THE THING WITH SORROW - The Umbrella Academy

The Scrapbook

Back when Ben was alive, he was known (by only a few) to keep a scrapbook that was always kept stuffed into the back of his bookshelf behind all of his textbooks. It was plain brown on the outside with the exception of ink splotches, smears of colours and some tape barely keeping the edges solidly together.

Mainly it detailed the antics of Klaus, Zero and himself during their rebellious teenage years. And while his other siblings might have scoffed at the mere idea of Ben Hargreeves being described 'rebellious' - and while they would have once laughed at the imagery of Zero being 'wild' - this scrapbook contained ink stained pages filled with Polaroids and momentos that would tell the plain, harsh truth.

Some might say Klaus was the bad influence of the trio. Some could suggest it was her twins disappearance that sent Zero off the rails; but that wasn't the truth, or rather, not entirely.

The truth was, Ben Hargreeves was a wildcard hidden up a sleeve. Goodie-two-shoes Ben who always did as he was told, who had his nose stuck in books and who never said a word against his siblings or father or anyone.

Zero and Klaus and the contents of that scrapbook, however, they knew.

The first time they got drunk together, Ben went on a tirade about how tired he was of being the quiet one, of being treated like a weapon by Sir Reginald, of how he despised how some of his siblings acted.

Klaus and Zero had laughed until they vomited. They danced all night to Zero's records, and snuck out for food at two in the morning, a stumbling fit of giggles and rosy cheeks and linked arms.

And thus, sparked the existence of the scrapbook, hidden at the back of the shelves in the corner of his room, behind the books and coated in dust.

And as the years passed and the trio turned into a fragmented duo, they both knew it would be Bens wish to share these moments with the world.

The silver lined good snippets during their otherwise glum childhood, and the shadowed memories that changed their lives.

Here are some pages: