A Heart To Call My Old Home
Elena sighed as she walked through the Boarding house, a certain person missing from it.
It had been a week now, and not a whisper from Stefan nor the monster that had taken him. It was like they'd vanished of the face of the earth... leaving she and Damon to pick up the pieces of their broken lives.
They didn't even know where to start when it came to looking for him...
She shut the door now and pulled out her car keys, heading towards Alarics, where she and Jeremy had been staying since Jenna died. The house seemed too empty and cold to stay in, and Alaric was happy to put them up, glad of the company.
The car revved up now, and she glanced back once at the massive house. Damon was out somewhere, and she knew he felt guilty about his brother being taken, that it was his fault for getting bitten by Tyler.
He wasn't showing it, but she knew he was hurting inside.
-AhTcMoH-
Not too long later, she pulled up outside Alarics place and got out, locking the car up after her. Elena knocked twice now, and a second later, it opened and Jeremy let her in.
"No Damon?" He frowned now, looking behind her, but Elena shook her head. "I don't know where he is." she sighed now, then walked into the living room to see Alaric sat at the table, a pen in one hand and a frustrated look on his face.
"Something wrong?" she frowned, walking over. Alaric sighed and sat up straighter. "Papers on the Cold War."
Elena grimaced, then sat down opposite him and watched for a moment as he gave up for the present moment and said.
"So what are we going to do?"
She frowned at that, then understood- Stefan.
"I- I don't know." she said honestly. "If Klaus hasn't killed him, then... I-" she couldn't finish. It hurt too much. But that was the truth- Klaus needed him for something. Stefan wasn't dying just yet anyway.
There was a chance. There was time.
She looked over to the side now, then saw a dark leather case there just visible under the curtains. "What's that?" she frowned, and Alaric looked, seeing what she meant and also frowned as he got up and walked over, pulling the curtains away and the case further out.
It wasn't his anyway.
He picked it up now, rather weighty too. As he set it onto the table with a thump, Elena frowned. "This isn't yours?"
Alaric had an inkling now as to who it belonged to, but saw no identifying marks on the case. "Klaus. He must have left it here by accident." he said now, and Elena realized, watching him lie it down on the table while she picked up the graded papers and set them on the kitchen top.
"What's all this?" Jeremy asked now with a frown, sitting down and watching Alaric look at the lock for a moment, then find it securely locked.
"Looks like the hard way." he sighed, then grabbed a hammer and screwdriver from under the cupboard, and the other two stayed well away as he used them as a hammer and chisel on the lock, making it open in a snap of wrenched metal.
"Viola." he chuckled, then put them down as he opened it, not sure what to expect at all.
Severed heads?
Elena frowned at the mass of paperwork on top- it looked old. Very old.
She reached out now and picked up the one on top, opening the parchment and read in curly, elegant black ink.
"What is all this-?" Elena frowned, holding up the paperwork with strange symbols on. Alaric took one, scanning it, then frowned-
"This is... a very old language. It looks Norse."
"Vikings?" Elena frowned once more, and Alaric nodded, going over to a shelf, pulling out a book, going. "But hang on-" he rifled through the pages, then walked back over to the table, setting the book down, taking the paper from Elena and pulled out a spare blank sheet, opening the alphabet page, deciphering the line in a few minuets, then looked at it, dumbstruck.
Elena frowned, then reached over and took it, reading in Alarics handwriting-
My dearest Charlotte, your company today was more beautiful than any wildflower.
She read the rest of it, and was stunned to read Your ever-loving fool Niklaus.
"These... are love letters?" Jeremy said now in surprise, pulling out a handful more and quickly scanned them- they were all from Klaus to a girl called Charlotte, or vise versa. He couldn't read the runes, but they all had the same beginning and end symbols.
"Who's this Charlotte?" Alaric frowned now as he deciphered another one, surprised by how... Klaus had a heart in these messages.
"I don't- oh." Elena realized as she pulled out a little battered sketchbook, then flicked through to see herself drawn in charcoal, sat in a meadow with a smile on her face.
"Charlotte Petrova, 1033." Alaric read out, and laughed weakly as Elena said in understanding. "She must have been the first doppleganger." she looked at the picture again, then turned over to find one of this Charlotte and Klaus himself sat beneath an apple tree, a little scribble at the bottom indicated that Elijah had drawn this one.
Who was this Charlotte exactly-?
-AhTcMoH-
For the next half hour, they read through the letters in the case as they deciphered them, which were too many to count. Elena was still shocked at how... human and in love Klaus sounded.
How could he have changed so drastically?
They abandoned the love letters now when school started, but later on, Elena took the case back to the boarding house and tipped them out onto the floor.
"You had better clear that up after you're done."
Elena looked up now to see Damon walk into the room with a Scotch in his hand, frowning at the mess of paper on the floor. "What's all this?"
She just picked up a letter now and gave it to him, which he set his glass down and opened, eyebrow raising the whole time. "Huh. And what's this supposed to mean?" he snorted now, then screwed it up into a ball and tossed it back to Elena who scowled. "Don't be so mean." She gave him the photocopy of the alphabet, and as he swiftly figured it out.
"Mean?" Damon scoffed. "He took your boyfriend, and you're sat here reading love letters!"
Elena ignored his words, then just sighed. "It's better to know your-"
"What? Know thy' enemy?" Damon scoffed now, then shook his head. "What's a bunch of mushiness on old paper going to do to help us find Stefan huh?"
Elena ignored him now, and he walked out, making Elena roll her eyes- he'd become more guarded than ever now. She looked back to the pile of letters now, then pushed the out the way to find three more battered books underneath. She thought they were sketchbooks again, but when she opened them, Elena was surprised to find it full of runes to the last page.
A diary.
She picked up the three now and looked at the fading dates on the inside cover, sorting them and opening the earliest one and read after deciphering it-
4th December, 1032.
It snowed again last night, and the weight from the fall on the top of the barn made it collapse. Father is not happy. But then again, when is he ever happy? Mother gave me this book because she thinks I do not 'express my thoughts often enough.' I am no child, yet she still makes me think I am.
A new family moved from the south of Germania today. A family called the Petrovas. Elijah went with Father to close the deal on the land prices, then arrived back to tell me that there was a beauty in the family named Charlotte. Quite frankly, I doubt she is a beauty. I and my elder brothers tastes in women differ in a number of different ways.
Night draws in now, and my brother is already snoring in the bed next to me. Maybe I should find a mouse and put it in his bed again to shut him up.
Elena finished reading the first entry of the ancient diary- a world that was nothing like theirs. She looked at the three diaries now, wondering what happened at the end of them.
Maybe t his was a way of understanding who Klaus was exactly as a person...
Every beginning had to have an end, right?
Just a little something that popped into my head:) kind of like an AU season three too when it gets going, and some Charlotte/Klaus and a tad of Kelena later on too. Not much though because I'm not a fan of it at all:) Reviews much loved and I'll continue if anyone's interested! x Nic