Nightfall had come, and the four Hargreeves siblings, Allison, Dusk, Vanya, and Klaus had all gotten tipsy. Not enough for them to be full-blown drunk, but enough to make them feel woozy. Dusk had made her way back to Mary's house, remembering that Five had picked her up instead of her driving Mary's car. She entered the house, quietly shutting the door behind her, noticing that the house was full of silence.

As she walked into the main room, she saw Mary in a deep sleep on the couch. James was resting on her chest, appearing as if he was about to slip and fall onto the floor. She carefully tiptoed over to the sleeping mother, picking up James and gently cradling him in her arms before placing him back into his crib, surprised that he had been sleeping so peacefully. She walked back to Mary, throwing a blanket over her body before grabbing some water from the sink.

Memories of her and Klaus dancing around in the salon came flooding back. The feeling of his fingers interlocking with hers sent shivers up and down her spine. Dusk peeked out the kitchen window, watching the full moon. A bright orange light flew through the night sky, appearing to be a shooting star. Instantly, she closed her eyes and made a wish, hoping everything involving her love confession would go as planned.

"Dusk! Dusk! Dusk Marie!" Mary's voice called out the next morning, waking Dusk from her slumber. She looked at her alarm clock, noticing it was almost 11:00 am. As she got out of bed, her head began throbbing like mad, and a splitting pain came soon after. Yay, a slight hangover. She walked into the kitchen, watching Mary sorting through a small stack of mail. "Morning, do we have any aspirin?" Dusk asked, groaning as the ache in her head came back. "Sure thing, sweetie!" She reached over to the nearby cupboard and grabbed a bottle of pills, handing it to the raven.

"You got something in the mail this morning. It looks like a letter," The single mother spoke, sliding her a white envelope with her name. It was strange, no return address, no stamp, no nothing. Just her name spelled out in cursive handwriting. Bewildered, she opened the envelope, reading the following...

☂

From The Office Of

Sir Reginald Hargreeves

To my Pursuers:

I, Reginald Hargreeves,

request the pleasure of your

company for a light supper on

the 20th of November, 1963,

at half-past seven o'clock.

1624 Magnolia Street

Dallas, Texas

"What is it?" Mary questioned, looking at Dusk's wide eyes. "It's another gathering with my family. You don't mind if I go, do you? I'd hate to leave you by yourself again," Mary gave the raven a small smile, assuring that she would be fine. "You're finally seeing your family again after such a long time. Go out and have fun with them," She assured. Dusk couldn't help but feel relaxed by Mary's kind and understanding words.

Before meeting her, Dusk had struggled with people saying she couldn't go out and hang out with friends. In particular, Sebastian was the one who forbade her from seeing any of her friends, hence the reason she didn't have many to turn to whenever times got tough. But Sebastian hadn't been born yet, and she had killed him the night of the 2019 apocalypse, so she didn't have to worry about him coming back.

"Thank you so much, Mary," Dusk smiled, stashing the envelope into her pocket before feeding James his breakfast.

~~~~~~~

Back at the mansion, Klaus was stretching out on a mat before he prepared to tell his followers the news of the incoming end of the world. The previous night he had returned, being greeted by all his followers dressed in light blue, and had the same Hello and Goodbye tattoos Klaus had on his palms. But after remembering how clingy they were, Klaus had retired to his room to plan out his speech. Ben sat on a few cushions, watching in disgust as his brother wore only his underwear as he worked out. 

"This is a mistake," Ben sighed. "Don't mess with my flow," Klaus groaned softly before switching to another yoga position. But Ben wasn't done yet. He had much more to say. "You can't just go out there and tell them that the world's going to end. You know what happens to cults when things go sideways," "First of all, it's not a cult. And second relax, I'll make sure there's no Kool-Aid in the house," Klaus assured.

"Oh, what are you going to say? Prepare to die? They deserve a better explanation, Klaus!" Ben protested. Klaus tried to reason, saying that nothing was better than the truth. He knew it would be hard for them to understand what was going on. But he held hope that they would understand. "This whole thing started by accident. It was fun helping people for a while-" "This whole thing started because you're a narcissist! There isn't an altruistic bone in your body," Ben debated.

"If the world's gonna end, Ben, these people should go back to their families!" Klaus exhaled, going into an upward dog. "Most of these people don't have families to go back to! Jill gave up an Albright scholarship to Berkeley to follow you around the world. Her parents won't even talk to her!" Ben pointed out. The mention of Jill's name made Klaus open his eyes and slightly turn his head, trying to remember which cult member Ben was referring to. "Jill? Oh, that's the um... the Dutch girl with the lazy eye, right?"

Ben sighed with frustration as he stood up from his place on the cushions. "No! Brown skin, glasses, almond-shaped eyes that you could get lost in..." he trailed off, his ghostly heart pounding as he recalled seeing his crush. Though she could not see him, Ben could see her and was in love the moment he laid eyes on her. Klaus took notice of his trailing off and looked at him, a grin forming on his face. "She gave up her entire future for you!" Ben said, shaking his head and coming back to reality.

"Well, maybe she freed herself from the prison of the American education system and instead decided to come to learn from the school of life. She's a clever girl," Klaus grunted as he lifted his lower body weight. "These are real people, Klaus. Not scarves you can try on and toss out whenever you feel like it. You owe them," Klaus sat up, glaring at his dead brother. "You know, it's a teensy weensy bit frustrating when you seem to always want the exact opposite of what I want," He muttered, inhaling deeply as he stretched his arms out.

Ben gave him a knowing look that made Klaus give in within a few seconds. He does have a point. I do owe them a proper explanation. Klaus opened the doors, instantly greeted by his cult members, who threw flower petals into the air, falling right behind him as he made it to the small staircase, where more of his followers were sitting together on the floor. "My name is Klaus, and I am an alco... Sorry, that's the wrong meeting," The room was full of silence as the Destiny's Children cult waited to hear what their leader had to say.

"In my walkabout, I did a lot of thinking... searching, ruminating, and there's something that I'd like to share with all of you," Klaus took a deep breath preparing for the truth to come out and awaited their reactions. "I'm a fraud. I've been lying to you from the start, and yeah. I'm a complete and total fraud," he admitted. The room started to fill with slight murmurs of confusion. Keechie stood up from his criss-cross position, gaining Klaus's notice as he admitted he was a fraud too.

"I'm the worst kind of fraud. I-I am a fraud to myself. But your scriptures say, "As long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive," Keechie said, bending down on his knees. "That's not scripture! It's a song lyric written by disco diva Gloria Gaynor, and I stole it!" Klaus interrupted, making the room burst into more confused murmurs. "Look, you guys don't want to follow me. I can't lead you anywhere! I'm no guru, no messiah, I'm a fraud! I don't know what I'm even doing up here! You all should just... go back to your families!"

Keechie started sobbing behind his tattooed hands, making Klaus feel slightly guilty. He stepped down, bringing Keechie's face into his hands. "Look me in the face, okay? It's okay, though... listen. Everything is going to be okay. Okay?" Klaus assured. Keechie slightly nodded, making some relief enter Klaus's body. "When we admit our own fraudulence, only then we can experience true humility," Keechie said, making Klaus shake his head.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! That is not what I meant!" Klaus said, looking around at the other followers. Jill then stood up, admitting that she was a fraud as well. Then another, and another, and a dozen more stood up, making Klaus give up and retreat to his room in defeat. "Dude, I tried!" he muttered to Ben, slamming the doors shut behind him.