The 7th Child

Chapter 7: The Box

April, 2012

The next morning, the kids woke up in the same suspense they had when they forced themselves to go to sleep. They couldn't bring themselves to start up a conversation. They each just sat in individual silence, not knowing whether or not to ask about what happened. They all went into a small cafeteria made specifically for them, and sat down to eat their breakfast. They were soon joined by Levia and Aajiah freshly out of the infirmary, "Hey guys! Are you ok?" Lenani asks the moment she sees them. "I'm fine." Levia responds dismissively. Aajiah didn't even feel like answering. She was sick, in pain, tired and hungry. The last thing she needs is someone being down her neck cause they want to be "nice". But maybe that's just how she thinks. The girls sit down next to everyone else to eat their food. Levia looks around, and notices someone is missing from their group, "Where's Ikemi?" She asks through a halfway mouthful of food. Everyone just continued eating their food in eerie silence, the sound of their forks hitting their glass plates filling their ears. Levia looks around, waiting for an answer, until she makes eye contact with Jackson. She raises her eyebrows and shrugs her shoulders in a way as if she were saying, 'What's going on?', and Jackson almost looked scared to answer. Finally he responded, "The Box. At least we assume so." He said in a rushed tone, not wanting to spend too long talking about it. Upon hearing this, a look of shock came across both Levia's and Aajiah's face. Legai lightly slammed down his fork, tired of being oblivious, "What is it? What's so bad about 'The Box'? Why are you so-" He said, before being interrupted when Levia twirled a butterknife in her fingers and put it up to Legai's throat, giving him the message to shut up. Levia looked in his eyes, "Remember what I said? This place isn't what he told you. It's way worse, and if you keep running your mouth like that, you'll get yourself hurt. Or killed." She whispered.

Legai is completely shocked, and a little scared, as Levia slowly lowers the knife from his neck as everyone watches silently. "What is it?" Legai whispered to her. Levia responds, rolling her eyes as she realizes he won't leave this alone, "Ugh, alright fine. The Box is more of an....umbrella term, kinda," She says, "Each of us have one. I don't give it long before you get one too." She says, looking around to make sure she isn't heard by anyone. Legai asks, "What do they do?". "You ever been grounded before?" Jackson replies, jumping into the conversation, "This is worse. They're rooms are specifically made to use against our powers to punish us, or just hurt us. They took Ikemi there after what happened with-" He said, before hesitating as he looked at Aajiah. Aajiah looks back at him, irritated, "What? If you have something to say just say it." She said, going back to pushing her food around the plate. Jackson backs off, seeing that she was a little more on edge than normal. Legai looks up at her with sympathy, "Are you ok?" He asked hesitantly. Aajiah lets out a light sigh of annoyance, before looking up at Legai, "I almost died again last night, how do you think I feel?" She says sarcastically. Legai looks down sadly, and Aajiah rephrases, "I'm fine, guys," She insists, "It's just like every other time." She says. Legai realizes what she just said, "Wait- this has happened before?" He asks in shock. Jackson responds, "We've all had near death experiences here. Some less than others, like ms. show-off here." He said, waving his fork in Levia's direction with a smirk on his face. Levia responds by waving two fingers in the air, causing a little bit of water to rise out of her cup and splash Jackson in the face. The whole table laughs and he wipes his face off, "Hey! It was only a joke!" He said, wiping the water off of his arm.

Later on, the kids were in their rooms and the tone had lightened up slightly. Some of them went back to things being normal, and Legai was still getting used to the place. And then, Ikemi walked into the room, being guided by a guard as he closed the door behind her. She didn't speak to anyone, which they all understood, she just walked through the room to her desk. Legai could see that even though her clothes were dry, her hair looked kinda wet. Like the way a girl's hair would look fresh out of the shower. Ikemi's hair was naturally curly, but it looked...extra curly, and dark. He also noticed that her tablet was gone. Ikemi sits down at her desk, and Legai gets this strange sense of fear and embarrasement, but it wasn't his own. He didn't know where it came from, or when it started, it was just kinda there, outside of his control. He was helpless to calm himself down, though he tried, and he looked over at Ikemi, and she looked like she was trembling. No, she was shivering, like she was cold. She held her hands, and just kinda sat back in her chair, seemingly trying to calm herself down. And then Legai realized, it wasn't his fear he felt, it was hers.