as the world ends, so does us | five hargreeves

chapter 1 | welcome home

"ROUGE, HUSH down now, honey. It's gonna be alright. Just stay calm."

"I saw him! I'm serious, he's there! Five is coming home!"

"Focus, Number Zero. It's time for you to expand your limits. You must go to the depths of your own mind."

"I can't do it, Dad! I'm so tired─"

"Silence! No more excuses. Excuses are for people who are mediocre and I do not raise those of that kind in the academy. Now, you will do as I say so."

"Five! Wait!"

"This is dangerous. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Can you just please listen for once?!"

"Five, stop! Come back, please!"

"Five... Where are you?"

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"You're useless. You let Five run away. He hasn't returned and now, no one knows where to find him. It's all your fault. You're not enough to make him stay."

"Hey, lady! Should I keep on tapping this bell or just come back next time when you're ready to serve me?"

Another tap of the bell and Rouge flinched. She turned around and saw a man with a frown on his face, growing impatient for the lack of service in this doughnut shop.

"Are you going to take my order or what?" he scoffed as he sees her just staring at him.

The girl felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to her left to see Agnes with a reassuring smile on her face. "I'll take it from here," she whispered as she took out a notepad from her pocket. "I'm sorry about that, sir."

Rouge returned to what she was doing before she lost all her senses. She bit her lip, feeling ashamed of earlier. Those visions just keep on getting in the way of her work. She promises to thank Agnes later.

It has been ten months. Ten months since she woke up from her coma and still, her hallucinations seem to like her so much, that she can't get rid of them. To say that it overwhelms her is an understatement─it literally hinders her from having a quiet life. She even begins to think that maybe being in a sixteen-year blacked-out state is much better than having those damn illusions in her head. And also that voice. She has no idea whose voice was that. What scares her is that it's unfamiliar but somehow, it captivates her like it somehow has possession of her.

She got used to it, of course. But the worst episode she had was three months after she miraculously woke up and she was inside the bathroom of the apartment she and her sister were sharing. Vanya suddenly found her sitting in the bathtub with her hands covering her ears as if that was going to stop her from hearing the voices. Ever since that incident, her sister insists she visit someone, a therapist, but she keeps on declining.

Speaking of Vanya...

"Rouge?"

Her head lifted and met Vanya's gaze who has a somber look on her face. Rouge's eyebrows furrowed, wondering why her sister suddenly came here.

"Hey, Vanya," she greeted. "How's─"

She wasn't even able to ask her about her rehearsal because her sister just cut her off, "We have to go home," she began. "Not in the apartment. I mean, in the academy."

Rouge noticed the way Vanya's hands tightened their hold on the strap of her violin case; something happened.

She heard static from the radio that was placed on the counter. The girl tilted her head to see Agnes turning the controls to adjust the volume. It was much more vivid yet it took Rouge a moment to process what she just heard: