I knew pretty much the moment Esther came back to town, and though I tried to fight her all the way, she still made it into the mansion. The more I tried to use my magic, the weaker it made me, it was different than bonding with animals or letting my spirit merge with the naturally occurring magic of the world, it was exhausting. By the time she got there, dodging every attack I flung at her to try and scare her away, I was desperate. Making the earth shake around the mansion, I tried again to make her leave but she wasn't having it, and when Rebekah returned home from school with Matt in tow, I tried to warn her what she was planning.

The entire house shook, rumbling from the powerful vibrations I conveyed but nothing worked. Rebekah still met with Esther and was fooled into thinking that her mother was dying before she used magic in order to pass her consciousness into Rebekah before dropping to the ground, making me create another tempestuous earthquake as I screamed in my head, begging for someone to hear me. My ruckus brought Klaus hurrying up to my room after he returned, momentarily stunned to see his mother on the floor but bypassed her in order to come to me, Matt and Esther in Rebekah's body close behind him.

"What's wrong love? All these earthquakes of yours are going to level the house if you're not careful." I heard Klaus say as he quickly came to my side, smoothly sitting down and taking my face into his hands. I couldn't make them hear me, and now I was totally exhausted I could barely stay conscious, shouting and screaming in my head until I felt like I was going to burst.

"Oh my god, Lia." Matt whispered, staring in shock from the door as he saw me for the first time since that night at the ball. "What did you do to her?" Ignoring his question, Klaus looked at what he thought was his sister.

"Why did you bring the quarterback here?"

"He was asking about Ophelia, so I invited him inside to see her. I thought she would like to see him." Esther rather smartly covered, playing the role of her own daughter pretty much flawlessly, but I knew. I knew it wasn't her, and god damn it I'm helpless to do anything about it!

"Has Lia been like that this whole time? I thought it weird I hadn't seen her in so long but her parents said not to worry, that she was out of town…" Matt came closer to me, hesitant at first probably both because of Klaus and the fact that he hadn't expected to see anything like this. "Is she…?"

"She's not dead." Klaus bit at him rather sharply as I exhaustedly lay there, struggling to focus on so much going on around me at once.

"Well then, can she hear me?"

"It depends on whether or not she's awake." Sounding a little standoffish and defensive, Klaus lowered my head back down to the pillow and smoothed his hand over my hair, stroking it back as he then spoke to me in a far softer tone. "Ophelia? Talk to me love, what was it you were trying to tell us just now? Why the earthquakes?"

"She's asleep, Nik. She can't hear you." Esther supplied, moving closer as well and I hated the fact that I didn't have the energy to knock her over or anything. "Why don't we leave her rest for now? I'm certain she will find a way to explain once she rouses herself." Agreeing with her suggestion, Klaus continued to fuss over me worriedly but eventually let me go only for Matt to take his place.

"Hey Lia, I'm sorry I didn't come visit sooner." Mattie, thank god. It's so good to hear your voice. I've missed you. Please don't go. Don't leave me alone with Esther. "What happened to you?" He murmured, lightly brushing at my hair before asking why they hadn't taken me to a hospital.

"Because I believe modern hospitals, although scientifically advanced, would not have any idea how to deal with a girl who is awake and yet seemingly dead and cannot control the fact that nature is growing around her without dying." Klaus retorted acerbically, and I was too tired to mentally shoot him a comment about backing off. "At least here she is protected."

"Then, when will she wake up?"

"Who knows? Whenever she is ready." Esther supplied, though I guessed she was inwardly plotting to finish me off this time. I ignored her for now, focusing on drawing on nature around me in order to resupply my strength in order to properly protect myself from her. At least Mattie stayed with me for a long time. He just sat and talked to me, telling me everything that had been going on and saying that he wanted me to wake up soon, and that he was sorry he didn't figure out something was wrong sooner. It was refreshing to have a new voice to listen to, and I immediately felt lonely again after he had to go, leaving me with Esther.

She waited until we were alone in the house before coming to me, opening the doors to my room, observing the surroundings of flowers, lights and illusions over the ceiling before coming over to me. "You know, don't you? I suspect that you do since you were fighting me all the way here. I must say, trying to fell a tree in my path was a little excessive." She said to me, steadily coming over to the bedside where I seethed within. I didn't have the strength to banish her out of Rebekah, which frustrated me endlessly. "I apologise for having to poison you, but I could not allow you to meddle in my plans to bring an end to the abominations that are my children. Whether you agree with me or not, they cannot be allowed to live any longer. Still, you managed to survive and interfere regardless, so this time, I must not fail."

I could not see what she was doing, but I heard her clothes rustling as she moved to pull something out of her pocket, holding something in her hand. From the pop of sound that came from a lid being pulled off a bottle, I realised that she intended to use poison again to finish me off for good this time. Good old fashioned poison, a woman's weapon, though using the same trick twice was a little unimaginative, quite frankly I'm disappointed, Esther.

Before she could get too close to me, I threw everything into one last blast of magic in order to defend myself from her. The windows flew open with a crash and wind soared through the room, slamming against her and the bottle flew out of her hand, smashing against something and spilling the contents somewhere. Crying out, Esther was thrown out of my bedroom and slammed the doors behind her before casting magic on them so that they wouldn't open again. It was all I could do, and I had to endure it for as long as possible in order to keep myself alive.

That last effort took it out of me and I almost instantly fell asleep, passing out for hours. I ended up missing so much, as I slept more than I spent time awake, sometimes only blips of consciousness surfacing before I went under again. Most of the time I was alone, and in the brief moments I woke I'd scream for anyone, feeling a desperate loneliness I had never felt before. It made me ache from deep within, unable to help but now yearn for the human contact I had spent so long rejecting before, and I missed being awake long enough to actually enjoy someone being with me. Now I have no clue whether or not Klaus or Rebekah or anyone came to sit with me, to talk to me, and it made me feel so lost and alone.

And I hated it.