Life as We Know it [Five]

One

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

January 3, 1963
Dallas, Texas

Emery Lamont landed with a thud on the pavement, hands and knees digging painfully into the gravel below. He spat blood and stood up, pushing the now dirty blond hair away from where it had fallen over his eyes.

"Five?" He asked, noticing the way he was alone in his landing and the cloud of blue still above him. "Five!" He shouted. "Five!" But it was closing up, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking until it dispersed with a 'pop', leaving behind absolutely nothing. Emery could see the blue sky above and the tops of buildings but no Five, no Allison, no Klaus, no one.

He heaved, hunching over and hacking as he spat more blood and wiped at his mouth with the sleeve of his blazer- Five's blazer that the boy had leaned to him when he has shot a few days ago.

A few days? He thought as his legs clumsily brought him forward and to the end of the alley, he was spat out from. Or a few years.

He was on the edge of a street now, across from him- an old-timey movie theatre with a restaurant beside it. There were shops and bakeries and people mulling about, donned in their cocktail dresses with puffed sleeves and bright colors, the men in their striped shirts and vests overtop.

"Do you have a jacket there bubba? You'll catch death without one." A voice said. Emery's head whipped to the side where he saw a young lady and what looked to be her son, gently placing a hand on his shoulder, lips pursed in concern. The lady sucked in a breath upon taking Emery in closer. "Are you alright?" She asked, pulling away. She was scared.

Emery looked down at his burnt bandages, torn best and nails stained with blood beneath them.

"I'm quite alright." He said, hesitantly adding on "Ma'am" to the end.

The lady just smiled and patted his head as she continued on her way, son clutching her other hand as he waddled loyally beside her.

"Bubby?" Emery questioned under his breath, walking across the street and ignoring the honking cars that yelled at him as he walked over to a hotdog stand stationed on the other side.

"Would you be able to tell me what the date is?" Emery asked the man running the stand. "The exact day and uhh where we are?" He added.

"I might could do that for you." The man responded, tilting his hat down to get a better look at him. "Why you askin' such questions boy?"

"Look, can you just tell me?" Emery said, biting his lip as he waited anxiously. "Or should I go and find someone else."

The man cracked a smile. He had a chipped tooth and his teeth were out of line. "You ain't from around here are you." He said, less of a question than a statement.

Emery sighed but forced a smile on his face. "Yessir. I'm traveling you see, don't know where I'm going which is why I hope you could help."

The man stared at him for a second longer before he relented and squared his shoulders. "If you look behind you, across the street there, you'll be able ter see that's the bank of Dallas." The man said. "As in Texas. Son, you're in 1963- January to be exact if you didn't already know."

Emery barely managed out a 'thanks' before his legs were carrying him backward and onto the street. He snapped out of his daze though when another honk pulled him from its depths and he ran across the rest of the road until he was standing in front of the aforementioned bank.

Dallas. He thought. Texas. As in 1963. He'd been here once, right before the assassination of JFK, the killer- Five Hargreeves.

"What the hell did you do Five." He said aloud, gaze drifting back up to the area where the cloud had spit him out. But of course, it wasn't there.