Happy Bank Holiday everyone! I hope you've all had a fun few days off in the sun.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, have fun.

PRANK NIGHT

"Can you tell me something good please?" I sighed hoping Katherine was calling with good news.

Caroline had been weird over the last four days. It was concerning at the most because she was pretending that nothing had happened.

"I've spoken to Stefan, he's got this big plan against your husband." Just the sort of news I needed to hear. "I don't think it's going to end up good for Klaus."

"I was sort of hoping you wouldn't tell me any bad news, Kitty. I'm still trying to deal with Caroline."

"How is she?"

"Is that concern I hear from you, Kate?"

"Look, I may not really like the girl, but her father's betrayed her and I know how that feels." I could sense a big drama about to unfold with her family and didn't want to get into it right now. I could also tell that she didn't either. Katherine was sort of secretive and would only give information about herself if she felt like it.

"She's pretending nothing even happened."

"Not the best way to go, but she'll figure it out herself, just let her know you'll be there." Getting advice from Katherine was a bit strange considering almost all my friends hated her. I guess they didn't get to see the side of her that I did.

"Keep me updated when you can," I added, already knowing she knew what I was on about. "And please don't call Damon to fall into any more of your traps."

"But he's so fun to tease," she laughed and I wondered what she was doing right now. In my mind I pictured her lounging on a double bed in a hotel in a bathrobe drinking champagne.

"I mean it, Kitty."

"Alright, I'll save the tormenting to Elena."

I laughed and shook my head as Caroline glared at me. I guess she was still hating on my Kitty Kat.

"I'll speak to you soon." Throwing my phone on the bed, I huffed as Caroline crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the floor. "Don't look at me like that."

"You're not even dressed yet and we have to go to the Lockwood party."

"Carrie, I'm not sure if you remember, but Carol Lockwood doesn't want me anywhere near her. I'm respecting her wishes so please don't ask me to go to a stupid party that doesn't even mean anything to me because you want me to go."

"But you're a Lockwood, you're part of the founding families."

"Caroline, I'm not a Lockwood or a Salvator, I'm a Mikaelson and I don't care about your stupid family traditions. I wasn't brought up here so why should I follow them? Just go out and spend some time with Elena and Bonnie. Have fun with your friends." I was tired and call me insane, but I had a bad feeling about this stupid party and I did not want to be involved.

"You are my friend, Ethel," she said softly, her eyes showing the sadness she tried to keep inside.

"I know, Caroline, but you spend so much time with me, you need a break. Go be with Elena and Bonnie, listen to their drama, and then tomorrow, we'll do something tomorrow."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired, Care, and I need some time to myself."

"Okay, but you call me if you need anything."

"I will do, have fun," I called after her as she left the cottage and made her way to pick up Bonnie.

There were a lot of things I could do today, now that I had the day to myself but Kathrine calling really threw me off.

She said that Stefan had a plan but what could that be?

I knew he had the intention of keeping Klaus away from Elena but he couldn't kill Klaus, not without hurting me. Not without hurting my daughter. But he didn't know about her.

But he did know that I was connected to Klaus and he knew that if Klaus died, I died too. Was he really willing to do that? To kill me? Would he do that to Damon?

Perhaps the best thing would be to phone Klaus and see what he intended to do next.

"Love, I don't really have the time." He didn't sound too happy answering the phone so there must have been something seriously wrong.

"Are you alright?" Had Stefan done something already?

"Witches are all the same, aren't they. They want and want but they never give." Okay, someone was in a bad mood.

"Has this got anything to do with your hybrids?"

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

Of course, there was. I wasn't telling you about our daughter. I wasn't telling you about Elena being alive. I wasn't telling you about the witchbitch but I wasn't sure what you wanted me to tell you.

"About your hybrids? You know I'm trying to help you with them, Klaus. I've given you my thoughts on how to turn a werewolf into a hybrid, it's your choice on whether or not you've agreed with me."

"No need to get snappy with me, sweetheart."

"Says the one that snapped as soon as he answered the phone," I replied, rolling my eyes as I made my way through the cottage and frowned when I couldn't find Wolf. I had a feeling he'd followed Jeremy. That dog was a traitor. For some reason ever since Katherine left he'd not moved far away from Jeremy.

"Yes, well, I apologise for that, love. Who knew I would get impatient creating one of my kind?"

How pissed off would he be when he found out I was carrying one of his own kind?

"When's the next full moon? End of September? I'm sure you'll have figured it out by then, Niklaus."

"Niklaus? If I didn't know better, I'd say you've been spending time with Elijah." That was true. I had no idea why I called him Niklaus, it was always just Klaus. "Hmm, I do like the sound of my name from your lips though, love, perhaps you'll continue to use it."

"What are you going to do about your hybrids then?" I asked, biting my lip as my mind went to dirty thoughts at the seductive tone he'd used.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, love. I'll have my answers soon."

"What is that supposed to mean? Klaus? Hey, don't ignore me! Niklaus?" I groaned in frustration when I realised he'd hung up on me. "Bastard."

There was something strangely exciting about sneaking around the school at night. Especially when Caroline wanted to hide from Matt who had forgotten about prank night.

My favourite idea was filling the swimming pool with foam and feathers. Of course, we had yet to get to that part as Caroline insisted we all set up mouse traps in one of the rooms.

"Remind me again why we're doing this in the dark," I asked as we were crouched on the floor, struggling to see the stupid mouse traps.

"Shh," Caroline said, taking my hand as footsteps echoed outside the hall. I wonder how Alaric was going to feel when he found out we stole his keys for the building. Surely there would be teachers roaming the halls considering this happened every year before school started. Huh, seemed a little suspicious to me.

The door squeaked open and Caroline squeezed my hand as someone stepped into the room. Seconds later all the mouse traps set off and the light turned on revealing Matty. I honestly didn't understand why we didn't grab him from the gym before we started all this. It was very obvious that he was going to get freaked out at one point throughout the night when he heard us creeping around.

"Oh, come on! Seriously?" Caroline whined as she rose, helping me from the floor. "Do you know how long it took for us to set this all up?"

"Yeah, and in the dark," I muttered as Tyler laughed looking at his friend.

"Forgot about Senior Prank Night, huh?" Tyler didn't look too impressed and I knew why. He was going to be the one having to deal with Caroline and her annoyance because I was not dealing with her now.

"Clearly," Matt said, huffing out as his little heart tried to stay in his chest after that scare. Ah, look at him all sweaty and disgusting from his workout.

"Why are you here at this time exercising?" I asked the same time Caroline asked how he could have forgotten about prank night.

"We've only been waiting for this since freshman year." I feel like she was getting a little too upset about this.

"Yeah, Matt. If I'm doing this, you're doing this." Why did Elena have to make everything about her? She made it sound like she was dying or something. Yeah, no, you're only hurting because your supposed true love didn't want you to save him and while he's away you're falling in love with his brother who also happened to be my dad. Urgh.

"I'm kind of surprised any of you are doing this." I could understand why he didn't want to. We'd all faced a lot in the last couple of months. Elena had died. I'd bound myself to Klaus and was now carrying his tribrid baby. Jeremy had also died and come back to life. Caroline was tortured by her own father. Far too much drama and yet here we were causing more drama for the future.

"Caroline's making us." Bonnie made it sound like she wasn't enjoying herself. She was totally lying, I could feel her excitement rolling off her in waves. She was excited about the feathers in the pool and there was no denying it.

"We're about to be seniors. These are the memories that will stay with us forever, and if we don't—"

"—don't create these memories then what's the point?" Elena cut over Caroline, finishing off what she was saying.

"Go ahead and make fun, I don't care." I could actually see that she didn't care. Caroline had passed the point of caring what anyone thought of this prank night.

"You're all lame and I've got ten more classrooms to prank," Tyler said, grabbing his bag and leaving the room giving me a wink as he left.

He was far too excited about this but I suppose he'd been planning his pranks for weeks and was excited to see the teachers' faces tomorrow. Elena got up behind him with a smile on her face and went to follow him out of the classroom.

"Hey," Bonnie called, looking at Elena in confusion. Was there ever going to be a moment in Bonnie's life where she didn't worry about Elena? It must suck not being able to live your life because you were always worried about your friend bringing trouble to your hometown.

God, maybe I needed to lighten up on blaming Elena for all my problems.

"To superglue Alaric's desk shut." Caroline seemed so happy at this I could feel her excitement growing. It was actually nice to see Elena smiling at something she was doing for herself. No Stefan involved. No Damon there either. This was all on her. "I'm making memories."

Perhaps I should be nicer to her. She hadn't blamed more for Stefan leaving for a while now, maybe speaking to him in Chicago really opened her eyes to the fact that it was his choice to leave and not my fault.

"I love you," Caroline called out as Elena left before turning to face me. "Right, you're in charge of the swimming pool. Bonnie, Matt, escort Effie to the pool and make sure you throw around a few rolls of toilet tissue." She gave us all one last smile before leaving the room.

"Did she have a bottle of honey in her hand?" I asked, bending down and picking up the box of feathers. When Matt offered to take the box I raised my brow at him.

"Yeah, I think she did," Bonnie said, picking up a box full of toilet rolls. "Well come on my friends, to the pool we go." I smiled as I followed after Bonnie glancing back at Matt to make sure he was coming too.

I was never going to admit it to Caroline but it was actually fun to throw toilet paper. When she first suggested it I screwed up my nose and said she needed to find something more original but now I took all that back.

Bonnie said the same thing to Matt, about how fun it was but I had the feeling there was something bothering him.

"You sound like Caroline."

"There's nothing wrong with that," I muttered, sliding off my shoes before sitting down and slipping my feet into the water. I felt like this was going to be a long conversation and my feet were already hurting.

I knew I should have worn my converse instead of those stupid slip-on shoes that Caroline told me to wear because they went better with my yellow dress.

I rested my hands on my stomach as Bonnie carried on talking to Matt and rubbed my hand over my obvious bump. Well, it was obvious to me. I knew it was there and everyone that knew me knew it was a baby bump, but to some stranger, it might just look like I was getting fat.

I shivered as I felt a moment of fear from Caroline but it was gone just as quickly as it happened. Huh, Tyler must have jumped out at her.

"I feel sorry for him, you know," Bonnie said, as she came to me. I looked up at her and noticed that Matty wasn't with her. "He doesn't have anyone and that sucks."

"He's got us, Bonnie, that's what matters," I told her, pulling my legs from the water and smiling as they dried instantly. "I love a bit of magic." Bonnie was kind enough to help me to my feet where I glared down at my stupid shoes. Giving Bonnie a quick smile I looked down at my shoes and laughed when she let out a gasp.

"How did you do that?" she asked as I slipped on my converse happy the stupid slip-on shoes were gone. I shook my head and took the box of feathers from the floor ready to take them to the gym. There was no need for them here, I could hang them above the gym doors with glue or something.

"Different magic to yours, Bon, I just teleported them here and replaced the other shoes." I gave one last look at the pool, not feeling satisfied enough before sighing and following Bonnie to the boys' toilets where Matt went.

"You go get Matt, I'm going to hide and try and scare him." She looked so happy and devious as she left me standing outside the toilet and ran off to hide. I guess we all needed this night after all.

"Matty, come on," I called to him, poking my head into the boy's toilets, jumping as he was standing right by the door. "God's sake," I muttered bending down and picking up the box I dropped. He went to take the box from me but I moved it out of the way and out of his reach.

"Oh, come on, Effie, let me carry it," he said, trying once again to take the box off me. He was even pouting. As if I would fall for that. It only worked when Caroline or Jeremy did it.

"I'm not an invalid and I'm quite capable of carrying a box full of feathers," I replied, tipping the box to show him the multi-coloured feathers. "Come on, Bonnie's waiting down the hall, we're going to the gym to see where Elena got off to."

"How are you feeling about this prank night?" Matt asked and it was sweet of him to still be concerned over my adjustment to moving here.

"I've been here a while now, Matt, I can handle all that this school has to throw at me and all the added nonsense Caroline adds to my life."

"I've seen the looks everyone's sent you around town." I knew he was talking about the baby. "How do you think people are going to react tomorrow?"

"I'm not concerned, really. It's none of their business, to be honest, and like I said to Tyler, if people want to lie and spread rumours then that's up to them, but I don't want any of you rising to their bait and reacting. We don't need to draw more attention to ourselves."

"I'm not just gonna let everyone bully you," he argued, his ears growing red at his anger.

"Please, Matt, just do this for me. I don't need the stress." That's it, Effie, use the stress and pregnancy card to get your way.

"Okay, fine, but I swear to God if anyone does—"

Bonnie literally made my week when she jumped out from behind the corner and scared Matt. He dropped the box of toilet rolls he was holding, all of them rolling on the floor as he held his chest, glaring at Bonnie.

"Oh my God, you should see your face," Bonnie said as she leaned over clutching her side trying to keep her laughter at bay.

"That was not funny, Bonnie," Matt grumbled as he bent down and collected the toilet roll, trying to ignore us and our laughter. I bet he was embarrassed that she scared him and he didn't want to look either of us in the eyes after he jumped so high.

Bonnie looked at me and we burst out into a fit of giggles as we followed Matt down the hall to the gym. He glanced back at us and glared before he pushed open the gym door, holding it open for us.

"Bonnie get out of here!"

Before I could comprehend what was happening, Klaus was behind Bonnie, preventing her from leaving.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, now we can get started." I was very aware of the fact that he was ignoring me and I clutched my box of feathers closer to my stomach. Why did it feel like I was going to be sick? "Uh, Dana, why don't you relax? You and Chad sit tight." I missed him. Was that crazy of me to say? "I assume you're the reason Elena's still walking around alive. Or," he turned to me, his eyes glaring as his jaw twitched. "Is it due to you, sweetheart?"

Oh god. He knew I lied to him.

I felt Matt shift closer to me, his hand resting on my elbow in case he needed to get me out of here pronto.

"That's right," Bonnie said, her eyes flicking to me and telling me to leave. I was getting really good at this non-verbal communication shit. "If you wanna blame someone, blame me."

"There's no need for blame, love. Just your witchy interference seemed to have caused some undesirable side effects and since you caused the problem, I'm gonna have you find the fix."

As if he had it all planned, which he probably did, some blonde bimbo came into the gym dragging Tyler by the neck. She must have been a vampire for Tyler not to have overpowered her.

"Ugh, get off of me," my brother moaned trying to fight against her.

"Hush now," she said, as she dragged Tyler to Klaus.

Matt had somehow managed to pull us over to Elena and between the two of them, their grip on my arms prevented me from helping Tyler.

"I'd like you all to meet my sister, Rebekah." His eyes flashed to mine and I had to wonder what was going through his head. I thought he had his family daggered. Isn't that what he told Elijah? "A word of warning, she can be quite mean."

"Don't be an ass," she said, a smile on her face as she pushed Tyler into Klaus.

"Leave him alone," Elena begged, her hand tightening my arm and I didn't know if she was asking me to do something to help Tyler or warning me not to get into trouble.

"I'm going to make this very simple. Every time I attempt to turn a werewolf into a vampire hybrid. They die during the transition." I feared what he was about to do. I knew what he was about to do. "It's quite horrible, actually." My eyes widened as Klaus bit his wrist and forced Tyler to drink his blood. Matt pulled me against his chest as I took a step towards them, dropping the box of feathers. As if he could also sense what was about to happen, Matt tried to turn me away from the scene. "I need you to find a way to save my hybrids, Bonnie." I shook my head, begging Klaus not to do this but he was staring Bonnie in the eye letting her know just how serious this was. "And for Tyler's sake you better hurry."

And he snapped his neck.

Just like that.

Tyler was dead.

I don't know what infuriated me more. The fact that Matt had prevented me from helping Tyler, that I couldn't use my magic against Klaus to stop him or that Bonnie didn't use her magic to stop him.

Not caring what the others did, I rushed to Tyler's side, cupping his head carefully in my hands as I cried.

Why was it that my husband had been the one to kill my brother?

And to make things worse, the bloody hybrid was smiling about it.

"He killed him," Matt said as if he couldn't believe what he'd just seen. I growled as he tried to reach out to Tyler and I shuffled away from him, blocking Tyler's face from view. I felt like this was my fault. I should have stopped Klaus.

"He's not dead." Elena had to point out the fact that I knew. Tyler wasn't really dead. He'd just wake up and be in transition. Which basically meant he was dead because we didn't know how to successfully create a hybrid. "Klaus' blood will turn him into a vampire." She sounded as if she had as much belief and hope in that as me. What would we do if we didn't find out how to save Tyler?

"And if Bonnie's successful he'll live through his transition." He made his way from where he's been sitting with his sister and I felt my anger bubble again as I saw his stupid face. Urgh. How could I like seeing his stupid face and hate it at the same time? "Go on then, go fetch your Grimoires and enchantments and whatnot. I'll hold onto Elena for safekeeping."

I had to admire Bonnie for a second there. Not wanting to leave Elena along with the big bad hybrid in fear she'd die but she's been happy leaving Tyler to get killed. She really needed to sort out her priorities before I sorted them out for her.

Matt, ever the hero, went with Bonnie, the two of them leaving us along with Klaus. I scoffed as Klaus looked down at me and frowned at the way I held Tyler close to me. Did he think I was going to leave Tyler too? I was not leaving my brother to the likes of him when I could try and do something to protect him.

"So this is the latest doppelganger," Rebekah said and I was slightly satisfied to see that she scared Elena. "The original one was much prettier."

"Enough, Rebekah, take the wolf-boy elsewhere, would you." It seemed as if Klaus was testing me. Did he really think I'd let Tyler go that easy?

"What about this one, Nik? Can I kill her?" his sister asked, looking down at me, a smirk on her face.

"You wish," I muttered, slowly rising and glaring as Klaus took a step towards me. "You're not taking Tyler anywhere. I won't let you."

"Oh, and what makes you think you can stop me?"

I smirked as she went flying across the room and I was sure I heard Klaus sigh as watched his sister practice her cartwheels.

"Ethel," he stressed, and I snapped my head to look at him. "Not now."

"You do not get to tell me what to do!" I shouted, giving him my full attention now. "Not when you've just killed my brother, not when you've ended his life."

"Your brother?" It was nice to see the look of confusion on his face.

"You bitch."

Before I was prepared to face Rebekah again, I went flying into the bleachers, my back hitting the steps with a thud.

"Ethel!" Elena called out and I was surprised to hear the concern there. It was actual fear for my wellbeing I was hearing.

"Rebekah! That's enough." I was slightly happy that Rebekah seemed to fear her brother as she didn't bother coming back to me and instead picked up Tyler's arm and pulled him from the gym.

I slowly sat up, rubbing my back before remembering the little invading inside me. I shared a frightened look with Elena as I rested my hands on my stomach concerned that something had happened to my daughter.

There didn't seem to be anything wrong, no pain or funny feelings but I didn't trust that. What if she was struggling in there? What if she was in pain?

"Just ignore her," Klaus said, talking about his sister. "Petty little thing." God. If he spoke about his sister like this I wondered how he spoke about me? "Elena why don't you be a dear and give me a moment with my wife."

"Do not come near me," I snapped at him, afraid that he'd do something that would further injury my baby.

"Now, Ethel, what do you think I'm going to do? Throw you into a wall?" He was obviously upset about the way I treated his sister, but she'd clearly gotten back at me for that.

"You killed my brother and she's a bitch, she deserved it."

"You don't know her, love, she's childish. Speaking of things we don't know about," Oh great, here it came. "why did you never tell me you were a Lockwood?"

"Why does it matter?" From the look he gave me he knew I knew why it mattered. "It doesn't matter to you."

"I think it matters to me greatly that my wife is a werewolf!"

"I am not a werewolf," I snapped back, curling in on myself as he stepped onto the bleachers closer to me.

"An untriggered werewolf is still a werewolf," he said, his annoyance clear as he clenched his jaw.

"I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd have me trigger the curse. There, are you happy?"

I knew it was the wrong thing to say because he looked so betrayed.

"I wouldn't do that, not to you."

"Are you sure, Niklaus? You've already let your sister throw me across the room. I'm sure you could have prevented that."

Okay, now I was just picking a fight with him.

He went to reply but Elena's voice cut him off.

"Stefan."

I glanced to the door to see that it was indeed Stefan. The traitorous bastard was here to no doubt bring more harm to my husband and therefore me and my daughter.

"Klaus."

"Come to save your damsel, mate?" he said it so softly I would be mistaken that he even spoke. He sounded hurt and my heart tugged because I was the one to cause him that pain.

"I came to ask for your forgiveness and pledge my loyalty." Now that was bullshit. If what Kitty had said, then Stefan was trying to find a way to kill Klaus and she was trying to prevent that.

Don't trust him.

Klaus looked at me in surprise and I almost shocked myself that I'd actually telepathically spoken to him. I needed to get used to that. It was so easy to slip into his mind because of our link, I didn't even have to think about it.

"Well, you broke that pledge once already."

"Elena means nothing to me anymore." Was I the only one that snorted at that? Hadn't Stefan remained loyal to her throughout his months away with Klaus? Wasn't this the reason we were all here tonight? "And whatever you ask of me I will do."

Why did I sense my impending doom approaching?

That sounded like such a shitty thing to say. Did Stefan think he was fooling anyone? Did Stefan even realise what he was about to do?

"Fair enough?"

And now he'd awakened the devil.

"Let's drink on it. Kill them." Klaus was pointing at Dana and Chad. "What are you waiting for? Kill them."

"No!" I snapped, rising from my seat, ignoring the looks I was being sent by all three of them. "I've had enough of this mindless killing just because you feel the need for everyone to follow you out of fear. Stop it, now."

"Ethel, do stay out of this."

"Stefan, don't do this," Elena said, trying to reason with her … were they still together or not? "He's not going to hurt me, He already said—"

Even I could have predicted what Klaus was going to do. I winched as Elena flew to the floor, screaming in pain. I took a step down from the bleachers and towards them when Stefan growled and sped his way to Klaus only to be stopped by the man himself.

"She means nothing to you? Your lies just keep piling up." I was sensing a little more than his anger towards Stefan and knew it must have to do with me too.

"Let her go, I'll do whatever you want. You have my word."

"I don't think your word's enough, Stefan," I muttered, going over to Elena and helping her up. She curled into me, her tall frame ducking down as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I think she thought she'd be safe from Klaus if she was with me.

"Your word doesn't mean much." Told ya. "I've lived by your word all summer during which time I never had to resort to this. Stop fighting."

"Don't do this, don't do this," Stefan begged, knowing what was going to face him in the future.

"I didn't want to." I could tell that Klaus didn't want to do it. He was hurt that he had to and I felt sorry for him. "All I wanted was your allegiance. Now I'm going to have to take it." Mate, I didn't know if anyone told Klaus, but he was going about this the wrong way. You had to earn it, and he defo wasn't doing that. "You will do exactly as I say when I say it. You will not run. You will not hide. You will simply just obey."

Okay, was it strange that I found this side of Klaus attractive?

"No, Stefan," Elena whispered, her worst nightmare happening in front of her eyes. She really needed to get out more if this was her worst nightmare.

"Now kill them, Ripper."

Thank you for reading xx