29/3/13

A/N: Hello, there! Thanks for taking a look at my humble story ^^

I heard that they're making an Originals spin off of TVD, and I'm rather very much excited. The Originals are definitely my favorite group of characters in the entire show only because I love how they interact with each other, so having a show completely devoted to them will be excellent.

In the meantime, I made a FF. This is my second ever FF, so helpful criticism would be appreciated and very much wanted (like, very much wanted). In any case, I hope you enjoy, and if there are any OOC things that you notice, please let me know.

As a note: it won't be completely from Rebekah's POV for the ENTIRE thing, so if that's something that irks you ... well, it won't happen all the time (but I can't say how often ... sorry about that).

I hope you enjoy!

Rebekah felt her lip curl and her stomach flip over as she watched the wolf more than five feet long be rent apart by her brothers, their heads bent over its thick neck. She couldn't see them feeding, but she could hear the sucking, squelching noises of skin, muscle, and veins being ripped apart and the wet splashes of blood on her brothers' lips. Involuntarily, she felt the ache in her gums and her skin tightening underneath her eyes. Even though she didn't want to believe it, even though it had barely been a week of this nightmare that she was living, she knew what she looked like. Black eyes, black veins spindling from them, and if she opened her mouth a fine pair of fangs would be inside. A monster. That's what she was. A freak of nature. Went against everything that even her own mother, the first and most powerful witch, stood for. And yet no matter how much she hated it—hated herself—she couldn't stop the aroma of blood—heady, salty—waft up her nose, nor could she stop the thirst that made her mouth dry and her throat tighten.

Even as she was beginning to turn away in the vain effort to follow through with her vow to never drink blood (like the same vow she made yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that…), Kol raised his head to glance up at her.

"Care for a bite, sister?" he grinned up at her, looking ghoulish and like the demons and monsters in the fairy tales that Rebekah's parents would tell her at night. Red blood painted his lips and chin like some strange and horrible mask. Blood dripped from his chin and snaked down his neck, staining his tunic. His long hair, pulled back for the most part, had a few strands falling forward. They were all sticking together with blood, becoming matted and wet.

"No," Rebekah replied tartly while her gaze flicked back to the wolf. Now that Kol's fat head wasn't covering up the wound, she could see all the membranes and tissue and blood. There was so much blood. And Rebekah swallowed hard and closed her eyes even while she licked her lips and leaned forward a little.

"No, I'm leaving," she managed to say throatily, even though her feet were rooted to the spot. Even though her legs refused to budge. Even though the only thing she wanted to do was kneel in the muddy, leafy earth and join her brothers to devour an entire wolf raw.

Kol shrugged unconcernedly. "More for me," he said cheerily before going back to the throat of the creature. Finn and Klaus, the only blonde head in the entire bunch, kept to sucking on the wolf. Elijah, however, forever the dependable older brother, looked up. He was considerably cleaner than Kol, the blood only staining a bit past his lower lip, and there were only a few blood splatters on his cheeks and forehead (he was the one that killed the wolf in the first place). He had kept his wavy hair down, but, incredibly, it was impeccably clean and relatively untangled. It chilled and scared Rebekah that Elijah had adjusted so well so quickly. Or rather, that all of her brothers had adjusted so quickly, Kol the most excitedly and savagely, Finn warily and dejectedly, Elijah cautiously and carefully, and Niklaus. Niklaus. No, he wasn't as ferocious as Kol and outwardly celebrating each night, but nor was he paying any mind to possible consequences or future pains. He wasn't enjoying himself. Not just that. He was euphoric. He had hit the height of his life and he had eternity to enjoy it. And he knew it.

"Rebekah," Elijah sighed, rubbing the blood off his mouth as he straightened and approached her. He adopted his "it's time for a family talk" face.

"I know that this isn't the life you imagined for us," he began, but she cut him off.

"We are devouring wolves, deer, bobcats…a mountain lion, Elijah!" Rebekah exploded, throwing her hands into the air. Elijah shifted his weight uncomfortably between his two feet and glanced around the empty wood, as if worried that someone would find them so deep within it.

"Look at us!" she shouted, taking one of her own hands and pointing to her mouth. She opened it demonstratively to show off her fangs. Her brothers looked up from the wolf—Kol the last out of the remaining three—to stare at her.

"We are monsters," she proclaimed. "We're evil! We're freaks! We aren't normal."

"Rebek—"

"Our own mother," she shouted over Elijah's warning tone, "thinks we're abominations of nature itself. Don't try and tell me now to worry about this, Elijah. We have to drink blood to survive. We have fangs. Our eyes turn black whenever we eat. Don't tell me it's going to be alright. Don't tell me we're not monsters, because we—"

"Rebekah," Elijah finally cut through her tirade, eyes shut as he masterfully gathered his patience. His hand was raised to calm her as Klaus and Finn inched a little closer. Kol hanged back, glancing regrettably at the half-eaten wolf before trailing behind.

"Calm down," Elijah entreated her. When her breathing had gone down to a considerably easier pace, he continued, "Rebekah, sister, do I seem like a monster to you?"

Rebekah hesitated, knowing what he was about to do. He was going to pull some sort of psychological, twisted-in-his-own-favor logic on her. She had experienced it many times, whether it was to convince mother that it wasn't her that broke the vase or that Niklaus really wasn't as volatile as he seemed. The way he did it was with actual truths, using her own emotions and feelings to somehow make her agree with all of his logic, and then pile on bluffs and half-truths that somehow made sense because of the real truths that he made early on. Strategic logic is what he did, with a dash of emotional manipulation. Rebekah didn't like it, but she had never been able to quite outsmart him. As far as she knew, none of them really had, except for maybe Niklaus—when Elijah was being lazy or forgiving.

"Rebekah," Elijah sighed again, as if he was a little hurt by what she had said earlier. "Do any of us seem like monsters?"

He said "monsters" in such a way that it took on a meaning that was somehow more horrible and terrible than Rebekah had originally meant it. It was somehow more painful, more offensive, more disgusting and demeaning and dehumanizing than ever. As if Elijah couldn't believe that Rebekah would call them such a thing. What self-respecting person would ever utter such a word? his expression asked her. What self-respecting person would call his family such a word?

"No," Rebekah finally muttered unwillingly, but she didn't like lying to Elijah. His personality, his morality, made it hard for anyone to lie to him in good conscience. It was the sort of person he was.

"No," Elijah repeated, smiling a little with relief. He came forward another step. "Now, what you say is true. What mother has made us is truly against what nature decreed."

Slowly, Rebekah nodded.

"But," Elijah held up a single finger, "we aren't monsters. We're still family. We still feel, we still have emotions." Elijah paused for a moment. "More so than ever, really, I would say. Wouldn't you?"

And indeed, Rebekah knew exactly what Elijah was talking about. They all did. Everything was…heightened. Everything was louder, stronger, more vivid. Every rustle of a leaf, miles away, resounded in their ears. They could feel the vibrations of life, however tiny, thrum beneath their feet. Happiness turned into euphoria, excitement into pure giddiness…and sadness into crippling depression. Anger into pure fury. And insecurity like Rebekah's turning into distressing and gnawing anxiety. It was killing her.

"Monsters are disgusting," Elijah said. "Monsters are unforgiving. Monsters are ruthless and don't deserve to walk this earth." Elijah paused again to let this sink in. "Rebekah. Would you say that we don't have as much right to live here as anybody else?"

Rebekah took a deep breath. "No, we don't."

"Now why would you say that, little sister?" Elijah shook his head a little. Finally, Kol interjected, "Oh, she's just feeling all insecure because some boy the next village over won't give her a single glance over." He blinked and grinned savagely. "Not that anyone would."

"Don't you get tired of hearing your own voice, Kol?" Rebekah demanded, advancing and pushing Elijah aside. She heard him sigh a little, but didn't pay attention to it. It was only when Niklaus stepped in her way that Rebekah stopped at all. He put a firm hand on her shoulder and raised a single eyebrow as she glared over his shoulder at Kol, who was restrained by Finn. His hand was silently resting on Kol's shoulder. It wasn't a tight grip or an authoritarian one. But when it was Finn, it was enough to just to know that he was there. There was a level of authority and presence he had that the others could not replicate. Not exactly.

"Now Rebekah, let's not make trouble," Klaus grinned. She could tell that he certainly wouldn't mind a little trouble. Niklaus got bored easily, these days. Rebekah felt her lip curl at Kol's taunting expression, but she turned away. One of them had to be mature.

"Good girl," Niklaus said. "Now, how about a drink?"

Before she realized it, her brother had steered her towards the maimed wolf. The smell of blood rolled over her and made her tremble.

"What's wrong?" Kol jeered. "Scared?"

"Kol," Elijah sighed through the face on his hand, "be quiet."

Rebekah wasn't scared. She wasn't scared at all about eating the wolf. But she was scared about how badly she wanted to drink the blood that was on the wolf. She wanted to rip apart its skin and feel the blood on her lips. She wanted to feel the warmth on her chin and her neck and she wanted to feel the thick, rusty liquid go down her throat and quench the thirst that no amount of water or wine she drank sated. She ground her lower teeth into the fangs that poked out from the top.

"Rebekah," Elijah told her quietly, "there's no shame in being who we are."

So, with a small but firm push between the shoulder blades by Niklaus towards the body, Rebekah broke her vow for the seventh time that week. At first, she was at loathe to do it, but as time went on and she filled up like a tick with blood, her guilt melted away and turned into ecstasy. It was easier to breathe, now, and the night was brighter and clearer and sharper than before. The rising moon shone like the sun. The air was sharper, cleaner, crisper. Rebekah never felt so powerful in her life.

"There," Niklaus opened up his arms and smiled. "That wasn't so bad, right? Really, Rebekah, we've already had this conversations countless times. You'd think you'd have gotten used to this, by now."

"Don't," Rebekah held up one hand. The other was busy wiping the extra blood off her face.

"Well, now that we've all been properly fed," Elijah sighed, again, "might we return home?"

Slowly, the strange and bloodied group roused themselves, turning to go back to their rather large and spacious house situated comfortably in the center of the nearby town.

Running, Rebekah had decided, was her favorite part of the entire thing, and she figured that having at least one part of this she liked was better than hating it all. She had never been able bodied or agile when she had been human. Running long distances had been a struggle for her, and she had always been left behind when her brothers had their childish races through the woods and back. But now she ran with them, feeling the exhilarating feeling of just running. The wind whipped through her hair and sped past her face and neck. Her dress snapped and flapped around her ankles. She felt the earth underfoot for mere fractions of a moment. Trees raced past her and leaves brushed her so quickly and so fast that it was more of a ghost of a feeling than reality. She felt free. She felt like she could go anywhere at any time. Nothing could catch her, nothing could keep up with her. If she wanted to, she could leave everything and everyone behind and just run. Run through the forests and the mountains and across great plains and just feel the earth pounding under her soles and the air rushing past her face.

They had just cleared the lining of the trees and approaching the entrance of their house, the lights flickering and blazing between the windows, when Rebekah heard a shout behind her. She turned and skidded to a halt, the earth building up at her feet as she dug in her heels. In front of her stood Kol and Elijah, and behind her was Finn, who walked forward to stand at Rebekah's side. When she glanced at him, she saw that his brow was furrowed and a deep set frown was on his face. Rebekah followed his gaze and froze.

On the ground, writhing in the dirt, was Klaus, his body bending in ways that no human or vampire should. Bones were rolling and slithering underneath his skin, and his four siblings watched, they cracked, one after another. Crack, crack, crack. He shouted and screamed, clawing at the dirt ground and trying to make his way to the house. Instantly, Elijah and Finn were at his side, crouching and trying to get a grip on Niklaus, but he wasn't making it easy for them. He was shaking and twisting out of their grasps as he screamed. Presently, Rebekah heard the door open behind her, but by then she had already rushed to Niklaus' side.

"Niklaus!" Rebekah shouted, kneeling and trying to hold his face, but he was shaking too much to get a handle on. "Niklaus, what's wrong?"

As if in an answer, Niklaus howled as his spine finally cracked in half, his back arching impossibly. He opened his eyes and stared at his siblings with yellow eyes like a dog's, his mouth sagging open and full with sharpened teeth. Rebekah froze and retreated a little. Finn and Elijah stepped back fully. Kol actually seized the back of Rebekah's dress to drag her back even farther. They had all seen those yellow eyes that Niklaus had.

"Niklaus!" Rebekah heard her mother call through the clearing. She let her pass, and not far behind her was her father. She caught the look on his face as he passed. Disbelief. Worry. Some inklings of rage that he wasn't sure if he should feel or not, yet.

Rebekah watched as her mother took her place on the ground in front of Niklaus. Rebekah's gaze flickered to the sky as the full moon reached its apex.

"Mother," Elijah finally spoke up as Esther began to mutter something. "Mother, Niklaus…he's a…" He paused. "He's a—"

"What he is or isn't doesn't matter," Esther interrupted him sharply, looking up at him to glare. "What matters is he is your brother and my son and he is in pain."

That quieted Elijah, but Kol was not so empathetic.

"He's a damned werewolf," he announced darkly, his expression unreadable as he stared at what he could see of Niklaus behind his mother. Mikael twitched, his hand half reaching for the hilt of the sword in his scabbard, before he stepped forward and muttered something to Esther.

"Later," she implored him before returning to her incantation. Rebekah saw his jaw twitch, but he said nothing more. Instead, he turned his back and strode back into the house, his fury barely contained. And all of them outside knew why. As Klaus' cries died down to painful moans underneath Esther's hands, the siblings shifted uncomfortably. There were two ways one could become a werewolf: by ingesting the saliva of one, or by being of the same blood of one. The only werewolves that were anywhere near them was only a village over—as they all knew too well—and all of them knew Niklaus had never been bitten in his life.

"Mother?" Rebekah spoke up at last, her voice sounding small.

"Not now, Rebekah," she said sharply as she stroked Niklaus' hair.

"Mother—" Elijah began hesitantly.

"Not," Esther practically hissed, "now."