Nocturnal Epiphanies | The Umbrella Academy

C H A P T E R . N I N E

I snort watching Luther struggle to get out, having to twist and turn to fit his enormous body through the opening. Once Luther and Klaus finally exit the vehicle, I crawl back into the front seat, content. I place Dolores back in between Five and I, and take out a package Fun Dip. Five looks at me questioningly, and I take out another pack, offering it to him, "Fun Dip?"

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Five takes the package cautiously, "Fun Dip?" he repeats while opening it. If my memory is correct, Fun Dip was made in the 1940's, so Five should've known it from when he was a kid. But then again, Five is also the same person who actually enjoys black coffee so I guess he wasn't that big on sweets.

"It's basically just flavoured sugar." I explain opening my own package to demonstrate. "You stick the thing," I lick the stick thing a bit to get the powder to stick, "Into the package, and then you eat the powder."

Five looks concerned but follows my instructions anyway. His face contorts as he puts it in his mouth. "That's... sweet." He comments.

"Very." I add, eating my Fun Dip. He sets the pack of flavoured sugar down and returns his gaze to the Meritech building. "So what candy do you like?" I wonder.

"I don't like any candy." Five says abruptly, "Had a bad twinkie in the apocalypse, kind of put me off sweets." He explains.

I frown, noticing Five starting to think of the apocalypse. Not wanting to make him think about traumatizing events, I change the subject. "I wonder if I can follow you through time." I ponder aloud.

Five thinks about it for a moment before replying, "Have you ever tried jumping to a shadow in the past?" he asks.

"No," I answer, "But this would be different, I would be jumping out of your shadow, not the shadow of an inanimate object. Your shadow follows you everywhere, so in theory, shouldn't I be able to find someone no matter what time they're in?"

Five nods at my explanation, "Possibly. From what you've described, the shadow dimension is essentially a hallway, with shadows representing entryways. If you could jump through time, there must be an infinite amount of entryways. If that was the case, why haven't these other entryways shown themselves?"

He's got a point and without trying it out I'll never know. I've never actually stayed in the shadow dimension, only passing through it for a fraction of a second before appearing in another place. I sigh, "Add that to the list of questions that we'll never have answered because Reginald Hargreeves is dead."

We fall silent, as Five looks back at the road and I play with necklace. "If you're bored you can go, Eris. Don't stay here for my sake." Five suggests, noticing my restlessness.

I scoff, "Hell no, I'm staying." Five doesn't argue, and goes back to silence. Bored already, my eyes started drooping. "I'll go get the two of us some coffee." I decide, stretching my arms in preparation for the shadow travelling in store. Five opens his mouth probably to tell me his order, "Coffee. Black. I know." I announce.

"That wasn't what I was going to say," Five says, annoyed, "I was going to ask what the plan was if Lance shows up while you're gone."

I shrug, "Just do whatever, you know I'll be able to find you." And with that, I shadow travel away.

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Coffees in hand I walk up to the academy. I thought that I might as well make sure that Five and I weren't actually missing anything important. Walking up to the house I immediately noticed that the door was already open. "Weird." I mutter, entering the building.