Hello everyone!

I apologize for the delay, we should get back to a normal schedule from now on!

This is the first part of chapter 25: An Air of Déjà Vu. I post in parts because I don't want to run out of things to post every two weeks!

I hope you will like it, it's about 1400 words long!

Enjoy!

The Forest was silent and somber when Mackenzie was taken back to the castle. Somehow it seemed even colder inside than out there, and as dark as the moonless sky. She followed the page in silent, wondering if she had met him before, unable to recognize him, or any of them, for that matter. They were all wearing the same clothes, all saying the same things, all avoiding her gaze. She wondered if it was written somewhere in the rules not to look people in the eyes or if they were just afraid of her, and she decided never to ask, happy to believe it was the former.

Her satin dress caressed the cleaned marbled floor in silence, the only noise being the page's footsteps and her heavy breaths. It would be easy enough to travel through the hallways of the castle if she weren't wearing such a tight corset. She had been uncomfortable all night, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. She couldn't wait to get out of this dress, and she'd wake the entire castle if she had to in order to find someone who'd help her out of this prison of satin.

The page stopped in front of her door and opened it for her, before stepping aside and bowing, gesturing her to get inside. She thanked him in a whisper, not caring if he heard her or not, before she stepped inside her chambers where she was happy to see her servant was waiting for her.

Mackenzie frowned, however, when she noticed the girl was standing near the couch, where she last saw her.

"Did you stay here all night?"

"No, ma'am. Someone from Lord Fay informed us of your return."

Reassured that the poor girl hadn't spent the last four hours waiting on her feet for her, and trying to forget she had just been called "ma'am", she breathed out, or at least tried to.

"Get me out of this thing, please," she begged.

"Yes, madam."

The girl removed all the layers of the elaborate dress as fast as she could, and Mackenzie took a deep breath of relief as soon as she was able to.

"Thank you," she breathed out loudly, swearing to herself she wouldn't wear a corset ever again, and she'd kill anyone who'd try to make her. "Never call me madam again," she said in a light tone, not wanting to scare the girl who had been acting nervous around her.

The servant looked up with a small and amused smile: "Yes, miss."

"Have a good night."

"You too, Lady Alemaund."

The girl was gone before Mackenzie had the chance to tell her she wasn't a lady.

It was dark in the forest. Abnormally dark. And so silent. As if there were no wind, no animals, no life. As Mackenzie walked on the dead leaves, the absent of noise made her feel uneasy and nervous. She couldn't remember where she was nor what she was doing out there in the forest alone. All the trees were the same and she kept changing course, hoping to see a light, a rock or a bush maybe that looked somewhat different, that would indicate she was making progress. But everything stayed the same. She cried for someone, anyone, just to see if she would hear anything and her own voice startled her. She expected no answer and received none, and for some reason, it was a relief. She was alone. There was no one and nothing that could hurt her. She felt at peace, not tired, not hungry, her feet weren't hurting like they would have been if she had really been walking in the forest for this long. She kept walking for a while, enjoying the silence of the never-ending forest. She looked up, expecting a moon and stars, but found only darkness, like a ceiling painted in black, a black so dark she got lost in it.

She stopped, her eyes staring at the darkness, the pain coming back, the fear, the hunger, the exhaustion. She shivered as she started feeling cold, a pearl of sweat sliding down her forehead. A voice startled her. She turned around but saw nothing but the trees, the same trees she had been surrounded with for what seemed like an eternity. The trees that she had been ignoring now scared her, as if someone, or something, was hidden behind one of them, or all of them. She turned around herself, looking there, looking here, always seeing the same thing, all her emotions overwhelming her at once. She heard the voice again, but this time thought she understood it, even maybe recognized it. It was calling her name.

"Hello?" she cried out, not knowing if an answer would make the situation better or worse.

"… hear me?" the faded voice of a woman asked.

"Where are you?"

"Mackenzie," the voice was now loud and clear.

The ultimate straightened up, a shiver running down her spine as she recognized the voice.

"Where are you?" she cried again.

"Mackenzie."

"Mom! Where are you?"

She wiped the tears off her cheeks as she turned around again and again looking for her mother. She started feeling dizzy, the trees disappearing from her line of sight as if they were being pulled by an invisible force she couldn't feel. Light started to break out of her surroundings as if the world itself was becoming a ball of light. Mackenzie brought a hand to her face, trying to shield herself from the blinding light.

It gradually became safe for her to open her eyes again and she looked around, hoping to see her mother, but all she saw was white, as if she were standing in a white empty room with no walls.

"Mom?" her voice broke as she called quietly for her mother.

"Mackenzie," Aella said, though she was nowhere to be found.

"Where are you?"

"You need to leave, Mackenzie, it's not safe for you here!"

"What?" Mackenzie breathed out as she looked up then down then around again. She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, as if it were coming from everywhere. "I don't know where I am. How did I get here?"

"You need to leave! You can't trust him, he will hurt you!" her mother's voice was getting louder and Mackenzie's ears started to ring as if the voice was coming from inside her head.

"Who?" she asked, panic obvious in her voice.

"You can't trust him! He's dangerous! You have to run!"

The darkness came back so suddenly that Mackenzie felt like she had just been punched in the chest. It took her breath away. She was in the forest again, surrounded by the same trees, on the same path going nowhere.

"Mom?" she called, the knot in her throat making her voice break again.

"You will die if you stay with him! Run, Mackenzie! Run!"

A sudden panic submerged her, and she started to run, as if her mother's words were spelled. She ran so fast she didn't know where she was going. The trees appeared before her and disappeared behind her so fast she didn't see them at all anymore. She ran into the darkness, hoping for nothing, she ran until she couldn't anymore, she ran until she reached the end of the path going nowhere and fell into nothing.

Mackenzie jerked awake, almost choking as she gasped for air. She sat bolt upright, trembling and panting as if she had just run a marathon. She was sweaty, her nightgown sticking to her wet skin. She tried to catch her breath, tried to think straight.

What kind of nightmare was that? She had had a lot of bad dreams, but this was completely different. It felt so real, so vivid, she knew it was something else. She knew it was her mother sending her a message.

She tried to remember her mother's words, wishing she had misunderstood them, but knowing she hadn't.

Mackenzie shook her head, trying to forget the words, trying to erase the thought from her mind. She hated it. She hated it so much it hurt. It hurt to think of the mere possibility that it was real. That her mother, stuck in the Other Side, had come through to tell her that Elijah Mikaelson wanted to kill her.

Thank you for reading!

I hope you enjoyed it!

You can find the entirety of the chapter on my patre0n page: patre0n dot com / alonelydreamer (all in one!) as well as the first part of chapter 26.

Of course, the next part will be posted next Wednesday so no worries!

Have a great week!