The next morning is silent, too silent, almost as if its waiting for something to happen. Prudence slowly opens her eyes due to the blinding and ominous sun emanating from the curtains as she tries to make out a clear outline of her vision.
Realizing that she is laying on a bed, a very comfortable one at that, she quickly shoots her head up from the pillow, before she turns to look around the room. The velvet curtains were draped around the large window, and the walls were ornamented with fancy paintings. It felt like a room fit for a queen and as nice as it is, as she hasn't slept in something this comfortable in a year, she couldn't help but begin to trail her thoughts back to last night.
Moments later, she heard light footsteps, and she quickly snaps her attention to the door to see Rebekah strolling into the room.
"Oh good, I see you're awake" the blonde vampire smiles, slowly walking over to the bed.
Holding in a shaky breath, the young witch shifts back onto the bed in fear as Rebekah slowly made her way. As she sat down on the edge of the bed, her nerves from last night begins to creep back in. She has heard many stories about the original family, the first vampires to ever exist. She's heard about all the evil they had caused ever since they had became vampires eight centuries ago, and it is because of them that deadly vampire after vampire formed from their bloodlines and terrorized town after town for many centuries. But as deadly and dangerous as they all came, none of them were as deranged as Klaus Mikaelson. She couldn't help but think back to the feeling of when she had looked into his eyes last night. It felt as if she was looking into the eyes of the devil himself. He had the most powerful and captivating eyes she had ever seen.
"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you" Rebekah says in a calming tone, as Prudence slightly scrunches up her face, stunned at the sudden kind she wasn't expecting especially from an original vampire. "You fell asleep in our carriage last night so when we arrived to New Orleans I carried you here so you could get some sleep. You looked tired" she explains briefly.
"Thank you" Prudence replies, slowly lowering her head as she is still a little scared and nervous. Growing up she had always been very shy and timid, and it didn't help that she was the weakest witch from the coven she was banished from. Her cousins would often mock her because she just wasn't as strong as them or she just didn't have a firm knowledge about magic, and it hindered her confidence, no matter how much she tried. It hurt her to the point, especially since her mother was one of the most powerful witches that ever lived, and she knew at the back of her mind that she would never be as good as her. Now that she was banished, she would be forgotten for generations to come, despite her immortality. Her mother was her right hand, her guide in life, and although its been almost two years since she died, she wasn't ready to move on from it, she's not sure if she would ever be ready.
After a long while of silence, Rebekah slowly gets up, before going to sit closer to her. She looks at her for a brief moment and mutters in a quiet voice. "You know who we are don't you?".
"The Original vampires" Prudence replied, lifting her head back up.
There is a faint, echoed silence which brewed in the air as they heard someone enter the room, and they turned their heads to the door to see Elijah, slowly walking in. He stopped to look over at Prudence, almost as if he is closely studying her.
"Rebekah... dear sister, would you mind if I have a moment alone with our guest?" he asks in a polite tone.
Rebekah nods her head, before getting up from the bed. "There's some breakfast downstairs when you're ready, I know you must be hungry" Rebekah smiles at her one last time, before turning to head out the room as Prudence watches her every move, still stunned by her kindness.
Seconds later, she narrows her eyes back over to Elijah as he slowly makes his way to her. Unlike his brother Klaus, he has a more poised and sophisticated presence. One that would make anyone instantly feel calm and safe if they didn't know that he is a vampire.
Prudence watched anxiously as he sits on the edge of the bed, before speaking up. "I hope you had a wonderful sleep" he utters as Prudence lowers her head and he could tell just how nervous she is. "You don't have to worry, I made a promise to you last night. My family and I would not hurt you and I always keep my promises" he says.
"Then why am I here... what spell does your brother want me to do?" she stammers, lifting her head back up to face him.
Elijah pauses for a brief while as he turns to look around the bedroom. "You'll have to excuse Niklaus, I apologize for how stern he can be at times. Unfortunately we are running out of time, and it is luck that we found you because we desperately needed a witch. To put it simply, its an easy spell, and after you help us we promise to accompany you back to your home and your family safely, you have my word, Prudence". As he finishes his sentences, he notices how a morose expression quickly clouds her face, leaving him bewildered.
Sighing quietly to herself, Prudence slowly lowers her head back down before shutting her eyes. She felt nervous each time she had to perform a spell, because her magic simply wasn't as strong enough. Of course she couldn't tell him that as it seemed like they were all relying on her for this spell and the last thing she wanted to do was to piss off a family of the most powerful creatures in the world, no matter how kind some of them may seem.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Elijah speaks up moments later, snapping her out of her anxious thoughts. "What were you doing alone out in the woods so late at night? you said you were on your way to the nearest town, with all due respects I doubt a family of witches reside in a town like that, it isn't exactly witch friendly".
Prudence opens her mouth to speak but instantly closes it. Even if she wanted to explain everything to him from the beginning, which she didn't, she wouldn't know where to start. She knew that if people knew about her fatal curse, it would cause a lot of problems that she wouldn't know how to handle.
Noticing how uncomfortable she suddenly felt, Elijah slowly got up from the bed, deciding to change the subject. "As my sister mentioned earlier, we would very much like you to join us for breakfast" he said, before going to offer his hand out to her.
Prudence quickly swallows a big lump stuck in her throat. Knowing that she is about to come face to face with Klaus again made her more nervous than the spell they wanted her to do. With shaky and sweaty palms, she slowly raised her hand to take Elijah's, before going to climb out of the bed with his help.
Before she could do anything else, she searched around for her bag, spotting it across the room, before walking over to bring out her mother's grimoire. It is something that she carried around with wherever she went. She then takes a deep breath and turns back around to face Elijah, and with that the pair make their way out the bedroom. Prudence tightly clutches onto the grimoire as they walk down the hall, and she couldn't help but be in awe at how huge the place was. It took almost forever, before they finally arrive at the dining room to see Rebekah and Kol sat opposite each other, but there is no sign of Klaus anywhere.
"Ah, there she is" Kol smirks, noticing her walk into the room alongside Elijah.
Prudence looks at him and holds in a shaky breath. She shifts her eyes over to Rebekah who smiles and for some reason it didn't feel like she is stood in a room with the most powerful creatures in the world, but in-fact just ordinary people. She wondered if the only reason why they were treating her with such kindness is because they needed something from her. It made her overwhelmed with thoughts as to what would happen if she gets the spell wrong or mess up in any way, and before she knew it, she begins to overthink, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Elijah's voice.
"Rebekah, where is our dear brother, Niklaus?" Elijah questions, while leading Prudence over to the dining table to sit.
"He isn't home, but I'm sure he'll be back soon" Rebekah replies, before taking a sip of her tea.
Prudence slowly sits down on one of the seats as her eyes roam around the food in-front of her. Its been so long that she's eaten proper food, that she couldn't help but dig in, as the three vampires watched her eat amusingly. This is the first morning she's woken up in a year and felt comfort, despite being around the people her family had warned her about growing up. She still felt nervous around them, but she is so hungry that not even her nerves could stop her eating and by the looks of things, they didn't mind her eating at all.
"So Prudence, tell us" Kol spoke up after a while later. "What were you doing all alone so late at night?" he questions, causing her to almost choke up.
"Kol..." Elijah calls out his name, stopping him from asking further.
"What Elijah? you're telling me you aren't the least bit interested why a witch like her was so persistent to go into a town where they hate witches and can smell them from a mile away?".
"I didn't know about that... I was just trying to get out of the next town" Prudence muttered quietly, placing a loaf of bread down on the table and lowering her head back down once again as the room instantly chilled with silence.
"Were you going home to your family?" Rebekah asks as Prudence shuts her eyes, breathing out a quiet sigh.
A short while later, they heard footsteps echoing from the hallway. Feeling her chest sinking by the second, Prudence held in her breath as her eyes met Klaus' not a second later. He stopped and looked at her with the same heavy expression from last night and it felt like the atmosphere in the room had instantly went dark. How is she supposed to face someone like him? how is she supposed to look into his eyes and not feel terrified, nervous or a mix of different emotions? these were just the few questions that went through her mind as he slowly made his way to her, his footsteps being the only thing you could hear in the room.
"Well I see you've had something to eat, good... now you can do what you came here for" Klaus spoke up in a demanding tone.
"Niklaus, would it kill you to not be your usual self for one minute-"
"No Elijah, you've all seem to forget that you can never trust a witch, and let it be known if you double cross me, I will kill you" says Klaus, as he turns his attention back to an extremely terrified Prudence. Of course she couldn't die, but he didn't have to know that. "Besides, the more time we waste, the more time Mikael has all the tools to find us" he states, before glancing back at Prudence signalling for her to follow him as he walks out the room and she slowly picks up her mother's grimoire and does so while wondering who Mikael is and what he needed from her along the way.
As she enters the room, she looks around at all the candles which were already lit and laid out on the table ready for her to do the spell.
"What do you want from me?" she asked, working up the courage like last night to finally say something to him.
"Well I'm glad you finally asked, sweetheart" Klaus smirks, going to place her hand on her back and lead her further into the room, as Elijah, Rebekah and Kol join them moments later. "You see to put it simply we have a lot of enemies around, and we suspect that one of them is using a witch to track our whereabouts so we need you to block her spells from tracing us" he explains.
With his hand still placed firmly on her back, Prudence pushes her head back to look at him to see if he is being serious and when she saw the stern expression evident on his face she knew that he is, which only puzzled her more. She didn't understand how the strongest creatures on the planet was willing to go through length to stop one of their enemies from finding them. Who is this Mikael that he had mentioned and why did they, especially Klaus seem so afraid of him? she questions to herself, looking into his eyes of desperation. There were millions of questions running through her mind, but she knew she wouldn't get the answer to them.
Prudence turned around to look back at Elijah, Rebekah and Kol, then back at Klaus, before taking a deep breath. "Uhm... I... just give me a minute" she anxiously breathed out, opening up her grimoire to see if she could search for the spell as she remembered reading through it this past year.
Klaus arched his brow up puzzlingly, before speaking up. "Now forgive me, but I was under the impression that you are a witch" he hisses.
"I am" Prudence replies, shifting her eyes from the grimoire and looking back up at him.
"Then what kind of witch doesn't know how to do a simple spell like that" he scolds, shooting her an impatient look and her nerves begins to grow as she tries to stop her heavy and quick breathing. Listening to him talk down on her like that took her back to the times where her cousin would mock her and make her feel weak and useless simply because she didn't know much about magic or spells by heart. Of course she had tried to prove them wrong many times, but at the end of the day she lacked the confidence herself to see herself being an all powerful witch like her mother was.
"You need me to do the spell" Prudence utters, clenching her fist tightly, working up the courage to stand up for herself.
"Well right now I feel like I don't need you for anything because you are useless" he spat out in a cold stern tone, leaving her with a dejected and angry feeling.
"Niklaus, that is enough" Elijah scolded, stepping further into the room.
Klaus rolled his eyes away, before turning his attention back to a dazed off Prudence. As he is about to place his hand on her shoulder, she quickly spun around and held up her hand, sending him flying at the wall across the room. "I am not useless!" she gritted her teeth slowly walking towards him, as she then begins to fry his brain with all of her power, while losing control of herself along the way. She watches him squirm and attempt to get back to his feet to charge at her, but she quickly sent him back down to the ground, feeling frustrated not just with him but with everyone and everything.
"Prudence- Prudence" Elijah and Rebekah called, with a calm tone, trying to get her to stop.
She turned to look at them seconds later with blood running down her nose, and before she knew it, consciousness begins to fade out of her and she slowly finds herself losing her balance, along with her sense of vision.
Before she could fall and land on the floor, Elijah quickly uses his vamp speed to whisk over and hold her up, carrying her in his arms. He then glances over at Klaus who slowly lifts himself from the ground, stunned and shocked at what had just happened as it was rare for anyone to simply bring him to his knees.
-A while later-
Haven placed Prudence in the room she woke up in as she is still unconscious, Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah and Kol were stood watching her with only one thought roaming through their minds.
Rebekah sighs quietly to herself and slowly takes a seat on the bed beside Prudence, picking up the cloth to wipe the remaining blood from her nose as the others watched on. She turns around to look at Klaus who stood further from everyone in the room while gazing out the window with deep thoughts.
"You deserved it, Nik, I say we have her around all the time so she teaches you a lesson or two" says Rebekah, before shifting her eyes back down to Prudence.
"For once I agree with you, Rebekah" Kol snickers, pushing his back off the wall.
Klaus shifts his eyes from the window, as he slowly narrows his eyes over to Kol furiously. "Unless you want another dagger in your heart, I'd watch what you say next little brother-"
"Another dagger threat? you're so predictable, Nik. You just can't handle the fact that someone who you called useless brought you to your knees" Kol quickly fires back.
"Enough all of you" Elijah speaks up, turning to look at each of them. "Now Niklaus, I'm sure Prudence didn't mean to do what she did, but you did provoke her. She is quite an odd and mysterious girl, but I have this feeling that she needs our help as much as we need hers" he utters briefly.
Klaus sighs quietly under his breath as he goes to slowly walk over to everyone. "I felt something" he speaks up, as they all turn to look at him. "When she fried my brain I felt her power, her life force... I'm not sure why or how, but it felt a lot like ours" he explains briefly as everyone turns to look at each other in confusion with their questions regarding Prudence multiplying by the second.