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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXAdq7WGPo
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡMkdHM5HP3i
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqgPucNn2T
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7eRIshPpYE
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKZ1sL69Ba
I am Seventeen, she thought. My Name, My Purpose.copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNAIC5UqsX
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAbaiEr83p
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡNSaMTCy0M9
“No, please,” Seventeen managed to stammer. “I – I –“copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡadWLWzRRZk
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiU0tdEUlI
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9AvVt8ttU
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡDE8Aq49hV9
“Donic!” he shouted.copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡBJswJVJoQ5
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6beHG9aODE
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡIgjQRJU00Q
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCzD8izRGp
"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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNAbuglF4Y
What am I?copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNfDE6my7n
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡoiZYV7huZY
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWLu7gKsVP
“Who are you?” said Seventeen, her feet now slick with mud.copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡrfDGThMgQU
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡDfcDd8LuCK
“I…I…” Seventeen reached for the only name she knew she had. “I’m Seventeen.”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡswGe0OuLgp
“Okay, you’re name…” Brom looked puzzled as they walked. “Your name is Seventeen. How about your age, how old are you?”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡBHFeoywbPm
“I – I don’t,” Seventeen stuttered. “I know things, but some things are missing.”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tBi6PqSj2
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMyj0z7uln
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡUW5Abt9HEY
“Yes, yes that’s right,” Brom said. “You know what we are? What that means?”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KrF2yusqO
“N – No,” Seventeen admitted."It was a guess, maybe intuition. Things are...confusing.”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3B3mBDt6Y
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1VXB6qKN5
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRQaxSJ2l9
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQcsUy3x2a
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡwUbrRMxiwl
“We had no idea you were there,” Brom admitted. “But we’ll find you some place to call home.”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡnfdeqL69Nr
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡiEiv6c4aJ6
"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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡkf1wHSieaP
“I don’t know,” Seventeen admitted. The Thin Man’s tone was sour. “Did I do something wrong?”copyright protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡAy5OMvzSEm
“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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡkX1Cs8Pxiy
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 protection433ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDOF9vxsKH
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