Number Eight {The Umbrella Academy} -- [On Hold]

Seven

"Go, go go!" Diego yelled, pushing me down the hall. Two of his knives were already flying at our attackers. I ran slightly diagonal from the spinning (in hindsight, that was a bad idea), but we managed to turn the corner and hide from them without being shot.

"What the hell is happening?" I asked, pressing myself back against the wall.

"No clue. Stay here," Diego said, handing me a knife. He ran out from safety ready to fight.

He attacked the larger one, landing a series of heavy blows on the masked dude. I clutched the knife tightly, as if I would be able to protect myself with it.

"Shoot him!" The man shouted, trying to defend himself from my brother.

"Get out of the way, dumbass!" His partner shouted, holding her gunfire to prevent him from being shot.

Before she had a chance to shoot, Diego was already beside me, out of breath but with no bullets in his body.

"Come on!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me to run alongside him. I stuffed the knife into my jacket pocket as we sprinted along the balcony, going in the opposite way of the stairs.

"We're gonna have to jump."

"Wait-" Before I could protest, he had already hopped the banister and had fallen through the air onto the couch. I followed without thinking, letting out a scream as bullets flew over my head, sinking themselves into a portrait of our father. Diego had already gotten behind the couch when I landed on it, so I followed him as fast as I could as heavy footsteps plodded down the steps.

There was silence for a few moments. I was trembling and breathing heavily. I hadn't heard the loudness of guns in years, and had forgotten how panic inducing it is. Diego tapped my arm, and pointed around the sofa towards the lobby. He wanted us to run for it.

I nodded, and he counted down on his fingers. Before he could reach one, my boots squeaked on the floor, and the intruders' firing resumed, this time targeted at our hiding spot. I silently cursed my shoe choice as bullets flew overhead.

Diego shoved me under the table that was backed up to the couch and went under himself, leaving us less vulnerable to the attackers.

Vases shattered and pillows exploded, sending glass and feathers through the air like shrapnel. I was terrified. For myself, my brother, and the rest of the family who didn't have a clue what was going on.

The gunfire stopped, and Diego poked his head out to check what was happening as the noise of fighting came from the other side of the couch.

"Luther and Allison. Stay here, okay?"

I nodded, and he hurried out from behind the couch and ran into battle.

"Get off her!"

Grunts and shouts rang through the air, punctuated by the sounds of punches and kicks. There was a loud thud, then silence. I was hoping the two intruders had been taken care off, but didn't dare leave the safety of the couch until I was sure it wasn't my family that had been silenced.

"Who the hell are these guys!" Allison sounded panicked, but uninjured, so I slid out from under the table and stood to see the three of my siblings safe and relatively sound. 

I sighed and rubbed my face, relieved but tired and annoyed. Before the masked duo had come along, I had a streak about five years long of not being attacked, a personal record I had been trying to hold. That had been broken, along with what I estimated at a glance to be half the bottles of booze I had been stockpiling.

I was not happy, to say the least.

"You're welcome," Luther said, trying to catch his breath.

"I was doing fine."

"Oh, yeah, you really had them-"

"Can you two not argue? For once in your goddamn lives, could you act like adults? Honestly, I don't think you-" Gunshots interrupted me, and I dove down behind the couch again, leaving my brothers and sister to deal with the persistent intruders.

Allison sprinted over and dragged me up again, pulling me with her after Luther, who was running out of the room.

"Go, Luther," Diego yelled from behind us.

"Viv, find Klaus and get out of here. Go!" Luther shouted, pushing me towards the stairs.

"Don't die!" I yelled over my shoulder as I hurried down to the kitchen.

After a quick glance around, I didn't find a man either high or drunk off his ass, so I raced up two flights of stairs onto the floor that held our bedrooms.

"Klaus? Klaus!" I barged into his room, feeling an odd cold spot as I entered the door.

He was dancing around in the center of his room with only a towel wrapped around him, jamming out with his eyes closed and earbuds in as our house was invaded. 

I have the smartest brother in the world.

I yanked out his earbuds, and he flinched when he noticed me standing in front of him, stopping his dancing and putting a grin on his face.

"Jesus christ on a steamboat, Vivian! Don't scare me like that!" He placed a dramatic hand on his chest, tossing his earbuds and MP3 player down on his bed.

"Diego, Luther and Allison are currently fighting a dude and dudette in masks that broke into the house. You, my wonderful idiot brother, need to get out of here. Come on." I tossed one of his coats towards him, which he pulled on with a dazed expression on his face.

"Why didn't you warn me?" He stared towards a corner of the room.

"Uh, I was busy getting shot at?" I pulled him towards the door, and he made a face towards the corner.

"Not you, I'm talking to- a ghost pal of mine."

I stuck my head out of the door, looked both ways then left Klaus' room, tugging him along behind me.

"Where are we gonna go?" Klaus asked. We both winced at a loud crash from the foyer.

"Diego's, I guess. It's near here,"  I answered as we headed down the hall.

Klaus skidded to a stop, and started backing up, bringing me with him away from the stairs.

"Mr. Mask is coming," he said in response to my confused expression.

A moment later, the burly man wearing a blue bear mask came thundering up the stairs. Klaus' 'ghost pal' was very helpful, even if they didn't bring the best of news.

"Shit," I muttered, pulling the knife Diego had given me out. "I'm assuming you're not gonna just let us leave, huh?"

"Unfortunately for you, I can't," The man responded, readying his fists.

I ran at him, ducking under his first punch and swiping at him with the knife. In a blur of motion, he knocked the knife from my grasp and swung at me, this time connecting with my shoulder.

I fell back with a shout as pain erupted from the spot he had hit.

"Leave her alone, asshole!" A lamp came sailing through the air and hit the masked man, shattering on his chest. He stumbled back with a grunt, but stepped over me and went to attack Klaus.

Before he could, I reached out and grabbed his ankle while he was in mid-step, sending him flying towards the ground.

"Let's go, Viv, now's not the time for a nap," Klaus joked as he helped me up.

We were halfway to the stairs (and freedom) when footsteps thundered down the hall behind us. The man hit Klaus in the head with the metal base of the lamp, and my brother crumpled into a heap on the ground with a whimper.

"Are you sure you can't just go break into somebody else's house?" I joked halfheartedly, backing away from the man.

"Sorry, orders are orders."

Before I could wonder what the orders were, or who they were from, my head was hit with very hard, very painful metal, and I was no longer conscious.