Ten - a stranger things story

Ch. 3. Ten

I run after the stranger trying to beat her there. We are still a ways away but I shout out to them "GUYS SHE'S-" and suddenly she is by my side. Her hand over my mouth her mouth next to my ear. I was to far away. They didn't hear me. "You don't know what your saying boy." She begins to say. "I'm a normal kid. I don't know Eleven. I'm just a normal kid that wants to play with you." I bite her hand and she winces in pain, and removes her hand. "Ulgh!" She groans in pain. She lifts her hand to her face to check if it was bleeding. It was. "You witch!" I yell at her. She drops her head in pain. When she lifts it I see that her nose is bleeding. Suddenly I began to say thinks I didn't mean, nor did I tell myself to say. Like I was under some spell. "Your a perfectly normal girl!" I say eyes shifting side to side, my whole body tense, "I don't know what I'm saying!" Then my knees give out and I fall to the floor. "See? I'm normal." She says with a mix between a scowl and a smirk. "You just controlled my voice..." I say in a soft voice, almost a whisper. "And I'll do it again if you think about telling on me to your friends. In their eyes, at least for now, I should be normal. Got it?" She says. "It's not like I have a choice, do I eye?" I say with more than a hint of anger it my voice. She smirks and says,"Now that's the spirit."

The closer we get to the group the more friendly she began to seem. Her eyes softened, her body loosened, her smile seemed to grow less fake. Almost like it was genuine, almost had me fooled. Almost. As soon as we were in earshot she turned to me and said,"Thank you so much for letting me play. You guys are so sweet." Lucas looked up at her. As soon as he saw her his face just about melted. "Why, your welcome." He said. We all sat down in a circle and continued the game. It was now my turn to dare someone else. "What was your name again?" I ask the girl. "Um... I can't say." She responds. "Why?" I ask. "I just can't." She says. "You don't know your own name?" Dustin asks her. "Of course I know my name. I just can't tell you." "Why can't you tell us?" "Is it embarrassing?" "Do you not trust us?" "Is something wrong?" "What the hell?" "Are you okay?" "Is it foreign?" "Can you not pronounce it?" WhAt ThE?" WHY WONT YOU TELL US?" "SOME THING IS FISHY-" "I DONT TRUST THIS-"

"MY NAME IS TEN!"

My jaw goes slack. Her jaw clenches and her eyes grow red. Watery, as well.

Have you ever watched a movie, where you are sort of at a slow part, the storyline isn't very interesting, and you start to zone? Then when you focus again the movie is completely different, and your frustrated because you know you missed something.
That just happened to me.
But in real life.

The next thing I know, Lucas is on top of the girl, ten as we just learned, and if shaking her violently. He starts slapping her, kicking her punching her, all while screaming what sounds like complete gibberish. And she just takes it. He is scratching, clawing, and hitting her, but she does nothing. "YOU MONSTER!" He screams. "YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING US! YOU KNOW ELEVEN! YOU ARE HERE TO HURT HER AREN'T YOU? TO KILL HER?" TO KILL US? OR ARE YOU JUST MAKING FUN OF HER? JUST TAUNTING HER ABOUT HER ODD NAME? ARE YOU LIKE HER? ARE YOU SPECIAL? YOU DONT SEEM SPECIAL! YOU'RE SPECIAL AS SHIT!" She starts coughing up blood, nose bleeding profusely. He gasps a breath of air and is winding up his arm when it clicks in me.
She is Ten. Eleven is Eleven. She came before Eleven. She has been through the same hell as Eleven, and hers probably lasted longer.

            I groaned in agony even before I felt the pain of the blow. Which was excruciating. I had jumped between the two and took the hit for her, because she had had enough. Now it was us fighting, us rolling around on the floor. He hurt me, but I hurt him back. Even if I did get some good hits in, he was on top of me and he had control. I was losing, and I was hurt. Suddenly Lucas goes flying back, off of me and on to the ground a good 20 feet away from me.
"Why did you do that El?" I turn to Eleven. Lucas lifts his head and says "What the hell Eleven?" We all watch her now, her eyes wide and hands shaking as she says to me,"That wasn't me Mike."