THE BEAST ─ five hargreeves

[ 048 ] luther botches a prizefight

XLVIII.

l u t h e r   b o t c h e s
a   p r i z e f i g h t

—EVER SINCE SHE HAD lost her memory after being hit by a modestly-priced station wagon, Vanya's life had become—to put it crudely—a royal shit show.

It was fine at first. Vanya had made a respectable life for herself as a nanny on a rural farm (if you consider being hopelessly in love with a married woman 'fine'). But, hey, what's so bad about soul-crushing, unrequited love? Nothing.

Nothing at all.

See, things were decent—up until last night. That was when Vanya's life began to go downhill, because, not only was she chased around a corn maze by three men with bleach-blond hair, she had, in a futile attempt to save her sorry ass, flattened a year's harvest with an energy wave the size of a small tsunami.

And, to make matters even worse, Vanya was now sitting in a diner with the angsty teenage brother she never knew she had, and some girl who had ordered three toasts slathered in marmalade for her parrot.

"So, uh," Vanya cleared her throat, and asked tentatively: "Are you my sister?"

"No!" said Five quickly. He looked horrified at the suggestion.

Vanya swallowed. Not ten minutes in and she'd managed to offend these new people. This was going great.

"He's correct," said Zara, smiling sweetly. "I am not your sister. Although, I am a pretty great sibling, if I do say so myself. I even gave my older sister her very own pet frog last night."

"You snuck it under her pillow," Five pointed out.

"As a surprise, of course."

"She woke up screaming. It almost gave Elliot a heart attack."

"Screams of joy, Five, screams of joy."

"She . . . literally said she was going to murder you."

"I believe Lila's exact words were 'smother me with sisterly affection.'" She turned to Vanya, still smiling. "You must excuse Five. He's been away from his siblings for much of his life."

"That's—" Five looked as though he might argue, then decided against the idea. "Not the point. Anyway—do you have any questions for us, Vanya?"

"The guys who chased me last night," said Vanya. "Who were they?"

"They work for the Commission," said Five.

"The Commission?"

He hesitated a second, then began: "When you were a baby, you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with six other children who had extraordinary powers. But in the year 2019, in order to avoid the apocalypse—"

"Which was sort of my fault, by the way," chimed in Zara. "Sorry about that. Mommy issues. You know the deal."

"—in order to avoid the apocalypse," continued Five, "we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas. Any other questions?"

Vanya was quiet for a moment, taking it all in. Then she asked: "What do you mean 'the apocalypse'? How could something like that happen?"

"The cause?" Zara laughed nervously. "Oh, boy. So here's a funny story. The person who caused the big kaboom was—"

"Asteroid impact!" interrupted Five.

"Astroid impact?" Vanya's forehead wrinkled. "But that's not a person."