At first I was writting this instead of studying. Now I'm doing it instead of sleeping.
I really, really need to fix that.

What I mean is, I might not update as much as before starting from today, up till wednesday at least. Sorry. But I too need to sleep.


Adjusting to our reality, part 25: Hateful, hateful smile

Pain.

Incommensurable pain.

Klaus was categorical. No human beings should be allowed to suffer this much.

For a vampire, it wasn't the same. Pain could be terrible, even more so with the things they had special weaknesses to. When it came to stakes, vervain or sunlight, for example. But they healed quickly. Things such as pain lasting over time weren't their reality – unless they were left to starve.

But that, that wasn't something any human should ever suffer.

He had played around for too long in Alaric Saltzman's body, he had let it be broken into pieces over and over, because Maddox with backing him up and had been putting it all together again and again. But he had forgotten about the Falkenbach Seal. And now, he was being repentent about that.

He had forgotten, because once he had borrowed the body of the teacher, the pain had been less and less present. After all, the seal only reacted to magic. Once Klaus was here, he didn't need any magic to stay here.

Fool.

The seal of the first kill, that was what he had been told. Carved into the flesh of each of the children of the Falkenbachs in order to prevent them from losing all of their humanity. Restraining the terrible curse from pervading other parts of their brain, as it had, since their birth, been cancelling their hability to feel guilt over killing and torture.

Cancelling wasn't the word. Destroying was more like it.

No humanity. At all.

It was even worse than the vampire switch.

Long ago, when his friend had snapped for the second time, Klaus had asked the help of some witches to regain what the curse had taken away from him. And then, they had understood.

Nothing could be done. There was nothing to turn on, nothing to reveal, nothing to uncover.

The Falkenbachs really had no humanity concerning Death.

And when a Falkenbach killed for the first time, the other parts of his humanity were switched off, one after another, destroyed, wiped out from their being, if the eight-pointed seal wasn't engraved on the back of their left shoulder, not far from the heart. The more a child from this cursed family waited to be sealed, the more inhumane they became.

Obviously, to contain such a powerful curse, a powerful seal was needed.

A seal that didn't react very well to other spells. Interferences usually took their toll on the human body. A Falkenbach wasn't someone you could expose to magic carelessly. After all, you never knew if the seal would break or not, when confronted with too much magic. Just like no one knew how such an event, unheard of for now, might end up. Death, maybe. Or complete inhumanity.

Well, it wasn't like Klaus was concerned about what would become of the body he was hijacking. But, if possible, he'd prefer not to have a completely inhumane Falkenbach, even if a human being, on the loose. He had had his fair share of Falkenbach related inconveniences. Wasn't eager to try again. Was even less pleased by the perspective now that he knew his psycho friend was also after him. Really, he shouldn't have told Barnett to wake him up.

Klaud sighed and asked for another drink. There wasn't any alcohol left at the loft, and this much pain asked to be drown into whiskey as soon as possible. Next time, he'd make sure to order Katherine not to touch the bottles. One way or another, the annoying doppelganger had emptied the minibar while stabbing herself. He had to give her credit for that.

The Mystic Grill's bartenders were busy this night. Not very surprising, considering that teenagers were so numerous with the school party that no one cared, only for this night, whether they were past the legal drinking age or not.

Someone sat down on the bar stool next to him.

"Ric, you're bleeding."

Damn. Someone who knew the teacher, but didn't know he wasn't exactly him.

As if he didn't have enough to ruminate about.

Wait, what?

He was bleeding? How so? How could he have not noticed? Was it a side effect of the spell Maddox had used to keep this body from shattering? How the bloody hell hadn't he be able to feel the pain...?

The pain.

Of course.

The pain was just this much, that he couldn't feel anything else.

Klaus looked at the one who had talked to him.

The Original almost choked.

She gave him a concerned look and then patted him on the shoulder.

"You should really do something about that. There's blood on your shirt, you know."

Klaus glanced at Galswinthe sideways.

"I already changed clothes. I didn't think there would be... leftovers."

For a moment he considered being baffled by the fact that Galswinthe was alive. Really. He had thought for so long that she was dead it was completely freaking him out that she wasn't.

Kol.

It was all Kol's fault.

Kol must have thought it'd be fun to tell everyone she was dead.

But Klaus couldn't afford to look astonished. If Alaric Saltzman knew her, he couldn't act as if he didn't. If Alaric Saltzman knew her, the Original had to be careful. About what she told him. About what he was supposed to know.

"It's your scar that is bleeding, Alaric. You have this round, bloody print on your shirt, and it's growing bigger."

She was right. If he was attentive enough, he could feel the blood driping from the seal, right before being absorbed by the fabric of the grey shirt he was wearing.

Klaus could feel it over the pain that was eating him alive. Muscles, flexed to the point that he had this disturbing impression they would crush his bones in no time. Veins, swollen enough for him to feel the bloodflow crashing against the walls. Blood, running so quickly it almost blasted his arteries. Skin, outstretched, on the verge of breaking.

Or at least it felt like it. Being a Falkenbach sucked.

"The scar. Right. I'll ask someone to give it a look."

And he prepared to leave.

But a hand, strong, yet delicate, grasped his arm. Gal wasn't done talking.

Or maybe she knew.

"Galswinthe. Let go."

"So we do know each other. Anyway, it's one of my children you're using as a vessel. I don't care if you knew about it or not. But I've spent centuries looking after my kids. You'd better get the hell out of this body. Now."

Was she threatening him? She was. But she didn't know who he really was. If she had known, she wouldn't have. Or maybe she would have anyway. That was the thing with Gal. All about family. Always. Forever. Family was the only reason she was still here, alive – or undead, whatever – after what Kol had done to her. Looking after them. Her family. The daughter she and her husband had raised. Her children. Their children. Caring about even her hundred-of-times-diluted blood.

Klaus was kind of jealous. He and his siblings had taken an oath of always being here for each other, and there he was, alone. If Galswinthe could still love her family after seven centuries of generations, why couldn't they do the same, when they were brothers and sister?

"I thought you were dead, dear. Your husband thought so too. Kol said he had beheaded you to cause trouble. Apparently he didn't, but he certainly caused trouble by lying about it."

Gal stiffened.

Hans. This body thief knew about Hans. Who was it already, amongst the Originals, who had this disturbing habit of body-jumping into other people?

"Klaus."

The original vampire with the face, in fact, the body of her umpteenth-times-great-grand-son, smiled. A hateful, hateful smile. Hateful body thief.

"Klaus indeed. Now you would let me go? It would be a shame if I had to kill your descendant in order to escape."

Gal grew pale. Why the hell Klaus was in Alaric's body wasn't exactly her concern. For now, she was more worried about him slicing Alaric's throat with the knife he had placed against his neck.

She let go of him.

"Well, actually I'm not going to kill him just like that. After all, my presence in this body is possible only thanks to Maddox substituting most of his blood with mine. If he dies... We don't want another Falkenbach vampire, do we? The first one is already enough trouble on his own."

Klaus looked her in the eyes. He wasn't going to blackmail her with her kid's life. He could do way better – or worse, eitherway. Something that she woudn't be able to undo, no matter what.

Compulsion. He could do compulsion even in a human body. Shitty Originals really were shitty.

"You won't help the Salvatores or any other person to fight back. You'll stay in your motel room or wherever you're staying as long as the full moon isn't passed. Now repeat adter me."

Gal felt her lips parting to repeat. She didn't want to say it. But she had no choice.

"I won't help anyone to fight back."

As if she could do anything against Klaus. As if she could do anything about anything.

"I will stay in my motel room as long as the full moon isn't passed."

"One last thing before you go."

A mean smirk extended Klaus' lips as he watched her, listening to him without being able to say anything. Now he knew how to deal with his psycho friend once he'd arrive in Mystic Falls, searching for him and trying to make his life a living hell, as always.

"Your beloved is on his way to come here. You should try to reason him before he goes on a rampage in the city, shouldn't you? After all, Hans Falkenbach deserves to be freed from my brother's lie, and, don't you want to see your husband once again?"

Gal nodded. Before leaving, she told him what she thought of his methods.

"You better not do anything to his body. You know how much I care about my family, and this kid is this generation's dearest to my heart."

Maybe she wasn't as strong as an Original, but unlike him, she had friends. Friends who wouldn't let Klaus walk away if she died by his hand. Friends who could help her get her revenge if she needed to. Maybe they wouldn't ever be able to kill him. But they could make him suffer.

Witches. Vampires. Even werewolves, and a bunch of other creatures, quite odd, quite rare, quite unknown. Friends were what you made when you were not actually trying to kill every single person that crossed your path and didn't curtsey low enough. But that, Klaus couldn't understand it.

She left. On her way to her motel room, of course. And Alaric wasn't the one who'd go and worry about her. You know, the person you are calling is temporarily unavailable, and all...

Alaric Saltzman.

Klaus sighed. A pretty interesting man indeed.

Not that he was interested. The original vampire had no interest in anything that wasn't related to breaking his own bloody curse. But many other people would have thought the Falkenbach Curse to be interesting. Elijah had considered it interesting, long ago. A shame he had been daggered by this very body. Or maybe not. Elijah had been a bloody nuisance lately. To be dead for a while might help him to go back to being the good brother he had been once again.

Still.

As uninterested as he was, Klaus had to admit the Falkenbach had a curious family tree, curious family circumstances, and a curious family curse. No one knew where this curse came from, as a matter of fact. And, he had tamed without even being aware of it a dangerously uncaring vampire.

Things were strange enough as they were.

Klaus would better not try to figure out what the ghost feelings he had been dealing with all day long meant. He really, really, didn't want to feel the terrible anger that had appeared when he had killed the witch. And he certainly didn't want to think about the surprise and the warmth that had overwhelmed him when the older Salvatore had confessed his love for the history teacher.

Surprise, sure, but warmth too.