NINE / Growing Pains

She ran through the open clearing, squealing with joy as she chased her border collie. Born on the twelfth of May, they called her June. It was her birthday. Her 'golden' birthday, her brother kept reminding her. "It's getting dark," he warned as the sun threatened to disappear behind the line of trees. "We should start packing up, June."

She frowned at her teenage brother as he lay over on the picnic blanket. His face read 'responsible guardian,' but June knew him better than that. "Five more minutes, Alex," she begged, hoping it would not take much to get him to give in. Not today. Her birthday. Not here. The meadow their mother had always brought them to.

The older boy signed. "I just gave you ten," he attempted to argue.

She pouted her lip at him, a tried and true tactic, but still he did not budge. With a dramatic roll of her eyes, she turned her attention back to the dog. "Come, Willow," she said as she pat her thigh with her hand and lead the dog back to her brother and the picnic blanket.

As she walked, she felt her chest tighten and her heart skip a few beats and she collapsed down on the blanket, out of breath. "Very funny," her brother joked dryly as he got up and began packing items away. But then he noticed her flushed face and heaving chest. Willow, next to her, began barking for his attention. "June?" Kneeling down beside her, he swept the blonde hair out of her face. Then the coughing began. And then she coughed up the slug. And then the blood.

Eyes filled with bewilderment, June looked to her brother. Her protector. But he did not have the answers. Not this time. They were a half a mile away from the car they lived in, and Alex was terrified she would not make it. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he cursed to himself, sweeping her off the ground and making a run for it, abandoning their stuff and hoping Willow would follow.

"Alex," she barely breathed between coughing fits, her lack of oxygen causing black spots to appear in her vision. She was terrified, too.

"Stay with me, June," he ordered through clenched teeth. "Stay with me."

Nine released the girl's hand, and looked toward her face. Her expression was blank and her breathing slow and steady, but her clear green eyes locked with Nine's as if she were trying to pour more memories into her soul. Nine's heart ached for her, and yearned to ask more questions. So many questions, but she did not know how to put those thoughts and feelings into words. In that moment, only one syllable came to her.

"June."

Nine looked to Doctor Owens next, who beamed at her with pride and amazement. To say she did not feel the same feeling of accomplishment swell in her own chest would be a lie. She had done it. She had seen the past; the memory in its entirety, and she was one step closer to helping the doctor help this girl. June.

The past was a power that had come slowly to Nine, but after she grabbed hold of it, her abilities grew at a rapid rate. She was readily taking on all of the energy that had been carefully balanced between her and her twin for so many years. The doctor had been right, her powers were greater than she could have ever imagined them to be. With ease, Nine blossomed into her full potential and a sense of wholeness radiated from within. Her heart felt full for the first time.

Just after visions of the past came projection, and she was able to take June's vision and show it to Doctor Owens, rather than trying to describe it. But his efforts did not cease there. The doctor prodded until she was able to see what he referred to as 'the present.' With a focused touch, she could see through someone's eyes and read their thoughts at the current moment.

It was all so new and exciting and overwhelming. She was flooded with a need to tell Ten. It was a feeling that tugged at her heart, pulling her toward the space where her other half should be. An urge to tip-toe across the room to her sister's bed and crawl in like she so often did when the nightmares hit. To pull the sheets up over their heads, lay a hand on her cheek, and watch her tomorrow. To whisper, 'I see everything, Ten,' to her through the darkness. But she could not. Ten was gone, just like Doctor Owens had told her, and that was the only reason she had taken on the extra abilities to begin with. So she whispered the words into her pillow instead, over and over again.

"I want to try something with you, Nine."
"What is it?"

He called it the Void. As Doctor Owens sat her down at the steel table in the otherwise empty room she had grown all too familiar with, he slid Nine a picture of a boy she recognized as Alex from June's memory. He explained that she needed to try and find him in the so called Void, and that he would appear as a manifestation that she could not touch or read into, he just needed her to find out what he was up to. He warned that he was not too sure if she would be able to accomplish the task, but Nine was up for the challenge.

Once the radio was set to static and the blindfold was around her eyes, Owens observed and Nine focused.

The Void.

The inky floor was wet under her bare feet, and she was surrounded by vast darkness. How was she supposed to find anyone here? Specifically, a stranger. Several attempts to call his name ended in failure. But then, she heard a laugh behind her. One Nine knew well.

Chills ran down her spine at the sound. It could not be. Could it? She spun around and saw a girl in the distance. Slowly, Nine made her way over and the details became more clear.

The girl remained quiet, but with the way she looked around the space and changed expressions, it was evident she was in the midst of a conversation with people Nine could not see. What she did see, however, felt haunting. The girl before her had the most familiar face Nine had ever known. A face identical to her own. But at first glance, everything was wrong. Hair that had once been buzzed had grown out dark. Eyes that had once been dull now illuminated. Cheeks soft, lips pink, and body lush.

But then she studied her closer. Though she looked radiant, the darkness around her tired eyes seemed to be a permanent fixture. The way she chewed her lower lip in concentration was all too familiar, a mannerism they both shared. Even something as small as the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest as she breathed was unmistakable. She chuckled again, the same way she always had, and it pulled at Nine's heart, which yearned to reach out and touch her.

So she did. But the instant her fingers were meant to meet Ten's skin, she vanished into mist, leaving Nine alone in the endless black.

With a heavy heart, she pulled the blindfold from her eyes, but did not allow the jumbled mess of emotions she felt to read on her face. She knew one thing for certain: if Ten was in the void, it meant she was out there somewhere, just how the doctor had explained. And if that were true, it meant he could not find out about what she had seen. He could not know that she was onto his lies. That she suspected his deceit. Not until she figured everything out herself. Owens waited for her on the other side of the table, eyebrows raised expectantly.

"Did you make it?"
"Yes."
"Did you see anyone?"
"No."
"We will just have to try again in the morning."