Wonder • Five Hargreeves

51

A lot of things can go wrong in 8 minutes.

480 seconds.

A normal adult takes an average 12-20 breaths in one minute or 0.2 breaths a second. Multiplied by 8 minutes, thats about 128 breaths in- give or take a few.

So thats 128 fillings of the lung that generally go unnoticed in any given span of 8 minutes throughout the day. 128 times your body decides to continue on living without you being totally conscious of it. 128 successes.

Until it's not a success. Until it's brought to the forefront of your mind. Can you feel it? The weight of your chest? The expansion of your ribs? That spidery crawling feeling from the center of your body as you a remember a time when you couldn't breathe?

Breathe in....

Breathe out...

"Good. Now again."

Vanya had experienced panics attacks before. It was a familiar sensation when anxiety and dread set her body alight with an energy she couldn't control. She hated feeling out of control.

"Hey. Focus. What do you need to do?"

Her body shook, her chest felt tight, she wanted anything to just make it stop. Crying wasn't working, her body was failing her.

"Vanya- answer me. What do you need to do?"

"Breathe." Vanya choked.

She scratched at her throat and threw her body back against the padded walls. Was the purpose for sound-proofing, or preventing her from hurting herself? Maybe both.

Why did Luther do this to her? Why did Diego and Klaus betray her? She hadn't meant to hurt her sisters- it was just her power. She wasn't in control. It was just too powerful and she was so...so angry. She had came home to apologize for it.

"I can't!" Vanya screamed. Or was it a sob? It came out wrong, she could barely even hear herself in this room. The room that was made for her and ate up all the sound. She couldn't even control how she spoke and that made the panic intensify.

"Why not?"

"Its too hard- I- I cant breathe. It-its not going in." Her words were warbled and gasped and silenced- like there truly wasnt any air in the room.

"Thats your panic speaking, c'mon now. You know Dad just as well as me- you know he could never throw away an asset."

Vanyas blurred vision drifted over to the other end of the room. A lone bed sat in the center, occupied by a form with glowing white hair.

She laid upside down, her head falling off the end of the bed to look at Vanya from upside-down. Her expression was laughing and carefree, like she wasn't all there.

"Father dearest would have never planned a room that could kill you baby girl. Maim, definitely. But theres probably a dozen contingencies that ensure air will continue to pump into this little prison even if you don't want it to."

Vanya sobbed again. Broken and small. Abandoned by all she loved and so isolated that her mind had simply fractured.

Fabricating a company that hurt her even more.