She awoke to the smell of something brewing and the feel of a needle in her arm. The need to get away flashed in her mind in hues of red.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKzcccqzsV
“Hmmmmm...patience, Seventeen, patience,” a man's voice said from somewhere else. Somewhere dark and beyond her small scope of vision. He must have noticed her stirring.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3DSyr6dBtx
Her lips were cracked, parched and wanting water. She found the word, made the shape and sounds with her mouth. “Water,” she said, her throat painful and dry.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡWK01DAx8tS
Footsteps approached and put cool glass up to her lips. The water was clear and tasted sweet like honeyed wine. It filled her mouth, then spilled over the edges of her lips when she could drink no more. It flowed down her throat. She wet her lips with her tongue. “Where – “ she began but a finger covered her lips.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡE0u81cfByu
“Save your breath, Seventeen,” the man’s voice said. She knew to not trust that voice; it harbored ill intent and sharp metal behind its resonance. From what place she drew that information she could not say. The light was dim and she could not see. A sparse amount of candles and lamps were placed about the room, though the dark corners seemed to drink the flickering of the flames.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡmX9R637KoW
I am Seventeen, she thought. My Name, My Purpose.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡKT0jsZOXNY
Seventeen dreamed of a well in the middle of a small town. The blacksmith hammering away at metal, the smell of baking bread, her knees scraped and dirty beneath a blue dress. She was young, maybe ten winters old, and she had the sense that someone was waiting for her down on the other side of town. She walked forward down the main road. She could see it now from above, this hamlet. It bordered an ocean so vast and so deep that anyone and anything could be lost in the waves. Everything seemed serene, though there was the sound of boiling water. Seventeen turned to see doors open, more doors than there were in the whole of that small fishing hamlet. Blood wrought forth from those thresholds, mixing and frothing with the earth. The soil stained black. The Moon hung low, the color of a fresh corpse. Yet the blacksmith hammered, the houses were built, and the baker baked. Soon Seventeen was older, the age she was in the time and place as she woke from the dream in a fit of spastic convulsions.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡnF3moTXkDv
As she awoke the sound of metal scraping over metal greeted her like bird's song. “Seventeen,” the man’s voice said. "Hmmmmm..." Fear, cold fear. Hatred, boiling hatred. “I have something for you.” He held out a small vial of something black, draining the ichor into a syringe. “Today is the day, of ah...all days, that we have been w-w-waiting for.”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOmA6N2QpR
“No, please,” Seventeen managed to stammer. “I – I –“copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡUMmjnNY9QH
“Shhshshhhshhshshh…” the man crooned. He placed a hand on Seventeen’s arm, finding the perfect spot and sliding the syringe’s needle into her veins. Seventeen could taste the concoction in the back of her throat. Metallic, hot and acrid in her throat. It burned as she screamed loud, louder than she knew she could. She could feel her arms moving, shifting, gaining mass. Her limbs grew in strength, her muscles gaining tension. She flexed and found herself restrained. Bursting, she felt herself bursting, from her skin as she became something more than just some girl on an examination table. She saw them all, men and women stalking through the marsh, weapons brandished. She saw the Hunters.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhzjaHc76o
“Ahhhhh, it worked…hmmmm…good,” the man’s voice said. He came into view, only for a few moments. A sickly face dappled with grime and blood. He wore spectacles, though his right eye had a pale caul of tissue over the iris. “We’re going to do great things, you and I. Aren't we Seventeen? Hmmmm...great things”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡo5koexmYWF
He reached forward. A gunshot, a splatter of blood. The man stumbled back clutching his arm. “Dammit, damn damn damn damn! Hunters!” he shouted. “No, no no no, I need more time!” Seventeen's eyes adjusted to the light, the man was shoving papers into a satchel, picking through a series of vials, some he drank, some he shoved into his satchel. The sound of snapping wood, doors being broken. The man grabbed an oil lantern and threw it to the ground. The fuel inside spilling about the wooden floor. Seventeen could smell the oil as it caught flame and the floorboards began to creak and moan. More footsteps, racing through room after room. Somehow she could hear them, rushing through each room as if they were searching for something. Seventeen could here their hearts beat, their blood rush, the tension of their muscles. All of it was too much until the pain came back, the lapping of flames at her skin like tongues tasting her flesh. The burning brought her back to herself. She screamed and the door burst open. A man in black raced in.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡlHWQn9zkFB
“Donic!” he shouted.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡgNewcxtryg
Donic walked in, loud footsteps, though measured and calm. Donic was a foot taller than the other man. He was followed by another figure in black, a woman with bleach blonde hair that tumbled just below her shoulders in thin curls.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡczmry5pTv4
“Put that fire out Erin,” Donic barked, the voice of a commander. His pulse was strong, heartbeat steady. Seventeen could feel it inside her head, each of their hearts, she could see the motion of blood through their faces. She blinked, shut her eyes, and screamed as the fire was put out. The other man pulled at her restraints, cutting them with a knife. He wrapped her in a cloak and carried her.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡz75gHrNwyA
“You’re alright now, lass,” the man said. He had a red beard, and deep green eyes beneath a tri-corner hat. Seventeen could hear Donic and Erin rummaging around in the room she was held captive in.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdvJvQZX6m
"Blast and Damn", Donic barked. The fire had caught itself from the brink of being extinguished. It flared up on an a table in the corner of the room, spreading faster as it touched the oil that had been spilled there. Donic and Erin struggled against the fire thinking they had it under control, then decided to leave the room to its fate. By the time they’d all made it out of the building, the place was aflame. A burning estate in the middle of a marsh, tall saw-grass and the stink of sulfurous mud. The evening light of the setting sun paled in comparison to the blaze that was the mansion on fire. Seventeen could feel her skin knit itself together, her burnt flesh healing.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡXvGH7RVCs2
What am I?copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6L5y2HaW8
The man holding her looked down at her. “Can you stand?” said he, settling into a jog. Seventeen could see figures running low though the marsh grasses. The smell of saltwater wafting in from the east, they were heading west toward a tree-line of tall grey sentinels.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡTtwoj4VUgo
Seventeen nodded. She found she was wearing something akin to a medical gown, though some of it had burned away, revealing naked flesh, and most of her left breast. She curled the cloak around her skin, hiding her shame. Standing, she walked with the man and several others. They had reached the tree-line, and presumably safety.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zvvBUhIY7
“Who are you?” said Seventeen, her feet now slick with mud.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQ0fdJZT6I
“I’m Brom,” said Brom. “And you?” He steadied Seventeen, who was having some trouble walking. A new-born horse gaining the use of her legs.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡyuhGx5yzg5
“I…I…” Seventeen reached for the only name she knew she had. “I’m Seventeen.”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRdv5uwpr5
“Okay, you’re name…” Brom looked puzzled as they walked. “Your name is Seventeen. How about your age, how old are you?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡctmltqSxfV
“I – I don’t,” Seventeen stuttered. “I know things, but some things are missing.”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqlSkJ6LVf
“Okay, well, we’ll take it slow then.” Brom patted Seventeen on the back. She flinched, expecting pain, subterfuge. But, it was reassuringly kind. Brom took off his hat, revealing thinning strawberry blonde hair peppered with grey. Seventeen settled, walking with Brom as she found her feet move from mud, to grass, to the humus of a forest floor. She could feel maybe seven figures around her, their footsteps quiet, their breath heavy. They all smelled of blood.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡQcsBUpd7tY
Seventeen hesitated to ask, though found the courage as they approached a clearing where people seemed to have congregated. “You’re…Hunters?” Seventeen said, unsure of herself. The sun had set by this point, the last remnants of light feathered in the western horizon.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡOc3fDDihLh
“Yes, yes that’s right,” Brom said. “You know what we are? What that means?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9WoaLogTx
“N – No,” Seventeen admitted."It was a guess, maybe intuition. Things are...confusing.”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5oUAe4TlyW
“Well right now just know we’re here to help,” Donic said, walking up from behind her. He had patch of scar tissue over his right eye. It crossed above the empty socket in threads of sinuous tissue. His hair was pulled back into a bun, shocked white. “Brom, who is she?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡegee9PNfzF
“Not but a girl, commander. Late teens, says her name’s Seventeen,” Brom said. "She may have the physique of healthy teen but she's severely malnourished."copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ283SGpNVD5
“Hmmm," Donic rubbed his chin, a white and yellow beard wrapped about his chin and above his lips. "Anything else girl?” Donic said, looking down at her. “Where are you from? Where’s your home?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1LIdf9wKiu
“I don’t know, I would tell you if I did,” Seventeen said, a little more sure of herself. “You’re Hunters, surely you knew I was there.” There were glances back and forth among the seven nine who were there. A man in a dark red coat didn't take his eyes off Seventeen. It sent chills down her spine “I…I mean – “copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgZlwudBhl
“We had no idea you were there,” Brom admitted. “But we’ll find you some place to call home.”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7QaHz4a5d8
Donic shot Brom a look of worry, his one grey eye twitching. Brom put his tri-corner hat into Seventeen's lap, then pulled Donic aside toward the edge of the clearing.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjozYbOfb9
"So you a freak or what?” a voice came from the crowd of Hunters. It was the man in the dark red coat, he was playing with a green apple. His high cheek bones made the sockets of his eyes look dark and far away. “Some sort of test subject?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡZFaHiSq0At
“I don’t know,” Seventeen admitted. The Thin Man’s tone was sour. “Did I do something wrong?”copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYw3Ink2nj
“Nah,” the Thin Man said with a sneer. He took a bite out of the apple. The juice dripped down his chin. He chewed for a moment. “Not yet at least.” He walked away, a swagger in his step.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZLadYzREd
Seventeen became aware of all the voices, the whispers and the pumping of people's hearts. It became louder with each moment that passed, with each rapidly increasing beat of her own heart. She could feel it all, the rush of their blood through their veins, the tension in their muscles as they spoke. The grinding of their teeth. But the crunching of the apple; it sounded like ripping flesh, or the breaking of bone. She could see the Thin Man smile in her mind, crooked and wry. She could see them all stare at her, their bodies rising as skeletons as tall as the trees around her. But beneath her, a long river of white light. She felt something rise up from within her, and pull its way out of her mouth as she retched into Brom's hat. She fell to the ground, feeling herself fading, falling, then the Moon above. She was on her back, staring at the sky, trying to figure out why the dark spaces between stars calmed her so.copyright protection551ＰＥＮＡＮＡsikahBfjVg
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