Hello loves!
I'll put one singular request here, that feedback on my question at the end of this chapter will be very much appreciated, and possibly vital to this story and its continuation as it is this moment. Moving on...
Fair warning, this chapter is like, literally just a whole lot of Aria X Rebekah fluff and pure angst. This will be your only warning.
I own nothing. Now let's get on with it!
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: THINK LOVELY THOUGHTS
The name rang through her mind, and she was vaguely aware of Rebekah beside her letting a rather irritated – perhaps it was disgusted? – noise free, before she began muttering to herself. Aria picked out one, two obscenities, and then stopped counting. Rebekah made no move to speak a word to Aria, nor did the girl expect her to, even as she stayed silent rather than offering something of worth to the situation.
They bid no goodbye to the man, though it didn't seem to bother him, as he went back to tinkering with his bracelet, inspecting some part or other. They didn't speak on their way back to the room, and they didn't speak when they entered. Rebekah merely crossed over to a sofa and collapsed down, rubbing the bridge of her nose in irritation. Aria found herself standing in the middle of the room, at a loss for anything to do.
And then came the familiar burning sensation sparking somewhere in her stomach, and slowly clawing its way up her body and up throat before it filled her mouth with the coppery taste of blood. It took her a moment to realise that last part had nothing to do with the darkness, and that it was just her biting down on her cheek so hard that the bleeding had begun soaking into her mouth, reddening the colour of both inside and outside her cheeks. A low sort of groan escaped and she rushed to the bathroom, bidding no thought as to how she knew where it was, before turning on a tap and cupping her hands to bring water to her mouth – uncaring of its origin – as she then rinsed and spat out the liquid. It, for a moment, stained the sink a red colour, and then it vanished down the plughole, but she repeated the process until the colour became more of a light orange, barely tinting the whiteness of the porcelain, until she finally allowed her grip on the sides of the sink to ease.
It took her a moment before she realised that the footsteps she now heard approaching the bathroom belonged to Rebekah, at which point, she rinsed her mouth once more and headed to the door just as the woman stopped there, hovering, and an emotion Aria could only figure was concern sitting in her eyes.
Again, she seemed like an entirely new person. And it was giving the New Orleans witch whiplash.
"Are you alright?" Rebekah instantly sighed at herself, "Well obviously you're not. Goodness, that was a ridiculous question, clearly." She took a deep breath, and amended herself, "Is there something I can do?"
"I think you've done plenty, Bex."
Rebekah looked almost hurt at the harsh words, eyes trailing Aria as she pushed past the Original. She followed.
"Is something the matter?"
Aria whirled, "You can't be serious."
Rebekah didn't waver.
The teenager laughed, a touch of hysteria behind the noise, "Everything has been fine. Completely fine. Until we came here. And I-I don't know what's happening, why everything's suddenly falling apart… But something's wrong, I-I don't wanna be here. Rebekah, I need to leave. And I don't know where I'm going but there's something about this place, it-it's wrong."
Rebekah looked somewhat taken aback, "Well this place has… played host to various Supernatural creatures over the decades. I suppose that, well, considering how susceptible – sensitive – you are to magic. And considering vampires have residual magic in their veins, and there are witches in this place… I wouldn't be surprised if it rubbed at you the wrong way-"
Aria let out a small shudder, and Rebekah's eyes widened.
"Something. Is. Wrong. Rebekah. I want-" Her voice broke and Aria's hands reached to hug herself, uncomfortable, "I want to go home."
"But Kol-"
"Rebekah do you understand how badly I want to see him again?"
The name changed Aria's tone. And this time, her voice was soft. She had a new, small smile on her face. And Rebekah found herself struck with the fact that she was talking to someone infinitely younger than her. Aria was happy when she thought of Kol. She was so unlike the rest of those who knew the Mikaelsons.
"Because I do. And I think I was so ready to run away from all of my other problems. That was why I was so ready to accept your invitation to go on this trip." She shrugged, "But now I just want to go home."
The Original took a deep breath, blinking rapidly to make sense of the situation quicker, to work out a suitable reply, "I've… been unfair." She said slowly, testing out the words on her tongue, "I shouldn't have asked you to leave."
"I understand why you did."
"I was being selfish." Rebekah said simply, giving a sad, guilty smile, "I wanted some company, and I knew you would've been great. You know, helping me learn this witch thing, determined enough to actually help. But I shouldn't have asked. I'm… I'm sorry."
Aria tried to hide the surprise at the apology, but from the light amusement in Rebekah's eyes, it would seem she had failed.
"If you want to leave now, I'll have transport arranged." Rebekah continued, suddenly not making eye contact, "If not, then company would be appreciated to Mystic Falls." She had difficulty getting the words out, "And you can head home after, with Kol or not." She took a breath, and then met Aria's eyes, "Which would you rather?"
Aria watched Rebekah, slightly wary. The teenager was aware that she was being offered an out in that moment, but it seemed somewhat layered. Disregarding that, she was also aware that Rebekah was having clear difficulty saying as such. She didn't want to give the offer to leave, but it seemed that she cared enough about her to offer it anyway. It seemed so unlike her brothers, but Aria was also aware that they all seemed very different with her than the stories she'd heard. About them, their personalities, how they treated others. Everything just seemed to fly out the window with her.
So instead of answering, she voiced as such.
Rebekah blinked, as though surprised at the question. She froze, her arms remained crossed and she remained tense. Like a deer caught in headlights. Eventually, slowly, she came back to herself, and frowned, debating the thought as though for the first time.
"I don't know." She settled on eventually, biting her lip in thought, "It seems you're just… different." She finally made eye contact, and Aria was struck by the sheer vulnerability there, shining back at her, "We can be… different around you. As though the vampirism never truly stuck."
She paused, and looked at the girl with a sudden sharpness.
"Would you rather we didn't?"
How exactly did she respond to that? Would she rather they treated her like anyone else, harshly and without mercy? No, of course not. But would she appreciate them not turning into what seemed like entirely different people when she were concerned? Yes, now that was a particularly inviting concept.
"I'd rather… Not have to battle two different versions of you all in my head." She said slowly, watching the Original carefully.
Rebekah didn't flinch, and she didn't tense, which Aria supposed she should take as a good sign. Unfortunately, the lines around her mouth tightened minutely, and there was no way for her to tense any more than she already had.
"Oh?"
Aria sighed, and she knew already that she'd taken it the wrong way, "Rebekah-"
"No. No, makes complete sense. After all, why should we treat differently those we don't merely want to murder?"
Her words were sharp, and they stung a surprising amount.
Aria supposed that this was her version of payback.
"Truly, I don't believe we've hit a misunderstanding." Rebekah scoffed, "After all, we barely know each other, yes? I merely found myself somewhat taking a liking to you, and I let it get too far. I understand." Aria sighed, but she knew she wouldn't get a word in even if she tried, "So I'll arrange the transportation back to your city."
Her words were laced with venom.
Aria caught her wrist just as she passed her, and that time she could feel her tense even if she wouldn't be able to notice it by eye-sight alone, "Rebekah." She mumbled, a plea for her to just hear what she had to say.
She didn't understand how everything had spun out of control so quickly.
Rebekah looked back to her for a second, and then gently wrenched herself out of the grip and left the room, the door shutting with an audible click.
Aria didn't hear from her for the rest of the night.
~*•°•*~
The next morning, Aria found herself waking up slowly, and unrested.
There didn't seem to be any sign of life when she entered the lounge, and a brief hover at the room Rebekah had claimed told her nobody was in there, either. Rebekah just hadn't come back.
Worry pricked at her, before she forced it down and got ready for the day. She dressed, finished in the bathroom, and then ate breakfast all on autopilot, going over her conversation with the woman from the previous day. Had she been too harsh?
She came to the conclusion that no, she hadn't. That holding back what she was now sure was a very fair, very viable worry would have only fractured their relationship further when it came out. And it would have come out. In one way or another. Because Rebekah, just like her brothers, could rile the witch up enough to get her into a screaming match, saying things she simply didn't mean. Freya was the exception. Finn, Elijah and Klaus, though in very different ways, could frustrate her very well, to the point she had contemplated cold blooded murder. Kol just got under her skin at times, but it was one of his… charms, she supposed. He didn't make the list like the others did.
Aria eventually worked up enough courage to leave the room, making sure to take the key with her just in case she needed it. As soon as she arrived downstairs, she was struck that Rebekah didn't come back to the room last night because, very simply, she had made some new friends. The witch knew it was early, only about six in the morning, and Rebekah Mikaelson sat at the bar with a little entourage around her. It didn't take her long to realise she was drunk, either.
She tried to feel irritation, to drum up the emotion, but she couldn't. She could only feel a strange brush of guilt. She very quickly shook it aside, and assured herself that she hadn't done anything wrong.
If Rebekah doesn't know how to handle things like the thousand-year-old she is, then, well, I can't do much about that, can I now?
She crossed over to the bar, and when Rebekah spotted her, she called the teenager's name loudly. A surprising reaction, but she chose not to dwell on it too much.
"You didn't come back to the room." Aria stated, tone even.
Rebekah rolled her eyes, "Wasn't in the mood."
She didn't know if it was the flippant way she had responded, or because she was just frustrated beyond belief, but she snapped at her, "So you've just given up?"
"I haven't given up." Rebekah scoffed, eyeing the witch in honest confusion, "I've just had an epiphany of sorts."
"Being?"
Rebekah shrugged, and turned back to her drink, swirling it around in the glass.
Aria sighed again, and gently took the drink out of Rebekah's hand. She whined, and reached for it again, but instead found herself pulled from the chair, the younger girl's grip like iron on her wrist. And considering she wasn't a vampire anymore; she could scarcely fight it. Especially in her state.
"Hey!"
Her yell fell on deaf ears.
And then Rebekah's new friends started shouting after the duo. Aria simply ignored it, blocking out the words.
"Don't ruin the fun!" One of the nameless group called back to her. The shout was echoed once or twice, but she was by the doors when a particularly harsh one greeted her ears. Aria faltered, and it was enough for Rebekah to sober up enough to recognise the insult just sent her way. Her stagger was enough for the Original to turn, and suddenly there was a shout, followed by laughter. Aria turned, and eyed a stain down the shirt of the one she supposed has called after her, his new drink spilt entirely and now on the floor, glass shattered. She arched an eyebrow in muted amusement, and noted that the bartender looked less than impressed, and the others were the ones laughing.
Rebekah had caught back up to her by that point, and as she tried to turn to her, and silently question, she said nothing in reply, merely pushing past after a second of eye contact. The duo walked back to the room together, silence hanging heavy in the air, but every time she opened her mouth to speak, she thought better, and didn't.
Rebekah didn't bother entirely.
When they got back to the room – the one she had been leaving and returning to at a surprising pace – Rebekah headed in and immediately made a beeline for her room. The teenager didn't say anything as the door slammed, and then as there was no sound or any kind of movement in the next few moments. She closed her eyes, and sighed, and knew that whilst all the trouble was what could be expected, she couldn't shake the hurt.
Aria recognised that Rebekah was hurt as well. She was such a strong vampire, but she allowed herself to feel more easily than her brothers. She got attached too quickly, fell in love too easily. Some small, horrible part of her understood why Klaus was so quick with the daggers, sometimes. It wasn't nice hurting Rebekah, but it was easier than her being heartbroken, being forced to watch and do nothing about it lest she lash out. Even if he was being entirely reasonable.
She was under no illusions that Klaus was fair to his siblings. Boasting his power over them everywhere he went. But… she supposed… from a certain angle… it wouldn't be completely unreasonable… to… agree with his methods… to a certain extent.
She shivered, and she didn't like the implications at all. That she would understand, maybe even make the same sort of decision as Klaus Mikaelson. Fearsome Hybrid. The one that melted into a puppy on occasion where she was concerned.
On second thought, perhaps the shine the family had taken to her wasn't so unwelcome.
Aria thought she would still prefer them to treat her normally.
She crossed to Rebekah's door, and raised her hand to knock, before hesitating and letting it drop back down to her side. She sighed, and leant her head against the door, before slowly lowering herself to the floor, and crossing her legs. Aria sighed, and traced the floorboards absentmindedly as she thought. She discarded one idea after another, each falling apart in her mind the minute she found a snag, before she finally found an idea that might just work. She pursed her lips, and hesitated again only slightly, "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, Rebekah."
She settled on perhaps the simplest thing she could come up with. She didn't know if Rebekah was listening, there wasn't a sound coming from inside the room, but she'd like to think she was at least entertaining her.
Aria continued tracing the carpet, and found it was a mind-numbing experience. It made everything so much easier, the talking, the admissions. The teenager had never liked talking about her feelings. But she would try for her friend.
"You're all-" She immediately stopped, and rephrased, "You act so differently when you're around me."
She got the next few words out before she could think twice.
"It makes me uncomfortable, honestly."
She finally heard something in Rebekah's room, something by the door. Almost like someone sitting down to listen. Maybe she was just deluding herself, but she continued in hopes she could get through to the woman.
"You're my friend, Rebekah. But you have to understand it's difficult, sometimes."
Rebekah's voice replied, so very quiet, "Being my friend?"
She almost scoffed, "Not your friend."
It sounded like Rebekah was smiling by the tone of her voice as she replied, "My family, then."
"Bingo."
The door creaked open, and Aria could see one of her eyes peeking out at her, "We're really that difficult?"
She was sure she looked sympathetic, by the way her eyes hardened ever so slightly.
Does she know the difference between pity and sympathy?
She shook her head, and tried to explain something that she barely understand herself, "You're the Originals. You're the first vampires. I-" She stumbled only slightly, "I was biased against you when you first came, to be honest. And you've all just been giving me these skewered representations. You're like the stories. But you're not."
She looks thoughtful, and Aria hoped dearly that she hadn't messed anything up.
"Perhaps I've been…" Rebekah exhaled slowly, "Difficult, too." She finally met the teenager's eyes, and said girl could see regret there, "I don't mean to confuse you. I do like you, so it seems I'm not all that sure how to behave when you're there." Aria raised an uncertain eyebrow, "You see, I've tried the whole high school thing, Aria. The friends thing. It didn't work out very well. I think at the end of the day that I'm rather simple. I want what humanity offers. And you… the friendship that you've offered me purely based on the fact that I happen to be your namesake is awfully telling." Rebekah explained vaguely.
Aria's curiosity was piqued, but she left the subject alone, unsettled by the look on Rebekah's face.
The woman then gave an irritated scrunch of the nose, "It seems Mystic Falls has already put me in a rather bad mood."
Aria allowed her that excuse.
There wasn't much of anything else to say, so the two sat there, together, for longer than either cared to count. It was silent, and nice, it allowed Aria the opportunity to let her thoughts organise themselves in her subconscious. She didn't really think, she just sat.
Again, the mind-numbing sensation hit.
It triggered her first path of thought.
She thought that it was less the hotel seeming familiar, almost speaking to her, than it was all the magic there. She thought that was definitely the solution to the problem. There was something – someone – in the hotel that called to her, in a very strange way. Almost like a Siren call, luring her to them. It was a very frightening thing, and she worried for a second that it was all happening again. Kol, the voices-
She shut off the train of thought, and moved on.
"So what's the problem with Mystic Falls, then?" She mused, finally breaking the silence.
Rebekah doesn't respond immediately, but she had eyes on Aria, so the witch knew she had heard her, "I suppose it's a mix of things, really. There are these irritating Salvatore brothers, Elena Gilbert." Aria's eyebrows knitted together, why did that name ring a bell? Rebekah must have caught her expression, as she elaborated, "The doppelganger."
Aria felt her eyes widen, and her eyebrows raise high onto her forehead.
Rebekah frowned minutely, thinking, "Actually, there are two in the town, last I recall. One Katherine Pierce." Her head cocked to the side, "I don't keep track of them very much."
Aria only knew how to stare in surprise at the Original, who simply shrugged in response, "I'm not all that interested in either of them. How was I to know she'd grow to be important for reasons other than Nik's?"
"Important?" Aria echoed, her voice taking on a note of hysterics, "You only mean the bloody doppelgangers! Rebekah!" She scolded.
It only seemed to amuse the witch.
"What are they like?"
The witch eyed her strangely, and she gave a small, bashful smile, "They're pretty big things amongst the witches."
Rebekah's nose wrinkled, but she complied, "Well, Elena's rather dull. Not much to her, if I'm honest. Katherine was the interesting one. She was nice enough when she was human, I suppose. But then she started the age-old dance of turning Niklaus and Elijah against each other."
"Because of the Hybrid-curse ritual thing?"
A fond smile crossed Rebekah's face, and she nodded, "Elijah began to care for her, Nik obviously cared nought for her feelings, all he needed was her blood. When she escaped, everything grew so much worse. They fought. Constantly." Rebekah's jaw clenched briefly, and a pursed smile replaced the previous one on her mouth, "I developed quite the dislike towards her after that. -Had to leave too, get away from them for a little bit."
"You are all so complicated." Aria sighed, leaning her head back against the wall and smiling at her friend.
"You're no better."
Rebekah smiled again.
Aria hoped they'd fixed the problem.
"But you need to be honest with me, love."
Aria winced automatically.
"You heard something in that car." Rebekah's tone was measured, "What was it?"
"What did you hear?"
"Deflection. Classy."
Aria stared at Rebekah for a long, long moment. The witch didn't so much as flinch, even as the seconds trickled to minutes. Aria eventually ducked her head to look at her hands, playing with a button on her blouse's sleeve.
"I think something's talking to me."
"Okay." Aria found herself silently thanking Rebekah's neutral tone, "What do you mean by something?"
"I honestly don't know."
Rebekah sighed, and the door creaked open a bit more, allowing Aria to see the rest of the woman's face, "Do you think it's a witch?"
Aria pursed her lips, "I don't know what else it could be."
"How long has it been there?"
"I think… it's been there for longer than I remember. I just don't know how long."
Aria paused, "What did you hear?"
A muscle in Rebekah's jaw flexed, and Aria briefly worried that the door would slam shut again and they'd be back to square one. But this time, it seemed the Original had retained some sense of calm about her, "My mother turned us into vampires, Aria, did you know that?"
Aria nodded, hesitant. She knew the basics of their turning, but it wasn't something that the Mikaelson family paraded about offering information on.
"When she did so, she upset the spirits of nature. As I'm sure you well know, they always demand a balance, they always allow for a reckoning, of which they can rebel against the slight." Aria's eyes darted down to Rebekah's hand, curious, when the woman suddenly started tracing what looked like a rune. Was that something all the Mikaelsons did?
"I thought the balance they created was turning you into vampires rather than immortal beings?"
Rebekah let loose a surprising, bitter sound.
She continued tracing the rune.
"Nature wouldn't allow us to become immortals, so we were made into vampires. This came with downfalls of its own, weaknesses of Vervain, the sun and the like. But we uh…" It was strange watching Rebekah so unsure of herself, "Well, it wasn't enough, I suppose. Though… Perhaps it was simply the reckoning of those we killed first."
Aria sat straighter, and her eyebrows knitted together, "The first ones you killed?"
There was a certain look in Rebekah's eyes, distant, not entirely present with her. Not guilty. But it was somewhere along those eyes, Aria was sure of it.
"The hunger is almost insatiable, Aria. It's only all too easy to let it get away from you, drain a body completely dry. It doesn't take long, either." She took a hard, shuddering breath, and forced some semblance of a smile onto her face, "The first ones we killed were witches. We drained them dry. And I can only imagine they enacted some spell or other, because they-"
Rebekah quite literally choked on the words.
Forced a smile back.
Backtracked.
Kept talking.
"I killed first." Surprise must have shone in Aria's eyes, because Rebekah laughed, a bitter sound, "Niklaus was so insistent on me drinking, turning. I didn't kill the girl that allowed me to turn, but the next one wasn't as lucky."
"I don't follow." Her voice was so very quiet.
"The first one cursed me, I think. But it was such a last resort, so weak, so fragile. It didn't take. And then the next was killed, by Niklaus that time, and a similar curse was placed." She smiled, brief, "It went on for each my family killed until we found ourselves all under the curse, placed by five separate witches."
"You all killed witches?"
Rebekah had the grace to look somewhat guilty, "It was nothing personal, just… the blood… and our village housed so many budding witches and warlocks."
Aria shifted, her eyebrows knitted together, "I still don't follow."
"The witches all cursed us with the exact same spell, Aria." The woman snapped, before softening, "They weren't about to let us go on with our immortal lives, free of punishment. They all fed into the first witch's spell, it had imprinted on me you see, even if she hadn't been able to complete it correctly. Hers became so powerful. Overwhelming. It then enacted our eternal torture."
Though in saying that, it lost Aria completely and entirely.
"What do you mean, eternal torture?"
The Original could only give a regretful smile.
~*•°•*~
Rebekah stood at the balcony, listlessly watching the city as it settled for the night, watching the countless lights go off in the number of houses she could spot, and then the fewer others flicker on just to keep the streets alight. A small sigh escaped from her as she shifted uncomfortably on the cool railing, certain she'd end up catching a chill in the new body. She glanced back briefly, and let a smile curl her mouth at the sight of the girl entirely knocked out on the bed, one hand splayed beside her and the other crossed over her stomach, still gripping onto her Grimoire.
As the realisation that she had probably been out there longer than she had thought settled, she turned and headed over to the girl, prying the Grimoire from her fingers and placing it beside the bed before covering her with the blanket draped on the sofa after tugging to see if she could get the stubborn girl to move and allow her to cover her with an actual blanket.
Brushing her hair from her face, Rebekah almost wanted to say something and wake her up. She felt oddly alone in the room, cold air drifting in from the balcony, curtains billowing and the room felt almost abnormally large. She'd never gone there with someone else before, it had always been a place she and she alone visited. Aria didn't know that. Before dwelling on the thought any longer could go on, there was a clear knock at the door, one that drew her attention away from the girl that had now bundled into the blanket, gripping it as a warm smile settled on her face. The sight made Rebekah pause, just for a second, and then she pushed her thoughts away and sighed in relief, "Finally. Room service."
She'd ordered it hours ago.
In hindsight, she should have known.
When she opened the door, she only caught sight of a translucent figure for a second before she slammed it shut. She shook her head, trying to clear the image stemming from her imagination. She wasted no time, no time considering the sight, and the door was locked. She did not move. She did not think. She did not breathe.
She just leant her head against the door, listening.
She had to have lost her mind, surely.
There was no sound, for such a long moment.
She wished that Aria was beside her, for just a second.
There was a small hole at the top of the door, one of those you could slide to the side to watch the other side through. Rebekah stood on her tiptoes, and with undeniably shaky fingers, she carefully moved the cool metal to the side.
She was greeted with an entirely empty hallway. No sign of life, no ghostly apparition, complete emptiness. It took a second to look left, and right, and then again, before she finally decided to open the door, keeping it on a latch, and peek through the small crack.
There was no room service, no apparition. She found herself letting out a breath entirely too relieved for an Original Vampire, some of those most powerful beings on Earth. A cool mask slipped into place, practised over centuries, until she seemed stoic and entirely uncaring of the way her heart was racing. Any half decent vampire would be able to tell, but so long as Aria didn't, there wasn't much of an issue. Aria was the one sharing the suite with her, the one by her side for however many months it had been.
Her eyes strayed back to her door, and almost guided by her traitorous thought path, she headed into the room and rifled through her bags until she found her phone.
Her fingers typed in the number against her will, and her arm raised the screen to her ear disloyally. The other side picked up, and the Original held her breath, certain he'd have her head for even so much as recommending the possibility of what she was about to say.
"Sister."
The voice sounded almost fond, how it referred to her. She wasn't entirely sure if she believed it or not.
"Niklaus."
Her reply was even, so unlike what it should be after months of no contact. She could almost hear him frowning over the phone, confused beyond what the Hybrid would admit.
"Is everything alright?"
He was gunning for extra points. Worry pricked at her, the possibility that something was wrong in New Orleans and Aria's idea to return was somehow due to her link to the city she loved.
"How are things over there?"
Klaus was silent, for a moment, "I have precisely two witch problems, but they're undoubtably proving to be all talk and no bite."
He paused.
"Why?"
Rebekah forced a smile onto her face, just so that she could lie her way through the pit she'd dug herself into.
"See, we're travelling to Mystic Falls. Just curious if there was a reason we needed to return so we could avoid the forsaken town."
The Hybrid was powerful, but Rebekah knew that she could count on her dislike for the town to make her lie all that more believable. There came a short laugh from the end of the phone, and then a sigh, "I'm sure you'll get it over with as soon as you can, then." He paused, again. When he spoke, he sounded oddly vulnerable, "We'll finally all be reunited back home."
A lovely thought.
She said as much.
The phone then beeped as it hung up, and it fell from her fingers as an uncomfortable sense of being watched washed over her. She looked around, noted the room was entirely empty, and then placed the phone back on her bedside as she readied for sleep.
Her newfound witch abilities allowed her to place the only protection spell she'd managed to learn around the room, warding out unwanted Spirits that may wish to weasel their way into the room. If it had already managed to survive the destruction of the other side by linking itself to her, or her family of immortal beings, it was actually learning. Being clever. Growing dangerous. She drifted to sleep with one conscious thought in her mind.
You have no power over me.
Rebekah Mikaelson put the audible response, spoken right by her ear, down to her already dreaming.
You sure about that?
~*•°•*~
I'm here!
And did I delay posting on the weekend just so I could post on this the TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARRY OF HELL OR HIGH WATER?
Yes.
Yes I did.
I believe it was worth it. Two years of this, and I love it even more than I did at the beginning. I truly hope you all feel the same, and I'd like to thank you all for the support thus far.
And Klausy has made a cameo. Entirely honest, I hadn't planned that until the very end as I was writing it. It was the most difficult part, figuring out an ending, so I just planned on letting it end where it does and then pick up with Mystic Falls finally in the next chapter. I understand it hasn't been very long since the possibility was presented, but these chapters have been getting longer and longer as I've written them and the event has just been slipping out of my grasp more and more and more.
But if everything goes to plan, then the Scooby Gang will finally make their appearance in the next chapter.
On a serious note… apologies for the doom and gloom note at the start of this chapter. To put it simply, this story is starting to get pretty long, what with just hitting season three, even if I do plan to condense it a lot going forward. I'll ask straight up: Would anyone prefer this just being split into two stories? I can tag this as completed and then move on with the second detailing things moving forward now we've hit a pivotal point with the story. Thoughts are especially appreciated, from anyone that has even some opinion on it, because I'm struggling with the decision.
On a final note, I have updated my To Train A Witch chapter, and feedback on the changes would be all appreciated. I much prefer it to the original, but unlike the others, it would be very much helpful to even just reread, due to one severe change I've introduced. I won't be doing this much, I find it rather messy to change storylines midway through, but it makes the chapters to follow particularly easier to read. It likely won't be necessary to read other updated chapters to understand anything new, but I will stress if this is the case.
As per usual, thoughts are very much appreciated, and support thus far is indescribably cherished. You're all brilliant.
As Always, SecretMidnightRose.
