Control {The Umbrella Academy} *Complete*

Chapter 8

November 26th, 2001

"Today, Number Eight, we will try to expand your powers." Leta stood with her hands behind her back, eyes pointed forward to her caretaker. "I have a set of objects that I have never seen set up behind me. Take a good look at them." She walked past the man, staring at the red box filled with daisy's sitting on a green table. "Come back, that's enough time." She silently walked back in front of him, fingers twisting Klaus's bracelet behind her back.

Sir Reginald directed her to sit in the chair in front of him. He sat in one opposite her. "You have already been able to show that you can see images and memories from others in your own mind. Now you are to attempt to place the image of those objects inside my mind. Exactly as you saw them. Now, concentrate."

Leta pulled in a sharp breath, gripping her skirt with both hands. She closed her eyes, imagining the image of the box and the flowers and the table. It was crystal clear, like she was looking at it out of her own eyes. She opened her mouth, a shuddering breath letting loose. "I can see it." She muttered.

Reginald nodded, straightening out his back as he stared at the girl. "Good. Now look for my mind."

For someone else this would have made no sense, but to Leta it was obvious. She clamped down her eyelids, a wide array of flashing images scrolling through her mind. Millions of people it felt like, all of their thoughts placed inside her head. Thousands of secrets, memories of pain, love and suffering.

Her heart beat faster, but she continued to search. Each blur had a core. A central image or a color or even a smell. That was the person.

She floated along, boring deeper and deeper into the more closed off minds. Sir Reginald suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation in the back of his mind. He nodded slowly, knowing she was growing closer.

"Keep going Number Eight." He demanded. Her fingers felt numb. She pushed herself forward, sweat dripping down her cheeks. And suddenly there was just one piece. A dark red flash, pulsing like a star.

"I-I see it." She muttered, hands shaking.

"Do it."

She reached out and touched the star, an entire galaxy spread out around her. Inside her mind she focused, pulling out her image, feeling the colors flow through her fingers as they formed the image.

"I see it. Make it more precise."

She added lines, shadows forming on the image. It felt so real.

"Yes. Good job, now I need you to stop." He said. She shivered, the image slipping away, but the galaxy stayed.

"There is so much here. So many memories... so very long." She drifted farther into the darkness. She reached for the stars and they reached back.

"Number Eight, what are you doing. Those are my memories."

"They are so beautiful." She muttered. She saw a picture of Grace. She was different somehow, she seemed happy. She seemed real. She saw the stars and storms. She felt pain like no other. "What is this?" She muttered, eyes closed but wide open. She stared into the distance of somewhere she had never seen.

It was not earth.

She knew this.

"Number Eight!" She was suddenly shaken, falling to the floor.

Reginald had struck her across the face, the pain was not bad. She didn't care about that.

"What was that place?" She stammered, shuffling backwards.

"My mind palace. A place of peace and tranquility. It is supposed to only be mine and mine alone." He said strictly. Leta had never felt so small in her life as she did looking up at him in that moment.

"You have to learn to control yourself Number Eight. There are things you can see that no one else in the world can. That does not mean you should see them. You can not let yourself be lost in the process or one day." He stood directly over her now, not even enough effort was put in to look directly down at her. Just a glance. "You will never come out."

Reginald Hargreeves turned sharply on his heel, heading to the foot of the stairs. And he was gone.

The shock soon wore off, the pain in her cheek now really present in her mind. She lifted a hand to the sore spot, gently touching it.

That would leave a bruise. She knew it.

She put a hand on the wall, using it to help herself up. The focus that it had taken to project that image had sapped her of nearly all her energy. Her hands shook and cold sweat ran down her neck. Leta took in a sharp breath before edging her way towards the stairs. With every step she felt like gravity got stronger. She didn't make it very far.

Her body gave way. She fell down onto the steps, just a few feet from her door. She couldn't even manage to complete such a simple task.

Leta laid on her back, cheek in one hand, the other on her wrist.

Useless. Utterly useless. The words shouted in her head along side all the others.

Her nose burned with the coming tears.

That was the first time. The first time she harmed herself. Alone on the floor. Feeling like a waste of human skin.

It was an addiction, she would admit.

But it gave her the thing he wanted of her. That she needed.

Control.