𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘀 ~ 𝗞𝗹𝗮𝘂𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘃𝗲𝘀

~ Chapter One Hundred Fifteen ~

Hours Earlier...

Though Claire only saw a small glimpse into her uncle's stormy world of addiction and drugs, a world that both Allison and Dusk struggled to keep her from experiencing firsthand, nothing could've prepared her for seeing this side of her uncle. The uncle who worried about her getting hit by a car every time they were outside, the uncle who brought her herbal tea every time she was sick, this was not the man she grew up around. And watching him walk out the door with the TV in hand broke her heart into a million pieces.

Her phone call to her mother was met with stuttering and tears as she explained the situation. Allison rushed home as fast as she could, shocked to see the damage. Her daughter was sobbing on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest as she tried to muffle the noise. As the day turned into night, and neither of them received word from Klaus, Allison knew deep in her gut that he was either strung out of his mind in a back alley somewhere or was once again caught in a rocky situation with one of his dealers.

To Allison's surprise, Claire had heard her uncle mention the name and location of one of them. With this new information, the need to find her brother only grew as they drove through the damp and busy city streets. And just as the sun was starting to rise the next morning, they finally arrived outside of Quentin's building. "Is this the place?" Allison questioned her daughter. "It's his favorite," Claire confirmed. Allison's eyebrows furrowed as she looked over her shoulder, asking her daughter if she had been there before.

"No, no," The tween shook her head. "Well, I've never been inside," She eventually admitted. "So... you have been here before?" Allison's eyes widened with surprise and anger. "In a cab, Mom, to get Uncle Klaus!" Claire clarified. "God! For once in your life, you need to just chill!" "We're going to talk about this later. Wait here," Allison warned as she unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped onto the pavement. Slamming the car door shut behind her, Allison knocked on the metal door. "What do you want?" One of the bikers opened the sliding peephole, glaring at The Rumor. 

"Open up!" She commanded. "Piss off!" He snarled before sliding it closed, leaving Allison to enter the hard way. Her eyes glowed yellow as she kicked the door in, knocking it straight off the hinges and hitting the biker in the back. He fell to the ground, letting out a huff of air as the door collapsed on top of him. Claire's jaw dropped open as she watched her mother step into the building, having never seen her do that before. Back inside, Allison stepped over the unconscious man, looking down at his crumpled-up form, barely able to brace himself from the heavy impact.

"Now, where are your manners?" Allison squinted. Walking down the winding corridors, she peered into every room, hoping to find her brother, only to be met with glaring tarot card readers and sex workers who had no interest in talking unless they were being paid to do so. To the farthest left, Allison finally approached an open door, and as she pushed the door the rest of the way open, she called out to Klaus, hoping to hear his voice or see him fast asleep after another drug binge. 

But Klaus was nowhere to be found. "Klaus?" Allison called out again, only to be met with a hard smack to the head with a metal baseball bat. The Rumor faceplanted onto the ground, her lungs and torso burning at the impact with the concrete floor. Her head spun as she turned onto her side, looking up at the man who had just swung at her. "Seek and ye shall find," Quentin chuckled, watching as Allison, still in shock, touched her head as blood seeped down her face. "So, Klaus is your brother, huh? I guess pretty and stupid run in the family," he sneered.