THE CURE// five hargreeves

prologue

PROLOGUE
Ellie McClain

The wind flew around my body as I stood before the Umbrella Academy's doorsteps.

My brown eyes drilling holes in the doors is part of my daily routine before I work up the courage to go in.

It's always so intense in that house. The feeling of ability and restraint is enforced with rules tightly in place when Mr. Hargreeves is around.

He allowed horseplay but only if he couldn't see, hear, or speak of it. Crayons were banished from the house after one of the kids drew on the walls with blue and green, and if they played with their food while dinner was in process they'd be fed by Grace.

Those are only some of the rules their father had in order.

Reginald Hargreeves is a man that shows no remorse or mercy and that's one of the reasons I'm terrified of him, despite his blunt kindness towards me and only me.

His children, on the other hand, are treated so awfully I think I would never come back here if given a way out.

I rub my hands together, the sleek feeling of them sliding off each other making my face scrunch in disgust.

They're extra clammy today, which is not a good combination for the cold weather that's been placed over the city. Snow and dry wind hit parts of me in places I didn't know they could. Chills raked through my spine as I shudder against my own will.

My red hair was able to be seen in my peripheral, whipping it around my face and shoulders, the length hitting my back through the sweater I was wearing. Knitted patterns had been thrown on quickly to escape my mother's protests of me leaving to see our neighbors that I know so well.

Rocking back and forth on my feet, I suck a relieving breath into my lungs, feeling a sense of contentment as I look at the mental Umbrella's engraved in the glass. The gates before the doors call me instantly, almost like it was meant to be.

I extend my arm out to open it, but I'm practically ripped away by a gentle rough hand. "Eleanor Lores McClain."

My father's raspy voice rips through me like a slap, his face filled with concern and worry as he holds my shoulders with a firm grip that's awfully unwilling and sure as he looks at me with disappointment.

"What did your Mom say to you?" He asks, eyes gentle with anger.

His softness in this situation is causing me to worry about many things that could be happening behind those doors.

I knew they were hiding something from me.

If it were experiments or something worse that I couldn't know about, I obviously didn't know, and I also don't know if I should push on the subject.

But I was going to do it anyway.

I suck in a breath, tilting my head when I see my pregnant mom looking at me from our doorstep a block down. "Not to see the umbrellas until it's okayed with you, her, and Mr. Hargreeves."

"And what are you on your way to do?" He asks, leaning down to meet my eyes, legs squatted to look me in the face.

"See the umbrellas." I whisper, avoiding his suffocating glare.

"And what have you not done?" He asks, voice remaining calm as he urges me to look at him with a tilt of his head.

"Okayed it with the three of you."

"Why not?" He asks, finally meeting my gaze.

My decision was entrenched with determination.

Nothing, even him, was going to stop me from seeing the seven people I had been wanting to see for the past month. They had to be wondering where I was, if I was coming back, or why I suddenly stopped visiting every day.