You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 1

Chapter 20: Scattered Troops

 "Five! Mina!"

I bolted up suddenly, jarred awake by Klaus' shouting and the ringing of a bell. The moment my back went completely upright, the consequences of sleeping on the floor struck me, and I crumpled up a bit. From behind me, I heard an intense hiss of pain, and when I turned around, I noticed Five gripping his wound.

"Shit." I pushed myself off the floor and leaned over Five. "You okay? Does anything feel like it reopened?" He reached his other arm up and moved me away a little.

"I'm fine, Mina."

"Right, right." I backed up, trying to erase my sheepish expression. "Sorry." My eyes moved back up to Klaus, trying my best not to glare at him with contempt. After all, Klaus was just being Klaus, using his own methods to get everyone up. Still, his brother had just been injured, he needed to be careful. "What's up, Klaus?" His eyes went wide, as though he'd forgotten for a moment.

"Oh! Uh, there's important family business. If you guys could meet me downstairs, that'd be phenomenal."

"Oy..." I rolled up Five's sleeve and carefully removed the IV, taking care not to touch the silver spine or stab my brother again. "Here, let me--" Strangely enough, Five allowed me to help him up and guide him downstairs. Klaus bounced around the kitchen, moving from cabinets to the stove to the coffee machine, pulling everything together for us. Luther was already waiting, looking as though he wanted to just collapse right there and wither away, poised to take a sip of his coffee. Before he could even get the mug close to his lips, however, Five reached over and snatched it from him, taking a sip before scoffing. I smiled graciously at Klaus as he set a mug of tea down for me.

"Jesus. Who do I gotta kill to get a decent cup of coffee?" I pointing accusingly at my brother, raising my eyebrows.

"Nope, you can't do that one," I warned. "'Cause, see, I know it's a hyperbole, but with your streak, you could seriously go out and kill someone for coffee." He rolled his eyes at me, but shut his mouth anyways.

"Can we get started?" Luther muttered, gripping the side of his head.

"Has anyone seen any of the others? Allison? Diego? No?" I looked down at my hands, choosing not to speak. Clearly, Klaus didn't remember our conversation from last night, and I was okay with that for the time being. We had more pressing issues. "All right, then, this is the closest thing to a quorum..." He knocked on the table, causing Luther to flinch. "...that we're gonna get. Now, listen up. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna spit it out." He hesitated for a while, banging the spatula he was holding against his other hand, looking over all our faces. "Yeah." He still remained quiet, causing Five to move his head forward a little.

"Klaus?" I seemed to snap him out of a trance.

"I conjured Dad last night."

All three of our eyes went wide as we stared, attempting to believe what he was telling us. Normally, I'd be on Klaus' side, but he told us that he couldn't conjure unless he was sober, and he had made no effort toward that lately. How could we be sure it wasn't just some drug-spurred hallucination?

Five, unlike Luther and I, seemed intrigued, looking to Klaus in a way that urged him to continue speaking.

"You said you haven't been able to conjure anyone in years," Luther argued.

"Ah, yes, I know, but I'm sober. Ta-da!" His demeanor didn't do much to convince me. I had never really seen his personality without the drugs, but it couldn't have been this similar to him when his mind was fading away. "I got clean, yesterday, to talk to someone special, and then ended up having this... conversation with dear old Daddy himself." I shook my head, leaning it against one of my hands.