𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 | 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐎𝐧𝐞 | 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚂𝚒𝚡 | 𝙸'𝚍 𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚠 𝚘𝚏𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚝

^^^

Ash was falling into my eyes as I ran after Five towards the main street. I clenched my eyelids as the smoke stung my eyes mercilessly. My breathing was uneven, and I could feel the aftertaste of burned wood on my tongue. Five ran ahead of me, the newspaper he was holding in his hand looked undamaged. As if it was an indestructible artefact. 

Only one question echoed in my head: why was this newspaper so important? 

I didn't know how to answer this one myself. Only 30 seconds had passed since Five had found it lying on the pavement in the alley we had jumped into. So he didn't explain to me in detail what the reason for his nervousness was. I could feel his emotions all over my body; his stress made me feel like my skin was on fire. 

"Five, slow down" I finally stammered when at some point I felt a sting in my stomach. 

The boy stopped, stepped back and grabbed me under the arm with his free hand.  

"I can hear them," he said and shook the paper. "We need to get to them as soon as possible."

Seeing the grimace on my face his gaze softened slightly. He squeezed my shoulder. 

"Just a bit further. You can do it."

I pressed my lips together and nodded. We have a problem, he said. And a serious one at that. 

If he said so then we really did. 

I forced myself to start running again. I held my stomach the whole time while Five ran beside me squeezing my hand.  

I felt tears drying on my cheeks and ash settling on the still wet spots. I hoped that all my siblings had got out of the house unharmed, and with them Mum and Pogo. However, I felt in my heart that I might be wrong, so I tried to limit these dark thoughts. This was impossible, however, when all I could see was the burnt remains of our house. 

After a while, we finally reached the main street, I could already hear the raised voices of my brothers from a distance. I breathed a sigh of relief the moment I saw Luther's tall silhouette on top of the rubble. Five squeezed my hand tighter and led me towards our siblings. I jumped over the stones, hardly feeling the pain in my stomach area anymore.  

After another few seconds, we finally got close enough to our siblings for one of them to notice us. Diego, at the sight of whom I felt the lump in my throat disappear, was the first to turn his gaze on us. I saw his shoulders slump and a second later he started running towards us. Five let go of my hand the moment he grabbed me in an embrace. I suppressed a hiss of pain. 

I looked around at the group that stood on the rubble. I counted six people including me, all my siblings. I began to search with my eyes for Pogo and Mom. Diego pushed me back to shoulder length and pressed his lips together. He knew what I was thinking about. 

"Pogo is dead" he whispered squeezing my shoulder.  

My heart froze in my chest and tears flowed into my eyes again. I shook my head. 

"Don't tell me that—"

"Yeah" he lowered his gaze. "V-Vanya." 

I blinked resulting in a torrent of tears running down my cheeks.  

"Mum..." he began. "S-She left with a smile."

I pursed my lips and wiped my face with my shirt sleeve. Diego squeezed my shoulder again and stroked my hair.