[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝑂𝐹 𝑀𝐸 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒
"𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡, 𝐼 𝑘𝑖𝑠𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡, 𝐼 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑."
—𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐺𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠: 𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

𝐴 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑜 . . . 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛.

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐋𝐘 as Diego murmured to Lila, "I know that we can be your family . . . if you just let us."

Before Lila could respond, however, they heard movement coming from the entrance, and their attention turned to see Five twisting a gun out of the Handler's hands.

Mara's mouth was slightly agape as she watched Five turn the gun to face the Handler, who then raised her hands in defence as she gave them a shrewd smile.

"It's true, isn't it?" Lila asked, drawing her mother's attention to her. "What Five said."

The Handler kept quiet, instead glancing over to Five, who kept his clutch on the gun firm.

"Answer me!" Lila cried out, her eyes beginning to moisten. "Is it true?"

The Handler raised her eyebrows, giving a short sigh before beginning, "Well—"

She was interrupted, however, as a number of bullets hit her stomach, and they watched with horror as she gasped and fell to the ground. Blood poured out of both her stomach and the corner of her mouth as her body went limp.

Their eyes then turned to see who had hit her: one of the Swedes, who had a gun in his hands.

"The case!" Luther cried out, and they all whipped around to see that Lila had picked up the briefcase that her mother had dropped.

There was no time to stop her, however, as a bright light appeared, and both Lila and the case disappeared.

Their attention was turned to the Swede once more (Mara was bound to get whiplash soon) as he cocked his gun.

Mara felt her nerves begin to rise as the Swede pointed the gun at Five, who was pointing his gun straight back at him. The two stared at each other for a few moments, both of them challenging the other to shoot.

A moment more, and Five let his gun clatter to the ground. "Enough."

The Swede slowly shifted his gaze around each of them, his eyes carefully examining each person as they prayed for him to agree.

Bringing them relief, the Swede nodded. He murmured something in Swedish and released his gun, letting it fall to the ground. He glanced around at them once more and turned to leave.

Klaus's eyebrows furrowed once it was only the family occupying the barn, and he questioned, "Who the hell was that guy?"

There was no time to answer as Sissy's muffled voice called out, "Vanya! Help!"

"Harlan," Vanya breathed out.

The family hurriedly followed Vanya down the stairs and to the basement of the farmhouse, where, in the corner, sat Harlan. His arms were wrapped around his knees, and he was slightly rocking back and forth as his wide eyes dilated. The same force field that had been around him when they first saw him was back again.