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Azelie unlocked the front door with difficulty, barely managing to, her teeth chattering from the freezing conditions. It was far too cold in Washington for her, and it was barely even Autumn. She slammed the heavy door shut, her insides melting at the warmth of the house. She ran over to the hallway radiator, practically hugging the hot metal as she wrapped her thin body around it, trying to extract as much heat as she possibly could from it. She had practically jogged home to get out of the cold weather, getting odd looks from her neighbours as her quick walk turned into a full sprint up the street as the house grew closer and closer.

Azelie looked around the hallway, feeling warmer and warmer with every passing second. The hallway walls were painted a neutral cream colour, with dark, varnished wood covering the floors. Different pictures filled the walls, some paintings that Ted had bought from different art exhibitions that artists had hosted in his gallery but mostly pictures of different people, some people she knew looked familiar. One caught her eye, a woman with bright red hair and an even brighter smile. She was looking lovingly to a man who was sat next to her, slightly leaning on him, their fingers intertwined. The man had brown hair, which was all messy making it look like he had just rolled out of bed. The woman was wearing a wedding dress, while the man wore a black tux, a bow tie around his neck. It was her parents at their wedding. she had heard the story almost hundred times when she was a child, Azelie wanting to hear it every night as she fell asleep.

Her parents had run off and got hitched in Vegas - slightly drunk, her mother would add when she was telling the story. They both had sweetie rings instead of normal rings because when they arrived at Vegas, the jewellers were all shut. They had gotten married before they fell in love, getting married at the age of nineteen wasn't something her mother had planned, but by the time they finally got through all the paperwork to divorce, they had fallen in love and decided to just stay married. Her mother found out that she was pregnant with Azelie shortly after the wedding. Memories flooded her mind, memories of everything that had happened in her past and she pushed them down, putting her feelings back into the small box inside her head. She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to get rid of the images that had invaded her mind, the happy memories playing into the sad ones, each hitting Azelie like a bullet.

Suddenly, she felt something soft rubbing her leg and her eyes opened wide to find Galileo rubbing his soft striped brown fur against her jeans. The sight of the cat pulled her out from her thoughts and a smile grew on Azelie's face as she turned around, sitting against the radiator while picking up her cat and stroking his fur on her lap, Galileo purring gently with every stroke. Her heart beat fell from its erratic beating and back down to its normal rate as she relaxed more and more.

Eventually she stood up once again taking a deep breath as setting the cat free to roam around the house. Azelie picked up her school bag, followed by her walking up the stairs to her room, making a note in her head to avoid looking at any more of the photographs on the wall. She walked along the hallway on the second floor of the house, walking past her uncle's room and the bathroom until she got to her bedroom, instantly opening the door and throwing her bag to the side.

Azelie had spent most of the summer decorating her room and working at the art gallery. She had painted one wall a light colour of sky blue, while the rest were painted a crisp white. There was a double bed sitting underneath a window which looked out on to the back garden which lead to a huge forest. A large oak tree grew to the side of her window, blocking most of her view. Books and records were scattered around the floor of her room, piled up on shelves with clothes scattered all over the floor. The room was a mess, just the way Azelie liked it.

She dug out her physics homework which had been set to her for tomorrow, working her way through the problems. After an hour of homework, she heard the front door slamming shut followed by the sounds of steps on the wooden flooring downstairs echoed around the house.

"I'm home!" a voice shouted walking into the kitchen. She recognised the voice as her uncle. She quickly began to packing away her work, putting the homework into her bag so she wouldn't forget it, and walking down stairs to talk to her uncle. She walked through the hallways before entering the large kitchen area.

"Hey, how was work?" She questioned as she walked into the kitchen, finding her uncle raking through the fridge to find something to serve for dinner.

"It was great, got really busy around lunch which was good, but exhausting and there's a new artist interested in the gallery" Ted replied, turning around to look at her. "How was your first day at school?" He questioned, a smile painted on his face.

"It was okay," she replied, leaning against the wall opposite to her uncle, her eyes watching him as he searched for something to eat, her stomach rumbling as he did. Azelie had always been skinny despite the fact that she ate like a horse, never daring to miss a meal.

"Just okay?" Ted questioned, and she just nodded silently in reply. "Did you meet anyone?" He added, closing the fridge door so he could pay full attention to his niece.

His question made Azelie think back over her day, which had been anything but fun. In every class she went to people were asking her the same questions over and over. Where was she from? Why did she move? By the end of the day, she had been ready to tell them that she had migrated from the planet Pluto because her home planet had been invaded by a flock of sea gulls. Once everyone figured out that there was nothing special about the new girl, they moved on, leaving her to sit alone and in peace.

"I didn't really talk to anyone. They just weren't interested in me," She shrugged, realising that she was thirsty. She marched over to where the cupboards were, picking up a glass and walking over to the sink, Ted watching her as she did.

"You must have scared them away somehow," Ted smirked, "Maybe with your face," Azelie just rolled her eyes at her uncle and his terrible jokes.

"You really should stop making jokes," she said shaking her head as she took a drink from her glass.

"Why should I?" Ted questioned, raising his eyebrows at his niece with a questioning sound in his voice. Azelie set her now empty glass in the sink, making a note in her head to return later and wash it up. She turned around, leaning backwards on to the counter as she looked her uncle straight in the eyes.

"Because jokes are supposed to make people laugh; where as your jokes... well, they kind of make me want to jump off a bridge if I'm honest!" she replied honestly, laughing a little towards the end.

"Well aren't you a ball of sunshine, Thank you very much for single handily breaking my self-confidence," Ted said, standing up straight, an expression of fake hurt forming on his face. "I'm now going to go cry myself to sleep! I hope you're happy,"

"Have fun, Teddy, have fun," she laughed, saying his full name as her uncle stormed out of the kitchen, into the hallway and up the stairs, hitting his feet hard with every step he took. She rolled her eyes at her uncle and his apparent lack of maturity before looking down at her cat who had started meowing loudly, looking up her expectantly. Azelie quickly jumped into action, walking up to the cupboard that the cat food was kept in and picking out a tin. She poured the contents of the jelly food into Galileo's food bowl as she placing it on the floor, the cat instantly running over to the bowl reading to devour the food.

Azelie turned round to the fridge, trying to figure out what they should have for tea.

"I was thinking steak for tea?" A voice suddenly said, scaring her as she span around to find her uncle standing in the door frame, an evil smirk playing on his lips.

"Jesus Christ - you made me jump!" she replied, her heart pounding in her chest.

"That was the whole point, Smelly," He replied, sticking his tongue out at her, his brown eyes full of mischief. "You can fry the steaks and I'll make the chips?"

"Sure," she smiled, turning round and digging the meat out of the fridge, collecting a frying pan as she made her way over to the cooker. She poured some oil on the pan while turning the gas hob on before waiting for the pan to heat up.

"So, did you get a letter from Dr. Robinson?" Ted questioned as he dug through the freezer to find the bag of frozen chips.

"Yeah, it came yesterday. I'm seeing her this Sunday," she replied, remembering that the letter that had arrived from her therapist had arrived in the post yesterday. Azelie had never particularly liked going to the therapist, in truth she hated it. She hated that they had to pay for somebody to sit down and pick her brain apart. She would have been happy enough to just ignored all the problems inside her head, but by doing that, the night terrors would start again.

"Oh right, what time?" He asked as he slammed the freezer door shut, the bag of chips in one hand as he walked over to the unit that the deep fat fryer sat on.

"Six, so I'll be able to do a shift at the café if you needed me to," she answered, throwing the slabs of steak on to the hot pan, trying to avoid the tiny sparks of hot oil that flew out of the pan.

"Sure, I'll put you down for working then" Ted replied, flashing a smiling over to his niece. Ted was constantly worrying over Azelie. She was all he had left family wise, and she was the only thing he had to remind him of his older sister. After everything she had been through over the past few years, it was no wonder Ted was worried about his niece, the night terrors were only the tip of the ice berg. She turned around sending a smile to her uncle as she flipped over the meat in the frying pan, praying in her head that she wasn't burning their tea.

About ten minutes later and both Azelie and Ted were sitting down for tea, just chatting away about random stuff that had happened during the day. Ted was talking about how he had a big artist interested in holding an exhibition. She was could tell how much Ted loved talking about art, his face just lit up whenever it was brought up and the way he was talking about this new artist, well, there was a smile stretching from ear to ear plastered on his face as he talked about their technique and how it was different to anything he had ever seen. She went over her day at school with Ted, telling him what subjects she had picked and just talking about the teachers she had met.

Her mind floated back to the three people she had seen while waiting outside the head teachers office, the two boys and the girl with the strange pink hair. She hadn't seen the boys again, but the girl stuck out like a sore thumb. The girl sat in her history class, just one chair down from her. The girl had spent the entire lesson doodling on her jotter, which made Azelie laugh a little because she had done the exact same thing, not listened to a damn thing the teacher had said.

"It was okay right?" Ted questioned, his brown eyes staring at her as he pulled her out of her day dream.

"What was?" She said, completely forgetting what they had been talking about.

"School, you daft bat," Ted clarified, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, it was fine. Just a normal school day - boring as anything," she replied, smiling at Ted. She could see the concern building in his eyes. After the night terrors incident, Ted had been watching over Azelie like a hawk. It was something that she wasn't used to - having family members actually care about her - and it reminded her of a promise that she had made with herself when she had been told that she was moving to Bellingham.

"I'm going out for a run!" Azelie yelled as slamming the front door shut, walking down the drive away as she plugged her earphones into her ears and clicked on shuffle of her phone. After tea, she had gone up to her room and had started re-reading her one of her favourite books, while Ted did some research on the new artist who was interested in the gallery.

She got to the end of her drive way before running down the road, not bothering to stretch. Her feet pounded on the ground as she ran through the streets until she got out of the town, and running on the streets leaving Bellingham. As the houses that lined the street were quickly replaced by thick forests of trees, Azelie gained speed, her run turning into a full blown sprint as she pushed herself to her limits, trying to ignore the thoughts in her head, trying to out-run them.

Running was something she started three years ago, when she was 14. At first she was running away from people, her aunts and social services who shipped her about from aunt to aunt; but not long after, she was running from the thoughts that plagued her mind each passing minute, she ran from her problems as she focused on running faster for longer. The coach at her old high-schools used to beg Azelie to join the track team, but she always refused, not wanting to turn the one therapeutic thing she did into a competition.

She ran for flat out for twenty minutes until her body couldn't handle it and began to shut down. Music pounded in her head as she stopped, walking over to the side of the road to vomit from pushing herself too far. She managed to hold it down, refusing to let herself show any sign of weakness. Her legs shook as she began to see spots, she looked around while leaning backwards on to a tree, trying to let her body rest for a minute. She took the top off her water bottle, slowly drinking the cold liquid. Her mind stopped spinning as her body caught up, but as she stood up the dizzy spell returned. Suddenly, everything went dark as a faint spell crashed down on Azelie, pulling her back into her memories.

"Please make sure you know where your nearest exit it is, bearing in mind that it may be behind you. The plane is expected to land in Washington in around forty minutes," the air hostess smiled as she pointed out the different emergency exits on the plane. Azelie just blocked her out, not understanding how air hostess's were always happy, always painting a sugary sweet smile on their faces. It made her sick; nobody could be that happy all the time.

She closed her eyes and though back over the past 48 hours, trying to forget everything, pushing everything her aunt had told her over the past three months down, even though she knew it was true, even though her aunt was right, she had to push it away, she had to feel numb.

Washington. It was where she was being sent, just a slight change in climate from the warm weather of Florida she had been used to for the past seven years. Azelie was just happy that she wouldn't have to see her aunts again, but she would bet anything you wanted that they were so much happier about her departure - hell, they had hosted a goodbye party and didn't invite her. She opened her eyes again, and turned her head towards the small window to her right, silently saying goodbye to the warm weather, wishing in her mind that she could take it with her.

Her thoughts turned to the uncle she would be staying with, her mother's younger brother Teddy she had been told. Azelie faintly remembered her mother mentioning him when she was younger, she couldn't remember when but with her seven aunts on her father's side, she had never remembered her extended family's names as a child, it had seemed impossible to her then that she would ever meet them all - let alone live with them all.

She closed her eyes going over counting them all in her head, memories flooding her mind. Seven. She shook her head, trying to push them all away, not able to bear the pain that her thoughts inflicted on her.

She couldn't let the list increase to eight, she just couldn't. Azelie had begged social services to just let her live alone for her final year at school, but they refused, telling her that with her mental state she needed somebody to look after her and watch over her. She made herself promise that she wouldn't get close to anyone this time, she wouldn't add another to the list. She wouldn't be able to bear it anymore.

Azelie came crashing back to reality, falling on the ground, the pain pulling her out of the darkness as she fell. All she wanted to do was crawl up into a ball and cry her eyes out, to let it all out. But she wouldn't let herself. Guilt filled her as she thought about what she was doing. She hadn't meant to get close to Ted, but as soon as she saw that he cared after her night terrors starting up again, she had inadvertently let him in. She had begun to care for him like family. Self-hatred built up inside of her as she thought about how stupid she was being, how reckless and selfish she was. She climbed back up to her feet, wobbling as she did, before quickly drinking the remaining water that was left in her bottle and running off again, sprinting down the rest of her route, taking the exit off to the red metal bridge which crossed over the river that flowed just outside of Bellingham.

She stopped in the middle of the bridge, looking out to the flowing grey water below her, wondering in her mind that if she jumped into the water, would she die? Would it all be over? It would definitely better for everyone - safer...

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts of suicide out of her head.

"Waste of vital organs," she muttered to herself, laughing at her thoughts as she sprint across the other half of the bridge, running solid for ten minutes until she reached the house.

Azelie opened the front door, closing it silently before quietly walking upstairs, trying to avoid her uncle. Ted was sat in the living room, watching some documentary that held no interest to her at all. She knew that she needed to go straight to bed without seeing Ted, if she did, she might just snap. Azelie ran into the bathroom, quickly getting undressed as she jumped into the shower, washing her hair and body in the warm water. She climbed out of the shower, getting changed into her pajama bottoms and a large band t-shirt. She unlocked the bathroom door, dumping her dirty washing in a washing bag as she did. Azelie sprinting down the hall to her room, successfully avoiding her uncle.

She climbed into her bed, pulling her covers up past her chin, letting tiredness wash over her as she gently fell asleep. It didn't take long for the nightmares to let in, playing havoc with her mind as she slept, causing her to scream out loud, not out of fear, but out of sadness, out of pain as she desperately tried to escape the nightmare that had taken over, reminding her of every little thing that she had done; reminding her of how it was all her fault

Seven. Seven things on the list. Seven names on the list. Seven people.