Every night she saw his face, and this night was no different. Rebekah had woken, and the last thing she saw from her sleep was Niklaus, burning in flames because of Alaric Saltzman.
For a thousand years she had been a vampire and never had a nightmare. Yet for over a week she'd woken from her sleep with visions of Nik in her mind. She had refused to shed a single tear.
She had warned her brother his pride would be his downfall, yet he hadn't listened to her. She tries to consider the possibility that his death isn't her fault. Yet somehow she wonders if she had been there sooner maybe she could have saved his life.
Rebekah quickly got out of bed and went to the refrigerator downstairs. She felt too lazy to go out and find a human to feed off of. She grabbed a blood bag and slowly drank.
She grew impatient and used her fangs to tear the bag away, gulping the blood as most of it flowed onto her face. When the bag was empty she grabbed another and did the same thing.
How she wished the bag could have been Elena's neck. She would have loved to kill Elena. Instead of being the cause she would have rather been the murderer, although, according to humans, drowning was the worst way to die.
That gave her little comfort. Two of her brothers were dead because of the insolent Salvatore brothers. She wished she could drive a stake through both of their hearts.
Elijah came from his walk in the forest. He enjoyed the sounds of nature, but the occasional howl of the wolf would remind him of Klaus. He had not been there to save his brother, and he had nearly sent his sister to death by letting her go to retrieve his desiccated body.
He shook his head, how could he have been so stupid? He had promised his sister he would protect her. Always and forever. They had lost two brothers within less than half a year.
He wished he could have protected them, but Finn chose his own fate. He knew better than to grieve over Finn. He had sided with the woman who attempted to kill them: their mother.
He had finished grieving for Niklaus and Finn. Now he grieved for his sister: his baby sister. She had lost so much. He wondered what he could do for her as he stared up at the full moon.
As he entered the house he heard a noise coming from the kitchen. He sped to see what it was when he saw Rebekah at the fridge. Twelve blood bags lay at her feet along with a pool of blood.
She turned to look at him, her chin and lips stained with blood. The veins under her eyes were prominent as she stared at him with pitch black eyes. She snarled, as she tore another blood bag with her fangs and began to drink.
"Rebekah," he said gently as he took a step towards her.
She had already finished the blood bag and tossed it to the ground before he had taken three steps.
"Stay away from me, Elijah," she growled as she grabbed yet another blood bag.
"Rebekah," he said more forcefully as he put a hand on her shoulder, "what are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she retorted, "I'm drinking."
"Why?" he asked, his brown eyes scanning her for any injury or problem.
"To survive," she put another blood bag to her mouth.
Elijah grabbed the bag and threw it out of her reach. She snarled, baring her fangs as she tried to speed past him. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to stare into his eyes.
"Stop, Rebekah," he said forcefully, "that's enough."
She flailed in his grasp until she finally managed to get free. She stepped away from him, but her eyes turned back to their normal ice blue and her fangs retreated into her mouth.
"How can you do this?" she asked, her voice shaking.
"Do what?" he asked.
"Act as if it never happened?" Rebekah asked, her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"It did happen, Rebekah," Elijah said calmly, "There is nothing I can do to change that."
"You didn't grieve, Elijah!" she yelled, "You aren't even sad he's gone!"
"That isn't true and you know it."
"How?" she asked, "How can I believe it?"
"I would not lie to you, Rebekah," he told her, "You are my sister, and as much as I may want to protect you I will never lie to you."
"You left us, Elijah," she said softly, "You left us."
"And I will always wish I hadn't," he replied.
"If you were here he might not have died," her breath rattled in her throat.
"I have considered that possibility many times," Elijah said, "and I regret my choice to leave you."
"Why, Elijah? Why did you leave?"
"I couldn't stay, Rebekah," he said, "I couldn't be a family with Niklaus. I apologize, but I could not see it anymore. Our family was destroyed the moment we were turned to vampires."
"Do you really believe that?" Rebekah asked.
"I'm not certain," he responded.
"If you don't think we are a family then why don't you just leave?" Rebekah asked.
"I will not leave you again, Rebekah," Elijah told her, "We are all that remains of the Original family. You, Kol, and I."
"Is he coming?" Rebekah asked.
"He said he'd be here in several days," Elijah said with a nod.
"Why weren't we there, Elijah?" she asked, a tear staining her cheek, "Why couldn't we save him?"
"Luck was not on our side," Elijah said calmly.
"Why do I have to see him every time I shut my eyes, Elijah?" she asked, the tears washing away the blood on her cheeks.
Rebekah began to cry as her brother pulled her into an embrace. After a thousand years her brother was gone, and there was nothing she could do. She began to sob, shaking in Elijah's arms.
As she sank to the floor he sank with her, never letting her leave his arms. He ran his fingers through her hair as she cried. All the tears she had refused to show before came in a flood of emotion.
She cried for her mother, she cried for her father, she cried for Finn, but most of all she cried for Nik. She cried for the brother who never left her. Even after a thousand years of arguments and running he had never left.
She had seen so much grief and pain in a thousand years. She had barely lived because she had been forced to run. Now she did not have to run, and she could not run.
She could not run from her feelings. Her tears were proof. She no longer had to hide her emotions from the people closest to her, and she no longer could. So she sobbed, she sobbed until her throat was dry, and as she fell asleep in Elijah's arms she saw her brother, but he did not burst into flames. Instead he smiled at her, and told her everything would be all right.