||Leadership by deception isn't leadership. It's fraud - DaShanne Stokes||
Klaus woke up the next morning to an empty bed, his arms wrapped around himself as he noticed the lack of his wife.
Willow had woken up hours ago, and now she sat on the bathroom floor, leaning against the bathtub, with her knees pulled to her chest.
"Lola, what are you doing in here?" Klaus asked as he walked into the room, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"I just didn't feel good" Willow replied.
"You look really pale" he commented as he kneeled down to her level, putting a hand on her cheek, feeling her lean into his touch.
"I'm okay" she assured.
"You should go back to bed and get some rest" Klaus advised.
"Babe, the world is ending in five days. I don't think we have time for that" Willow commented.
"At least come back here and sit down, you can't sit on the bathroom floor all day" Klaus said, offering her his hand to help her stand up.
•••
"This is a mistake" Ben commented from where he sat, which was next to Willow. He glowed in a blue light as he judged all of Klaus's life decisions.
"You're a mistake" Willow shot back.
"Don't mess with my flow" Klaus called out from the other side of the room as he did his morning yoga, something had learned during his time in India.
"You can't just go out there and tell them the world is gonna end" Ben told him, pointing towards the door. "You know what can happen to cults when things go sideways"
"It's not a cult!" Klaus defended.
"Babe, it is a cult. But just make sure there's no Kool-Aid in the house" Willow commented.
"What are you gonna say? 'Prepare to die? They deserve a better explanation, Klaus" Ben told him.
"Better than the truth? Listen, this whole thing started by accident. And it was fun helping people for a whole but" Klaus said before Ben interrupted him.
"This whole thing started because you're a narcissist" Ben commented. "There isn't an altruistic bone in your body"
"If the world's gonna end, Ben, these people should go back to their families" Klaus replied.
"Most of them don't have families to go back to" Ben told him. "Jill gave up an Albright scholarship to Berkeley to follow you around the world. Her parents won't even talk to her"
"And how would you know that, Benjamin?" Willow asked with a smile, knowing all about Ben's feelings for Jill.
"Jill? Oh that's the um...the Dutch girl with the lazy eye, right?" Klaus asked, scratching the side of his face as he thought.
"No. Brown skin, glasses. Almond shaped eyes you get lost in" Ben replied dreamily as he thought of Jill. Klaus gave him a knowing smile, finally picking up the fact that his brother had a huge crush on one of his followers.
"She gave up her entire future, for you" Ben told him.
"Maybe she freed herself from the prison of the American education system and decided instead to come and learn from the school of life" Klaus replied, still stretching on the ground.
"Klaus, these are real people. They're not just scarves you can try on and toss out whenever you feel like it. You owe them" Ben said.
"How do we owe them? If I remember correctly they are living for free in my house" Willow commented.
"You know, it's a teensy-weensy bit frustrating when you seem to always want exactly of the opposite of what I want" Klaus replied as he stood up, inhaling and raising his arms above his head and stretching it. Ben just continued staring at him and pointing at the door.
"All right, fine" he gave in, walking towards the door.
•••
"My name is Klaus and I'm an alcoho...sorry that is the wrong meeting" Klaus said with a chuckle as he stood in front of his crowd of followers, who sat and waited for what he had to say.
"In my walkabout, I did a lot of thinking, searching, ruminating, and there's something that I would like to share with you all" he said before looking over at his wife, who nodded in response.
"I'm a fraud" Klaus admitted. "Yeah I've been lying to all of you from the start and uh, I'm a complete and totally fraud"
The cult members murmured to each other as they took in the information that had just been told to them.
"Me too" Keechie said as he stood up in the crowd. "I am a fraud too. And I'm the worst kind of fraud. I am a fraud to myself"
"For fucks sake" Willow muttered, she never liked Keechie.
"But you scriptures say, 'As long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive" Keechie recited as he kneeled in front of Klaus and put his hands together.
"But that's no scripture. Okay? That's a song lyrics by disco diva, Gloria Gaynor, and I stole it" Klaus told them.
"Gloria Gaynor?" Keechie and a few of the other followers repeated.
"You guys don't wanna follow us. I cant lead you anywhere. I'm not a guru, I'm not a messiah, I'm a fraud!" Klaus exclaimed at the group. "And I don't know what I'm doing up here, I don't. I'm just..making it up as we...you people should all just go back to your families"
Klaus noticed how Keechie began crying and whimpering on the floor, holding his hands up on his forehead.
"Keechie. Stop, stop, stop. Look at me, okay?" Klaus said as he grabbed the sides of Keechie's face. "It's okay. It's okay though, listen. Everything is going to be okay. Okay?"
"I understand" Keechie replied.
"Good" Klaus said with a smile.
"When we admit our own fraudulence, only then can we experience true humiliation" Keechie said and Klaus shook his head. Willow sighed as she watched the scene unfold in front of her.
"No, no, no, no, no! That's not what I meant!" Klaus exclaimed at the crowd.
"I too am a fraud!" Jill said from the crowd as she stood up.
"I am a fraud!" Another said.
"I too am a fraud!"
"I'm a fraud!" They all started repeating, standing up and holding their hands on their foreheads. Klaus sighed deeply as he pushed Keechie away, putting his arms up in defeat before walking away from the crowd.
"Dude, I tried" Klaus said to Ben as he walked away.
•••
"God damn it" Klaus muttered as he pushed the books off the bookshelf and onto the ground. Sighing in relief when he found the bottle that he was looking for. He opened the bottle and began drinking it before Willow grabbed it from his hands, a look of disapproval on her face.
"No" She said simply as she walked away from him, a pout appearing on his face.
"I know you fancy yourself a spiritual guru and all that, but you need serious help" Ben said to his brother.
"Klaus, don't do this! Klaus do do this, but not like that" Klaus imitated Ben as he walked passed him. "I can't take a piss without you nitpicking at my aim"
"Oh without me you'd be dead in a ditch somewhere" Ben said as he watched Klaus pick up another bottle that he had at the other side of the room.
"I just realized who you sound like" Klaus said.
"Who?" Ben asked as Willow walked back into the room, sighing when she saw her boyfriend.
"Dad" Klaus replied, whining a 'hey' when Willow grabbed the bottle from his hands again.
"Don't say that" Ben said angrily.
"Dad" Klaus said in a singsong voice. One downside of being with a person since the age of seventeen, is that they know every single thing about you. Klaus knew exactly how to piss Ben off, as Ben did with him.
"I'm serious! Shut up!" Ben hissed at him.
"Sixteen years in the grave and you finally turned into your father" Klaus taunted before Ben growled and ran forward, running through his brother.
Klaus groaned and shuddered as he fell to his knees, shivering as he wrapped his arms around himself.
"That was weird" Ben commented.
"Jesus, Ben. What the hell did you just do?" Klaus asked as he shuddered.
"What did he do?" Willow asked, kneeling down to meet his level, which he responded to by immediately wrapping his arms around her and leaned against her.
"I think he was inside of me" Klaus replied.
"Oh?"
"Wait that sounds wrong, I think he possessed me" Klaus corrected, leaning forward slightly as he continued shuddering.
"Oh I'm sorry, we caught you in the middle of a prayer" Jill apologized as she entered the room, watching Klaus shiver on the floor. His eyes widened as he saw who was with her.
"Dave?"
A/N: thanks for reading :) reminder to check out my new ben x oc book 'two ghosts'