Hello, everyone. Sorry about how long it takes me to update. Lots of things going on. On with the show…
Chapter 4: Babysitting on Halloween?
When Hayley's best friend, Cami O'Connell, had come up with the idea that they should become babysitters to make quick cash, Hayley had been reluctant. She just didn't want to have to spend her Friday nights and weekends stuck in someone else's house, taking care of their snot nosed kids. But when she saw the car of her dreams at a dealership she had to admit that Cami's idea wasn't so bad after all…
This was how Hayley found herself, rocking on her heels, waiting for her latest job to open the door. They lived in this huge place, looked like a compound, with a sprawling gate and an intercom. Who in the hell lived like this? Rolling her eyes, Hayley was greeted by a blonde woman coming toward the gate with a smile. "Hello, dear. You must be Hayley," she greeted Hayley while unlocking the gate and swinging it open.
"Yup. That's me," Hayley replied, feeling like running when the woman closed the gate behind her.
"I'm Esther. We spoke on the phone earlier in the week. My husband, Mikael will be down in a moment. He's talking to the children." Esther was telling Hayley when they spotted a man in a tuxedo making his way down the stairs with a frown. "Mikael, this is the babysitter, Hayley."
Mikael came to stand before Hayley, sizing her up with a glare. "You will be here until we come back. There will be no boys on these grounds. The children are allowed one piece of candy, each. They can watch one movie. And their bedtime is 9:00 p.m. sharp. I do not enjoy repeating myself. Understood?"
Hayley nodded. "Sure." She waited for Mikael to move and could only stand like a statue as he continued to glare down at her.
"Yes, well, we should be off then," Esther murmured with a smile. "Have a good night, Hayley. And if you get hungry I made sure the fridge was fully stocked and you can order out if you like. I'll be happy to reimburse you," she continued as Mikael mumbled something under his breath.
After a long moment of silence, Esther took Mikael's arm. "Have a good night, Hayley," the woman called with a smile and Hayley nodded before closing and locking the gate behind the couple.
This was so weird, Hayley thought ruefully as she trudged up the steps. Why hadn't she talked Cami into ditching Will for the night and joining her at the Mikaelson home? There were rumors about how weird the kids were and it was no wonder with a dad like Mikael and a mom like Esther.
Walking up the stairs and along the hall, Hayley peered inside the windows, looking for signs of life. Seeing nothing, she sighed. "Great, maybe there are no kids," she muttered when a shape darted in and out of one of the windows.
"Hey! I saw you!" Hayley shouted.
"Ha, ha!" a child's voice rang out. "You'll never find me," the voice cried out, louder, and then a teenager Hayley's age sprung out from the end of the hallway.
"Agh!" the child cried when the older boy tugged him out from his hiding place and threw him over his shoulder. "Run, Niklaus!" the little boy shouted. "'Lijah's got me!"
"I'll find you, too, Klaus!" Elijah shouted, winking at Hayley before setting the younger boy down on his feet. "Kol, it's not nice to scare the babysitter."
"Yes, it is! That way she knows we like her. We only scare people we like. Right, Bekah?" Kol called to a little girl of about seven who came out of her hiding spot and wrapped her arms around Elijah's long leg.
"Yes!" Rebekah cried before she came barreling toward Hayley. "Hello, I'm Rebekah Mikaelson. Charmed, I'm sure," she said and then let out a giggle.
"She learned that from our mother," Elijah told Hayley who was smiling down at the tiny princess.
"Elijah, I'm gone," a tall, blonde called as she came out to kiss Elijah on the cheek before flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Ah, you must be the babysitter. Don't let this one fool you, he's no more innocent than the rest." the girl said, pinching Elijah's cheek. "Finn, we're going to miss the party!"
"Coming," Finn shouted, running out in a pirate costume. "Niklaus stole my sword, Freya," he complained.
"And? Just tell people that you don't need one," Freya retorted with an eye roll.
"What good is a pirate without a sword?" Finn moaned.
"For goodness sake, Finn. Do I have to do everything myself?" Freya demanded. Shaking her head, she shouted, "Niklaus. Come here, right now, before I call father!" She tapped her foot, checking her cell when a young boy with unruly curls came running out to join the group. "Klaus, give Finn back his sword," Freya ordered the boy who shook his head.
"I can't!" Klaus replied with a shake of his head.
"Why not?" Freya asked.
"Because I need it to protect Bekah from the ghosts," Klaus explained.
"Klaus," Freya knelt down so they were eye level. "There are no ghosts," she said gently.
"Yes, there are. I saw one this morning. And so did Henrick," Klaus argued, folding his arms over his chest.
"Klaus, Henrick is still a baby; he sees what you tell him to see. And it's not nice to scare your little brother," Freya admonished. "Sword. Now!" she held out her hand. Klaus reluctantly relinquished the sword to his older sister who handed it off to a smug looking Finn. Something told Hayley she was happy that these two were off to a party. Besides they were older than she was and they would probably think they had more rights over the children which would mean she would get in trouble for whatever they did.
"Have a good night, children," Freya called, leaning down to kiss each of the younger kids on the head. She linked arms with Finn and they left.
Sighing, Hayley looked at Elijah. "So, I guess it's you, me and these three," she said with a smile.
"Four," Elijah corrected. "Henrick is in his nursery. The last time I checked he was asleep, but knowing Klaus, Kol and Rebekah, they probably woke him."
"No, we didn't," Klaus argued, shaking his head and then peering up at Hayley. "You're pretty," he said before ducking behind Elijah's leg.
"Thank you, Klaus," Hayley said, feeling amused by the ten year old's shyness.
"You should marry Elijah. Then you could come live with us," Rebekah told Hayley's whose eyes widened.
"Rebekah," Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sorry. She tells all the babysitters that. She told the last one that if she didn't marry me she would curse her with warts. I think she resents there only being two girls in a family of predominately boys," Elijah explained as they walked into the house and toward what Hayley presumed was the nursery.
"No, I don't. And I didn't like the last babysitter. She was mean. She made us eat all the green stuff and didn't let us play," Rebekah fumed, pouting as she followed Klaus with Kol trailing behind them.
"We scared her off with frogs in her soup," Kol shouted and Hayley looked to Elijah.
"They were fake," Elijah added with a long look in Kol's direction who was shaking his head vigorously.
"No, they weren't," Kol shouted before running back down the hall.
"Should I go after him?" Hayley asked when they were outside the nursery to find a sleeping three year old.
"Kol has a tendency of going off by himself. He'll return of his own accord," Elijah said calmly.
"But what about the ghost?" Klaus argued with a glare directed at his brother.
"Klaus, there is no ghost!" Elijah snapped.
"Is too," Klaus shouted, his eyes brimming with tears before he took off down the hallway. That was all it took for Henrick to wake up and wail.
"Should I go get him?" Hayley asked, looking down the darkened hall after Klaus.
"No, he's prone to tantrums when he doesn't get his own way. It's best to let him go, for now," Elijah shook his head, walking over to collect Henrick who was hysterical. "It's okay. It was just Klaus," he soothed the youngest child who looked at Hayley with wide eyes.
For a long moment there was no noise and the place was eerily quiet; then the intercom buzzer rang, making Hayley jump. "Dear God," she shouted, causing Henrick to wail again.
"It's just the buzzer. Probably some kids looking for treats," Elijah reassured her. "There should be a bowl in the great room." Getting up, Elijah set Henrick on his feet before walking downstairs. They found the bowl and made it outside when the buzzer rang for a fourth time.
"Anybody home?" Will shouted from the gate. He was dressed up as a cop and Cami was Hillary Clinton. "There they are," Will told Cami who beamed at Hayley.
"Hey, Hayley! We thought we would check up on you, make sure you're not in over your head," Cami said when her gaze settled on Elijah. "Oh," she grinned at Hayley and then returned to Elijah. "You don't go to school with us, do you?"
"No. We're homeschooled," Elijah informed the perky blonde.
"Cool. Can we come in?" Cami asked.
"I'm not supposed to have boys over…" Hayley trailed off, looking to Elijah who shrugged. "But since Elijah is the man of the house I think he can invite you in," she smiled at him and he nodded, pulling the gate open.
"Great. Vincent texted me like half an hour ago and said he's got two other kids that he's taking around the neighborhood and might drop by if that's okay?" Cami added and Elijah just smiled. "Cool. Well, I guess we can check out your house. I hear it's haunted and we went to a few haunted houses and they all sucked. No thrills and certainly no chills!"
"There are no ghosts here," Elijah told them, his friendly demeanor wearing off quickly.
Cami's eyebrows rose. "Okay. I'm sorry," she fell into step with Hayley as Will began to talk to Elijah about The Walking Dead. "What's his problem?"
"His brother is determined that he saw a ghost and Elijah's a little sensitive to the subject," Hayley whispered to her friend.
"Right. I'll keep that in mind," Cami replied when Klaus re-appeared with Kol and Rebekah. "Oh, look at you three. Aren't you the cutest?"
"No!" Kol shouted. "Babies are cute. We're scary!"
"What's scary about a princess?" Klaus snapped at Kol, waving at Rebekah who stuck her tongue out and then stepped on Klaus' foot before running off.
"Rebekah?!" Hayley called after the tiny, blonde child who had been consumed by the family home. Straining to see through the darkness, Hayley could not see a hint of the girl anywhere. She was the worst babysitter ever.
"She's fine," Elijah tried to reassure Hayley who wrapped her sweater more tightly around her body.
"If you say so," Hayley muttered unhappily. She trudged inside the house while Klaus and Kol talked a little too quietly to each other while trading looks and then looking back at her and Cami. "What are you two up to?" Hayley asked the two Mikaelson boys.
"Nothing," Kol chirped, smiling up at her, revealing a missing front tooth.
"Right," Hayley turned to Cami who looked amused.
"Some teens would be at home making out with their boyfriends," Cami said wistfully looking at Will. "Then, there is my boyfriend, who wants to scare himself, and me, half to death this year." She chuckled on her way inside the house. "Wow. This place really is huge."
"Can we have candy?" Henrick cried, suddenly in front of them and both girls jumped.
"Yes," Hayley answered, picking the child up. "But your dad said you can have only one piece."
"One?" Will's eyebrows shot up. "What kind of Halloween spirit is that?"
"Yeah. That sounds kind of wrong," Cami added and Hayley groaned inwardly. When those two put their heads together they usually got Hayley into more trouble than she would ordinarily be in on her own.
"Can we have more?" Rebekah cried, climbing out from under a chair, her mouth already smeared with chocolate.
Cami and Will grinned at Hayley who rolled her eyes before answering with her own. She looked to Elijah who looked hesitant until Hayley grabbed a Milky Way and unwrapped it. Moving toward Elijah, she held out the treat for him, placing it just in front of his lips. When he opened his mouth to take a bite, Hayley pulled it just out his reach and then placed it within his reach again.
"Candy!" Kol shouted when Will handed him three pieces. Klaus was the next to hold up his empty palms with an expression of awe.
Hayley was so entranced by her game that she barely noticed when Will tried to hand Klaus a fourth piece of candy. "Hey!" Hayley called to her friend with a frown when she felt Elijah's hand close on hers. Her head spun to take in the sight of his lips covering her fingertips. "Oh," she sighed as he freed the piece of chocolate from her.
"Who wants pizza?" Will asked the kids with his cell in hand.
"I do," the Mikaelson children shouted, jumping up and down.
"Okay. I'm going to order like… three… or four? Vince said he's got two rug rats with him and that makes six little kids and four teens. I'm thinking like four," Will was talking to himself as he dialed a number.
When the buzzer rang again the entire group headed down to find Vincent, a boy close to Klaus' age, another boy and a girl who were both around Kol and Rebekah's age. "Hey. Am I late?" Vincent called from in front of the gate.
"Nope," Hayley told him while Elijah unlocked the gate.
"Nice place you have here, man," Vincent told Elijah who smiled in return. "This is Marcel Gerard and his sister, Davina, and her friend, Josh."
"Hi there," Hayley greeted them. "This is Cami, Will, Elijah, Klaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henerick," she pointed to each as the other three children looked back at them.
"Is there candy?" Josh asked.
"Yeah," Kol cried, giving Davina a long look and then turning to the other boys. "Race you!"
"Wait for me!" Davina cried out and to Hayley's surprise Rebekah took the other girl's hand and they ran off into the house.
"This is going to be fun," Hayley said loud enough for Elijah to hear her and smile.
Once they got inside the house they found that the children had yanked the candy bowl down from a table. "More?" Rebekah looked around and spotted the bags that Marcel had brought with him. Marcel's head shot upward and he looked thoughtful. He got up and crossed the floor before returning to the circle that the children had made. Dumping the contents of the bag, he began dividing up the spoils amongst the other kids. "Lollipop ring?" he asked Rebekah who giggled when he placed it on her finger.
"Whoa, guys, don't eat too much of that junk. I don't want ya'll puking on my new sneakers," Vincent called to the kids who ignored him. "Great! This is your fault, Will, my man."
"Or it's your fault for not going with us to find a haunted house. 'Yeah, Will, I need money for college. It doesn't pay for itself,'" Will imitated Vincent who shook his head and grabbed a mini Snickers bar.
"Pizza's here," Cami yelled when the buzzer went off. "I'll get it."
"Not by yourself. There might be a serial killer looking for high school girls with liberal political leanings," Will called, chasing after his laughing girlfriend.
"So, how's this been going for you?" Vincent asked, nodding at the general surroundings and then stopping on Hayley who titled her head.
"It's not so bad. I have some nice company," she smiled at Elijah who she swore blushed in the poorly lit room.
Vincent yawned and plopped down on a couch before speaking again. "Yeah. You two want some privacy. I think I can handle these guys. Just pop in a movie and -"
"Scream. Halloween 2000. Dracula," the kids yelled their choices at Vincent who looked confused at their taste.
"How about Bambi," Hayley suggested to eight stony faced mini adults. "Or not. Whatever Vincent agrees to. No arguing," she ordered and then she took Elijah's hand. Pulling the Mikaelson son upstairs and out onto a balcony, Hayley felt as shy as Klaus had acted earlier. "So…"
"So…" Elijah repeated and then let out a nervous laugh. "What would you like to talk about?"
"How about why it is that people rarely see anyone from your family set foot off these grounds. Tell me that's not a little weird?" Hayley questioned Elijah who seemed amused.
"My family is fairly reclusive. Actually, Halloween is our favorite night because it allows us more freedom of movement, if you will," Elijah explained while Hayley frowned. That sounded kind of odd but she had no idea what exactly about his words had the hair on the back of her neck standing up.
"Okay. So how long have you and your family lived in New Orleans?" Hayley asked and Elijah seemed to be thinking about the question.
"We lived here for a time. Years ago. We only returned recently," He looked down at Hayley with a slow smile. Reaching down, he cupped her check. "Hayley," he said so quietly she could barely hear him.
"Yes?" Hayley replied, her breath catching.
"Can I kiss you?" Elijah asked. He didn't give her time to formulate a response before his lips pressed gently to hers. For a second Hayley froze and then she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fervently. They had been kissing for at least five minutes, or maybe it was fifty when there was a cough and Hayley looked up to find Cami who was grinning like an idiot at her.
"The pizzas are getting cold," Cami told them, her eyebrows raised as Hayley smirked at her. Taking ahold of Elijah's hand, Hayley led him past Cami with a barely audible "Not a word," directed at her friend.
"My lips are sealed," Cami said and they returned to the main group. Vincent looked exhausted as Will came in with Klaus and Kol under each arm. Rebekah and Marcel were playing hide and seek while Davina and Henrick had fallen asleep in front of Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp and Cristina Ricci. "Seriously, Vincent?" Hayley turned off the TV to the complaints of Kol and Klaus. "You two weren't even watching it," she told them.
"So?" Klaus asked, struggling to free himself from Will's grasp.
"What do we have here?" Freya's voice boomed through the room with Finn at her side. "Didn't father make it perfectly clear that there were to be no other males in the house, no extra sugar and no staying up past nine? It's ten-thirty!"
Hayley's mouth dropped open. "Oh. I'm sorry… I. Uh," she couldn't think of a reasonable excuse for the chaos.
"I suppose I'll just have to kill you. And them," Freya said calmly, looking around the room. "This is going to be such a mess."
"She's kidding," Elijah said loudly. "Yes, Freya?"
Freya stared back at him for a long moment and then rolled her eyes. Smiling at the now wary guests, she held up her hands. "That's my thing. I joke about murdering uninvited guests," she told them. "So, where is my candy?" Taking a seat on the couch across from Vincent, she sent him a chilling smile.
"Here!" Klaus piped up, offering his sister a Crunch bar. She took it and then looked at the TV.
"And what, pray tell, are you watching?" Freya questioned the children.
"Bambi," Henrick said, all innocence and cherubish looks.
"Right," Freya shook her head. "Fine. Be like that. I'll just have to clean up this mess. And it is time for you to say good-bye to the babysitter, alright?" she asked her siblings.
"Not yet!" Rebekah cried. "Don't make them go. Please!"
Freya stood with her hands on her hips, staring down at the little girl. "Fine. They can stay until sunrise. Then they have to go."
At some point Hayley fell asleep during Halloween 2000. When she awoke she found that she was curled up next to Elijah. She also noticed that her friends were missing except for Vincent who was asleep on the couch with his charges sprawled beside him. Yawning, she got to her feet and found Cami and Will upstairs, curled up on one of the guest beds. "Come on, guys, it's time to go," she called.
"What time is it?" Cami asked groggily.
"Like 5:45 a.m.," Hayley replied, rubbing at her own eyelids.
Walking back down the stairs, she only stopped when she heard Will let out a startled cry. "Oh, God!" he yelped. Hayley spun around to see Freya hanging from the bannister with a rope around her neck. "She's dead!" Will yelled at them.
Hayley ran down the stairs to find Elijah. He was still lying on the floor, only this time she could not mistake the nothingness in his gaze and the blood on his shirt. "No, Elijah! No! Someone help!" Hayley shouted when Will and Cami came running. Vincent jumped to his feet from the couch he had been sleeping on, startling the kids.
"What in the name of God?" Vincent cried.
"Shit!" Cami moaned. "We need to go. We need to go!"
"Where are the other kids?" Hayley gasped. "Klaus! Rebekah! Kol! Henrick!" Getting to her feet, Hayley ran for the stairs only to be cut off by Will.
"Hayley, Cami's right. We need to go," Will said but Hayley shoved him out of the way and ran up the stairs. What she found in Klaus' room made her stomach turn. The little boy was lying in the tub, his face blue. "No!" Turning away, Hayley ran back down the hall. None of the other kids were in their rooms.
Running back down the hallway she went on a room to room search before she found Finn with a butcher knife sticking out of his neck. Shaking all over, Hayley finally found the basement. Entering it, she moved down the stairs where she found three little coffins. She didn't need to look. She already knew. Finally allowing Will and Cami to take her back upstairs, she felt the first glints of the sun's rays touching her face when she realized that the gate was wide open.
Looking around, Hayley spotted Esther and Mikael as if they had never left. Each was sporting holes in their heads and Esther held a gun. They were grey and Hayley screamed when Vincent grabbed her by the waist and half-dragged her out through the gate and far from the house.
Six weeks later, Hayley was walking by the Mikaelson compound after school. She noticed that there was what looked like a teenage boy standing on one of balconies, waving at her. And then he was gone. "Want to play with me?" A voice called, bouncing a ball toward the gate.
"Not today, Rebekah. I have to study for my mid-terms," Hayley called, shouldering her bag. "Maybe tomorrow," she added to the sound of child-like laughter as a strong breeze sent her hair flying.
So, I was considering developing this into a longer story. Let me know whether you would read a longer version.
Thank you for reading, faving, following and for reviewing.
Answer to guest review:
Lee143: Thanks for the support and I am sorry about how long it took to update. I hope you enjoyed this one.
Peace,
Jessica