"Hey."

Seven twitched.

"Hey!"

She looked up, tired.  A girl was staring at her, eyes wide.  Seven sighed, sitting up and hunching over her knees.  She surveyed the room.  Several people were staring at her, turning their heads away when her gaze landed on them.  She looked back at the girl.  Pale skin, long wavy black hair, brown eyes, the standard white tank top and jeans.  Her shirt was clean, her eyes filled with worry and fear.  She was new.

"What's going on?  Who are you?  What are they gonna do to me?"  The girl kept rambling, nearly hyperventilating.  Seven rolled her eyes.

"Shut up," she hissed.  The girl immediately snapped her mouth shut, and Seven sighed in relief.

"I only caught three questions."

"...I..." the girl stammered.  Seven sighed.

"Alright.  You're in hell.  I'm the devil.  And you're my victim."  The girl somehow turned paler. Seven chuckled.

"I'm joking."  She smiled, then thought for a moment.  "Well, those answers aren't too far from the truth, I'm afraid.  I'm Seven."

***

Omond rubbed his eyes.  Last meeting of the day, then he could go to sleep.  He settled down into his chair, signaling for the meeting to begin.  Calli, an African American girl with a ponytail, stood up.

"There's been people disappearing from the kingdoms surrounding us.  We've been contacted in hopes that they had perhaps come here, but it seems all efforts to find them have been fruitless.  There's quite the list as well."

"I can't see a way we could do anything," Saymon, the royal advisor, mumbled.

"We could warn the kingdom," Genevieve, the captain of the guard, suggested.

"People would panic," Saymon countered.

"Join the search?" Genevieve asked.

"As Calli said, finding the missing people is impossible."

"I never said that..." Callie mumbled.

"You said it was fruitless, and as far as I'm concerned, that might as well mean impossible," Saymon said, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.  Omond groaned internally.  This was going to be a long meeting...