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

Ten

My spiral of thinking was interrupted by the obnoxious sound of a vacuum cleaner.

Klaus and I glanced at each other with eyebrows raised, then started screaming through our tape gags. Whoever was cleaning didn't hear us, and after a few minutes, the vacuum cut off, and the door was opened and shut again.

I groaned, and went back to a slouching position on the chair. I was sick of being restrained, sick of blood being spilled, sick of all of it. I just wanted to go back to the academy. No matter how much I despised it sometimes, it was still home.

Klaus looked on the verge of a panic attack, so I got his attention by sliding the chair forward and hitting his knee with my own. He looked down from the ceiling, and I nodded towards my hands. I had extended my index fingers, offering a game from our childhood, one we had dubbed 'sticks'. The game was simple; if you tap another person's hand, they had to extend the number of fingers that were extended on the hand you had tapped them with. If you ended up with all five fingers out, that hand 'died'. The last player standing wins the glory. There were a few other extra rules we had added throughout the years, but the basics remained the same.

Klaus smiled behind his tape, and pointed one of his index fingers at one of mine.

Forgetting about the horrible situation we were in, forgetting that I had slices in my arms, forgetting everything that had happened in the past few days, I extending my middle finger with a smirk.

~~~

After several heated rounds of sticks (of which I won all, don't bother asking Klaus about it), the door of the motel slammed open, and my happy mood deflated like the balloons Diego had destroyed after a fight with Luther on our collective seventh birthday; that's to say, extremely quickly.

Klaus and I were once again dragged into the center of the room, with our kidnappers standing in front of us, staring us down. This time, they weren't masked, and we discovered that the man looked like a complete teddy bear, with brown hair and a beard rimming his face. The woman had a bob, and looking just about as threatening in real life as she acted.

Klaus mumbled against the tape, tossing his head about lazily.

"What is he saying?" Mr. Mask asked. Ms. Mask ripped the tape from his mouth.

"What are you saying?" she asked as he shook off the pain.

"You guys are uglier without the masks." I laughed behind my mask, but the two before us didn't seem to find it funny. Ms. Mask reached out and backhanded him across the cheek, and I winced as he recoiled from the attack.

"That's no way to say hello to your old friends is it?" The large man asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Look can we just call it a night? I already gave you what you wanted. Just please, please let us go." His head dropped to his chest, and I looked down at my lap. I didn't like to see my family helpless.

"Well, technically, we want your brother. Is your brother here right now?" Ms. Mask asked.

"Uh he... You're gonna have to be a little more specific on that," he said, turning to look at the bed.

I stared at the spot where Klaus was seeing Ben, and wished with all of my heart I could see him too. I missed him so damn much, and I was hoping that Klaus and I would get out of the situation we were in quickly so Ben and I could have a conversation for the first time in over a decade instead of waiting until I died.

Ms. Mask backhanded Klaus for a second time, and he yelped.

"I told you already, he's not coming! No one will!"