a mannequin and a boy • the umbrella academy ON HOLD

volume two, issue 1

The sound of the plastic hitting the concrete was hallow and low, but the worst part was that Dolores couldn't tell where the noise was coming from because she was the bearer of that echo.

Everything looked distorted and slightly fuzzy from the beady eyes of a mannequin, especially Klaus.

Oh, great, I'm stuck with Klaus and his dead sidekick, she thought, though at least Klaus wasn't Luther. She'd rather be stuck as a mannequin forever than be with Luther; he would bore her to death.

"That was..." Klaus trailed off as he got up off the ground, breathless. "Huh?" He proceeded to shout out his siblings' names, waving frantically in the air.

Klaus finally spotted her, or rather spotted the mannequin head, and cursed. He whipped his head to the side as if he were listening to someone, then looked back down.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Klaus asked the air. Dolores figured that he was talking to Ben, but if she could see Ben before, why couldn't she see him now?

"Let's break it."

Dolores started panicking in that mannequin head of hers, begging, screaming him to try something else. When she lost her mannequin body she nearly lost her own, and without something possessed, she could fizzle out of existence or die right there.

Every time she cried, screamed, talked, laughed— it was all muted and turned into silence.

Every time she wanted a way out, she couldn't tell anyone, even the only man in the whole world who could understand her loneliness.

And every time she'd come close to dying, she'd brace herself with excitement for a way out. But now she knew there something— someone— to live for, and that made her want to stay.

Klaus picked the object up with a disgusted expression, looking to the side before back to it. He threw it against the alley wall, and Dolores could feel pain even if she didn't have a body.

Klaus begrudgingly kept going, easily throwing the head around even if he was visibly exhausted. If Dolores could roll her eyes and groan, she'd be the queen of sass and pain.

Worst of all, no one could even hear her complaints.

"Okay! That's enough, stop! I hear something..." Dolores heard the voice materialize out of thin air, and Klaus looked over to its source, with a frown.

"But then-"

"There she is!" Dolores finally saw her twin brother, Ben, standing beside Klaus. She also saw her own body, for once, even if it was in spirit form.

"What? Where?" Klaus asked, his eyebrows furrowed together as he looked around in every spot he could.

"Right there! You can't see her?" Ben asked, pointing directly to a confused looking Dolores that was still looking over her body.

"Can he hear me?" She asked, and she took Klaus's lack of a reaction as an answer.

Dolores moved to stand beside Ben, gazing at the two with a dazed expression. Only Ben could see her and Klaus just went along with it, stumbling out of the alleyway and onto the bustling sidewalk.

"So where the heck are we?" Klaus asked himself, with a mournful expression as he turned to the right.

One glance around and you could tell this town— or maybe even just the street— wasn't styled like 2019. There were signs you have to change the letters by hand, a lot of white people wearing beige hats and boring colors, and no one was on a phone.

Dolores found it to be refreshing to see something so 'out of the ordinary' but a different kind of 'out of the ordinary' than what she's used to.

"I think the question is... when are we?" Ben asked the two, looking around as he followed Klaus down the sidewalk that was brightly lit by the beaming sun. If only Dolores could tan as a spirit.

Klaus ran ahead to talk to people, who thought he was crazy, while Ben stayed back to talk to Dolores.

"I just don't get it. I couldn't see you when I was in that doll, but then I finally got myself out— probably out of fear for my life— and then we could hear and see each other," Dolores told him, watching as people walked right through the two of them without a care in the world. Those pedestrians always shuddered, though, after they passed.

"I don't know. I could see you a few days ago, and so could Klaus, and you could see me as well, right?" Ben asked, and Dolores nodded as they walked past a dumbfounded Klaus.

"Maybe it's because we're twins? I mean, maybe not. Five could see me when I was a spirit, once or twice," Dolores mentioned. "Maybe it's the doll. If I'm in an object, there's nothing really to see or hear besides an object. And when I'm a spirit, I can't see dead people, you're the first. Normal people can't usually see me, but maybe with my emotions..." she trailed off as the two twins arrived at the sight of a dated magazine.

"Klaus! Get over here!" Ben exclaimed once he caught sight of the date.

"Yeah?"

"Look."

Klaus picked up the magazine, looking over it for a moment. "Yeah, I mean, he's pretty my type but I'd have to see him from the shoulders down-"

"The date, you idiot." Dolores sighed, leaning against the wall quietly as she watched the two converse.

"Oh, yeah... 'February 11, 1960.'" Dolores gasped, her eyes wide as she looked straight to Ben. Ben and Klaus looked equally as concerned. "1960."

Klaus groaned as Ben sighed, the two beginning to walk across the street. Dolores followed like a lost puppy, looking both ways across the street even though she couldn't get hurt.

"What are we gonna do?" She asked herself, and Ben looked back at her with a smile he hoped was comforting, even if Dolores could see the worry in his eyes. She appreciated the effort, though.

But the same question also plagued her as they started walking: where was Five?

authors note
here's the first chapter of the second volume, yay! I know I said that updates might come once a week but tbh, they'll probably come whenever I finish a chapter.

I don't proofread really so if there's any spelling or continual errors let me know!

if you haven't noticed, this volume will focus on Dolores more than Five, seeing as you've already seen Five's side of the story. I will probably still do the switching perspectives, but the Five chapters may be shorter or less frequent.

A lot of the dialogue came from the first episode of the second season, by the way! I don't take credit for that.

Question of the chapter: what was your favorite part of the season?

My answer: Lila! I literally love her! I know she's problematic but when have I not loved a good redemption arc. Plus, being able to mimic powers— my fav moment was when Five realized she had powers, and when she was all impressive and mysterious about them. She's such a baddie I love it.

thanks for reading! leave comments and votes if you can, thank you!