Home for the Odd Ones

What the hell?

The stairs creaked under Gwen's feet as she climbed, finding herself more relaxed going into a different hall then the one for the girls room. But as she entered, the feeling of being watched creeped under her skin, and she took a slow turn. No one was around her, but as she stepped into sunlight, she looked up. Above her was a skylight, and she got a glimpse of someone-or something, backing away from it. She ducked into the room Ophelia told her was for crafts, and saw a space filled with tables and shelves holding different craft items. Paper, paint, canvas, embroidery floss, hot glue guns, fabric, all kinds of little things. And at a table in the far back was two girls and a radio they were singing along too. Gwen recognized the song, wanting to sing badly but felt it would've been intrusive if she didn't introduce herself first.

"Um-"

Both the girls turned and looked at her, the music turned down. While the smaller one, she looked ten or eleven, sat with wide eyes, the other girl smiled and beckoned her over. Gwen relaxed, walking between the tables and joining them on a bench. She notices they were sewing stuffed animals, probably for the smaller kids. The friendlier one smiled at her, brown ringlets adorning her head and framing silver blue eyes. The other girl smiled too, but just slightly. Her eyes were a cloudy grey, and she had short red hair. Both of them were pretty, compared to herself.

"I'm guessing Opal told you we were here?"

"Opal?"

"Ophelia."

"Oh. Yeah she did."

"I'm Serah." The girl with the ringlets smiled, then pointed to the other girl. "That's Aurelia. She doesn't speak much, doesn't need to."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Gwen."

"Finding everything alright for your first day?"

"Yeah, it's been pretty good. Ophelia scared me somewhat, and Iden kinda freaked me out." Gwen laughed.

"Yeah, Iden is really popular around here. He's really nice under the whole womanizer thing."

"That is a hard one to guess."

"Yeah, when I first showed up here he kept picking me up and pulling me out of fights." Serah laughed, and Aurelia made a motion like she was too.

"Who were you fighting with?"

"Ari."

"Where is sh-"

Aurelia leaned over the table, placing a finger on Gwen's lips.

"Ari's a boy." Serah chuckled. "Its short for something, we don't know what though."

"Ohh." Gwen blushed, and they started laughing. "Almost made a mistake there."

"Yup."

"Why does he sit on the roof?"

"He's not much of a people person."

"Like Delilah?"

"Exactly." Serah breathed.

"Hey, can I ask you guys something?"

"Shoot."

Gwen hesitated before continuing. "When I was in the girls room earlier, I heard a voice telling me to run. I couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl."

They both seemed to get more reclusive, casting worried glances around the room. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen." Gwen counted the months until her birthday, it was August so "I'll be sixteen in five months."

"Five months." Serah sighed. "That's not long."

"Yeah. I just hope I can get out of here by then. I know my family doesn't really care for me, but once my aunt Meredith finds out I should be out of here in less than a day."

Something sounded downstairs, a bell of sorts. Serah and Aurelia turned off the radio and cleaned up, and Gwen did what she could to help.

"That'd be dinner." Serah smiled, leading them out the door.

Listen to the next voice you hear

Gwen sucked in a breath, scared. The voice was in her head this time, clear and bright. She turned to look at Aurelia, who was staring at her with the same fear.

They could save your life