Le notes: So this was going to be Pydia but then I decided to pick Klaus because…I really really want to have his babies. And of course, there were these youtube videos. This is so very AU, I tried my best to keep them in character. This is the soundtrack though: Attack on Titan, ost 03; Eye Water. Please listen to it while reading this, it REALLY sets the mood.

Summary: Lost in the woods, within the darkness of the night, is a broken and beautiful youth, with a mysterious monster inside of her. —-KlausLydia

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in the land of gods and monsters
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i:

no one's gonna
take my soul away
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/ / /

Under the bleeding light of the full moon, little red sits in her bed, rustling under the sheets of Egyptian cotton and staying so very restless. Her eyelids are the flimsiest of shields against the unwavering memory of ash and smoke, red blood smeared all over his face, and the blue flowers sitting next to her bedside at night. She pushes them away, chasing away the invisible plants. She fails to let anyone know that she still dreams about him.

His fingers are running across her cheek as her tears are pooled in the corner of her eyes. Suddenly, the bedroom feels much to warm and her skin feels as if it's on fire. A man will appear; a man scented by corpses and rotted flesh, old and wild dirt, as if he is an ancient ghost.

Hale, she thinks before she releases a horrifying scream. He tastes like old rocks and pebbles, dirty pennies, filthy copper, and just the slightest bit like a nightmare.

She gasps when she hears a faint howl under the light of the moon.

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/ / /

She's dreaming the night the leaves and trees capture her running legs and catching breath. She's dreaming of a man who shifts in to a wolf. Suddenly, the man is dead, nothing but a corpse underneath layers upon layers on dirt. And then he is breathing, alive, and he is before her. Eyes so blue, like the heart of the Nile River. He has her wrist between his fingers, a hold so tight and strong that just the slightest tug from his end might separate her joints.

"C'mon now little red," the wolf smiles with teeth and fangs, covered in blood, soaked in bones, "won't you let me in?" She screams, she doesn't know for how long, but she does.

And when she finally awakens, she's nowhere.

The bedroom beside hers could have been her saving grace; except her parents have no clue that their only daughter has just run in to woods, wailing at the top of her lungs. She's in her pajamas, seeing nothing but darkness and broken branches on the ground. Frantically, she takes her cellphone out.

No bars.

She sighs. Though, this couldn't be anything new. Lately, she feels as if her own mind has been turning against her. Making her discover young corpses and coming face to face with death on one too many occasions. But, the woods were never a safe place to dream, regardless of the fairytales and myths she had heard as a child. It was an area much too mysterious and impure. Still, this time, it was different.

This time, she hadn't run just because of an impulse. It had been the harsh memories which dragged her feet across the land. It was her body trying to escape her own mind, and her soul trying to leave behind her heart.

Hello

Lost in the woods, within the darkness of the night, is a broken and beautiful youth, with a mysterious monster inside of her.

Anybody out there

Suddenly, she flinches.

Anybody

She has the oddest sensation that she's being watched.

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/ / /

He finds her in the woods one day, by pure chance.

He has caught but a glimpse of her strawberry blonde hairs and snow white skin but already, he can sense what she is. He had heard about her kind from nothing but stories from witches he thought were either mad or complete liars. And yet, here she was, standing before him; the wailing woman. A girl so beautiful, so strong, so intelligent but most importantly, so very immune.

His nose twitches though, because the girl smells tired. But mostly, she smelled scared, frightened, with the overwhelming drowsiness of perfume surrounding her limbs. She reeked of the stench of betrayal and lies. Broken dreams and sorrows, anguish and turmoil, pain…so much pain. Oddly enough, he found himself relating to her tragedies.

He too had wanted to run on many occasions. And he had done so for most of his life.

"You know, stalking me is not going to work in your favor. I have a friend whose father's a cop." She surprises him by her words of steel. She has enough guts to speak to him as if she is all high and mighty, even though her scent clearly gave her fears away. He was a stranger after all, a strange man, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing better to do than have the blood of a young girl in his mouth.

"Stalking?" He repeats, as if the word is utterly foreign to him. Yet his face is feigned with false innocence. She can't help but notice the missing presence of light in his bright blue eyes. They remind her of someone else. And for some reason, her first instinct isn't to run.

"Why certainly," she tells him, fingers clenched in to fists. "What else would you call the fact that you've been following me for the past hour and half?" She reckons, considering the digital watch on her phone had still been working. She hears him chuckle and wonders if this is all a big joke to him. Then again, she is the one who is in the woods in nothing but her pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

"You are lost." He discovers, dancing a finger on his chin. He speaks to her as if he was going to help her find her way. She wasn't daft; she knew what game he was playing.

"No," she insists, rolling her eyes.

"Then pray tell sweetheart, what is a young youth such as yourself doing in the woods in the middle of the night?" It takes her long enough to deduct that his accent must mean that he is new in town. British, she thinks as she smiles slightly.

His presence is of no importance to her for the time being so she walks onwards, trying to mask her horror and pain. "That happens to be none of your business." She says as she leaves the man be.

He then starts to find her quite intriguing.

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/ / /

The next time she sees him is when she's at the coffee shop with Allison. He looks like he's minding his own business, sipping his café latte and going through a little black book. But he catches her staring once, twice, maybe a third time —and his lips curve in to a smile.

Arrogant, she thinks and then she realizes that she's had enough. She's dated many arrogant guys in her life to know where this was going. Not that she was planning on dating this stranger, or anything.

"Is this a hobby of yours?" She approaches him, of course. He does nothing but raise a blonde brow. "You know, following around young women?" She specifies; all he can do is chuckle quietly.

And she thinks this; can a man possibly die from smirking too much?

She really has no idea whom or what he is. He found this rather…refreshing.

"Not particularly." He tells her, meeting her gaze. It's then that she realizes how piercing his eyes truly are. They really did remind her of the dark irises of a man-wolf. She clenches her jaw at the thought.

"Then what do you call this?" She gestures to herself and then to him.

He can't help but smirk, again. "A coincidence?"

She rolls her eyes and blocks out her sarcastic oh please. "There's no such thing." She announces to him.

"Do you not believe in chance love?"

This time, she's appalled. "Number one," she says, waving a finger in front of him, "calling me love won't leave us on friendlier terms, if you must call me by something, I suggest you call me by my name. Which is Lydia, by the way," she realizes too late that he happens to possess quite a charm when he's quietly listening to her rambling. "And two, to answer your question," her finger dances on her cheek as she ponders. "No," she tells him, "I do not believe in chance, or fate, or any of this other bullshit that you are willing to throw at me."

What infuriated her the most is that this man had seen her at her weakest moment. She couldn't help but be bitter towards him. It wasn't as if she had wanted to be caught by a stranger when she was an utter mess.

She is completely flabbergasted when he does not offer her a witty reply. Instead, he simply gives her a look. Eyes that speak words which she cannot decode. It's sad, if even a man who is a thousand years old can believe in this concept so magical and so unreal, why can't this girl believe as well?

Has she really been hurt so much that her own innocence has been lost for eternity? It's much too sad, she wonders if he's looking to her with pity, even if he is the type of man who tries to stay far away from the concept of remorse.

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/ / /

That night, in her bedroom, she's surprised to see that her nightmares are gone. Her night is calm and soothing. Then, she notices that the window is slightly open and the cool autumn breeze is passing inside the room. There's also something else, it's that howling, again. The last time she had heard it, she thought for sure that she was imagining it. All a part of her nightmare. But now, the sound is different. It's not so horrific or high-pitched. It's like a song.

The wolf cries at least three times that night, and for some odd reason, it keeps Lydia wide awake.

The next morning, at school, she fails to concentrate on her classes. All she can think about is that howling. And she starts to ask herself why in the world the wolf had sounded so broken and lost. Nothing like a predator, nothing like what she was used to.

Just like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

And, truth be told, the fact that she had begun to accept this creature in to her life managed to scare her even more that the presence of monster himself.

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/ / /

It's a while before she sees him again.

Long after Jackson has left town, leaving her in pieces and very frazzled. Long after Allison has suddenly had a change of persona, all dark and mysterious, but more mature. Unfortunately, Lydia starts to feel as if everyone around her is growing up and moving on. Away from their nightmarish pasts and dreams. Even Scott is taking summer school and getting himself back together. Lydia was abandoned, once again. Alone, and the only one who had yet to get back up and stand on her own two feet.

Another nightmare, another scream.

Inevitably, she's back in the woods; curled up in to a circle, hugging her knees and shaking, in nothing but her pale pink nightgown. She's on the verge of crying. This is when he finds her.

She finds herself relieved, at least for now; someone had been by her side. Even if he was a creepy-british-stalker-dude. At least, she wasn't alone anymore.

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/ / /

It's been weeks since she's heard the howling. She wonders just why she's been postponing a face to face confrontation with the wolf. But then maybe, she thinks that he might not be calling her at all. She's a fool for sure, if she believes her own lies though. After all, the only reason why the wolf calls her is because he sees a monster in her. A monster of the same nature as himself.

She couldn't hide forever.

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/ / /

Sometimes, at school, she feels ignored. Sure she's the queen bee, and the boys look at her like they want her, and girls look to her like they want to be her. But there's nothing else, not really. No one by her side to laugh or cry with her.

.

/ / /

"I think," she begins, folding her hands together, "I think I come here when I feel lonely." She realizes, looking to the sky for answers to her endless lists of questions.

"You must feel lonely quite often." She hears him say, something about his voice tells her that he may be a bit lonely himself.

"I do." She admits to him, offering him a weak smile in return for his company.

The next time she's in the woods, she ends up actually talking to the man and he even manages to walk her home when it's almost morning.

"I suspect your parents might want an…explanation." He releases, sounding somehow tense.

She only shrugs though. "Don't worry," she assures him. "They won't ask any questions." They never do anyway. She turns to him, his eyes this time, look a bit distant. As if he is lost in some memory, of his own cruel past, confused parents and sad fate. "Well then, goodnight Klaus."

He smirks arrogantly (she doesn't mind though, not this time). "Sweet dreams Lydia Martin."

She wonders if he knows how ironic his statement truly is.

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/ / /

It's winter now, she still falls asleep to howling and sometimes, her insomnia vanishes. But at other times, the howling sounds so damaged and shattered that she can't, she won't fall asleep. It might just be worse than the nightmares because it's false comfort. The cry of a wolf who has a story he's hiding, an identity he's kept a secret from her.

Then again, is not telling her something that she probably already knows really considered as lying? Lydia fails to tell the difference. She rolls back in her bed, letting the ignorance of it all envelope her soul.

.

/ / /

There is one night where he waits for her and this time, she thinks she won't come. Allison had invited her over for a sleepover and honestly, she thinks that it might be quite nice for her to have one night away from the supernatural drama.

A few days later, the woods draw her back in.

She finds no traces of Klaus. Nothing but a scrap of paper with a pretty sketch of a flower drawn on to it. She wonders why he would leave her a Forget-Me-Not as a present. And then she thinks that perhaps, it might not have been meant for her at all. After all, he hadn't written her name on it, or anything like that. There was simply no indication that the sketch was given to Lydia.

Still, she couldn't help but associate the flower with her own identity; as a girl who seems to be rather left behind and abandoned so very often.

(She burns the drawing).

A girl who can sometimes be so very monstrous.

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/ / /

The howling continues.

She has to face what he is, someday soon. She can't live in fear forever. She can't just keep on wondering what he has planned for her. She has to know that he's come for her.

He must have some trick up his sleeve. This was just too easy and seemed a little too wrong. But strangely, it felt right.

.

/ / /

One day, he shows up at her school, wanting to pick her up.

He leans against his sleek black car; sunglasses resting over his eyes, and all the girls giggle, blush, and point. They wonder who the hot college guy could be, and for a moment, Lydia thinks she would have felt kind of special. Only she doesn't. She doesn't really bother with asking him any questions. In fact, she actually ignores him.

When he notices her walk right pass him, he hops in to his car and immediately starts to follow her.

"C'mon now sweetheart," he says as he rolls his window down. "Why not make this easier on yourself? Hop on, I'll drop you home." Unfortunately, his advances only result in to her giving him the typical eye-roll. Teenagers.

"No thank you," she simply says.

He frowns, but keeps driving and decides that he'll unlock the back door for her. She notices the sound and gives him a look. He smiles. "Just in case you change your mind."

"I'm not going to."

"Whatever you say love."

"What did I tell you about using those useless pet names?"

.

/ / /

Her shoes are impractical, her feet are sore from all the walking, and her sweat is starting to melt her make up off her face. Still, she refuses to give in to Klaus's demands. She'd be fool to fall for his game.

"Did you not like the drawing I left you?" He asks, looking cool and well rested in his air-conditioned vehicle.

"I have to admit," she starts, thinking that perhaps, his company was better than no company. "You are quite talented." She tells him. He smirks. "But I'm not a big fan of Forget-Me-Nots. Maybe if you had drawn me a rose or even a sunflower."

"A sunflower?" He repeats, in a confused tone. Truth be told, every typical girl would desire a rose, but a sunflower, now that was something.

Lydia smiles. "Of course, it's the flower of worship and undying devotion." She specifies, recalling how these flowers move with the shifts of the sun. They follow blindly and Klaus wonders if she somehow desires to be showered with such benedictions as well.

"Is that what you want?" He questions instead, "idolization?"

She thinks of her school, of the many girls who compliment her on her designer handbags and pretty clothes. He gives her a look; he knows that it will never be enough for her. It's not what she wants. It takes her a while to realize what he had meant by his sketch of the Forget-Me-Not.

She did not want to praised at all, she wanted to be remembered.

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/ / /

The night he comes for her is a cold and wild one. With the light pitter-patter of rain, and a soft howl of the winds.

"Are you one of them?" She questions, tucking a few strands of stray hairs behind her ears.

His doe-eyed face is fake, this she knows. "One of what sweetheart?" he knows exactly what she's talking about but, he needed to hear her say it. He savored the moment that he had become a revelation to her. She finally came to terms with his identity.

"A wolf." She continues though, determined to find out just what he is hiding.

He smiles with his teeth this time, stainless and free of blood. For a moment, she wonders if she's wrong. "What makes you say so?"

She's nervous this time. "Nothing," she says before meeting his gaze. It's nothing short of wolfish. "Just, something about…" her mind wanders off, on a tale about a little girl, grandma's house, the creepy old woods, and a wolf who destroyed it all. "Are you going to answer my question or not?" Her moodiness is back the moment she snaps back to reality.

"I'm not exactly a wolf." He offers her an honest answer. She finds herself at a loss.

"Then, what are you?"

He's confident in his answer. "A different kind of monster."

And because she's been faced with kanimas, alphas, wolf-demons, and Peter fucking Hale, all she says is this: "oh."

Lydia fails to ask Klaus anymore questions after that.

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/ / /

She is alone (as always) on the morning after she has consumed liquor like it had been water. And maybe it's the alcohol, or maybe she's really just had enough of Klaus's games. Either way, he unlocks his car and she deliberately hops in to his vehicle. His smile is kind of wicked at this point, and she thinks that it is already too late for her to run back home to grandma's house. The wolf already has little red contemplating on 'oh what big eyes you have'

All the better to see you with

and on 'oh what big hands you have'.

all the better to hold you with

"I have conditions," Lydia tells him.

He sighs, "I'm all ears sweetheart."

She gives up on scolding him about the nicknames this time. He wins this round. "One," she points a finger. "You are not allowed to whisk me away from town. You are to bring me back here after you're done with whatever it is that you need to do."

He can't help but be slightly curious. She seemed pretty miserable in this town, why wouldn't she want to leave? "Why not?"

"Because," she's confident this time, "I still have school, and tests. I want a perfect attendance records and high grades. I also happen to like the malls here, they have nice clothes and I am really accustomed to where everything is. I would miss my parents and my friends, even though sometimes, I don't think that they'd miss me very much—" she stops when she realizes that she's rambling, again. Perhaps, he might have a strange effect on her which made her so nervous that she talked a little too much.

So she breathes in. "Anyway," Klaus hears her. "My second condition is this," she might just look a bit frightened by her own words. "You must show me what you are."

He really is surprised to hear this new development.

"And you don't have to worry about me running away or anything like that." She assures him, before he can even offer her an answer. "I've seen enough monsters in my lifetime and I've even dated a couple." She wonders if she could count Peter in the same category as Jackson. Nonetheless, the fact that she's unafraid (or so she pretends to be) has Klaus quite intrigued. "I won't go back on my word if you respect my conditions."

He chuckles then. "Anything else then love?"

"Nope." Lydia puts an emphasis on the 'p' at the end of her word.

"So then," his fingers suddenly capture her chin. He is so close that she can feel his hot breath on her face. His eyes become quite mesmerizing. And then she remembers, "Lydia Martin,"

—a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Are you ready to see what true monsters are made of?"

.

/ / /

Tbc?

/ / /

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Le more notes: I don't know if I should continue this…I'm all out of ideas (stupid useless brain). But perhaps someday I will pick this up again? Until then, review and hey, who knows. Maybe all the encouragement will make me want to continue this after all. Maybe leave some ideas too? I'd love some advice! Critics? Plain old love? Please?

Xoxo Carter