Runaway ~ TUA (Book 3)

Chapter 9

Taya stood with Diego, helping keep Klaus' body upright. A few strands of her hair fell in front of her face as she tried to blow them away, before she gave up and used one of her hands to quickly move the hair out of her face. It was silent for a few moments, but chaos erupted when Klaus' head shot up as he gasped for air, Diego, Stan and Taya screamed in fright as all three of them jumped back, and Diego accidentally almost crushed Taya against the wall as they did so.

"You told me he was dead, puta!," Stanley screamed as Klaus writhed around, trying to free himself from the carpet he had been wrapped up in.

"He was, and now you speak Spanish?," Diego yelled back as Taya just kept yelling in gibberish, her words getting so mixed up to the point no one could tell what she was even trying to say.

Klaus fell back onto Diego who caught him, "Let's turn down the volume a smidge, shall we? Celestial comedown is a bitch!" The man was surprisingly calm for being dead and somehow coming back to life. Diego lightly tossed his now alive brother into the wall in front of him, Klaus slid down onto the floor, looking more tired than anything.

"What are you? Jesus?," Taya asked sarcastically as she panted, trying to catch her breath and process what her, Diego and Stanley had just witnessed. Her wide blue eyes never left Klaus as she stared at him in shock, her heart rate was quick and fast paced.

"I thought you were dead," Diego said, crouching down Klaus' level.

"Me too," Kaus answered before laughing slightly, which caused Diego and Taya to laugh as the teenaged girl shook her head while Stanley stared at Klaus like he had two heads.

Once the elevator reached the first floor Klaus was the first one to walk out, stumbling slightly as he did, but other than that he was speed walking.

"Uncle Klaus, slow down, you were dead like, 5 minutes ago. Like dead dead, as in all my hopes and dreams dead –" Klaus cut Taya off as the four of them walked down the stairs.

"Well, I'm back now. Apparently that's like a thing I do. Who knew, right?" Everyone continued walking as Diego made sure Klaus didn't trip down the stairs. Klaus stopped them and showed them the wound from where Stanley had shot him, the wound was already healing.

"What would happen if we cut off your head? Would it grow two of you?," Stanley asked, staring at the man with a questioning look.

"Stan," Diego warned.

"Would it?" Klaus sighed and the small group joined the rest of the family at the bar. Taya sat down in between Lila and Viktor, greeting them with a smile before she reached for a glass of alcohol and took a sip, coughing a little bit as she swallowed.

"Aren't you a little too young to be drinking?," Viktor questioned and Taya shrugged, playing with the glass that she was holding in her hands, Lila laughed slightly, patting Taya's shoulder.

"You're not as bad as I thought, Red," she told the teen as Diego joined the group along with Klaus.

"What'd we miss?," Diego asked.

"The universe is ending, and we're all going to die," Lila replied with a sarcastic smile on her face as she faced Diego.

"So, the usual?," Taya mumbled, lightly placing her glass on the bar counter.

There was a sudden blast, as quickly as it started it left, but there were people missing from the lobby when it went away. Taya looked around with a confused look on her face, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"What the hell was that?," she asked.

"That was a Kugel wave," Five answered with an exasperated sigh, "It's getting worse." Everyone turned their gaze back to Five, hoping he would have the answers to their questions.

"How long do we have?," Luther questioned.

"At this rate of escalation, if you factor in –"

"How long, Five?"

"Four, maybe five days before the rest of existence is blitzed," Five replied, slightly taken aback at Luther snapping at him like that.

~~~

"We should've given them Harlan," Luther said, referring to the previous night with the Sparrows. Taya looked at her uncle and shook her head, hoping that this wouldn't add to the problems that the group already had.

"What about Harlan?," Diego questioned.

"The Sparrows said that if we turned him over, we could end the fighting, and then work together to save the world," Taya explained, taking another sip from her drink before Viktor took it out of her hands, pushing it to the other side of the bar counter despite the teenager's protests.

"But we tried to make peace," Viktor defended, "And then the step-siblings from hell attacked, kidnapped you, and they tried to kill us. I mean, come on, we can't trust them. Working together would be like trying to defuse a bomb by pouring gas on it. It's only gonna make things burn down faster."

"But don't we need that big bad glow-y thing in their basement?," Klaus objected as he raised his hand like he was a schoolboy getting ready to shout out the answer. Everyone looked at him with confused expressions.

"Klaus, do you know where the Kugleblitz is?," Five asked.

"Oh yeah, I saw it. When I went to visit Dad." Klaus poured himself a glass of alcohol as he gasped, not really looking at his brother as he poured the drink.

"It's in the old storage room where Mom used to keep all of her luggage," he continued.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?," Diego asked, sounding a bit annoyed with the fact they were only finding out about this now.

"I did! I told you!," Klaus argued.

"You say stupid shit all the time!," Diego argued, and soon a small banter arose between the two siblings.

Taya sighed in annoyance and got up, grabbing the glass Viktor had taken from her before going back to sit down in her spot, taking another sip of the liquid in it. Not bothering to listen to what her uncles were saying as she looked over at Lila, who seemed pretty amused and entertained by what was happening. The teenager sighed, moving some of the strands out of her face.

Something told her that this specific end of the world was going to be different...