Lost in Time ~ Five Hargreeves

Chapter 32

Riley opened the door to Elliott's shop.

"Is anyone here? Hello?", Allison asked.

She and Klaus were still a little tipsy.

Five and Riley found them at Allison's house.

The two giggled and spoke quietly to each other-

"Le petit mort, le petit mort."

"What? You don't speak French."

"It's 'the little death'."

"Oh, wow. Look at this old stuff."

-until Klaus noticed his other siblings and Elliott, who had appeared on the gallery.

"Oh, wow. I know this is impossible, but... did we all get sexier?"

"Vanya."

"I can't believe I have a sister," Vanya said happily, running down the stairs.

"I missed you," Allison said.

Vanya chuckled and hugged her sister.

She was glad that someone besides Riley was happy to see her.

"Oh, that's so sweet," Klaus commented, hugging them both.

"No. Jesus," Allison murmured, while Vanya giggled.

"Klaus. Is Ben here?" Five changed the subject.

"Oh, uh... no. No, unfortunately, ghosts can't time travel," Klaus lied.

"Are you kidding me?", Ben complained, who had sat down on a chair.

The others had no reason not to believe Klaus, and Riley had to concentrate on not laughing.

"All right, then. Let's get down to business," Five said, heading upstairs.

~~~~

"All right. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry," Five began. "I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."

"Oh, my God, again?", said Klaus, shocked. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the- Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."

"We have until Monday. We have six days," Riley explained.

"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked directly.

"Klaus."

"What? It's usually Vanya."

"Do you have any leads?" Vanya asked Five and Riley.

"Yeah, we have one," Five reported.

Diego handed him the photo Reginald showed of the couple in the video.

The teen passed the photo directly to Allison.

"Holy shit, is that Dad?"

"Yeah."

"That's him?" murmured Vanya, who couldn't remember what Reginald looked like until now.

"That's Reginald," Riley confirmed.

"-standing on the grassy knoll."

"Diego, Riley and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we've got nothing," reported Five.

"Not nothing. We know, he's planning to kill Kennedy."

"Maybe. But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."

"Yeah, but how, if we don't know what's broken?", Allison asked.

Riley agreed with her. Right now, everything could trigger the apocalypse.

"Come on. Do the math. We know Dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do-"

"Find Dad." "Kill Dad."

Five and Diego finished the sentence at the same time.

Riley scoffed and crossed their arms in front of their chest.

This reminded them of their childhood, when they always had to intervene when Five and Diego disagreed.

That wasn't necessary yet, but they had a feeling it would happen again.

"None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it's us?", Vanya suggested. "Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"

For a moment, no one said anything.

Riley wondered if it might have something to do with them, but the teenager had always been careful not to interfere... Which could be quite difficult as a reporter.

"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald," Luther broke the silence.

"And you're working for Jack Ruby."

"Allison has been very involved in local politics."

"Okay, you started a cult."

"I'm just a... a nanny on a farm. I don't have anything to do with all of that," Vanya said.

"Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet," Allison argued.

She was interrupted by Diego, who whistled sharply to get his siblings' attention.

"Listen to yourself. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Riley is a part of the press, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is... doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."

Suddenly, everyone except Five and Riley were talking at once.

Five looked like he was remembering something, and Riley massaged their temple.

"Guys, you all," said Five, and the others stopped talking. "I was there. I saw it. And I want to forget it, but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it... in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything. But Dad wants. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."

"Okay, I'm out," Luther said and stood up.

"Did you even hear me, Luther?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. I heard a 58-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. I mean, Riley, you can't be okay with his plan."

"It's not perfect," Riley sighed. "But it's our only chance, and we need to stick together."

"Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."

"Luther!"

"Come back."

"Where are you going?"

Luther walked past Five toward the stairs, followed by Diego, who tried to persuade him not to go.

"Save it, Diego."

Five jumped onto the stairs in front of Luther.

"No one leaves until we figure this out."

Luther easily picked up the teenager and threw him over the railing.

Five jumped in the air.

He didn't reappeared in the room, so Riley assumed he was outside.

"I'll be back in a second," Riley said, jumping after Five.