A/N: Hello everyone!
Here's chapter nine! Sorry for not updating in like forever. I was busy with some other Klamille fics. If you hadn't, please check them out and tell me what y'all feel!
I hope you like this one!
Enjoy!
"Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths."
― Criss Jami
Klaus was dictating his memoirs in the study while he drank bourbon from a tumbler. As he spoke, Cami transcribed him on a typewriter and the noise of typewriter echoed through the room. She was only half listening now, she knew what he wanted her to type, it was always the same tale. He always thought that everyone was betraying him.
"They have all forsaken me. My siblings are as deceitful in disease just as my parents ever were. Accusing me of using my baby for my own gain, trusting others before their own blood," Klaus spoke, and Camille inwardly sighed as she made a mistake. Now she had to put fluid on it.
"Oh," She spoke, tired and frustrated,"Would a laptop kill you?" She was really getting sick of using the typewiter. Who the hell used typewriters in the 21st century? Klaus might be old fashioned, but she certainly was not.
"That typewriter was good enough for Hemingway." Klaus quipped back.
"I see the resemblance. Booze and random acts of violence." Camille spoke back with the same fire.
"Elijah and Rebekah have cut to the quick with their vicious lies about me. And all I've done is tried to win this battle of wills over Marcel's control of the Quarter in order to reclaim our home." Just then he looked at Camille, who had stopped working,"Type, please!"
"What's the point?" She asked, finally letting all the pent up frustration out,"You just repeat the same thing over and over again. Rebekah's out to get you. Elijah's out to get you. Is there anyone who isn't plotting your downfall?" Camille asked but didn't wait for an answer,"I doubt you trust your own reflection."
"You know, if the daggers weren't missing, I would put one in each of their hearts, rid myself of the burden of my siblings for a couple of centuries." Klaus spoke, with a soft smile playing on his lips as the thought crossed his mind.
"Look at you!" Camille interrupted his imagination,"Repeating the same destructive cycles over and over again. You are the architect of your own unhappiness." Her voice now more calm and collected.
"I don't remember asking for your advice." Klaus told her as he slowly walked toward her.
"Oh, really?" She asked, laughing, leaning back on the chair to get into a more comfortable position,"So, of all the people in New Orleans, you choose someone with a masters in psychology to record your life story. You're over a thousand years old. Pretty damn sure you know how to type," Camille then got into her psychologist mode,"The truth is, you compelled me to come here because you have no one else to talk to, and you want to be understood. Then, you compel me to forget everything as soon as I leave your presence because you are too scared to trust." Camille was being truly honest with him because why else would he compel her to forget about him?
"I'm scared of nothing." Klaus spoke in a warning voice and Camille tensed for a moment. But then Klaus directed his gaze away from her, and it fell on a sheet of paper on the desk next to Camille. He examined it, it had an elaborate circular symbol written on it, with a black bold marker.
"What is this?" He asked, with amusement.
"It's an ancient mystical plot I'm using to destroy you." Camille spoke in a voice that was void of any emotion. Klaus glanced at her, clearly frustrated, and she rolled her eyes before telling him,"Relax, it's a tattoo design."
"Draw on your own time." Klaus told her as he folded the paper and kept it on the desk again.
This got Camille's anger back again,"This is my time." She spoke as she got up from the chair, now face to face with Klaus,"You steal it from me!" She said poking him on the chest. Klaus just stood there not speaking anything, just looking at Camille, so she decided to pack up her things, then she stormed out of the room.
Klaus still stood there moments after Camille had left, there were a few people who knew who he was and would dare to talk to him in a high voice, and that was the thing about Camille that indulged him. But as Klaus stood there, his mind was occupied with only one question. Why didn't he killed her for disrespecting him? He would have had it been anyone else?
So, why didn't he kill her?
Was the bad Klaus Mikaelson growing soft?
That too, at the hand of a human girl?
Father Kieran was sitting in the pews when he saw Klaus come in and sit in the row behind him. "What do you want?" He asked tired, but his hate for the creature sitting next to him clear in his voice.
"It's Poitín." Kieran turned to look toward him,"It'll raise the dead, kill them, and raise 'em again." Klaus said offering Kieran this drink he was just having. And he fully expected a rejection. But to this surprise Kieran took the flask and drank silently.
"I'd like to talk to you about your niece, Camille." Klaus started after Kieran returned the flask back to him,"I'm sure you suspect this already, by the gaps in her memory" He paused,"I compel her. At first, it was because she was a useful spy, but now, for her own protection." Klaus spoke truthfully. He did not want his enemies to know about his weakness, but he knew if his weakness was Camille, Father Kieran won't do anything. He loved his niece too much for that. So, Klaus let himself be vulnerable in front of his enemy for Camille.
"I assumed a vampire was messing with her mind. Though I never anticipated a confession." Father admitted.
"She won't leave things be. Her mind churns with the permutations of what happened in this church when her twin went on his slaughter spree. Now, if she finds out what really happened, that the vampires and witch hexes were involved, she will dig and dig and dig until she digs too deep and gets herself killed. New Orleans will be the death of her." At this father K, turned to look at Klaus with a frown on his face,"She needs to leave and, as ironic as it may seem, I believe it should be her choice." Klaus spoke turning his gaze away from Father K, but the emotions in his voice were clear.
"Yes. It is ironic discussing free will with a mind-controlling vampire." Kieran spoke somewhat rudely.
Klaus sighed and bowed his head. The he spoke again,"She's a clever girl." He said with a smile on his face, remembering what had transpired that morning,"She gave me a piece of her mind earlier today." At this even Kieran smiled,"I would have killed others for less." Suddenly Klaus' voice turned serious,"I care about her survival. I smell war in the air, and with every war, there is the innocent victim who could have been spared if they had just walked away. Please, convince her to walk away from New Orleans." He pleaded, his voice taking a choking tone.
Kieran nodded slightly in agreement,"Or, I'll be forced to compel her to go." Klaus spoke and held Kieran stare, letting him know that he was serious.
Cami was at her twin brother Sean's grave, scrubbing graffiti off of his headstone, when Father Kieran found her.
"I was on my way home. Saw you duck in here. I knew exactly where you'd be." Kieran said.
"It's getting old." Camille told him as she turned to look at him and paused her frantic scrubbing,"It's the second time this week."
"Third." Kieran told her,"I cleaned it off the day before yesterday." He didn't plan on telling her this, but he thought about what Klaus had said. And as much as he hated to say it, the Hybrid was right.
Camille groaned in frustration and threw the cloth to the ground angrily saying,"It's pointless. I just do it again."
"Folks need time to heal. Sean killed innocent people. No one's getting over that any time soon." Kieran spoke as he went forward to look at "KILLER" written across Sean's grave and Camille went to stand behind him,
"I think..." Camille spoke, frightened,"I think I'm losing it like he did." Kieran immediately turned to look at her,"I found this in my pocket." She showed Kieran a paper with an elaborate symbol drawn on it,"The lines- it's a secret code Sean and I used to use when we were kids." She frowned,"I have no memory of drawing it. Something's not right, I just can't figure it out." Camille spoke sadly.
"Come here. Oh.." Kieran stepped toward her and gave her a tight hug,""Maybe..." He paused,"You should leave town for a while. Give your head some space. I know your dean." Camille started shaking her head, but Kieran continued,"You could put your thesis on hold."
"I can't. This means something. I just don't know what." Camille looked up at Father Kieran with tears in her eyes.
"Not everything has meaning. Sometimes you just have to let go. You should leave New Orleans. This town isn't for everybody. Please." Kieran pleaded and Camille looked at him with a defeated face.
Camille was sitting on one of the church bench, waiting for her uncle to come so she could speak with him.
"I figured it out." Camille turned to look at him when he sat beside her,"The note. I was thinking about it. My lost time, my foggy brain. I thought I must be going crazy like Sean. But then I thought: What if somewhere in my subconscious, I was trying to send myself a message?" She showed the paper with the code to Kieran,"I was."
Kieran looked at the piece of paper, where the code has been translated into "KLAUS PICAYUNE 1919"
Camille took out a cutting from the folder she had with herself,"I found this in the Picayune newspaper archives from 1919." She handed the sheet of paper to Kieran; this time, it was a newspaper clipping,"Look at this photo."
In the photo, Marcel, Klaus, and several other people are posing in front of the New Orleans Opera House. Kieran looked uncomfortable with his revelation. He knew what was coming next.
"Those men, I know them. I know both of them." Camille spoke and Kieran turned to look at her with a frown.
A/N: So, how was it? Liked it? Hated it? Share your views! I would love to hear them! And also don't forget to follow/favourite!
Next chapter: S01E09: Camille tries to make sense of cryptic messages she's come across and is disturbed when she gains some insight into Klaus' past. Klaus compelled Cami to leave New Orleans in order to keep her safe.
