Thea Hargreeves had already experienced loss in her short life, but her family was something she was determined to keep together and close to her heart. No matter what.
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It was on the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, when 43 women around the world simultaneously gave birth. These births could be considered miracles to many, as prior to that exact moment, none of the women had even been pregnant.
Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer certainly thought so. He was determined to find and adopt as many of these miracle children as possible.
. . .
In the utter most rural part of Germany, within a little village cut off from the majority of the surrounding towns, the pained screams of a young girl could be heard loud and clear.
The girl could be no older than sixteen and her anguished cries were mixed in with a panicked chorus of confusion. For as she had been enjoying her walk home from school, after saying her goodbyes to both friends and her girlfriend alike, she had continued on her solitary journey home, looking out every now and then to the view of the sea.
However, all of a sudden and with an astonishing amount of pain that swept the ground right from beneath her feet, the girl felt an ache settle in her abdomen. Looking down, she was met with the impossible sight of a swollen and extended stomach.
Scared and extremely unnerved, the girl had tumbled the last few steps towards her front door and banged upon it forcefully, crying out for her mother. The fright was so overwhelming that when the older woman finally opened the door, she was met only with tears and a blubbering repetition of muffled pleads for help.
Hours later and a panicked impromptu birth that the girl had barely survived – the baby had come into the world showcasing its impressive set of lungs. Or rather, babies.
"It's twins, Freya," said the aged yet graceful woman that had supported her daughter, clutching her hand in her own all throughout the birth. "A boy and a girl."
"Twins..." the exhausted girl barely managed to whisper, looking down once at the swaddled blanket where two pink faces peeked out, before passing out.
.
The following day she was woken by the sound of muffled voices – her mother and gruff male voice that she did not recognise. Not for the fact that she was coherent enough to distinguish, but for the glaring fact that the strange man wearing a monocle upon a single eye was not speaking German, but English.
He looked down at the pair of babies swathed in pale blue blankets with shrewdness. Seeing she was awake, he turned at once to Freya with a closeness that unsettled her. "How much?"
Freya had blinked, uncomprehending of the blunt English words and yet knowing, deep down, just what this strange man wanted. What else could it be after the impossible events that had transpired?
Looking down at the two pink-faced cherubs in her arms, Freya made a choice. She was only a child herself, after all.
. . .
In the end, Reginald Hargreeves managed to get eight of the miraculous children for himself.
The two babies, wrapped in swathes of pink and blue lay asleep in their shared stroller. The children were unusually calm as they knew nothing of how, only hours ago, they had been sold to a mysterious billionaire by their reluctant yet resigned mother.
They would know nothing of what their life could have been like and would, from now on, only be known as two of Reginald Hargreeves' adopted children. They would become some of the most well-known children in the world, in fact, under the pseudonyms of The Divine and The Séance.
Right now, however, the babies slept willfully ignorant to the rest of the world. Carried away into dreamland by the steady rocking of their shared carriage, tiny hands clutched together, the children would from this day onward become numbers Zero and Four.
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So I'm super nervous to even be posting this, and honestly, it's not even any good, but I hope anyone who reads it enjoys it even a little. I love Umbrella Academy (I remember reading the comics when I was younger) and since I heard they were making a show and after watching and loving it, I just couldn't help myself, I had to write something!
