MONACHOPSIS- V. Hargreeves ³

009. THE GREAT DEVOURER.

There were other differences, too. Nadine remembered the courtyard as a wild thing, with a garden of green, overgrown bushes, branches that could entangle both hair and clothing, and vines that had climbed up the side of the house. It had been nature in its purest, wildest form, constrained to a small space. It was obvious that the members of the Umbrella Academy had liked it that way.

But the Sparrow Academy courtyard was reigned in. There were no more vines on the walls, no more bushes growing out of control. Everything had been corralled into their proper places—the trees were lined up like sentinels, the plants remained in their sectioned-off gardens, and even the blades of grass sprouting underneath Nadine's feet were all the same length. It was meticulous. It was symmetrical. It was everything the Sparrow Academy was—and everything the Umbrella Academy wasn't.

Even so, it was beautiful.

There were flowers. A nearly infinite number of flowers in a nearly infinite number of colours, all blooming in rows. They were planted in such a way that they appeared to be a gradient; red bled into lighter red which bled into orange which bled into lighter orange. The air was thick with their scent, but it wasn't sweet enough to be cloying. It was the kind of sweet that you just wanted to close your eyes and inhale.

It was packed with life, too. Birds chirped from the branches of fresh, green trees, their voices swelling into one gentle harmony. Butterflies with orange or purple or blue wings flew above Nadine's head, adding more bursts of colour to the scene. Bees droned on the flower stems, spreading their pollen. A chipmunk darted by, then dove into a bush.

Even though it seemed to come right out of one of Nadine's Sanctuaries, she didn't let herself trust it. This was the Sparrow Academy. This was the place her enemies had made their homes. It might as well have been a Venus flytrap, ready to catch unsuspecting flies within its jaws.

It was easy to remind herself of this when she came face-to-face with three of the Sparrow Academy's members. Ben, the woman with the sunglasses, and the asshole who'd fought Nadine—Fei and Kadence, respectively, according to Luther—all smirked at them, eyes brimming with condescension and loathing. Nadine glared back, focusing specifically on Kadence. Although it had technically been Fei who had gotten the better of her, Kadence had been the one she'd really fought. Kadence had been the one who mocked her.

She curled her hands into fists. One wrong move, and she was going to see what Nadine was really made of.

Ben, the wrong Ben, cocked his head at them. "You're one short," he pointed out.

"Where's the rest of your pathetic family?" Fei asked.

"Aww. Is that the best you can do?" Allison mocked.

"It's like you're not even trying," Nadine agreed.

"You talk a lot of shit for someone who got your ass handed to you," Kadence said, picking at her nails. "Nadine, was it? What are you here for? To be the Umbrella Academy's guard dog?"

"I'm no one's dog," Nadine said. "Though I suppose I do have the teeth of one."

"Oh, how—"

Ben raised a hand, interrupting her. "Enough, Kadence. Let the adults speak."

Nadine expected her to argue about that—after all, even though it wasn't directed at her, it still was patronizing enough to make her teeth clench. And Kadence had proven to be out-spoken enough to completely ignore her brother and continue on.