Mikaelson Compound - December 29th 2013
I can still hear Freya banging on the front door of the apartment. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Another three pounds. I hollered to knock it off, I was coming. Where's Hayley?! It came out all as one word. She rushed it out. She pushed her way into the apartment before I could answer, shoved open the bedroom door, stalked her way through every room. I told her where they both were - at Jackson's place, in the Bayou, picking up the last of his things, moving it all in here, good and proper. I was watching Hope for them. They were gonna be back any minute now.
She stopped. And she just said my name, and turned around to me, really slowly. She was a bit of a weird one, so this didn't initially worry me. Her face did.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked her.
She told me to come across the street with her, immediately, and I should bring Hope. Elijah and Vincent were in the courtyard of the compound, looking as equally confused as I felt.
"Freya? What is happening?" Elijah asked, insistently.
Freya was shaking. She picked up a piece of old timey parchment paper, and clutched her stomach with a shaking hand as she proclaimed, "a messenger came. Some compelled tourist. He-he left this."
She'd gestured towards a small, cream-colored box on the table. We all looked at each other, and then Elijah did the honors. He gently lifted the corner of the lid to the box. He took one look inside and immediately retrieved his hand. The box snapped shut. He took a deep breath to prepare himself for the response, and then he simply asked his sister, "who?"
"Jackson," Freya said.
Elijah closed his eyes and sighed out emotionally, visibly overwhelmed by this news. Vincent and I exchanged a look, but he stood back from the situation, sensing this was a family matter. I took the handwritten letter out of Freya's hands.
"Courtesy of the Strix," Freya muttered, as she thoughtfully took Hope out of my arms.
Dearest friends,
Please find enclosed the heart of Jackson Kenner. Hayley's will follow unless you meet me at Coltrane's Auto Shop, 1268 Adderley in the Ninth.
Kind regards,
Tristan
I looked over at the box on the table and my blood ran cold. Elijah was no theater major; his reaction was real. This was real. I looked over at the babbling baby girl in Freya's arms, none-the-wiser.
"Unless we meet their demands, Hayley will be next," Elijah said.
The parchment in my hands instantly burst into flames and disintegrated into ash. I wiped my blackened hands together, brushing away the dust, and I looked at them all, shaking with tempered rage.
"Tristan is mine," I seethed, and stormed for the door.
"Wait! NO. Wait!" Freya implored, "before we rush into battle, let's keep in mind that Tristan may be the very foe to lead you to your doom, Elijah. Isn't this exactly what the prophecy foretold?"
"I get that you're pissed, Rosanna. You wear it well. But do keep in mind, you and me are the mortals here, and rage ain't gonna be enough," Vincent implored, "as much as I want these guys out of my city, I like breathing a whole lot more. Let me go to the covens. I can propose an alliance. They hate you guys, but if I explain what's going on-"
"There's no time-" I shot back.
"Rebekah's on the run. I will not lose you, as well," Freya begged her brother, "let's think about this."
"Rebekah is safe. Niklaus will stay," Elijah rebutted, curtly, and nodded that we should leave.
"Nonsense, brother!" Klaus chimed in, sauntering his way downstairs, "two Original vampires and three varying degrees of powerful witches against an army of miscreants? I'm rather looking forward to it! Besides, what kind of father would I be if I didn't fight for the mother of my child? No, I have no intention of being outmaneuvered by Tristan de Martel, of all people."
"Intention's got nothing to do with it," Vincent reminded him, "as long as Tristan de Martel has the Serratura and your baby's mama, the advantage is all his."
"Then we take that advantage away from him," I seethed.
Freya performed the spell, channeling Vincent the Regent, and the girl who was accidentally masquerading as a Bennett Witch. It worked perfectly on our end. Cami, disguised as Aurora, trapped Tristan inside a shipping container with the Serratura. But, that is where our success ran dry.
Elijah, Klaus and Cami returned from the meet, alone. I never imagined a scenario in which Klaus Mikaelson couldn't look me in the eye. Tristan was never intent on keeping up his end of the bargain. There-there was never an exchange to be made. That is what Elijah told me. Klaus had massacred the majority of The Strix in a blind reactive fit of rage; Elijah managed to convince the survivors of the futility of attempting to rescue their esteemed leader from his fate, as though Klaus' rampage was not enough to illustrate this. Aya and Marcel spirited away with the remnants of their guild. Little of what Elijah said penetrated the ringing in my ears at the time. Cami's manic take on the news came through, loud and clear.
"Tough break, kid. We tried. But don't worry, guilt will soon be relief. Oh, come on. What's that face for? You don't have to deny it. It's obvious, Rosanna. A mortal witch in love with an immortal vampire. It's no happy ever after. But now Hayley and Jackson are gone, you get to play family with him. You get everything you ever wanted. No compromises-"
I stepped over the bits of bodies splattered across the floor of the auto shop, her words playing over once more in my mind, as I nursed my painful darkening fist - I didn't regret the pain, punching a brand-new vampire in the face hurt like absolute hell but it was worth it. Elijah led Klaus and I over to the architect of madness I couldn't fully digest. I couldn't avoid stepping in the blood; it was everywhere.
"So, this is to be my end? Locked in a box by a school girl?" Tristan said, flatly; his voice echoing inside the storage container.
"You...don't deserve death," I said, darkly, and he emerged from the shadows.
Elijah informed him, patronizingly, "this is not your end, Tristan. This is the very beginning! You are going to the bottom of the ocean, where you will drown in darkness again and again and again over the course of centuries. This will be your splendidly horrific and perpetual end."
"What have you done with my sister?" Tristan asked, anxiously.
"Nothing...yet. But, I assure you, her death will be spectacular," Klaus seethed.
This affected Tristan more so than Elijah's piece on perpetual drowning. Klaus grabbed the door of the shipping container, and hauled it closed.
"Wait," I said, and looked straight into the eyes of the man that had murdered my best friend, "you took two very good people from this world. My people. They will be with me forever, but you? You will be forgotten. And as you rot in the ocean, remember my face. It's gonna be the last one you ever see."
Hayley and Jackson Kenner's Apartment
"It's time," Elijah had said, so gently, and placed a supportive hand on my shoulder.
It was time to take a deep breath, and lead the funeral of the Crescent Pack's Alphas. Time to say goodbye to the only person who had ever understood me and accepted me completely from day one. It was time to come together, and watch a burning wooden boat drift out on to the lake. I whispered to Elijah she would have hated this and wrapped my coat around myself tighter, with difficulty. It was Crescent tradition, he'd said, and offered his blood once more to heal my aching hand. I said no. Standing, blankly, watching the flames dance higher; I was numb. I couldn't feel it.
Freya had Hope that night; I had the empty apartment all to myself. I kicked my shoes off. I ripped my coat off and slammed it down on the ground swiftly. I hunted high and low, and without delicacy, for the bible Eve had left behind for Hayley, and I flipped to the back; with a shaking uncooperative hand I filled out the date of Andrea Labonair's death: June 6th 1991 - December 29th 2013. My breathing grew overwhelming, and inconsolable and the pen plopped from my grip to the page. I ended up in the kitchen, through tear-soaked eyes, slid down the kitchen cupboard and fell to the floor. I buried my face in my knees and wailed.
I don't know how long Elijah was there with me, just watching over me.
"I don't know what to say..." he said, quietly.
I took a moment and then a deep, calming breath before tearfully responding, "Elijah...I've spent the last 24 hours being so angry at Tristan, at your family, at you...at Hayley, even, for always being so brave. But then, I realized that I'm not angry. I'm not mad...I'm just guilty. I should have been there for her. I'm torn too many ways."
Elijah joined me on the kitchen floor, and we didn't make eye contact at first.
"None of this is on you," Elijah determined.
I sniffed and harshly wiped the tears from my cheeks. I shook my head and I rasped, "I wanted to blame you, blame anyone...but the truth is...Hayley died because she was part of the Mikaelson family. And Jackson died because he loved Hayley," I finally looked over at Elijah, who was staring back at me, and I whispered, "loving any of you is a death sentence...isn't it? I see that now."
"We've been down this road before," Elijah reminded me, "I want you. For however long I get to have you. We don't give up on loving someone just because we might lose them one day."
"You will lose me," I assured him, "maybe that's as an old lady, or I get hit by a bus, or I get my heart ripped out right in front of you. Whatever it is...I have one life now. And you will lose me one day."
"What are you saying?" he asked.
"Cami was cruel today, what she said...but there's some truth in it. Alaric said to me once that looking after me, and Elena and Jeremy, it was the closest thing he ever got to the life he always wanted. And I never really liked thinking about my future or a life I always wanted because it never turned out remotely like I had hoped, and the people I loved kept dropping like flies, so I just stopped altogether. It was a futile endeavour," I told him, honestly, wholeheartedly, "Elena will not be by my side on my wedding day. Our kids would be different generations. Her kids won't know me. Damon will have to be my Man of Honor, instead, since I'm out two of them now. My parents won't be in the crowd, or Jenna, Hayley...I'm not even 20, and now I'm raising someone else's child, and I love Hope, and I have learned that family is not always blood. I know that, but...having children of my own is not going to just be another thing that I don't get to have," I paused to wipe another rogue batch of tears from my cheeks and I told him, "Hayley wanted family. She was relentless. She got it. I have to believe in something or I'm never getting up off this floor, Elijah. I need to think about this, this one life, and I need to try and make it look like how I want it to. I need to do that now. And...I know that I will spend all of my life loving you, I know that much. Ever since the day that I met you, I have felt everything for you. I want that beautiful life you spoke of, in that other world, I want that to be our world."
"What you're asking of me-"
"The cure runs in Elena's veins," I told him.
Elijah stared back at me and he whispered, "don't make me choose between you and my family, Rosanna, please, don't."
"I think you just did."