A.N.- Please keep up the support and review! If anyone has any suggestions on things you wanna see (well, read technically) then please PM me or leave them in a review. I'm sorry this is kind of a short chapter. Anyway, enjoy :) (WARNING: not a happy chapter)


Song: Trading Yesterday - Shattered

The fire of determination burned bright in her baby blue eyes. She struggled to put words to the feeling that filled her soul. She could feel it in her bones; the end was near. Not her end, but the end of her misery.

The only thing that had kept her going all these years was the thought that one day she could reach into Charlotte's chest and tear her heart from it, watching the life leave her eyes - the life that she had stolen not only from Belle and from Max, but from Belle's daughter, Lilith. She remembered it as clearly as she had centuries ago.

Bewildered and without her wits, Belle rushed around anxiously as she tried to find her daughter. Belle had searched the entire village twice and still found no sign of her .

She ran out to the forest in hopes of finding her daughter there, alive and well. Terrified more than likely, but still alive. Her worst fear came to life when she stumbled across a familiar smell - blood. Fresh blood. Alarmed, she ran as quickly as she could in its direction.

The sight she stumbled upon was one that would haunt her for all on eternity. Her precious, innocent little Lilith was keeled over at the edge of a clearing where they would always go to pick wildflowers in the spring. As though she were in a trance, Belle walked over to the horrific sight. With each step, more and more of the scene came into her view. Lilith's once perfectly white dress was stained with bright crimson blood; the blood was everywhere. It had spilled out onto the earth below and onto the tiny pink and purple flowers she had once loved.

Belle knelt down and picked up her lifeless body, looking into her deep brown eyes. Belle had always adored her eyes. They always had a glimmer of child-like wonder in them that was awe-inspiring. But, when Belle looked into them in that moment she saw nothing.

Belle cried out to her, wishing that she would wake up, but knowing that nothing could save her. She was gone.

Tears cascaded down her face as waves of agony crashed over her. She rested her head on Lilith's unmoving chest and shut her eyes, longing to hear her steady heartbeat and gentle breathing to lull her to sleep so she could wake up from the nightmare that her life had suddenly become.

After nine-hundred years, she still hadn't woken up from that nightmare. She hoped that avenging her daughter's untimely death would open up a new chapter of her life; a better one. One where she could once again find the complete happiness she hadn't known since her human life.

It was nearly 4 a.m. when she arrived at the Mikaelson's. She had checked Josh's apartment a half-hour earlier, but it was empty. The front door was locked, so she broke off the doorknob and forced her way in. She stomped through the courtyard and into the living room where she found Josh sitting on the couch with Max, with several respective inches between them, and Marcel sat in a chair across from them. They spoke quietly among themselves, but fell silent once they noticed her lurking in the entryway.

"I need to talk to Josh." She wasn't in the mood for conversational foreplay. They all stared at her, confused. "Now." She raised her voice. Her eyes were locked on Josh's now slightly terrified ones.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Marcel shifted in his seat to look at her.

She rolled her eyes. "To talk to Josh, obviously."

"Why?" Max demanded, crossing his arms over his chest as if to somehow intimidate her.

"None of your business."

"Still keeping secrets, I see. And from your own brother. Tragic," Klaus boomed from a few feet behind her as he descended from upstairs.

She clenched her fists, debating whether on if she should punch him or not. It was obvious that she wanted to. She cursed under her breath.

"I'm guessing your over the little tantrum you had earlier. Why else would you be here?" Klaus smirked arrogantly.

She walked further into the room, trying to get away from him. "Get off your high horse, princess. The world doesn't revolve around you." She threw a dangerous look in Klaus' direction before returning her attention to the matter at hand. "Now, Joshua, all you have to do is tell me where she is and we can all move on with our lives. Okay?" Her voice was as threatening as her glare.

Josh stirred under the pressure. "I - I don't know who you're talking about." A single bead of sweat dripped down his temple.

She rolled her eyes. "You're a horrible liar. You know who I'm talking about, so just tell me. I'll get it out of you one way or the other. Now talk." Her patience was wearing very thin.

Suddenly, it seemed like Josh's discomfort and fear escalated to full on panic. He shot up from his seat and tried to run out of the room. Unfortunately for him, Belle was much older and therefore much faster. She ran and caught him by the throat, slamming him against the wall so hard it shook the entire room.

"I've had a really crappy couple of days and it'd really make me happy if you would just make things easy and tell me where it is I can find Charlotte. Okay?" A small, sick smile crept onto her face, which was twisted in frustration. She was exhausted and out of patience.

Josh squirmed under her grasp. "I can't she'll kill me!"

"Not if I kill her first."

Max ran up behind Belle and pulled her off Josh. She then turned her anger on him. "Stay out of this, Max."

"I'm trying to stop you." He placed a firm hand on her shoulder, holding her in place.

"From what?"

"From doing something you'll regret."

She scoffed at him. "You're quite a few centuries too late for that." She grabbed his hand and forced it off. "My whole life is basically a series of doing things I regret."

Max looked confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing." She turned to Josh. "You're not off the hook. Talk, or I'll do things worse than death to you."

Josh swallowed hard.

"Since when are you opposed to killing? You seem to have no problem massacring a good number of vampires over the past few weeks you've been back," Marcel said.

Belle turned to Klaus, her expression a combination of anger and confusion. "You didn't tell him?"

"Tell me what?" Marcel turned to Klaus.

Klaus shrugged. "Must have slipped my mind." He gave one of his common guilty playing innocent looks.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have the time or the patience to get involved in your damn drama. Sort it out among yourselves later." With a sudden burst of energy, she pushed Max out-of-the-way and jammed her fist into Josh's chest, getting a tight hold on his heart. He gasped in pain. Practically bipolar, her emotions quickly changed to a blinding rage. "Where is she?"she screamed in his face. If anyone in the compound hadn't already been woken up by the commotion, they would have definitely been awoken by her outburst.

"She's at the docks at the edge of town. She's been moving around from place to place ever since you showed up."

She could see in his eyes that he was truly afraid for his wasn't the only thing she saw. She saw her own reflection mirrored in his eyes, staring back at her with the same fury Josh and everyone else around her did. She then realized what she truly was. She had forgotten it over the years, or maybe just ignored it, but in that instant it was an undeniable fact. Just like the Earth is round and the sky is blue, she was a monster.

She suppressed the crushing feelings of self-loathing that crept out from the darkest corners of her mind and released Josh from her grasp, unharmed. "Now was that so hard?" She turned around to the shocked faces of Max and Marcel, and the more disappointed face of Klaus. "After I've paid Charlotte a little visit, I'll be out of you lives for good. So don't worry." She hid the angst in her voice and wiped the blood off on her jeans before walking out of the room with her head held high.

On her walk home, the image of Klaus's face was stuck in her mind as though it had been super-glued there. That was probably the worse thing; knowing that she had disappointed him.

Somehow, she managed to hold herself together until she reached the familiar comfort of her apartment. She closed the door softly and slid down to the floor, pulling her knees to her chest as a flood of tears poured down her face like a dam had burst.

She felt like she was a child again, helpless. She could practically hear her mother saying, "What's wrong with you, Belinda?" For most of her childhood she had felt like nothing more than a nuisance, a burden, a waste of space. Worthless. "What's wrong with me?" Her voice trembled.

She sat on the floor until the sun started to rise when she was overcome with exhaustion, both physical and emotional. With what strength she had left, she pulled herself up from the floor and went to bed. She would need her strength.