Chapter 22: Parties galore
Elle tried to withhold her scowl as she sketched lightly while everyone around her was readying themselves for this ridiculous ball that she certainly didn't want to attend. And she wasn't going to either. She didn't want to, and she wasn't going to either. Klaus had vanished off earlier, and good riddance as well.
Kol was preening in front of the mirror and he looked at the two women who were sitting on the couch, the other being Rebekah who was getting her nails painted, apparently. "Rebekah," he called as he glanced at her in the mirror. "Tell me how handsome I am."
The blonde gave him a pleasant smile. "Oh Kol, you know I can't be compelled."
That made him glance at the other woman on the couch and he turned to face her. "What about you, Ellevira? You can be compelled." He stated and she looked up with a scowl of a smile. "I wear and drink vervain. Give it your best shot." She hissed just as the front door burst open, Klaus striding in with what could only be described as a really furious expression. "You went after Elena! What is wrong with you?" He snarled.
Rebekah plastered a wide smile on her face as she looked at her elder brother. "Here we go." She remained impassive as he used the usual dagger threat, Kol stepping in as he turned around once more. "Again with the dagger threats. Haven't you got any other tricks?" He mocked and Klaus glared at him with a curled lipped scowl. "Oh, go back to staring at yourself."
The younger Original took a step forward. "And who are you, my father?"
Klaus also took a step forward, getting into his younger brothers face. "No, Kol, but you're in my house." He hissed and the other brother smirked. "Then perhaps we should take this outside." He countered just as their mother appeared behind them and demanded for them to stop. Klaus glanced behind him towards her. She remained impassive. "Niklaus, come."
He walked off and Elle sighed. "And it just got too unbearable in this room." She muttered, discarding her sketch and beginning to walk away before Elijah called for her attention. "Are you going to be attending this evening, Ellevira?"
Clenching her jaw, she turned around, giving him an unimpressed stare. "What do you think? I attended your ridiculous dinner and listened to your boring discussions about some harlot. You said the dinner, and that is all I'm giving you. I'll keep myself occupied in some other fashion, but I will not talk to people who had me locked inside my own mind. As people of this era say when one has irritated them, you can go screw yourself, Elijah Mikaelson." She hissed before storming from the room, slamming the front door behind her as she ventured outside without so much as a glance back to see the look on his face.
MvM
Klaus stormed in after his mother, following behind her angrily. "Rebekah wasn't even out of her box a day before she tried to ruin my life. Whatever happened to peace, acceptance, family?" He demanded.
His mother turned at the last word with wide eyes. "You put daggers in their hearts!" She exclaimed. "Do you want them to go down on their knees and kiss your feet for reuniting them?" She asked and he gave her a look. "So its a crime to want our family to be how we once were?" He countered and she sighed. "You need to give it time, Niklaus. I've had a thousand years on the Other Side to be angry and to heal. I'm here to make sure this family does the same."
He stared at her as though he couldn't believe a word she was saying. "I just don't understand. I killed you and still you forgive me." He mumbled and she took some steps forward until she was standing directly in front of him. "It's been my dream, for a thousand years, that this family could be as one." She stated with a small smile. "Forgiveness is not a chore, it is a gift."
Her smile widened a little more. "Now, who are you bringing to the ball this evening?" She inquired and he gave a small grin of his own. "Don't be ridiculous." He murmured and she smiled a little more, taking his arm and leading him over to the window. She motioned outside. "She is beautiful, isn't she? I watched you, from the Other Side, I watched you both. You who had sworn to kill her, and yet you loved her, even after she discovered who she truly was."
Klaus sighed, watching as Elle walked through the extensive gardens, trailing her nimble fingers over the numerous flowers that were just starting to bloom, the first genuine smile he had seen blossoming on her face. He shook his head. "She hates me." He mumbled and Esther hummed under her breath as she glanced at him. "I doubt it, Niklaus. I watched her devastation when she too learned who you were, what you had done to her mother, her biological parents. Her heart broke, but the love she held in her heart for you doesn't fade that easily, no matter the time between. I believe she is hurt, bemused by this strange new world she's found herself in. When one dies, they are meant to remain that way; she did not. She was tormented for centuries, and I would like to believe that took its toll on her."
He looked at her and she him. "Talk to her, show her this strange new era. Five hundred years is a long time, my son, but it doesn't change ones heart."
MvM
Peace and quiet at last, well, apart from the sounds of the wildlife that existed all around her. Elle closed her eyes with a small smile, relishing in the familiarity of how such surroundings felt. It was like heaven, what she had imagined it to be at least until that dark cold plane had ruined it all for her.
The crunching of stones, of gravel, alerted her to the presence of another, and she didn't need to be a genius to know who it was. "I wish not to talk with you," she said quietly, opening her eyes to look at the hybrid as he took a seat beside her on the marble bench. "Elijah told me you wished to not go to the ball tonight."
Elle hummed distantly. "He told you correct. I attended your stupid dinner, listened to you gossip, and now I just wish to reside in peace in the room you assigned to me. I don't even want to be here, Niklaus. When I took that poison, I hoped to remain dead and find peace from the mad world we lived in. I was hurt, and desperate, and I chose a more permanent solution to the pain I was experiencing." She looked at him. "Why didn't you just let me go?" She whispered.
He stared off into the distance for a moment before he too sighed. "I held affections for you, and I still do." He admitted, grimacing as though it pained him to do so. "I thought we could mend things; I still do."
"You cannot fix what cannot be." She answered quietly and he hummed slightly. "I suppose, but you could show to our mutual enemies that you are not as weak as they think you to be. When you're associated with this family, you inherit our enemies also, Elle. You need to put on a brave face and face them with it." He stated.
The raven haired woman sighed. "And what if I don't want to? You think I don't know that I'm now in danger because of the fact I'm associated with you and your siblings? Do you think I wanted that?! I should have obeyed my mother when she warned me on venturing too far from the cottage. I could have led a simple life, free from the dangers of your world. I hate this new era. It disgusts me."
Klaus smirked a little with a short laugh. "It isn't like the one you grew up in, sweetheart. You should see pregnancies out of wedlock if the clothes horrify you so much." He jested and her eyes grew round and horrified. "Are all women harlots in this age?!" She exclaimed with a horrified expression at his words.
"Quite," a certain blonde answered from behind her and Elle turned, spying Rebekah approaching from behind them. Klaus soured in an instant and the blonde original sighed. "Don't start Nik. I came to ask Elle if she wanted to accompany me to deliver an invitation." Eyes switched to the human who was now gaping at the vampire. Rebekah gave her a pointed look. "Well? And you need to change. I won't have you accompanying me in such simple clothes. I do have a reputation to uphold." She stated.
Elle sighed, looking down at her hands which were trembling in the cold. She looked back at Rebekah who was waiting not so patiently. "I suppose so."
MvM
Elle shot out of the strange metal carriage, eyes wide as the immortal climbed out of it with a certain graceful calmness. Elle shuddered. "What is this evil sorcery?" She hissed and the blonde smirked a little. "Did Nik not explain what a motor vehicle is?" She inquired and the human shook her head with wide eyes. "Of course not, or do you think I would be reacting in such a manner to this beast?" She exclaimed, pulling her cardigan tighter around her middle.
The blonde Original motioned for her to follow her, and with still wide eyes, Elle did so. The buildings around here were strange, and yet Rebekah seemed to know where she was heading. She followed her into a strange looking building made of bricks and strange materials, people wearing equally strange clothes sitting outside and eating food to the likes of which she had never even laid eyes on before.
She walked up to a table that was in the middle of the room, and from what she could sense, well, Rebekah wasn't what you could call a friend of the two young women that were sitting at the little table. One was blonde, and the other a brunette, the latter seeming a little familiar when compared to the other woman sitting at the table.
The blonde original sneered down at the two young women.. "Careful Caroline, it's all well and good until she stabs you in the back." She stated, and Elle got the distinct feeling that this was that woman that Rebekah had tried to kill the night beforehand, the one that had made Niklaus so furious with her.
"What are you doing here? I know your mom's rules," the brunette smarted back, a certain smugness about her as she stared up at the blonde. "No murdering the locals."
Rebekah gave a sneer once again. "Get over yourself Elena; It's not all about you. But then again, you do have a habit of betraying those around you, and even those who aren't. You remember Elle, of course?"
Her own blue eyes fell down to the wide eyed brunette at the table who was frowning. "Elle? You're the girl whose corpse Klaus stored in a coffin, right?"
Elle hummed, eyes flowing over to Rebekah who was, albeit, looking a little too smug. Just what did her presence bring to this little encounter? She was hardly as well known and apparently feared as the blondes siblings. She shrugged with a soft sigh, allowing the sound to roll from her lips as easily as the air she exhaled did. "I suppose so, and you must be that doppelgänger that everyone in the household where I'm residing seems to despise. Do I care? No."
She followed Rebekah who had slipped away to give some blonde man an envelope, hearing the two teenage women behind her muttering heatedly about the man that Rebekah was giving the invitation to. Who on earth was Cinderella?!
MvM
The sound of arriving guests echoed from outside the large mansion, and Elle watched them do so from her perch on the window seat in her given bedroom. They arrived in those strange metal beasts alike the one Rebekah had used earlier, the things she had called a motor vehicle. She stared at them all arriving with unenthusiastic curiosity. There was a few strangely dressed people coming to this evening ball.
She knew she was supposed to be getting ready, and the fact that she wasn't was something she knew the entire Mikaelson family wasn't exactly pleased about. She had heard them themselves getting ready for this such, and had even had someone knock on her doors a few times over the hours. She had ignored each time, and after the third time, whoever it was had left her alone.
Another knocking came though, and she sighed, going to ignore it once again before it swung open without warning, the blonde original storming in with her green dress skirts twisting around her as she stormed in with a large, rectangular black box and an irritated look on her face. Elle frowned. "What are you doing? I do not wish to go to this farce of an evening. I do not want to be entwined in your family affairs." She protested.
Rebekah paused before looking at her with a rather put out look. "Elle, now you're associated with our family, you've inherited our enemies. And besides, it'd be much safer to have you in our line of sight at all times and not up in your room alone where anyone could slip in and take you, or even brutally harm you. Now, having been dead once before, what scenario would you prefer, hm?"
Elle shook her head. "Is that all your family talking, or just your brother?"
"Not the brother you're thinking about." The blonde commented casually, taking the lid off of the box and pulling out a beautiful, long red dress that even she liked more than she should have done, and the vampire noticed to also with a smug grin. "And yet even though we don't particularly like each other, I still know what'll look bloody good on you. Come on, Elle. I know you said no to Elijah, but are you going to say no to getting back at both of them for humiliating you by in turn humiliating them?"
Chewing her bottom lip in consideration, a conflicted look came across her face. "And then I can be truly and honestly free? I don't wish to remain here, Rebekah, I only want to be free. Give me your word that you will help me achieve my goal, and I will then in turn do this one evening." She bargained and the blonde paused in her removing of the items in that large black box. "I give you my word I will do everything I can to help you to be free." She murmured quietly and the human smiled slightly for the first time in a long time, wandering over from the window seat to where the blonde was standing. She glanced at the contents of the box with an uncomfortable grimace. "Just get this over and done with," she muttered.
MvM
Klaus stood below with all of the still arriving guests, a champagne glass clutched in his hand as he mingled with them all. He could see his siblings around the room, all bar one; He was well aware of where Rebekah had vanished off to, having a little nudge, despite their current quarrel, to help him out with a little something. He'd even tried getting the woman whom he planned to pursue once more to attend this evenings festivities, but it was to no avail -she hadn't even opened her door once to the knocking he'd done.
He felt a presence beside him and didn't need to look to know who it was. "Come to warn me to be on my best behaviour, Elijah?" He mocked and jeered.
The elder brother merely sighed. "She won't come down, brother; Perhaps you should let her go, forget about her, move on without her. Your relationship with Ellevira was doomed the first moment it began." He attempted to persuade, frowning then with wide eyes as he stated up above them, Klaus turning too to see what had caught his brothers attention.
MvM
Swallowing, albeit rather nervously, Elle smoothed her trembling fingers over the red ball-gown she was wearing, her dark lashes fanning her cheeks as she took a look around her. The room itself was bustling with people, people she had seen arrive from looking out of her bedroom window. She followed the blonde vampire downstairs, her blue eyes sweeping across the room.
This was a strange experience for her. While she detested this new era, she had to admit, she'd ever felt more beautiful. She stepped off of the bottom step, willing herself not to slip, even in flat shoes. That would be embarrassing. She could feel eyes on her and glanced to her right, seeing the two Mikaelson brothers that she'd had the most contact with staring at her. A red flush rose up her pale skinned cheeks, but she turned away immediately, heading over to another side of the room, wanting to put as much distance between her and the youngest of the two brothers.
And it worked, for a short while. He just didn't seem to want to take a hint. She heard him approaching before she saw him, and a soft sigh slipped from her lips. "Please just leave me alone," she muttered and he hummed, tapping a finger against his champagne flute. He offered the one in his other hand towards her, and after a brief pause, she took it with another sigh. "What else must I do this evening?" She whispered.
He hummed under his breath, but a tapping of a glass caught his attention and he gently clasped a hand around her wrist, giving her a look to remain quiet as he moved them both towards the staircase. She fumed silently at that too. How dare he? First, he demands she come to this dreadful event, and then, he brought her to stand on the staircase with the rest of his siblings, and even his mother! Absolutely not. She tugged her wrist from his grasp, ignoring both his piercing stare and the voice of Elijah as he made some speech about a centuries old waltz. Well, she hadn't exactly been around for that, had she now?
No.
She made her way down the stairs when everyone else did, and yet she couldn't even escape him then. He appeared in front of her. "It would be rude not to dance, love." He held out a hand and she eyed like a venomous snake for a few moments before relenting, and she placed her hand in his. "One time," she warned and he nodded with a sly grin, placing both of their glasses on a nearby sideboard and then taking her hand and walking into the nearby ballroom.
The song was matching for the atmosphere, and they were silent to each other as they stood side by side, at least until they were facing each other. He look at her sincerely, or about as sincerely as he could manage given the fact that she thought of him as nothing more than a sadistic bastard. "I'm glad you came." He began and she sighed. "It was either this or I'd never hear the end from you and your brother, and your sister."
He grinned a little at that. "Doesn't this bring back memories? The year 1500; the dancing, the drinks, the pretty dress I found for you." He stated and she hummed, eyes finally focussing on him. "A little, although my memories are a little blurred, I seem to remember a green ball-gown, not a red one." She pointed out and his grin widened. "Something went red that night if I remember right, which I'm sure I do."
Her blue eyes narrowed. "Don't," she hissed and he raised a brow but she continued. "I never want to think about that night, ever again." She added, her eyes starting to glass over. "It was a mistake, a slip in judgement, and I will never make that mistake again." She pulled away from him and began to move through the sea of dancing people, leaving him there alone and silently fuming with anger.
MvM
The night air was cold as she stepped outside into it, but it was a welcome distraction to the sufferings that she knew she would endure inside if she had remained. Who did he think he was, bringing up better forgotten memories such as those ones? She had wished never, ever to think about them again, and yet, there he was, trying to bring them up, to try and make her remember how weak and stupid her old, naïve self had been! It just wasn't going to happen like that.
"I apologise."
She looked back, seeing no one, but a rush of wind beside her made her sigh. "You can apologise as much as you want. You can do so until the earth runs dry and the world ends, but you can never make up for what you and your family has put me through. I suffered in death because you had me preserved. I was cold, and alone, my own self-loathing haunting me as I laid there, comatose and dead, and because you couldn't let me go. When I drank that which my mother had left behind, I wanted to join all of those whom I loved, even those I didn't remember. When I threw myself from that window, I wanted to die. You murdered my mother, and you didn't just kill her quickly, I know you made her suffer. I was soaked in her blood that you left for me to find, and you did it without a care in the world. You claimed you loved me all those years ago, but what man, supernatural creature or not, murders the loved ones of their loved one?" She stated, taking a deep breath afterwards to replenish her air.
He seemed, somehow, to be ashamed of her truthful words. But Elle wasn't done. "There isn't anything you can do to make me love you again. I will forgive you when I deem you forgivable, not when you think yourself to be. What have you done to redeem yourself in my eyes? Nothing! You have bullied me when I was in that strange place. You made me return to the darkness after being in such for so, so long. You then paraded me about in front of your enemies as though I was some prize, and now, I have inherited your enemies in this miserable town because you simply couldn't let go. I just want freedom, to be able to find out who I was before any of you entered my life. I want to know about my blood parents, the ones who you all murdered because they were protecting me. Did you know I dreamt of that night? I watched Kol tear into my mother like she was nothing. I screamed in my head for it to stop and it didn't," her voice trailed off into a sob, eyes shining with unshed tears.
The sight of such seemed to snap something in him and he grasped one of her cold hands, a hand that was trembling in the cold brittle winds that gushed about them. "And had I of known all of that, things might of turned out differently. But I can't go back and undo my past, Elle. The others still wanted you dead once your true nature was revealed, and I refused to grant them that wish. I clung to the hope of peace between you and I because I cared deeply for you, as deeply as I have ever done for anyone over my thousand years of immortal life. I couldn't let you go because..."
Elle glanced at him. "Because you're afraid of being alone..." She trailed off too in a whisper and he said nothing, but she knew it was true. She shook her head. "But you aren't alone. You have your siblings, and even your mother wishes to mend bridges once deemed unfixable. See, Niklaus? You never have been alone, but you hide behind cruelty and that is how you make mistakes, ones that cannot be fixed, such as you did with me. I never desired a life such as this; I should have died, and remained dead, centuries ago. My existence in this era isn't right, and there is always a price to pay for doing something as drastically wrong as this."
He looked at her fiercely. "And whatever that price is, I would pay it gladly in order to keep you in my life." He declared and a sad smile came to her face, perhaps the most genuine one she'd ever done in his presence, albeit a sad one or not. "And that makes you selfish, and greedy, and nothing good comes to those with those characteristics, Niklaus, nothing good at all." She whispered before standing, leaving him there, silent.
MvM
Everyone was gathering in the main entrance hall when she came inside, servers coming around with flat metal trays that held flutes upon flutes of a different coloured champagne. She went to take one that was offered to her, but something made her hesitate, like a gut feeling that something wasn't right with it. She shook her head in a polite no thank you, frowning as she did so. Klaus came in a few moments behind her, and he took a glass, glancing at her not so subtly before looking up towards the staircase once more.
She droned out the speech, only snapping from her daze when someone clinked their flute with her own. She took a sip, her brows furrowing as the feeling that something wasn't right began to seep into her being. Something was off, and she didn't like it at all.
The sound of a loud thud drew her attention not half an hour later, and she followed the others outside, only to find that man she immensely disliked, Damon, on top of a very dead Kol, and she rolled her eyes, walking back inside, that doppelganger Elena rushing past her. She'd had enough as this entire evening, this entire family too to be honest. Why was she even alive? She just wanted to see her parents.
"Perhaps I can assist you with that?" A gentle hand appeared on her elbow, turning her around, and she came face to face with Esther before her mind went blank.
MvM
She came to when someone lowered her onto the bed in her room, a familiar face swimming in front of her own. It smiled at her before its owner took a seat beside her weakened self. "Mother said she found you collapsed in the hallway and asked me to bring you to your room." He said.
Elle frowned, trying to remember before everything went black. She hummed, eyes falling shut. "Must be from how tired I am, all those nightmares." She revealed and Klaus frowned. "Nightmares, love?"
She nodded, not even sure why she was telling him this. It felt like a compelling tug inside her mind, and he took ahold of her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before moving to leave. She grabbed his hand though, pulling herself up so she was standing in front of him, albeit a tad unsteadily on her feet. She reached up, a slight nag in her brain questioning what on earth she was doing as she ran her fingers down his jawline. She saw him frown. "Love?" He questioned, and he opened his mouth to continue but she covered it with her own, and he froze for a moment before reaching down and hoisting her up, his mouth moving against hers with equal fervor. She grabbed at his tux jacket and shoved it off, making her intention clear, and although he knew he shouldn't, he just found he couldn't resist, dropping them both into that luxurious bed and peeling her out of that red dress that'd been driving him wild all evening.
MvM
Esther stared into the dream catcher she held tightly, watching as limbs tangled together in an erotic union of bodies merging into one. Finn watched over her shoulder, he having been the one to place the connecting catcher in a hidden corner of the room. He glanced at his mother. "Is it done?" He questioned. "Are they linked and joined as one?"
His mother nodded, adding Elle's name in a runic script to their family tree, but only going it to Klaus's, not any of the others. "They are linked, and when I plunge my dagger into her heart tomorrow on the full moon," she glanced at him. "They will both die."