a goddamn rodeo out there."

eden and mr. farley stood up at the same time, which eden found quite heartwarming. farley, not so much. he hissed at her, "you stay right here, fucker," and stormed his way past the desk to twelve. he was farley's little pet ever since he first came to the facility with everyone else.

it was always funny to eden how twelve ended up in a facility for experimenting on psychopaths — right, she forgot to mention that part. she could understand why someone like two ended up there, he was the definition of insane. personally she had always seen twelve as a psychopath, but from a statistical standpoint, it didn't make much sense. sure, he was a total snitch, but he'd always been the most sensitive and sincerely emotional of the group.

the facility, from what eden put together from the last fifteen years, was designed to experiment on psychopaths and basically test their limits. yes, it was totally fucked up, but the people were also extremely dangerous criminals, so it was better than throwing in some guy that stole candy from a store once.

was eden a psychopath? no. well, maybe a bit; but that wasn't her fault. she was thrown into the facility for doing something harmless; existing. see, eden was special — not the 'i'm not like other girls' special, but the 'my existence is fundamentally impossible' kind of special. she had these two abilities, which included telekinesis and a sixth sense of sorts. the latter wasn't very reliable, though.

the basic gist of the story was that once people found out about her abilities, probably thanks to her parents, she was put under the 'dangerous to the entire goddamn world' category on the government's blacklist. (or something like that.) all at the perfectly suitable age of two. from the day she first arrived and got her little number stamp that read 07, eden absolutely despised the place.

so, the moment bob farley's newly bought work shoes stepped out of the tiny office with alarms still blaring behind him, eden sprang to her feet without hesitation, dashed straight past him, and out the door. she felt light, yet hyperfocused, and could barely process the shouts and stomps behind her as she sprinted down the hall.

eden wasn't sure who was making this happen. if she missed out on some plan with everyone else while she was in the office, or if a mysterious dude had one it. what she did know, is that she was in debt to them. her hands effortlessly flew in the air and flung a security guard out of her way, a pang of remorse settling in her stomach as the guard's head banged against the cement wall.

euphoria bubbled within eden to replace the short-lived guilt, her legs picking up the pace as she ran without thought. this was it. if she could just make it to the rest of the group... she would be free.

a large door with a keypad next to it was closing excruciatingly slowly, a potted tree sitting innocently next to it. eden slid onto the floor nearly making it under when—

slam.

the heavy door reached the tiled floor right in front of eden, and she banged her face on the reinforced iron. groaning in pain, she forced herself to stand quickly and turned to face a group of guards with guns all pointed at her.

"put your hands up or we'll shoot," one of them commanded. it was a tall woman with a voice way higher than it should be for her stature. not that it was a bad thing.

"aw man, and i was so close!" eden whined, throwing her arms up, palms facing the guards. she smiled.

"but you guys are still that dumb."

she flicked two fingers up, and the innocent little tree flew straight at the tall guard, knocking her to the ground. the now-bloodied pot wiped out the other two, and eden dropped it straight afterward. a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead, and a huff escaped her lips with it. was it really that exhausting to throw a tree around?

glancing down the hallway to make sure nobody was coming, she then dropped to her knees and hastily searched the pockets of the guards. a little 'aha' came out and her mouth turned up in a triumphant smirk, her hand slipping a keycard out of one of their pant pockets.

she shoved it straight into the keypad, surprised at how easy it was to get past everyone. why wasn't there more security guards coming after her? was it because it was a sunday? eden glanced back at the guards sprawled on the floor. it was probably a good thing they weren't there.

the door made a vrr sound as it slowly opened up. it revealed a hallway, and eden caught a few people in the corner of her eye, stumbling their way out the door just down the hall, but she didn't care in the slightest about catching up — at least not anymore. she didn't care about how easy it all was. she didn't care that the only people she knew in her life were sneaking off.

because there was sunlight right before her that blinded her eyes, frying her iris straight down to the cones, overloading her senses and burning into her pupils. fifteen years of bullshit, and it would be gone with just a few footsteps.

—
a/n: a big thanks to bluexgomez for editing this chapter! go check out their stuff!

also, if you're enjoying the story so far, please leave a vote or a comment!! the next chapter will come out in a week or two, i've just been busy recently.