The umbrella academy: In which Five gets all the love he deserves

Untitled Part 67

The only advantage that Ben finds in being a ghost, is that he could check on Five without the boy noticing. It was becoming worrisome that the boy spent most of his time in his room. Every time Ben checks on him, he finds him either writing on his walls, writing a book, or talking with that mannequin friend of his. Is he really the only one concerned that Five talks with an object? The others treated it like something normal.

Today when Ben stuck his head through the door, he saw that Five had his one-sided conversation with his mannequin again. 

"No Delores. I'm not going to tell them anything?" Tell them something? What? Ben was growing concerned. Was Five hurt and hide it again? There was silence meaning that the mannequin was speaking in his brother's head.

"Five. They are your family. They would understand"

Five snorted. "Yeah. You don't know them. They would not understand shit. They would think that it's a prank"

"You don't know that"

"Yes. I do. I'm not going to tell them that I leied about my age and I'm actually 13 and not 58" Wait. Wait. What the fuck? Five lied. He was really 13. Not 58 like he always said that he is. Jesus Christ. If Ben wasn't dead now he would have died from a heart attack right now, remembering everything that Five did this past weeks.

"I don't understand why you lied to them in the first place"

"You know why. They wouldn't have listened to me if they knew my real age."

"Yeah. Like they listened to you when you faked your age"

Ben pulled away from the room. Was it possible for a ghost to be sick or dizzy? Because that's how he was feeling now. 

"Klaus" Ben shouted as he walked into his brother's room, scaring him.

"Jesus Ben", Klaus said as he patted his chest. "What's wrong?" he asked as he saw the shocked expression on his ghost brother.

"Are the others home?"

"Yeah. They should be home by now."

"Can you make me corporal for a while?"

"I can try"

"Good. Do it"

"Wait. Ben. You didn't tell me what is wrong"

"You would know it soon"

Klaus was still confused. He doesn't know what Ben had heard or seen or found out that made him so frantic. But it must be serious. So he made him corporal and the two brothers walked downstairs. When they got down the others just arrived home.

"Guys", Ben shouted, making everyone jump at Ben's voice. But they were happy to see him. Though their happiness died down when he saw the panicked look on their brother's face.

"Ben. What's wrong?"Viktor asked worriedly.

"I found out something about Five. He's not what he said that he is"

Klaus gasped. "You mean that he's an alien"

"He's..."Ben stopped and he looked at Klaus giving him a 'Really?' look.  Klaus only smiled. Ben shook his head. "No. He's not an alien. I was talking about his age. He's not 58 trapped in a 13-year-old body as he liked to remind us all the time these 2 weeks"

"Ben. What do you mean? How do you know that?" Allison asked and she was starting to get anxious. If Five's not 58. Then how old is he? She hopes that what was thinking was not right.

"I was checking up on him and he was talking with that mannequin friend of his. Which is concerning by the way. He needs real friends. And they talked about lying to us about his age.