Lost ❄️ Reddie

32

Richie fell on his side and could already feel a bruise forming. He had no clue where he was. It was dark outside, but the sun was slowly rising. It had been sunny where the safe house was, so Richie assumed he ended up in another place and time zone altogether.

He felt so guilty. Eddie seriously thought that he was working for Brenner and had turned him and the others in for money. Well, everyone except Greyson thought that. Obviously he knew, or else he wouldn't have told Richie to go get help.

"Where did he send me?" Richie asked out loud, looking around himself.

He noticed he was on a gravel path, a main road behind him, and further down the road... he didn't know. Yet Greyson must've sent him there for a reason and he was going to find out.

Cautiously, Richie started down the path. He walked in the bitter air for nearly an hour before he came to a house. Its lights were off, but as Richie went to knock on the door, it opened before his hand touched the old wood.

Behind the door stood a boy and a girl, both blond with similar looks on their faces. It didn't take Richie long to realize they must be twins.

"We're not interested, sorry," the girl said, trying to shut the door.

"Greyson," Richie said, and the door stopped closing. "I was sent by Greyson."

"He doesn't send people," the boy said, clearly hinting at the fact that Greyson could use portals to get wherever the hell he wanted.

"Brenner got him. He also got Eddie, Kali, El, Georgie, and Avi," Richie said, watching as the twins shared a confused look. "Sorry, they also got Eight, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen."

"There's only thirteen experiments, human," the girl said bitterly, trying to shut the door again.

"They need help! Please!" Richie said, pushing the door open.

He barely got inside when he heard a crackling sound and saw the girl holding a wispy flame in her palm. They boy stood beside her, sparks of electricity flying between his fingers.

"How do we know you're not with Brenner?" the girl asked, making the flame get bigger, obviously threatening Richie.

"Greyson sent me through a portal to find you so you could help him! How else would I have found you?!"

"Katie, maybe we should-"

"Shut up, Edwin. We don't have time to deal with Brenner's people!"

"If Brenner was here he wouldn't let someone else make the grand entrance. He's a dramatic piece of shit."

Richie sighed. "Exactly! We need to move! They need help!" he exclaimed, walking toward the door again.

Much to his dismay, the boy twin, Edwin, walked forward and grabbed his arm, tugging him toward the living room. He ignored Richie's pleas and sent his sister away to the back of the house.

"What's your name?"

"Richie."

"Why're you helping anyone like us?"

Richie rolled his eyes. "Because my childhood best friend who's also my crush and probably my boyfriend is an enhanced and I need to save him! I have proof, but it's not with me."

"How convenient," Katie said, walking into the room.

Six people were trailing behind her, all looking groggy and annoyed.

"As you've probably guessed, we're some of Brenner's experiments, too. Greyson is the oldest so he made it his mission to find all of us. He managed to get Katie and I, originally known as Two and Three. Then he saved Four, Five, Six, Seven, Nine, and Ten." Edwin paused and pointed at the other people, who must have been the other experiments.

"Why'd you wake us up? It's seven o'clock on a Thursday," one of the numbers said, sitting next to Richie on the couch. "Who's this?"

"One of Brenner's people," Katie said, smirking at the reactions as all of the people jumped away, eyes wide with betrayal.

"Shut up, Katie!" Edwin hissed, shocking here with his gift. "He knows all of the other numbers and we need to save them. Where were you last?"

"Some other safe house," Richie said, glad that Edwin seemed intent on helping him.

"The control house?" asked a thin girl with silvery hair.

"What?"

"Was there someone there learning to control their gift?" she asked, sitting next to Richie. Even her eyes were silver.

"Yeah, there was."

The girl smiled. "They were at the control house. We need to get there."

"That's over four hours away!" Katie whined.

"We have powers, Three," an Asian boy said from the back of the group. "It won't take four hours."

"No one else can teleport, Six," Katie hissed, clearly annoyed that he chose not to use her actual name.

"Maybe not, but Edwin can speed up a car and Nova can steal it," Six argued, nodding to the girl with silvery hair.

"Alright," Edwin said, standing up. "We'll go in a smaller group. Luka, Nova, Richie, Katie, and myself will get to the control house. The rest of you stay here and get to the basement. If Brenner shows up here I don't want the rest of you to get caught. He's smart enough to know that Greyson will have found us, so we're next on his capture list."

Richie, Katie, Edwin, Nova, and the Asian boy, Luka, all left the house, locking it tightly behind them.

"What're your powers?" Richie asked. Even if he was worried about Eddie, he wanted to know as much as he could.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Katie snapped, glaring at Richie.

"I know you can light things on fire," Richie said before meeting Edwin's eyes. "And you can electrocute shit."

"I can turn invisible and Luka can change his appearance," Nova said softly, smiling at Richie.

"Like, into other people?" Richie asked, his eyes wide in interest and fascination.

"Yeah," came a familiar voice from beside Richie.

He turned to see Luka had mimicked his own appearance, looking identical to Richie before shifting back into his original appearance.

"Brenner used to make me pretend to be other people to go in places and steal things. I didn't want to, but I had to. Every time I disobeyed he threatened my friends."

"I'm sorry."

"No harm done. At least I can get into rated R movies without them ever knowing I'm actually only fifteen," Luka said with a small laugh.

Richie was astonished and angry that Brenner would use young people to do his dirty deeds. It made his will to find and protect Eddie even stronger.