𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 | 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬

|♠ 𝗈𝗁, 𝖽𝖾𝗅𝗈𝗋𝖾𝗌 ♠|

♚ 𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈 ♕

"SO, BASICALLY, WE'RE SCREWED," I said as we walked through the front doors again, sulking in our defeat.

"I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus asked, chuckling. "'Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?'"

I laughed with him, immediately quieting when Five shot me a look. "Klaus, it doesn't matter," he snapped.

"What?" Klaus squinted to look at us in the sun. "What's the big deal with this eye, anyway?"

"Well, the future owner's gonna cause the apocalypse, or at least we believe they will," I explained. Klaus still looked confused.

"There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days," Five said quickly but firmly. "They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it."

He walked past Klaus, who took a breath and turned around to face Five. "Yeah, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?"

Five turned around, disbelief plastered on his face. "Your 20 bucks?"

"Yeah, my 20 bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, Klaus," I repeated, but slower, in case it could help him understand better.

"And all you can think about is getting high?" Five added angrily.

"Well, might as well live the last few days in happiness. Plus, I'm also quite hungry. Tummy's a rumblin'." He imitated the grumbling noise, wiggling his fingers around the area of his stomach.

Five scoffed. "You're useless. You're all useless!"

"Oh, come on," Klaus sighed as Five went to sit at the curb, "you need to lighten up, old man." He paused, then turned to Five again. "Hey, you know, I've just realized why you're so uptight!" He opened his mouth to continue, but then glanced at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "What? What is it?"

He smiled at me sheepishly before running to join Five, far enough so that I couldn't hear their conversation. After a moment, Five got all up in Klaus's face, shouting something along the lines of, "Do I get a gold star if I act like I care?" I rolled my eyes, walking off to the street and putting my thumb, waiting patiently.

Finally, a bright orange taxi arrived. I smiled and opened the door to the back, digging around in my pockets to make sure I had enough money. I found a twenty, which was more than enough. Then I shut the door and told the driver, "Could you head to the nearest blacksmith shop?"

He nodded and, with a weird glance at the strange little girl he saw and her request, he drove off. Then I heard a portal open next to me and sighed, looking out the window. Great. The taxi-driver exclaimed in surprise, almost swerving the car to the left.

"Just keep driving," Five ordered. "But could we change the location, please?" I gave Five a look, but he was already giving an address, to some department store called the Gimbel Brothers. I sighed and slumped down in my seat. Five rolled down the window, and I heard the distinct calls of Klaus shouting. The boy beside me just saluted and rolled the window up again. I scoffed and leaned against the car door.

"I wanted to get this stupid bracelet off," I told Five, lifting up my right wrist for him to see.

"We'll get it off. First, though, I have to meet a...friend."

I sat back up, my interest piqued. "A friend? Who?"

"You'll see. Just wait."

I opened my mouth, curious, but then closed it and decided to ask something else. "Where'd you meet?"