^^my watercolor painting of Five
Y/N POV
We had gotten through chapter one, which was just like an introduction. But before you know it, we had finished chapter two, three, four, until we read the whole thing. We spent the rest of the day and all night devouring the book. By the end, we didn't know what to think.
"Wow," said Five with a saddened expression on his face as he closed the book.
"Yeah," I replied looking down. I brought my knees up to my chest and hugged them.
My mind wandered back to where the book mentioned Ben's death. It was horrible. While we read that part, we were so choked up. We could barely even read the sentences without letting out a sob.
A tear fell from my eye, hit my knee, and trailed down my leg. A waterfall started to flow, but I stayed silent. I just stared at my shoes. They were all dirty from walking around in rubble.
I could see Five looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and laid it on my knees to where it was facing him. His eyes were watery as well.
Ben and I were somewhat close. He was loved by everyone. We would sometimes play pranks on others or eachother. Sometimes we would just laugh at the others.
"He didn't deserve that," I muttered.
"I know," Five replied with a sigh.
I held out my hand for him to take. He grabbed my shaky hand and traced shapes on the side of it with his thumb.
We just sat in silence. We lost everything. Our family, our home. We lost the world. Nothing was left.
Then it came to mind, unless we do something, we will just stay sad. Just stay unhappy until we finally grow old and die. I don't want to live life like this. I want to get back home. I want to find some place safe. Surely Five does too.
"We need to do something," I said breaking the silence.
"What do you mean?" Five questioned.
"Do we want to sit and dwell for the rest of our lives about how we lost everything, how we have nothing left. Or do you want to find what we lost and get back home. I know we don't know how to do that yet, but I want to try."
"You're right, as always," he said with a small chuckle.
"I don't care if it takes five years, ten years. I don't even care if it takes as long as we live to find a solution. We need to keep calculating the equations and looking for clues about this mess so we can prevent it from happening."
"Well, then I suggest we start now," he stood up and held out a hand to me. I took it and stood up, dusting the dirt of my shorts.
He walked over to the building and started writing and I looked for pieces of information that would be useful.
I searched thoroughly through the area we were in. I found an old newspaper in a burnt newspaper machine. If it was in a machine, it must have been a recent newspaper.
The paper was burnt up bad. I could barely read the name of it. Fortunately, right below the title was the date. I didn't know if it was the exact date when all this happened, but it was definitely close.
"Delores, I think we found a major clue," I said to the mannequin to my left.
_______
Vanya POV
As I sat in my room practicing a new song on my violin, I felt hungry and decided to go get a snack. I sat down my instrument and walked down the hall.
The sounds of footsteps beating down on the stairs filled the hall. The others were training. They were racing on the stairs. Everyone except Five and Y/N.
They had bow been gone for over a week. I just figured they were probably dead. Every night I have been silently crying. I've been getting nightmares similar to the one I had around the time they left. I don't dare speak about it with Dad. I applaud Klaus for getting the guts to tell Dad off, but he still didn't get a chance to talk about it.
I glanced at the stairs and saw Dad standing at the top, gazing over the rail to watch the others. He held a timer in his hand. I turned around and walked to the other staircase so I wouldn't get in their way.
I entered the kitchen and grabbed the bread, peanut butter, and marshmallows. Those were always a staple in our house. I made one sandwich and cut it in half. I decided to save another piece for later.
After sitting down at the table, I stared at the plate of food in front of me.
Y/N is the one who thought of the idea in our house. She started making them when she was five or six and now everyone in the house loves them.
I continued to stare. Why couldn't I eat it? It's food. It reminded me too much of Y/N.
I couldn't take the stress anymore. I had bit my tongue and silently cried all week. All this anger, sadness, and fear was building up inside of me all week.
I pushed the plate forcefully too the left. It skidded down the table, stopping at the very edge. My hands covered my eyes and I quietly sobbed. My fingers were soaked in my own tears.
My best friends were gone. Probably dead. The thought of that is horrifying.
I heard footsteps behind me. I turn around and see Pogo looking sorrowful.
"They're g-gone," I sniffled.
"I'm so so sorry, Miss Vanya," Pogo said and rested his hand on my shoulder. "Just know if you ever want to talk to me about it, I'm here."
"Do you know what happened to them?" I said while wiping my nose.
He sighed. "I do not."
I nodded and started crying again. I didn't bother covering my face though. He stayed with me and watched me cry. At least I still have someone to talk to. Or so I thought.
"Pogo!" I heard from upstairs. "Immediate discussion!" I sighed.
"I'm sorry, Vanya. I must go." He walked to the door framed but stopped and turned around. "It will get better, I promise." He continued to walk out of the kitchen.
I laid my head down on the table. Still I was crying, but not as much. Eventually, I felt myself start to drift off before my eyelids closed.
A couple hours later...
"Vanya.....Vanya," I heard a whisper. I jolted up and saw Klaus tapping my shoulder. "It's pretty late, you might want to get some sleep. You know, before Dad sees you asleep in here."
"Oh, okay," I replied, still half asleep. Slowly, I got up out of my seat and started up the stairs.
The house was quiet. It was dark since it was late. I tried my best not to make noise, but the stairs were older and made noises as I stepped on them.
When I got upstairs, I saw light coming from a room. It was Dad's office. I could hear conversation. It seemed kinda serious from what I could make out. I didn't worry about it though.
I quietly walked past until I heard something that caught my ear.
"But if the Commission finds Y/N, I can't do anything to stop them. I have no choice but to let her go with them. Who knows what they would have her do. What if they were to tell her about her power. They'll brainwash her." I recognized the voice as Dad's.
"Sir, I just don't know what we can do. We knew that they would get ahold of her one day." I heard Pogo say.
I hid next to the door to hear more and barely peeked my head around to see. Dad was sitting at his desk with Pogo sitting in the chair across from him.
"I know, but the reason I told them I could train her was just to save her fr-," Dad replied but then stopped. We made eye contact. "Shoot!" I thought.
"Number Seven, show yourself this instant!" I hesitated but finally stepped forth with guilt. "Now, what were you doing eavesdropping. I and Pogo were having a serious and private conversation." He said firmly.
"I-I'm sorry Dad. I just heard you say Y/N's name a-and I-"
"There is no excuses for your unruly behavior! Now, you will go straight to bed and I don't want to here you say her name again! Do you understand?"
"Yes," I sighed. I turned around and started to walk out of his office. Before I came to the threshold, I stopped and turned around. "What's the Commis-"
"I said go to bed Number Seven," he said sternly.
I turned back around and walked out. Eventually I made it back to my room. I sat my violin in my chair and crawled under the covers.
So many thoughts filled my head. What is the Commision? Why do they want Y/N? What's weird about her powers? Why can't Dad get Y/N back if the Commission gets her.
I knew Dad had secrets, but I didn't know he had this many. I couldn't fall asleep for awhile because my thoughts got in the way, but after an hour, I finally drifted off.
_______
Five POV
"Five!" Y/N yelled from a little ways away. I put down my chalk and walked towards her. "I found a clue!" She stood up and ran towards me with a newspaper in her hand.
When she got to me she stopped to catch her breath and then pointed at the paper.
"I found this in an old newspaper dispenser, so it must be pretty new. Look at the date." I looked at where her finger was pointing and saw some numbers. The words were hard to make out, but I could see the "2019" imprinted on it.
"See, this means that whatever caused this mess, happened in 2019," she said with hope.
"Yes, and if this came out of a dispenser, then other identical papers are probably there too," I said getting excited.
"Well, we've been at it all day. Let's take a short break and then look for other papers and find an exact date," she replied, grabbing my hand a bringing me towards a place to sit.
We sat down in top of piles of rubble and just rested. It wasn't a pretty sight in front of us, but we were starting to get used to it.
I sighed "Maybe, we can get out of here sooner than I thought." I said putting my arm around her.
"Maybe," she replied. We sat in silence for a little bit. "Five?"
"Yes."
"What if we don't get out of here soon. What if we're stuck here for like 50 years or something?"
"Well, it wouldn't be an ideal way to grow up, but at least we could grow up together."
"Yeah, that's about the only positive thing out of this situation."
We stayed quiet for a few more minutes until she spoke up. "Five?"
"Yeah."
"I'm really glad we have each other. I don't know how I would survive alone here or anywhere else. Im glad I chose to go with you. I dont know what not having you around would be like."
I started feeling guilty automatically. This was all my fault. If I hadn't had been selfish, we wouldn't have been in this mess. I broke the silence after I second.
"I'm sorry," I said while tears started forming.
"What?" She asked, sitting up and looking at me.
"I'm so so sorry," I said again with more tears flowing. I didn't cry that much in the past, but since coming here, I started crying more and more.
"Why are you sorry?" She asked, grabbing my shaking hands.
"T-This is all my fault. I'm the one who brought us here."
"No no no, this isn't your fault. It's no one's. You were simply using your power. You didn't know what we were going to find."
"I just can't believe I dragged you into this mess though."
"You didn't drag me into this mess. I wouldn't let you go by yourself. We have always been together and we always will. Do you understand me? You did nothing wrong."
It took me a second to think. "Yes, I understand."
"Good," she said lightly smiling and wiping my tears away.
I looked at her and she looked at me. We just stared. Stared into each other's eyes. It was happening again. The thing where I get lost in this trance-like thing.
She blinked her eyes after a little bit and we both snapped back into reality.
"Um, maybe we should start looking at the newspapers," she said, her face red with embarrassment. I could only assume mine was too.
"Uh, yeah," I replied smiling.
We stood up and started towards the area with the papers. Luckily, there seemed to be a lot there. We then started looking.
Thank you guys so much for reading chapter 7!!!! I'm so happy I got that painting done and I'm really happy how it turned out. Go follow my art account @art_my_dudes on insta if you want to see more. Also every week I'll start putting questions at the end of each chapter. Love you guys lots❤
Question
Who's your favorite singer(s) or band(s)?
My favorite singer is Billie Eilish but I also like Lana Del Rey, The Neighbourhood, Conan Gray, and lots of others.