EDITED AUGUST 22, 2021
Reginald always told Eight that she was too emotional. That she cried too much. That she was a baby who wouldn't "survive it in the real world."
Honestly, Eight thought that he was full of shit. She was a child, and Reginald would make these disastrous comments about her and her emotions when the only thing that fueled them in the first place was him.
There were three things that led her into the emotional mess that she apparently was: first of all, Reginald's "training" for her as a child was considered torture. At a young age, the girl had bullets shot at her, be forced to hurt Diego countless times, and wake up, body aching and mind disoriented since the man summoned the witch in her body without any of her consent.
Two, it was just... her. Eight couldn't help the fact that she felt overwhelmed very easily. Sure, growing up in the confines of the Apocalypse made her condition herself turn into this emotionless rock, but then the commission happened. Killing innocent people desperately tore down her defenses, and soon, it was like she was back to her thirteen-year-old self: easily overwhelmed.
Three, Five Hargreeves. There was no one in this world that she cared more about than Five, which was a blessing and a curse both at the same time. She would do anything for him: and the cherry on top to breaking her down was seeing the man hurt.
Which leads to now.
"Five, you absolute bitch." Eight sobbed as she held the love of her life in the backseat. Five was already unconscious, and Eight was starting to get worried more and more as time passed by. "Faster, Diego!" she exclaimed, cradling the boy in her lap. Most of the time, it was Eight who got injured since she always prioritized Five's safety first. Seeing Five like this was quite rare, and she despised seeing him in his current state. How did Five even get shot?
Allison watched her sobbing sister from the backseat, her eyes slowly not believing what she was seeing when she noticed that the color of her right eye was slowly starting to fade, and her hair that was originally a few shades lighter was now jet black. What the fuck?
"Diego, do you see her?" Allison asked, looking towards his brother who had his eyes in the road.
"Not now, Allison," he replied, focusing on the task on hand. Diego pressed on the pedal harder, making them arrive at the Academy a few minutes before they were supposed to.
It was already dark when Eight had slammed her car door as she ran after Allison and Diego who carried Five towards safety. Eight closed the door behind her as she made her way to Allison and Diego who were muttering amongst themselves.
"We should have taken him to the hospital," Allison claimed, walking Five towards the sofa.
"A kid with a shrapnel would raise some questions." Five muttered, giving Eight a sense of relaxation when she noticed that he was still in fact, conscious. "
Yeah. And so would the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic." she countered, putting Five down on the sofa gently.
"I'm going to check if the old man has some supplies in his room." Eight muttered, wiping the tears out of her eyes as she floated several feet into the air and into the second floor. Normally, she conditioned herself to be this cold robot who showed no emotion, but this was Allison. Diego. They've seen the worst of her.
As soon as her feet landed on the ground, she ran towards her old guardian's room. She knew Reginald had some weird instruments of his creation that would heal specific injuries.
She made her way towards his cabinet, avoiding all of the unopened moon packages she'd seen on the floor. Eight chuckled to herself when she noticed that Luther's packages weren't opened, he wasn't daddy's little boy after all.
After a few minutes of searching, Eight hadn't found anything. But a glimpse of a journal that reflected from the moonlight caught her eye, and for some unknown season, she was attracted to it. It was like it was making her touch it.
Her eyes widened as she read the first page.
RESEARCH ON NUMBER EIGHT'S POWERS.
AKAHNITAMUD IS STRONGER THAN SHE THINKS.
PROPERTY OF REGINALD HARGREEVES; THIS BOOK CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.
"Eight!" she heard Allison scream from downstairs. All of a sudden, she had blacked out.
-
24 YEARS AGO.
Reginald shakily wrote on his notebook. His eyes scanned Number Five and Number Eight as Number Five kept his eyes far away from the female. Eight was continuously crying, which was normal for a child as young as her age.
They were at the dining table. Eight sat at the very end of the table as all the other children except for Seven kept their chairs as far away ad possible from her. One and Two had held their hands on their ears, looking annoyed as Eight wouldn't stop crying. Three looked at Reginald for a moment, her eyes scrunched up in annoyance. "Papa, why won't Eight stop crying?"
Reginald could answer. It was plain and simple, everyone besides Seven and Six were scared and some of them hated Eight. They didn't want to sit with her, they didn't want to learn with her, in all honestly, they didn't want to do anything with her.
Reginald was scared. Eight's emotions were spiraling out of the place which caused her to trigger Akahnitamud many times. "I heard a rumor, that you stopped crying." Allison called out from the end of the table. Eight's eyes glowed a little bit until it came back to normal, and the girl who was previously bawling sat in her seat, eating her steak.
An idea immediately formed in Reginald's head. He had done it with Seven, so of course he can do it with Eight.
He was going to rumor the others into liking the girl, and rumor Eight once again to forget all of the memories of her siblings hating on her.
-
PRESENT DAY.
Allison worriedly looked at Five from the doorframe. A few footsteps were heard from the back, causing Diego and Allison to snap their heads towards the source of sound. It was Eight, walking around the halls with a giant smile on her face.
"Eight." Diego called out. Eight faced the two of them, her right eye left with no color. Allison backed away a little, feeling a little uneasy about Eight walking around like that and not panicking. The love of her life had just got shot, and she would usually be worrying, but there was a pleasant smile on her face. Too pleasant.
"I never managed too take a look at the whole house before." she stated, her voice coming out like the sound of music. "I only see it when I'm needed. It feels nice to walk around once in a while."
Allison worriedly looked at Diego. Diego wore the same confused look she held in her face, Eight never acted like this. Most of the time, Eight was either a big ball of rage or an annoying twat, but she was never pleasant. And the fact that she was talking like she had seen those halls for the first time was scary and unusual.
"Eight" looked around at the artwork that hung around the academy, her half colored eye spotting one in particular. "Oh. That's my family." she pointed to a picture of a girl, her dad, and her mom, and a giant mansion that was at the back of them. Allison internally screamed, realizing the situation. It wasn't Eight who was talking to them anymore.
It was Akahnitamud.
"I accidentally killed them one time by touching them. I didn't know what I was going to do." the witch chuckled, looking to them. She started taking a few steps towards them while Diego visibly flinched, aware that the witch could kill him any second.
A laugh escaped from her lips. "I'm not going to kill you, silly." she smiled. She made her way towards an organ that was at the back. "I used to have one of these at the mansion I used to live in. My dad would play with me. Until I killed him." The Witch stated, hitting a melodic song Allison recognized as a Russian folk song that was quite famous. It would have been peaceful and all since whatever being that was in there played it beautifully, but it wasn't Eight.
She stood up, before looking at her hands. "Oh, would you look at that." she smiled. "My time is up. Please tell Eight that I'll be visiting pretty often from now on." Akahnitamud smiled, before Eight's body gasped aloud for air. Eight looked around frantically, before she spotted Five sitting down in the infirmary. The girl made her way towards the boy, leaving Allison and Diego outside.
"What the hell just happened?" Diego asked.
-
COLETTE SPEAKS!
everyone! i just needed to ask you this,
if eight had a name, what would it be?