There was something to be said about life. It could be long and it could be short. It could be tortuous or it could be blissful. It was new and something old. Every single day of his life so far had been surprising and yet monotonous at the same time. There was something to be said about life.

But then again Stefan felt nothing now. He could not feel anger or sadness and sometimes he could not even feel pain. It was the lack of pain that fascinated him though. When he was like this, when he was the Ripper, pain was something of a nuisance. It was something that he brushed off. But every time he got like this there was a moment. It was hard to describe it was like a pause in time or like reality was suspended. And he could not feel pain.

Not just the emotional pain (that was the whole point of turning off his emotions) but it happened to physical pain too. And he felt it right now. He felt that suspension of pain. Despite his body being riddled with werewolf bites, he could not feel the pain anymore. He did not feel the pain of the bite or the malease that the venom was supposed to bring about.

He felt nothing. And so when Klaus offered him the blood to cure himself he did not take it. He sat back in a far room, with the blood congealing in the shallow vase and just watched the sun move.

Stefan had always liked the sun. He enjoyed the light that it brought and he liked the way that the sun warmed his skin once upon a time. It was something that he had cherished when he was human. The same could not be said now.

The sun was a hindrance and the cover of darkness was something that he welcomed. He needed to make sure that the sun was not there to watch him and watch him sin. He never wanted to see himself in the light of day. So then why was he sitting alone in a room watching the sun? Stefan himself could not even tell you.

The sun sucker lower and lower in the sky and Stefan watched it go down. He heard the various voices of Klaus, Rebekah, Marcel, and the witch Davina, but there was nothing that they were saying that really caught his attention. There was nothing in there that sparked his attention or curiosity. He sat back and watched the world turn.

Night fell and headlights flashed past as cars and buses and taxis were all over the place. They scurried by the house like ants on a mission and there was nothing that anyone could do to deter them from their routes. Stefan sighed and rose from his perch on the chair.

He walked away slowing the congealed blood that Klaus had given him. Slowly, the affects of the werewolf venom were release and his body also sagged in relief. But this was something that he was watching like a third party spectator as he walked to the kitchen. The kitchen, and the house at large, was silent. Klaus and the others had long since left the house to find whatever it was… Was it a person or a thing that they were trying to find?

Stefan could not bring himself to care what it was.

In the kitchen, Stefan watched the outside world. People walked on the sidewalks and their were revelers who looked at the outside of the Abattoir with shining eyes. What did any of this matter any way if she wasn't…

No.

The thought felt dead in his mind. No, he would not think about her. He would not even play with her memory. She was dead and gone and that part of his life was over. There would be no redemption for him. There would be no salvation. He was simply, Stefan the Ripper now. And that is how it would stay for the foreseeable future.

The headlights of a car pulled into the driveway of the Abattoir fast and hard. Whoever was driving was a newbie or someone that was unfamiliar with the roads. Stefan tilted his head. It was from his understanding that everyone avoided the Abattoir. They knew what happened here and they wanted no part of it. Maybe these were a group of out of towners?

His stomach rumbled. Yes, a snack. Something to quench this thirst in his throat. That would take his mind off of everything. That would make this all easier. Stefan zoomed up the stairs stationing himself in the darkness. From his vantage point in one of the corners he could see whoever entered inside but they would be unable to see him.

The car door slammed before it opened and slammed again. Stefan could only hear one heartbeat . It beat fast, staccato against the chest of the human. One heartbeat but two people breathing. A vampire and a human? Stefan sighed through his nose and sagged against the wall. Ugh, probably a vampire bringing his snack to eat. Stefan wondered how he would get them to share when the door opened.

Two figure straggled in, one supporting the other. They were both women, with one arm wrapped around the other.

"Hello?" a voice called out and Stefan froze. "Is anyone here?"

No, this couldn't be.

"Hello?" Caroline's soft voice creaked out.

Stefan zoomed down the stairs and out of the shadows. His eyes trained on the face of the woman that he thought that he was never going to see again. She was dresses plainly in a tank top and some jeans but he face, that face that he had loved and fought for, stared back at him with a smile.

"Stefan," she breathed. And Stefan walked closer, cupping her face in his hands. She was real. She was here right in front of him. Elena leaned into his touch.

And then it all came rushing back to him.

Caroline was the only thing that was on his mind.

How was she? What had they done to her? They never should have separated. It was something that they did on a whim, but see what a whim gets you? Klaus sighed as ran his hand down his face as he raced to the house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Rebekah and him were darting from place to place trying to get there in the fastest way possible.

"Do you think they got anything from her?" Rebekah asked.

Klaus shook his head. "They could torture Caroline and she would not give up a word. She is loyal to the end."

And that was what Klaus was worried about. Caroline would not say a word because she was loyal and her loyalty to him might just be what got her killed. Klaus was not a pious man. He was not someone who philosophized and prayed and taught. He was a doer. He worked with his hands and got the job done. But even he knew that loyalty to him guaranteed some violence.

And for the longest time he did not car. If following him meant that you had to get your hands dirty be prepared for that. It was no until Caroline that he worried about someone other than himself. He was his siblings were indestructible so he never really worried about any damage that he took, but Caroline was not an Original. Caroline was a vampire. Any piece of wood could kill her. Fire could kill her.

And loyalty to Klaus meant walking through the flames.

They reached the house in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was hands down the crummiest place that Klaus had ever seen. The outside was dilapidated with water stains and rust. Rebekah stepped closer and looked around. For all intents and purposes this was an abandoned building.

"Is this where Davina said they were staying?" Rebekah said.

Klaus shrugged his shoulders. "This is where she said Caroline was."

Klaus strode over to the house and opened the door. The interior of the house was nothing like the outside. The foyer was a beautiful cream, white, and gold. Klaus stepped in with his eyes wide. Rebekah entered with a gasp. They walked into the living room and found nothing but high end furniture in the traditional colors of gold and cream. The place was spotless, not a speck of dust on anything in the room.

For a moment, Klaus wonder how any of this was possible. How had they missed a hub of magic? A space like this must have taken a considerable about of magic to create and maintain. But then he sighed and shook his head.

With Expression, anything was possible.

Klaus walked into the spotless kitchen as saw the door to the basement wide open. He walked down into the basement and there he was it. The chain and mancles and the iron tint of blood. Caroline's blood.

His eyes changed and his fangs descended. They had kept her here. They had dome something to her here and then they had moved her. Klaus cried out and slammed his hands on everything. He cracked concrete and broken chairs. Rebekah sighed from where she was, but Klaus ignored her.

He had missed his chance. He was so close to saving Caroline and she was gone. Fuck.

Klaus turned and stalked back up the stairs. If he could not find Caroline then there had to be something here that alluded to where they were. They needed to find out where they could have taken her.

Sitting on the refrigerator, pinned by a magnet was a note. It was handwritten.

Hello Klaus, it read.

Klaus snatched the paper and Rebekah leaned in looking at the note over his shoulder.

No time, no see. How have you been? I hope that you liked my gift. It is something that I have been thinking about for a while. I hope that it reaches your expectations.

I would say that I am very sorry for missing you and being unable to welcome you, but we both know that my saying that would be a lie. Know that your brother is safe with me and is fully on board with helping me end you. Seeing as you dead will be the only way that the both of us will get our happily ever after.

How is Caroline, the Witch said that she let her go, but you can never tell with witches. You know how witches are. They say one thing and then do another.

Hope to see your corpse soon.

Katherine

Klaus crushed the note in his hand. That bitch had turned his own brother against him. His heart twinged.

"Elijah is working against us?" Rebekah asked as she finished the contents of the letter. Klaus shook his head.

"He is going to stay in the coffin for a long time," Klaus grumbled. "And I am going to kill that bitch."

The air them was still for a moment before it was broken with the shrill cry of Klaus's cellphone. Klaus was quick to snap it up and pressed it to his ear. This day could not get any worse.

"Hello?"

"Klaus… I don't know how but Elena is here and she brought someone…" Stefan's voice said. He spoke differently. It was not the cool cadence from the Ripper but the jittery voice of the Stefan from Mystic Falls. The Stefan that was in love.

"Elena. Bloke, she's dead."

"I'm right here!" Klaus heard Elena call from the background. He raised a brow at that.

"And someone else is here too," Stefan said. There was a sound as the phone changed hands. Klaus listened closely. Maybe it was Elijah, come to his senses?

"Klaus," Caroline's hoarse voice croaked. Everything in Klaus unclenched. He sighed through his nose and smiled.

"Caroline, darling," he said. "You're okay."

"Nothing but a few werewolf bites. But I'll live with some of your blood. But something is wrong…"

"Nothing is wrong. I'll be back to take care of you right away."

"No, something is wrong," Caroline insisted. "Kol isn't Kol."

Sitting there in the wilderness, Esther felt one with nature again. It was something that she had cherished when she had been alive. It was something that she had missed when she had died. The wind ran fingers through her hair , tickling her ears. And she sighed.

This was so good. Nature was something beautiful. Something that needed to be protection. And she had violated all that because of her selfishness. Esther sighed again. She had lost a child before. That was half the reason why they settled across the world in a new place. But there was something about Henrik.

That first child, the one that she lost in the Old World, was someone that she did not know. She only felt him in her stomach. She was familiar with the life, but not the personality, the movements, but nothing of who they were. Henrik was more real in that sense. He had things that he liked and disliked. He loved flowers and hated thunderstorm and Henrik was a baby that she had touched and nourished inside and outside of her body.

Maybe that was why, while she was mad with grief, she decided to do what she did. Her boy, her Henrik had been lost to her and she needed to get him back or at the very least protect the rest of her children from meeting the same fate as him.

Esther's eyes fell close. She was not there when he died but she could imagine. She dreamt of it every night. The way that he must have screamed as the wolves tore into him. They way that he must have cried out as the wolves tore into him. Their teeth long and sharp and painful as they dug into his skin. The blood that coated and matted the furry muzzles of the wolves as they feasted on her boy.

Niklaus had been their watching his kin dig into his brother and he did nothing. Esther shook her head. It was just one of the various sins that Niklaus had committed. And it was time that he was held accountable for his actions. And this was the best way to do it.

The man wearing her son's face smiled at her as they stood somewhere deep in the bayou. The water sloshed around their feet, but she could feel the magic that lingered in her son's veins. It was potent, simple energy that lingered underneath the skin the way blood did. The man smiled at her.

"I never once thought that I would be able to cast a spell with the Original Witch. You know Travelers revere you."

Esther frowned. These were the last people that she wanted to praise her. Travelers were known for wanting to use magic how they pleases. They wanted to go against nature and that was why their curse was placed on them, preventing them from gathering together and shaping the world how they saw fit. They were just as bad as the Expression witches.

But are you any better? The thought rose unbidden in her mind and all she could do was sigh. Ayana had warned her. She had told her that messing with the balance of nature would come with consequences. And this was one of them. Esther shook her head. At least now she was trying to fix her mistake. At least now she was fixing what she had broken.

Esther sighed as they crested the top of the hill. There standing under the warm sunning she turned and faced the man. "Let's get this done," was all she said.

Her son's head nodded and reached for her hands. The with had only given her one directive. Link her children together and then she would handle the rest. Esther part in the end of the vampire race was small enough. One her children, the progenitors of the vampire race died then the rest would follow. It would be a simple matter and then Esther could return to the Other Side to rest. It would be the first time in a thousand years that she was actually at peace.

They clasped hands and then she started the chant. It swelled through her, the word and the magic rustled the leaves and the trees in the bayou. They needed to get this done and fast. Who knew when Klaus and Rebekah would be back. It was a simple matter of pretending to be passed out when Rebekah hit her and then listening closely to when they let Kol watch her. This would be their only chance.

The world was flooded with magic and Esther saw the strings of magic that were her children. It was a simple matter of reaching out and entangling those threads of making sure that they touched. It was carefully with her magic that she ushered the threads closer, pushing them into one another. With each touch the magic grew brighter. The thread of magic shining a brilliant gold color in her mind's eye. First Elijah, then Kol, then Rebekah, Finn and then lastly… Niklaus.

Niklaus's thread of magic was thicker, longer than the rest. He held more magic than the rest of them. Probably lingering magic from the curse that she had placed on him a thousand years ago and magic that lingered from when he broke the curse also. She ushered Klaus's magic thread closer like the others. And smiled when it glowed a bright gold. There… they were all linked to one another. The ritual was completed.

But then something seized her mind. A cold tenterhook sliced into her mind. Esther could feel her magic being high jacked. It sizzled out of her, grasping the magic of her children and tangling them together, It reached out and words escaped her that Esther never intended to say. Faces flashed through her mind, people that she did not know and had never heard of before.

The simple tangle of magic that was her children expanded out into a web that encompassed the world. People tangled into the web and each person was that wrapped in it, Esther did not know. She did not intend. Esther cried out as the last of her magic was expended the magic tangling her own magic in the web.

The traveler gasped as he felt it too. Just as quickly as the tenterhook snared her, it released her and Esther fell forward into the arms of the traveler. The traveler stumbled back and fell on to the ground with Esther on top of him. Esther gasped for breath.

"What was that?" the traveler asked. Esther shook his head as she rose from on top of him.

"I don't know. I have never felt that before." Esther scoured her mind, trying to find if something or someone had come from the Other Side along with her. Whatever that was that was not Esther. But it had used her. Violated the magic that lingered inside of her and bent it to its will. Esther frowned. Whoever fucking thought that they could use her as their unwilling conduit had another thing coming.

She breathed fire, but the traveler stopped her. He had rise from the ground but his ear was tilted to the sky.

"They're coming," was all he said.

Author's Note: I have a lot more time to write now that I have a new position at work. It has been a crazy week, but next weekend is a three day weekend so I hope that I have more time to write. I have two more chapters to write today so I'm going to upload this to tide y'all over. Wait for chapters 49 & 50 as they are coming today!