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CHILDREN OF THE CORN ☂︎︎
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SHE HAD FOOLISHLY FALLEN ASLEEP.
Luckily, but not so kindly, she was shaken awake.
By nature, she assumed danger despite the soft taps she was receiving and her pillow subconsciously warped into a dagger. When her eyes opened to Five whose eyes gazed at hers as though saying "Really?" although the soft smile on his face said the opposite. Charlotte sighed, the pillow returning as she picked herself up off the bed. "When did you get back?"
"Half hour ago," he said, eyeing the open door.
Her brows furrowed in worry. "Is everything okay?"
Before he could reply, a loud groan filled the opposite room followed by murmured words from Lila. Charlotte grimaced. "What happened?"
"My dad shanked my brother." he stated dully and without surprise. "Glad you didn't come now, huh?"
"The opposite." she retorted, standing up and taking a sip of water that he had placed on the counter for her. "I could've helped."
He rolled his eyes, allowing her to take notice of the slight flow of blood on his neck. "Yeah, well, you got a good night's sleep."
She fell into line beside him as they exited the room. Her arm held him still as he glared at her in confusion. He paused as her fingers lightly trailed across the skin of his neck, the purple haze dancing across the cut leaving a slightly ticklish sensation and meanwhile the proximity of her touch left a similar one that he guiltily noticed more than the counter. "Yeah, well.." she mocked. "Maybe you're the one who needs sleep."
Five tapped her forehead back, almost afraid to have her so close. "I have coffee."
"That's not sleep." she replied seriously.
Their bickering continued till they reached the doorway where Diego's groans of pain interrupted the tension laced conversation. Lila was hunched over his blanketed waist with a pair of pliers and steady hands. Five sighed. "Oh. He isn't dead."
It was her turn to shove his side at his attempt at hiding his worry. He approached his exhausted brother as Charlotte leaned against the door. Lila looked up. "Disappointed."
"Oh, to see you? Always."
He reached for a napkin and Lila sighed. "So much hostility in such a tiny package." she watched as he dabbed the napkin on his neck, wiping away the remaining blood. "Did you cut yourself shaving? I could teach you to shave like a big boy."
She could sense he was annoyed with Lila and she hoped his temper would be contained. "No, I just ran into an old family friend." Snoring softly lulled behind her. With a slight turn of her neck she saw Elliot, still tied up and asleep in the chair. "You didn't untie him?"
"Was I supposed to?"
---
After untying Elliot and making herself a shitty decaf which was then thrown away by Five who made her what he deemed "a perfect decaf" they waited over coffee. One highly caffeinated and one heavily lacking. He took the shared moment as an opportunity to ask the questions he'd had no time to ask her before and he chose the blunt statement route.
"What's with all the batteries in your apartment?"
He watched as she grinned. "Experimentation. Takes me back to the old days."
"Experimentation of what?"
She stared at the trinket that lay on Elliot's table, with a wave of her fingers it melted and the usual glow flowed over her figure. His eyes widened as he came to a quick conclusion. "You can absorb energy."
"Yup." she said. "Reality has energy and, well..."
The corner of his lips turned up, remembering the week prior when she had been unable to control herself at all. Her improvement surfaced an odd sense of pride in him. He liked watching her grow. It was those little things that snuck up on him and caused him to be unable to avoid his emotions. Little moments over coffee in the mornings that seemed simple, could be brushed off as merely a friendly gesture but as always, anyone with eyes could see past the "friends" facade.
It seemed the friends, however, were adamant on avoiding it.
"That's great." he said, taking a long sip of coffee. The scratch of graphite settled in a moment later as she began filling in the crossword, something neither had done in a while. He grinned. "Bet I could beat you."
She looked up deviously. "At crosswords? Never."
He took the challenge, grabbing the other copy of the newspaper and pencil and they raced in silence. Desperately, he banked on her getting stuck on one as he struggled with four across. She must have noticed because her teasing soon followed. "Four across, huh?"
"Shut up." he sighed.
She shrugged while holding back a smile. "You need to catch up on your pop culture."
"Yeah, yeah." he rolled his eyes as she enjoyed soaking in his defeat.
A beep interrupted their race right as Charlotte was about to finish thirty down. Five jolted up, dropping the pencil against the table. She did the same, watching as Elliot's eyes widened at the flashing red light. "Hey, we got one. Hey, one of those machines you asked for is going crazy."
He rushed over, Charlotte trailing his side. "Which one?"
"It's the, uh, atmospheric radar," he said. Her eyes fell on the many circles that were mapped against the screen. She squinted in confusion.
"Good." Five responded.
"I don't get it. What are you tracking?" Elliot asked. "A hurricane? A storm front?"
"Sound waves."
Elliot nodded. "Sound waves."
"Sound waves?" she questioned lowly. Her mind raced even more as he intertwined his hand in hers and she knew what was coming. "Woah, woah, woah. Where are we going?"
"Vanya." he muttered before dragging her into that wormhole she had been forced to get used to over the past few days with a jolt.
She fell out with more stability than before, his arm stabling her. She looked around but not before giving him a scowl. He glanced down at her as she stared at the cornfield he had dropped them into. He smiled as she frowned. "Great. You just dragged us into Children of the Corn."
He sighed. "You're ridiculous."
"Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman!" she announced dramatically, waving her hands amongst the corn. Five stared at her blankly. She stared at him pointedly. "See this is why you didn't get four across."
He rolled his eyes but the corner of his lips twitched up and she noticed in secret adoration, enjoying the small action she seemed to elicit from him. "Whatever."
They continued through the corn, leaves brushing across her shoulders as they went along. Per usual, they bickered frequently, stumbling through the cornfield before coming upon a pair of eyes among the twisted stems. He paused as did she, his hands pushing apart the corn that the eyes hid behind. Short brown hair and gentle features across the face... "Hi, Vanya." he greeted.
Vanya stood up in confusion. "Who are you?"
Charlotte's head tilted to the side, mind working quickly. It was apparent that Vanya had forgotten at least a portion of her life. Five stayed unfazed though, offering her his hand. "I'm your brother."
"I have a brother?" her eyes fell on Charlotte. "Are you my sister?"
A sad smile made its way to her face as she shook her head. "No." Five said. "That's Charlotte. Your friend."
Vanya's eyes lit up as though she had never heard the term "friend" before. Her lips made to speak but her brother cut her off. "Look, you can either stay here and wait for the IKEA mafia to come back to kill you, or you can come with me."
He begins to walk away. Charlotte shoved his side. "Be nicer." she whispered. He rolled his eyes as Vanya trailed after them. "Wh... Why are they trying to kill me?"
"Cause you're not supposed to be here, Vanya."
Leaves continue to brush and rustle, the hot Texas sun searing into her skin. "In Dallas?" Vanya questions.
"No. Here, in 1963."
That seemed to stop Vanya's continuous questions. They trekked in silence, particularly opposite of any of the characters in Children of the Corn, she thought. Eventually, they come upon a clearing, corn no longer encasing them but the sun still burning against her skin. Roots scattered across the surface, a scene almost man-made. A large stump laid in the middle and unfortunately, more corn.
"Holy shit." Vanya breathes.
"Yeah, pretty wild, right?" he nodded onwards. "It's good to see your powers are still intact. Let's go."
Charlotte fell in line with the boy. "Can't you just blink us out of here?"
He chuckled, droplets of sweat trickling down her forehead. "No." he replied, tugging at the end of his sleeve to wipe her forehead gently. She blanked for a moment and once he was done he did too. It was as though he couldn't believe he had done that and wasn't sure how to react. It was too late to brush it off and he scolded himself for getting flustered. However, he didn't want to act like there was a reason for him to be embarrassed (But he was. He had just wiped sweat off her forehead...).
So he blanked.
She looked up at him with a mix of emotions; her eyes devious but her tanned cheeks slightly tinted red. A child-like innocence. He was thankful Vanya seemed to be wistfully gazing into the rising sun so as to not see the scene unfold. Instead, he turned away in silence, choosing to ponder heavily on the blush on her face while he walked.
A soft smile seemed stuck on his lips and he was lucky to be in front so no one could see.
---
After the long and strenuous hike a coffee break was in order.
The satisfying pour of the steaming liquid hit her ears as she sat beside Five at the counter. Vanya stayed quiet, a plate of food in front of her. Five smiled up at the waitress when she stopped pouring. "Leave the pot, dear." the waitress merely slid the pot over. "Thank you."
She came over to Charlotte and she smiled. "Decaf."
"We don't serve that here." she said dully.
She resisted the urge to groan, instead settled for a frown. "Water."
The waitress left boredly and beside her she could hear Five's mumbles of "what place doesn't sell decaf?" in which she unknowingly fumbled with his fingers in an act of comfort. "It's fine, Five." He only grumbled in annoyance.
"You gonna tell me what the hell's going on?" Vanya asked.
His fingers dropped out of hers as he looked towards his sister. "When you were a baby, you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with six other siblings with extraordinary powers, but in the year 2019, in order to avoid the apocalypse, we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas."
Yet again, he had chosen the blunt route.
"Any questions?"
"What do you mean 'the apocalypse'?" Vanya replied, face still laced with confusion.
"I mean the end of the world as we know it. "
"Yeah, but how?"
"You really don't remember anything?" he realized with a hint of sincerity. Charlotte frowned once more.
"No, nothing before a month ago."
"Then what do you remember?" he inquired.
Vanya's fingers drummed against the mug. "I landed in, like, a... back alley. Got hit by a car. My head was ringing like crazy. I had no idea how I got there, where I came from." she shook her head. "What causes the apocalypse?"
He didn't look over at her but she could tell he was thinking. Vanya did not catch on and waited for him to answer. Charlotte nervously waited for his reply. "Asteroid impact."
A simple half truth.
A moment of care.
"The big kaboom ends everything." he continued. "Just like the one that got the dinosaurs, except way worse. Bad news is, it followed us here."
Charlotte stayed silent, not wanting to intrude on Five's intimate moment with the one sibling he actually cared for. "What do you mean 'followed us'?"
Oh, poor oblivious Vanya.
"Eight days from now, the world ends in a nuclear doomsday," he shrugged. "It's a different disease, but... same result."
Vanya was looking around in disbelief. "That can't be right." her eyes fell on Charlotte. "You're my friend. Is he telling the truth?"
Charlotte's heart melted a little inside at the state of the yet again forgotten Hargreeves sister. But she forced herself to nod slowly, Five's hand slipping into hers from behind his back. "I saw it. With my own eyes." he begins to nod. "You were there. We all were."
"Shit." Vanya muttered, pushing herself away from the counter. "I need to make a phone call."
"Vanya," he called. He got no response.
He squeezed her hand and she welcomed it hoping it would bring along some comfort.
It came to the point where she could feel the anger boiling through his skin and he let go, hastily making his way to Vanya. Charlotte sighed attempting to reach at him before he could impulsively act. It was too late, his fingers pushed down on the coin slot and the dial tone sounded as Vanya dropped the phone. "What the hell?"
"We don't have time for this." he stated rather calmly.
"That's my friend you just hung up on."
"Listen to me." he said, grabbing his sister by the shoulders. Charlotte nudged his side as he loosened his grip on her. His tone softened. "Those people from the field are coming after us. They are never going to stop. Do you understand me? We need to stick together, find the others, figure out how to stop doomsday. Whoever this person is, they can't be more important than the end of the world. We need to go."
Vanya sighed, finally slamming the phone back down on its holder before storming out ahead. Her brother sighed and Charlotte found herself stuck, staring vacantly at him at the tone he had managed to sink down to. He had managed to be kind, gentle... almost caring.
"What?" he asked, brows raising in concern at her blank stare.
She snapped out of it, managing to not be flustered at being caught. "Nothing." she said. "Just never seen you so soft before."
He rolled his eyes, avoiding her gaze. "I'm not soft."
She smirked, looking up at him. "Don't worry. C'est mignon." 'It's cute'
He blinked.
The girl lingered long enough to see his cheeks sear pink before following Vanya out the door, leaving the boy to his own thoughts which were being flooded out of thoughts of apocalypses and assassins and instead of tight curls , bright brown eyes and French accents.
And he didn't mind it so much this time around.
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"Pause. Breathe. Release."
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WRITTEN: 7/5/21
a/n: I'm finally back from vacation! My writing schedule is back on track and I'm excited for the next few chapters (romance, affection... can i, a lonely human who has never been a relationship, write it? we shall see). I hope you like this one :)
thanks for reading! please vote, comment , share to insure the success of the story.
- viv