ZERO! the umbrella academy

dix

MISERABLE

LIKE I SAID BEFORE, the house that I lived in for eighteen years held lots of bad memories and lots of good ones. The bad ones outweighed the good, and eventually, the good turned into the bad. For example, if I could choose one memory to forget above all the rest, it would be the night a few weeks before Five left.

"Hey, Zero. Wake up." Five's voice coaxed me out of sleep.

My eyes fluttered open, and I could just barely make out Five's face hovering above me in the dark. "What's happening?" I stretched my limbs. "Are we going to Griddy's?"

"I was thinking we could go somewhere different this time." He helped me to sit up straight. "But you've got to keep your voice down, okay?"

I nodded. "Just let me get dressed."

"Don't worry. You don't need to be dressed for where we're going." He hugged me close to his chest and summoned a portal.

I stumbled as he pulled me into the courtyard. Even though it was spring, the air still nipped at my skin through the thin cotton of my nightgown, and the ground was cold under my bare feet. The place where Ben's statue would eventually reside was empty. "You took me to the courtyard?"

"Oh, come on. I wanted to finish our game of tag from earlier." Five leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear. "And you're it."

He tapped me on the shoulder and sprinted away before I could catch him. "Hey! No fair!" I giggled and chased after him.

I turned the corner, but he was no where in sight. "Five? Are you hiding?" I crouched down and looked underneath a stone bench. "Where are you?"

I heard a rustle behind me and whirled around to see a rather large bush. A grin spread across my face as I walked over to it. I pushed through the leaves until I found Five sitting in the middle, his piercing, green eyes staring up at me.

"There you are." I touched him on his knee before he could escape me. "Tag! You're it!"

I ran away in the other direction. I felt strangely free running in the nighttime, the wind blowing my hair behind me and nothing but grass underneath my feet. I turned into a different part of the courtyard and skidded to a stop, frantically searching for some place to hide. Then, I heard a sound like space tearing in two and saw a burst of blue sparks.

"Your turn," Five said before tapping me. Then, he vanished into thin air again.

I spun around in circles, looking for wherever he had gone to. "I thought we couldn't use our powers!" I huffed. Fine, if that's how you want to play, I'll play.

I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of the cicadas chirping in the bushes. It slowed down until it came to a complete stop, and time was frozen.

Everything was so still before then that it didn't really look any different when time was stopped. That is, until I went around the corner.

Five was frozen mid-sprint in the middle of the courtyard. His green eyes were lit up, and he had a large smile on his face. I walked over to him and stopped in front of him, allowing myself to admire his form for a second. Then, I concentrated on bringing back the sound of the cicadas.