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Klaus is delusional.
Has to be.
Cause there’s no way in heck that his dead brother is standing in front of him.
There are eyes on him and they’re no longer chocolatey brown, no longer the same warm they were in life.
They’re dead blue.
Ben is dead blue.
Five is watching Klaus from his spot at the table.
Something is wrong.
The way his brother- god forbid he ever say that aloud- is shifting, like he’s trying to hide something.
He’s talking to himself, too.
No, he’s talking to someone. Something, maybe. It’s just something Five himself can’t see.
So when Father releases them from the table and Grace takes their dishes, it isn’t his room that Five goes to. No, no, he goes to the place he knows better than to.
He goes to the hallway that Klaus will be dragged through in about thirty minutes, and he waits. Stands in the shadows in a way he hadn’t been taught but learned, just so Reginald wouldn’t be able to see him easily.
Then, when Klaus is dragged through to that damned Emporium, Five flashes in.
And Klaus is sitting there, talking and laughing to someone like it was Ben.
…Was it?
Klaus isn’t sick, Ben said.
He’s real.
And Klaus doesn’t really believe him, but there’s not really a reason for Ben to want to lie to him from the beyond besides attempting to kill him.
Honestly, Klaus would let him.
It was all his fault anyway.
Klaus is still talking when he goes silent, and Five is tempted to slink away. There’s an eerie feeling in the air, and something brushes his tie like the way Ben’s hands used to fix it before Five learned to do it himself.
Five ignores it and steps forward.
“Who were you talking to earlier?”
Klaus doesn’t know whether or not he should break Ben’s cover.
It’s not like it matters, Ben is dead anyway.
“It’s him.”
Five’s breath sinks into his stomach and he knows.
He knows what he means, but god he doesn’t want to believe it.
Klaus continues. “He’s been following us since, y’know, the day his lil monster went kablooey.”
Five feels sick.
“He says to stop being stupid.”
Klaus is lying through his teeth about that, and he thinks that Five knows, but Ben is scolding him from beside Five.
[“Tell him I’m proud!” Ben pouts, and walks over to swat at Klaus’s shoulder, though it goes through.]
It used to make an impact.
Ben used to make an impact.
Five feels sick.
He feels insane.
Five is glaring at Klaus like he wants to kill him.
Good.
Then Five is gone, and Klaus is left to his own devices.
Again.