☂ 𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 || 𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝚡 𝙾𝙲 || 𝑩𝑲. 𝟑 ☂

10. A FAMILY AFFAIR

Hustling through the revolving doors of Hotel Obsidian, Klaus, Five, and Elaina quickly skimmed the lobby, grateful to immediately find the majority of their siblings lounging around the bar. Picking up speed, the three of them hurried over to them.

"Okay, gather round, people," proclaimed the boy, quickly gaining their attention as Viktor and Diego began to move toward him from their seats at the booth. "Where is- Where's every- Where's Luther?" asked Five with a creased brow, realizing the biggest member was nowhere to be seen.

"Haven't seen him," muttered Allison, hunched over a glass of brown that was lifted to her lips.

"Who knows," tagged in Diego, nearing the bar's counter with Viktor in tow.

Placing the worn journal on the flat surface, Five quickly started to unravel it. "Anybody knows where-? Okay, you know what? We go bigger problems to worry about right now,"

"Like what?" monotonically questioned Allison, not bothering to look at the boy.

Five still peered his eyes up at the woman. "This," he motioned toward the open book.

Elaina hopped onto the stool beside her sister with a giggle. "Oh, you're gonna love this, sis," the girl then looked over to the bartender. "Can I get me one of those?" she asked the man, pointing to Allison's cup as she began to remove her jacket. "Oh, and a bottle of vodka, a clean cloth, and a first aid kit... por favor," she finished with a beaming smile, carelessly tossing her dirt-spotted jacket on the empty stool beside her.

The bartender looked at her with a raised brow at her request, before shrugging and nodding his head, disappearing to the other side of the bar to gather the items.

Five then began to meticulously flip through each page, allowing his siblings full view of the newspaper articles as he did.

"Who are they?" asked Viktor, gazing over Five's shoulder at the several images of random women.

"These are our mothers," stated the teen.

Once they got to the page of a conservatively dressed Amish woman, Klaus instantly leaped on it, clasping onto the picture. "That one's mine," he declared protectively.

"They're all dead," revealed Five. "They all died the exact same day-October 1st, 1989,"

"That's our birthday," noted Viktor in a stunned tone.

The man came back and placed the requested objects in front of the girl with a vacant expression. The brown-haired girl simply responded with a closed-eyed smile.

Five pressed his lips in a tight line. "Not anymore, it isn't,"

"Wait for it..." quietly mumbled Elaina, looking down at the arm she placed on the counter while sliding the vodka bottle close to her, gaining a perplexing side glance from her sister.

"They all died before we were born," Five dropped the bomb.

"Annnnnd roll credits," Elaina snickered to herself, taking a quick gulp from the glass of scotch before uncapping the bottle of vodka and pouring it all over her soiled stitches, hissing at the contact.

The sound caught Five's attention as he glanced over at her at gave a subtly worried expression.

Allison leaned into Elaina, nudging her lightly with her glass. "You good?" she asked, watching the girl carefully dab the cloth on her stitches.

Elaina looked over at her sister. "Me? Oh, I'm great," she responded, opening the first aid kit with a flick of her finger. "Just got a little dirty is all," she said, now noticing the dirt on the gauzes on her hand as well. "Oops, how did I miss that...?" she muttered to herself as she began to undo her hand gauze.