WARNING: Mentions of s/a

ALICE'S POV

I closed the door behind me as I held my bleeding shoulder and placed more pressure on it. I can't believe I flinched at Five! I didn't know what came over me, and that hasn't happened before. I literally know that Five is about to kill a lot of people and still, I was okay with him touching my injuries then!

'Is this because of that incident? God, I thought I managed to get that incident out of my head..'

I sighed, I need this feeling—this fear to stop. I needed to calm down—my breath was starting to get uneven and I felt like something was going up my throat. I tried to even out my breaths, trying to calm myself down like the number of times I have done before on my own.

A sudden knock is what brought me out of my trance, turning to the closed door—I leaned and listened to a familiar voice.

"Here's something for your wound, I'll leave it out here for you"

It was Five, I wanted to open the door—I wanted to apologize for reacting that way towards him. But I needed to calm myself down first before facing him again. I opened the door just wide enough for me to get the medical supplies for my wound and gently closed it.

As I was disinfecting my wound, it got me thinking how this was sort of out of character for Five to spare what little time he had left for someone like me and bring these out. From what she could recall, Five would usually let his siblings deal with their own injuries and only be there to prevent them from doing even more stupid things.

'Guess he is an assassin with a heart of gold.'

I finished dressing and tending to her injury. Standing up, I took one last breath to calm down and placed my hand on the handle and walked outside.___Turns out, I didn't miss much as I walked in on Five and Diego discussing why their dad was on the film with Lila passing by me. She was probably going into the room I had a semi-panic attack in.

"-It doesn't look good, I admit."

"No, he's the signalman for the whole goddamn thing"

And there goes Diego's crazy conclusions.

"It's—"

Shit, right spoiler can't say shit about what's about to happen.

"Nevermind, just—whatever theories your mind is conducting Diego—is far from the truth"

I said, coming in between them as I let myself get a clear look at what they seemingly thought was their dad. Maybe Reginald placed out a decoy after he met them—would seem possible considering Diego may or may not have shown him that he wanted to kill him.

"She's right, I mean dad was no boy scout—but presidential assassination? It's never been his thing-"

"How would you know? You skipped out on his golden years"

'Low blow Diego, you're saying that to the person that risked his life saving your asses. '

I thought, as I sighed and went out to find the phone book as Five retorted Diego's statement.____"Dallas is a big place. We need to find him first"

"Gee, if only we had an old-timey way of finding people-"

I walked back in and dropped the heavy ass book on the table.

"Here, Now let's skip his name since he's not all that famous yet-"

I said as I flipped through the pages while Diego and Five leaned in closer to find their dad. I skimmed through the page and finally found Reggie's company.

"There, 82 Olive"

"Great, Let's go-"

Diego said as he walked off pulling the projector out of the way. I catched up to them and pulled Diego.

"Hey, you're forgetting something—specifically someone?"

I said tilting my head to point at Lila being in the dark room.

"The girl, Diego."

Five said, gesturing to the empty seat behind them where Lila sat earlier.

"Shit"

Diego sighed out as he walked off to find Lila. Which left me and Five waiting for him, I really wanted to break the atmosphere that I had made because of earlier around us. But it ended with just me looking at anywhere other than Five at the moment as I really didn't know what to say.Turns out I had to face my fears sooner than I thought as Five broke the silence.

"Earlier....Luther mentioned about teaching you how to fight and all that"

I scoffed as I heard him say that.

"Yeah, he's such a smart ass about it—thinking like he's the expert in fighting. I only agreed to it because....because.."

I trailed off, staring at a daze as I remembered that incident in the alley—if Autumn hadn't come I would've ... .I would've..

"Hey Alice, are you alright?-"

Five was about to put a hand on my shoulder before I slapped his hand away. I was surprised at myself for doing that and quickly retracted my hand.

"Sorry....s-sorry...just—I just lost myself for a second.."

Five must have noticed my hand shaking as he kept some distance between us to give me some space.

"Luther also mentioned ... .that you were a mess—but I didn't know that it was this worse.....I'm sorry Alice.."

I looked at him, he had a solemn look on his face—the same guilty look he had when he thinks that he had failed the people he cares about. I sighed, gaining the courage to scoot a bit closer to him.

"When I first got here.....I got cornered by some men in the alley—and I...I tried to fight back and run away. And I did but there were just so many of them and they grabbed me and held me down—all I could do was scream and thought this was really happening ... ..then Autumn came and saved me. That's why I disguised myself as a guy, I learned how to fight—cause I don't want that to happen again..."

By the time I was done I didn't even realize I was hugging myself as I feel myself unable to move while recalling that experience.

"Alice.....can I hug you? Only if you want to of course-"

I didn't let him finish, as it happened in a blur and the next thing I knew I was letting out a month's worth of bottled up emotion out on Five as I buried my face in his chest and had my hands gripping on his blazer. I felt him comfortingly placing his hands on my back as he let me sob out.___

"This is it"

Five's voice broke me out of my trance as I turned my attention away from the window. After my mental breakdown in front of Five—he suggested that I could stay behind and get some rest. But I declined the offer and told him that this would get my mind off of it and that I wanted to still help.

We got out of the car and walked up to the entrance. I saw Five hesitate as he saw the sign of the company. I tugged on his sleeve a bit and that broke him out of his trance as he sighed and continued to walk in front of the entrance.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just..."

"How long has it been since you've seen the old man?"

Diego asked as he knelt and used one of his knives to pick the lock on the entrance door.

"Forty-five years"

Five sighed out.

"That's a trip"

"No kidding. You know, when I was stuck out there in the apocalypse—there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't hear his voice in my head"

'I'm sure that wasn't good for his sanity'

I thought as I noticed Diego having a hard time picking the lock. I tapped Five and gestured over to just blink in. Five looked over at Diego and sighed as he blinked in and unblocked the door.

"Right, gotta remember that"

"Maybe it's cause you forgot to take your meds Diego"

"Oh ha, ha-"___We went inside and it was dark but manageable. Five tried to turn on the lamp near us but it just faded out as soon as it was turned on.

"Guess Dad wasn't much of a home decor"

"Feels much more like a front-"

"A front for what?"

"Feels, more like....an experiment"

I said, Five looked at me and I shrugged—they never really explicitly talked about this whole thing and what I said was just one of my theories so it's not really a spoiler.

"Well, I'll take the left. Yell if you two, uh..get in trouble"

Diego said as Five and Alice nodded and opened the door to the next hall.___"Five I think I now know where that mannequin thing of yours came from"

"Oh hush-"

Alice grinned as they came across another room filled with mannequins that were set up as a family.

"But you gotta admit, this does look like an experiment of sorts"

Alice suggested as they walked down the halls.

"How so?"

Five said, opening to check another room.

"Well, you see I read that some experiments, especially psychological ones involve making a makeshift environment. That kind of thing is prominent with mental experiments that involves chimpanzees."

That made Five turn to Alice.

"You don't think?.."

"That Regginald has-"

Alice's voice stopped.

"You get the idea...-" Alice sighed out.

They walked into a room filled with a family setting mannequins and a small little chalkboard with some toys laying around here and there. The scene felt familiar to Alice..

"You go on and check those paper there, I'll just stand guard here"

Five nodded to that and searched for anything useful on the table that had letters scattered across it.

'This was the scene where little pogo almost scratched Five in the face..'

Alice thought, dreading and as if on cue they heard a sound nearby.

Five looked at Alice, as if signaling her to stay close to him—and with that Alice went behind Five, holding on to him just so she could pull him out of the way when Pogo scratches him.

Behind the equipment emerged Pogo, Five muttered out his name as he carefully approached him.

"Pogo, it's good to see you-"

"Wait Five don't-"

That was when Pogo raised his hand at Five and Alice successfully pulled him away from the attack.

"Thanks" Five grunted as he watched Pogo run off.

"Don't mention it-"

Alice said as she heard some commotion nearby after Pogo ran off.

"Come on, Sound like Diego got into some trouble"

"When has he ever stayed out of trouble..-"