Lara and Five were sitting in Vanya's apartment, waiting for her to return. "Are you sure about this?" Instead of answering, Five simply put a finger to his lips and turned the small light they had turned on off. The lock started clicking, and the door opened. Before Vanya could turn on the big lights, Five turned in the floor lamp. "Jesus." Vanya let out a sigh. "You should have locks on your windows."
"I live on the second floor!"
"Rapists can climb." Lara looked over at Five's inappropriate comment.
"You are so weird." Vanya commented, shutting the door.
"Is that blood?" Lara and Five nodded.
"It's nothing."
"Why are you here?"
"It was his idea, sorry. He's been wanting to tell us something, but he wanted to tell us together." Vanya nodded.
"I've decided you two are the only one's that I can trust."
"Why me?" Vanya asked.
"Because you're ordinary." Lara kicked Five. "Hey! Because you'll listen."
"Okay."
"Have you got any first-aid supplies?" Lara asked. Vanya nodded and went to get them. "Thanks." Lara started to bandage Five while he started to talk. "When I jumped forward into the future, do you know what I found?"
"No."
"No."
"Nothing.Absolutely nothing. As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive. I never fired out what killed the human race, but I did find something else. The date it happens." Lara waited for Five to continue, having finished on his arm. She pulled down his sleeve and looked up at him. He looked Lara in the eyes, an immense pain and desperation behind his pupils. "The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it."
Lara gaped at Five. Vanya seemed just as awe struck. "I'll put a pot of coffee on."
"I survived on the scraps, canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find. You know that rumour that Twinkies have an end,was shelf life? Well it's total bullshit."
"I can't even imagine," Vanya started.
"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."
"We?" Lara asked.
"You got anything stronger?" Vanya got up and poured Five some scotch.
"Want some?" She called to Lara. Lara shook her head.
"No Thanks. Just some water." Lara pulled four tubs of pills out of her pocket. Five picked three of them up to see what they were. "Xanax, Diazepam, Phenobarbital, why do you use these, Lara?" Lara took them back and opened the Xanax.
"You're a terrible liar. Did someone tell you?"
"Yes."
"Then you know why. Dad kept me on them for so long that I can't live without them anymore. And they calm me. Here's a part of the story you won't have been told." Five moved closer to Lara on the sofa, putting an arm over her shoulders. "Excuse me. Vanya! Can I get that water?" Vanya came over with the glass, and she slipped a pink pill into her mouth, and sipping some water. She swallowed hard and looked over at Vanya. "Can you give us a minute? Just real quick." Vanya nodded, grabbed her violin and went into her bedroom. Soon enough, sweet music started to come out of the room. "When Dad started giving me tranquillisers, he didn't really understand what he was doing. I would become clumsy in everything I did, and he thought it was the sedatives, so he put me on stronger, longer-lasting pills. One day, we were in a mission, and my brain went haywire. Ben was being held at gunpoint, so I grabbed a gun and tried to shoot the man, and since I was drowsy I missed." Lara's throat tightened, and Five held her tighter. Soon enough, tears started to fall from her eyes. Soft and gentle, yet nonetheless tears. Five's eyes softened. "It's ok. I'm here."
"The man, he- he shot Ben- I killed Ben. Ben died because of me- and when Dad found out he got angrier at me, more than he ever was, locking me up for days, putting me on even stronger tranquillisers- twice a day, so I was always just numb. Eventually he stopped, but it was like that for months. Because of this, my body got so used to the sedatives, that my heart can't properly function without them." Lara rested her head on Five's shoulder. "It just made everything worse." Five grabbed Lara's hand.
"It's ok. Ben's death wasn't your fault. Don't- Shhh." He pulled her out of the hug, looking at her from an arm's length. "Don't ever, ever think that. Never." His voice was dreamy to her, more addictive than any other drug. His voice, however, was fading in and out, along with her vision. He pulled her into a hug, then looked at her again. With his green eyes. "Hey, you ok?" Lara nodded slightly, "I'm just tired..." She slurred, leaning into him, closing her eyes. Five wrapped his arms protectively around her. It must be the tranquillisers, "Of all the things back home, Lara, you we're the one thing that I missed the most." Five sighed. But she hadn't heard him. He lay his head on top of hers, closing his eyes, completely exhausted.
When Vanya came in, all she saw was the two children, sleeping on the armchair together. Smiling slightly, she took the scotch and water glasses away and shut the lid on the pills. "Why has she been taking this?" Vanya muttered quietly, reading the labels on the tub. She sighed and put it back down. She walked back around, putting the glasses away in the sink and cupboard, turned the lights out, admiring the two sleeping. "Pills." She said to herself. "I need my pills."
