So this is it guys. As I said at the beginning of the journey, this will not have a 'happy ending', but it will be finished. See you at the bottom!
Isabella's smile was acid. "Oh, so you do know me." She laughed. "And do you know my sister?" He swallowed, nodding.
"Yes." Isabella's smiled disappeared. She punched him. He went sprawling.
"So why? Why didn't you just compel her? Why did you have to kill her?" Her chest was heaving. Her eyes burned.
"So what?" spat Klaus. "I have killed more people than days you've been alive. What does one more matter? Her death was one in thousands!" He stood and faced her.
"She was my sister." Her voice boomed. "You may be able to get away with killing other people's relatives, like dear Elena's; but not mine." She blurred to him and drove a stake through his chest. She knew it wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt like a bitch. He roared, shaking her off. Isabella soared, flipping to land on her feet. The grass cushioned her fall. He rose his hands, muttering "Now" under his breath. Isabella laughed.
"Don't bother. They are already dead." Her fingers flicked and all twelve hybrids surrounding the clearing fell, their hearts lying beside them. Turning, she strode over to Caroline. She grasped her head in her hands, squeezing.
"Wait!" cried Elena.
"Elena, no," growled Damon. He struggled against his restraints, only succeeding in the vervain tipped thorns digging further into his skin.
"No, Damon. I can't let this happen. Take me instead. Don't hurt them, or anyone else. Take me." Enzo and Isabella laughed at the same time.
"Oh dear Elena," mocked Enzo. "You're already gonna die. Besides," he tossed a smirk to Klaus. "your death doesn't affect Klaus. Hers does."
Isabella smiled and turned to Klaus.
"Her death will be one in thousands," she smiled. A branch fell from a nearby tree. It rose, stripping until it was shaped as a stake. Isabella held her hand out and it flew into her hands. She drove it into Caroline, not too far to pierce her heart, but just enough to graze it.
"No! Wait!" shouted Klaus. His eyes were wide. Isabella cocked her head to the side. Her eyes were dead. "Kol is alive." Those three words sent a shock down her spine, a chill. Her hand froze, her mind froze. Everything stopped. Leaves hung mid-air. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she shook her head.
"I don't care." Klaus looked desperate.
"Yes, yes you do. You…you loved him. And that night, I took your sister and your true love. I…" his eyes widened. He swallowed. "No." Isabella smiled cruelly. Enzo looked confused, as did both Salvatore brothers. "No, Isabella, you didn't. Tell me you didn't." His voice was pleading, the most vulnerable anyone had ever heard him. "Tell me she's fine!" He banged on the barrier, absorbing the shocks. His eyes, dear God, his eyes held pain.
"She couldn't fight. She was helpless. She cursed you, though. Said you drew of me once and clammed up when asked why." A soft smile caressed her face, making her once more look angelic. "She died painfully. Felt every moment as her life was drained before the flames engulfed her. And she was so pretty…guess she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Realisation dawned for everyone. Damon looked sullenly at Klaus, pity shining in his blue depths. Stefan looked down, pain lapping at his heart.
Klaus crumpled. He couldn't bear it. He could bear any of his other sibling's death –with the exception of Elijah- but not his sister's. Rebekah was with him throughout it all, stuck by his side through all of his ridiculous ideas.
And now she was gone. Forever.
Isabella's smile drained from her face. She went over to Klaus. She grabbed his hand, gently, almost like a forgotten lover still harbouring feelings. She brought him to his feet, and continued to hold his hands. He looked at her, confused. He didn't have it in him to kill her. He couldn't do it anymore. It was his violence that brought his sister's death. He couldn't continue.
"If you want me to kill you, then forget it." His voice was soft. His eyes held unspeakable sorrow.
"I don't want you to kill me, Niklaus. I did not kill your sister. She is at home, doing some online shopping right now. I won't harm Caroline." Klaus' eyes widened, his mouth hanging open. Damon sputtered, Stefan's head snapping up. "I am not you, Klaus. I do not kill unnecessarily. I do not continue wars. I am better than you. I…" Her eyes shone with unshed tears. Her voice warbled, and her façade disappeared. Everyone saw the scared girl, the one who lost her sister to a monster and the one who was fuelled by revenge and vengeance. Everyone saw the innocent girl who had fallen in love with an original, only to have her love ripped away from her. "I am forgiving you, Niklaus Mikaelson. For your unspeakable crimes and for taking away anything that was ever good in my life. I forgive you."
A single tear rolled down her face. The pain was palpable. Klaus choked back a sob, looking down at the ground to hide the tears that pooled in his eyes. The relief he felt made his shoulders sag, the lifeless spark that had drifted into his eyes disappear and was replaced with hope. He'd never heard those words before. I'm forgiving you. It was strange, and more foreign than the actual adoration showered upon him by Caroline. He looked up at the witch, seeing the crestfallen fall of her shoulders.
"NO!" roared a voice. Enzo marched over to Isabella furiously, grasping her shoulders. Klaus went to defend the small girl but was pushed, smacking into a tree and slumping to the floor. "You promised!"
"I promised you closure, Lorenzo," Isabella explained calmly. "I promised you freedom from the hatred that you carried in your chest. I promised you that Damon wouldn't live a day without remembering what he did to and what you did to him. That is what I promised you." Enzo searched her face, eyes wild. He shook his head, muttering "no" over and over.
"No. no, no, no!" He blurred over to Elena, and seized her head. Isabella blurred over to him. "Don't come any closer, Bella. I'm going to snap her neck and be done with it." His knuckles were white with the grip he had on the brunette. She cried out in pain, tears rolling down her round face. Damon shouted from beyond the barrier, blue eyes wide in terror. Stefan, too, struggled helplessly.
Suddenly, a fire went up. The heat licked at everyone, singing the hairs on their arms. The flames rose high into the air, towering above the trees. Isabella cried out, crashing to her knees. The pain, the screaming torment of each plant devoured by the fire screamed at her, etched itself into her core. This was her curse. This, despite all the power she held, this is what could kill her.
Bonnie's eyes glared at the vampire gripping her best friend's head. He was sent to his knees, clutching his own head in his hands. Her chanting grew along with the fire, Isabella's screams rising in intensity. Klaus, finally able to clamber to his feet. Shouted for her to stop. The vines binding the Salvatore's withered and died, releasing them. No barrier remained intact.
Damon raced forward, releasing Elena of her bindings, while Stefan made quick work of manipulating the metal chair Bonnie was bound to. Meanwhile, Klaus freed Caroline.
"Bonnie, take down the fire," he urged, clutching Caroline to his chest. The witch shook her head.
"No! These two came here with the intent of killing us, of torturing you! I'm not about to let them go and do that again." Isabella cried out louder.
"Please!" pleaded Caroline. "You're killing her!" Isabella's screams suddenly cut off. Her body lay limp, almost lifeless. The grass pulsed, colour rolling out through the forest. Moss enveloped the dead hybrids, flowers blooming.
Enzo screamed out when a branch fell on him. The flames stopped then. Klaus pushed Caroline behind him, looking over to where Isabella lay. She was still. Bonnie swayed on her feet and Stefan barely managed to catch her. "Is…is she dead?" whispered Caroline. Klaus shook his head.
"I don't know. But I hope to God she isn't." Elena was trying to console Bonnie, tears streaking down both of their faces. Klaus strode over, heart sinking with each step he took on the blackened land.
Isabella lay angelic. Her hair was a halo around her pale face, eyes closed as if asleep. Her cheeks lacked the tinge of pink, chest unmoving. All was still, and in a gesture befitting the occasion, the heavens opened up. Rapidly approaching footsteps had everyone on everyone tensing. Damon groaned, blurring over to Elena's side. "What now," he grumbled.
Kol emerged from the tree line, disgruntled. His eyes were wide, leaves, dirt and twigs stuck in his wild hair. "Where is she," he whispered. His eyes raked over the entire clearing, from the fuming Enzo to the sobbing Bonnie. His brother came into view and he didn't hesitate to rush him. "I said, where the fuck is she Klaus!"
Klaus looked away, at Isabella's lifeless form, unable to meet his little brother's gaze.
"I…I'm so sorry." His voice cracked at the end, blue eyes filling with tears. Kol growled before following his line of sight. Everything melted away. He hadn't taken notice of the brown and dying land. He didn't even take heed of the residual smell of burning grass in the air. There she lay, just as beautiful as the first and last time they met. Her hair almost blended in with the grass, skin unnaturally pale in contrast.
Kol fell to his knees, hands ghosting over her form. His lips trembled as his heart tried to reject what his eyes were seeing and what his head told him to be true. "No." The tortured word seemed ripped from him, full of agony, pain. His hand rested on her cold cheek, shaking his head. "No! How…who…" He was lost for words. His vision swam before being taken over by red.
"WHO DID THIS!?" he boomed. Klaus looked taken aback. His brother was spoilt rotten, and was used to getting his own way, but this came nowhere close to the tantrums he usually threw. Damon shifted so he shielded the Bennett witch and the doppelgänger, protecting his brother in the process.
"Kol, it's nobody's-"
"The hell it isn't! She would just…just…die!" He was distraught and desperate. At this point, there was nothing- nothing he wouldn't do. He was past the point of caring. "Who was it?"
"She was trying to kill us, me, your brother! She had it coming," spat Bonnie, twisting out of Stefan's grasp and ignoring Damon's hissed warning of "Bonnie!" Kol turned on her, face changing. Before anyone could act, he had her by the throat and against a tree. She tried to hurt him but he didn't writhe in pain like expected; the pain of Isabella's death had already ripped through him, already taken away his will to live.
"I'll kill you," he hissed in her face. She flinched, tears streaming down her face. "I'm going to kill you slowly, while you feel the pain of every single cell bursting, every tissue tear before ripping your heart out and feeding it back to you."
"No, you won't." He froze, eyes wide. Damon watched, wide eyed, with a sobbing Elena behind him. Klaus held back Caroline while Stefan frowned beside Elena. Slowly, he turned, dropping the witch in the process.
"Isabella," he breathed. She smiled, gliding towards him. The ground around her sprouted to life only to die the second she moved.
"Hello, my love," she smiled. He smiled, going to grasp her hands in his. When he felt nothing but air, he looked up at her, bewildered.
"Why can't I feel you?" he whispered. She smiled a sad smile, cupping his face in her hands. He sighed, leaning into her touch.
"You already know the answer to that, Kol." He shook his head, eyes hardening again.
"No. No it…it can't be. You're not…you can't be." Tears swam in his eyes, threatening to fall.
"I am, Kol. I am dead." He ripped out of her grasp, furious.
"No! That's not fair! I was so close. So close! And then she has to go…you have to…I won't lose you again."
Everyone watched Kol scream at air. The only difference to it was that it seemed to glow, and they couldn't miss the spontaneously sprouting flowers and the grass which had retained its colour.
"Kol Mikaelson! You listen to me and you listen to me well. I am dead, and there is nothing, nothing," she raised her voice when Kol went to speak over her. "that you can do about it. What you are going to do, is live. You are going to make the most of every single day that you have, if not for you, then for me. You're going to make nice with your family and one day, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month, maybe not even next decade, but someday, you're going to find someone who makes our love feel like nothing more than a crush. One day, you'll wake up and find it doesn't hurt so bad. Until that day, I will not leave your side. I'll be right here," she touched her hand to his chest, "and right here," she tapped his head, "forever and always."
Kol tumbled to his knees, and Isabella went with him. They embraced, no more words needed. A gaping hole was left in Kol's chest, but he knew that with time, he'd heal. He'd never forget her, of that he was sure, but like she said; maybe one day it won't be so bad. With that thought, Isabella rose, kissing his cheek softly before disappearing.
That's all, folks. I am open to making a sequel with a plot twist, so if that's something you want then just drop me a review or message me privately. Leave me a review to let me know what you think and whether or not you liked it.
-Channie.B