NON-OC CONTEST - ENTRY 1

Cold by =Zakeno



     6 sat up, shivering, in the middle of the night.. It had been much, much colder lately. There had been frost everywhere. 6 tried to avoid it whenever he could; truth be told it scared him. He wasn't sure if it would hurt him or not. It didn't seem friendly, anyway. It seemed like an impostor.
     "Cold." said 6, to no one in particular. He waited. There was no response.
     "Cold!!" shouted 6 again, the noise echoing loudly against the walls.
     He heard footsteps coming along the hallway... were they going to help or hurt? 6 didn't want to be hurt. He hoped it wasn't 1 or 8 who had heard him. Suddenly he regretted saying anything, and he huddled in 'his' corner, shivering violently. Someone stepped into his room, and looked around for him.
     "C-cold... don't hurt me..." stuttered 6, still shivering violently. "I don't want hurt." he added in a mumble.
     "I'm not going to hurt you." came 7's voice from the dark. She came over and sat beside him.
     6 shrunk away from her a bit, still scared. "Cold." he mumbled.
     "Yes, it is cold." yawned 7 tiredly. She sounded like she didn't particularly want to be there. 6 was a little scared of 7.  "Can I go back to sleep now?" she asked.
     6 was silent. He held his key tightly. Another pattering of footsteps could be heard outside, and 6's head shot up as two more stitchpunks entered the room.
     The small room was illuminated by a quick flickering of lights as the twins came over to 7. 6 didn't like having this many stitchpunks in the room with him. "Cold..." he muttered uncomfortably. 7 sighed.
     "I'm gonna go to sleep now, 6." she said, a little harshly. "You should sleep, too. And sleep quietly." she added, before walking away once again.
     6 hurt a little on the insides. He felt that 7 was yelling at him. The twins were still in the room, looking at him curiously. 6 didn't enjoy being watched, but he also didn't enjoy the cold.
     Suddenly 4 plopped herself beside him, wrapping her arms around his shivering body. 3 did the same. 6 was surprised, but pleased. It wasn't so cold anymore. 6 gave a rare smile before promptly falling asleep.

–

     6 was aware of being shaken awake. He opened his optics to see 4, who was apparently trying to drag him upright. He stood up groggily, clutching his key as if it kept him from falling over. 4 grinned at him. 6 liked smiles, they made his heart happy. Which made him happy. He suddenly had the urge to draw something for 4. He'd have to do that later.
     4 dragged him out into main room of the library, where everyone but 1 was looking around with mixed expressions of worry and wonder. 6 realized it was even colder than it had been the night before. "Cold." he stated matter-of-factly to 4, who just grinned more broadly and nodded excitedly.
     "Ah, there you are 6." said 2, smiling. 6 waved. "Where's 1?" 2 asked, turning to 7.
     She snorted with displeasure. "He said we may as well all go start chopping each other's heads off. Lovely old-timer, isn't he?" 2 ignored this last comment.
     "Shame he won't come along..." 2 started, thoughtfully. "Well! Too bad for him! Come along, let's go out, then..." he hobbled down towards the entrance to the library, with everyone else in tow. When they came to the courtyard, 6 froze. A huge mass of 'frost' covered the ground, towering over him in what 6 perceived to be a menacing manner.
     "F-frost!!" he yelped fearfully.
     2 laughed a bit. "No, no, 6. This is snow."
     6 clutched 4's hand more tightly. "S-snow?" he asked, not taking his optics off of the glittering white mass.
     2 nodded. "It's fine as long as you don't stay in it too long."
     3 and 4 were practically jumping up and down with excitement. 6 wished he shared their excitement. But he couldn't shake the thought of the snow turning into a giant monster and killing them all. It wasn't a nice thought.
     9 had begun to climb up to the top of the snow, and once he had reached it, he began helping 5 and 7 up. 7 scanned the horizon cautiously before relaxing, and letting out a little laugh. 5 tested the snow beneath his feet, jumping whenever it gave way in the slightest bit. 3 opened his mouth in a silent laugh before clambering up beside 5. 8 looked sort of bored, and he trundled back into the library. 2 just watched everyone else, too weak or tired to follow after.
     4's eyes shone with excitement, blinking every few seconds in case there was something she had not yet cataloged in this white stuff. She looked at 6 and tugged his arm lightly.
     "Cold." he said, still fearful.
     4 rolled her optics and began to drag him into the snow. 6 shouted at the cold feel under his feet, but didn't try and go back into the library. 9 grabbed 6 and helped him up onto the top of the snowbank. 6 looked around, still afraid, but amazed by the blankness of everything... like a great white canvas that no one could ever, ever draw on. He didn't know if he liked it or not. The statues that used to surround the library's courtyard were now covered the the whiteness, an odd eye or finger sticking out of the snow. He stared and stared and stared... before a ball of snow whizzed by his face and smashed into 4's back. 6 yelled out, and ran to the fallen 4.
     "4!" he screamed. "4!" She was shaking, but he soon realized it was from silent laughter, not sobs. He helped her to her feet, and she made a little snowball of her own and shot it back at the snickering 3. It hit the twin square in the face and he acted out a dramatized version of death before falling face-first into the snow. 4 beamed triumphantly before making another snowball and launching it towards 7. It hit  7 in the back of the head, and she turned around swiftly. 4 frowned as she saw the snowball already in her adoptive mother's hand. In a flash it had detached itself from 7's hand and was flying through the air, before slapping into 6's arm.
     "Ahh!!!" he yelled in surprise. 7 covered her mouth.
     "I'm sorry 6!" she shouted to him.
     "O-Ok... I'm OK!" he yelled back, thinking that he should comfort her and that she must feel absolutely horrible for possibly hurting him.
     4's frown turned back into a grin, and she and 3 skipped over to where 5 and 9 were rolling up huge balls of snow and stacking them upon each other, so that they looked a bit like a person.
     3 and 4 began creating their own snow people, most of them horrible disfigured and possibly screaming. 6 carved eyes and mouths onto their cold, blank faces. While the snowmen were being manufactured, 6 drew in the snow. He still didn't appreciate the cold, but he liked the idea of an endless canvas. He tried to draw the snow, but it turned out looking more like a bunch of dragonflies than anything else.
     "3, 4, 6! We need to go back inside." 5 called. "We're getting soaked."
     6 looked forlornly at his drawing, not wanting to abandon it, before trailing off after the twins and back into the library. 2 was where they had left him, but he now had a few books around him.
     3 and 4 ran to the books and tore through them, cataloging their contents quickly.
     "These are books about 'Christmas.'" 2 explained happily. "It's a Human holiday, that seems to be about this man with a glow around his head, called Jesus Christ, and the big man who wears red, called Santa Claus." The twins were only partially listening as they looked through the books. 6 sat beside 4 and looked at the pictures in the books. He couldn't help but think they looked much better than his own pictures.
     "I found some Christmas music too..." continued 2, and he signaled 5 to help him drag out an old CD player and a few CDs. 5 put a CD into the player, plugged in the headphones, turned up the volume, and pressed play. 6 listened to the trill of some of the most joyful music he had ever heard.
     "Sound!" he said cheerfully. Oh, how he loved music. It was one of the things that kept his head in a straight line, along with the twins (who were his closest friends).
     4 smiled and hugged him. 3 looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and she scowled back at him.
     6 liked hugs. They made him feel cared for. He could feel a goofy smile on his face, the kind that simply would not go away no matter how silly he knew he must have looked.
     6 hummed along cheerfully to the music. 5 laughed before joining in on humming along to the tune of 'Winter Wonderland'. Others joined in, bright glows on their faces.
     Suddenly 1 stomped into the room, a scowl on his face (as usual.). "What are you doing?! You could attract attention to our whereabouts!" he bellowed. 6's face fell and he clung to 4, fear in his mismatched optics.
     7 looked like she was going to burst a casket. "YOU are the only one who can't seem to ACCEPT the fact that we're HAPPY, it's SNOWING, and we DEFEATED the beasts. YOU seem to be THICK enough to try and YELL at us for ENJOYING ourselves, even though it must be JEALOUSY that guides your SICK, SELF-CENTERED ACTIONS!!!" she shouted back at 1, he fists clenching and unclenching.
     "N-now we don't need to fight!" said 9, stepping in between the two.
     1 opened his mouth to say something, before thinking better of it and stalking away again, defeated.
     "YEAH, RUN AWAY, YOU COWARD." shouted 7 after him.
     "Stop it, 7." sighed 9, sitting down again. "Let's not ruin the mood."
     "I second that..." mumbled 5. "What other music is there on this?" he said, mostly to himself, whilst flipping through the songs on the CD. He stopped at 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas' and picked up humming again. 9 joined along, elbowing 7 who, with an annoyed frown, started to hum along as well. 2 followed their examples, clapping a little beat to go along with it.
     6 was still a bit shaken, and didn't feel like humming. 3 and 4 couldn't hum, though both of them looked like they wanted to. Instead they swayed along with the music, thus swaying 6 along with them. He didn't particularly enjoy being swayed back and forth, but he didn't detest it either. He began to hum again nervously, singing a couple words of the chorus in a shaky voice. Whenever he tried to sing, others would quickly pipe in. He wasn't sure whether it was because they didn't want him to become embarrassed, or that they actually enjoyed the tune. In any case, his fear was ebbing away once again, and he hoped that neither 1 or 8 would come back and ruin the mood.
     "Have a h-holly jolly C-Christmas!" sang 6 in a loud, child-like voice. 5 couldn't help himself from laughing a bit, but 6 didn't think that 5 was really laughing at his singing, so he continued to hum along in an erratically cheerful tone. He bobbed his head along to 2's clapping.
     Once the song ended, 2 clapped his hands together a final time. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "I had almost forgotten! Part of Christmas is you make presents for everyone else." he explained.
     "I like presents!" chirped 6 with a grin. The twins nodded eagerly, clasping their hands together.
     "We need to make presents for each other, then.... alright. We'll go around the room. When I point at you, say who you'd like to make a present for." He pointed at 5 first.
     5 smiled shyly. "I'll make something for you, 2."
     2 pointed at 9. "I'll make something for 7." he said with a little laugh, and a dodge to avoid 7's punch.
     2 pointed at 7. "I'll make something for 3." she said smoothly, before winking at the twin.
     2 pointed at 6. "4!" twittered 6, smiling. He still wanted to draw her something in exchange for making him smile. Smiling was good.
     2 pointed at 4. She hesitated a moment before gesturing at 6, something like a blush on her face.
     2 pointed at 3, who, in turn, pointed at 5.
     2 clapped his hands together. "Wonderful! Then I'll make something for 9. Get started on your presents- we'll meet back here at sunset." he proclaimed, before limping back off to his little workshop.
     6 could hear 9 conversing with 5 about something that might impress 7 as he, 3, and 4 left the main library. The twins waved at him as they went their separate ways, off to create their gifts.
     "Bye!" shouted 6, before stalking back to his room. He tried to avoid the shadows, scared that there might be something in them. He didn't like being unable to see what was there.
     Upon entering his room, 6 took an old, yellowed piece of parchment from the corner and lay it flat upon the wooden floor. He then dragged his inkwell beside his picture and dipped his pen-nib fingers into it.
     Then he drew.
     6 arced long lines of black ink that spattered occasionally and left ink splatters in odd places on the page. He drew careful shapes that didn't look quite like anything that anyone has ever seen before, and he drew long, narrow lines coming from small ink splatters. There were little things that looked like stars, and a large shadowy figure that maybe looked a bit like a person, or a stitchpunk. There was a small tear in the page that quickly became a bat (for the twins had shown him pictures of bats, and they had pretended that they, too, were bats; flying through the air, unafraid of the shadows that were so close to them.) 6 lost time as he drew, he felt as if he were transported to another dimension completely, where he could just picture everything as a physical item, no matter how abstract.
     He added a few little bubble-like objects to the corner, and took and old red pen (which he rarely use; he much preferred using his fingers than trying to move anything as big as him across the paper.) and drew a couple of similar bubble-like objects to the opposite corner. He colored in a few shapes with the red, and then drew another strange person/stitchpunk beside the shadowy one. He threw the pen aside and dipped his fingers back into the black ink before drawing a spiral in between the two figures.
     6 continued to cram as much as he could onto the page before a voice called from outside. "6! It's sunset, come on!"
     He hurriedly added a few final touches before sitting back and admiring his work. Determined that it looked satisfactory, 6 picked it up and began running towards the library. He was evidently the last one there, and he sat down nervously between 4 and 5.
     6 fidgeted worriedly while the others were given their gifts. 9 gave 7 a strange sheathe for her spear, and hastily explained that it would help her so that she didn't have to carry her spear at all times. He was surprised when she suddenly kissed him, but he returned the kiss. They broke apart after just a brief moment. 3 and 4 looked a bit disgusted, while 6 had just looked down uncomfortably.
     5 gave 2 a new cane, that looked like it had been fashioned out of the handle of an old letter opener. It looked a bit like a deer, though 6 wasn't really sure. 2 seemed to appreciate it all the same, and he tapped it against the floor for the remainder of the gift-giving.
     2 gave 9 a new version of his old staff, this one with a tiny light bulb on the end of a collapsible object of some sort. The staff easily collapsed into a table lantern. 9 thanked 2 graciously and studied the mechanics of the device with great interest.
     7 gave 3 a coin purse full of beautiful little bookmarks. Some had little animals or characters on the end, while others were pretty simple, just with a single initial carved into the end. 3 grinned as he cataloged each individual bookmark, turning them over and over again in his hands. 6 continued to get even more nervous; he dearly hoped that 4 liked his present to her.
     3 gave his present to 5, which was a book of astronomy. 5 thanked him sincerely before looking through the book, and showing some of the pictures to 7 and 9.
     6 felt a little tug at his heart. He suddenly didn't think his present was very good at all. He wished he had found 4 something she'd use every day. He handed the large piece of parchment to her anyway, shivering a bit. She set it on the floor and began studying it carefully, with bright eyes. The others looked at the picture as well, all of them looking a bit confused.
     "What is it a drawing of, 6?" asked 5. He caught a glimpse of 6's nervous, almost neurotic, expression, and hastily added, "It's very very pretty."
     6 was still watching for 4's reaction.  "I-it's a h-h-hug. H-happiness." he explained in a small voice. Oh, he hoped that 4 liked it. He hoped he hadn't made the worst gift.
     4 continued to stare at it. And stare at it. 6's heart, or whatever he had that made him feel things, felt like a trapped animal: afraid and hopeless. Quite suddenly 4 shot out of her trance and clutched 6 to her in a tight hug. She beamed at him. 6 was shocked for a moment, before hugging her back.
     "Y-you like it...?" he asked, almost skeptically. She nodded quickly, before grabbing a little scrapbook from behind her. It stood about as tall as her, and she had some difficulty handing it to 6, but managed it. His mismatched optics studied the careful leather work that bound the book. He opened it, discovering that the pages had tons and tons of artwork in them, everything from a 2 year-old's crayons drawing for their mother to the Mona Lisa. There were blank spaces every few pages, where 6 supposed that he could put whatever he'd like into the book. He noticed his own drawings a few times, but didn't feel that he was good enough to have a place in this art book.
     4 looked at him hopefully, sharing the same worried expression that he supposed that he must've had just a few minutes earlier. "T-thank you!!" he shouted. "I l-love it! Love it!" 4 looked relieved. 6 wanted another hug, but instead he just continued flipping through the art book. It was dark now, the only light coming from 9's new staff.
     7 stood up, and yawned. 9 stood up as well, followed by 5 and 2. "Well, it's time to go to sleep, I think." said 7 sleepily. "It's been an eventful day."
     9 agreed, as of course he would, before adding, "There might still be snow tomorrow."
     5 heaved his astronomy book onto his back, and began to walk burdensomely back up the stairs. "Night, all." he said back to them. 2 groaned as he stood up, using his new cane to steady himself. He headed up the stairs after 5.
     "Come on, you three." 9 said to 3, 4, and 6. He and 7 shepherded them up the stairs after the others.      
     6 didn't want to be alone, but he didn't want to make 7 angry by asking if he could sleep near the others. So he merely muttered "Cold..." and turned towards his own room. A draft blew through the hallway and made him shiver. "Brr." he whispered to himself before entering his room and plopping himself down in 'his corner.'
     6 continued to shiver, wishing he could look at the art book again, but knowing there was no light in his room, and he had left the book in the main part of the library anyway (it was far too heavy for him to carry.) He clutched his key and listened to the creaking of the old building in the chilly wind. "Cold, cold, cold...." he said in a sing-song voice.
     After a few minutes, the creaking sounds began to scare 6. He couldn't see anything, and the creaking, for all he knew, could be coming from horrendous creatures trying to rip the library apart and eat them up.
     In his minds-eye, 6 could see black shadows creeping along the outside of the library, looking for a way in. When one landed on the snow, 6 could see it outlines for clearly. It looked like a rat, with heavy spines jutting out of its back, and gleaming red eyes that melted all the ice around it. It had teeth like jagged knives, and talons like a falcon's.
     Something prodded into him. 6 shouted out and scrabbled away from whatever-it-was's grabbing claws. "Don't! Don't hurt m-me!" he yelled at it, still struggling backward. The thing illuminated its eyes brightly, and 6 realized who was actually there.
     "4!" he shouted gleefully before grabbing her in a tight, suffocating hug. "I-I thought you were a-a Beast!"
     4 nuzzled her forehead into his chest happily, like a particularly cuddly cat might. She blinked some message to him, which he didn't really understand. Still, he appreciated that she was trying to communicate with him. She wasn't apparently frustrated with the look of incomprehension on his striped face. Instead, she acted out falling asleep and pointed to him.
     6 frowned a little. "C-cold..." he muttered.
     4 then pointed to herself, before sitting beside him, her head leaning on his shoulder. It didn't look particularly comfortable, but 6 never slept in a comfortable position. 6 watched her fall asleep, and then sighed contentedly to himself. It wasn't cold or lonely anymore. The creaking of the building was merely that- creaking.
     "Warm..." mumbled 6, before falling asleep, a happy smile on his face.