You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2

Chapter 18: Three Times

            Despite my excitement to be with Klaus again, I still settled in near Five, leaning against the plush chair off to his right, which Diego soon rested against as well. He popped up in front of our siblings, adjusting his blazer a couple times before he felt comfortable addressing the masses.

"All right. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry." He eyed each of the people in front of him with the urgency and enthusiasm of a child, but something buried deep back held a much heavier burden. "I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole 'going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing." No one responded, but I noticed a few of our siblings shake their heads or roll their eyes. "But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."

Klaus immediately halted in his movements, shockingly finding that more important than pouring himself another drink. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he turned and stared at our youngest brother, simultaneously confused and appalled.

"Oh, my God, again?" he sighed, almost exasperated with the prospect of chasing another apocalypse. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the—" Klaus gasped suddenly, a new realization popping into his mind. "Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."

I'd like to say I was shocked by the revelation, even disgusted. I wanted to think that I would push my head back and raise an eyebrow, silently questioning the choices Klaus had made now that he was presented with the opportunity to start over in the 1960s.

But, in all honesty, nothing about the idea of Klaus being a cult leader even remotely surprised me.

"We have until Monday," Five informed him, devoid of any regret or confusion. "We have six days."

"Is it Vanya?" Allison and I scoffed as Klaus took a sip of the alcohol he'd resumed pouring.

"Klaus," my sister warned.

"What? It's usually Vanya." Vanya, no longer wanting to be the subject of familial ridicule, turned her attention to Five.

"Do you have any leads, Five?" she asked, silencing everyone else. My brother cast a glance in my direction, signaling me to pick up the nearly-empty folder on the seat of the chair and pass it to him, so he could hand it off to our sisters.

"Yeah, we have one." Allison's jaw fell slightly when she opened up the object of interest and looked at the photograph clipped inside.

"Holy shit, is that Dad?" she gawked, shifting slightly to allow Vanya and Klaus to have a look themselves.

"Yeah," Diego sneered. "And he's standing on the grassy knoll." Vanya's brows furrowed, unsure of why what was just some patch of grass the her was so significant. "Diego, Mina, and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we've got nothing."

"Not nothing," Diego interjected quickly. With one glance to the side, I noticed that crazed look was beginning to envelop his eyes, causing me to tense up. "He's planning to kill Kennedy."

"Maybe," Five dismissed. "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 again."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it if we don't know what's broken?" Allison inquired, raising a legitimate point.

"Come on," Diego snapped. "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." I flinched slightly as he removed himself from the chair, moving to stand behind Five, who shrugged and nodded. "Kill Dad."