~~~Five~~~
"I survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find." Mary's experiences living on the streets are the only thing that kept me alive long enough to learn how to survive. I wouldn't have lasted two days without her. "You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well, it's total bullcrap." I took a sip of my coffee.
"I can't even imagine." Vanya said.
"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it." Together. Always together. Mary and I against the world.
"We?"
"You got anything stronger?" I deflected. She poured some whiskey into a cup. I took a sip, sighing. "You think I'm crazy."
"No, it's just...it's a lot to take in."
"Exactly what don't you understand?" I asked, frustrated.
"Why didn't you just time travel back?" I scoffed.
"Gee, wish I'd thought of that. Time Travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?" Honestly, I used to fantasize about the day that I would take Mary to meet them.
"if you grew old there, you know, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid?"
"I told you already." I walked past her, putting my cup down on the counter and grabbing the bottle. "I must have got the equations wrong. Mary thought I did, I should have listened."
"I mean, Dad always used to say that time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?"
"This was a mistake. You're too young." I grabbed my coat, heading for the door. "Too naive to understand."
"No. Five...Five, wait."I stopped right in front of the door, hesitating a moment before turning to face her. "I haven't seen you in a long time and I don't want to lose you again. That's all. And you know, it's getting late. I have lessons early, and I need to sleep, and I'm sure you do, too. Here." She laid a blanket out on the couch. "We'll talk in the morning again, ok? I promise. Night."
"Night." She went back into her room, and I sat down on the couch, taking the glass eye out of my pocket. I turned it over in my hands. My only lead, so far I need to get Mary on board and get her to help me figure out how to stop the apocalypse. Sorry, Vanya...I don't have time for a sleep over.
I stood up, quietly leaving the apartment. I would go visit the location listed on the back of the glass eye in the morning. And then I'd head over to Gimbles Brothers and hope that Mary was working that day. She'd mentioned it, but I wasn't sure of her schedule.
Luckily the tow truck guy gave me the address.
~~~Mary~~~
When Marlene called in sick last night, she regretted to inform me that it was freaking inventory day, meaning I wasn't going to get to go home until at least another four hours after I was supposed to.
I had recorded the numbers from the back, so now all I had to do was go through each rack and count what merchandise was left on the floor after the day. I was rifling through a rack of blouses when I saw a flash light creeping over the racks. I jumped into action, creeping through the racks behind them. It was dark, so I couldn't see who it was, but regardless I crouched down, sweeping their legs out from under them and straddling their waist, pressing against their throat a pocket knife that I'd decided to carry unless someone came back to finish the job. I held the knife to their throat with one hand, and with my free hand grabbed the flashlight they had dropped, shining it in their face to find that, once again, it was Five. I shook my head.
YOU ARE READING
The Burden of Knowledge (An Umbrella Academy/Number Five Fan-Fiction)
Fanfiction"Knowledge is a burden-once taken up, it can never be discarded".-Stephen R. Lawhead. Mary Burke was one of forty-three children from across the world that came into existence in a single day by some freak event. She was one of the lucky few howeve...
