The Apocalypse | The Umbrella Academy

vii.

The family made their way to the courtyard, ready for their father's memorial that Luther had proposed.

"Did something happen?" Grace asked.

"Dad died. Remember?" Allison said gently.

"Oh, yes. Of course," her mother said, looking down at the ground.

"Is Mom okay?" Allison asked Diego.

"Yeah, she just needs a rest. You know, recharge," he said and no-one argued with him. They knew Diego was closest to their mother, even though she claimed to love them all equally. Evelyn was sure her mother had hated her, getting into fights with Luther stupidly and getting her ass kicked most times.

All of the children, Grace and Pogo were standing in the rain, shielded with umbrellas apart from Diego and Luther. The memorial was really just Luther pouring their father's ashes on the ground.

Evelyn looked at Ben's statue, a morbid reminder of what had happened to him. Five had a painting, Ben had a statue. A vast difference, she thought. Evelyn was stood next to Klaus, sharing his small, clear umbrella with hot pink piping on the edges and a hot pink handle. Klaus was smoking something he claimed to be a normal cigarette but Evelyn could smell the tell-tale scent of marijuana. Evelyn had messed around with drugs in her past and it wasn't really something she enjoyed. However, she found it really hard to quit but she urged Klaus to do the same. It was always the same result: he never did.

Evelyn was on the end of the line and Pogo was on the other end, the talking chimp much shorter than Evelyn herself. He was focused on the funeral, his brows furrowed. Evelyn looked away from Pogo, for some reason he had always unsettled her. To her other siblings, he felt like an uncle. She wished she could feel some of that normalcy.

Evelyn peeked round at Five to see how he was doing. Even though he was now older than all of them, the schoolboy appearance confused Evelyn into thinking that he was vulnerable like one. But he wasn't. Of course he wasn't. He was a fifty-eight year old man stuck in a child's body who had seen and lived through the apocalypse.

The funeral was dragging on, Luther mumbling on about Dad. Evelyn had had enough of it. She grabbed Klaus' joint and dragged back on it before handing it back to her brother. He looked at her in shock; he hadn't expected her to do such a thing.

It was Pogo's turn to say a few words and he came out with some drivel that he was a fantastic guy and that he was forever in his debt. Evelyn scoffed, making everyone look at her apart from Grace.

"Stop lying," she burst out.

"Excuse me?" asked Pogo.

"No, she's right. He was a monster. He was a bad person and an even worse father," Diego cut in.

"Diego," Allison interjected.

"My name is Number Two. Do you know why? Because our own father couldn't be bothered to give us names. He had Mom do it," he said, anger tainting his voice.

"Does anyone want a sandwich?" Grace asked, oblivious of what was going on.

"It's alright, Mom," Vanya said, earning a nod and a small smile from her mother.

"If you want to pay your respects, then go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was," Diego said, stepping out of the small semi-circle, his arms spread widely. Evelyn laughed lightly, she loved causing fights. The fact that it was at her father's memorial, who she hated, was even better.

"Stop," Luther warned Diego.

"If anything, I think you should hate him most, Number One."

"Diego, I'm warning you."

"He had to ship you a million miles away, that's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you," Diego provoked, poking Luther's chest, spitting fury.

Inevitably, Luther swung for Diego, only for Diego to duck and hit him back. The fight started to develop yet not one of the siblings decided to intervene. Pogo tried but had no result, so he went inside, shaking his head as he did.

"Ten bucks on Luther," Evelyn whispered to Klaus.

"I don't have ten bucks," he whispered back. Evelyn gave him a crumpled ten dollar bill from her pocket and winked at him. "I'm on Diego," he whispered confidently.

"You're going down," Evelyn whispered competitively.

They went back to watching the fight, Diego was clearly losing but not giving up.

"Come on, Luther," Evelyn shouted, causing the others to stare at her. Not Diego and Luther though, they were too immersed in the fight.

Diego went to Ben's statue and stood like a bull-fighter, waiting for Luther to run at him. When he did, Diego moved aside at the last second and Ben's statue came crumbling down. Ben's statue was now decapitated, and there was nothing anyone could do to fix that. Everyone apart from Luther, Klaus and Evelyn went inside, full of shock and annoyance.

Evelyn stood in shock as Klaus lightly took the ten dollar bill out of her hand. "Thanks," he whispered to her carefully, as if she might break like the statue.

"Ben," Evelyn whimpered. She slowly crossed over to the statue and knelt by it. She struggled to pick up the heavy head, and stood up with it in between her hands. She walked over to Luther.

"Hey," she said, making him turn around. She then threw the head at his chest and it erupted into shards. Luther put his hands to his chest in pain and went to protest. "Go to hell," she said, anger biting into her words. She stood still, paralysed with rage. Luther looked down, full of disappointment, and went inside. Evelyn walked over to the bench and sat down, letting the rain soak her hair and clothes.

She saw Klaus kneeling by her father's ashes before stubbing out his cigarette. Evelyn waited until he went inside with the rest before she took the cigarette out of the ashes and finished what little was left. Being here after all those years had bought back what trauma she had experienced, and now she had to deal with the apocalypse looming over her like a dark cloud. Evelyn put her fingers through her soaked baby-blue hair and longed to go back to drugs; the easy route. Even though she had worked so hard, she couldn't resist. She went inside, looking for Klaus.