Chapter 42: The Birthday
Summer 2010
The past couple of months had been the strangest months of her life. She'd been with Stefan and Klaus as the latter had been desperately searching for a wolf pack to turn. Idly she thought that maybe if he wanted a wolf pack so badly, vampires shouldn't have killed so many of the wolves. They'd been on the hunt for a particular wolf, for reasons Ellie didn't understand.
The summer had been hard for her. There were times where Stefan almost seemed to really slip into a Ripper's rage, and she'd felt sick on more than one occasion as she had no choice but to listen as people kept dying. But other times she and Stefan, in the rare moments where they weren't with Klaus, opened up. Stefan had become a lifeline during all of this, and she was fairly sure she'd become a lifeline for him too.
She and Stefan had grown closer than she'd ever expected to during the summer. But she shouldn't have been surprised, he was a good person and they were both stuck. In the times where things started to get overwhelming for her, particularly around the potential death and torture of innocent people, Stefan had learned her tells. They'd also developed signals like certain touches and looks that let him know she needed help. There were also things that Ellie developed to try and reassure Stefan that he wasn't alone when he too got overwhelmed.
Thankfully, surprisingly, when it got too much for Ellie, Klaus had never really forced her to stay and watch something that would traumatize her. He'd warn her not to try and run, but he never forced her to watch the murders, even if she couldn't get far enough away so that she didn't have to hear it.
In all honesty, Klaus hadn't really forced her to do anything. He focused mostly on getting Stefan to turn back into the Ripper. Stefan had killed so many people that Ellie was losing track. Klaus, when he and Stefan weren't killing people, wasn't entirely awful company. He made witty jokes and had a wicked sense of humor. But he had anger issues and his mood could switch on a dime. He could go from hot to cold in an instant.
Klaus never spoke about his family, though Ellie thought about Elijah constantly. He was nearby, sometimes close enough that she could sense him and the others in the caskets. But there was no way in hell she was going to get a chance to undagger Elijah. She just hoped he would forgive her for not being able to help him. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but she was afraid of who Klaus would hurt if she did something he didn't like.
She'd never had this kind of fear with Elijah, but despite it, she still didn't blame him for the decision he'd made. Klaus had been truthful that he hadn't dropped them into the ocean if the caskets were anything to go by. It frustrated Elena beyond belief that she was still trying to find the brother in Klaus that Elijah had loved as much as he had. Sometimes she could see it too, at least she thought she did.
But at the current moment, she didn't. Currently, she was walking with Klaus down a dirt road towards a large house. It was a beautiful white house with a tree swing out in the yard. Honestly, it looked like it could be part of a fairytale if it was a little more cleaned up. "Rudy." A woman called as she exited the house. She whistled sharply, unaware of their approach. "Rudy! Come on! It's too hot to make me come looking for you."
She was right. The air was still hot from the summer sun and despite it being well into the night, Ellie could feel sweat rolling down her neck. In an instant, they stood before the young woman, who jerked back as soon as she realized she wasn't alone. "I am so sorry." Klaus apologized in a disturbingly American accent. It didn't sound right to Ellie in the slightest. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Can I help you?" The girl asked him suspiciously.
"Yeah, my uh, car ran out of gas a couple miles back. My girlfriend and I have been walking forever, it feels like. Yours is the first house we've come to, so I was hoping we could use your phone." Klaus said, still in that oddly American accent.
The woman looked over to Ellie. "Don't you guys have cell phones?"
Ellie faked an embarrassed smile as she pulled her dead phone out of her pocket. "It died a while back. We forgot to charge them before we left." Klaus had insisted that Ellie coming along with him might make the woman easier to convince. In this case, she hadn't really had another choice. If she agreed to do small things like talking to this woman, it would probably help get her out of a situation where she really wasn't comfortable with what was going on.
While the woman did, in fact, seem far more comfortable with Ellie, the woman had enough sense to be wary of Klaus. The woman seemed to step slightly farther away from Klaus, and a touch closer to Ellie as Klaus said, "Look, I promise I'm not a serial killer. I just want to use your phone."
"Sure." The woman finally agreed with a small smile. If she hadn't been looking, Ellie would have shot Klaus a look. Him saying he wasn't a serial killer and just his whole vibe would have had Ellie getting the hell out of dodge if she'd been the other girl.
She started to turn towards her house when Klaus curiously asked, "So… I can come in?"
"No." The woman said immediately. If Klaus had been anyone else, maybe she would have been safe. She had good instincts. "I'll get the phone and I'll bring it out to you."
Klaus' face shifted immediately, his easy smile replaced with a dark look. "I thought you country folk were supposed to be more trusting." He commented, his real accent replacing the fake American one, and suddenly he seemed far more dangerous than he had before.
"I'm from Florida." The girl sassed back. She was braver than Ellie was, for now.
"Well, that explains it." Klaus shot back. In an instant, he had a hand around her throat, forcing her to look up at him. "Now show me a little southern hospitality, sweet pea." He said as he compelled her. "Now, you're going to invite me into your darling little house, aren't you?" His voice was full of threats of what would happen if she didn't do what he wanted.
"P-please come in." She stuttered and Ellie's heart dropped to her stomach, this woman didn't deserve her fate.
Ellie gripped the woman's hand, trying desperately to convey her guilt at the part she played in what was about to happen. The woman was terrified at this point, and held onto Ellie's hand fearfully. "I bet you a hundred dollars that dog ran off to a house with air conditioning." The second woman only had one last moment of blissful ignorance before she turned to see her friend shaking in Klaus' hold. "What's going on?" She asked her friend.
"Please don't be alarmed." Klaus told her. "I'm told Ray Sutton lives here."
"He's almost never here." She informed him, and Ellie could see the tension in the woman's shoulders as she worried for the safety of her friends. "He's on the road mostly."
Klaus pushed the blonde girl forward to keep in step with him. "But I expect he makes it home… once a month." He replied and Ellie's heart ached at the blonde's tear filled eyes. The black woman's focus darted to her friend in realization. "That's what I thought. Where is he now? If I have to make you tell me, it's going to be infinitely more painful for you."
"Please do what he says." Ellie spoke suddenly and the woman looked at her for the first time. "He means it. It'll be so much worse if you try and fight." The woman seemed to understand the danger she was currently faced with, and promptly made the wrong decision. She turned and ran from the kitchen and Ellie swallowed hard. "She shouldn't have done that."
Klaus was smiling at her. "No, but I can't say I'm not glad that she did." He said wickedly. He didn't run after her, and Ellie knew that Stefan was waiting at the front door for the woman. She screamed out a moment later. "Come along." He said as she pulled the blonde and Ellie followed behind them. "I love it when they run." He told Stefan in amusement.
The black woman finally understood that she had no choice, and closed her eyes as she confessed, "He's in Tulley. It's near the border. A bar called Southern Comfort. It's off Highway 41."
Both of the women were crying now, and Ellie was trying hard not to do the same. "Thank you, my love." He told her calmly. He turned to the shaking blonde. "Now, may my friend come in your home?" Klaus questioned, though they all knew it wasn't really a question.
"Yes." The blonde agreed and the screen door creaked as he opened it.
Stefan wouldn't look at Ellie, and she knew it was because of what he was about to do. He never could look at her right before. "Kill this one quickly." Klaus said as he pushed the blonde forward. "Make that one suffer." He said as he glanced at the other woman, frozen in place by the door. "We'll be in the car. Let's go, love."
As Ellie passed by Stefan, she gave his hand a small squeeze. Whether it was for his comfort or for her own, she wasn't sure. As she and Klaus walked out of the front door, Ellie picked up the pace when she heard the blonde girl begging Stefan to not hurt them. She had made it back to the tree swing by the time the first screams rang out into the night. "Oh god." Ellie cried as she tried to get away from the sound as fast as she could.
"What's the rush, love?" Klaus asked casually as if those girls weren't screaming for their lives, but there was no one around to help them.
Ellie felt like she was going to throw up. "We didn't have to kill them." Ellie insisted.
"Well, we can't have them warning him that we're coming now can we?" Klaus asked as they slid into the car. She was grateful that he didn't stop her from turning the music up as loudly as she could to try and drown out the noise.
"Someone's going to find their bodies eventually. All you're doing is leaving a trail for anyone that's looking." Ellie huffed as she focused on the bass of a song she didn't know. "You don't have to kill everyone you come across."
"Where's the fun in that?" Klaus scoffed.
She gave him a look of disbelief. "Is that what you would have thought when you were human?" She asked him. It was so much better to focus on him than those poor women.
"I haven't been human in a very long time." Klaus replied.
"Just because you haven't been human in a thousand years doesn't mean you have to be heartless." Ellie told him. "It's one thing if the person has done something to you, but these people have done absolutely nothing wrong."
"You act as if you've never seen my brother kill. Or those Salvatores you and your sister seemed to be so fond of." Klaus reminded her.
Ellie tensed slightly at the mentions of Elijah and Elena. "First, that's stupid to be like, oh well they did it so its ok if I do it." She sassed. "Second, I kind of hate Damon. He killed my brother because he was having a little temper tantrum and even Stefan has made mistakes. Just because my sister liked them so much, doesn't mean that I did." It was unsettlingly to refer to Elena in the past tense, but she had no other choice. If Klaus were to find out that she and Stefan were lying, there would be hell to pay.
Klaus made an expression displaying his open curiosity. "He killed your brother?"
"Yeah. Among other things." She huffed. She didn't want to talk about Damon. The thought of him only ever made her angrier than she already was. The memory of when she first learned what he had done was burned into her brain. She would not soon forget the pain and panic she'd felt over the fact that she'd, at least temporarily, lost her brother. "But you still didn't answer my question. So I'm gonna assume that, no, you wouldn't have thought that as a human."
"Very presumptuous of you."
"Well, I have reason to be."
At that, Klaus looked very intrigued. "Oh really? And why is that?" It might have been silly, but she wouldn't deny the appreciation she felt over him allowing them to have this conversation. It was helping her block out the sound of those women. A small mercy, even though they were in this situation because of him.
Ellie turned to look at him head on. "One of two reasons, at the very least. One, you lied to Elijah and told him you dropped the rest of your siblings in the ocean when you didn't. In fact, you keep them rather close at all times. Second, Elijah loved you once. You couldn't be all bad if he'd loved you enough to go through everything involved with breaking that curse." Ellie told him bluntly.
For a moment, Klaus just stared at her. "I've daggered all of my siblings." He reminded her.
"Which for you guys is like a forced timeout. You didn't murder them. Although I'm sure they'd probably be royally pissed off at you if they ever get to wake up." Ellie didn't think he was one hundred percent evil. She wasn't sure if it were possible to be totally a monster. In her opinion, if Klaus was completely cruel and uncaring, he would probably enjoy making her watch the murders of those women, but he didn't. Instead they were sitting out in the car, with the music turned up loud enough it surely had to be uncomfortable with his super hearing, and yet he didn't make her turn it down.
That wasn't to dismiss all the awful things he had done. And she desperately wanted to undagger Elijah, but she wasn't going to get the chance. At least, not yet. Even Damon, while she did hate him for the most part, she knew he loved Elena and that was enough to prove that he wasn't totally a monster. Even Katherine, who was hated by a lot of people, Elena especially, wasn't a monster.
Katherine was someone who Ellie missed far more than she had ever expected to. She understood why she desperately missed Caroline, they were best friends after all. She easily understood why she missed basically everyone else back home. But she had never expected to miss her vampire double this much. Katherine had clearly made a space for herself in Ellie's heart without Ellie realizing.
The vampire had a reputation for being cold and vicious, but had been there for Ellie when she broke down. The Bulgarian lullabies that Katherine had sung to her had become a familiar tune with how often Ellie hummed them to herself. Stefan had commented on it once, and hadn't questioned further when she told him they were lullabies. She never sang them, though she remembered the words. The last thing she needed was Klaus prying as to why she knew Bulgarian lullabies.
Ellie wondered if she was ever going to get to see any of them again. She wondered how they were doing. Surely they were mad at her for not telling them what she'd done. Hopefully, they weren't too angry with Jenna for keeping her secret. It wasn't too much longer before Stefan arrived at the car, his mouth still red with blood. "All finished, mate?" Klaus asked cheerily.
"It's done." Stefan said, his voice low. He was never in a good state after he killed someone. It was one of the things that helped Ellie remember he was still Stefan, not the Ripper. The remorse of the murders weighed heavily on him. And these deaths were no different.
They'd been driving for what felt like ages when Ellie finally spotted a place with Southern Comfort displayed in large letters. She was grateful to finally be able to get out and stretch her legs, and she'd had to pee for the last hour and a half. "Wait, do we even know what this Ray Sutton dude looks like?" Ellie asked as she tried to wait patiently for the two of them to get a move on.
"That's an easy fix, love. But I'm going to need you to do me a small favor." Klaus said and Ellie felt her blood pressure spike.
He very rarely asked things of her, and every time, she was fearful that he was going to ask her to do something awful. "What do you need?" She asked him carefully.
Stefan was on the other side of Ellie, and she reached towards him out of instinct. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Now don't give me that look." Klaus scolded lightly. "It's nothing bad."
"Bad in your books and bad in mine are probably two very different things." Ellie replied.
Klaus scoffed, thankfully looking amused. "When we get inside, I'm going to ask if Ray Sutton is there. Once we know, I'm going to need you to put up a boundary spell around this quaint little establishment so that people may enter, but they may not leave." Klaus told her.
Her heart eased slightly, but she was still worried. "Why do I need to do that?" Ellie asked.
"Because Stefan and I are going to compel the fine patrons of this place to continue on as though nothing is amiss. So that when Ray Sutton finally makes an appearance, should things turn a bit ugly, no one will interfere." Klaus explained calmly.
"Only if you won't hurt innocent bystanders." Ellie pushed. Klaus was entirely aware of where she stood on harming civilians.
"If Ray tries to run, I can't exactly let him do that. After all, if I did, all of those deaths would have been for nothing." Klaus reminded her.
She sighed. "I'm not talking about Ray, I am talking about the people that could get hurt just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time." She pleaded. "Klaus, please." The only real bargaining chip that Ellie had at the moment was that she was a rare witch that Klaus had use for. Plus, if she refused and he had to call in another one of his witches, he would be wasting precious time to get things prepared for Ray Sutton's arrival.
"Fine, fine, no innocent bystanders will be hurt." Klaus said with a roll of his eyes. "Now what do you need to seal the building?"
"Let's just go in. I can do it inside." Ellie said and they let her step inside first. She spared a glance around and when Klaus nodded, she muttered quietly, "Phasmatos veras nos ex malom. Terra mora vantis quo incandas per vasa quo errum signos." She chanted and she felt the surge of magic flare up all around the building. "It's done." Ellie assured him. Klaus turned on his heel and tried to exit, only to stumble as her magic pushed him back.
"Well done." He praised happily. "Now Stefan, let's get to having a chat with these fine patrons." Ellie turned to head towards the sign indicating bathrooms when Klaus called to her. "And where do you think you're going?"
Ellie couldn't help the face she made. "We've been in the car for hours Klaus. I have to pee." She said bluntly. "Or do I have to ask permission?"
Klaus grinned. "Go, go." He ushered her and she didn't wait to head towards the bathroom. It didn't take long for her to make her back to the main room. Stefan and Klaus were chatting with different people around the room and Ellie made her way to the bar. When she spotted the calendar hanging on the wall she froze. "What's the matter?" Klaus asked curiously as he stopped next to her.
The calendar had days marked off, stopping on June 22nd. "It's my birthday." She said quietly as she continued to stare at the calendar. "I've never had a birthday without Elena before." There was a rush of pain at the thought. "I've never been without her before." She and Elena had fought so much before the sacrifice. Ellie had been so angry and hurt. She was still angry and hurt, but now she was mad at herself for wasting the last bit of time she would get with her family.
Klaus, surprisingly, oddly, looked sympathetic. He almost looked like he felt remorseful. "It will get better with time." He said it like he knew from experience.
"Have you ever lost a sibling?" She questioned curiously.
An array of emotions rushed across Klaus' face, too fast for Ellie to catch them, before he schooled his expression back into the familiar smug look he typically had. "Why would you want to talk about something so depressing on your birthday? How old are you today?"
For once, Ellie didn't pry even though she wanted to, and let him change the subject. "I'm eighteen today." She supplied. "Can I just get something to eat please? I'm probably going to lose my appetite." Klaus nodded and Ellie quickly ordered.
She'd just finished eating as the door opened and a scruffy looking blonde man walked in. "What's up, Ray?" One of the men called in greeting.
The scruffy looking man, who was apparently the one and only Ray Sutton, waved in greeting. He seemed like a nice man. "Hey, Red. Can I get a beer?" He asked. Klaus had already risen from his seat and started towards Ray.
Ellie squeezed Stefan's hand, but he wouldn't look at her. This was probably going to be worse than she thought. "Ray? Ray Sutton?" Klaus asked the man.
"Who wants to know?" Ray asked as the man he called Red handed him his beer.
"I've been looking everywhere for you." Klaus said casually, an easy smile on his face. "We started in Florida, Pensacola. I met a young chap there who you worked with before you moved to Memphis. Now he directed me to two lovely young women. And they led me here. To you."
"I think I'll be going." Ray said. He obviously had enough sense to realize Klaus was bad news. Like his friends, it wouldn't do him much good.
"Not so fast, mate." Klaus said as he stood, holding Ray in place. "You only just got here. Now your type are very hard to come by."
Ray tried to walk away but Stefan was in his space, preventing him from leaving. "Yeah, I wouldn't do that." Stefan said as she pushed Ray back towards the bar.
"Vampires." Ray deduced as he looked at the three of them.
"You're swifty swift, Ray." Klaus replied. "Yes, my friend here is a vampire." He gestured towards Stefan. "He's compelled everyone in the bar, so don't look to them for any help." Ray was looking around nervously now. "And my other beautiful companion, well she's a witch. So even if you were to manage to get to the door, you'd never make it past it. Even I can't get through that nifty boundary spell of hers. I, however, I'm something else. A different kind of monster. I've got some vampire. I've got some wolf."
"You what?" Ray asked in confusion. His voice had grown a touch shaky.
"A hybrid, Ray. I'm both." Klaus clarified. "You see, I want to create more of me. Now, you being the first werewolf I've come across in many a moon, pun intended, Ray, I need you to direct me to your pack. So... where can I find them Ray?"
"You can't compel me, it won't work." Ray said. Ellie spotted Stefan shooting Klaus a look from the corner of her eye, and felt her stomach coil up nervously.
"I need a scotch on the rocks, please." Stefan asked the bartender politely. He cleared his throat as he pulled out a small pouch. "Tell you what, Ray. We're gonna play a little drinking game. Something I like to call 'Truth or Wolfsbane'."
"Oh, this is gonna be fun, Ray." Klaus commented.
"I need a drink." Ellie said, and Klaus didn't hesitate to order her something strong. Ray shot her a pleading look as she downed her first drink. She tried to not to let her emotions get the better of her as Klaus got her a second. The Original said nothing as she quickly walked from them and took up residence in the farthest corner of the room. The pained sounds Ray was making made her sick.
Red, the bartender, walked over to bring her yet another drink with an easy smile. She longed to be as unaware of the torture the werewolf was enduring as he was. He set down her drink and picked up the drained glasses. "Anything else I can get ya?" He asked.
When Ray let out a particularly pain filled cry, Ellie asked, "Do you have a candle of some sort?"
He made a face but nodded. "Yeah, we keep a few on hand in case of a power outage. How many you need?"
"Just the one please." Ellie replied and he was off to wherever it was the candles were kept. Given that she'd eaten, it was taking a lot more than usual to get her drunk enough to forget what Ray was going through. "Thank you." Ellie said as she took the candle. She lit the candle with a wave of her hand and after she poured a bit of salt in her hand, she sprinkled it around the candle. A mutter under her breath later, the sound of Ray's cries vanished.
The silencing spell was typically meant for privacy, so that people couldn't hear the conversation between the person who had lit the candle and whoever they were speaking to. However, she managed to invert the effects, giving her the chance to get herself together without hearing the torture that was going on just across the room.
Ellie wasn't sure how long it had been when she jerked her head up at the sound of someone's breathing. "Ellie." Stefan said softly. "I was calling your name."
"I have a barrier up." She confessed. "To drown out all of… that."
He took a seat next to her in the booth. "I have to go for a little while."
She looked up in alarm. "What? Why?"
"Damon's closing in on our trail. I have to make it clear to him that he needs to let me go." Stefan replied. "Klaus was going to take care of it, but I thought I was better suited for it." He was smart to still mind what he was saying. "Are you going to be ok for a while?"
"I'm more worried about Ray." Ellie confessed. "But you should go and take care of what you've gotta do." She gave him a significant look. "Be careful."
"I will be. Maybe you might have more luck convincing Ray to work with us. If he just does what Klaus wants, he'll stop getting hurt." Stefan suggested. "Can you drop the boundary spell for me?"
Ellie nodded. "Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, per Vasa Quo Errum Signas. Phasmatos selvus Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, per Vasa Quo Signos. Phasmatos selvus nos ex malom terra mora Vantis Quo Incandis per Vas Quo Errum Signos, Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis." In an instant, she felt a rush as her magic dropped. "It's down."
It wasn't too much longer after Stefan left that Ellie couldn't stand it anymore. Ray had been unchained from where he'd been turned into a living dart board draped across one of the pool tables. She could see him shaking from fear and pain and it was eating her up inside. With a wave of her hand, the candle went out and the sound came rushing back. "Come on, Ray. I can do this all day. Just tell me where they are." Klaus was saying as she approached. "Hello, love."
Ellie didn't look at him. Her focus was on the poor wolf before her. "Ray." She said softly as she gently touched his face. He flinched slightly and looked at her with pleading eyes. "Ray, listen to me. Just tell him where they are and it'll be over. He's not going to stop until you tell him, not even if it breaks you."
"I can't betray them." Ray said as his eyes filled with tears. "They're my pack. We're supposed to protect each other."
"If he were anyone else you holding out might have worked, Ray. You've done such a good job. You have, I promise. But Ray, he's a thousand years old and he doesn't care how much it takes to break you. The more you fight the more fun this is for him." Ellie told him softly as he leaned into the soft touch of her palm. "If you give him what he wants, maybe he'll let me heal you. I can take the pain away."
Klaus had been watching her interaction with the wolf with interest. She had no issue with showing this wolf affection and warmth, despite having no reason to care. She seemed genuinely concerned for his safety. Klaus wasn't stupid, he knew all the deaths cause by his hands and Stefan's distressed her. The wolf was looking at her like she was a potential safe haven.
The last thing Klaus expected, the absolute last thing he'd seen coming, was a confession tumbling from the wolf. She had done it, she'd gotten the location of the pack. "Brilliant." Klaus said with pleasure. "Now we're talking." He stepped towards them. "Ok, it's a three step process, Ray. This is step one. I want you to drink from my wrist."
"I already told you where to find the pack." Ray said breathlessly. "What more do you want from me?"
"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying, Ray? I have great plans for you." Klaus said as he pointed a knife at Ray's face. Ellie squeezed his forearm to try and remind him he wasn't alone. To her surprise, Klaus slit his wrist with ease before forcing his blood into Ray's mouth. "He'll thank me for it later." Klaus said with a laugh. Ray was struggling, but he wasn't stronger than Klaus and no choice but to swallow the blood. "There we go, atta boy!"
Ellie spotted Stefan as he returned. "What are you going to do now?" Ray asked.
"It's time for step two, Ray." Klaus said, and promptly snapped his neck. Ellie flinched away violently. She hadn't been prepared for it and she had the sudden urge to vomit. "You're back." Klaus said as he ignored how sick Ellie suddenly looked. She was grateful for the chance to recover.
"Did you doubt me?"
"Not for a second." Klaus told him. "I knew you'd pass the test. You still care for your brother; for your old life."
Ellie was taking shaky breaths as Stefan replied, "Nah. I don't care about anything anymore."
"You put on a good show, Stefan. I almost believe you. Let's hope, for your brother's sake, he does." Klaus replied as Ellie made her way over to where Stefan was sitting at the bar. "You never stop caring about family, do you?" He asked and Ellie grasped onto it. On that little confession, whether Klaus realized that it was a confession or not. "But every time you feed, the blood makes it easier to let go."
She could see that Stefan was struggling. No matter how hard he was trying to fight it, and despite how sick she felt, she couldn't let him struggle alone. "Are we done here?" Ellie asked. She stepped up to the other side of Stefan, her hand carefully hidden out of Klaus' view as she took a handful of Stefan's shirt, trying to give him something to anchor himself back down to.
Klaus was silent for a moment before nodding. "I have a few things to wrap up here, but feel free to take a breather. We'll leave soon." Klaus walked off, and Stefan stood abruptly, walking back out the front door.
Ellie waited a few moments, and when neither Stefan or Klaus returned, she turned on her heel and headed after Stefan. He was standing halfway across the parking lot, a phone clutched tightly in his hand. "Stefan?" She called softly as she approached. She didn't think she'd ever seen him look so vulnerable. "Stefan?" She repeated.
"I called her." He confessed. Ellie didn't hesitate to step into his space to hug him. God knew they both needed it. He hugged her back tightly. "She told me she loved me, and that I would be ok."
"We will be ok, Stefan. We have to be. At least we aren't alone. We have each other." She reminded him softly. They hadn't been incredibly close when they were in Mystic Falls, all the secrets and life threatening events hadn't given them much time to bond. But trauma was a very effective bonding method, and they had plenty of that at this point. They stood there for a moment, and it was enough to solidify that Stefan was still himself. He was trying desperately to be the Ripper enough to please Klaus, but he hadn't given into the bloodlust.
"We'll be ok." Stefan repeated quietly, his head resting on top of hers. "I'm sorry you had such an awful birthday."
"I lived through the day, so it could've been worse." She replied. When she felt Klaus' energy approaching, she pulled away. She gave Stefan a small smile. She couldn't doubt what she told him. They would be ok. They had to be.
Author's Note:
Happy late Thanksgiving! Important Question! Would you guys like for me to post an extra chapter for Christmas and then a regular post on that Saturday as well? Christmas is on a Friday so it would kind of be two chapters back to back. Please leave a review and let me know if you'd like that. As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
To brigitcharlesmatthew: Yes! We're in season three! Honestly, I really enjoy writing Ellie and Rebekah together, so I hope you enjoy their relationship when we get to it! Her relationship with Klaus is going to be a little back and forth, because he's done bad things but over the summer he was never cruel to her and so she's going to struggle a bit with where she stand when it comes to him. I do agree that she kind of gave Elena a chance and then Elena literally stabbed her in the back. Bekah just needs a good friend and I hope Ellie can be that for her.
To xenocanaan: So far in what I've written, Klaus hasn't yet tested that theory, so it might it might not lol. Yeah kind of focusing more on the magic and maybe having more interactions with her and Bonnie while they learn magic together. I think in the Kol AU to have him teach her what he knows would be fascinating.
To AdiraBraelynn: I'm so glad you love it! And yes, that's exactly it. Ellie knows what she's willing to do for her family, and so she couldn't blame him when she would have likely made the same decision. She didn't say anything because she didn't want to taint their potentially final moments, plus they'd just buried John and she didn't want to risk them doing something stupid to try and get her out of her deal. I'm currently at the point of writing Esther and so she is involved, and she was with Mikael too. I think she was already in the circle by the time they arrived. Thanks so much!
To vivi. wie: He did! He never made her watch any of the murders. Katherine's watching them from a distance, but Ellie doesn't know it yet. At the moment, no, Stefan is still Stefan but he's struggling with what he's having to do. Their relationship has definitely shifted because they're doing their best to take care of each other. They have definitely bonded. I'm probably going to start working on the AU at some point, but I'll be focusing on this one for a little while longer before I start anything else.
To afralmazouei: I know it's been dropping the past few chapters, though this one jumped back up to six thousand. There's definitely going to be a Rebekah/Ellie friendship. And there may or may not be a shopping scene lol. The reason for the flux in the word count is solely because of the contents of the original episode, when the word count is lower it's just because it's hard to find a place for Ellie to fit into it and I don't want to drag stuff out pointlessly. But then other chapters are really high because there's a lot going on that she's a part of. You stay safe as well!
To Francesca's: I'm so glad you're enjoying this story! And don't worry, I don't plan on abandoning this story. Yes, I intend to write through TO. Yes! I wanted Ellie to be what Elena was not, because Elena made a lot of mistakes and never seemed to care. I'm so glad that I've made Ellie so real to you that it's weird to not see her in the show! That's an incredible compliment. I'm not sure what my plans are for Jenna, but I just knew I had to save her. I know it's sad that Elijah was daggered, maybe Ellie can save him from it happening again. She's definitely going to butt heads with Klaus sometimes. I'm not sure if it'll work out for Elijah to be undaggered earlier than he was in the show, but I do hope that I'll get more of him once he's undaggered.
To Guest: It does suck, but hopefully Katherine and Elijah will be around for the rest of her birthdays lol. It'll suck for a while but it'll get better.
To carlys. love: Hi, I'm good how are you? There's a definite chance of Klaroline happening! I'm drawn to Kol to, so there will probably be a Kol AU at some point. I like Kai in general, so I don't think you're crazy, lol. I'm so glad you like the story, thank you so much for reviewing!
-Madame Magic
Posted: 11/28/20
