Joseph- Father

Maria- Mother

Claire "Averna"/ "Ava"- 1st sibling (21 years old)

Elijah- 2nd sibling (20 years old)

Hansel - 3rd sibling (19 years old)

Murdoch - 4th sibling (18 years old)

Marcus and Ambrose- 5th and 6th sibling (17 years old)

Niklaus "Klaus"- 7th sibling (16 years old)

I hope you enjoy this and there are more chapters on the way

xx Fashionnightmare xx

A.K.A Alicia

xxxx

1. Only The Beginning

Dinner had begun, yet only eight people were sitting at the dinner table. A single seat was left empty in the middle of the elegant table. Eight heads were bent as the blessings were said.

Two people raised their heads simultaneously and across the table their eyes connected and one pair of brown eyes widened in worry, the other simply shook her head and bent over the table again, and her brother followed suit after one last look of hope towards the door at the end of the room.

"Amen." Eight voices chorused.

Everyone raised their heads and the man at the head of the table glared at the empty seat.

"Where is your brother?" He asked. His temper only slightly kept at bay, his voice sounded obviously strained.

Since this was an open question, the siblings looked between each other, but it was clear that no one knew the answer to their father's question.

"None here know Joseph. But let us not dwell on his absence." Their mother spoke tiredly from where she sat at the opposite end of the table to her husband. "You may eat children." Her blond hair was held away from her face by a ruby encrusted clip, her soft brown eyes surveyed the table as the six siblings began to chat amiably but on each child's face was the unmistakable look of apprehension.

This was not an uncommon occurrence in the Dita household. It was happening increasingly often and each time, Joseph Dita would ask the same question and each time the answer was the same. Each night the same thing would happen and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Whatever happened, Niklaus always missed dinner but each time, no matter what punishment was served to him, he never seemed to listen.

Tonight was no exception.

Dinner had finished, and as was normal, Joseph and Maria left first and their children would sit and talk before retiring to their bedrooms.

"Why does he do this?" Marcus muttered angrily, pushing himself up from his seat with such force that his chair was pushed over and fell to the stone floor with a resounding crash. "Father may actually kill him on this occasion!"

Calmly rising from her seat and walking around the table to pick up the fallen chair, Claire spoke, "Let us not dwell on the subject, it shan't do us any good and you know as much Marcus." Ambrose laid a hand on his twin's shoulder.

"It may not do us any good to talk about it, but we cannot deny that something has to be done." Hansel, the fourth of the seven children interjected calmly, but anger was dancing in his brown eyes and his hands were gripping the arms of his seat so hard that his knuckles were white.

"That is true." Elijah, the second eldest of the seven siblings, had moved from his seat across from Claire's and was now standing, looking out of the window at the full moon with his brow furrowed in deep concentration.

"So what do we do? He has to know that this erratic behaviour cannot and must not continue." Murdoch spoke from his place leaning over the roaring fireplace the flames casting shadows over his angular face. He looked up; worry clear in his dark eyes.

As everyone paused to consider what had been said, footsteps echoed outside the closed door of the dining room and all thoughts stopped. Every head turned towards the oak doors as they were thrown open to reveal Niklaus – and he was covered in blood.

Everyone froze in place. All anyone could think was blood. Why was he covered in blood?

"Niklaus!" Claire finally exclaimed in horror as she rushed forward, her brothers following close behind.

"It is fine dear sister, I have not been harmed." He spoke to her calmly as she stopped before him; resting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing before moving to the end of the table sit down in their father's chair.

Looking at Niklaus in comparison to his siblings, you would not see much resemblance. Niklaus had a short and stocky build whereas his siblings were all tall and had slight frames. The mystery however, was not his build but it was his eyes, they were a clear crystal blue in comparison to his sibling's brown eyes. The mystery stemmed from the fact that all of his siblings had brown eyes which they could have inherited from either of their parents as they both had the same coloured eyes; their parents claimed that Niklaus had inherited his blue eyes from their grandfather and that was enough for the siblings to comprehend, yet, still something inside the children could never believe their explanation.

Since – all the same, the shape of his eyes was similar to their mothers' and his mane of blond hair was shared by many of his siblings having inherited it from their mother, the others had brown hair much like their father – as he sat in the chair that their father had not long ago frequented, you could not help but notice how different they were, not only in looks but also in personality, their father had a temper that could barely be withheld and Niklaus never raised his voice unless he needed to. He never got angry, he simply purged his ill feelings by exacting revenge and he relished the power he could exert over people.

But he could sometimes take his revenge too far, which was why, as he sat there in the dining room, covered in blood – yet he claimed to be unharmed – his siblings could not help but feel uneasy.

No one had moved to follow him as he sat down; they remained by the door, allowing Claire to lead them, respecting the fact that she was the eldest.

"Klaus, why are you covered in blood?" She asked warily, using his shortened name subconsciously, wringing her hands together behind her back as she took one step towards her youngest brother. Her brothers took the step with her. She stopped abruptly and turned her head towards Elijah who was standing on her right-hand side. He looked down at her as she looked up at him his eyes were filled with the same worry he had shown at the dinner table during the blessing. They spoke with their eyes and Elijah held up a hand to signal their siblings to remain where they were as Claire turned her attention back to her brother who was eyeing the group curiously. Keeping his mouth uncharacteristically shut.

"Klaus?" Claire moved forward and kneeled on the floor beside her father's chair as she often had when she was little when she used to beg her father to read her one of his stories.

Now as she knelt here she felt like was a little girl again, not a twenty-one year old woman and she felt strangely aware of how small she now was in comparison to her sixteen year old brother who was looking down at her with a blank expression that made hairs rise on the back of her neck. She didn't fear her brother per se, but he made her feel very unsure, she never knew where she stood with him, she knew what he was capable of and she did not want to be a victim of one of his vendettas.

He was still her brother and right now she was worried about him; and he had still not answered her.

"Niklaus, if you remain unharmed then why are you covered in blood?" Claire asked, making sure to keep eye contact with him.

Eventually, his mouth quirked up at the corner in a wistful smile and he reached forward to brush his fingers gently across Claire's jaw before brushing a loose strand of long blond hair from her forehead.

"Because, my family," He spoke to everyone now present in the room, "I have found a new activity which satisfies all of my many needs."

"Klaus, what are you talking about?" Elijah spoke this time and Claire could tell that he was as terrified as she was about what they were about to hear, due to the fact that his eyes were wide and he was standing eerily still.

But Klaus did not answer the question directly.

"What do you think should happen to bad people?" His voice was dreamy and he stared vacantly into the depths of the fading fire.

"I don't know Klaus. What do you think?" Claire heard herself ask as if she were talking to a child.

"I think that they should be punished." He said calmly as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"How should they be punished Klaus?" Ambrose stepped forward and asked with a curious yet wary look in Niklaus' direction.

Niklaus turned his eyes towards his elder brother and grinned. Claire felt herself shiver but she stayed obediently by Niklaus' side.

"If they are bad then they don't deserve to share our world with us. They should die."

No one spoke and in the distance only the baying of a wolf could be heard.

So there you go!

Updates will be arriving soon.

Lots of love and thank you for reading.

Alicia

xxxx