CHAPTER THREE

We took turns with formal introductions after that, walking calmly through the halls of the seemingly empty government prison we'd been confined in. Bill greeted us all with a meek wave, not saying much, just that his name was Bill and also that he didn't like talking much. His skin was average, with a light pattering of freckles—less noticeable than Jack's. He had eyes the color of mossy seawater…though, I'd only a vague clue of what that even looked like. Bill's hair lay flat and course on his head, just reaching past his eyes so that he had to constantly push it away; he didn't want its muddy-brown color to cover his vision. Maurice Volunteered to talk next, which was a thing we found he was rather good at. His personality was the polar opposite of Bill's, and it left me wondering how the two boys got along so well. Maurice was also a little fuller than bill, less skin-and-bones and more substance. Not over-weight, just kind of childish still, with his curly brown mess of a head and his excited grey eyes. Once Maurice started talking, he would not shut up. His cheerful voice echoed about on the concrete walls and floors and ceilings. It was a while before anyone else got to go.

I knew Simon well enough, but he went next anyways, raising his tiny hand in the air for permission. I granted it with a nod, and he shyly smiled at the approval.

"My name is Simon." He said, "And—"

"—the things you draw come true." Jack broke in absent-mindedly.

"No." Simon went on, slightly confused by the red-head's outburst, "I can channel mental wavelengths and strengths. And…I am…seven years old? I think…"

"Good." I smiled back. He did a little skip and walked closer to me. Samneric picked up where Simon left off, once more talking in their strange and familiar verve.

"My name's Sam," The first said.

The other finished, "And my name's Eric."

"You already know—"

"—what we can do."

"Yes, and it helped us escape. We couldn't have done it without you guys." I commended. Studiously, I glanced them over. If you looked close enough, Sam was just slightly taller than Eric. That would be helpful later, I supposed.

"My name's Roger." Roger introduced last, keeping his tone to a low growl. For some reason, Samneric drew away and once I saw them shiver. How strange. Had they known each other before we were locked up? I wonder if they remembered what the real world was like… "I drink blood and—"

Roger was cut off abruptly as he fell back in the line and went to retching up his earlier breakfast in a corner. Jack rolled his china-blue eyes and Samneric, Maurice and Bill turned away. I patted Simon on the shoulder, telling him to stay put, and walked over to help. Once I acted, Jack too followed, falling in besides the ill sort-of vampire. We looked at the color. Red. Go figure.

"You don't make a good vampire, mate!" Jack laughed, all in good humor, but Roger glanced up from his sickness and threw him a look that begged to differ. The red-head backed off.

"Are you okay?" I asked, genuinely worried. Sure, Roger was in all areas terrifying, but that didn't mean at all that I was just going to leave him throwing up all over the place like this.

"I'm…" He answered between bouts of sickness, "…fine! What…do you want! Just…leave me alone! Bugger off…blech. Gross…"

"Nearly finished?" I sighed.

"…Yeah…" Roger responded, downtrodden. He'd stopped puking all over and stood up straight again, wiping off his face with the too-long sleeve of his jumpsuit. We all wore one, all different colors of stitching, but the fabric and main look was the same. Roger's stitching was red, Maurice's was grey, and so on. I think they all matched the colors of our eyes. Or…something like that. "I'm good. Let's go, before those losers find us again and gun us down."

His words reminded me of my song. Not wanting it to come true, I followed both him and Jack as they met up with the others. We walked on this way for quite a while, making small talk. We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves, now that we were free. Where would we go? Someone brought up that we should go to the beach. Someone else asked what a beach was. However, the question wasn't whether or not we should go to the beach. The question was an underlying fear we all had, something that we could not suppress. Something utterly frightening to us.

Escape. Where do we go? What do we do now?

We did not know. Instead of answering outright, someone changed the topic for us. Our minds and bodies were already tired as it was. There was no need in boggling them even more so.

"Ralph, you never introduced yourself." Simon interjected.

"He's right!" Jack scoffed, "What's wrong? Shy?"

"No." I laughed nervously, "I just don't like drawing too much attention to myself."

"That's called being shy, dummy."

"You're our leader, aren't you?" Maurice jibed, "We can't follow somebody that's a mysterious-mystery guy! That would be like…impossible." He said that as if it was awe-inspiring to him. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, who said anything about Ralph being leader?" Jack huffed, "I think I should be leader."

"Nobody's leader." I shot back, "This is a democracy, guys."

"Demo-who-what?" Maurice gaped.

"Like, we're all in charge equally." I tried to explain, not really having a good grip on the meaning of the word myself, "We all get to have a say, then we vote on the best option…"

"We'll never get anything done like that." Jack scoffed, "Everyone would just vote for your own idea."

"Well, you wouldn't be able to do that. We'd have to make rules about that." I defended.

"I like Ralph's idea." Simon shyly commented. I patted him on the head, and he held fast to my arm, stroking it gently every-so-often. If he was any older, it would've been slightly creepy, but in the given situation and how young he was, it was actually a little endearing.

"Thank you, Simon." I awarded. He grinned sloppily.

"Of course Simon likes your idea." Jack huffed.

"Hey, you're still my chief." Roger told Jack, "I can call you that if you'd like."

"Why would you call me that?" Jack asked, taken aback.

"Well…because…aren't you a demon or something?" Roger asked.

"Yeah." Jack responded.

"So, you're a demon, and I'm a vampire, so you must be my chief in some sort of way…I don't know why, really." Roger stumbled, "I'm just…it just came to mind."

"Fine." I broke in, eager to finish this line of conversation as well, "Jack can be called chief if you want, but we're all going to have an equal say. Or, if you like better, Jack and I can share power equally since we're the oldest and you guys can vote on our ideas or give us your ideas or whatever. Which one?"

"I actually like the second one." Maurice laughed. Wrapping an arm around Bill and making the quieter boy blunder away uncomfortably, he smiled wider, "Ain't that right, Bill?"

"Eh…eh….um…sure…" Bill stuttered, "Just, get off of me already!"

"Whatever." Maurice waved him away, and Bill shot him a dirty glare. "You suck the fun out of everything. Fun-sucker. Bill's a fun-sucker."

"We think—"

"—the second sounds very nice." The twins smiled. They were mirrors of the other, like half a person being reflected back to me. Their smiles were even similar, it seemed.

"Alright." I consented, nodding towards Roger and Jack, "How about you two? What do you think? Jack?"

"I think it's alright. I don't really care either way." Roger shrugged.

"Sounds jolly good to me." Jack grinned at me in an offering of friendship. I did the same back, and for the first time I actually felt as if nothing could go wrong. We were in the clear. We would get out and live happily ever after.

"So, you still haven't introduced yourself, Ralphie-boy." The red-head reminded. I puffed a sigh and laughed, trying to rub them away again. Did it really matter?

"Yeah, I know." I said back, "But you all already know my name at this point, I think we're past introductions."

"Just say it yourself and this will all stop." Maurice jeered on with Jack. He got too close to me and I shoved him away in frustration. Seriously, that boy had no sense of personal space. He was in my bubble. That given, so was Simon. But, at least Simon was smaller and less…obnoxious.

"Fine." I scowled, "My name is Ralph. Happy?" And I added at the last minute, just to be honest outright: "I don't know my powers. But I sometimes see this ghost in my dreams named Piggy."

"I see him too." Simon picked up.

"That's only because you spy on my mind while I sleep." I slyly poked him in the nose and he sneezed. We all laughed.

"I'll try to stop that…" The young boy indignantly said when his sneezing fit was over. I rolled my eyes. "Try."

"Try harder."