CHAPTER FOUR | KLAUS ON
AN AMISH FARM

Klaus and I admired the view before shortly following Five to the world's biggest twine. "Yeah, you know, I don't know why, but I thought it'd be a lot bigger," Klaus said, causing Five and me to turn around. "Seems pretty big to me," Five shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Ehh," I shrugged, walking to Five. "Here's the question, how do you know your birth mother is in Pennsylvania?" Five guessed, his eyes remained on the ball of twine.

"Well, because I was on the ass-bend of a two-week bender, and I can't tell you the exact date because we were boofing Xanax and the whole business, but Amy Winehouse was at the top of the chart," Klaus explained.

"So that puts us somewhere, where? In the mid to late aughts?" Klaus guessed the time of the incident.

"I helped myself into Dad's office, looking for the key to his safe, 'cause had Pogo lock up all the stealables. But instead, I found a treasure trove of our family history, told in expired check stubs," Klaus said as he recalled himself sneaking into Dad's office, taking a look at expired checks.

"I was too messed up to, uh, do anything about it, too scared to look her up, but always in the back of my mind, I wondered why she sold me off for three grand, I mean, she couldn't have held out for five? six?" Klaus ended.

"You see anything about my mother?" Five asked as he continued staring at the twine. "No, sorry," Klaus looked at Five apologetic.

"Why now?" Five asked. "Well, duh. Dad disowns us. Grace isn't Grace, Ben's... gone.. Now just felt like a good a time as any to find out who I could've been if I didn't grow up in this stupid family," Klaus said listing his reasonings.

"Well, can you really call what we had a family?" Five asked with a sarcastic underlying tone. "No. It's like a--" Klaus said before Five interrupted. "Institute for snarky delinquents," Five said causing Klaus to chuckle.

"And not a good one at that," I added. "But what is family, what is it?" Klaus asked, raising his hands in confusion. "It's like some of giant ball of twine that can be untangled," Klaus turned to us.

"A giant ball of obligation I've been pushing uphill my entire life," Five stated, causing me to lean on his shoulder sympathetically.

"And the older you get, the bigger it gets," Klaus chimed in.

"You watch it roll down the hill..." Five trailed off, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

"What's the point?" Klaus and Five said in unison.

I merely smiled at the interaction. "Hey, I'm glad you came along," Klaus said, turning to Five. "You're a good brother," I watched Klaus try to force out the compliment, cringing instantly at the attempt.

"All right, all right, you say nice things about me now," Klaus requested, biting his fingernail. Five awkwardly avoided the attempt to bond, patting Klaus's arm before walking away. "Let's go find your stupid mother," Five stated, dragging my arm to follow him.

Klaus grinned, accepting the awkward nod from Five's reaction. "Love you too, tiny dancer!" Klaus said, running after Five.

"Next stop, find Klaus's Mom!" I cheered as I got back into the car.

"Son of a bitch! Klaus's Amish," Five commented as he slammed the car door. "This explains everything," Klaus nodded as Five opened the car door for me, lending his hand to me. "How does this explain anything?" Five asked.

"And what's next? Five's Irish?" I said as I got out of the car door, causing Five to look back at me weirdly. "It rhymed, okay?" I shrugged. "Because look at this place," Klaus said, walking to the field. "This is everything my childhood was missing," Klaus stated.

"You're telling me being on an Amish Farm would've kept you straight and sane?"I asked, about to approach Klaus before Five placed his hands over me, stopping me from moving.

"Hey, Klaus?" Five said, running over to Klaus. "Yeah?" Klaus turned around. "Wait up a minute," Five said, standing in front of Klaus.

"Doppelgänger check, you feel anything strange?" Five asked. "Uh, itching, sweats, gas, anything like that?" Five asked, remembering the horrible situation that happened to him in Dallas.

"no, no, I feel great," Klaus shook his hand as Five held onto his arm. "Apart from the old rash on the tackle, but what can you do?" Klaus said, letting go of Five.

"All right, good luck," Five said as Klaus walked towards the farm. "What?" Klaus immediately turned around. "Wait, you're not coming?" Klaus asked as he noticed I was still next to the car.

"This one, you gotta do alone," Five said, causing Klaus to sigh. "Alone?" Klaus asked as if it was the first time to go something dangerous. "Yeah, okay," Klaus accepted. "Yeah, I can do that, sure," Klaus nodded, trying to not freak out.

I watched Klaus fearfully walk into the farm. "What now?" I asked as Five approached the car. "So you got your license?" Five asked. I nodded, "My ID was remade in the 60s," I said as Five tossed me the keys.

"Where to?" I asked as Five got into the passenger seat. "Hopefully, not to our death," Five teased, causing me to hit his arm playfully. "I don't crash cars," I said, placing the keys into the ignition.

"Do you think we would be together in another timeline?" I asked, watching the cows out on the field. I didn't hear a response, I turned to see Five was busy marking down more locations to see, ignoring me.

"Look, I'm sorry for yelling the shit out of you," I walked over to him, kissing his forehead. Five continued singing, ignoring me as I sat next to him in the car.

I heard a loud wave of something pass by us barely, Five looked up in shock before stepping out of the car. "Can't I get one fucking day off?" Five muttered, watching the empty field.

"Where did all the cows go?" I questioned, realizing there were multiple cows before Five turned to me in horror.

"You can't be serious," I watched as Five started writing his time-traveling equations on the side of the car.

"Time is fickle and I fear what we have done," Five muttered, holding the red pen in his hand. "We have to return the car," I reminded him. "Five! Tate!" I heard someone call out. "Start the car, would you?" I heard Klaus's voice, causing me to turn around. "What the hell..."

"Oh my..." I watched Klaus run toward us with a panicked look on his face. "Shit, shit, shit. Five!" Klaus called out for help while Five was focused on the equations.

"I have deja vu from this..." I said, nudging Five. "Start the car!" Klaus yelled as a group of Amish people were chasing him.

"Five! Start the car!" Klaus pleaded, causing Five to turn around. "Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!" Klaus said as I pulled Five away from the car.

"Why can't you get along with people?" Five asked, running over to the driver's side as I got inside the passenger's seat.

"I tried, I really did. I tried!" Klaus defended himself. "My god... being a social butterfly, blessing or curse, you tell me," I said frustrated, strapping in my seatbelt.

"Come on! Get in the car, Klaus!" Five hurried. "Klaus! It's now or never!" I yelled from the car. "Klaus!" Five yelled one last time before starting the car.

"Backseat, now!" I ordered Klaus. I watched as Klaus got into the backseat before Five quickly drove off. "This whole timeline's chock of full riddles. Get this," Klaus started explaining as Five checked the mirror to see if anyone was following them.

"My mother died here before I was even born!" Klaus stated, causing Five to halt the car and we looked at him in shock, my head jerking back to the car seat.

"What did you just say?" Five asked, his eyes widened. "Damn it, Five!" I screamed as Klaus showed us the notebook he was given. 

"Fuck!" I groaned, walking inside the Hotel. "Okay, gather around people," Five ordered, walking into the bar. "Where is--Where's every--Where's Luther?" I asked, realizing he was the only one who was not there. "Haven't seen him," Viktor shook his head. "Don't know," Diego replied.

"Anybody knows where--okay. You know what? We got bigger problems to worry about," Five said as he unraveled the string on the notebook. "Like what?" Allison asked, swinging her glass.

"This," Five pointed to one of the pages in the notebook. "Is she okay?" I asked, pointing to Allison. "She's..." Viktor trailed off before Five interrupted him, flipping pages of newspaper articles and pictures of women.

"Who are they?" Viktor asked. "These are our mothers," Five answered. Klaus pointed to one of the pages, "That one's mine,"

I took a deep breath, trying to push back what happened on the car ride in my mind. "They're all dead," Five informed everyone as I sniffled, trying to hold back tears.

"They all died on the exact same day, Oct 1st, 1989," Five stated. "That's our birthday," Viktor reminded. "Not anymore... it isn't," I shook my head, trying to hold back tears.

"They all died before we were born," Five added. "That's dumb, if we weren't born, how can we exist?" Diego asked, turning to Five.

"Exactly," Five crossed his arms. "What are you saying?" Viktor questioned. "I'm saying when we jumped here, we created a time paradox," Five started, gesturing his hands on the table.

"But not just any paradox, this is the Grandfather paradox," Five stated. "What the hell is a Grandfather paradox?" Klaus asked.