(𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚗.) 𝐒𝐈𝐗 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓
❝ OH, MY GOD, AGAIN? ❞

☂

"Alright. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry. I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world here with us."

"Oh, my God, again?" Klaus questioned, eyes glancing at Poet who was clutching her head between her ring-clad fingers. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the—Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019."

"We have until Monday," Five clarified. "We have six days."

"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"Klaus."

"What?" He questioned. "It's usually Vanya."

"Do you have any leads, Five?" Vanya ignored his comment, turning to look at the boy. Diego, standing behind Poet, who was currently sitting on a chair, gave him a folder.

"Yeah, we have one," Five answered, passing the folder to Allison.

The woman opened it and a picture of the Hargreeves father was shown. "Holy shit, is that Dad?"

"Yeah," Diego answered, resting his hands on Poet's shoulders.

"That's him?"

"Standing in the grassy knoll."

"Diego and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means," Five continued. "So far, we've got nothing."

"Not nothing," Diego said, facing his siblings. "He's planning to kill Kennedy."

"Maybe," Five said, placing the folder next to Paris. "But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it, if we don't know what's broken?" Allison asked.

"Come on. Do the math," Diego said. "We know Dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. Surprisingly," he turned to look down at Poet, "your parents aren't... shady."

"Haven't met yet," Poet shrugged and he hummed, continuing.

"We know he's on the grassy stroll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we need to do."

He stood up and said, "Kill Dad" just as Five said, "Find Dad."

Everyone turned to look at Diego with looks while Poet analyzed him and placed her fingertips on her temple, massaging the spot. She had forgotten how loud all of their thoughts were.

"None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it's us? Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?" Vanya asked.

"She could be right," Paris nodded. "Any contact with people you know in the future could affect something."

The siblings all stayed quiet and Diego turned to look at his girlfriend. "You okay?" The girl simply gave him a thumbs up, but he didn't believe that.

"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald," Luther broke the silence. Diego immediately stood up from his squatted position to defend himself.

"And you're working for Jack Ruby," he pointed out.

"Allison has been very involved in local politics," Klaus continued.

"Okay, you started a cult," Allison fought back, receiving a "thank you!" from Ben, who was sitting behind her. Klaus growler and hissed as Vanya spoke.

"I'm... I'm just a... a nanny on a farm," she stuttered out.

"I was a teacher," Poet breathed out.

"So, we don't have anything to do with all of that," Vanya said.

"Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet," Allison said. Poet shrugged and turned to look at her nephew, who gave her some candy he had sped off to get.

Diego whistled sharply. Everyone turned to look at him. "Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy," Poet made a face, not really sure if her job had anything to do with Kennedy. "That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is... doing something weird and Percy but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."

Everyone started to argue and Poet frowned when she saw flashes of someone's memory. She looked up and saw Five who was looking ahead, clearly remembering the end of the world. She saw everything, from the newspaper, buildings destroyed, and everyone dying.

"Guys, you all die," Five cut them all off, glancing at Poet who he knew saw what he saw. "I was there. I saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it... in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so may need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything. But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."

"Okay, I'm out," Luther stood up, sighing.

"Did you even hear me, Luther?" Five questioned.

"Yeah," Luther nodded. Poet grabbed Diego's hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, receiving a comforting squeeze back. "Yeah, I did. I heard a 58-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. We have the most powerful person in this room with us that can protect us and you're not saying anything. So, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."

"Luther!"

"Be right back," Diego mumbled against Poet's ear, kissing her head before following after his brother.

"Come back."

"Where you going?"

"Save it, Diego."

Five turned around and was gone, appearing right in front of his siblings. Luther sighed. "No one leaves until we figure this out."

Luther simply didn't respond and grabbed him by his shirt, throwing him to the side of the stairs. Paris turned to look at them at hearing Five's grunt, but furrowed his eyebrows when he didn't see him.

"You know," Klaus cut off the tension, "I could really go for some tacos right now. Allison? Poet?"

"I'm down," Poet nodded. "I'm starving. Hearing about the world ending made me hungry."

"Shouldn't we wait?" Allison questioned, gesturing with her thumbs towards the missing people.

"You know those guys," Klaus said. "I mean, it could take forever for them to bro it out. Vanya, tacos?"

"Is there any way that tacos are gonna cause the end of the world?" Vanya asked.

Klaus scoffed and snapped his fingers while standing up with his drink in hand. Poet chuckled and stood up, too, and Paris smiled. "I mean, there's only one way to find out, right?"

"I'll stay here," Paris mumbled to his aunt. "I want to hear more about this."

"Okay. Be right back then."

"Be careful," Paris nodded and sped towards Diego and Luther. The two jumped at hearing him and Poet turned to face Diego.

"Let's go!"

"I'm going to hang out with your sisters and brother," she said, kissing him and mumbling against his lips. "Yes, I'll be careful."

"You better."

"So much for keeping a close eye on me."

"Oh, shut up."

☂️

AUTHOR'S NOTE

im going to get a bit... emotional...
but i just want to thank you all. to
the readers, the ghost readers, to
the ones constantly commenting,
thank you for giving me the inspiration
to write when I don't even want to.

this is your guys' book, im just writing
it, but this is yours, not mine. you know
who gave people an opportunity to read
this book? readers. you know who made
this book #1 in the #diegohargreeves?
readers. as a 15-year-old (i know,
I'm "young" 😌), it's amazing to see
people loving a book that i love writing.
so, thank you all, for the cookies, the
comments, everything ❤️