Super Sensitive - The Umbrella Academy (♡Klaus)《ON HOLD》

☂️Chapter 10☂️

《•••The Present•••》

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past nine years, or simple weren't alive at the time and was born not that long ago, you'll be familiar with the 2012 phenomenon. But if you are not, let me explain. The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on/or around December 21st, 2012. A civilization called the Maya's, thought this date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21st of December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era. But of course, most people started to believe that this 'transformation' would mean the end of the world. Because of this, people around the globe started to lose their minds. They sold their houses, cars, furniture and all of their possessions to buy something that they thought would help them survive. Some people wanted to buy a rocket, so they could live in space, others build underground bunkers, hoping that whatever would end the world as we knew it, couldn't hurt them in there. And as the day drew near, more and more people became scared and joined the others around them in the hopes to survive. Of course, not everyone believed this and as you may have noticed, the world didn't end on December 21st, 2012. And the people who didn't believe it, laughed in the faces of the people who did.
     Every once in a while, somebody in the world would come up with the next date on which the world as we know it will end, without any scientific proof, but they all have been wrong up until this point. Or maybe you're reading this book years in the future, and you're one of the few survivors of the big tidal wave, earthquake, meteor rain or some angry sorcerer's dark curse that destroyed most of earth's populations. In which case, congratulations on still being alive and good luck surviving.
     Anyway, the skeptical feeling most people get when somebody tells them the world is about to end, again, was exactly what Kiara first felt when her adopted brother told her that the world was going to end in eight days. But unlike most people, Kiara was able to tell when people were lying to her by feeling their emotions, and right now she was feeling that Five was telling the truth.

     "I survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find." Five chuckled joyless, "you know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life?" He paused for a second while Kiara nodded her head, "well, it's total bullshit."
     Kiara chuckled shortly, "I knew it." She said with a snap of her fingers, trying to lighten the mood, but almost immediately noticed she failed. "I can't even imagine how it would've been like," she quickly added, voice back to the serious one that matched Five's.
     "You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die." He continued, "so we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."
     Kiara leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees, "we?" She asked, "you mean you and Delores? Or were there more?"
     Five didn't immediately react, but looked at his now empty cup of coffee, eventually deciding to dodge the question. "You got anything stronger?"
     Kiara looked down at the cup in his hands, sensing the unease he felt after her question. "Yeah, unless Brian drank it I must still have some whisky." She mumbled as she got up, walked to the small cabinet that stood beside the couch and took out a still closed bottle. While the woman pored the liquid in the glasses, she realized something. "Actually," she said as she put the bottle down on the counter, taking one glass in each hand. "I shouldn't be giving alcohol to a minor."
     Just when Five was about to take his glass out of her hand, Kiara pulled it away, earning a sigh and an eye roll from him. "I already told you, my conscious is 58."
     A smirk grew on Kiara's lips, "but your body is 13. It's still full up growing and developing. It would be irresponsible of me, as an adult, to give an innocent, little boy like yourself such a devastating drug as alcohol." Through her entire little speech, Five had been glaring daggers at number Eight.
     "Are you done?" He asked, sounding annoyed, which only made an amused smile appear on the woman's face.
     "Yeah, I'm done. Here ya go." She said while handing Five his glass. He took a sip, just as Kiara and the room fell quiet, an uneasy silence filling the air.
    "You think I'm crazy." Five said eventually, moving his gaze from his drink to his sister in front of him.
     Kiara crossed her brows, swallowing the liquid in her mouth before answering. "No. Of course not. It's just, so many people have claimed the world would end, and it never actually happened."
     Five looked back down at his drink, scoffing at her words, "so, what you actually mean is that you don't believe me?"
     Kiara shrugged, "I just don't fully understand-"
     "Exactly what don't you understand?" Five interrupted her, sounding more annoyed then before.
     "Just- Why didn't you time travel back to the day you left? You'd have had more time to fix it- if what you're saying is true."
     Again, Five scoffed, seeming to be loosing his patience. "Gee, wish I'd thought of that." The sarcasm in his voice made Kiara roll her eyes, but she didn't interrupt him as the brunette continued. "Time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed." Five's voice softened, "you think I didn't try everything to get back to my family? To get back to you?" The last sentence was almost a whisper, but Kiara still heard it. The annoyance she had felt before started to fade, realizing that it must have been harder on him than on anyone else. Even though she still didn't fully believe his story. Five may not be lying, but just because he believed something doesn't mean it's true.
     "I read Vanya's book," Five said out of nowhere, changing the subject. "It was really good, all things considered..."
     Kiara nodded, "it is, she worked really hard on it." Five hummed shortly, recognizing her words.
     "It's just," he started, "did you really do all that after I left? The waiting and all the experiments with your powers, just to get me back?"
     Kiara looked away for a moment, not liking to be confronted with that part of her past. "Yeah, I did. All of it. I stopped for some time after the incident with the Triskeleon." Kiara chuckled shortly, "whatever that symbol ment, it had nothing to do with past, present or future."
   "You should've stopped after that, it was way too dangerous."
     Kiara laughed shortly, "when did that ever stop me?" A small smile appeared on the boys face for a short moment, but he didn't say anything. "You're right though. I should've stopped." Kiara mumbled, looking down at her gloved hands, "if I had this never would've happened."
     Five also looked at her hands for a moment. "What made you think drawing eyes would work?"
     Another chuckle escaped her mouth. "I read a book, it was fiction. I don't really remember any of it, except that there was a creature. It's eyes were in it's hands instead of it's head, making it blind to it's environment, but able to see the past and the future. It was a stupid idea, but hey! It worked, once drawn on I was able to see parts of the past and future. Not that far back or forward, but enough that it was convenient. I prevented Klaus from covering Allison in orange paint and glitter that way." A sad smile formed on Kiara's lips at the memory, but it quickly disappeared. "But as always, the drawing started to fade and it became unstable, visions started to stutter, only showing milliseconds of things randomly. For some time, Reginald made me erase and re-draw the eyes on a daily basis. Until I grew tired of it and said it was pointless to do every day. And he agreed. Should've known he was planning something like this..." Kiara bit down on her bottom lip, "I should've kept my mouth shut 'bout it."
     Five nodded, taking another sip from his whisky. "How does it work?"
     Kiara frowned at her brother, his tone of voice was somewhat demanding, which made her a little suspicious to his intentions. "You said you read Vanya's book, she explained most of it."
     Five made a forced smile appear on his face, sounding more sincere, "yes, it's just, that was a long time ago and I want to hear it in your words. To understand it better." Kiara squinted her eyes slightly, she knew he wasn't lying, but there was something else he wasn't telling her, something that made him nervous. Eventually Kiara shrugged, deciding to tell him and see where it would go from there.
     "Okay, well, as I said before, I drew those eyes on my palms which made me able to see parts of the past and the future. And Reginald wanted to make it permanent. He made me get them tattooed, almost exactly the same way as I used to draw them. You see the problem?" She asked her brother with a small smirk.
     Five nodded, "almost."
    "Yep, almost. He didn't draw them the same, they were different and so the power I got from them was different as well. Instead of seeing the past and the future, somehow I got connected to other people's emotions."
     Five frowned, "I don't see the connection."
     Kiara scoffed, "at first, me neither. But turns out, the bullshit people say about the eyes being gateways to someone's soul? That you're able to see their emotions and intentions in their eyes if you pay enough attention?" Again, Five nodded. "Turns out, that's true. At least part of it is. The tattoos made me able to not just see, but relive people's memories, as long as it's bound to a strong emotion. If they're scared and I touch them without the gloves, I'll relive the time they were the most terrified. If they're in pain, physical or mental, and I touch them, I'll relive the time when they were experiencing the worst pain they ever felt. And I will feel that pain as well. Of course it works the same when somebody is happy, or sad, any emotion, really." Kiara drank the last whiskey from her glass and refilled it immediately. "Of course, it also works on objects. If I touch something somebody else was touching while experienced a strong emotion, I'll relive that memory as well."
    "So, for example," Five started, "if you would touch me, when I'm happy, you'll relive the most happy memory I have?" Kiara nodded. "And if somebody stabbed someone else with a knife, and you would touch the knife?" 
     "I will probably relive the memory of the person who got stabbed. Unless the person who stabbed the other person also stabbed another person with the same knife, and that person experienced a stronger emotion at that moment."
     Five nodded again, frowning as he thought of what Kiara just had told him. "But that doesn't explain how you know what somebody is feeling. Vanya wrote that you can tell without actually doing something." Kiara looked down at her glass, starting to get annoyed by the questions. She hadn't have to explain how her powers worked to anyone in the past few years and now she had to explain it to Five.
     "That's because I can't stop the emotions. The gloves keep me from reliving memories every time I touch something. But somehow I can always feel other people's emotions. I know someone is lying because the body's reaction is almost always the same. I can't always tell, especially by sociopaths or psychopaths, their emotions work different, if they have any at all. Or when somebody is drunk or high, those things influence their emotions in such a way that I can't tell what they are." 
     "So Klaus..." Five started, which made Kiara chuckle shortly
     "Yeah, no idea when he's telling the truth or what he's feeling most of the time. The first time my powers got activated was when he touched my hands after I got the tattoos done. Apparently he was scared, because I relived one of the times he was locked in the mausoleum. It freaking me out so bad that I didn't touch anything for the rest of the day." 
     "It must've been awful." Five stated, on which Kiara nodded.
     "It was... at some point I couldn't tell the difference between my own emotions and the emotions of the people around me." 
     "I'm sorry you had to go through that alone." Five said, seeming to forget about his intention of the conversation since Kiara couldn't sense his nerves anymore.
     "I wasn't alone." Kiara said with a soft chuckle. "Not really. Vanya and Klaus helped me. Especially Klaus. He always tried to cheer me up when everything became too much. One time it had gotten to the point that I hadn't smiled in weeks. Even Klaus hadn't been able to make me laugh. Until one day, after being gone for hours, he came skipping into my room. His cheeky smile reaching his eyes, he was so exited and giddy to tell me something. I didn't understand what was going on until he showed me his hands. He had them tattooed, 'Hello' on one hand, 'Goodbye' on the other one. And with the proudest expression he said: "now you're not alone anymore." It was so stupid... and sweet.... My first reaction was tearing up. You should've seen his face when he thought he made things worse, until I bursted out laughing." Another smile appeared on the blue haired woman's face.
     "Dad must've killed him for that." Five mumbled, earning a laugh from Kiara.
     "It was a close call." After a moment of silence, Kiara cleared her throat, "anyway. You ready?" She asked, taking off her gloves. Five looked at her hands, seeing the tattooed eyes on her palms for the first time, confusion written on his face.
     "For what?"
     Kiara smiled at him, "I wanne see the future."
     Five blinked a couple of times, crossing his brows, "are you sure?"
     Kiara nodded, "of course I am. I need to know if what you're saying is actually true, and assuming you didn't die, I'm save."
     Five seemed to consider this before walking closer to his sister, "okay, how does it work, exactly." Kiara gestured him to sit down on the couch, which they both did.
     "I need you to focus on what you felt back then. The strongest emotion you felt, most of the time negative emotions work best since those leave the biggest impression. If you focus on it, I should be able to feel it as well and hopefully see it through your eyes. You won't notice a thing, I'll be the only one effected." Five nodded, looking at Kiara with a trace of worry in his eyes.
     "Okay, I think I've got the memory. You ready?" Kiara nodded, stretching her hand out to Five. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually took Kiara's hand in his. Almost immediately Kiara's tattooed eyes lit up with a red light, just as her own eyes did the same. The room around her made place for a different scene. She was standing in front of the Academy, but everything seemed normal.