The wind was alive among the shadowed trees, and the moon blanketed by yellowed clouds. The road was lit like a pale ribbon from the moonbeams over the purple moors. The highwayman, Nikalus Mikaelson, came riding up the hill.

He wore a French cocked hat with lace at his chin, and a coat of dark red velvet, and soft brown breeches. His black boots were up to the calf. He rode with his pistol butts and rapier hilt twinkling in the moonlight with every step his horse took.

He rode over the cobbled inn yard in the dark, and tapped the shutters with a knuckle, but all was locked and barred for the night. Niklaus whistled a tune to the window, and the landlord's daughter came, their eyes set upon each other's at once. She smiled, and so did he. Caroline, the landlord's daughter, stood there with a dark red love-knot in her long blonde hair, a knot she'd made. He learned of it when he came to visit her in the daylight, when the landlord was not about. Niklaus dropped from his horse, and Caroline opened the door to meet him. He took her in his arms.

"Give me a kiss, love, I'm after a prize tonight." He asked her confidently, and she did so on his cheek. He smiled at her in his arms. "I shall be back with gold before the morning's light, so we can go away together." Caroline grinned.

"Finally." She breathed, and put her head to his shoulder. Niklaus smiled again and ran his rough fingers through her hair.

"If the masters hurry me through the day, then look for me by the moonlight." He told her. She pulled her head up and looked him in the eye with a grin. "I'll come to you by its light, even if hell were to bar my way." He vowed. They went back to his horse and he rose upright in the stirrup, he scant could reach her hand. But he pulled Caroline up beside him on his horse and held her, then she kissed his mouth, and she pulled away to see him blush. She grinned at him again and dropped from the horse, turning around to see him tug at his reins.

"Onward, Theo." Klaus commanded. And then the two galloped away to the west. Half a mile out, Caroline could still see Niklaus's figure clearly. And he stopped Theo to turned around and look at her himself. They smiled and he turned back, driving Theo harder on.

He did not come at dawn, or even at noon. And out of the bronze sunset, before moonrise when the road was dark, King George's red-coat troop came marching up to the old inn-door.

They didn't draw the landlord's attention, but drank his ale. But they gagged and bound his daughter to the foot of her bed. Two of them knelt at the window, muskets at their side in case of danger. For her, there was death at every window and one in particular made her unable to suppress her fear. For Caroline could see, through the window, the road that Niklaus would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with sniggering jests, they had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast.

"Keep good watch!" One laughed. One kissed her slowly and she clenched her jaw, she could smell the drink on his breath.

"Come on, leave her alone." One muttered. He turned to the boy who Caroline looked on, thankful for his pity.

"What do you say, boy?" The man threatened. The boy looked away and the man sneered. "I thought as much." He reached out to Caroline, and stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand. Caroline pulled away. The man didn't appear fazed. He turned to the window and the boy followed him to it.

"Look for me by the moonlight, boy, I'll come by then." Caroline felt fear grip her heart even tighter.

She twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held tight.

She wriggled her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat and blood. The knots stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours stretched like years. Then on the stroke of the cold midnight, the tip of one finger touched it. The trigger was in her hold.

Horse hooves rung in the distance. She looked over to the two men standing guard. They weren't at the window any longer. Had they heard it? The silence of their guard didn't give her a clue. Down the lighted road, over the top of the hill, Niklaus Mikaelson came riding. The red-coats stood to attention, not knowing where the rider was coming from. She stood straight and watched Niklaus.

His horses' hooves sounded in the frosty silence, echoing in the night. He came closer, seeing her face. It was like a light, glowing in the moonlight. Beneath the moon, she was an angel in the darkness, and she was waiting for him. Her eyes grew wide for a moment as her eyes connected with his. He slowed slightly, not knowing what was the matter. She drew one last deep breath. Then her finger moved in the moonlight.

Her musket broke the silence.

Her breast shattered in the moonlight and he knew now, she was not alone.

He stared at her body in horror. Her head bowed over the musket which was drenched with her own blood. Caroline, the landlord's daughter, had watched for him in the moonlight, and died in the darkness before him.

He drove the horse back like a madman, shrieking a curse to the redcoats. With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished towards them.

The spurs were red in the bright noon; his coat wine-red, when they shot him down, like a dog, on the highway, and stole his horse. He lay in his blood there, with the lace at his throat, and his eyes open.

Still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind howls in the trees, when the moon is a covered by yellowed clouds, when the road is a lighted beside the purple moor, a highwayman they believe is named Niklaus, comes riding to the old inn-door, and a blonde girl comes to the window to meet him.


I know it's depressing, but I was listening to this song and thought of Klaus, Caroline and Tyler. (Tyler was the boy who defended Caroline briefly.) I didn't know how I was going to write this story until I looked at the lyrics. And even then it took me a minute to realize this was a ghost story. But a ghost story is a ghost story. Even if Klaus is mortal in this story and gets killed, it's still kinda cool for me. I'm paraphrasing and rewriting some things as to make this story sound more real, but other than that it sticks to the song's storyline.