The Voices in Her Head (No. 8)

I

[Picture of young Katrine at the top.]

Katrine (Age 4)

"Number Eight!" Reginald Hargreeves called. "It's time for your lessons."

The small girl frowned. "I don't want to."

"You must."

She frowned, but decided if she did this now, she'd be able to play sooner.

Reginald lined up her siblings in the order of their numbers. He told them each to think of a word and Katrine would say it aloud.

Luther was up first. Katrine looked at him and said, "Space."

Diego went next. "Knife."

Allison. "Famous."

Klaus. "Mausleum. Daddy? What is that?"

"Focus, Number Eight." Hargreeves told her.

She let out a tiny sigh and looked at Five. "Time."

Ben was next to go. "Octopus."

Vanya. "Music."

"Very good, Number Eight. We will resume lessons later. You may go now."

Katrine ran off and bumped into Grace who smiled at the girl. "Hello, sweetheart."

"Can I have a grilled cheese, Mommy?"

Grace nodded. "Of course, dear."

"And chocolate milk?"

"Yes, you may."

(Age 6)

Katrine wandered into Klaus's room to see him holding something. "What is that?"

"Something you can't have."

"What is it, though?"

"It's pot. Don't tell Dad."

"You're not supposed to be smoking it; are you?"

"No, I'm not. But you already knew that."

"Number Four! Number Eight! We have a mission!" Reginald called.

Katrine walked out of Klaus's room and asked her father, "Can Vanya come with us?"

"No. She'd be too much of a liability."

"She's not a liability. She's my sister!"

"That's enough, Number Eight. Get ready."

"In five, four, three, two...This is Jim Hellerman, reporting live for Channel 2 news outside of the Capital West Bank at Main and Sixth. A group of heavily armed men stormed the bank not six hours ago and took an unknown number of hostages."

"Hey, get them behind the counter!" One of the men shouted, rounding up the hostages. "Now you've put me in a position where I've got to do something I don't want to do."

Allison skipped over to the man with her arms clasped innocently behind her back. The man looked down at her. "Hey! Get back with the others!"

Allison stepped closer to him. "I heard a rumor."

"Huh?"

She stepped even closer and a smirk overtook her face. "I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot." The man did as she told him to and shot his friend's foot twice. The hostages let out a scream.

Katrine frowned, hearing their begging in her head. "It's alright. We're going to get you out of here safely."

Luther jumped from the roof into another man and slammed his head against the counter before tossing him out the window.