•Lonely is more than an adjective• || A Number Five x Reader Story

Chapter 9 - Can someone hear Queen?

The glow of the blue neon sign illuminated my sight as we walked towards the large apartment store. Five made it to the glass doors and jumped, making it effortlessly into the building. He turned to clasp the door and open it from his side before I stopped him, pointing towards the slow blinking red light in the corner of the entrance. Cursing himself lightly as he too noticed the door sensor, Five turned to me.
"I'll find another way in." He seemed to understand my words through the door and nodded, turning to walk into the maze of shelves, the light from the street lamps illuminating his back, fading to black the further he walked into the store. I let my wings spread behind me, my feet leaving the ground as I scanned the building for some way of entering. I circled a few times before I noticed a thin window cracked open at the top of the building. Concern sparked within me lightly, before I look down and realised the opening was several feet above the ground and would otherwise be unreachable by foot. It took some awkward twisting and folding of my body, but I made it, rather ungracefully, through the window and into the dark store. A light wandered through the aisles, which I had to presume to be Five. I let myself glide over towards it, any movement from my wings creating large echoes as the forces they formed shook the clothes racks. I landed softly beside Five, the department store settling back into silence as I followed the light of the torch clutched in his hand. My gaze fell upon a mannequin dressed in polka dots, a serene look in her eyes as she looked out into the darkness. Five couldn't tear his eyes from her, looking upon her lovingly.
"This is Dolores." I turned back to the woman and smiled softly. It wasn't until Five introduced me to Dolores that I realised she was more than just an idle object to him. But I wasn't given so much as a second to inquire of such things as Five called out in anguish and a shower of bullets rained down and Dolores was taken out at the torso. I leapt to the side, tackling Five to the ground as the mannequins that had towered above us fell to the ground, destroying our cover from our assailants. Five struggled out from beneath me, running across the gaps between the rows of items to grab the remnants of Dolores before returning to me.
"Go." Five looked at me confused.
"You can jump, they're after you. I'll take Dolores. Go." He seemed to want to think, but the oncoming barrage of bullets led him to shove Dolores into my arms and take off running down the aisle, drawing the attackers from me and Dolores. If I could make it to the door we could get out, and Five could jump to get out so no problem, right? Other than the pair trying to kill Five. And I'd just be collateral damage. I took a shot at running towards the door, but my wings decided against that and smacked against a display stand, sending a loud resonance of breaking glass across the room.
"He's not alone!"
"Get the other one!" Well shit. I folded my wings around my body, hoping to shield as much of myself as I could as the gunfire turned to the much larger and easier to hit target. I slid behind a row of shelves, Dolores clutched in my arms.
"You are not making this any easier." She didn't reply, but I still got the feeling of her trying to remark that she couldn't do much to help. I looked around at the narrow aisles and back at my wings. This wasn't going to work. My gaze fell above me at the darkened ceiling. Fuck it. I bent my knees as far as I could before pushing off, trying to reach the dark abyss of the roof as quickly as possible.
"That one can fly?!" Damn, got spotted.
"Well?! Shoot her down then."
"I can't see the bitch." Thank god. Although the lack of visibility didn't stop the bullets, it certainly lowered how many hit my wings, which were slowly losing flesh and feathers. I tried to scan for Five, but the lack of light limited my sight and I could only find him for a few seconds before he jumped and I lost him again. And then he stopped jumping. The gunners were closing in on him and he was struggling to move away from them. I barrelled at him as fast as I caught, lobbing Dolores into his arms and linking my arms under his. I couldn't make it back to the ceiling with the increased weight, but I could certainly my move faster than Five could on foot. I held him against myself, shielding him from the bullets that were slowly tearing away at my wings each time they stretched out to move us. He struggled in my grip until I could hold him no longer, dropping him to the ground as the last of my strength faded. The doors barely a sprint away as the guns pointed at our heads. I could barely keep to my feet as I felt the blood running down my back, barely a feather clinging on to the flesh of my wings. The light started to fade in my vision as a siren filled my sights, and the feeling of being pulled to the ground finally took the last of my strength as my vision faded to black.

Five couldn't take it. The sirens. The hard breathing. The sight of her, bleeding out against the floor. He knew he shouldn't panic, the sight having befallen him before and she had recovered in hours. But the blood on feathers. Blood on the hard floor. The blood on the stray bullets still rolling along the ground. Blood brought back the worst kind of memories.