[✓] 𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐟𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. 𝑎 𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘

"All this killing . . ." Five glanced over at Valerie before looking back to the Handler and shaking his head. "I'm done with it."

"What? Am I supposed to take that seriously?" the Handler scoffed, an amused smile coming onto her face. She pulled out a white handkerchief from the inside of her dress and gave it a small lick before wiping off a spot of blood on Five's ear, smiling endearingly down at the boy.

"What we did today, we did for our family," Five insisted, not bothering to give her any thanks for the clean-up. "We did it to save the world."

"Please. Spare me your little assassin with the heart of gold routine, will you?" she drawled as she chucked under his chin with the handkerchief before tapping his nose. "Here." She leaned down and picked up the black briefcase that was sitting beside her. She handed it to Five, who gripped tightly on the handle. "Per our agreement, this will get you and your siblings back to 2019. You have ninety minutes."

Valerie's eyebrows knit together tightly in confusion as the Handler turned to walk away, and she quickly called out, "You said nothing about a time limit."

The Handler stopped in her tracks and turned towards them, a jolly smile on her face. She checked the watch on her left wrist before telling them, "Actually, you have eighty-nine minutes and thirty seconds. Better hurry."

"This is impossible, okay?" Five said incredulously, following her as she made her way to exit. "My siblings are scattered across the city."

"Nothing's impossible," she replied as she stopped once more and tapped the tip of his nose once again. "You two proved that this morning when you killed the board."

"We need more time," Valerie insisted, folding her arms.

"Any more time, and people will start asking questions. The sooner you get home and out of this time period, the better off we'll all be" —the Handler leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper— "so, tick tock, tick tock."

"Goddammit," Five muttered under his breath before grabbing onto Valerie's hand and teleporting them to the entrance of Elliott's home.

Valerie furrowed her eyebrows as they entered, seeing some sort of red substance painted on the otherwise light ground.

"What the hell?"

It didn't take long for her to recognize the shade of red, nor the stench. Blood.

It was scrawled across the ground to spell out: Öga För Öga

She glanced over to Five, who was examining it with a scowl. The two then headed up the stairs, and a feeling of dread washed over her as she noticed the light blue blanket that seemed to be covering a body on the dental chair.

Five rested the briefcase on the ground before gently lifting the blanket off, and both of their eyes immediately widened at the sight.

Valerie inhaled sharply at the sight, horror blooming in her chest.

Elliott, his mouth forced open by some dental tools, had his face smeared with blood, and his glassy eyes were staring up at the ceiling.

Evidently, he was dead.

Five sighed before whispering, "Damn."

Valerie held back any tears that were making their way to her eyes, and Five quickly pulled the blanket back over his head with a small sigh.

She looked ahead to see that Diego and Luther were standing in the kitchen, next to the telephone box. Luther held the black receiver to his ear as Diego stared furiously at the telephone itself, and whatever they were doing, Valerie was sure it was stupid.