Under The Influence: A Klaus Hargreeves Fanfic | Umbrella Academy AU |

Turnaround

| This is the last flashback chapter for a while. It takes place right after Klaus was shot, circa approx. 2006. It is now from Willow's perspective however. |

Willow's heart had stopped.

The moment that she looked over and saw Klaus on the floor, bleeding from his knee with his eyes closed. Willow was face to face with a metal revolver and she felt no fear. Part of her wanted him to end it all, to shoot her straight in the face. The other half of her was trembling to get to Klaus' side, to hold him and to get him help.

That half of her was dominant and attached to the same part of her that was trained defensively in exactly that manner. She took a moment to plan how she would have executed it; her wrist would disarm the weapon while her fingers would wrap around his hand, turning the gun in towards Benny.

Knowing Benny, he would fire, thinking it would be at Willow, and then everything would be fine. She would call an ambulance for Klaus and pray to God that Benny would just bleed out on her floor. They would run away together somewhere European and drink and smoke until their livers gave out and they would never have to be hurt again.

Like most things in her life, that was not how things worked out.

From the side appeared a figure that had a gun to Benny's head, that fired almost immediately, coating her walls in the fluids of his head. Her eyes widened immediately, but somehow Willow didn't scream. She felt it bubbling in her chest, but was more alarmed at who had pulled the trigger.

"Willow Jean Groves."

The disapproving tone was too familiar for her not to start to cry. In front of her, over the corpse of her former employer stood her caretaker. The man, Arthur Groves, was short, with peppered facial hair and a scar over his right eye that had no been there previously, dressed in a black suit.

"Hey, dad."

She wanted to wipe the blood that speckled her skin, but she was frozen in time. Positive that she had already died and that this was her afterlife, she made peace with the crimson freckles and stood there, shaking like long grass in a tornado.

"What." He was flabbergasted. "What is it that you think you're doing here?"

"Where did you go?" Her voice was small in return, hands wrapped around one another to keep herself calm and together.

"You could have been killed."

If only.

"Klaus." Willow turned her attention back to Klaus, who was still lying on the floor. She moved to him, kneeling at his side and putting her hand on his clammy face. For some reason, she expected there to be more blood pooled around his knees. "Dad we have to help him."

"An ambulance is on the way," Arthur announced, taking a step closer, "we need to leave."

"I can't leave him." Her voice was choked up with impending tears. "He wouldn't leave me."

"They'll arrest you for the murder of-" The father figure coughed and gestures to Benny who was very dead near them "-that."

"It was self defense." Willow tried to say, but was shot down by his disapproving scowl.

"You sold yourself for pleasure, Willow, your word holds no ground." His tongue clicked in an upset manner.

"I would have had to if you didn't just disappear like that-"

"I did what I had to do-"

"So did I." She argued firmly, smoothing Klaus' hair as she whispered soothing things to his limp body. Willow could hear the sirens approaching, the sound of heavy boots.