You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 1

Chapter 21: 30 Miles Until You Go

  Had we not been racing after our sisters to prevent them from falling victim to a murderer, this drive honestly would have been pretty peaceful. Somehow, all of my brothers had fallen asleep except Klaus, who bounced his head around from looking out the window to meeting my eyes in the rear view mirror. On occasion, he'd start talking to what looked like absolute nothingness, babbling on about 'bad ideas' and 'safety', just quiet enough that I could only make out every few words. All our other siblings thought him to be off his rocker, simply speaking to the demons jumping around in his brain, but after what he said yesterday about conjuring, I sort of figured out what was going on. Although part of me begged to just leave it and let him be happy, I also wanted the truth confirmed. It would put me more at ease than never knowing.

"Klaus?" He snapped his head forward suddenly, staring at me with all the direction of a deer caught in headlights. Cautiously, as though I would bite if he got too close, he leaned forward, putting his head between the two front seats. "Who are you talking to?" His gaze moved back a bit, looking at the empty set of seats in the way back. Maybe he'd admit to it first, I didn't want him to feel like I was calling him out and put him in an awkward position.

"Huh? Oh, uh... just myself. You know, you are the best company you keep."

Oh well.

I sighed and smiled at him, shaking my head as I used the mirror to look him in the eyes. His brows raised once he noticed me staring right at him, and he squirmed a little.

"Klaus, I know Ben is with you." Slowly, his posture began to relax, and he now looked fervently between me and the back seats, where I assumed Ben must have been sitting. "I wasn't sure for a while, but after you talked about conjuring people, I realized you were never talking to yourself. You've been talking to Ben this whole time, right?"

"Well, sometimes I am talking to myself. He comes in and out, but his presence is always there." I nodded slowly, following along with what he was saying while watching the road. "I don't know why he's the one that's always with me, but... he is. I can't conjure anyone else without being sober, and then they just don't go away." His voice started to croak a little, the painful memories of our childhood flooding back to him quickly.

"I know, I know," I whispered, trying to keep him from breaking down and waking the others up. If they were able to fall asleep when the situation was this dire, they needed it. "What Dad made you do, locking you away for that long... it's the work of a monster. I obviously wasn't happy about it, but... I understand why you did what you did for so many years."

"It wasn't the best option, and I know that... it just got so hard." He took a deep breath, controlling himself this time. "He only talks to me when I'm sober, though. Otherwise, he just sort of sits there, slumped and brooding like Five." I laughed a little as he pointed toward my little brother, somehow managing to look angry even in his sleep.

"Is he why you decided to get clean all of a sudden?" Klaus' expression crumpled, and it took me a minute to realize I'd struck a completely different nerve-- one he'd barely mentioned to me, but I should have remembered. "Oh... oh, God, Klaus, I'm--"

"No, no, it's fine, Mina," he squeaked out. We both remained quiet for another moment, stirring the awkward moment, before I mustered up the courage to ask.

"What was his name?" Klaus' eyes went wide again as he moved from looking at me in the mirror to looking at my actual person.

"You know?" I smiled at him as I slowed for a stop sign.

"You called me one night when you were high off your ass and left me a voicemail about being pan when I was in one of my shows. So between that, and the dog tags you talked about, which are usually associated with members of the army, who are traditionally male, I sort of figured it out on my own."