a mannequin and a boy • the umbrella academy ON HOLD

volume one, issue 1

MENTALLY, DOLORES ISN'T THIRTEEN. Of course she isn't, she's been in a spirit form for years and years, with no way out. But really, the girl is even older than the advanced mind of Number Five himself. Her wisdom stretches beyond what's to be expected of a simple, teenage girl, and she's capable of much more than an adolescent is. However, unlike Five, she didn't let the intelligence and experience make her grouchy, with no hope of the future.

Dolores has determination, Dolores has hope, and Dolores has Five. If she can ever find him, due to the fact that when he traveled back to the past from his apocalyptic nightmare, she also went with him. Separated from the mannequin head, of course. And for the first time, she was solid, and visible.

And naked. Very, very naked. Stranded in an alley, with no clothes on.

The girl, though denounced of crime, had to swipe over sized clothing off of a rack and hanging. She'd have to apologize later.

Now just to find Five, wherever he might be, the girl thought, running from the alley with the sweater and jeans. Luckily, the jeans were meant to be skinny jeans, even if Dolores was still skinnier. She'd have to deal with nutrition later, she did miss about seventy years of it.

Dolores bolted through person to person on the streets, crossing sidewalks and dodging dogs here and there. She just needed to find him, so he could explain what happened. But then, a thought occurred to her; Five had no idea what she looked like. And she barely remembered what he looked like, it being forty years since he was thirteen. If he was only thirteen, as she was. He could be any age, for all she knew. He could even be dead.

But Dolores wasn't the kind of person to think of the worst, either. She was an observer, a quiet person, but never once did her thoughts go amiss, even as a doll. Being a spirit made her patient and like a shadow, after all. But now she's human, and she's ready to make a change.

As she ran, Dolores noticed she was very slow. Well, when she was living and solid, she skipped a lot of gym, anyways. She was used to being carried. But eventually, she got to a building, just as normal as every other building around it, but she vaguely recognized it. And curiosity had to get her somewhere, after all. She wasn't progressing much by just running blindly.

Dolores slowly crawled up the stairs, panting slightly as she knocked on the door. She let the time of waiting help her catch her breath, but it was a long time waiting too.

She knocked again. Once, twice, even three times. It was likely no one was coming to the door, but she wouldn't leave until someone did.

Eventually, a very large man came to the door, greeting her with a hazy and cautious expression. He clearly skipped leg day.

"Five?" Dolores asked simply, obviously surprised. She high doubted it. She watched him grow up and he never looked like that, but things change. She hoped they didn't. Five was never that large and broad.

"No, Luther. Five's here, though," he answered, and Dolores breathed out a sigh of relief. "Why?"

Dolores panicked. Not only because she was braced with a question that had a complicated answer, but also because her speech wasn't very good. She could understand the hardest of literature, and was smarter than most adults, including maturity-wise, but she couldn't speak well. His name wasn't hard, but that's all.

It's as if she was in a very long coma. She forgot many things, and running, walking, basic actions, just came naturally to her muscles. But once it became thought-inducing, like preparing an answer with a language she wasn't good at pronouncing, it was difficult.

She didn't know much English. It wasn't taught much in school, and the only reason she knows a ton now is because Five liked to narrate some of his actions, and teach her stuff.

However, Luther looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"See him. I need see him." Dolores cringed at how dumb she sounded, but she just looked up at the man with dough-eyes and a hopeful expression. He sighed, compromising his mental conflict and clearing the way to let her in. She still looked like an innocent thirteen-year-old. That would help a lot.

Dolores skipped inside and allowed Luther to lead her into a room with a table. There stood a few adults and one teenage boy. Bingo. Dolores theorized they'd be the same age, and she was right. If that was Five, which she remembered him to look that way, anyways.

"Five?" She softly murmured, and said boy looked up. Dolores felt a pang of pity for that boy. He was hurting, hurt, really, and saw too much. The weight of the world was on his very shoulders, and he had seen it fall one too many times. In his hands was a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, an easy preparation.

She almost choked on a sob, but she didn't want to embarrass herself either. To them, she was a stranger.

Five didn't cope with the end of the world like Dolores did. Dolores's world ended when she was thirteen and forever a spirit, but it wasn't as if she had much of one. Her family was poor, and didn't like her, since she caused trouble and was completely unexpected.

His ended when he traveled to the future. Both accidents were because of their power that they couldn't reverse, and both reacted to it different. Dolores just learned to manage, and saw as time went on, and she was forgotten. It hurt, but there was no use crying about it, but instead using it to move on. Explore, travel, see things she couldn't before. Move in and out of shadows, live the in-between life to the fullest.

Five, however, felt pain in a much higher degree. He saw his siblings' dead bodies right before him, befallen in rubble and debris of what he couldn't prevent. She watched him grow lonely, so insane he saw humanity in a doll. Funny, he chose the one doll with a bit of human in it. Just a bit. He was hurt, and bitter, and matured too fast. Traumatized.

"Who are you?" A random woman asked her, standing up from her seat and looking at her with suspicion. Dolores felt that earlier panic again, but chose not to act on it, either.

She looked straight at Five, dead in the eye. Pointing to herself, she answered, "Dolores."

author's note
would you guys want me to unpublish this chapter and make it longer? I know it's short but the paragraphs are long too so I didn't know what y'all wanted.

comment what kind of chapter length you guys like!! so I can use that reference in the future. I'll try to update twice a week, but I make no promises. last time I did, I ended up taking too long. so no promises, okay? I'll try!

anyways, thank you for reading! drop a comment or a vote if you need to, but it's fine, still! <33

question of the chapter:: how do you like story so far?
my answer:: I like how I chose to start this. I feel I portrayed Five well, too. It was so hard not to write "I" or something in first person for Delores though, lol!

Thank you, bye!!

edited on June 21st, 2020- I just changed some grammar since I didn't want to change anything too big early on.