The happiness and the contentment — and the extreme emotions — that constituted the past few days came quickly crashing down. But that was the story of my life; every time things were going well, something would happen that brought everything down: my father left; my mother died; I had to move to a town I never wanted to live in. Okay, that last one didn't end up being too terrible. So far.

I hardly slept last night; Klaus's words were on a continuous, repetitive loop in my mind:

"I know you see us as friends, but I see us as more";

"I know you're scared and I know you're hesitant; but you're not alone in this, Riley";

"You have caught my attention in a way that hasn't happened for centuries; and for the first time in a very long time, I feel something that is not hatred or bitterness";

"You'll have to open up; you'll have to let me in."

Good thing vampires can get by without their eight hours.

His words were comforting and reassuring, yet terrifying at the same. Is that even possible?

For the first time in a while, I actually dreaded going to school. I wanted nothing more than to stay home, curled up in bed. But real life doesn't stop, even when I have a lot to think about.

Klaus wasn't outside the house when I left for school. Giving me time, I guess.

I honestly don't think I learned one single thing at school; every teacher ended up sounding like Klaus — "I always believed that I would never know love"; every page of any book I tried to read morphed into a script from yesterday — "I have found myself beginning to think that, with you, maybe it would be possible"; and any classmate who spoke to me, though that didn't happen too frequently, sounded like Klaus too — "Now I see I was just indulging in a fantasy."

Was I losing my mind?!

By the time school ended for the day, all I could hear was one simple phrase from Klaus: "I want you."

I've always admired how everything was very simple with Klaus; he said what he felt — no fluff and no fuss. Simple, yet it made everything all the more powerful.

I went home after school, but I only stayed here long enough to drop my school bag in my room; this morning I wanted nothing more than to stay curled up in bed all day, but now I couldn't stand being cooped up in the house.

I was walking through Mystic Square when someone stopped just ahead of me, waiting for me. I didn't notice him — I was so lost in my thoughts — and I nearly ran him over.

"Oh, so—" I went to apologize for bumping into this person, but when I saw who it was, apologizing was the furthest thing from my mind.

"Hello, Ri." Lewis greeted me with a smile.

"Ugh, you. Go away."

"Riley, wait. Sweet—"

I glared at him. "Don't." He held up his hands in an 'I surrender' pose. "Is this some distraction so the hunter can find me and tie me up again? Because that was so much fun when it happened the first time," I deadpanned.

He shook his head. "I just want to talk."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Then listen."

"No," I said as I brushed past him, continuing on my way home.

I had only taken a few steps away from him when I heard his voice. "Don't you want to know more about the accident?"

I whirled around to face him. "What do you know about that?"

"Almost everything. And if you'll let me, I'll tell you all I know."

I crossed my arms. "Okay, spill."

He took a large step closer to me and whispered, "No here."

I uncrossed my arms to gesture around us. "No one is going to overhear; no one has even noticed us."

"Not here," he repeated.

"Where then?" I asked, crossing my arms again.

"We can talk in the place I'm staying at."

"No way."

I turned to walk away. "You're really okay with not knowing, Riley?" I stopped walking.

Dang!

"You were always such a curious child — you wanted to know everything about, well, everything; no detail was too miniscule for you to want to understand. I can't imagine that has changed too much. It must annoy you to no end that there's a large aspect of your life that you know almost nothing about." I turned around to face him as he spoke. His words were teasing me.

"What do you know?"

"I told you, not here." Lewis began walking, so I followed him. I was on high alert, constantly looking behind me and ahead of him. He noticed my movements. "You look like a deer during hunting season, Ri."

"I'm just waiting for the trap," I replied, not looking at him.

"This isn't a trap. I just want to talk."

He stopped walking. He was standing next to a car. It must have been his car. He opened the passenger door. I put my hands on my hips. "I'm not getting into a vehicle with you."

He groaned, possibly in frustration, before the shut the car door. "Fine. We'll walk. It's not too far, anyway."

I crossed my arms. "It would be a lot closer if you just told me now."

"No," he said, shortly, and began walking uptown. I followed.

He stopped a few minutes later outside the uptown apartment building. "This is where you're staying?" It concerned me that he was staying in an apartment building and not a hotel. How long was he planning to stay around Mystic?

He nodded. "Third floor. Three is a powerful number." He looked at me. Was I supposed to have a reaction to that? "I've been fascinated by this building ever since I returned to Mystic Falls. The building dates back to the slavery days; the basement, which is now storage, used to be where the slaves were chained up."

"Wow. Disgusting and so not interesting. Will you tell me now?"

"Inside." He unlocked the door to the building and we went inside. "Elevator or stairs."

"Stairs." No way as I getting into a tiny box with Lewis. He led the way and we climbed the stairs in hostile silence. On the third floor, his door was at the end of the hall. He unlocked that door and ushered me inside.

I walked into what would pass for the living room in that apartment, turned around, and faced him. "This is enough of a prelude; tell me about the accident."

"Have a seat first, sweetheart."

"Stop calling me that. And why did we have to come here to talk?"

"I've put a silencing spell around this apartment; no one on the outside will be able to overhear what is said or done in this room. I like my privacy." He gestured towards the kitchen area. "Would you like something to drink?"

I laughed bitterly. "As if I would eat or drink anything you give to me." He stood near the entrance between the living room and the kitchen, staring at me. I scoffed. "This is obviously a waste of my time."

Before I could take a step, he relented. "Fine," he said with a weary sigh. He fully entered the living room and sat down on the couch. "I'll tell you about the accident. But please, sit down first." I acquiesced; I crossed my arms and sat in the chair, facing him. "It was a Friday. You spent the day at a shopping mall in Richmond with your mother. It was something the two of you had been doing maybe two or three time a year for the past several years now."

"How do you know that?"

"I've check in on you, over the years."

I rolled my eyes as I scoffed, then muttered, "Creepy."

"I watched you grown from an inquisitive child, to a withdrawn teenager, and I can see now the beautiful woman you will become. I have been so proud of you.

"But the last few times I checked in on you before the accident were… troubling to me. You were beginning to experience the first stages of your magic, weren't you?" I didn't answer him. I wouldn't even look at him. I focused on a tree just outside the window. "You were; I could tell. You were having strange dreams that would shock you when they came true; you were having dreams when you were awake too — visions, or premonitions — and you would be equally stunned when they happened in real life."

I didn't like how he knew things about my life, but I didn't say anything.

Neither confirm nor deny.

"My magic presented itself in the same ways, initially," he continued. "If you had any other trait of mine, I would have been proud— honoured even — to see evidence of it in you. But not magic. I was horrified. And I knew immediately that I had to do something to stop your magic — to nip it in the bud, so to speak."

My head snapped as I looked at him. " 'Do something'?"

"I was trying to protect you."

I looked away from him as the meaning of his words sunk in. "Mom…," I whispered. I looked back at his face, glaring. "You killed her?"

"No, Ri. It wasn't supposed to happen like that."

"What, was it your plan to turn her too but you messed up and forgot to get vampire blood into her system?"

"No. Your mother would have been a terrible vampire; she could never control any of her impulses."

"And you just knew that I would make a great one?"

"No one can be certain before it happens, but yes."

"Shut up!" I yelled, jumping to my feet. "This is not funny!"

"She was supposed to get hurt, not die," he clarified. His hands were out in front of him, as if in an attempt to calm me.

I laughed a humourless laugh. "Is that supposed to be comforting? To know that my mother was a victim of circumstance, not intentionally murdered. So I was the only one who should have died?"

Lewis stood. "Yes! That other vehicle wasn't supposed to be involved. It messed up the spell."

I gasped; it felt like puzzle pieces were finally fitting together in my brain — pieces that, for months, had seem to be from two completely different puzzles. "That's why the rescue workers kept saying the crash looked odd, that our car looked as if it had two points of impact."

"It probably did. The spell I created sent a force into the front passenger's door. Where you were sitting."

"You killed me. On purpose." I felt like I could hardly breathe.

"I did it to protect you."

"Why weren't you there when I woke up? Why didn't you help when I was transitioning? I was alone," I wept, feeling tears cascade down my cheeks. "I was all alone! You should have been there to help me. You should have finished what you started!"

I shut my eyes, not wanting to think about what he did or who had been hurt. My life no longer felt like my own anymore. It had been planned by someone else. I felt like a puppet, waiting around for someone to pull the strings.

"Because my part was done; I expected your mother would help. I knew she would immediately understand what was happening, because of the stories she told you as a child." Lewis stepped closer to me; he stretched his arms out to me, as if to hug me. I quickly stepped back, away from him.

I felt my body begin to tremble, but I fought to stay strong and composed and in control of my feelings. I could not let Lewis see me break down. "But you killed her! Why didn't you stick around to make sure the spell worked?"

"I had faith in the magic."

"And you never considered outside forces? You never thought there was a possibility that something could alter or interfere with the spell?"

"No."

"Well it did! And because of you, my mother is dead." I began to pace. Lewis stood in one place, just in front of the chair he had risen from.

"Your mother wasn't supposed to die. And you certainly were never supposed to end up in this God-forsaken town! I never wanted you anywhere near Mystic Falls. I didn't even realize you were here, or that your mother was dead, until the night you were attacked by that vampire."

I swiped my tears away, angrily. "Then?! You knew I was here then? And you never said anything?"

"I couldn't. It wasn't my place to interfere with your life anymore."

"You're right about that. You gave up that option when you walked away."

"I left as an attempt to protect you. I hoped that if you grew up away from me, you wouldn't grow into your magic; perhaps you would lose it, even."

I shook my head, unable to comprehend his logic. "That doesn't make any sense. Magic is hereditary, not contagious. That's like saying you left because you didn't want me to have your blue eyes."

"I had to try something to protect you."

I stopped pacing and tried to take deep breath. I couldn't let my emotions get too out of control, not in front of him. "Why didn't you tell me any of this? Why did you come find me and tell me what was happening? Instead of killing me. Maybe we could have figured something out — found another option, maybe."

He shook his head. "There weren't any other options."

"You should have let me decide! It should have been my choice whether I became a vampire or not. What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you, Riley. You're my daughter. I love you."

"Love? You abandoned me. And then you killed me!"

"I turned you to protect you from the life of magic. I didn't want you to have my life."

"Who's to say I would have had your life? I could have made my own choices. Different choices."

"No. You would have no choice. Once you would have come into your magical abilities, all choices for you would have already been made."

"By who?"

"I cannot speak about it. But know that I did this to protect you, Ri."

Why would he bring me here if he wasn't going to explain everything? He was beyond frustrating. "So you keep saying. How is vampirism a form of protection?"

"It was either turn you or kill you."

I crossed my arms. "Either way, I end up dead."

"No. Either way, you end magic-free."

"And dead." I began pacing the room again.

Lewis. Lewis did all of this. Lewis is responsible for all of this.

I froze as a new realization came over me. "You killed me and my mother. And those people in the other vehicle. You killed all of us."

"That other car was not supposed to be there" he reiterated. "No one else was supposed to die."

"But they did. Their deaths are on your conscious. As well as the rescue worker I killed when I drained him dry. For months I have been living with the guilt of that, but it's you who should be guilty. I couldn't control myself; I had no idea what was happening; you should have been there. They're all dead because of you."

"That other car was in the wrong place at the very wrong time. The occupants of that car are responsible for your mother's death, not me."

"No. No! All of their deaths, as well as my own, and all of that blood — all of it! — is on your hands. You should have stuck around; you should have made sure the plan you set in motion actually happened the way it was intended. You shouldn't have left me alone."

"I never wanted you to become a vampire, but I couldn't let you grow into your magic. I had to protect you, Ri. I had to do something."

"Stop saying that! How is this protection?!"

"It is protection from magic. A person can't be a witch and a vampire; nature doesn't allow it. By turning, you lost your connection to magic.

"Speaking of magic, I have something to return to you." He crossed the room and opened the middle drawer of the desk that sat under the window. He turned back to face me and walked, slowly, towards me. "This belongs to you." He was holding my bracelet in his hand — the daylight one that went missing when the vampire hunter held me captive. "The hunter took it from you. He gave it to me so I could use magic to destroy it. I didn't obviously; it will still protect you from the sun, though I see you now have no need for this one." He handed the bracelet to me. He spoke again as I took it.

"I often imagine the look on the hunter's face, if he were to realize that he gave the bracelet to the warlock who originally spelled it."

"You spelled my bracelet."

"Yes," he answered my non-question. "Once my plan was set in motion—"

"The plan to kill me?"

He flinched this time, but nodded. "Yes. Once I had that spell ready to go, I snuck into your bedroom one night. I looked through your jewelry box, searching for a piece that could easily be replicated by one with a lapis lazuli stone. Imagine my surprise at finding that you already owned a bracelet which contained a lapis stone. It allowed me to skip the replication process; I simply spelled it right then and there. You woke up the next morning, put the bracelet on — one of many — and went to school; you had no idea. Two days later, you went to Richmond with your mother."

I examined the bracelet as he spoke. Once I knew for sure that he was a warlock, I should have known he had spelled it. Who else would have? Could have?

"How did you get the vampire blood into my system? Did you spell that too?"

"It doesn't work that way, Ri. No, you made that part easy; you should be more watchful of your beverages when you are out in public."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I looked at the bracelet in my hand. I had missed this bracelet so much after the hunter had taken it. Even with my daylight ring, I still missed my bracelet. But now, as I held it in my hands — something I thought I would never be able to do again — I felt nothing for it. It was just a bracelet; merely an accessory.

And now it was an unwanted accessory. It had been tainted by my father; not because he turned it into a daylight bracelet, but simply because he had anything to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with this bracelet now. I gripped it tightly in my hand — one last time — before I threw it against the wall. The bracelet shattered as it left a dent in the wall.

"I don't want it. I don't want anything from you. And I'm done talking to you. Leave me alone."

I didn't give him time to answer. And I didn't wait around to see his response. As soon as I finished speaking, I ran out of the building.

I should have run home. Had I been thinking, I would have run home. But I wasn't thinking — No, that's not true; I was thinking, but I wasn't thinking about my destination.

That's how I ended up at the Mikaelson mansion after 'story time with Lewis.'