The First Wielder

Chapter six: What's Stopping You

SIX

For some reason, Abigail found herself seated in front of a bunch of paintings. She felt yet another small tug on her hair while questioning how she got here.

Grace (she insisted Abigail to call her "Mom") came up to the gray-eyed female when she was skimming through the interesting posters on the kitchen walls and asked if she could accompany her. And as someone who owes the robotic mother, who is more human than anyone else, Abigail agreed.

She was lead to the gallery and they began talking. It started from her well-being to how she spent her life before meeting the Hargreeves siblings. Abigail was so caught up in the conversation (seeing as she spent most of her life without human interaction) that she didn't notice Grace stand up and walk to her back. The girl stopped mid-sentence when she felt Grace doing her hair.


When Diego arrived at the Academy, looking for Abigail with a manila folder at hand. He chuckled in amusement when he arrived at the gallery, seeing the girl unable to escape his mother, who was busy humming a delighted tune while braiding her hair. Abigail gave him a look, sending him a message to not just stand there and help her. Though, it made it a lot more entertaining to watch. Abigail tried her best not to lunge at Diego and smack that smug grin off his face.

"I have to talk to Abigail, Mom," Diego said, finally deciding to save her life after checking the time.

"Just a second, sweetie, let me finish this," Grace replied as she finished braiding Abigal's long black locks. She tied the end with a rubber band and took a few steps back to admire her work. "There you go."

Abigail was glad she could finally stand up. She traced her fingers on the simple braid, letting the end part rest on her left shoulder. She couldn't help but adore the new hairstyle.

"Thank you for accompanying me, dear," Grace smiled.

"No problem," Abigail nodded and left with Diego.

"Seems like everyone's taking advantage of your age," the rebel snickered.

Abigail huffed while playing with her hair. "It makes me wonder why I'm only getting this treatment. Five and I are the same age, you know, physically."

"Unlike my grumpy brother, you're more open and calm about it. Also, it's 'cause you're more of a little girl than Five."

"Hey, just like Five, there are still adjectives about my age which I'm not fond of."

Abigail frowned but was reminded of the boy. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen Five for the past days."

"The only thing I know is he's busy trying to unlock Dad's suitcase," Diego answered and she hummed.

They lounged at the wooden railings of the second floor. Diego handed her a manila folder and Abigail raised her eyebrow.

"The report on the warehouse incident," Diego stated as she opened the folder and read the contents. "Apparently, the only thing they can conduct an autopsy on was the pyrokinesis woman you and Five creatively killed."

"We had no choice," Abigail defends. "And mind you, I had to steal another pen and pocket knife because of that wonderful stunt."

"Be lucky your fingerprints were burned down. Five's were the only one found, which is somehow similar to that of a 1930's cold case," He retorted while she snorted.

"How about the rest? The ones that were burned," She returned the file.

Abigail sighed when he gave no answer. "You can identify a person through his/her teeth since I'm sure it withstood the intense fire. The forensic odontology may take long though...give or take three days or more based on the number of people during that time and how quick the analysis is. We can investigate more about those in the warehouse once the results are out. We can even discover a pattern, maybe."