Chapter 6

Well, Delores was not what Seph imagined. For some reason she had imagined a lovely, beautiful young woman with blonde hair maybe, instead, she was introduced to a department store mannequin, and for the first time since Five had returned to the present day, Seph realised something. 42 years, and according to Five earlier that day 30 of those years he had been with Delores, alone, she had never even started to consider how much a person's mind could be affected by something as simple as loneliness. Not wanting to disrupt the reunion, Seph slowly stepped back and let her eyes wander across the store, it was so dark and quiet it reminded her of the classic horror movies she used to watch with Klaus when they were kids, she smiled at the memory of the pair of them screaming at the screen at the stupid characters to run away before the killer got to them, but as always it was never any use. The pair of them would have been huddled together on the bed hiding behind pillows, sometimes even Ben would have joined them, but most of the films they chose scared Ben too much and gave him more nightmares, Seph always felt guilty afterward as Ben had enough nightmares to deal with already, but Ben liked joining the pair of them for movie night despite the nightmares he got. Now and then they tried different film genres but the classic horror movies were the go-to ones Klaus loved, even in the last few years, anytime Seph saw a horror movie playing on the TV her mind always went back to those moments, just some of the few happier times at the academy.

That was the last carefree thought Seph had that evening. The rest of the night was a complete shitshow.

Now Seph was fond of masked killers: Ghostface, Michael Myers, Leatherface, but the two psychos that appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill them with the bright rubber masks… these two she was not particularly fond of. They were lucky to make it out of the store alive as Five's jump had run out, he was obviously exhausted from not just the fight, Seph had a feeling he hadn't slept properly since he came back from the future. The pair of them walked back to the academy in silence, Five now carrying a duffle bag over his shoulder that was currently occupied by Delores hadn't said a word since they were ambushed and Seph didn't blame him. Although he was trying extremely hard not to show it on his face, Seph sensed the fear and anxiety that was emanating from him, Five never got scared and she had very rarely seen him nervous so whoever those two fuckers were Five not only knew them but he was scared of them. When they finally got to the academy Seph watched as Five automatically headed up the stairs straight toward his room, Seph on the other hand went straight for the bar. She was halfway downing a glass of whiskey when Luther and Alison walked in heading straight to her, sucking in a breath and bracing herself she slammed the glass now on the bar.

"Before you two even start, I just want to say one thing." She straightened up and walked over to the end of the bar where her things from the day before, collected them in her arms, and started walking back towards the exit doors, but as she passed Luther and Allison who were still waiting, watching her patiently for her to finish her sentence she paused. "We need to get Grace some new clothes, I accidentally got some bullet holes in her skirt." And with that, she walked out and headed up towards the staircase in the hallway, following Five's path up to the bedrooms. Luther looked dumbfounded and Alison's eyes widened at the realisation that Seph was indeed wearing one of Grace's outfits, and Seph was right, the bottom of the skirt did have holes that resembled bullet holes.

When she finally made it to her room Seph did not know what to do, her body was screaming at her to lie down and get some rest, but her head was pounding, it was a burning sensation that always happened when she was on the verge of having an incident similar to the one she had at the wake, but this was much more painful. The adrenaline from the fight had faded away and all of the noise in her head was now louder and harsher than ever, racing against the internal clock she knew had started Seph dug into her back at speed to find her book and a couple of pencils, threw herself onto the cold floor (her bed was too far away in that very moment) and began to draw. She didn't concentrate on what it was she was drawing in particular, she just needed to let whatever it was in her mind out on the paper. After an hour or two the noise in her head had gone quiet and the pencil in her hand fell to the floor. Seph brought her hands up to cover her face, massaging her temple immediately regretting the move as she moved her hands away from her face just enough to see the pencil lead on her fingers from rubbing in her shading on the pages in front of her. Scattered in front of her were drawings from the fight that had happened hours earlier, some close-ups of the two masked assailants as well as a solo portrait of Delores, there was also another drawing among the bunch that did not go with the others. Seph picked it up and looked at it more closely, she didn't remember drawing this one but that was not a new experience, with so many different nightmares floating around in her head from all the people she helped sometimes a random one would slip out without meaning too. It appeared to be a building surrounded by woodlands, she couldn't tell what type of building it was as it looked to be on fire, it also looked like she had drawn people in the building as well. Letting out a frustrated sigh she threw the paper back on the ground and decided to turn in for the night. She didn't even bother to get changed or wash her face, she just fell onto her bed and allowed sleep to take her, but before it did she prayed for a dreamless sleep, whatever was going to happen tomorrow she had a feeling she was going to need as much energy as possible, after all, she had two masked freaks to protect Five from. She couldn't afford to have another nightmare.

—

December 24th 1997

It has been 81 days since Persephone had first arrived at the academy and she still had no memories from before October 1st. Life at the academy was starting to become easier, she followed all the rules set out by Reginald Hargreeves, wore all of the different uniforms the rest of the children wore, and attended all lessons that were set throughout the day. Persephone liked to pretend that she was at a fancy boarding school, like the ones you saw in TV shows and movies. Only this was not a TV show or movie, she never got to go 'home' for the holidays, she just received every other Saturday for their individual recreation, although Hargreeves had threatened to even shorten that to half a day after the most recent Klaus and Luther incident. Turns out persuading Luther to see just how high a bowling ball can bounce with his strength compared to Klaus's was not hard at all, not unlike the glass roof of the greenhouse that now no longer existed.

Out of everyone in the academy, Klaus was always by her side, stuck to the hip some would say. They both understood what it was like to have powers that affected their everyday life so being each other's distraction was a silent agreement between the pair of them, plus he was the only one who was allowed to mock her accent. British, English according to Mr. Hargreeves but of course he would never go into any more detail, a reoccurring pattern she had noticed, it was one of the only things that Persephone had that gave her some clue of who she was before the academy. Every morning since the start of November Klaus had greeted her in the corridor on their way to breakfast with a simple:

'Morning Guvnor, delighted to see you looking so well my Dear, I trust you had a spiffing evening.'

The rest of the kids came together and agreed to never let Klaus watch the movie musical Oliver! ever again after the first week of him doing the morning skit, especially after performing the entire song and dance routine to Omm-Pa-Pa in the dining room (wearing not only a dress stolen by Alison but Grace's heels). That was when Pogo had to step in and stop it completely. Apart from Klaus, no one else commented on her accent, although she was asked to read aloud in class more because as Diego smugly stated during her first class with them:

"She just sounds more 'proper' when she says it."

Seph didn't mind that of course, after all, she would always have her revenge in self-defense class, she had an impressive right hook that Diego was always on the receiving end of. Mr. Hargreeves had spotted very early on in Persephone's residence that she was a quick learner in terms of physical training, she was easily tied with Diego in terms of fighting skills, so they were always paired together much to Diego's annoyance but to everyone else's amusement. After a couple of weeks and with wins from both of them, the two began to enjoy the training sessions, using the class to practice new moves on each other and help each other develop them further if they were not effective enough. Even at 8 years old the pair were already asking to start learning how to use weapons. Grace of course said no, reiterating that Mr Hargreeves had already had a specific time in the following years when they would be allowed to proceed in weapons training. That didn't stop them from trying to sneak in a kitchen knife or two into training one day, Pogo again was the one to shut that down right away, and the pair received a very long lecture from the tired chimp.

During her first months in her new 'home,' Persephone noticed that both Luther and Alison tended to stay away from her, the only times they had interacted was when Luther tried to shove the fact that she was new and had a lower ranking than him down there throat whenever she had a suggestion in group training classes or strategy lessons. Being Number 1 had become a personality trait to Luther Persephone had noticed, always trying to use his strength as intimidation with the others, mainly herself, Diego, Klaus, and Vanya. But it was only ever her and Diego that tried to push back. He never did anything against Alison, who in turn always turned her nose up at Persephone whenever they were forced to do anything together. Comments were always made about Persephone's appearance, her hair, and the fact she preferred to wear trousers rather than skirts/dresses that were given to her in her uniform packages. It was as if not wanting to act or look somewhat like a girl was a personal insult to Alison. Persephone did hope that maybe it was because she was new and Alison was afraid that she would be overshadowed by another female member, that maybe in the new year the two of them could try to be friendly at least. Luther on the other hand Persephone was fine with avoiding altogether.

The weeks had gone so quickly that soon enough it was the festive period and Persephone was sitting in the corner of Ben's bedroom book in hand, surrounded by the pillows and blankets she had brought in from her room. Ben was in the same position on his bed, only instead of one book her had two others beside him ready to start after he was finished with the current read. Always a faster reader than her, Ben, like Five had also noticed that Persephone had loved the library and had caught her tucked away in the corner after hours reading. Scared of letting her be caught by his father, Ben suggested that the pair of them start their own mini reading club, once a week in his room or hers they would meet up and just silently enjoy each other's company after hours. Trading book suggestions and drinking hot chocolate Grace would bring them, it became one of Persephone's favourite traditions. Sometimes they would allow others to join them however, after his first attempt to join Klaus loudly stated that it wasn't for him as he was not allowed to use the book pages to roll his cigarettes. On this particular Christmas Eve Vanya had joined them, she had tried to join in on the fun and games Luther, Alison, and Diego were taking part in but she had been intentionally ignored. So the three of them had been sitting together for almost three hours now reading, eating the Christmas cookies Grace had brought them with soft Christmas music playing in the background (as his Christmas gift to them as well as an apology for trying to rip pages out of their books Klaus has 'borrowed' Luther's record player for them). The three of them were so lost in their peaceful bubble they didn't hear the door open, or even the footsteps across the room, Persephone soon noticed in the corner of her eye Five sitting down next to her, book in one hand, Christmas cookie in the other.

"We're all set for tomorrow, even Luther's on board." It was in a hushed tone but all three of them heard Five and in less than a second all books had been thrown aside and everyone was looking in the Five's direction shock on all three faces.

"How did, who…Luther just agreed to this?!"

"I owe Klaus money."

"Is he not going to tattle on us?"

The voices all overlapped each other but Five simply clicked his tongue as he turned over the page in his book.

"Your not the only one who owes Klaus money on that one Ben, and to answer those other questions, Seph: I can be very persuasive you should know this by now and no Vanya he will not tattle, me and Diego have given him plenty of reason why that would not be a wise move on his part."

A smile quickly grew on Persephone's face "What do you guys have on him?"

Snapping his own book shut in one swift move, Five faced Persephone with a similar smile to hers forming.

"Nothing, but it's so easy to make Luther believe we have something on him."

"Why didn't I think of that, that's genius!"

"Careful, we don't want Diego hearing you say that, it will only increase his ego. it was his idea after all."

"So, this is happening, were sneaking out?" The excitement in Vanya's voice made the other three in the room just smile, this whole idea came from Vanya after all, a one-off comment about doing a Secret Santa after she had overheard a radio station discussing the activity. After that, all the children met in secret after they had been put to bed and the plan was made, names were picked and the rules were that it was to be something they found in the house, after all, they were not given any pocket money to buy each other presents. It was Ben who had suggested they sneak out to their local Griddy's to do the handover, a suggestion that shocked everyone, Mr. Hargreeves was allowing them to finish their evening lessons an hour early later that day so the plan was to immediately sneak out the backdoor with a little help from Grace and Pogo, who of course was in on their little plan and Grace found it to be a lovely festive outing for the children and would have hot milk and cookies waiting for them when they returned. She and Pogo had even promised to make sure that Mr. Hargreeves would not find out about this as they both knew his reaction if he were to ever find out.

"We are indeed, but I would be careful Vanya, wouldn't want dear old Dad to question why you look so excited now would we." Persephone and Ben held back a chuckle as Vanya quickly nodded and tried to put on her best-unexcited expression. They roughly had another hour or two until their final lesson of the day so they continued to stay in Ben's room, all four of them focusing back on their books. Another ten minutes went by when suddenly the door swung open with a large bang, making Persephone almost leap from her seat. Klaus quickly entered the room without apologising for the unexpected interruption and in a swift move picked up the record player.

"Sorry guys, but I may or may not need to wrap this for a certain Secret Santa. Oh by the way Sephy honey, Dad wants to talk with you." And with that, he strolled out, the music was still playing and slowly faded away as Klaus ran off to a random room of the huge mansion to wrap what the four of them could only guess was Luther's present. Persephone looked over to Five who was already looking at her and suddenly she started to feel very nervous, why did Mr. Hargreeves need to talk to her? Had she done something wrong, she was trying to think back on everything that happened this week, she hadn't missed any classes or failed any tests, and she was improving in all physical training she wasn't able to pinpoint anything she had done wrong.

"You better go to his office, he doesn't like waiting." The excitement in Vanya's voice that she had previously spoken with had now turned to fear, this was also paired with the unnerving expressions from both Ben and Five. So without wanting him to be any angrier than she already thought he was, Persephone jumped up and headed out of the room and made her way toward Mr. Hargreeves's office, a place where he spent the majority of his time. As she walked her hands automatically started to get sweaty and without realising she started to scratch and pull at her fingers, soon the door was in sight and the nerves were getting worse, it took everything within her to knock on the door.

"Come in Number 8."

—

She was woken up the next morning by a gentle tapping on her door, it took her a few seconds to remember everything that had happened the day previously as well as the fact she looked down to see that she was still in yesterday's very uncomfortable clothes. Almost leaping up from her bed she hopped over all the loose drawings that were scattered on the floor to reach the door, opening it ever so slightly to see Five hoovering outside the door.

"You ready at all? I have a new plan, and we need to head out now before anyone else gets up." She ignored the fact that he didn't even wish her a good morning, not trusting her voice just yet she signaled that she would need a few minutes to get sorted, left the door open slightly, and headed into her bathroom to wash up and change. A glance in the mirror quickly reminded her of her late night drawing session, the grey marks from her pencils all over her face were very obvious, after a few moments she emerged from the bathroom clean and in new clothes, Five was still standing in the doorway but his focus was on the papers she had left on the floor. Not wanting him to start asking questions about the images on the floor (especially one in particular) she cleared her throat to gain his attention she quietly grabbed a jacket from her wardrobe and followed Five back into his room, closing her door quickly and a little too hard shut.

"So what's the plan now, is there any other way we can work out the owner of the eyeball?"

"No, the answers we need are in that building, but as you saw yesterday, they do not want to play fair. So we're going back to stalk the place out."

"Surely we should be using our time wiser than that, you said it yourself we don't have long."

"I know we don't have long, which is why we need to find that Lance asshole from yesterday and get him somewhere alone to get our answers."

"Okay, okay if that's what you think we should do, then let's get going." She was about to turn around to head out back the way she came when she noticed Five opening his window that accessed the fire exit, a duffle bag swung over his shoulder,

"Come on then, this way will be easier. No unexpected siblings asking questions." Without another word he was gone from the windowsill and climbing down the ladder, rolling her eyes in response Seph zipped up her jacket and followed making note of how stupid this was as she climbed down.

Not even less than 60 seconds later Seph could hear voices below her, one voice she already knew to be Five the other, she didn't even need to guess as Five loudly stated who it was he was speaking to.

"I'd ask what you're up to Klaus, but then it occurred to me… I don't care." Being careful with her footing Seph managed to follow Five down the fire escape only to find Klaus in the dumpster behind the house, how long he had been in there for, Seph did not want to know.

"Hey, you know there are easier ways out of the house, buddy?"

Letting out a loud chuckle all Seph was able to get out before receiving a glare from Five was "That's what I was going to say too!"

"Hey, wifey! Are you still after that divorce? Because my lawyer wont be able to get back to you like ever. Because it's Ben, Ben is my lawyer and he's dead." After that jokey statement, Klaus appeared to smile and wink at to anyone else watching on was nothing in particular, but Seph knew he was probably getting glared at by Ben who just like her was getting sick of the continuing joke.

"I hope wherever he is, Ben is giving you hell." Giving a small wink in the direction she assumed Ben was perched.

"As I was trying to explain to Persephone, this way involved the least amount of talking. Or so I thought." The annoyance and impatience were growing in Five she could sense it, however, she could see a look in Klaus's eyes as he noticed the duffle bag.

"Hey, hey, hey, so… Do you two need any more company today? I could uh, clear my schedule."

"Looks like you've got your hands full." Was the blunt response from Five.

"I would ask why the dumpster sweetie, but history has taught me never to ask."

"Oh, this? No, no. I can do this whenever. I'm just… I just misplaced something. That's all. Oh! Found it! Thank God!" After returning to the surface after taking a small dive deeper into the trash, Klaus pulled out a half-eaten glazed doughnut, Persephone could work out who out of the three of them was producing the most disgust as Klaus hesitantly took a bite.

"Delicious."

Leaning over slowly Seph kept her voice low as she continued to watch Klaus eat his… 'breakfast'.

"You know this could have been avoided if you had just given him the $20 for food you promised him yesterday."

"You and I both know that he was never going to use that for food." His tone was blunt and filled with anger and frustration, but his face immediately softened, regretting the angry tone in his voice. Looking back over to his brother Five loudly stated, "

"Klaus, I'm done funding your drug habit." And with that he turned and began walking off, bringing his hand to Seph's hip to push her forward with him, noticing the van at the top of the street.

"Come on! You don't, maybe I just want to hang out with my brother. Not you. And my dear dear friend."

"Sorry sweetie, but I don't think you going to win this one. Bye, Ben." She waved back at them as she allowed Five to drag her out of the alley, in seconds she was sat in the passenger seat of a Rocco & Family Plumbing: Drain & Toilet Specialist van. The last thing she heard of Klaus was the distant yell,

"I love you! Even if you can't love yourself!"

Looking over to observe Five driving the van, a very mind-boggling image of a teenager driving, surely she should be driving to make them less noticeable, a thought suddenly piped into her mind.

"Why couldn't we just take the family car?"

"I may have left it somewhere without gas."

"Of course you did."