n. the moment you realize that you're currently happy-consciously trying to savor the feeling-which prompts your intellect to identify it, pick it apart and put it in context, where it will slowly dissolve until it's little more than an aftertaste.
...
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Klaus lands in a grey land once again, not really remembering what just happened to him, but knowing exactly where he is.
"Oh, great. You again." Klaus groans, sitting up from his position, seeing the young girl he saw two timelines ago. "So, what do I owe the pleasure this time?"
The girl stays quiet as she looks at Klaus, causing Klaus to grunt as he stands up and looks at her annoyed. "Not talking, huh? Well, then, listen. I'm not in the moodfor all of your riddles and allegories and sick little parlor games, okay? Can I just hang outfor a little while to improve my tan? I mean, you said I was pale."
The girl shakes her head, signalling that he's not supposed to just stand here and wait for himself to wake up. "All right, but could youjust please tell me which way that I'm supposed to go?"
The young girl points in the direction behind Klaus, making him look behind him as he then looks back at the girl before he starts his way through the tall grass field. Klaus walks for a few minutes before he appears on a beach where there's a shack that looks like it's come right out of a horror movie.
"What kinda snuff movie is this?" Klaus says, while walking inside of the shed, he sees a young version of himself as he's now inside the mausoleum he used to be shoved into when he was younger.
"Hey, hang in there, lil' me." Klaus softly says, looking towards his younger self, who's not breathing. Klaus looks up at the sound of approaching footsteps, he stands up and moves away from his younger self to see his father walk in. "Dad."
Reginald leans down towards young Klaus, pulling out his stopwatch as he reaches for his wrist in his other hand. "Experiment number 73, cessation of life functionat 12 hours and 22 minutes. Restarting the timerto reanimation."
Klaus is confused before the scene changes around him as he stands in the middle of a rooftop party, one that looks oddly familiar to him. "All right!This is more like it." Klaus chuckles as he looks around, seeing a teenage version of himself. "Hey, teen Klaus!"
Klaus walks closer towards the teen version of himself, who's now standing up on the ledge holding a bottle in one hand.
"Klaus! Klaus! Klaus!" the kids chant around him, cheering on the younger him.
"Tonight we drink to childhood trauma!" teen Klaus exclaims, taking a drink of the alcohol before he steps back off the roof, landing on the ground below.
" No, no, don't!" Klaus runs up to the ledge as the kids around him gasp and move back. Looking down, Klaus can see his teen self, dead, on the ground.
The scene around him changes once again to when he's back in the White Buffalo suit, with his nephew.
"Whoa! This is so cool." Stan states, picking up the gun and aiming it around the room.
"Hey, come on. Chop-chop, Stan.Gotta go see a man about a buffalo--" Klaus starts, turning around towards Stan, just as the gun goes off, puncturing Klaus straight in the chest. Klaus groans as he falls over, landing on the ground. "Oh shit."
"So theseweren't near-death experiences." Klaus starts, thinking back on all the times that he's died and come back to life. "These were actual-death experiences."
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We land back in the hallway of the hotel we're staying in. My hand grasped tightly in Marah's as Lila lands on top of me as I shield Marah from the impact of our fall.
"Shit!" I groan, trying to push Lila off of me so I can help Marah up, wanting to make sure she's not injured.
"Shoo!" Lila groans as she stands up, allowing me to help Marah up. I check all over her, making sure that she's not injured and not got any injuries from our fall.
"Where have you been?" Viktor asks, looking at the three of us, as I pull Marah closer into my chest.
"Facing my mortality, Viktor.I don't recommend it." I say calmly, still slightly disoriented from our fall. I feel a warm hand on my cheek, looking down to see Marah rubbing her thumb across my cheek, trying to cheer me up after what we all just experienced.
"You had the briefcase?We've been looking for this!" Allison yells at me, sounding extremely pissed off, with her new haircut and the burn on her neck.
" Well, look no further.That's the last one on Earth." I start, looking at the now smocking briefcase that we used to return. "Or was the last one."
Allison scoffs, moving away from us as she sits on the stairs, a pissed off expression on her face. "Yeah, that's toast." I say, grabbing the briefcase and looking at it. "Oh shit. All right."
I hear commotion from behind me, turning me and Marah around, we see Lila hugging onto Diego. "Hey. You're happy to see me. What's wrong?" Diego questions, wondering why she's acting so weird, like the rest of us.
"Turns out there's less timeto hold grudges than I had planned." Lila comments softly. "You're off the hook. Hey, where's Stan?"
I turn back to Marah to see her looking around the room, leaning back into me. "You okay?" I whisper into her ear, not wanting my siblings to be apart of our conversation.
She nods her head, turning so that her chest faces mine, she looks up towards me. "Are you okay?" she questions softly, moving her hands up to cup my face, rubbing her thumbs over my cheek bones.
I just nod my head, not knowing how to really answer her question. I stare at Marah for another couple seconds before looking up at my siblings, turning Marah around so that her back is against my front, with my chin on her head. "Hey, Chatty Cathys,quit the chitchat, all right? I'm calling a family meeting here. Ah, ah, ah. That means you too." I point towards Lila, who's tried to walk away.
"Where's Klaus?" Marah questions, looking around at my siblings, I notice we're missing one.
"I'll be right back." Diego mutters, walking away from our group as something catches his eye.
"Don't leave me with your--" Lila starts, not wanting to be left with our family. 'I wouldn't want to either.' I think to myself, sighing.
"Dieg-- Lost another. Great." I start, but give up not wanting to waste my breath on my idiotic brother.
"Spit it out, Five." Allison grumbles, causing me to grin sarcastically at her, just wanting to piss her off.
"Oh, well, since you asked so nicely,sister mine, our little paradoxbrought forth a freaking Kugelblitz." I state, gritting my teeth with the memory of what my older self told me.
"What the hell is a Kugelblitz?" Viktor asks, asking the question everyone's wondering.
