Black Beauty

Chapter 3

Eleven is shocked to see her fellow prisoner. "Seven?" The older girl only stares at her, gears turning in her mind.

"El-" The girl's voice is strained, stammering, like she hasn't spoken in a very long time. The last time Eleven had seen her, her hair was a short, black fuzz lining her scalp. Now it is longer, the flat strands sticking in every direction and framing her thin face. She is emaciated and dirty, unlike one year ago when she and Eleven were both still trapped in the lab. "Ele..ven?"

"You know each other?" Mike asks her, all of them crowding the back of the bus, hiding from the helicopter overhead. The teen looks back and forth between Eleven and her friends, not knowing if she can trust them or not. Did Eleven escape or was she sent by them?

Lucas is mum, narrowed eyes taking in the stranger. Dustin, eyebrows raised, jumps on the teen. "You're Seven? As in, you're from the same place as Eleven? Do you have powers? Can you do things with your mind?" Filly recoils from the excited boy. "Sorry!"

Eleven nods. "Seven... got away. A year ago." Lucas' gaze softens a touch.

"I... not Seven now. Filly." She hesitantly reaches for the younger test subject. "Eleven. Long time."

Eleven reaches out as well, sitting near the girl on the floor of the bus. "Didn't know you were... here," Eleven says softly. "I got out. Sorry I didn't look."

"Okay. You... not know." The smile feels foreign on Filly's face, the muscles crying from the motion. She just wants to make the girl feel better, but they are weak from disuse. "Happy you here. Long time alone." She's trying her best to make sense, but there are peices she's missing. She feels dumb. She knows there are bits that go between those words, but how does it all fit together again? How can she construct a sentence when it's been so long? When she reads, she can pick out key words and meaning, but the details have become lost to her. Things like "is," "and," and "to" have faded from her memory. She can't remember. She misses her dictionary more than ever.

Eleven is silent now, but the other boys want to know more.

"So, you're... Filly? I'm Mike." He sticks his hand out for her. She had seen him do this with the other boy, Lucas. Timidly, she does the same but isn't expecting the strength of his grip. "This is Dustin," he says, pointing to the boy with missing bones, then points at the dark skinned boy. "And this is Lucas."

"We're Eleven's friends, do you know what that means?" asks Dustin.

"Yes. I... remember friend."

"Okay, okay! You seem to know how to talk pretty well," begins Lucas. He's hoping she has information that can help them find Will. "Can you tell us anything about the lab? Anything you remember is fine."

"Bad place. Evil people. I not like remember." She doesn't want to talk about that place. "Bad people chase you. I same."

"S-Filly," Dustin says. "Our friend is missing.  We want to find him and if you can help, we... would really appreciate it."

Appreciate: verb, value /əˈpriː.ʃi.eɪt/

1. to recognize how good someone or something is and to value him, her, or it.

2. to understand a situation and realize that it is important.

It was one of the words at the start of her dictionary. Hearing the way the child speaks, pleading with her in his way, it tugs at her heartstrings. Black Beaty had been a horse and even he could speak to his friends.

"Not want remember... I help. Ask." She tries to listen to how they say things, tries to remember how she used to say things. "Um... Ask m-me what...you need?" She is doing her best. The dark haired boy leans closer to the two girls, hopeful.