nothing in the dark

The weekend was always slow for Annaleise, her parents had taken great pains to hire babysitters for when her teachers were unable to keep track of the small girl.
The newest babysitter was harsher than the rest, meticulous in keeping watch over the slippery child. Normally, it only took her an average of ten minutes to lose her guardians, but this one kept hot on her heels for quite a long time. Slipping around a corner, Anna caught her break, spotting a pile of half-empty boxes that belonged to some college student just moving in. Holing up in the largest one, Anna listened intently for the familiar hurried footsteps that had dogged her trail for the past half hour.

Her breath caught as the footsteps faltered in front of her pile of boxes, and softly exhaled as they moved on. Staying an extra five minutes paid off, when she realised her guardian had stayed close by to see if she popped out from the boxes. The footsteps finally moving away for good, Anna carefully poked her nose out of the packing peanuts, crawling out and taking off in the other direction. Coming upon the library door, Anna tugged it open, clutching a worn stuffed dog in her other hand. Immediately drawn to the circle of chairs, Anna perched upon the largest chair, wishing she had pillows and blankets to nest in.
A thick brown book hanging of the edge of a nearby table, she picked it up by the spine, her eyes moving over two large unfamiliar words. Only able to recognise the word 'the', Annaleise blinked, drawing her knees to her chest and opening the medical textbook to rest on top of them, idly flipping through the chapters and feeling quite adult.

Happily kicking her legs as she paged through the loud terminology, Annaleise flipped through illustrated procedures, interesting anatomy diagrams, and long blocks of confusing text. Despite only understanding a small part of the pictures, Annaleise was happy for something to look at either way.
Her eyes flicked up as someone sat down across from her, and she casually examined the blue-haired stranger. Finding them to be relatively uninteresting, Anna returned to her book, her eyebrows shooting up as she examined a fascinating picture of a dissected brain. Her nose wrinkled, as her eyes wandered over unfamiliar terms. Amygdala. Cortex. Thalamus. Sounds like something a foreign student would be named.

A voice drifted over her book, questioning her understanding of her chosen book. Promptly, a frown creased her brows, and a pout settled upon her lips. "Yeah. Are you sure you can understand that?" Her tone took on an indignant quality, and she sat a little higher in her chair, the medical journal thumping down across her knees. "I know everything."

Crossing her arms in a huff, Annaleise raised her chin defiantly. "Okay. If you must." Consoling herself with the thought that this person must just be impressed with her otherworldly wisdom, Annaleise waited impatiently for this 'test' of knowledge.

The test was dumb, and Annaleise immediately saw fit to say such. "That's a dumb question. Who cares about pin holes, anyway? You must not be very smart, either. Next question." Dismissively waving a hand like she had seen many adults do, Annaleise rested her chin on her hand, defying the stranger with a self-satisfied little smirk. No one could beat her in an argument, most had given up in the face of her outstanding logic and reason.

Allowing herself a small grin, Annaleise watched with glee as the other agreed with her. No, no one cares about pin holes. Her grin was replaced with a frown as she had to think about a new question. Square roots sounded hard.

"The real question is, why do you feel the need to question an innocent child? I know its hard when a kid knows more than you, but don't take it too--" Glancing down at the medical journal in front of her, Annaleise pulled out a word at random. "Centromere. That means hard, in case you were wondering." Kicking her legs once more, Annaleise counted that as another victory. In her mind, she had already scored two points. Truly, she was a cunning and fearsome opponent.

She felt like a predator closing in for a kill. Her opponent was finally showing weakness. Deep breaths meant they were starting to get irritated, and irritation was fun to provoke. "No, of course I wouldn't have gradiated. It would look dumb if an 8 year old gradiated from school." After a moments pause, Annaleise felt she needed to clarify that. "I'm eight." With a definite nod, Annaleise tossed her hair, enjoying the way her little ringlets ruffled and arranged themselves neatly around her neck.

"Well, your questions are boring. Hey! Did you know that walruses eat baby seals? I like walruses... They make funny noises." Pausing to giggle at the memory of her last trip to the zoo, she continued, "My daddy is much bigger than a walrus, though! He's huuuge!" Throwing her arms out on either side of her body to demonstrate, she fixed Zero with a stare. "He could eat you, I bet. He's big enough to eat a people."