Chapter Two
Klaus didn’t dare open his eyes, He could hear his family around him, moving and talking.
“We don’t want to freak him out with someone in the house that he’s convinced doesn’t exist!”
“He’s my brother, I want to look after him.”
“Diego, he doesn’t even know who you are. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of us, a big house, a robot mother, an ape butler. Don’t you think that’s enough to be getting on with without a person he can’t remember?”
Klaus peeled his eyes open slightly, so they were only open into slits. All eyes turned on him, as well as a couple of doctors or nurses, and someone he couldn’t quite recognise.
Vanya rushed over, holding his hand. “Hey, Klaus
“V- Va- Vanya?”
“Yeha, it’s me. We’re all here.”
“Y- Yo- Y- c- ca- can-” He gave up, words just not forming in his mouth.
“Do you want to try writing it?” Allison asked, aware of his struggle.
Cant gyt red of my just yete.” Okay, so the words didn’t work properly on the page, either.
“No, not yet,” Luther laughed.
“F- Fi-.” Klaus gave up again in trying to get Five’s attention, so instead held his hand up with five fingers.
“Yeah?” Five saw his brother trying to get his attention.
“T- th- thank y- you.”
“It’s alright, you’re my brother, I have to. I’d have Diego hating me forever if I didn’t find a way of saving you.” Diego lifted his head from his chest.
“D- Di- Dee- Go?” The name was familiar, like a distant memory. He could remember it from the crash; Five was trying to get him to remember.
Diego came and stood steadily in front of Klaus. “Hey, bro. I’m Diego, your brother.”
“M- my br- brother?”
“Yeah,” Five explains. As he points to the corresponding people, he continues, “There’s Luther, Diego, Allison, me and Vanya.”
“B- Ben.”
“Ben, he… he died.”
“N- No I- I know. He’s h- he’s here.”
Ben gives a little wave towards his brother, sat in the corner with a book. “Hey, Klaus.”
“H- hey, Be- Benny.”
“You can see his ghost?” Luther asked, slightly confused.
Klaus simply nodded, taking his glance away from Ben and towards Five again. “Y- you o- ok- ay?”
“Me? Yeah, just a couple bruises.” Five had his classic and classy side smile.
A nurse came in, a smile on her face. “Hargreeves? Visiting time’s over, I’m afraid. You can come back tomorrow. Best come one at a time, don’t want to scare him too much.”
The family began to leave, when Vanya stopped for just a moment. “Leave a light on, he doesn’t like the dark.” After giving her brother a smile, they all left, and Klaus was alone with a nurse.
“Hello, Mr Hargreeves. My name is Alice and I’ve been looking after you. When you came in we ran a brain scan, and I’m afraid it does look like you have some brain damage, which are likely to affect a range of things in your life, I’m afraid.”
She had an English accent, which Klaus tried to focus on instead of thinking about what she was saying, or the fact she was surrounded by ghosts.
“We saw in your notes that you are recovering from a drug addiction, so we have put you on slightly different pain management than we would have liked, but all is working well.
“Things might be a little confusing with memory, which has been affected by the incident. Things you would have no problem remembering before may seem completely out of your mind, which is completely understandable. You have a very supportive family ready to take care of you in whatever way they can.”
“Our aim is to get you home as soon as possible, but we want to keep you in for a little while for observation. Your speech will get better with practise. There are a few things you can do to help with memory, such as making boards of information you need to know and forget, but you will find out what works best for you, as it is different for everyone.
“I promise you Mr Hargreeves, we are doing everything we can.”
Alice gave a smile, before leaving the patient on his own. She didn’t know he was surrounded by ghosts, including Ben. “Heyy, Klaus.” Klaus simply held up the HELLO palm of his hand.
“Try and get some sleep. I’ll try and make the ghosts shut up.”