It was eerily quiet in the suffocatingly small room. It wasn't the type of quiet that brought solitude, or peace. It was a deafening quiet.
Or maybe it was just deafening to her. The quiet that she once reveled in was now something that haunted her.
She stared down at the dictionary that laid on her bed, a bed that was nothing more than a small cot. Similar to the one that she had in her old life. An old life that she was forced to pretend never existed. The page flipped as the lights suddenly began to flicker.
She stood up from the cot, looking out the window of her door that was only a few inches wide. She felt a slew of emotions overcome her body as she closed her eyes, focusing on the subtle buzzing of the lights. She could feel her eyes moving behind her eyelids, searching for one particular person. She heard the scream before the alarms had even begun blaring.
"Eleven!" She screamed, banging on the door. Suddenly overwhelmed with fear. But it wasn't her own. It rarely was.
She tried to filter out the alarm shrieking in her ear as she continued calling out to the younger girl. It was only moments later that she saw the girl standing outside her door, breathing heavily like she had just sprinted. And if the fear on her face indicated a thing, maybe she did sprint all the way here.
She nodded her head, watching as the young girl held her hand out, working to unlock the door that trapped her in the prison cell. She watched as the keypad outside of her room snapped, releasing a loud click. She pushed the door open and Eleven looked at her with fear in her wide eyes.
The young girl's lip practically trembled, the dried blood still on her nose from whatever experiment they had forced her to do. She held her hand out to her younger counterpart, which the girl had taken within a second.
She gently dragged Eleven down the halls as they ran together. Every hall she had planned throughout her nine years here. Every hall that she had memorized for this exact moment. She could see the exit just a few hundred feet in front of her and it screamed for her. Begged for her, like she had begged for it over and over again.
"Stop right there!" The orderly stopped in front of them, yelling over the distant screaming and alarms, pointing that Godforsaken remote at the eldest girl. A remote that she was all too familiar with. The lights all flashed before them as she fell to the ground in pain, not allowing herself to scream as the shockwaves flooded her body.
She could no longer hear anything, feel anything outside of the torture that her body was being consumed with. It stopped almost as quickly as it started. She looked up through tear-blurred eyes from where she was balled up on the ground, seeing the orderly in a similar position just a few yards away, except he was unmoving.
It was the younger girl's hand that was held out to her this time. She quickly grabbed Eleven's hand, allowing her to help her up. They ran hand in hand over to the orderly, picking up the remote that lingered in his loose grip.
She pressed the button, releasing the tight electric collar that had been around her neck nearly every day over her nine year imprisonment. She gasped out in relief, touching the vicious indents that it had left in her skin.
"Thank you." She cried out to the young girl.
"Nine?" Eleven spoke quietly as they finally reached the exit, fear radiating off the girl as she let go of her hand.
"Charlotte." She spoke up, pointing a finger at herself with one hand while the other hand was held out to Eleven again. She nodded gently at the girl. "I won't let the bad men get us again." Eleven hesitated for a moment before grabbing the older girl's hand. The door was pushed open with nothing but her mind as she took in a deep breath.
After nine years, Charlotte was finally free.
The moon was bright, almost as if it was excited to see the teenaged girl out in the world for the first time in nearly a decade. It was full, guiding them through the darkness of the woods as they took quiet, careful steps.
The chill in the air was frigid, leaving goosebumps on her and Eleven's uncovered skin. The only protection against the bitter breeze was their designated hospital gowns. Charlotte was luckier than Eleven, having had her hair grown out slightly over the past year, allowing the short brunette tresses to cover her ears.
She distinctly remembered the sound of the female orderly's fingers snapping as she attempted to shave her head again. The woman was screaming and crying as Charlotte refused to move her arms from covering her head.
Charlotte shook the thought away as pictures flooded her memory. Though it was the middle of the night, she still knew exactly where she was going. Her abilities ensured that. The wooden sign that read Forest Hills Trailer Park hadn't changed much in the years that she had been gone. The letters were more faded and the wood slightly starting to rot, but it was exactly how she remembered it.
One, two, three, four…
Charlotte counted each small trailer home they passed, as she continued holding Eleven's shivering hand. She finally reached the one that she was most familiar with. The one that housed her from the day she was born until the day her old life had ended.
There were no lights in the home. A giant padlock on the door that refused to let her or anyone else in.
Not a single sign of life.
The once newly green painted shutters and small front porch were discolored, several windows were smashed out, the white paneling was defaced with faded spray painted images that hadn't been in her memory. But the words she read imprinted on the place she once called home had mocked her.
Haunted Hanover.
The words looked as if someone attempted to scrub them off, but failed to get all of it. Now it served as a gravestone to the life she once lived.
She felt Eleven squeeze her hand tightly, once again flooded with an emotion that didn't belong to her. Charlotte knew that wherever her family was, they weren't here. She looked around the trailer park, hearing loud music that could only be described as noise. She let go of Eleven's hand before quickly running across the street to rip off a dry but cold blanket that had been hanging on a clothesline.
Her eyes made contact with a boy who had longer hair than she had. Hair that surpassed his shoulders. He stared at her through the door of his trailer, watching as she held his blanket in her arms. He opened the door slowly, as if he feared that he would spook her, the loud music got even louder and flooded her ears. Before he could speak up, he watched her dart towards a kid standing in the lawn of the old Hanover house.
He watched as she wrapped the black blanket around the younger kid, before grabbing their hand and pulling them into the woods behind the park.
Charlotte didn't know where to go from here. Her escape plan had never been formulated this far. Every time she envisioned escaping from her prison, she had run home into the arms of her parents. But they weren't here and she had no idea what to do next.
Charlotte stared into the woods as Eleven rested her head on the older girl's shoulder. She felt the young girl shivering in her sleep, causing Charlotte to wrap the blanket tighter around the two of them.
Charlotte barely even closed her eyes, refusing to sleep in order to stay aware of her surroundings. Any slight movement in the woods, any cracking of branches or leaves moving skyrocketed her paranoia.
The sun finally started to rise, casting pink and purple across the trees. It seemed almost as if the world was putting on a show for her, to show her exactly what she had missed. Memories of the sunrise she watched while waiting for her school bus to pick her up each morning flooded her. But even with her memory so strong and precise, it never compared to the actual experience.
She smiled as she stared into the sky, feeling the warm November sun beat down onto her cold skin. Eleven startled awake, staring out at all of the colors.
"Sunrise." Charlotte told her quietly.
"Pretty."
Charlotte heard Eleven's stomach begin to growl, suddenly recognizing her own hunger as well. They had been walking for quite some time before they saw a man carrying out a bag of garbage behind a restaurant, the sign calling it 'Benny's Burgers.'
Eleven looked up at her and she nodded, just putting her finger to her lips in a 'shh' motion as they walked quietly to the opened back door. They were immediately hit with the smell of food that made their stomachs growl even louder, as they walked towards the tantalizing scent.
With a smile on her face, she handed a plate of food to Eleven who immediately began shoving the greasy food in her mouth. Eleven held up a few of the pieces to her, allowing her to share.
They were both so entranced in the taste, they didn't notice the man staring at them from behind the counter.
"Hey!" He yelled, causing both girls to look up in complete surprise. "Come here!"
"Go!" Charlotte told the girl, placing the tray in her hands as she pushed her forward. Eleven held onto the food in one hand and Charlotte's hand in the other as they tried to make their escape. But the man grabbed Eleven before they could make it to the door, causing her to drop her hand and the food. Eleven looked at her with wide fearful eyes.
"You think you can steal from me, boy?" The man asked angrily.
"Let her go!" Charlotte yelled, fury bottling up inside of her. The man instantly let Eleven go, not even realizing he was doing it.
"What in the hell?" The man looked less angry, more confused as he looked at both girls in their hospital gowns and covered in dirt.
"We're just hungry." Charlotte spoke quietly, pulling Eleven behind her in an attempt to protect her.
"Okay." The man nodded. "Okay. I'm not gonna hurt ya."
It was only a few minutes later that the man handed the two of them yellow t-shirts with the name of the restaurant on it and was putting burgers in front of the two girls.
"Thank you." Charlotte mumbled, digging into her burger just like Eleven. The man introduced himself and continued asking questions that both of the girls were reluctant to answer. After finally getting one single answer from Charlotte, he let them eat in peace.
The rest of the day the man, Benny, had played them music and fed them whatever they wanted. As the sky darkened and night fell, the restaurant closed down. Eleven was eating a tub of ice cream while Charlotte was feeling paranoia strike once again. At the sound of a knock on the door, Charlotte jumped up from her spot next to Eleven.
"Alright. You two just sit tight. Whoever it is, I'll tell 'em to go away real quick, alright?" Benny told them, waiting for her to nod. She gave one small nod, letting the man finally walk away. She took the ice cream tub from Eleven's hands, having a small inkling that they were going to have to make a swift escape.
She watched on with worried eyes, seeing the man walk the woman in. She watched the nice man fall to the ground, the woman holding a gun pointed straight at his head. Charlotte breathed heavily as she grabbed a hold of Eleven's hand and began running out of the kitchen.
"Run!" Charlotte pushed Eleven out the side door while two men stopped her, guns pointed directly at her head. Charlotte cricked her neck, causing the two men to fall to the ground while another ran in directly behind them.
"Charlotte!" She heard Eleven yell from outside, obviously waiting for her and scared. Charlotte breathed heavily as the man began turning the gun on himself, he screamed in fear as the girl's nose began gushing blood heavily. She could feel his terror as she forced him to point the gun at himself. The emotion only fueling her anger. Her power. Her vengeance.
"Benny was nice." She spoke quietly as the man in the suit cried out to her, begging her to let him go. She used her mind to force the evil man to pull the trigger, causing him to drop dead in front of her. She took a deep breath, feeling guilty as Eleven stared at her. But the guilt swept away when Eleven held her hand out to the older girl once more, both of them squeezing as they ran into the woods. Away from their captors. Their tormentors.
They were only walking for a mile when rain started to pour down upon them. Eleven shivered as the thunder boomed and the lightning cracked. She tried to stay calm as Eleven's fear was mixing in with her own.
They barely even noticed the three boys standing just a few hundred feet away from them as they trembled, just wanting a warm place to spend the night.