It was too loud, and Klaus couldn't take it anymore. His ears were ringing, and the ghosts kept screaming bloody murder.
He was trapped in that cell for a long time. The walls pressing his back, his hands so stuck in his ears that it hurt, even if it was no use, because it never helped, the dead would always be heard, they would not be stopped by a mediocre sound barrier like Klaus' hands.
Klaus! Klaus!
Why are you just sitting there? Help me!
Klaus! Do something!
My son! My son!
She killed me! She killed me! And you're just sitting there, you bastard! Do something!
When Klaus was still a child, years before his first mission with his siblings and the bloody ghosts began to emerge, he used to try to fulfill the requests of ghosts, those who were not as violent as those of the mausoleum. The ghosts scattered around the house groaned and occasionally screamed, and it was annoying and frightened him, but it wasn't so bad, and he tried to make their requests to see if they would leave him alone.
He left the house in hiding at night, using the fire escape, and sneaking through the alleys, following the instructions of the ghosts. He had spent nights searching for lost objects and leaving them on the doors, nights walking exhausted to the old ghost house, nights plotting plans, and much, much more. But it had never worked, the ghosts didn't shut up, and the only time it worked was with an eighty-year-old lady who just wanted to see her old estate, she soon left with a light, but it had never happened again, the other ghosts never left.
Eventually, Klaus stopped trying, and when his father pushed him from the top of the stairs as punishment for wearing Mom's shoes ("They are girl shoes, Number Four! You are a boy! Stop with this now!") he experienced silence for the first time and cried with happiness so much so that Vanya, who was sitting in a chair beside his bed when he woke up, asked him why he was crying, and Klaus replied, a huge smile on his face and tears dripping down his cheeks:
"It's quiet"
How long has he been there? Would they let him out? Because he had to leave, or these ghosts would drive him crazy. They... they...
Klaus swung back and forth, sobbing hysterically.
"Please, please, please, please! Please let me out!" Klaus lay on the ground, curling up in a ball. He had to get out, he had to get out, out, out, out...
He couldn't take it anymore, please, please, he needed to leave! He'd be trapped forever, he'd die there, he'd become a ghost and he'd never stop being tormented by screaming, he'd die, die, die.
It was so dark. Klaus was in the mausoleum? He had to be, there was no other place, no, no.
KLAUS! KLAUS!
I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!
GET UP!
KLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUSKLAUS
Klaus screamed. A shrill and terrifying sound that he barely heard above the cries of ghosts.
"LET ME OUT! DON'T GET CLOSER! DAD! DAD! LET ME OUT! PLEASE! DAD! I'LL BE GOOD! PROMISE! DAD! PLEASE!" Screams.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." Whispers.
"DON'T GET CLOSER! STOP! GO AWAY! NO! NO!" Screams.
"Please, please, please, let me out, please..." Whispers.
One hand grabbed his ankle.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP! LET ME GO!"
Klaus looked wildly around. They were shining in blue, and Klaus wide his eyes, memories of later events passing through his mind.
"No, no, no, don't even think about it... NO!" Klaus screamed and struggled as all the ghosts came at the same time at him, screaming more than ever, grabbing his arms legs hair, clothes...
"STOP! STOP! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!" He was crying again and sobbing and shouting so much that his throat began to hurt "LET ME GO!"
They dragged him into the middle of the room.
The ghosts were kicking, biting, and groping everywhere possible in Klaus.
Klaus shouted madly, something pulsed on his chest and all the ghosts were thrown away from them. Klaus fell to the ground, not realizing he was above ground, and fainted.
On an undisclosed date in 1998
Klaus was with Five and Vanya. They were in the girl's room while she played the violin, Five writing her nerdy math in a notebook and Klaus staring at the ceiling. A light knock on the door went off and when it opened, Diego and Ben came in.
"Hi, guys!" Klaus stood up and smiled at his brothers, but none of them reacted, and for the first time he realized that their eyes were red and Ben cried silently, the stuffed unicorn he had given Klaus tight in his arms.
"C–c–can w–we s–s–s–stay w–with y–you?" Diego's stutter was worse than usual, and Klaus frowned, worried.
"Dee, is everything all right?" Asked Klaus, approaching his brother. Diego did not react and he and Ben sat on the bed next to Five.
Klaus looked at Vanya. She was crying like Ben while playing a song that seemed to be very sad, but again, almost all her songs seemed sad. Five continued writing in his notebook, before suddenly growling with anger and kneading the paper into a ball, throwing it to the ground.
"Five–" Ben started. Vanya had stop playing and looked at them with watery eyes.
"Not now, Ben!" He vociferous five, returning to write furiously in his notebook.
"Five, is everything okay?" Vanya asked, sniffing. Five looked at her, and for the first time Klaus saw Five's anger directed at Vanya.
"Of course, I'm not okay, Vanya! He's dead! Our brother is dead! KLAUS IS DEAD!" Shouted Five, jumping on his feet. Vanya shrank.
"Uh, wait, guys, what are you guys talking about? I'm not dead, I'm right here" Said Klaus, confused, and reached out to pick up Five's wrist, the nearest, just to–
His–
Hand–
Cross.
Klaus took a step back, horror in his face as Diego stood up and he Five began to fight.
"Guys! I'm here! Please! Guys! I'm here!" Klaus screamed, sobbing.
No, no... why weren't they seeing him… ?
"Number Four!"
Ben, Five, Diego, Vanya... they weren't seeing him. They– they–
"Number Four! Get up!"
"BEN! I'M HERE! FIVE! VANYA! DIEGO! PLEASE! I'M HERE! GU–"
"Number Four, get up immediately!"
Klaus opened his eyes and fell from the bed to the floor, moaning and sobbing.
"Get up, Number Four!" Klaus looked up and stared into his father's eyes. Immediately, Klaus got up and straightened out. Reginald looked at him with disdain "It is time for your special training, Number Four"
Klaus's got wide eyes.
"No, Dad, please don't put me there, please, please, I'll be good, please don't..." Reginald raised his eyebrows for Klaus before taking the boy by the arm and beginning to drag him down the hall. Klaus saw that Pogo was following them, but he paid no attention, pleading for his father.
"No, no, please don't arrest me there, I'll practice my powers, I promise, just please don't arrest me there!" He begged Klaus, trying to dislodge his Dad's arm from his grip, to no avail.
"We both know that is not true, Number Four" Said Reginald as they climbed the stairs to the terrace "You are too scared to try, you need your training at the Mausoleum to make you stronger" He said and Klaus shook his head, wide-eyed when he spotted the Mausoleum.
"No! No, Dad, please don't!" Reginald didn't listen and opened the door, throwing it in.
"I will be back in three hours to check your progress, Number Four" Then the door closed.
That night, Klaus screamed, knocked on the door and tried everything to silence the ghosts, who screamed louder than ever and Klaus yelled at them, shouted for his father to get him out, shouted for his siblings to save him, screamed, screamed, shouted and shouted.
No one ever came, and when the ghosts turned blue and began to tear him apart, Klaus closed his eyes and accepted, shouting one last time before everything went dark.
Back to the present time at the Commission
When he woke up, Klaus was lying on a cold, hard surface. He blinked slowly, for some reason feeling exhausted.
He was in a gray room ('Is there only gray in this place?') like all the others in the Commission, but there were strange machines and even stranger panels.
Klaus tried to sit down to have a better viewing angle, but his arms were restrained by something. Leather straps. Leather straps held him a metal table.
"Wohoooo!" Klaus tried to contain fear and panic and put his mask of indifferent fun in place "I'm feeling BDSM vibes here! And no offense, but I'm not in the right mood now, so if you guys could let me go, that would be great!"
Silence. Klaus sighed and pulled his wrist, trying to see if he could loosen the strap, but it was too tight. When you tried his feet, they didn't move either. There was another leather strap going over his chest, and Klaus felt something strange around his head, like a metal bow, but he couldn't figure out what it was exactly.
Without getting anywhere, Klaus stared at the ceiling, counting time in seconds.
Three thousand five hundred and ninety-eight.
Three thousand five hundred and ninety-nine.
Three thousand six hundred.
Three thousand six hundred and–
The noise of an automatic opening door was recorded by his ears and Klaus stopped counting.
"Hello, Four" When he heard The Handler's voice, Klaus remembered what happened and his eyes were wide with fear. He had made the ghosts corporeal (And possibly visible) and somehow, he had thrown them back with an invisible force. What would The Handler do with it?
"I'm glad you're awake" Commented the woman, a casual tone in his voice.
"Why am I tied to a table?" He couldn't make a joke to her, the memories of what she did to him consuming his brain and preventing him from making any of the jokes he usually made in situations like this.
"Ah, it's just a precaution, of course" Said The Handler, shrugging "You destroyed one of the experiment rooms yesterday, who knows what else you can do with your awakened powers? "
"What's around my head?" He asked, without looking directly at her. The Handler laughed.
"Don't worry about it" She said, patting his cheek, then walked away to a panel. Klaus followed her with his eyes, watching as she typed something on a weird keyboard and pressed several buttons, and tried to hold back from having a panic attack.
Suddenly she was by her side again, with wires in her hands, and at the tip were... Electrodes? Was that the name?
"Let's try something new due to recent developments" She said, and held out her hands with the mention of sticking the electrodes to Klaus' forehead, but he turned his head "Stand still, it will be worse if I do not position the electrodes in the right place"
Klaus did not move and felt a hand grab his chin hard and turn his head. The Handler's face was very close to his and Klaus finally realized he was in a position where she could do anything, and he couldn't even move.
Her nails dug into his cheeks and their noses touched.
"I really like you, Four" Whispered her "More than any of the others I've had for myself, and I don't want to hurt you any more than necessary, but if you don't obey me, I'll be forced to do something you don't want to do" She smiled broadly and Klaus' lip trembled, he understood the unspoken of the threat.
"I'm Sorry" Whispered Klaus, dropping a hiccup. He felt miserable and helpless.
"What was that? I didn't hear" She asked, a false tone of innocence in her voice. Klaus restraining himself from grinding his teeth and spitting in her eyes and said:
"I'm sorry. Mistress" The Handler smiled brightly.
"Great! Now let's get started!" She put two electrodes to his temples, three to his forehead and two to his cheeks, then she stepped back to the panel again and started setting something up. Klaus shook his head, trying to dislodge the electrodes and whatever was around his head, to no avail.
Suddenly, a wave of pain went through Klaus and everything disappeared.