Minus Six.
Sep. 22nd, 2021 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
number_fiveAnd just like that, he’s lost his brother again. Truthfully, Five wasn’t around the first time they lost Ben, being stuck in the apocalypse with better things to do… like surviving, but that doesn't make the loss any easier.
It takes Five a few weeks to truly come to terms with it. Denial is generally a useless coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean Five is immune to it. People disappear in Darrow all the time; he's heard the stories. They disappear, they come back, sometimes they don't remember being there in the first place, other times there are stranger forces at work. His siblings seem to accept the loss more quickly than he does, because even though he knows this may not be the last time any of them see Ben, it becomes more and more difficult to convince himself of the fact as the days stretch on.
It's denial, that useless coping mechanism, that leads to what can only be considered stupidity. Five starts innocently enough, with a solitary night in the library at home, scribbling equations in the margins of a book he's been trying to concentrate on for the past hour. That turns into notebooks full, those equations then continued on the walls of his bedroom.
It could work. He knows it could. He's made a mistake before; a wrong character had cost him his adulthood, so he knows the risks. That's why he's checked them over and over again. And this time, he only needs a few weeks, not years. He can bring Ben back.
Five stands in his bedroom with the door shut, and he clenches his fists as he concentrates. The blue glow is almost blinding as he tries to open a portal, tries to fling himself back through time. It's harder than it should be, and his head is pounding as the seconds stretch on into minutes, and as nothing happens.
Five full minutes go by before he gives up, sweat beading on his forehead and the weight of failure heavy on his shoulders.
"Shit."
It takes Five a few weeks to truly come to terms with it. Denial is generally a useless coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean Five is immune to it. People disappear in Darrow all the time; he's heard the stories. They disappear, they come back, sometimes they don't remember being there in the first place, other times there are stranger forces at work. His siblings seem to accept the loss more quickly than he does, because even though he knows this may not be the last time any of them see Ben, it becomes more and more difficult to convince himself of the fact as the days stretch on.
It's denial, that useless coping mechanism, that leads to what can only be considered stupidity. Five starts innocently enough, with a solitary night in the library at home, scribbling equations in the margins of a book he's been trying to concentrate on for the past hour. That turns into notebooks full, those equations then continued on the walls of his bedroom.
It could work. He knows it could. He's made a mistake before; a wrong character had cost him his adulthood, so he knows the risks. That's why he's checked them over and over again. And this time, he only needs a few weeks, not years. He can bring Ben back.
Five stands in his bedroom with the door shut, and he clenches his fists as he concentrates. The blue glow is almost blinding as he tries to open a portal, tries to fling himself back through time. It's harder than it should be, and his head is pounding as the seconds stretch on into minutes, and as nothing happens.
Five full minutes go by before he gives up, sweat beading on his forehead and the weight of failure heavy on his shoulders.
"Shit."
