[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝑂𝐹 𝑀𝐸 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄, 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍
"𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡."
—𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 she left the room, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she made her way into the foyer.

She gave a small nod of goodbye to the receptionist—Marguerite—and was about to leave when a familiar face walked in.

Mara stopped short in her tracks as she stared at the boy with a look that held the same amount of surprise as the one he was giving her.

"Five?"

"Mara?"

"Oh my God," she breathed out as she rushed up to him and immediately embraced him in a tight hug.

He squirmed in her arms, his nose wrinkled as he wriggled around and complained, "Wha—no—Mara, get—don't—"

"Stop resisting."

Five stopped moving with a small groan and reluctantly wrapped his arms around her, though his arms quickly tightened as she kissed the top of his head.

"I've missed you," she murmured as she released him and ruffled his hair.

The corners of his lips tugged upwards, though he managed to keep a straight face as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his shorts and asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Since April." Mara shrugged. "What about you?"

"Since a few hours ago." He shifted around his spot as he glanced around before sighing. "Listen, I need to talk to Diego for a few minutes, but I'll be back. You stay right here and wait for me, okay?

"I—" She bit her lip; her lunch break was about to end any minute now. But there was something urgent in Five's voice that made her hesitate to leave, so she sighed and nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll be here."

As soon as Five had been escorted to the visiting room, Mara walked over to the receptionist and borrowed the phone. She quickly dialled the boutique's number into it and lifted the receiver to her ear as she listened to it ring.

Annie picked up after a few rings but before she could do the usual boutique greeting, Mara quickly spoke, "Annie?"

"Mara!" Annie exclaimed, immediately recognizing her voice. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, just . . ." Mara sighed, craning her neck over towards the visiting room before she turned back towards the phone, "something's come up, another brother is visiting right now and it's about something important. I don't think I can make it in today."

"That's fine, I'll just call Shirley," Annie quickly reassured her. "She's been asking for some more shifts anyway, her momma is pregnant!"

"Great, thanks, Ann." Mara gave a small smile of relief as she nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you later, alligator!"

Mara hung up and gave the phone back to Marguerite with a small thanks. She then walked over to the back wall and leaned back against it as she folded her arms.

Only a few minutes later did she hear Diego's yells, and she sighed. Why did she let Five go in alone? Any two of the boys in the family being alone in a room together was simply a recipe for disaster.

Five soon came out, his hands slipped into his pockets, and bobbed his head towards the door to indicate that they were leaving.

"Is Diego okay?" Mara asked concernedly, glancing over her shoulder as the two of them exited the building. "What happened?"

"Ah, lost his shit about saving the president, so I told the guards about his plans to shave his bars down," Five said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "They injected him with something and knocked him out. I'm sure he's fine," he added upon noticing the frown that had settled on Mara's lips.

"Right . . ." Mara sighed, folding her arms as she followed Five through the busied street. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, you mean other than the fact that I've stranded my family through various years?" Five looked over and gave her a humourless smile.

"Oh, come on." She rolled her eyes and nudged his arm as she pleaded, "Just tell me what's wrong."

He sighed, ruffling his hair with one hand before telling her, "Wait 'till we get there."

"What?" Mara's eyebrows furrowed as she looked around and questioned, "Get where?"

Five didn't answer her question, rather just pushing forward. A little annoyed, but more intrigued, Mara followed him into a small alleyway between a coffee shop and a grocery store and allowed him to teleport the both of them to their destination.

They arrived inside of a small kitchen, but Mara hardly had any time to inspect her surroundings as she doubled over and clutched her stomach.

"You good?" Five asked amusedly, slipping his hands in his pockets as he watched her groan.

"Oh, just dandy." She glared at him as she swallowed back vomit and straightened up.

She followed him into the living room and sat down next to him on the couch. She looked around at the room, her eyes narrowing as she noticed a table that was cluttered in different types of radios, and the board of alien and UFO-sightings on the wall next to them.

Drawing her attention away from the strange parts of the room, Five cleared his throat and began, "So . . . You know how there was an apocalypse in 2019?"

"I mean . . . it's the reason I'm here and not getting my PhD after ten years of hard work, so yeah" —Mara shrugged— "I know."

Five let out a long exhale before telling her, "It followed us here."

"It . . ." Mara pursed her lips as she processed the information, her eyebrows knitting together tightly. "Come again?"

"Nuclear war," he answered heavily. "Ten days from now."

"Nucle—ten—huh?"

"Yeah. I saw it," Five confirmed with a curt nod. "I got here on the twenty-fifth, but Hazel brought me back here."

"Hazel?" Her eyebrows furrowed even further as she tilted her head. "Like Hazel and Cha-Cha, Hazel?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"So . . . where is he now?" she asked, leaning back against the brown couch. "Is he gonna help us?"

"Some Commission goons got to him," he explained as he let out a sigh. "Shot him full of bullets."

"Oh" —she frowned as she lowered her gaze to the ground— "that's unfortunate."

"Yeah."

"So," she sighed as she looked back towards the boy and raised her eyebrows, "what are we gonna do now?"

Five's attention snapped towards her in surprise as he tilted his head and incredulously questioned, "You believe me? Just like that?"

"Of course I believe you," she said with a quick nod, "why wouldn't I?"

He licked his lips before shrugging. "It's just that Diego didn't."

"He didn't?"

"He didn't."

"Well, we already know he's stupid, it's not that surprising," Mara said dismissively as she waved a hand through the air, eliciting a small chuckle in return. "So what do we do now?"

"Round up all the siblings," Five told her firmly. "We need the full force to prevent this. I learned that way too late the first time around."

She grinned. "Where do we start?"