Cipher [sahy-fer]: Zero; A person of little or no influence, importance, or value; nonentity.
That's excatly what Talia Fox is. A zero amongst a sea of other numbers. That is until she makes an imperishable deal with her maker. Now the seven teens t...
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Jennifer didn't know exactly why she continued to head down the wooden stairs that seemed almost endless in that moment. The light switch at the top of the stairs was surprisingly not working, something she had never experienced while living in her home. Her last resort, the continuous whispering of Talia's name, had gained no response.
"Talia!" She decided to voice louder.
For a few seconds, the echoing sobs came to a halt and like being hit with ice water, Jennifer stood at the bottom of the stairs in pure, undisturbed darkness; the sound of crying no longer piloting her in any certain direction.
She decided that the silence had carried on a little too long, so opening her chapped lips, she croaked out a timid, "Is everything ok?"
Sniffling was heard the furthest away from where Jennifer stood and this time she cursed quite loudly. Of course Talia had to be the furthest from where she could reach her. And with the lights not working, she knew this could possibly take forever, especially since the size of her basement was quite grand.
"Talia it's nearly three in the morning," the usual irritant tone rang through her voice. "Are you crying because you're hurt?"
Now Jennifer was huffing at the irony of this situation. Talia was here in her home first of all, secondly the night she decided to take the basement, the light had blown out. She could barely even see an inch in front of her. Testing again to see if her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, Jennifer sighed when she still couldn't see the wave of her own limb.
"I'm not hurt," the voice seemed so close that Jennifer's throat immediately grew dry. Not because of the closeness of it, but because she could still feel Talia's presence all the way across the room, her deep sniffles confirming it.
"Talia?" She tried again.
The sobbing that had once ceased was back again, the sobs so broken and distraught like the last bit of hope was so far out of reach and there was no getting it back. The dry racking sobs seemed so abject to misery and pain that even Jen could feel it deep within herself.
The world around her became an even messier blur of darkness, the sorrow lodging in her chest and locking in her throat. The pain in the back of her mind shined forward even by Talia's slightest weep.
You couldn't forget Talia's tears— small garnet beads trailed down her cheeks to her exposed neck and ended on the swell of her breast. They were left to melt into the still damp hoodie of Colter's she wore, some even falling off her pouting bottom lip. Yet all of this was sheltered and concealed by the everlasting darkness.
Holding a hand to her chest, Jennifer began to move to the nearest wall she could feel with her palms, not sure the weight of her body on her weakening knees could stay up much longer without support.
Breathing out deeply a few times, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them still feeling blind, she counted to ten in her head before speaking towards the girl again.
