In Charlie's Arms

35 • Waking Up

"It's a girl!" A high pitched voice jolted Seraphina awake. The first thing she saw when she opened her heavy eyes were several pairs of legs and feet, all wearing grey sweatpants and white socks.

She slowly propped herself up with her arms, her limbs shaky and vision spotty throughout the process.

Two sets of arms came around her to aid her in standing, one male and the other female.

Once she was fully vertical, she was able to get a good look of the people in front of her. There were four girls and three guys, all different ages, sizes, and ethnicities. Random words were written on the upper left side of their white shirts.

They looked at her like she was an alien, and none of them held a spot in any of Sera's memories.

Her eyes drifted around the room, Sera searching for even a sliver of familiarity.

Her gaze got caught on the security cameras mounted along the ceiling. It made her uncomfortable to see so many cameras all at once. There couldn't be a single inch of the room that wasn't being watched.

She moved on from the cameras and took in the rest of the room.

There was light blue cloth panels covering the walls and ceiling, and white tiles beneath their feet. Exercise equipment lined the back wall, and a T.V. and an entertainment stand were tucked away in one corner with shelves of books and a cozy couch in the other.

She wondered if she was in a recreational room of some sort, but didn't get to ponder it much. The stares of the people before her were starting to disturb her.

"What's going on?" Sera croaked out, her throat dry. The arms around her dropped away once she was able to stand on her own.

"What's your name?" The female who had helped her up asked, coming to stand in front of her. She was a petite girl, probably around 15 or 16 with icy blue eyes that stood out against her dark skin and hair.

She looked over Sera with those eyes in childlike fascination, a smile on her plump lips as she waited for her to answer.

"I'm Seraphina Pendalla," she said.

"What a pretty name!" The girl cooed.

A woman stepped forward, her arms crossed as she looked Sera over in scrutiny. She seemed to be the oldest out of the bunch, possibly in her mid-twenties, with pale, freckled skin and dark hair.

"This is really weird," she said, more so to the others than to Sera. "He never brings people this old." Her shirt had the word Bravo written across it.

"And she knows her true name," a teenage boy labeled Kilo pointed out. "Something's fishy."

"What do you remember before coming here?" The woman asked.

Sera was thrown back into her memories, remembering the way Charlie's body writhed on the ground and the malevolent look on her uncle's face.

"Uh, I was at my uncle's house," she began, "with my friend. Then I think my uncle," she frowned, "I think he like tased him or something, but I didn't really see. I-I don't remember much after that . . . I think I touched my friend's arm and-and blacked out." She tried to think harder, vaguely remembering something poking her in the neck after she touched Charlie. Her hand flew up to her neck, feeling a sore spot right along the side of it. 

"That had to be Watcher," Kilo stated, drumming his fingers against his thigh. He was of Japanese descent, Sera gathered, and had his hair cropped close to his scalp. He looked to Sera. "What's your uncle's name?"