Seven was woken by a thump, his body then in some kind of box or cart. Meanwhile, he could hear the men speak, followed by the jingle of coins. “Is he alive?” a raspy voice spoke. The cloth was again pulled from Seven’s mouth. “You alive?” spoke the voice from earlier. “Y-yes, I-” Seven was cut off with the cloth being forced back in. “Nice doing business with ya,” one of the voices of his captors spoke. There was some more muttering before Seven was pushed off in what most seemed like a kind of wheeled cart. It wasn’t long before Seven would again succumb to slumber out of boredom, his fear had grown distant.

Thump. Seven woke from a rumble underneath himself, momentum pulling his head around and hitting it against a hard wall. “Ouch..” spoke his dry voice. Seven was still bound, but at least the cloth was missing from his mouth now. They must’ve removed it in his sleep. Seven arched his back in stretching as much as he could, and came to realize that one of his hands felt loose.

Starting to carefully try to free his hands, Seven decided to work towards a distraction. “Do you take pride in the napping of children?” he called out, taking a deep breath afterwards as it felt difficult to breathe.

“Quiet down, child,” responded the raspy tone. Seven slipped his wrist free from his binding and slowly attempted untying the binding for his cloak. It was too tightly bound, so he mustered up the strength to rip it clean in half to free his vision. His eyes were met with a dull gray light from the sky, and in an instant he leaned forward and wrapped the rope around the neck of the hooded stranger in front of him, pulling as tightly as he could.

There was a struggle, but it appeared Seven had the upper hand as he quickly tied the rope behind the strangers neck. The front of the cart was dropped and bony, pale hands swiftly moved from the stranger’s sides. With a snap, Seven fell backwards onto his bottom, his back slamming against the inner wall of the cart. The stranger had cut the rope from his neck.

With a swift turn, the stranger’s hood fell to reveal a long, pale, serious face accompanied by silky white locks of hair beyond the man’s shoulders. “This world stole my pride long ago,” he said. Seven was in awe, and fear crept down his spine from his shoulders. This was the first time he’d seen someone that shared his own complexions and abnormalities. “Your hair . . .” Seven choked through his speech before the world began to spin. It felt as though he was imploding from his core. Suddenly, darkness filled his vision, his mind following.