~ Chapter Twenty Four ~

Màu nền
Font chữ
Font size
Chiều cao dòng

Back at the Academy, Diego, Dusk, and Allison watched from the hall as Grace patched up Five's wound. "Oh god... I can't watch this," the raven shuddered, looking away from the room and over to her sister. "Did you hear anything from Vanya?" She questioned. "No answer at Vanya's place. And the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for her lessons today," Allison explained.


The two sisters looked over at Diego, who was in a daze as he stared into the room. "Diego, you alright?" Allison asked. "You know what, we don't have enough time. We got to go," He sighed, turning around to head down the stairs, but Allison grabbed his arm before he could get far. "I don't know, Diego. Five is lying there, unconscious. We need him," Allison whispered.


"We can do this by ourselves," Diego insisted. "We did that already, remember? We all ended up dead," Dusk reminded. The three of them quietly discussed what they were going to do about the Leonard Peabody situation. "There are no other addresses in the file, but another relation was listed. Jenkins' grandmother lived near Jackpine Road," Diego explained. "So, you think he took her there?" Allison inquired. "It's a good enough place to start," Diego responded.


Maybe there is hope for finding Vanya after all. Let's hope he hasn't done anything to her yet. 


"Alright, well, Allison and I will go after-" "No, Dusk. It's too dangerous for you to go out there with me. I can handle him myself," Allison interrupted. "Alli, I can watch your back if he tries to pull some shit," she protested. "Allison's right. You need to stay here and make sure the rest of our siblings are okay," Diego defended.


Her jaw dropped at him taking sides against her. Not because she was expecting him to take her side, but because he usually tended to stay neutral. "You seem to forget who you are talking to. I can burn that guy to a crisp!" Number Two and Number Three glanced at her, silently saying that she was not going to change their minds. "Alright, fine. But please be careful out there," Dusk caved in, admitting defeat.


"Always am,"


~~~~~~~


Klaus picked himself off the floor as the ghost of Dave faded away from him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tall man with large muscles heading in Luther's direction, and from the look on his face, he was not too happy with the ape-man dancing with his girlfriend. "Help him, Klaus!" Ben shouted. But to Klaus, his voice was far off in the distance, almost slurred and distorted.


He chased after the man, grabbing him by the neck and jumping on his back. "Luther! Luther, help!" Klaus shouted as his brother continued dancing. The man fought back and spun around, hoping the junkie would let go. Eventually, Klaus lost his grip and fell onto the concrete floor, hitting his head hard and slipping into unconsciousness.


A while later, his eyes slowly fluttered, revealing that he was no longer in the club. Instead, he was somewhere completely different. The area surrounding him was a complete void of no color, making him even more confused. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see someone coming his way, riding a bicycle. When they got into view, it was a young girl, wearing an old-fashioned hat and dress.


"Almost didn't see you. You blend in around here. So pale and all. They don't have any sun down there?" Klaus was confused by the girl's words, wondering what she meant by "Down there" "Where am I?" He asked. "Where do you think?" She responded. "I'm not sure. I'm agnostic, so-" Before he could finish his sentence, the girl told him that he couldn't stay, claiming that she didn't like him very much.


"Yeah, me neither. But wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to love all of us?" he questioned. "Where'd you get that idea? I need you so I can pick and choose. And you don't rub me the right way. He's waiting for you," "Who is?" The girl pointed towards the woods, where a small wooden shack stood next to a small water tower. "Dave," Klaus realized. He ran towards it and went inside, but to his surprise, he saw that he was inside a barbershop, and Dave wasn't there.


Exhausted, he sat in the barber's chair, laying his head back as he took in a deep breath, tired from being on his feet. Suddenly, his chair started moving, and a dark towel hung over his face, blocking every ounce of his vision. "What in God's name took you so long?" A familiar voice filled his ears. He removed the towel, and his eyes widened. "Dad?"


"I expected my son who can conjure the dead to have brought me forth days ago," Reginald sighed. "Oh. Well, you see it's complicated. I tried. I did, but-" "You were poisoning yourself," Reginald interrupted as he applied shaving cream to his son's face. "Well, what do you expect? You'd just died. I was beside myself with grief," Klaus lied, trying to avoid eye contact.


"Don't you dare try to use me as an excuse for your weakness," Reginald said sternly. "Yeah, you had nothing to do with it. Locking me in a mausoleum with corpses when I was 13? No, you're right, it's irrelevant," Reginald leaned in close with the razor, but Klaus slightly moved his head, telling him to be careful. "You children like to blame everything on me,"


"Well, you were a sadistic prick. Not to mention the world's worst father," Klaus pointed out. "I just wanted you to live up to your potential. You're my greatest disappointment, Number Four. You only scratched the surface of what you were truly capable of. If only you'd focused," Reginald shook his head. "What potential?" Klaus asked, meeting his father's gaze. "Instead, you pump yourself full of poison because you're afraid,"


"You know, I suggest you get down off your high horse there, dear Papa. You never had our best interests at heart. Look at your precious Number One. He found all the unopened letters he'd sent you. Luther knows that you sent him up to the Moon for nothing," Reginald looked at the razor in his hand for a moment before looking back at Klaus. 


"That was foolish of me. I should have burned it all. But I knew that the world would soon need him, need all of you, and I had to do what was necessary. Everything I did, everything I put you through was to prepare all of you for something bigger than yourselves. You never understood that." Reginald explained. Klaus's eyes widened at his father's admission, and he tried to say they were just kids. To which Reginald replied, "You were never just kids. You were meant to save the world,"


"So, you knew about all of this? The apocalypse?" Klaus inquired. "I knew that I had to bring you all back together, one way or another. The fate of the world depended on it. The only way to get you all back together was something momentous," Reginald replied, running the razor on Klaus's cheek. A realization crossed Klaus' mind. His father was capable of doing many things, but never did he imagine that he would be capable of taking his own life. No, he couldn't have! "Y-you don't mean you k-killed yourself?" he sputtered. "Oh, Christ, you could never do things the easy way, could you? You couldn't have picked up a phone?"


"Listen to me, Number Four. What I'm about to say is of great importance-" Reginald's ghost disappeared from his view, and that meant that his time was up, that it was time to return to the real world. Klaus woke up, gasping for air as a small crowd surrounded him, wondering what had happened. He stood up and continued shouting Luther's name, eventually learning that the bouncer had kicked him out.


"I am done looking for him tonight. I want to go home," Klaus muttered as he walked out of the club, heading back to The Academy. He slowly trudged up the stairs, and as he was about to enter his room, he saw Dusk's figure hunched over her piano. "Songbird? What are you doing?" He called out. When Dusk didn't answer, he went inside to try and rouse her. 


Her head was buried in her arms as they rested on the black and white keys. Aw, she's sleeping. I can't imagine the piano being comfortable for her, though. Without a second thought, Klaus carefully brought her into his arms and laid her on the bed, placing a soft brown blanket over her delicate figure.


"Sleep tight," He whispered before closing the bedroom door.



Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen2U.Pro