Chapter Thirty-Five
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Goodbye Mystic Falls
Sitting in Mrs Farmery's living room I pick at nails, blood dribbling down my fingers in a few spots as Elijah and Klaus argue elsewhere in the house. I had no idea that Damon was in trouble, no idea that Tyler Lockwood had bitten him that night whilst he was trying to take care of me. That witch of Klaus' partially took away the strength of my banishment curse, the one that seals away the wolf that is hungry to escape, leading him to be caught off guard, to get bitten, because of me.
"I'm leaving, with or without you!" I demanded, bellowing out into the house, knocking open the front door as quick-paced feet followed me out from the house.
"You're not going anywhere," Klaus growls, seizing my lower arm in his powerful grip, tightening my distance from the house to the car like I was a dog on a leash.
"Good thing I don't take orders from anyone, especially not from you." I sneered in response, to which Elijah held Klaus back from 'doing something he would later regret' as I took charge, heading towards the driver's side of a car Elijah had commandeered. Both Mikaelsons' soon followed, Klaus sitting in the passenger seat as Elijah took his place in the back. The newly turned hybrid announced that we would be going to Alaric's apartment before venturing to the Boarding House, bargaining that if I wanted my brother to live, I'd do as he said.
There was the ultimatum, the decision between life and death, submission and domination; Klaus had the cure. So either I listened to Klaus or my brother died. Walking up the staircase with both brothers in tow, the apartment door was easily opened, as we entered Katerina was stood with an unwelcome guest: Stefan.
"Klaus, your back." Katerina breathes, fake relief as she holds back my brother against the wall.
"Look who decided to come for a visit," she announced, pulling him to face us Stefan looked at me in confusion. Silently asking if this is where I had been the whole time, if this was the side that I had chosen.
"You Salvatores just keep popping up, don't you?" Klaus asked rhetorically, a casually evil smile sketched across his features as he looked towards the two vampires standing side-by-side.
"I need your help. For our brother," Stefan responds, walking towards us as I meet him in the middle, draping my arms over his shoulders briefly. The hug doesn't last long as his steps continue, confronting the hybrid head-on.
"Well, whatever it is, it's going to have to wait a tick. You see, I have an obligation to my brother that requires my immediate attention." Klaus responded, walking straight past Stefan and I towards the direction of Katerina as both my brother and Elijah talk. A horrid feeling fills the air as I train my eyes on Elijah. Instinctively my hand reaches for my brother's jacket, squeezing the leather between my fingers as I once did with his cotton shirts, true worry had only begun to set in now. Two days ago we lost two of the most meaningful people in our joint lives, now today we might lose Damon too. Anything imaginable was a price I was willing to pay, my life included.
The air in the room seems to come to a standstill as Klaus' voice sounds into the room, not long after Elijah had stopped conversing with my brother. Elijah's sharp shout compels me to leap forward, calling out for my closest friend as Stefan holds me back, preventing me from causing myself harm in protecting the now desiccated Original. Klaus' feet are quick to shove back Stefan, landing my brother's back into the crunching brick wall as he whispers over to him. My eyes catch Katerina's, dumbfoundedness evident in both of our features as our eyes part by Klaus' order, he compels her to grab hold of me as he lands a stake inside of Stefan's chest, taunting him at the concept of death as Katherine holds me back. My chained wolf was no match for her half-a-millennia old strength, her arms holding me close to her as she defends Stefan's actions.
"The witches said you had a cure. Make me a deal. Just give me the cure and I'll do whatever you want. Leave Marielle out of this." He grunts, holding onto Klaus for support as he pleads for my safe return, nevertheless, I procured a deal with the devil long before he did. When I was grabbing hold of Elijah's suit-clad arms, tears threatened to finally spill as my foot tapped relentlessly against the wooden cottage floor. In that moment I had begged for my brother's life to be spared. Due to Klaus' mercy, when Stefan falls to the floor I use my abilities to escape from Katerina's grasp, the small amount of pain I was able to give her freed me as I held my brother close through his pain. His animal diet really wasn't helping in these kinds of situations.
"Trouble is, I don't know if you'd be any good to me the way you are now. You're just shy of useless," he commented, taking a large swig of what seemed to be blood as both myself, Stefan and Katherine stood wary of Klaus.
"I heard about this one vampire, crazy bloke, always on and off the wagon for decades. When he was off, he was magnificent. 1917, he went into Monterey and wiped out an entire migrant village. A true ripper. Sound familiar?" he draws out the story of his plans, just as he always had, he was planning on tearing my brother apart from the inside, from the very poison that swirled in his veins; human blood.
"I haven't been that way in a very long time." Stefan comments in response, my hand still comfortingly sat on his back as I knew the very road Klaus was coercing him down. To save Damon, he had to become the very thing he hated most.
The first time he became a ripper, he attacked me, almost draining me of blood completely. That event wasn't that long before the reincarnation curse I took upon myself, it was the night I finally pieced everything together. Using a few amulets Emily had given me, her grimoire and an entire forest fire, I had completed the ritual and then skipped town on Damon's orders. As Stefan rose, all I could do was remain seated against the cold wooden floor, my legs having no power to push themselves as Klaus' words faded into static, along with Katherine's pleads, a finalising snarky remark as Stefan's hand reached for my place on the floor. As the two men talk, Katherine aids me to my feet, placing me back into one of Alaric's dining chairs after I exerted the rest of my abilities on her a few moments ago. Being a pathetically weak witch (thanks to Greta Martin) was certainly my downfall, my legs numb as my brother's path to ultimate suffering began before me. Niklaus knew what he was doing, every muscle was calculated as he sent Stefan down a road he barely recovered from the last time.
Finding my strength, all I could do was rest at the bar beside Niklaus in silence, his arm snaking around my side as he pulled me down into the chair beside him. Niklaus always won, no matter what. He always had the final laugh in every battle, his morality flying out of the window just for victory. I couldn't bear to watch my older brother any longer as he stomached blood bag after blood bag, filling his veins with human toxin as Klaus watched over in delight. Shoving away his arm, I stride towards the door needing to say my goodbyes before committing to my deal with the devil. It was in the contract, after all.
"Where do you think you're going?" Klaus drawls, taking perfect pleasure in my brother's discomfort. A maniacal smirk still staining his elegant features.
"I'm going to say goodbye to the girl I love. I don't know if I'll ever see her again. I will return before midnight. As promised" I assured, not looking towards him for confirmation, slipping out of Alaric's apartment to say goodbye to Caroline.
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Approaching the Forbes residence, I can hear both Liz and Caroline talking, everything seems so fast-paced that I'm barely able to knock on the door. I can't remember when the tears started falling, when my legs crumbled before her door or when her arms swept me up into a hug. Liz assured Caroline she would give us space, but somewhere deep down, I needed all of the company I could get.
"She knows, it's ok," Caroline confirms, notifying for me to speak my truth as Liz is still wary beside me, she knows I'm not a vampire although she's rightfully afraid.
"I made a deal with the devil to save my brother's life," I stated, fiddling with the handle of Caroline's coffee mug. Both blonde women turn to me in slight and understandable confusion.
"Damon was bitten by Tyler the other night. There is a cure, now that Klaus is in his true form, that bastard can heal wolf bites. So, I sold my soul." I explain, pointing towards Liz's liquor cabinet for Caroline to pick out a suitable poison.
"Bonnie mentioned that Stefan was looking for Klaus, did he find him too?" Caroline questions, pouring the whiskey into a cleaned mug with some artsy saying on the front.
"He too made a deal. Klaus has put him back on the hankering for the human stuff and I am being forced to watch as a form of torture and assist him in god knows what." I answered, divulging into my side of the deal as Liz turned to look at me sympathetically.
"You came to say goodbye." the older Forbes realises, sympathy crawling across her face as my beautiful blonde vampires light smile fell directly into a frown.
"You can't go, I mean we just started dating! And now your evil ex-boyfriend wants to kidnap you, again!" she exclaims incredulously, taking a gulp of whiskey for herself before placing it down before me.
"Right now, the two of you are the closest thing I have to family outside of obvious blood relations, you're also some of the very few I still trust in this world. I promise you this: No matter what it takes, even if I have to move heaven and hell, I'll make it back to you. Even if that means sending one-sided letters, using Bonnie's magic as a postal service or calling you in the middle of the night from a payphone in buttfuck nowhere. No matter how long I'm gone, just know that every waking moment will be spent trying to make my way home to you." the final pieces of my statement are directed more towards Caroline as I take hold of her shaky hands, holding them tightly in my own as she continues to sit in denial.
"I have to go before midnight, he threatened to kill you both if I didn't return before his deadline. Know that whatever happens, I'll make it up to you. I promise." with my final words, I press my middle and index fingers to my lips, nudging Caroline to do the same as we lock both of our fingers in a proverbial handshake.
"A Salvatore promise. We don't break those." I assured her before Liz leaves us to have our final moment alone, not wanting to intrude on her daughter's goodbye with me as she takes my mug of whiskey, bringing it with her into the living room.
"Promise you'll write, like fancy 1800's love letters?" she jokes whilst tears still stream down her face.
"Anything for you." I vow with a final kiss, stepping out of the threshold and back into the car, returning to meet Klaus outside Alaric's apartment
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Stefan's already in the large truck Klaus has waiting for us, right outside Alaric's apartment.
"Your brother's in the back, I thought you'd like to be in the front with me." Klaus jests, nudging at the fact that in this very moment I wished nothing more than to see him dead.
"Stop talking, start driving." I finish, sitting back into the passenger seat with nothing but my phone in hand, passing it over to Klaus who snaps the device in half, discarding it out of the driver side window.
"Let's begin."
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[𝐈𝐈] 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 | 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐖