Chapter 11- 1350
-A/N: I'm back!
I'm so sorry for the long wait, of like 2 months. I really don't have any excuse, whatsoever. It's just that I kind of lost my inspiration to write. Like everytime I sat down to write, I got distracted and watched something or read something instead. And also school started again, so I've got a lot less free time on my hands. But I really want to finish this story and make you guys happy! I'll try to update a bit sooner next time.
Hint- reviews encourage and motivate me to write faster
And a shout-out to lunabloodmoon666 whose awesome review made me move my lazy butt and continue writing the story, and actually finishing the chapter! So make sure you guys thank her!
Warning: A little bit of torture in this chapter. Not very extreme, but nonetheless. And language.
Bella POV
I paused in the doorway of the Grill as I surveyed how crowded it was. It was almost full and the incessant chatter rung in my ears. I sighed and walked over to an empty booth and sat down, ordering some fries. Yesterday had been torture. I had seen Nik for the first time in over 500 years and gotten into a big argument about his hybrid curse. At least Rebekah had come with Nik and that was an upside. Rebekah was my closest friend, despite the fact she had been with Nik for the past 500 years and I hadn't seen her. Hopefully our friendship would be largely unharmed by those 500 years of no contact. The four of us, Nik, Elijah, Bekah and myself were a force to be reckoned with back then. The only thing stopping Nik from taking over the world was that we were trying to stay low to hide from Mikael. Even though he had been the one who had insisted on turning us into vampires, he had vowed to go to the ends of the Earth to hunt us down and kill us. Nik was always the most paranoid of us. We all lived in absolute fear in the first hundred years of our existence but after that, we gradually began to relax.
'Hi Matt!' said Caroline brightly, standing across the Grill, behind Matt. I looked up to watch the scene.
'Um, hi Caroline,' muttered Matt with much less enthusiasm.
'So are you doing anything tonight?' Even though Caroline was cheery, I could see that beneath it she was nervous and seemed a bit sad.
'Well, I have to, uh, work tonight,' said Matt as he grabbed some plates of food and delivered them to a table.
'Tonight? But you're working now and it's only afternoon! Surely you can't be working for the whole day?' continued Caroline, following Matt.
'Jeremy asked me to fill in for him tonight. You know, with Klaus in town and the sacrifice happening tomorrow and all.'
'How about Saturday then?' Matt turned around and looked at Caroline.
'Look; I still don't trust that potion that Elijah gave to Elena so unless we find another solution, Elena will be dead by Saturday!' his voice rose and a few people turned to look with confused expressions. He lowered his voice and continued. 'My point is that Elena could be dead by tomorrow and all you care about is trying to go on a date with me.' Caroline looked hurt by that comment, but he did have a pretty good point. 'I'm still trying to process all tis supernatural crap, okay? I need time to work this through. So could you just lay it off for a while? Please?'
'Well, if that's how you feel,' sniffled Caroline before turning away and running out of the Grill, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Matt groaned heavily and dumped the cloth that he had been holding down on the counter in his frustration. The guy serving drinks at the bar glared at Matt until he grabbed another plate of food and walked in my direction.
'Hey Bella,' said Matt as he placed a plate of fries on the table in front of me. 'You seem to be alive and unharmed. I dunno about the others but I for one was a bit worried about leaving you in the company of the big, bad wannabe hybrid.' I looked up at Matt and gave him a weak smile.
'Thanks. I take it Elijah told you about the real curse, the one on Klaus?' I superimposed.
'Um, yeah. He also, uh, told us about something else,' he said, visibly uncomfortable. I shifted in my seat, having a pretty good idea of what Elijah also told them about us.
'What would that be?'
'He said, that, uh, ….' His voice trailed off. 'Well, basically he uh, said that, um, youandKlausaremarried.' He said the last bit in a big rush. I looked down and picked up a fry, twiddling it between my fingers before eating it.
'And you're wondering how I could ever have loved someone like Klaus?' He turned a bit red and looked down at his feet.
'No.. Well, yes but you don't have to tell me,' he stuttered.
'No, it's okay. It's been too long; it'll be good to talk to someone about it,' I replied. 'You might as well sit down.' He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the bar before sitting down.
'When we were human, Nik was very different. We all were, really. Young, naïve, hopeful,' I began. 'They say that being a vampire only amplifies everything that you were as a human but doesn't actually change your personality. I agree with that statement because at first, our strongest traits were much clearer. Elijah's is honesty and honour, Rebekah's was her sense for adventure and discovering new things , mine is sympathy and compassion and Niklaus's was his love for his family.'
'Was?' questioned Matt.
'Allow me to continue. Becoming a vampire only amplifies who you are. But being a vampire can change who you are. We have lived for over a thousand years and seen many, many things. Those thousand years have made us so much older. We have also been in fear for a good proportion of our lives. Mikael hated Niklaus the most of out of us. I figured I was the safest because I wasn't actually part of the family. I mean yeah, they considered me part of it, but I wasn't his child and I figured I he wasn't going to look for me until he had killed all the others.'
'But Klaus wasn't his child either?'
'Nik was a living reminded of Esther's disloyalty. Mikael had also thought Nik was his child for most of Nik's human life, unlike me, where he knew I definitely wasn't his child. Being alive for even 80 years will change you as you come to realise things. Can you imagine how much a person could change in over a thousand years? Nik has had a hard life. Rebekah has also been changed. She still likes trying new things but from the way she acted when I saw her yesterday, I think she needs attention. When we were younger, none of the other girls in our village liked her, apart from me. The only friends she had were me and her brothers. But at the time, it was enough. In fact, it was enough for the next 500 years, but then things fell apart. When I first knew Nik, he was actually really sweet and nice and quite different to the person he is now. Now all I see is someone who wants power. He's so different form who I knew. He's willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get what he wants. Personally I think that his quest to become a hybrid is stupid and I don't want Elena to die for this crazy reason. He needs to learn that he can't always get what he wants. But…' My voice trailed off as I thought about what I was going to say. 'But I'm sure that the old Nik is still buried in there somewhere.'
'Why..' he swallowed. 'Why did you leave him? If you don't mind me asking.'
'It's a bit of a touchy subject,' I said tightly.
'Oh, I'm sorry,' he said in a small voice. When it looked like I wasn't going to say anything else, he started to get up.
'I always wonder what would have happened if I had made a different decision,' I said in a faraway tone. This caused Matt to stop and look at me. He sat back down. 'Maybe I would have been able to knock some sense into Nik. If I had made the right decision, you and your friends wouldn't be in this mess right now.' I looked at Matt and leant forward, looking into his eyes. 'It's just, well it's really hard to talk about this. You have to understand that I've never, ever, told anyone about this before. I'm still not over it but, well, with Elijah and Nik turning up here, I kind of have to get over it.' Matt nodded. 'And I would really appreciate it if you kept what I'm about to tell you to yourself for now.'
'Of course. I barely know you, Bella, but from what I do know, you don't shy away from things and you aren't afraid. So whatever this is, I understand. I won't tell.'
'Well the events began in 1349, in a small French village called La Bourborle in the southern region of France. There were about 500 people and they were all quite simple farmers. We had just moved there from Spain and nothing bad ever happened at La Bourborle yet they weren't suspicious at all by our arrival and the subsequent mysterious deaths of animals and townsfolk of nearby villages. One day, I wasn't careful enough when I was feeding and was almost caught.' Matt narrowed his eyes at that. 'I'm an Original so animal blood isn't enough to satisfy me and in those days, they didn't have bloodbags. I don't kill unless absolutely necessary and now I almost always use bloodbags,' I explained. 'So I had just finished feeding from a young man and had just compelled him to forget what had happened when a young man named Arthur walked into the clearing. I screamed and pointed at the bite marks on his neck. Arthur ran forward to support me and asked the man what had happened. The man was confused and said that he didn't know how he had gotten them. He was really confused and walked off in a daze. I was still whimpering from the shock of 'finding' that man so Arthur calmed me and put me on his horse. We soon became close friends, though I never told him what I was. I was sad that one day, we would have to move on and I would have to compel him to forget me. He was my best friend after Rebekah. At first she was jealous of him being my friend but she soon came to know him and they also became friends, though not as close as me and him. Our relationship was in no way romantic, or at least I wasn't interested in him. But it seemed that he had other ideas.
-Flashback-
1350, La Bourborle, Southern France
'That was so fun!' I giggled as I made my way with Arthur into the empty stables. 'The look on her face! Priceless! She'll never know it was us!' Arthur, my second best friend, walked in after me, laughing hard. He was twenty-two but was well-built as he had spent his life working on the farms. He had an olive complexion, a strong jawline and an off-centre nose that he had once broken in a fight. Dark brown curls floated just above his ears and rich brown eyes creased as he laughed care freely. He was wearing a plain grey tunic over simple black pants whilst I was wearing a pale blue flax linen dress.
'She'll definitely think twice before taking someone's horse again!' he said. We had just taught Lydia a very important lesson. Lydia was the village whore and the mean 'know-it-all snob'. She had been an hour's ride away from La Bourborle doing who knows what. Arthur and I had been out hunting, even though it wasn't the respectful thing for a lady to be doing. But did I care? No! I had been alive for over 500 years and I wasn't going to take orders from society! Arthur was perfectly fine with my sense of adventure and we were both pretty immature, running around and playing tricks on everyone. I ought to be married to some respected man and be his dutiful wife and Arthur should be busy farming and making money for his family. He came from quite a large family and was the second eldest of 8 children! His parents were not able to provide for such a large family and they were all working as hard as they could for money but when I came, I made sure that all changed. I went and had a little, shall we say, chat to the Lord who owned the village and next thing you know, Arthur's father was suddenly given a lot more money for his work. See, I valued human life and cherished it, seeing them as people rather than food. I fed as little as I could and when I did, I found the snobbiest and most unfair Lords and Nobles and fed from them.
So Arthur and I had just been returning to La Bourborle when we came across Lydia yelling at an old and haggard travelling man and were just in time to witness her pushing him off his equally old pony that was plodding along. 'Watch out were you're going! I am a respectable young woman and you are an old and dying man so you have to stay out of my way!' Lydia had shouted. It was then that the old man in question tried to intervene but she just brushed him off. She then gave his pony a good kick at which he gave a startled trot forward before plodding off to eat the nearby grass. I was fuming at how disrespectfully Lydia was treating the poor old man. So Arthur and I had decided to teach her a lesson she wouldn't forget. Lydia and her parents were very wealthy, as far as peasants go. They had a nice and decent home and her parents were fairly influential amongst the peasants. Whilst Lydia continued to throw a tantrum at the old man, Arthur and I crept silently over to where her horse stood just behind the trees, where Lydia couldn't see. We then pushed the horse away and ducked behind the trees as Lydia's horse galloped away. Lydia spun around and shrieked when she saw her horse running away. She picked up her skirts and tried to hurry after the horse. Unfortunately for her, she had been alone and at the rate she was going, she wasn't going to catch up to her horse. So it would be a rather long walk back to La Bourborle for her, or she would have to wait for the next kind person to come along. When she was a safe distance away, chasing after her horse, Arthur and I revealed ourselves to the man. We helped him up and I offered him my horse as a gift. As I was very wealthy, having had many years to build up my wealth, I had a few horses and could always get more. And she wasn't my favourite horse, so it didn't really matter. The man refused profusely, saying he couldn't possibly take such an extravagant gift but Arthur and I didn't let up. He finally gave in and then proceeded to thank us a great many times. When he had finally run out of thank you's, Arthur and I mounted his horse and we rode back, laughing.
'Well, someone had to teach her that lesson eventually, and we just helped to speed up the process of whenever that time might be!' I replied to Arthur in the barn. I suddenly realised that it was only my giggles that were ringing in the air. I glanced over at Arthur and saw that he was staring at me. My giggles slowly faded away. 'Arthur?' I questioned in a quiet voice.
'You're just so beautiful when you're happy,' murmured Arthur. 'It's like all your worries just disappear and the real Isa is uncovered.' I blinked. I hadn't been expecting something like that. He stepped closer to me, slowly, taking a few steps at a time. I then consciously realised that I was backed against a wall. I kept my gaze trained on Arthur, his eyes never wavering as he drew closer. I felt his warm breath on my cheek as he stopped walking, for he was almost pressed against me, our shoes touching. Green flecks glowed amongst his warm chocolate eyes, beaming out at me. I wondered how I had never noticed these before. I could see where his nose had been broken, could count every pore on his face. He reached up and brushed a stray curl of my hair behind my ear. 'Isa,' he said simply. Then his lips were on mine, gentle and caressing. For a moment, I just stood there and let him kiss me, dumbfounded. I would have expected this from everyone in the village, except for him. I mean, he was my best friend and he had never shown any signs of romantic interest before. Or had he? Had I just been too busy being caught up and relishing that I had a real, human friend who understood me and I could just have fun with? Well, I suppose, if you look at it from a romantic perspective, he had been making tiny advances in the past few months. Except if you looked at it from a best friend perspective, they could be mistaken as acts of friendship and kindness. I snapped backed to the present as his hands wrapped themselves in my hair and he brought my face closer. Wait, what? I wasn't even kissing him back! Hang on, I was. Not good. Why was I kissing him? I can't be in love with him! I'm already in love with Elijah and Nik! But even as I thought this, I could feel my mouth parting, my tongue pushing deeper into his mouth. Whilst my mouth may have been moving of its own accord, my hands were not. I pushed him away, causing him to stagger back a few steps. His face was a mask of confusion.
'I'm sorry, but I…..I ca..n…'t,' I stammered out. Since when did I stammer? His face fell and a look of hurt crossed his face. 'It's not you,' I quickly rushed on. 'It's just, that, I'm in love with someone else.' He blinked a few times as he processed this. But unlike others, he didn't look angry, hurt, sad, disappointed. He just looked at me with a plaintive expression and asked 'Who?' For an answer, I simply shook my head. He dropped his gaze. An awkward silence hung heavily in the air between us. We had never had an awkward moment before, making this just even more awkward.
'I, uh, need to get back. My parents are, uh, probably wondering where I, uh, am,' he stammered out in a rush. He face turned slightly red before he quickly rushed out the door. I stood there for another minute, replaying the events that had just happened, trying to make sense of them. Then I vampire-sped out of the barn and into the cool night air. I kept running until I reached the woods and all the sounds and scents from the village were drowned out. Only then did I relax. I breathed in the scent of damp moss, wood, clotted leaves, the musky smell of trees. The weak and watery scent of the blood of animals also filled my nostrils. I hadn't fed in quite a while so tonight even the scent of animal blood was very appetising. It would have been easy just to have lost myself in the hunt, but I couldn't take the easy option. I needed to think things through. I scampered up a nearby tree until I was perched on a sturdy but thin branch towards the top of the tree. I leant back against the trunk and stared out at the dull moon, its dim sheen doing little to illuminate the area.
What were my feelings for Arthur? Whilst I might be unsure about Arthur's feelings, I was fairly certain about mine; I loved Niklaus Mikaelson and Elijah Mikaelson. I didn't love anybody else. They were the loves of my life. There may have been a glimmer of a spark that flared when I kissed Arthur but no more. Not the soul-consuming fire that burned me from the inside when I was with Elijah or Nik. There was no way that I was in love with Arthur. I would have noticed it by now, wouldn't I? They would never be able to do anything that would make me forget my love for them, or ever stop loving them.
I had been perched in my tree for a few hours when a new scent reached my nose. The faint aroma of rich, intoxicating human blood filled the air. I pulled myself up straighter and looked around for the source. My eyes widened as I realised two, no three things at once. 1. There was a lot of blood, like a lot. 2. The blood was coming from the village. And 3. I recognised that scent: it was Arthur's blood. The panic that flooded my mind completely vanquished over my hunger. I leapt out of the tree and ran full tilt back to the village. Yeah, I may not be in love with him but he is my best friend, along with Rebekah. If anything were to happen to either of them, I would hunt down the people who did it and make their lives misery, before giving them a slow and painful death. Voices began to drift by as I neared the village.
'I'm sorry! I didn't know!' begged Arthur. Somebody must have pulled a dagger along his arm because his screams pierced the air and more blood spilled out.
'Well now you know,' said a voice I knew as well as my own. 'And you made a grave mistake earlier tonight,' continued the voice, tauntingly. Another scream. More blood. I urged my legs faster, seeing three tiny figures standing in a field in the distance. 'And once we're done with you, we're going to leave your body here for her to find, so she knows that she belongs to us, and only to us,' snarled the voice.
'Is that really necessary, Niklaus?' questioned a second voice. I almost stopped dead in my tracks because of shock of hearing that voice. Elijah! Niklaus, well, this behaviour wasn't a surprise. But Elijah! Then Elijah stiffened and glanced in my direction. Nik must also have heard because he paused in his movements. Almost there, a few more seconds.
'Well, we're out of time so consider this your lucky day,' hissed Nik. And with that, he plunged his hand into Arthur's chest and pulled out his heart. But Arthur's lips curved into a small smile as he saw me running towards him, just before Nik pulled out his heart. On his dying breath, he whispered 'Isa.'
'No!' I shrieked just as I caught Arthur as he fell towards the earth. Nik dropped his heart next to me as I crouched over Arthur's limp form.
'Come on. We're leaving the village now. Time to move on. Compel everyone to forget that we were here,' Nik said gruffly. I actually began to tremble in my fury. In a split second, I jumped up and shoved Nik into the nearest tree, not caring if the whole village heard.
'HOW COULD YOU!' I shouted at him. 'HE WAS MY BEST FRIEND. HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM LIKE THAT?'
'Are you sure about that? He seemed to be a bit more than a friend in the barn,' replied Nik calmly.
'HOW CAN YOU JUST STAND THERE AS SAY THOSE THINGS LIKE YOU DON'T GIVE A FUCK? IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT HE KISSED ME. I DIDN'T KISS HIM BACK!'
'Actually, you did. And it does matter. IT MATTERS TO ME WHO YOU GO AROUND KISSING! KISSING ELIJAH IS ONE THING. BUT ANOTHER PERSON, AND A HUMAN? I DO CARE!'
'YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T CARE! I DO NOT BELONG TO YOU, OR ANYONE! I BELONG TO MYSELF! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? YOU WERE GOING TO LEAVE HIS BODY THERE FOR ME TO FIND SO THAT I KNOW THAT I BELONG TO YOU!' My voice rose to a scream at the end.
'I LOVE YOU ISA, AND I AM NOT OKAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE KISSING YOU!'
'IT WAS ONE KISS AND I STOPPED IT AND TOLD HIM THAT I COULDN'T BECAUSE I WAS IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE ELSE! YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ME!' I suddenly lowered my voice to a deadly low hiss. 'You know what? I don't think that you really love me. If you really loved me, you wouldn't go around killing my best friends, the people who make me happy in life, and threatening to leave their bodies around for me to find so YOU CAN GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS THAT YOU FUCKING OWN ME! WELL GUESS WHAT! YOU FUCKING DON'T!'
'I DON'T LOVE YOU?! OH I DON'T LOVE YOU! WHO'S THE ONE GOING AROUND KISSING OTHER MEN? YOU! I DO LOVE YOU, WITH EVERY FIBRE OF MY BEING. YOU WANT ME TO PROVE IT TO YOU?' He roughly grabbed me and pinned me against a tree, his mouth roughly kissing me, his hands pulling at my hair. I shoved him off me and held him on the ground.
'That does not prove anything. What would prove your love is if you actually cared about my feelings and respected me!' At this point, Elijah cleared his throat to say something. I could hear people moving about in their homes, coming out to see what the fuss was about, muttering to each other. I also sensed that Rebekah had arrived and was watching the scene unfold. But I didn't care about any of it. I whirled on Elijah. 'And you! How could you do this? From him, this was not unexpected. But from you? I thought you were better. What about all your talk of virtue and honour? Obviously it means nothing to you; it is worthless, just as I am. Not only did you let him go along with this plan, but you helped him!'
'You know what you've proved tonight?' I continued. 'That you don't love me. You obviously don't care. And how can I love anyone who treats me like this, as their property, a plaything? TELL ME! HOW CAN I!' In any other situation, I would have been rolling on the floor in laughter at Nik and Elijah's shocked, scared and fearful expressions. But not tonight. Only one coherent thought could form in my head. 'You..' I swallowed. 'You don't love me, do you? You never have. It's all been a game to you two. For 500 years.' I said quietly. 'Well, you both fooled me well and truly, because I fell for it. But for no longer. Because tonight, you will finally be rid of me. Is that what you've wanted all along? Me to be gone? Is that why you killed Arthur tonight? To get rid of me? I thought I was actually wanted,' I said vehemently, as a few tears began to pool in my ears. 'Good riddance. I hope never to see you again,' I said softly before turning and running away.
'Isa! Wait!' shouted Rebekah. I felt a pang of guilt in my chest. Afterall, Bekah hadn't done anything to me. I turned around as Bekah rushed up to me.
'You either choose me, or you choose them,' I told her harshly. She looked crestfallen.
'I'm so sorry Isa, for what they've done. I understand why you need to leave but believe me when I say this: they do love you.' She looked down at her feet before meeting my gaze. 'And I'm really sorry but, well, they're my only family that I have. I hope you understand that,' she said in a small voice.
I nodded my head. 'Thank you Bekah, for everything. I understand. Let us one day meet again.' I turned away and walked off.
'Isa! Please!' begged Elijah. 'I'll do anything to prove that I do love you.'
'Don't worry. She'll be back. She just can't get enough of us,' replied Nik, almost drawling. So full of himself, brimming with overconfidence. 'You came back last time!' Nik called after me. But yet, even as he said it, you could hear that he was doubting himself, doubting that I really would come back. I fumed and sped off into the distance, wanting to put as much distance between myself and them as I could. At least Elijah had been trying to convince me that he loved me. Not that it worked, but he tried, unlike Nik who was still going around thinking that he owned me.
For the next hundred years, one thought and one thought alone stood out. My life revolved around that one simple fact. They didn't love me.
-End Flashback-
Matt stared at me, his mouth open in horror. 'They did and said those things to you! Did they not realise what they had, and just how easily they could lose it?' Then he realised that I had tears streaming down my cheeks. 'Oh Bella,' he said and moved to sit next to me in the booth, putting his arms around me as I sobbed quietly into his shirt. 'They won't do that to you again. I won't let them,' he said fiercely. I let out a small choked laugh as I imagined Matt trying to protect me from Nik and Elijah, the two big, bad originals. 'I've seen the way Elijah looks at you. He is very much in love with you. There is no mistaking it.'
'How?' I asked quietly. He gave me a small smile.
'It's the way I used to look at Elena, before all of this happened,' he said, gesturing around himself. 'And even though Klaus is a bastard and did some pretty horrible things to you, I don't think someone like him would have stuck around you for 500 years to just pretend to be in love with you. From what I've heard about Klaus, he doesn't exactly seem like the sorta fella who pretends to fall in love, if you know what I mean. Well, if anything good is to come out of this whole mess, of the sacrifice and all, I want you to be happy.' Catching my dubious expression, he continued. 'Klaus and Elijah really do love you.'
I stared into his baby blue eyes. 'Really?' I asked in the smallest voice. He smiled back.
'Really.'
-A/N: Finally! I started this chapter like 2 months ago and never got round to finishing it till today. It was originally meant to be a lot longer and include some other events but I figure that its already long enough and this chapter can just focus on what happened in 1350, which you've all been dying to know. So how was it? Was it up to scratch?
I actually had no idea until I started writing this chapter what was going to happen in 1350. I knew that something big and bad had happened to Isa to cause her to hate Elijah and Klaus but apart from that I had no clue. So sorry if it's possibly a bit inconsistent with the rest of the story: I know I would have changed a few things if I'd had this idea at the start of the story.
Who loved Matt! I know I did! So cute and nice and genuine and he gives me the warm and fuzzies!
By the way, there is no village/ town called La Bourborle. I just made it up. In case you were wondering.
And I know that they probably didn't have those swear words back in the middle ages but whatever. I needed some words to express her anger and I'd have no idea where to start looking for medieval swear words anyways.
And you know when Isabella was in the forest (in the flashback) after Arthur had kissed her? And then she smelt his blood from the village, even though I previously said that she couldn't smell or hear things form the village cause it was too far? Well that was because she hadn't fed in a while so her smell was particularly acute that night.
And please, please, please review! Reviews really motivate me to write more and make me feel warm on the inside. I really appreciate you taking your time to write a review. I love hearing what you have to say about my writing. And again, I'm so sorry for the long wait.
