Raincoats | The Umbrella Academy

The 23rd Miracle

By the time Charlotte made it back to the place she had fled the hour before, she was completely numb to the situation. The whole time she was taking a shower and then waiting for a bus was spent convincing herself that the only reason she was going to save Denis was because despite all the terrible things she had done in her life, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she had let him die.

Charlotte had always, ironically, been the brawns of their operation. She was his own personal hit woman, his field agent, his protector. In exchange for saving his life on occasion, he sheltered them, gave her a purpose, and made sure they were fed. He almost never engaged in any kind of fight, even though he had been trained better than Charlotte.

That had just been another one of the things that made their dynamic so easy. She did the job, he'd work as a medic for her afterwards. She lured their victims into a false sense of security and he would help clean up the mess. She listened to his rants and blabbering, and he was silent support for her when she needed it. It was infuriating. They had had such history, so much trust for one another, when Denis had been lying the whole time. Once the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, Charlotte started to realize all the other ways he controlled her. It was like waking up from a long, pleasant sleep, to realize that everything around you had been burning all along and you have to get out.

She wasn't going to cry again, not this close to her destination. The sense of betrayal was swallowed with her tears. Watching cars pass the slow moving bus, Charlotte thought back to her shower earlier and how she should have dried her hair more before going out; it always got frizzy in the rainy weather.

Frizzy hair was the least of her problems at the moment.

Her sore knuckles hit the thick frosted glass of the front door, then she recognized the heavy knocker hanging over the wooden frame. She paused and then took a few steps back to look up at the building. This was The Umbrella Academy, she realized. It was a fuzzy memory from a childhood she had experienced long ago. Charlotte had watched bits and pieces of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, an eccentric billionaire, on the news, talking about his special children. Of course, Charlotte had never really believed that the man had adopted seven children with special abilities. It was a publicity stunt, surely.

This was the Academy that madman had made to teach his superhuman kids.

"Hello?" A silvery voice greeted. The door was half open, held by a pleasant looking woman in a 1950's housewife dress. God, this day was only going to get weirder.

"Hi." Charlotte spotted a figure standing in the foyer behind the woman. "I was here earlier. I'm looking for a boy named Five."

A look of acknowledgement washed over the blonde woman's kind face. "Oh, my sweet boy," she replied casually. "Yes. He's here somewhere. Please, come in." The door opened all the way and the woman moved to the side.

Cautiously, Charlotte stepped back into the house, which felt much more like a home with this woman in it than with the questions she was met with earlier. "Thank you."

Smiling with a kind of warmth Charlotte didn't think she had ever seen, the woman took her hand. "I'm Grace."

Her silky gloves clasped both of her hands. Meeting her delicate gaze, she introduced herself. "I'm Charlotte. It's nice to meet you."

Grace flashed a delighted grin, showing off a perfect set of teeth. "Five!" She called, projecting her voice. "Dear, there's a polite girl here to see you!"

A pink flush found Charlotte's rounded cheeks. She was a stranger to genuine compliments.

No one answered the call. Grace looked up, searching for any sign of anyone coming towards the grand staircase. As she did so, something whizzed past Charlotte's head, rustling her damp hair.