Chapter Four

"Go ahead." Hope replied after a longer than normal pause.

"If you don't mind me asking, what brought you to town?" Hayley asked, sitting in the booth across from Hope.

"Just visiting, really. How about you?"

"Pretty much the same, I have a friend who lives here."

"Must be hard, everyone here seems so close, to be an outside friend coming it must be somewhat awkward."

"It definitely is. It doesn't help that one of the people my friend hates most in this world is sticking close by."

"I'm sure, enemies are hard to put up with. If I were you I probably would already be gone." Hope replied, she knew that a conversation like this could put the idea in Hayley's head to just leave, and if she did soon Hope would have succeeded.

"I can't leave Tyler, he needs my help. Besides, I'm not afraid of Klaus."

"Being afraid, and being able to choose the wise choice, are two different things."

"I don't leave the people I love behind, ever." Hayley replied. That's why you're dead. Hope thought to herself. If her mother had just been willing to walk away, she would be alive.

"Well, I guess that is honorable."

"But you wouldn't do the same?"

"I lost my mother because of that belief, and I'm losing my father to it as well. Sometimes you have to choose life for some of the people you love, over choosing the one person that might need help. Otherwise, you leave your children and your family alone, wondering why you would do what you did." Hope replied, somewhat harsher than she had meant to.

"Being a good person, a good example to those you love, is more important than being around for their entire lives."

"That's easy to say when you weren't the one left behind." Hope said, drinking the rest of the drink that was in front of her to try and get rid of the lump that was forming in her throat.

"That depends on whom you ask."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sometimes it's harder to accept the fact that you will be leaving behind someone who you know might still need you just so that you can save someone else that you love. But, deep down you know what is the right thing at that moment, and sometimes you have to just do what is right at that moment."

"The Hero gig, I guess." Hope added.

"Or the villains."

"That's an interesting point of view."

"Even villains love people, and will sacrifice the world for people."

"I suppose." Hope was taken aback by her mother's acceptance of villains, but then again she remembered how she had been told that both of her parents had changed because of her, apparently her mother hadn't been on the right track either.

"I didn't catch your name…"

"Hope."

"Hayley."

"Nice to meet you."

"Well, Hope, as nice as it was to talk to someone who doesn't judge why I am here, I should probably head back for the night."

"Have a good one." Hope answered, watching her mom get up and begin to walk out before she called after her, "Be careful of that Klaus guy, enemies have a way of getting in that isn't easy to stop." With that, Hope watched her mother leave the building before heading to the room she had rented in town.

Hope walked slowly across the middle of town towards her room from the grille. She was in no hurry, it had been a long day, but she had gotten to talk to her mom again, no matter how different it had been. The conversation had reminded her of why she was here, in the past, trying to wipe herself from existence. It was for her mom and her dad, so that Hayley wouldn't face the fate she had faced because of Hope, and so that her father would never have to take the darkness into himself. So that neither of them had to save her, so that neither of them had to leave her behind. She loved them more than anything, and she couldn't bear the fates that they had received because of her. She was lost in her thoughts when she was grabbed from behind, a swift blow to her head knocking her out before she could see her assailant. Klaus held her to himself as she went limp, the witch had told him that this girl had shown up by some sort of magic and that she couldn't track her origin. So, Klaus decided he would do this the old-fashioned way. He quickly sped back to the mansion, locking her in a room on the third floor, before having a witch spell the room so that Hope could not leave. His basement had yet to been renovated into a dungeon, so the room would have to do for the time being. Besides, for some reason Klaus didn't want to hurt her, and it was something he needed to figure out, because he wasn't about to go soft.

Klaus stood outside the door of the room Hope was in the next morning, his brother was pacing the hall beside him.

"So, why again do you have a girl locked in your house?" Elijah asked.

"She was spying on me, I want to know why."

"Have you even spoken to her?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I have this weird feeling, like I'm not supposed to hurt her. You know better than most how my interrogations typically go."

"Yes, but you haven't even asked her. You only have to interrogate when she won't tell you." Elijah tried.

"Why are you even here, brother? I thought you had more important things to do."

"I heard of your pause in creating hybrids, I also heard that Tyler broke his sire bond, I thought you might need some assistance. Apparently I was correct."

"I have everything very well under control, it is the others in this stupid town that are struggling."

"How exactly is that?"

"They have forgotten who I am. They have gotten cocky. I'll just have to remind them who I am, then perhaps they will remember to fear me." With that, Klaus walked back down the stairs, never even opening the door to the room Hope was in.

Hope woke up with her head pounding. She could tell she was locked in the room, she could feel the magic pulsing around her. The room was beautiful, a huge bed and décor that reminded her of historic artifacts. It didn't take her long to figure out that she was at the Mikaelson mansion. Which meant that her father had figured out she was following him. She knew she had been cutting it close, but she had underestimated her father. She knew that she couldn't tell him the truth, although she also had a feeling he wasn't going to be too nice when she refused. This was after all the man he was before she had been born, and he had no idea who she was. He would by no means be kind to her, not if he knew she had been following him. She had heard that people had been killed for less by the Klaus of this time. She could hear voices outside her room, but she couldn't make out what they were saying, now would have been a really good time to have vamp hearing. The room was mostly empty besides the normal furniture a bedroom would have, there was only one window but the shutters on it were closed tightly, and she couldn't get them open. Hope was alone, in a dim room with only her thoughts, and she hated it. Her thoughts had been like a prison recently as she started to piece together the fact that everything that her family had been through, the reason so many had died, was because of her. She hated herself for so many things. It would have been better if she had never existed, which was why she was here. Yet, her thoughts were hard to bear as she realized what that meant, the family she had known would not be hers, nothing would be, she wouldn't exist anymore. Yet, even that realization didn't make her want to not do what she was here to do.

"I guess that's the hero gig, it's not like they will miss me, they won't even know I existed." Hope spoke to herself in the empty room. She wouldn't be leaving them behind like they had left her. They would be okay. That thought is what pushed Hope on her mission as she sat in the room alone, listening to the sounds of a busy house below her and the birds chirping outside the closed window. Yes, they would be better without her, and that was all she needed.