Sanguis • Ben Hargreeves¹

seven

The red mission bell rang out loudly; it's flashing lights blinding anyone who looked at them. All of the children rushed around the house trying to get ready for their next mission. Their father shouted at them, making his disappointment heard.

"How will the Umbrella Academy ever become an effective crime deterrent if we can't even leave the house on time for missions?" Reginald began clapping, telling them to rush. "Come along, children! Come along!"

Eden rolled her eyes, but placed her domino mask on her face nonetheless. Her black and white outfit uncomfortably hung onto her and she scoured around her room, looking for her shoes.

"Where's my knives?" Eden heard Diego shout, running through the house as Vanya played her violin beautifully.

"Mom, do you know where I left my shoes?" The teen asked.

Grace walked into Eden's room, holding her black shoes. "You left them in Ben's room, again."

She took them gratefully and laughed. "Oops, thank you mom."

Grace smiled and walked out of her room, leaving Eden in there alone. She began to make her way out of her room and ran into Ben as he sprinted towards her.

"Sorry, are you alright?" Ben asked.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." She responded, both of them running to the door.

As they ran to the door, their hands brushed. Both teens slightly blushed, but disregarded it; acting as if it never happened. The rest of their siblings joined them, standing at the door to wait for their father to let them leave. Ben and Eden shared a glance, smiling at each other.

-

Eden plugged her headphones into her phone and put both of them into her ears. She turned on her music and tapped her foot, back laying on Ben's bed. She closed her eyes and hummed to the tune, all outside noise being blocked out. Soon enough, the woman drifted off to sleep.

The darkness of the room coated Edens body. She was barely visible so if someone were to peak their head in they probably would not see her, and that is what happened. The handle to Ben's door wiggled then opened and two heads looked into it, but they saw nothing so they shut the door again.

The woman woke up groggily and heard a slight commotion, but she just figured Luther and Diego were fighting over some stupid shit. "These guys are beginning to piss me off."

Eden rolled over in Ben's bed and went back to sleep, wishing the two men would get along. The next morning she fully woke up. Eden let out a long yawn and stretched, feeling well-rested for the first time in a few days.

She could hear her stomach grumbling making her aware that she was hungry, the ginger realized she hadn't eaten since yesterday. Eden opened Ben's door and walked out. Right away she could tell that the house was quieter than usual... Too quiet.

Her footsteps echoed through the halls, they were the only things echoing through the halls. From what Eden could tell there was nobody around, and that was slightly worrying to her. She began to look around for them and in the process found Grace, only the robots arm was cut up and her wires were showing.

"Oh my god, Grace." Eden gasped, putting a hand in front of her mouth. "What happened to you?"

But the robot woman didn't respond. She sat there, head hanging and eyes closed; there was no sign of whatever robot life Grace had. Eden walked back to her room and heard a conversation between Pogo, Luther, and Diego.

"You're brother is missing and this is how you rise to the occasion? Take your nonsense elsewhere." Pogo reprimanded the men. "Now."

"Sorry, Pogo." Diego apologized.

"Yeah, sorry, Pogo." Luther followed quickly after.

As they walked out of the room they saw Eden standing close by the door, a confused expression on her face. "Who's missing?"

"Five." Diego responded, walking away along with Luther.

"Alright, great job on elaborating." She muttered, walking into Fives room to talk to Pogo. "Are you okay?"

"Miss Eden, I didn't realize you were there." Pogo stated, ignoring the question. "How are you?"

"That's not what I asked." Eden told him, sitting on the bed next to Pogo.

"I'll be okay, Miss Eden. I promise." Pogo told her.

"I've said that before." She said. "I was lying."