Present Day
With leaping steps Davina rushed along the quickest path to the cemetery. It was further than she remembered but she didn't dare to slow down. What if anyone had seen her leave? Would they be suspicious? Her chest hurt from the cold night air. Now she regretted that she hadn't prepared this part of her plan. In a situation where she had to retrieve someone from a grave, she'd probably need a shovel.
Only as she entered the tall iron gates of the cemetery she allowed herself to stop for a second. She hurried along the small paths between the graves, looking left and right every few steps. It was quiet around her. That was good. She had never been in this part of the cemetery but she had an idea where the grave she was looking for could be. The weird event that happened in the 1920s, where many witches had died, had been publicly declared as a mass suicide. Davina knew that this wasn't true. But she knew that everyone that had died that night was buried in a vaul in one corner of the cemetery.
To her relief the small gate to the vaul wasn't locked. She pushed it open with more loud creaks that she had hoped for. With determination she stepped down the stairs to the vaul. It took a moment for her eyes to adapt to the darkness. Some moon light glimmered inside through a small window on top of one of the walls. She could make out the general shape of the room and recognized the marble wall to her left that was divided in squares with small stone boards with names on it. Still, it was much too dark to recognize anything. She took out her phone used it as a weak source of light. Then she walked over to the name boards and shone her small light onto them. Hurrying, she passed from one to the next, realizing that they were all strangers. Until suddenly her heart made a leap. She had found the name she was looking for.
Her fingers surrounded the marble wall that was in front of her and her short lived feeling of success disappeared again. If there were any remains of Briony left they'd be behind the marble wall behind that name tag. The marble was heavy and didn't move. She had no idea how to open that. Suddenly digging up a grave without a shovel seemed so feasible. She turned around and lit up the other parts of the vaul to look for anything to break the wall open. It was discouraginly empty.
"Davina?" she heard a male voice say.
Her blood froze. She spun around and her phone fell to the ground. Although it was dark she could recognize who it was.
"Louis?" she said, trembling. "What are you doing here?"
"The better question is, what are you doing here?" he said, while holding up a flashlight.
The light startled Davina's eyes and she held up her hand for cover. She hesitated. What could she say to get out of this?
"I don't know what you mean," Davina lied. "Why are you following me?"
Louis waited for a second, as if he hoped that she'd give a better reply to his question. Then, what seemed out of patience, he said: "I've been suspicious since this morning, why you would help after all that happened. And you have to admit, you running away right after that big spell failed is suspicious. That's why I followed you. So again, what are you doing here? In a crypt in the middle of the night? Do you know what happened?"
She considered him for a moment. There was no lie she could think of that would explain all this. No, she had only one choice and tell the truth.
"Do you think what we tried to do tonight was good, Louis?" she asked. "I mean, do you want to resurrect someone who kills all the vampires?"
"What has that to do-"
"Do you?" she interrupted him. She wasn't sure where she got this new found courage from. "Do you want all of them dead?"
He sighed. After a pause he replied: "I mean it's a bit extreme, yes. But there is no alternative."
"Yes, there is," Davina replied quickly.
"What?" he asked.
"The solution is in there," Davina nodded towards the marble wall she had been trying to open.
Louis directed the flashlight to the stone wall, unimpressed. "What are you talking about?"
Davina hesitated. Telling Louis everything could go really wrong.
"I know why the spell didn't work," she began.
"Yes?" Louis said, taking a step closer, pointing the flashlight to her again.
"It didn't work because Niklaus didn't kill his mother. I don't know why Freya believed that, but she was wrong. That blood couldn't resurrect his mother. Instead it worked on someone else."
"Who?"
She nodded to the marble plate. "Her. She was a witch. She was killed when power heap was created."
"Oh," Louis said, and he looked around, realizing what vault they were in. After his moment of realization he turned back to Davina: "But why didn't you tell the coven about this?"
Davina shrugged her shoulders. "I…" she tried to put the words together. To be honest, she had a hard time to explain why she hadn't told the coven. She didn't trust them, yes. She was sure they'd change their minds if they knew that spell resurrected someone else. That resurrecting someone who wouldn't be willing to kill the vampires was not good enough. It just seemed so unwise to tell them. But then, she realized now, it wasn't very wise to think that she could handle all of this all by herself either.
"I think," she tried again, "that the witch in here doesn't want to kill the vampires, because she was their friend. But I know she has the powers to keep them away from New Orleans."
"That doesn't explain why you didn't tell anyone."
"Do you think the coven would be fine with this? They are dead set on killing them. They would have never gone through with it. But one day they'll thank me for this."
Louis observed her for a while. After a long pause he said: "First of all, I don't like this." Then he asked: "You think it actually worked? That there is someone alive in there right now?"
With a worried face he looked back to the marble wall.
"Pretty sure," Davina replied.
"I'm not saying I'm helping you," Louis said, "but if there's actually someone in there we should get her out right now."
Davina nodded. Then Louis turned away from her and scanned the room with the flashlight. He stopped at the iron gate they both had entered. One of the iron bars was broken and sat loose in its socket. Louis pulled it out. Davina was impressed. He was much more practical than her.
He handed her the flashlight. "Point it to the marble plate," he directed.
Then he smashed the bar at the edge of the outstanding marble plate. For the first few hits it didn't move at all. Then after another several blows it began to crack. And without any further warning the marble plate suddenly came loose and smashed onto the ground, and broke into many pieces. The shattering noise echoed through the vaul. If anyone else was in the cemetery, Davina was sure, they'd have heard them now. After the dust had settled she pointed the flashlight into the dark hole in the marble wall that was left behind. The head of a dark dusty coffin sat further down in the small tube of the marble wall.
"Alright," Louis said, mostly to himself it seemed.
Then he stepped closer to the hole and carefully began to pull out the coffin. After carrying out a third of its length, he said: "You have to help me if you don't want it to smash to the ground."
Hesitantly Davina put the flashlight on the ground and walked to the hole, ready to hold on to the coffin. Now that the coffin was before her, the whole thing felt much more real. As Louis pulled further, she held on to the coffin, trying to be as far away from it as possible at the same time. Part of her was scared that someone was jumping out of it any second. Or what if they opened it and they faced some rotting skeleton? Both sounded terrifying.
They slowly placed the coffin on the ground. Immediately Davina picked up the flashlight again. Being the source of light at least gave her some confidence. They both stared at the closed coffin. Then they looked at each other.
"Do you wanna open it?" Louis asked.
"After you," Davina replied.
Louis shook his head, but slowly knelt down nevertheless. With one last deep breath, he pushed it open. At the same time he sprung up again, getting into safe distance. Davina shook from the fast motion but forced herself to look and keep the flashlight focused on the coffin.
Then she saw her. The body in the coffin was intact, not rotten at all. The woman in the coffin looked perfectly fine, but had her eyes closed. As if she were sleeping. The dress she wore was dusty and greyish, as if it had been packed away in a box for hundreds of years. Davina scanned her face. She was breathing. Yup, although she wasn't moving, she was definitely alive.
Louis too stared at Briony in disbelief. "I guess you were right."
1800, Maligrad, Lake Prespa
There were times where the siblings ignored the actual reason why they had resurrected their mother and were just happy she was there. But when the discussion of immortality came up the tension rose again. Several weeks had passed and Esther hadn't moved away from her initial reaction.
Even Nik had to agree that it was useless to keep bringing it up and let her be instead. Maybe with time she might turn around, and they still had some time left. He traced the paths around the island again, trying to keep his mind occupied. He walked up to the cliffside until he reached the edge of the island. As he had walked up he had already seen Elijah standing there, looking out on the wide lake. Until now, Elijah had been the most patient with their mother, but him being here so far away from the house suggested otherwise. His look was focused and somewhat skeptical. As Nik reached him, he still had his eyes on the water. Before Nik had the chance to say anything, Elijah already turned to him.
"There's a boat coming our way," Elijah said and nodded to the distance.
Nik saw it too. It was a small rowing boat with two figures on it.
"Wait, is that -" Elijah suddenly exclaimed.
Nik saw it too. One of the figures looked very familiar. It was Finn. How did he even know they were here?
They ran down to the beach as the boat was steering that way. Shortly after the boat arrived in the sand. Only now Nik realized that the other person in the boat was Flora. He had to admit he wasn't happy to see his brother, and he had the impression that Finn felt the same towards him. As they clung out the boat, Finn gave a small nod into his and Elijah's direction. Nik wasn't sure what to do with it. If Finn thought that they were expecting him he was wrong.
A second later Rebekah pushed Nik to the side, rushed by him and stopped only just before the boat.
"Finn!" she exclaimed and hugged him.
"You got the message!" she added.
"Wait, you contacted him?" Nik asked, confused and angry.
"Someone had to do it," Rebekah replied with a matter of factness. "This is too important to just exclude him from it."
"Is it true then?" Finn asked seriously.
Rebekah nodded. Then she pointed to the edge of the beach from where Esther came walking towards them. Finn's face sank and took a step back. After a moment of realization he rushed towards her. Rebekah followed him. Flora stayed rooted at the spot and looked at Elijah and Nik. She still looked at the same as 50 years ago. Then, without saying anything, she too followed Finn, but at a much slower pace.
Nik and Elijah looked after them and watched Finn's reunion with their mother from afar, both of them too baffled to speak. Finn seemed happy to see their mother again. Of course he was. Finn would have never helped resurrecting their mother. But now that they had achieved their goal, he was here to relish in their victory. Self-righteous prick, Nik thought.
He wasn't surprised that Rebekah had wanted to contact Finn. But he was angry at someone else who obviously had helped her. He left Elijah standing there on his own, and passed by the others without giving them another look.
He rushed up the beach and over the hillside until he found Briony sitting in the front of the small house.
"Did you contact Finn?" Nik exclaimed, as soon as he reached her.
Briony looked up, unabashed.
"Good morning to you too."
"You have something to do with him being here, don't you?" he said again.
"He's already here? That was quick," she replied.
"Why would you even contact him?" he asked her angrily, trying hard to restrain himself.
"Because Rebekah asked me to."
"Even after you heard me and Kol talk about what a terrible idea that is?"
"I wasn't aware that your opinion matters more than Rebekah's."
"That's not… You know how she is. Of course she wanted to contact Finn. But Finn will never help us with the immortality spell. He will only make things more complicated."
Briony observed him for a second. Then she said: "Nik, how does your mother feel about the immortality idea so far?"
"What does this have to with anything?"
"It's not that unfounded to get Finn here. He might be against immortality right now. But he doesn't know yet that he is actually going to die. I could imagine that could give him a change of heart. And more importantly, for whatever reason, he's your mother's favourite. Him being here could turn her around. Maybe she doesn't want to save you from death, but maybe she wants to save Finn."
"Don't presume to know Finn better than I do, just because you met him once for a few weeks. I know him and he won't just change his mind. For all I care, he just got his biggest wish served on a silver platter."
Briony shrugged. "I did Rebekah a favour and you have to deal with it. It's too late now anyway. He's already here."
He found the others back at the chapel in a similar position after they had just resurrected Esther. Only now, Finn was there too. As Nik entered the chapel, they all turned to him quickly. After a moment they picked up the conversation again without paying more attention to him. Nik felt like he was intruding in their conversation. Hesitantly he stepped inside and took a seat on a window frame.
"You can't be serious," Finn said to Rebekah, wrinkling his nose.
Then he turned to Esther. "You're not considering doing this, are you?"
Nik was astounded that they already had told Finn the whole thing while he was gone so quickly.
"I've been trying to explain that dying is a good thing -" Esther replied, but Elijah cut her off.
"No decisions are made right now. We're still discussing until we find something that we can all agree on," Elijah said with determination.
Nik knew that he meant until Esther and Finn would agree to prolong the spell. It was best to keep it vague for now. Rebekah agreed loudly. Nik observed the whole group. Flora sat besides Finn with crossed arms. She didn't seem to be interested in the conversation. Avoiding any eye contact, she leaned back in her chair, partially excluding herself from the circle. From time to time she gave Esther a contemptuous look.
"What's wrong with her?" Nik whispered to Kol, who sat close to him.
"Finn said she wasn't looking forward in meeting the woman who created vampirism. Apparently she still hung up about that," Kol replied.
"Really," Nik said in disbelief.
Flora looked back at him, evidently having heard their conversation. She gave him the same contemptuous look she had given to Esther and then resumed to looking at the ground again. The island suddenly felt uncomfortably crowded.
A clacking sound of steps came from the outside. A second later Briony's head appeared in the window frame.
"Kol," she whispered.
He turned and his face lit up. She made a hand movement for him to follow her, and he immediately got up. Nik watched Kol passing him and then looked back to Briony.
She caught his look and then said: "You can come too!"
With relief Nik got up as well. He'd rather spend the whole day fighting with Briony, than sitting here being silently judged and having the same discussion for the hundredth time.
"How is it going?" she asked, when they were both outside and put some distance between them and the chapel.
"What do you think?" Kol asked with sarcasm.
Nik just nodded in agreement. Not only were they nowhere near with Esther, but now they also had to deal with Finn. Nik couldn't imagine that this situation would resolve any time soon. Briony didn't seem to be bothered by it.
As they walked up the stairs again she said: "While this is underway with everyone being here, and I'm pretty much back to full speed with my powers, I thought we could work on the rest of the spell."
"What is that good for if we haven't persuaded Esther to help yet?" Nik asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm sorry to say it but you might not be the best person to convince your mother to give you eternal life. Neither am I. And neiter is Kol," she gave Kol a judgemental look. "Way to start a fight on the first day of her being here, Kol."
"She was being very rude!" Kole exclaimed. "She doesn't get a pass for that, just because she was dead!"
Briony turned back to Nik. "Anyways, let Rebekah or Finn figure her out. Instead we should focus on what we can do."
"What do you mean," he asked.
"Let's consider the possibility that your mother actually agrees to help. Although I can't do the spell for her, we can speed the process up a little by preparing as much we can. For once, we can make sure we got all the ingredients ready," she explained.
As she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped and added: "We need a doppelganger."
"There are no living doppelgangers, Briony," Kol replied, catching up with her.
"In that case the undead will do," she said. She observed their expressions.
Nik understood what she was getting at.
"Do you think a vampire's blood will actually work?" he asked carefully.
"I don't see why not. If Katherine gives it to us by choice we should be fine."
Kol laughed. "Oh yeah, convincing Katherine to give us her blood won't be a problem," he snorted. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to help."
Nik shifted from one foot to the other. He sighed. "Yeah, I doubt that she'd agree to that."
"That's the understatement of the century. I think it would be easier to resurrect another mother again than convincing Katherine to help us," Kol replied.
"It's also in her interest that she doesn't die," Briony said. "And unless you want to wait around for a new doppelganger to show up it's the only choice we have."
Nik contemplated on the idea. To his own surprise he wasn't as disheartened about it as Kol. He couldn't imagine that Katherine would ever help them. Not after everything he'd done to her. Somehow he had always known that this would bite him in the back one day. Yet this task seemed acceptable, almost agreeable, compared to trying to talk to Esther for the next decade. Going to look for Katherine, instead of staying here with Esther and Finn sounded like a holiday.
"I'll figure out where she is, and then Kol and I can get her," Briony concluded.
"No," Nik interrupted. "I'm coming with you."
Briony's face fell. "You'll only scare her away, Nik," she replied. "She'll be gone before we even have the chance to talk to her."
"I'm coming with you," Nik repeated.
"You really do have trust issues," Kol added with a sigh.
"Fine," Briony replied. "He comes too, I guess."
They had begun with the preparations for the journey right away. Kol and Briony hadn't been in a hurry, but with a new-found task and new-found energy Nik pushed them to get going as soon as possible. When the rest of his siblings and his mother had finished their discussion and joined them at the house, Nik told them of their plan. Rebekah nodded eagerly and was pleased with their anticipatory planning. But it was evident that the rest of them weren't so happy about it. As he had explained their plan, Esther only watched him skeptically. And even after he had finished she didn't reply. He didn't expect her to like it. Any step closer to the spell was one step too many for her. Elijah too looked wary.
"I want to come!" he said suddenly.
"We can't all go!" Kol replied, slightly put up with his brothers. "It will slow us down. And we already have to bring him." He nodded to Nik.
"Take me instead then," Elijah pleaded. "She's never going to talk to you when she sees him."
"No!" Nik interrupted. "I'm certainly not giving up my spot for you."
"We won't be gone for long, anyway," Kol tried to console him.
Elijah kept arguing, but the others didn't change their mind. After the group began to dissolve - Nik didn't even notice when Esther had left - Nik resumed to prepare for the journey. Elijah kept following and pleading for him to come along as well. Nik agreed with Kol though. It made more sense to stay as few people as possible. Like this they would be quicker and more efficient, he thought. He was about to move back to the chapel again to pick up some things but Elijah held him back.
"Don't leave me here alone with them," Elijah said, nodding towards Finn and Flora, who were still outside the house.
"Sorry," Nik replied, feeling some pity to leave Elijah behind. "We'll be back soon."
After another two days the three of them finally set out on the small boat that Finn and Flora had arrived on. As he rowed away, Nik looked back on the island. He wasn't sorry to leave it.
Whaaaat I already wrote 20 chapters of this?! Thanks for sticking with me until now :-)
I'm looking forward to the next chapter! Chapters with Katherine my favourites to write!
As always let me know what you think in the comments!