Warning, rated M because of dark and difficult themes, violence, inappropriate brother/sister relationship and mentions of rape. DON'T read if you're sensitive.


Part 1

Innocence lost

"Demon! Demon! Demon!"

7-years-old Katla was terrified; she tried to cover her face when a group of boys threw stones at her. She hadn't meant to cause trouble; she had just been playing by herself as usually. The other children, except her brother Henrik, her sister Rebekah and of course her brother Kol, didn't want to play with her; they thought that she was stupid because she didn't speak much. She was often so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice other people; she enjoyed creating a world of her own.

Only Kol could reach her when she was in that world where there was no fear or violence, she didn't have to hide and cover her ears when her father was angry. He had never hurt her, he usually hurt poor Niklaus, but Katla was still scared of him. When her father was angry, she sought safety from Kol, he always took her, Henrik and Rebekah outside, sometimes in the middle of the night, and they stayed there until it was safe to return home.

Rebekah always cried, she wanted to help Niklaus, but they all knew that they couldn't. Katla didn't cry, she simply pretended that she was in some happy place. Elijah was always trying to calm their father down and often he paid the price for that. Finn and their mother pretended that they didn't see or hear anything and Niklaus… Poor, poor Niklaus. The world where Katla was living in was a scary place, she preferred her own world.

Unfortunately sometimes she was too lost in that world, like now when she had wandered too far away from home and ran into few older boys who had started to pick on her and took the wooden deer Kol had carved for her. The boys had kept throwing it in the air and she had just tried to take it back, but suddenly the sleeve of one of the boys had been on fire. It had been an accident, Katla hadn't meant to do that, but the damage was already done. There was no place to run, she was surrounded and scared, quiet sobs escaped her throat.

"Hey!" an angry voice suddenly shouted. "Get away from her!"

"Your sister is a demon, we saw it," one of the boys announced, but Kol grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved him.

"I will show you a demon, Ragnar," Kol growled. He was 11-years-old, but he was tall for his age and he had got used to fighting because of his bad temper. "You are all nothing but cowards for picking on a little girl!"

Most of the boys were smart enough to back away, they didn't want to fight with Kol, but Ragnar and two other boys, Leif and Hakon, weren't planning to give up.

"Maybe you are a demon too," Ragnar said mockingly. "My father says that your whole family is weird."

"Is that so?" Elijah's voice asked from behind Kol's back. Niklaus was with him, their arrival made Leif and Hakon to back away, leaving Ragnar by himself.

"Is there something else you wish to say?" Elijah asked coolly.

Ragnar swallowed and took a step back. Kol bent down next to Katla and helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright, sister?"

She nodded and took Kol's hand; he always made her feel safe.

"Now you will all listen very carefully," Elijah said, his tone was threatening. "If any of you ever hurts my sister again or says bad things about her, you will have to deal with me."

"And me," Niklaus added.

Kol didn't have to say anything; he simply glared at the boys. His look told them that he was willing to kill them all. He would have done that for his Katla. He would have done anything for her, she was the most important person to him; she always had been. Kol had been a year older than Katla was now when he had noticed that he was different than his brothers, he could do things that they couldn't, for example make things move without touching them.

His mother had explained to him that he had inherited her special abilities, he was a warlock, but he must always be careful for not to let other people to see that. Being different was dangerous; people feared and hated everything they couldn't understand. Katla's abilities had surfaced even earlier than his; somehow he had always known that she was like him. Their family of course knew the truth about them and their father had warned them to keep their "curse" hidden. He had no problem letting their mother to use her abilities for his advantage, but he didn't want to know any details.

"I am sorry," Katla said quietly when they headed home.

"You have no reason to be," Kol replied firmly. "They would have deserved something much worse."

"Kol," Elijah sighed and stepped in front of Katla. She looked at him cautiously when he kneeled down and placed his palms on her shoulders.

"Katla, you know you need to be careful, you must never use your…abilities in front of other people."

"I know 'Lijah, I did not mean to. It was an accident."

His eyes softened, but he still looked serious.

"I know. Perhaps mother should teach you more…"

"I will teach her," Kol announced and lifted his sister up. "And I will not let anyone to hurt her."

Katla smiled and wrapped her arms around Kol's neck; she wrinkled her nose when he tickled it.

"I will always look after you, sister. Always."


9 years later

"Katla! Katla!"

Kol was becoming desperate, but he would never give up, he would find his sister. Their father, Elijah, Finn and Niklaus were also in the woods looking for her. The sun would rise soon; they had been in the woods the whole night. Last night Katla had gone to take the wastewater out after the supper and she had never returned.

"Katla!"

Once again Kol tried to close his eyes and concentrate, why couldn't he sense her? She wasn't dead, she wasn't, that wasn't even an option. Something bad had happened to her, he was sure of it, but she was alive, she had to be.

"Katla!"

The first dim light of dawn hurt his eyes; he didn't need the torch anymore. Why hadn't he gone with her, why had he allowed her to go outside by herself in that hour?

"Katla!"

His voice was hoarse and he was exhausted, but that made no difference, he wouldn't rest before he would find her. His sweet Katla had never hurt anyone. She was a smart girl, even though she couldn't always express her thoughts immediately and she started to stutter if she was distressed. Their father usually didn't have much patience with her, but Kol did and she never had any problems expressing her thoughts to him. He never mocked or tried to rush her, sometimes they didn't need words at all.

They often went into the woods together to practice their abilities and it seemed that she would become a very powerful witch. The moments when they were alone and she was allowed to be herself without fearing judgment were clearly just as important to her as they were to him. Magic was a part of them both, a very important part, it made them whole. Kol took a deep breath and forced himself to concentrate again, he needed to find her.

"Katla…"

Suddenly he sensed her, he knew where she was. Despite of his exhaustion, he ran faster than ever before.

"Katla!"

He froze in shock when he saw her sitting on the ground, her legs curled up against her chest. Her clothes had been torn; she had bruises all over her body and cuts on her face. No…

"Katla…"

She didn't react to his presence in any way, obviously she was in shock. The look in her eyes was empty and she kept cradling herself.

"Sister…"

Quickly he took his shirt off and tried to wrap it around her, but that made her panic, she was whimpering like a wounded animal.

"Katla, it's alright, it's me."

She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms tighter around her; he had never felt so helpless in his life.

"Sister, it's me."

She didn't say anything when he wrapped his shirt around her and carefully placed his hand on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while until she finally opened her eyes. She was very calm now; there was no expression on her face. Very gently he lifted her up and felt how broken her body and mind was. Someone had done this to his sweet innocent Katla.

"I am going to need his name, sister," he stated, managing to sound unnaturally calm. Something very dark was beginning to form within him. She didn't say anything, she simply leaned her head on his shoulder. Right now he only cared about her wellbeing; that was the only thing that kept him from releasing his wrath and causing mayhem no one would have ever seen before. He had never felt such rage; whoever had done this would pray for death before Kol would be finished with him.