Alaric called me into his apartment Monday morning. I don't know why he still had it since he was apparently living with the Gilberts. Damon and Elena were already there and surprisingly so was Anna. The doppelganger and vampire were sparring.
"Just out of curiosity, why did you bring her here?" I asked.
"I'm not comfortable leaving her alone with Jeremy." Elena declared.
"I'm human." Anna argued. "It's not like I'm going to bite him or anything."
"It's more about the other thing that I know the two of you could be doing." Elena replied. Anna blushed a bright red and didn't seem to have a witty retort to that."
"So what is all this?" I asked.
"Mason showed us this cave that has a lot of old drawings on it." Damon explained as he blocked Elena's attacks. "We think that it can tell us about the Originals and ergo how to kill Klaus."
"I still think you made a big mistake awaking Mikael." Anna opined.
"Who is Mikael?" I asked.
"He's the Originals' father." Anna explained. "I can read the text, but I don't know what the pictures mean. I can tell you that I know of all of the Originals."
"So if we don't know what they mean, what are we going to do?" I asked. "Listen, I have soccer practice today and I need to know what we're doing."
"These images at the very least might tell us what that weapon is." Alaric replied as Elena and Damon stopped.
"Then all we have to do is find out what they mean." Elena deduced.
"Okay, but how do we do that?" I asked.
"I mean she's over 500 and can't tell us." Damon responded, referring to Anna. "We don't exactly know anyone else who knows this kind of stuff."
"Well if the story is about the Originals, we'll get it from the source." Elena declared.
Later, I was at my soccer practice. It turned that they were mowing the soccer field so we were practicing on the football field with the cheerleaders on the other side, meaning Rebekah was there. Elena walked over to her as she finished a cartwheel and I listened in.
"You." Rebekah stated. "Goody."
"I was hoping we could talk." Elena replied.
"About what?" Rebekah asked. "Stefan? Don't worry. I'm off him until he starts treating me better. Besides, I have to spend some time with your hybrid friend when she is done practicing."
Well apparently I would have to spend some time with Rebekah. I don't think she was someone I should say no to you. Yay me…
"In fact you should probably take a page out of my book if I'm being honest." Rebekah continued.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about these." Elena said as she produced some of the pictures. "I'm curious why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your father."
Rebekah looked terrified when Elena said that. She seemed to have a problem forming words too.
"I should get back to the girls." She replied. "Homecoming's right around the corner."
And I don't have a dress. I need to get one. Rebekah turned to walk away.
"Well then maybe I'll ask Mikael when we wake him." Elena stated.
That got the Original to stop in her tracks and turn back to Elena.
"You're bluffing." She tried to laugh it off. "You don't know where he is. No one does."
"So then who's rotting in that old cemetery in Charlotte?" Elena quizzed.
"If you wake Mikael we are all doomed." Rebekah declared. This guy sounded pretty bad. I hope he is on our side.
"So then tell me." Elena demanded.
"Why do you wanna know?" Rebekah interrogated.
"Why don't you want me to wake him?" Elena countered.
"I need to get back to the girls." Rebekah repeated.
"That didn't work so well." I told Elena after walking over.
"Don't be so sure." Elena told me before I went back over to my teammates.
After I was finished with practice, I changed into a spotted silver blouse and black jeans with a matching denim jacket. My hair was straightened. When I was done, Rebekah was there waiting for me.
"You're coming with me." She told me. "Don't make compel you."
"What are we doing?" I asked.
"Well the doppelganger wants to chat and you are going to join me." Rebekah explained. "Let's think of it as some girl time. In fact we are going to have a sleepover."
"Yay." I responded softly.
Rebekah took me to the boarding house. She had apparently gathered up the rest of the cheerleading squad and had them in formal dresses.
"Why are they here?" I asked.
"They're for when your friend gets here." Rebekah explained as she put on a mix of weird pop music. "I'm texting her now. Don't you just love texting? No one ever knows what you really mean because they can't hear you. Now help me into this liquor cabinet."
A little bit later, Elena arrived.
"Hey, what's up?" Rebekah greeted her, holding champagne. For someone had spent the last ninety years dead, she was adapting to the 20th century pretty quickly.
"You invited me over." Elena reminded her. "To talk."
"Alright, girls, have at it." The Originals ordered. At that time, the cheerleaders walked out in their dresses. I wonder what Rebekah planned on doing with all of those dresses. "Okay now twirl please."
"You compelled your own private runway show?" Elena asked in disbelief.
"I need a homecoming dress." Rebekah declared. Was she going to give one to me? "So what do you think? Pick one."
"I'm not here to help you shop." Elena responded.
"I like the red one." I told her.
"Well at least one of you is being cooperative." Rebekah stated before she looked at the girls. "Now go away. Leave the dresses behind. Remember nothing. Now let's make things clear. You will know what I want you to know and learn what I want you to learn."
From there, we went into Stefan's room. She interested in snooping around.
"How fun is this?" Rebekah asked. Not very.
"We shouldn't be here." Elena commented.
"Of course we should. Come on like you've never wanted to snoop." Rebekah replied as she pulled out a pair of his underwear. "Hmm, boxer briefs. Now that's a change from the 20s."
"I don't really need to know what kind of underwear Stefan wears." I pointed out.
"Are you going to raid through his stuff all night or are you gonna start to tell me your story?" Elena asked in irritation.
"You girls are no fun." Rebekah sighed. "What do you want to know?"
"Well Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe. How did you guys end up here?" Elena questioned.
"My parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland." Rebekah explained. "They lost a child to it. They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate."
"So how did you wind up here?" I asked.
"This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet." Elena added. Rebekah laughed at that. She knew something.
"Not by anyone in your history books." Rebekah clarified. "But my mother knew the witch Ayanna, who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy, blessed by gifts of speed and strength. That led my family here where we lived amongst those people."
"The werewolves?" I asked. I wonder if any of them were my ancestors. I didn't know my family history…well I didn't know it at all.
"To us, they were just our neighbors." Rebekah responded. "My family lived in peace with them for over twenty years, during which time my family had more children including me."
"You make it sound so normal." Elena commented.
"It was." Rebekah smiled. "Once a month, our family retreated to the caves beneath our village. The wolves would howl through the night and by morning we would return home. One full moon Nik and my youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch men turn into beasts. That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price. That was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors and one of the last moments my family had together as humans."
Rebekah let out a few tears but was interrupted by Elena's phone vibrating.
"You better get that." Rebekah told her. "That'll be Damon checking up on you."
Judging by the call, Damon was at some sort of bar and he had Stefan with him. He wasn't supposed to have Stefan with him.
Rebekah decided that she wanted to read Stefan's diary. If I didn't know better, I would think she was an actual teenager.
"Have you got your fill of snooping yet?" Elena asked. She was less patient than me. "Can we get on with the story?"
Rebekah pouted and threw the book on the bed before she got up and looked on the table.
"Honestly, I don't get you two as a couple." She remarked. That makes two of us.
"Why would you?" Elena responded. "You don't anything about who he really is."
"I know exactly who he is." Rebekah declared leaning towards us. "He's a vampire. We're a predatory species. We don't have times to care about humans and their silly little lives."
"Is that why you did that little runway show earlier?" Rebekah asked. "Because you don't care about the homecoming dance? You know what. I'm just gonna go."
No don't leave me here with her. She hadn't compelled me but I didn't want to give her the chance.
"You haven't even heard half the story." Rebekah pointed out. Yes, you haven't heard the story, Elena.
"And you're not going to tell it." Elena remarked. "You're just bored and looking for someone to boss around."
"I'll listen." I said.
"The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give." Rebekah stated, causing Elena to stop. "It belonged to the original witch."
"The one who put the hybrid curse on Klaus?" Elena asked.
"Not just the hybrid curse: she's the one who turned us into vampires." Rebekah clarified. "I'm thirsty. Either of you want a drink?"
"So vampirism was a form of protection?" Elena asked as we began to walk downstairs.
"What else would it be?" Rebekah challenged.
"A curse." Elena remarked. I don't know why everyone thinks being a certain kind of creature is a curse.
"My parents only sought a way of keeping their children alive." Rebekah told us.
"Yeah, but why stay if they were so afraid?" Elena questioned. "Why not leave?"
"Pride." Rebekah answered. "My father didn't want to run anymore. He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves. Where they could bite, we had to bite harder. Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses."
"In her hands?" I asked. "What could she do?"
"My mother was also a witch." Rebekah stated. "The witch of the original family: the Original Witch."
Okay, that made a lot of sense.
"Where do they keep their best vintage?" Rebekah asked as we entered the parlor.
"But if your mother was a witch…" Elena asked.
"Am I? No." She questioned. "A witch is nature's servant. A vampire is an abomination of nature. I learned a few spells, but I cannot practice them. You can either be one or the other, never both. My mother did this for us. She did not turn."
Rebekah took out a wine bottle. I wondered if it would be good.
"How did you turn?" Elena asked. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
"She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree: one of nature's eternal objects for immortality." The blonde said. "That night my father offered us wine laced with blood…and then he drove his sword through our hearts."
Yeah, I didn't want to know that.
"He killed you?" Elena asked in disbelief. Rebekah turned to face us.
"And he wasn't delicate about us either." She added before she broke the top off the wine bottle. Well that's one way to open it. "We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual. It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable, but the witch Ayanna was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us and nature fought back. For every strength, there would be a weakness. The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks, and though my mother found a solution, there were for problems. Neighbors who opened their homes to us could now keep us out. The flowers at the base of the white burned and prevented compulsion."
So that explains the vervain thing.
"And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away." She said. "So we burned it to the ground, but the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated: the hunger. Blood had made us reborn and it was blood we craved above all else. We could not control it, and with that, the predatory species was born."
"Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" Elena asked. I guess that was important.
"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene." The blonde responded. That was easy to figure out. "With that he became my father's greatest shame."
"Yeah, Elijah told me this part." Elena said.
"He didn't tell me." I reminded her.
"Klaus wasn't his son." Elena told me.
"She tried to make it right. She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side and she turned her back on him." Rebekah explained. Wow I didn't think I'd ever sympathize with Klaus. "But Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As a vampire, that was magnified. He went on a rampage and killed half the village. Then he came home and killed her."
"Mikael killed your mother?" Elena asked.
"He said she broke his heart so he would break hers. He tore it from her chest as Nik watched." Rebekah explained. "Afterwards, my father took off in a rage and the rest of my family scattered. Nik stayed so he could help me bury her. He knew I had to say goodbye to my mother."
"Always and forever." Elena repeated what she said. "Even though he locked you in a coffin for 90 years?"
"We're vampires. Our emotions are heightened." Rebekah stated. "I'm stubborn, Elijah moral, and Nik…Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. Over a thousand years as a family, we've all made that mistake at least once. I've made it several times."
"But you still love him?" Elena asked.
"He's my brother." Rebekah pointed out. That I understood. "And I'm immortal. Should I spend an eternity alone instead?"
That I couldn't argue with. That made me think. Did I really want kill him and strip this poor girl of the only family that has been able to count on?
"You've heard the story. It's time to go." Rebekah declared. I guess that meant no sleepover. Well I was glad for that. "I said leave. I have no idea what you two are up to but I am no longer playing along."
I grabbed Elena but she spoke.
"I am just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael." Elena declared. Are you stupid, Elena? Mikael sounds like he is very dangerous.
"I've given you a thousand." Rebekah replied. "But I know you will anyway. I know you want him to help you kill my brother. I'm not stupid."
"It's no secret that we want Klaus dead." Elena declared. Please don't drag me into this. "He has a hold over Stefan's life and over mine."
"Do what you need." Rebekah stated. "Wake Mikael at your own peril. Make no mistake. If either of you come after my brother, I will rip you apart and I get my temper from my father. Now leave."
Well that sounded unpleasant. I pulled Elena out the door with me.
Afterwards, Elena, Ric, Anna, and Bonnie went into the cave which I couldn't enter. I didn't want to wait so I waited in the cellar.
"There's something else." Elena told me after running out. "We need to go back to Rebekah."
I sighed and we went back to the boarding house.
"I thought I told you to leave: twice." Rebekah declared. She was drinking some whiskey.
"Elena has something to show you." I said.
"How do you know that Mikael killed your mother?" Elena asked.
"Nik was there. He told me." Rebekah replied.
"He lied to you." Elena declared.
"And how do you know that?" Rebekah asked. Yes, how did she know?
"The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols." Elena replied as she explained all of them ending with the symbol for hybrid. So I am a sun and a moon together. "And this is the story of your mother's death. The hybrid killed the original witch."
And there goes my sympathy for him.
"Not Mikael: Klaus." Elena explained.
"No." Rebekah denied. "No he wouldn't."
"She put the curse on him made it so he would be the only one of his kind." Elena replied. Until now that is. "And then she rejected him. With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence. When he turned, all of that was heightened. We killed her Rebekah and then he made up this entire lie about your father so he wouldn't lose you."
"These mean nothing!" Rebekah yelled. She was breaking down. "They're just stupid drawings done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was."
"Then why are you so upset?" Elena asked.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She asked us. "I've done nothing to you."
"Klaus killed your mother, Rebekah." I pointed out.
"He has a hold on you, on me, on all of us. He has for a thousand years. We have to make it stop." Elena shouted.
"Shut up! Shut up! Don't talk anymore." Rebekah yelled as she pushed Elena against a wall. From there, she fell to the floor and began to cry. I stayed with her as she cried. I don't know why I couldn't leave her. I knew why I wanted to kill Klaus. It wasn't for me. I wanted to do it for her.
This chapter is longer than the others. I had so much to put here. Never chapter will be the first time that Klaus and Laura really interact. Please don't forget to review.
