Don't Let Me Burn Out // Klaus x OC // Umbrella Academy

1 | Too Much Hate

Suggested Song: Into The Unknown by Blackchords

Adeline's POV

**Five Years Ago**

I had always been the dirty little secret.

I had always been told that I was unwanted and unloved. Not worth the time of my great and powerful siblings. So much so, they were to never even know of me. Their riches and successes had been published in every store across New York. They were the great 'Umbrella Academy', bred to perfection. 

Me? 

I spent most of my days staring out a window, praying that I might be able to fall asleep that night. That when I close my eyes, may I never open them again. May my soul peacefully drift into nothing, quicker than it already was. 

I had no job, no family, no purpose. I was just a dried up convict with nothing to show for my life except a few scars at the cresses of my inner elbow. I was not like the others. Reginald had not bred me to save the world. I was hidden. Not spoken of. My veins did not run with the same gold blood that theirs did. 

Now, as I stared down at the payphone, I beg my fingers to stop pushing buttons. To stop asking for answers. 

I typed out the number I had memorised after attempting this moment so many times, only to fail, crying on the payphone booths cold empty floor.

The machine gave a small beep as I entered the final number. I watched as it rang. The robotic bell taunting my thoughts, mocking my attention. A final beep, longer than the rest. It had hung up. My last quarter wasted on a call with no answer. My last patience broken at the stem of his beanstalk. Reginald had won.

Soon I would be no more. 

I felt it in my soul. My head aching from the anger inside. If only they all knew what they had done to me. If only he could just look me in the eyes and tell me he was sorry for what he did. But Reginald was a stubborn bastard. For to say sorry to me now, would mean he would have to admit he was wrong. 

And Sir Reginald Hargreeves was never  wrong...

I walked away, maybe another time, may my sorrow become peace. I clung to the necklace around my neck, not sure of its origins, a single broken heart. The other piece was out there somewhere, around someone else's neck, but I knew not of this person.

It was raining, pouring down. My short black hair had began melting across my face. My breath was visible, like when we pretended we were smoking as children. 

My coat had water dripping off the ends of it, disappearing as it feel from me. I closed my eyes as I walked, I could feel it building.

I begged for mercy. Pleaded for it to stop.

The electric feeling pulsed through my swirling veins as the blood inside began to thicken. I tried to focus on the feeling of rain hitting my bare face. I knew there was no point in fighting it. If a burst was coming, it was going to happen.

But what would it do to my body this time?

I wondered hard, thinking about the scar that ran up my right thigh, lifting my skirt slightly as I walked to feel the rough skin with so many un-natural imperfections. Thinking more, I recall the one burst that sent me into a coma for three months. I remember waking up with a few strands of hair as white as pure snow.

The memory loss, the scars, the changes had all been my body playing too hard with its own energy. Other peoples I could conjure and control, letting it pass through me. But when I conjured my own energy, it would often destroy me.

What was left of me

I took a few moments to pull myself together. Trying not to think of the past. Trying not to recall what damage was already there. 

I begged for someone to save me. To just pop out of an alley way and start a conversation that I could think more about than what was dwelling within me. I needed to pull myself together. I knew I shouldn't have tried. I knew this would happen.

I was careless. I had to stop playing with my life.

But no matter how hard I tried, I kept placing bets, as long as the black jack dealer was standing at my table, I would gamble. 

I would always gamble with something much more than money.

A/N

Hey everybody! New and old! Welcome to the first chapter. It's more of a prologue for readers to grasp the feel and story type of this whole book. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Over the next few, Adeline will meet the Academy, whoop whoop! Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. Until next chapter!