Chapter Fifteen
"It's Klaus," Ben said as he wobbled and struggled. "He's trying to kick me out."
"Well, tell him to knock it off," Andy said as they raced toward the destination.
"I can't!" Ben snapped desperately. "You know how stubborn he is."
"We're almost there, just try and hold on."
She wished she could help, but there was little she could do. If Ben had any mass of any kind, she might have been able to keep him inside Klaus long enough for them to make the jump, but he didn't and she couldn't. And what would controlling Klaus's body accomplish? Nothing. It was, quite literally, a battle of spirits and wills.
They rounded the corner, Andy shoving Ben forward as he and Klaus argued over supremacy. She wondered what the battle must have looked like. To someone like her, someone unable to see ghosts, it simply appeared as though Klaus was having a seizure.
"Yay, we made it!" Ben shouted, though he had little time to enjoy it.
"Where are the others?" Andy asked, frantic energy sparking in the alley way.
"It's just us, they're not here," Five said sharply.
Luther pointed at Klaus. "What's wrong with him?"
"He's possessed," she replied, waving her hand dismissively at the pair still struggling. "Ben's trying to stay in. Klaus is trying to kick him out."
"Ben's in there?" Luther's eyes were wide.
"Get. OUT!" Klaus shouted. And then, to their horror, he proceeded to vomit. The sheer amount of liquid expelled would have put Linda Blair to shame.
Andy grimaced and did her best to keep her lunch down. "Not anymore, it would seem."
"We don't have time for this bullshit," Five hissed as he furiously paced the alley. "Where the hell are the rest of our useless siblings?"
Luther shouted back, "How the hell am I supposed to know? Allison knew to be here."
Klaus continued to whimper and groan, writhing on the ground as he recovered from the possession.
"Oh, don't get your nappies in a bunch," Andy spat at the irate child. "If they're not here, something's happened to them."
"Watch it," Five said, pointing at her. "You glorified goldfish."
She bristled, bowing up to the young man. Apparently, he'd forgotten what happened in her hotel room, the last time he'd been such a brat.
"Determined to have that spanking aren't you, little boy?"
Five approached her, craning his neck to meet her gaze, his face stern and sharp.
"I'm not going to be talked down to by a water fairy."
"If you don't wish to be spoken down to, perhaps you should hit puberty and grow a few inches."
He glared. "Maybe I should teleport half of you to the Sahara and the other half to the sun, hmm?"
"Try it, you little shit."
"Okay, knock it off," Luther shouted. "Both of you. We have other things to worry about right now."
Without warning, the case that Andy hadn't noticed began to beep. Five's head snapped toward it.
"God damn it!"
He sprang for the case, grabbed hold tight and hurled it into the air. It vanished in a wisp of blue. Andy was left blinking, dumbfounded as their last chance to escape disappeared into the ether.
Five shouted and raged. So much anger was trapped in such a tiny body. Andy, on the other hand, struggled to come to terms with the fact that they were stuck in the sixties. The end of the world remained an afterthought.
"Screw the others!" Five yelled. "It's every sibling for themself."
He stormed off, throwing open the back door to the shop and slamming it behind him.
Klaus whined, "Did Five just get meaner?"
Andy peered down at him, arching an annoyed brow at the young man. All of the happiness she'd experienced moments ago with Ben had withered away in favor of the hurt and anger she felt toward Klaus.
"Look," Luther said, drawing her attention. "Find Allison, okay?" he told her. "And the others. I'll handle Five."
"Fine," she replied.
The gorilla jogged after the irate schoolboy. Andy approached Klaus and heaved him to his feet.
"Come along," she said. "We have work to do."
"Yeah, fine," he groaned before turning his attention to the splot of vomit. "And you, consider your possession privileges revoked, you hear me?" He began to stagger off and shouted back over his shoulder, "Revoked!"
Andy lingered. She glanced over the puke, wondering if Ben was, indeed, somewhere in the vicinity. Her shoulders fell and her heart sank.
"It was good seeing you again, Ben," she muttered. Heavy, Andy followed after Klaus, only hoping that someday she'd be able to speak to Ben and have him talk back.
By the time they'd made it to Allison's house the sun had set. The night was crisp, but warm for November. Then again, it was Texas. Winters in Texas didn't arrive until December most years.
"Come on, just talk to me," Klaus said.
He'd been attempting conversation throughout the trip, but Andy couldn't bring herself to cooperate in one.
"Is that it?" she asked, pointing to a sweet little house on the corner up ahead.
"Huh?" Klaus glanced it the direction. "Yeah, that's it." She headed for it. "Andy, seriously, come on." He grabbed her arm and forced her to stop and look at him. Thick brows pressed together, he stared at her. "I didn't mean it, okay? I…"
His words fell away. Andy sighed and shook her head. She didn't have the strength to deal with this right now, or the desire. Andy needed to put an end to the topic once and for all so they could focus on the more important issues.
"Look," she said, meeting his gaze.
In spite of the pit in her gut, Andy decided to be a grownup. She might as well lay everything, or at least most of it, on the table. What was the point of keeping it all bottled up anymore, anyway?
"I knew that night would mean nothing to you, alright?" she said. "I knew that it'd likely fade into some pocket of your brain where drunken trysts belong, I knew that, but to hear you say it to my face hurt." His brows creased further. "It just… it hurt, alright? But I also know that I'll get over it, it'll just take a little while. And until then, do me a favor, stop bringing it up. We're fine, Klaus. You don't need to keep talking about it."
He said nothing, mouth hanging open as though struggling to come up with something. Andy hadn't given him the chance.
She finished the walk to Allison's house and climbed the steps. She knocked. A moment later, the curtain in the door window slid to the side. A man peeked out at her. She smiled warmly. The door opened a second later and a young man in a white shirt and tie answered.
"Can I help you?" he asked, eying her with confusion.
"Hello, there," she said, smiling happily and shoving the awkwardness of her talk with Klaus way down. "You must be Allison's husband." His expression dropped. "Is she here? I'd like to speak with her."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Andy," she said. There was a bit of ruckus behind her as Klaus joined her on the front step. She struggled to keep the kind smile, but judging by the exasperated look on the gentleman's face, he was acquainted with Klaus.
"Ray-ray, hey man," Klaus smiled. "Is Allison here?"
"Look, Klaus and… Andy?" he asked her. She nodded. "Now's not a good time."
Before he could dismiss them, Allison appeared in the background.
"Andy, Klaus!" She seemed relieved, rushing forward to open the door for them. "Oh, thank God you guys are okay."
Allison threw her arms around the pair, hugging them at the same time.
"Where've you been?" Andy asked. "You were supposed to meet us an hour ago."
When she drew back, Andy noticed blood across her face. Her brows furrowed. Looking at Ray-ray, she spotted more staining his once-pristine shirt.
"What happened?"
Allison didn't reply. Instead, she stepped back and motioned toward the living room. Andy and Klaus entered the space. It wasn't in tatters, but a fight had taken place. And there, sitting on the couch and missing an eye was a man with white hair, dead.
"Oh, so it's going to be one of those kinds of nights," Klaus sighed. He began to roll up his sleeves. "So, are we burning or burying?"
"What the hell is going on here?" Ray muttered to Allison. "More siblings?"
"Yeah," Klaus replied. "There's a whole gaggle of us."
"He's not wrong," Andy said.
"And one of them's British?"
Andy smiled at him, an action that held no real emotion, yet somehow seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Allison groaned, hand on her hip and the other pressed to her forehead.
"You seem stressed," Andy said.
Allison rolled her head toward the young woman and delivered an expert y'think expression. Andy chuckled to herself.
"Look, why don't the two of you sit, have a drink and relax. Klaus and I will take care of this."
"You're just gonna take care of it?" Ray said, seemingly unable to remove the thick sarcasm from his voice.
"Of course," Andy said. "Can't very well have someone from The Commission rotting away in your living room." She approached Allison and tenderly set her hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. Go. Take a breath."
Exasperated and tired, Allison nodded. She took Ray's hand in hers and guided him to the kitchen, though the young man seemed to have trouble walking away from the strangers and the dead body.
When they'd settled as well as Andy assumed they could in the kitchen, she turned her attention to the task at hand. Klaus might have rolled up his sleeves, but he hadn't bothered touching the body. Instead, he remained standing a few feet from it, hands on his hips. He glanced to her.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Now, we do our best to get rid of the asshole who tried to kill our sister."
The declaration surprised her, but Andy moved beyond it.
"Can't you just, like, y'know…" Klaus waved his hands at the body, likely suggesting that she destroy it with her power somehow.
"And then what?" Andy lowered her voice so that Allison's terrified husband couldn't hear her. "Even if I dismantle the body, there are still parts to consider. I might be able to make them all rather small, sure, but the hell are we going to do with two-hundred pounds of goop? Not to mention the bones."
Klaus grimaced. "So, you can't just poof him away?"
"Conservation of matter. It'd all have to go somewhere."
He sighed heavily. "Well, I guess we'll just have to bury him somewhere, then."
"Mm-hmm."
Klaus suddenly let out a loud, long groan. "Do we really have to pick him up? I hate getting rid of bodies. It was so much easier when the cops cleaned up the mess."
"Yeah, well, we aren't heroes anymore." She looked over the scene. "Let's deal with getting everything out of the way, first. It's going to be a pain in the ass maneuvering the body around furniture."
"Fine," he groaned.
They proceeded to straighten up, though not in the best way they could. The truth was they simply shoved things out of the way and picked up weaponry that'd been left behind, like a bloodied vacuum attachment.
The effort lasted about an hour before Klaus had become too tired to move and needed something to drink. Without his help, and not dressed for the task, Andy retired to the kitchen where Ray and Allison were still seated. Allison poured her a cup of coffee when she sat down, but stopped shortly after.
"Oh, shit, sorry," she said. "You can't have coffee, right?"
"It's fine," Andy said with a light smile. "Coffee will be lovely. Thank you."
Allison smiled, too, and finished pouring the cup. Andy had a bit of an idea of how to mix it, though hadn't partaken in coffee-drinking often enough to develop a preference. It was hard to go wrong with a bit of cream and sugar.
The room fell into silence for some time until Ray spoke.
"Um, are we just gonna leave the body on the couch?"
"For now," Allison said with a sigh. "I don't want to deal with it tonight."
"It's a dead body," he said, glancing around the table and noticing that none of them seemed concerned. He might as well be discussing the weather given their reaction, which clearly bothered him greatly. "Why aren't you freaking out about this?"
They Academy Kids glanced to one another.
"So, Ray," Andy said, drawing his attention. "What do you do for a living?"
His face fell. "You kidding me right now?"
"Not at all." She sipped on her coffee and immediately felt the rush of caffeine. Andy fought the grimace. "I'm curious."
Leaning back in his seat, he crossed his arms and briskly asked, "What do you do, besides body removal, hmm?"
"I was a circus performer." Her answer seemed to surprise him. "And before that, a mermaid in a water show."
"Seriously?"
"Oh, yeah," Klaus said. "It's her element, man."
Allison groaned, burying her face in her hands. Andy sighed and shook her head. Klaus grinned and snickered at his remark.
"That was bad, Klaus," Allison said. "Even for you."
He beamed. It seemed he was rather proud of his dad joke.
"Okay, well," Allison rose and approached her husband. "I think we should get some sleep tonight. We can deal with that," she motioned at the body. "In the morning. You guys going to stick around?"
"Is there going to be another surprise visit?" Andy asked. With a heavy expression, Allison shrugged. "Then I'll stay, if that's alright with the two of you."
Allison nodded. "Yeah," she said with another heavy smile. One of many, really. "We have a guest room. Are you guys fine sharing a bed?" Andy ignored the twinge and nodded. "Okay, well, it's at the top of the stairs on the left." She gave her husband her attention. "Come on, honey."
More reluctant than his wife, Ray stood and let her take him upstairs. He muttered something to them, possibly goodnight, then vanished seconds later. Andy slumped in her seat when they were gone.
"I'm going to bed," Andy said after a short silence. She rose to her feet. "Goodnight."