It's devastatingly heart breaking. Heart- wrenchingly destructible.
The moment you realise, that after everything,
the one thing you needed
is gone.
.
.
.
He is a man of corruptible power; he savours the taste of death on his tongue, takes grotesque pleasure in the succession of his achievements. He is a man (monster) drunk with the pleasure of those who fall victim to his schemes.
It is in their achingly slow course of fear, before death steals them away, that he believes he will never reduce himself to a man of that stature. Refuses to surrender himself to such vulnerability (read: not again, not after what Mikeal imparted unto him).
He will never be weak. (Not again)
But now, with his brothers body splayed across the tattered floorboards of his enemies home – just out of reach, he becomes the man his father left him to become, so many moons ago. He lets the inferno climb and fall, along with his corpse of his sibling.
Broken. He is completely and utterly broken.
This sort of punishment surpasses all levels of his sadism.
To be locked away. Confined in the space of four measly walls, with the body of your brother right there over the line of separation. This is what the imprisoned chambers of hell would be like.
"Brother." It's a broken plea; shattering at its exit. A crescendo, until all there is to fill the room, is silence.
There is a fire – viciously murderous, it consumes the ancient being. Its lengths of flame licking and lapping at the luxury of such knowledge that built this reprobated boy.
"I'm sorry, Kol."
Klaus reaches for him, but the magnitude of witchcraft that imprisons him, denies this simple act. "Kol – Brother, I.."
"Come on Nick, come out with me. I mean, it's the least you can do after sticking a dagger in my heart."
Deep dark eyes, like the colour of Elijah 's – resembling deep earth, plead with a touch of dismay.
Had it not been for the comfort, the trust lingering in the abyss of his kid-brothers eyes, Klaus would not have agreed. "Alright fine." And so the night became theirs, with the moon hanging high they howled into the darkness, like wolves belonging to no one but each other.
He digs the palms of his hands into his eyes, tries to blink away the wretched tongues of fire that devoured the now-youth-less vampire. Tries to erase the moments that, contrary to what all else claim, proved their allegiance was to family.
Its wishful thinking, to blink away the tears and hoping beyond reason, the memory is nothing more than a nightmare twisting and tearing itself into the fore-front of your mind.
The hybrid begins to drive his curled hands into his head, fisting lithe fingers into his golden locks and tears away.
(Finding there is no relief.)
"I'm so sorry Kol."
"Did you know that your darling former blood bag and her brother are trying to kill me? Don't pretend like you are not in on it! Your obsession to find the cure clearly trumps any sibling loyalty you once felt!"
Klaus sits by the barricade, lies by his brother's side. It makes his skin tingle, makes his beat-less heart cry in pain when something heavy and immobile presses into his chest.
I was coming for you
he wants to say.
I would not have let this happen, had I known. Kol, I swear it. My loyalty lies with you. Elijah, Bekah. He barely breathes the words.
My entire existence I eliminated all threats. Everything, I destroyed everything that I believed would harm you – any of you! I wanted you all to be safe. I wanted us to be a family again. Once the words ascend into the air, he realizes how much he has failed.
I wanted a family, they just didn't want me
And that is his greatest curse.
"Klaus?"
He knows the voice. A melodious tune of simplicity.
A voice belonging to a child no less.
"Caroline." he heaves his weary body off the floor and nods.
"What-" her words catch when her eyes find the cadaverous body of the youngest original.
"Oh my God," she sighs. The pragmatic work of her friends has her second guessing them entirely.
When she casts her gaze back up to the contained beast, her heart quickens (mentally speaking). Because she knows that look, the waves of anguish that pull you under when someone you held dear has been torn away. Leaving you empty, devoid of emotion.
"So you're trapped in there?" she asks carefully. Edging closer, testing the limits to its strength.
"In this room? Yes. For the next few days at least." He doesn't need to say it, that he'll be trapped for an eternity in the this God-forsaken memory; she can hear it, like she does the slow tapping of rain outside on the veranda. It's not soothing, but it helps Klaus keep a blank mind. If at least for a moment.
"Where's Tyler?" he murmurs, "I would have thought, that due to this predicament I am currently in, he would have sought out a chance for revenge. Perfect opportunity I would say." He shrugs nonchalantly.
She can smell the desperation on him, the desire for death diluting his blood till all he wants, is all of this to be over.
She's not inane, she is Caroline Forbes – the girl with the light Klaus may require.
"He's home." She says, having left him in her bed. "I didn't tell him about… this" she waves a hand to the lounge he lurks in. Not so much a hungry predator, but an injured bird – waiting for its wing to mend.
His eyebrows raise, and for a wild second she thinks the Klaus she knows is coming through. But then he gives a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes and there's not the usual malevolent touch to his voice, and the illusion is shattered.
"So you thought to venture out into the lair of the big bad wolf?"
"I just came to tell you… that, Carol didn't deserve what you did to her."
His eyes drop, shameful. Hopeful when he says, "it was nothing personal. I wasn't after her."
"Yeah, I know. You were after Tyler. Which doesn't make it any better."
"He conspired against me. Planned to bury me in concrete. I was only defending myself."
"Like Elena and Jeremy?" –
In an instant, his face transforms and he lunges forward, a growl rippling through him. Grating his teeth when the spell propels him backward, "It was not the same thing!" –
She jumps back, cursing her irrationality. Muscles coiled in sudden fear.
He bares his teeth for a few more seconds, all senses heightened when he notices the look of compassion shading the deep blue of her emerald eyes.
"His death was planned! Other avenues were optional; I was going to make him suffer under my terms! And now he's gone." Klaus takes a tremulous step back when it unfolds like the telling of a twisted fairytale. Where in the deceitful 'safety' of the pages, all characters die without their happy ending.
All the anger, all the torment steals the air from around him and makes him choke. He has brought to life the words he was so afraid of hearing. They spiral in the space between them, they are truth.
He swallows down his rage when a silent diamond-shaped-tear falls over the edge of Caroline's lashes.
Miss mystic falls, crying for the homicidal beast.
But it's true, after the snap has subdued into a numbing state of horror, when all is said and done… Kol is gone and he is nevercoming back.
And never for a vampire, is a very long time.
"I should go." Caroline shifts on her feet. Tries to retrieve the tears collecting on her bottom lid. "Do you, do you need anything?"
When he doesn't speak and the silence stretches on until it is stale and thick, fogging her judgment, she turns on her heels and begins toward the door.
"Caroline,"
"Yes?" She releases the door-knob, unable to ignore the anguished voice.
"I have a request." His breathing is shallow, his presence emaciated entirely.
"Perhaps you – could you… will you see to it, that he is buried."
She gives a wry smile and nods. Stepping forward to grip the fragile body and –
"No wait, wait, wait." The words tumble out, like the uncontrolled wailing of a child. "Wait." He says more firmly. Almost breaching his prison cell.
"Don't take him – just… leave him. I'll attend to it when I can."
The golden girl nods slowly before kneeling back down to move the body, delicately, until Kol's head rests across the soft cushioning of a pillow. "Okay." She whispers.
His heart, one he never assumed had the ability to sustain such torment, withers when she brings a blanket from the hallway cupboard, her eyes holding his the entire time; she gently flicks it over the desiccated remains of Klaus' brother, until it flutters silently over the boy completely. Shielding him away from the rest of the world. Something Nik could never do.
Her fingers graze the fabric for some measure of sincerity, though she isn't too sure for whom, exactly.
She spares one last glance over to the man who drew her in an adorned light.
Though, in this agonizing moment, with the air thick and the slow tide of time lulling into nowhere and nothing, she thinks it's her turn to see him in a new shade of grey.
Once she finds it, she wishes it forgotten. A vile creature like him, (no, just a man, she thinks sullenly) cannot possibly be this defenceless.
"I'm sorry." She whispers.
There it is, the moment he finally understands what has happened. What man he has become at the expense of his youngest (once) living brother.
It rips him apart at the seams. Dissembles him completely, until all that remains is a mass of indignant pieces to his solitude that is strewn across the floor and with one useless breath, they are blown away.
"Elijah?"
Klaus looks up to see the baby vampire frozen at the threshold of the Gilbert residence.
"Miss Forbes," he says politely. Stepping in, running a hand through his wet-dishevelled hair. So very domestic when he hangs his trench coat after closing the doors with a resounding clink.
"Hello brother," the eldest Mikaelson boy speaks over the top of her head.
She cannot see it right now, but Elijah is a ticking time bomb. Klaus worries now, for hersafety.
"Seems you have gotten yourself into a fairly inconvenient position," he gestures to the humming radiance that blocks the Hybrid from enjoying a certain hunt.
"Miss Forbes, may I ask-"
His words trail into silence and the once immaculate gleam in his rich earthy eyes becomes fragmented, disappearing into oblivion, until all she knows is fear.
She follows his gaze, like the fervent flickering at her heart; she asks to be excused upon noticing who he looks at. Kols' ashen body, empty of all blood. His life, his very soul having fled.
"I should probably go." She says, twisting to leave. But a strong sturdy hand catches the bend of her arm.
"Not just yet, Miss" Elijah says. The very firmness of his tone, the severity of his stare makes her hairs stand on end when goose-bumps erupt over her cinnamon flesh.
"Elijah," Klaus tone holds warning. The refined man only smiles, a smile she thinks, is fit for a devil.
She has never truly feared him before; there was always the assurance of suggestibility with Elijah Mikealson. Of all the forefathers she has had the (reluctant) pleasure of meeting; he seemed far more capable of reigning himself in. Taking a moment to appraise those he faces, a scrupulous method of ensuring the completion of a task.
Tonight, with the moon full, she wonders if there is any wolf in him that has triggered the fiery rage that dances in his touch.
"I only wish to ask her a few questions, Niklaus. Surely that isn't overstepping my mark."
He looks to her in question, raising suggestive eyes at Klaus when she only blinks at their cajoling.
The muscles in Klaus' jaw twitch, his eyes focused on no one but his eldest and most admired role-figure.
"Miss Forbes," Elijah begins, eyes only finding hers after gripping the other arm. Bending at the knee to level himself with the defiant young woman.
"I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Be warned, if for a moment I believe my compulsion is not effective, I will go to the drastic measure of slitting your wrist to taste your blood. And if I do find traces of it, I will bleed you dry."
What? She looks to Klaus who only watches from the sidelines with timorous breaths.
She tosses her hair over her shoulder, and raises her chin, "fine."
"Well, there you have a woman of worth." She ignores the serrated insult and asks, "What do you want to know?"
"Have you recently ingested vervain?"
"No."
"Is my sister with the rest of your perpetually disparaging group?" She has never heard him speak this way before. Surprised at how deep these cuts have gone.
"Yes."
"Who is responsible," he tilts his head now, eyes boring into hers, "for the death of my brother?"
She freezes in the solid grip of his embrace. Tries to step away, out of the circle of his control.
"Ah, Ah, Ah" he tsks, hauling her against him. He catches Klaus' quick and restricted movement. "Elijah."
"Caroline," Elijah murmurs, eyes still trained on his brother before looking down onto the weak creature enfolded in his steely arms. "Who is responsible, for the death of ourbrother?"
"Elijah they-" His fingers grip her chin and force her eyes on him. "Caroline." he snarls.
Thus far, he has yet to compel her, she's sure. But now, she can feel her restraint dwindling. An unnerving essence slithering its way through her veins. Making her limp. Making her empty.
"Tell me, what happened."
"Elena and Jeremy called Bonnie. All three of them tried devising a plan where Kol would be killed and Rebekah would be daggered. They invited him in, distracted him while they searched for the weapons. Once everything fell into place, just as Kol was about to cut off Jeremy's arm, Elena attacked and they both put him down."
Elijah clamps his teeth at the mention of Elena Gilbert. Seems you proved me wrong, Elena. Not only do you share their faces. But their malicious manipulation.
"Was anyone else involved with this plan?"
"The only others to have known were Matt and Stefan."
Elijah looks up into his brothers almost feral ones. Many would die, and soon.
"One last question, my lady." He steps closer, "were you involved, in any way, whatsoever?"
Klaus stands straighter, waits for her response. Visibly relaxes when her monotone answer is "No."
"Thank you Miss Forbes. You are going to forget everything about tonight. Return home to the bed your lover is sleeping in and dream the night away." Elijah doesn't care for any progress she and his brother may have accomplished. He has a thirst for something far more dangerous. Tantalizingly alluring.
"Was that necessary?" Klaus quips.
Elijah plucks his coat from the rack and eases himself into it. "Where are you going?"
"We have people to discuss certain matters with" Elijah replies.
"Discuss?!" Klaus spits. "When this boundary spell is lifted I am going to kill every single one of them without even blinking."
"Why not start tonight?" Elijah says smoothly.
"I don't exactly have a key that unlocks this solitary confinement I am bound with, Elijah."
Elijah gives a hateful smile at the thought of the witch responsible. Except, slowly, it transitions into an almost gleeful one. Fisting his hands into his pockets he easily steps into his brother's prison.
"Elijah?"
Just as smoothly as he entered, he steps over the threshold once more, raising an arm for his sibling to do the same.
"I had one of your own witches lift the spell." He explains cogently.
"And if you wouldn't mind saving the embellishment until a more suitable time," He turns to see his brothers bemused expression, "we have work to do."
Klaus barely articulates a response, instead he runs forward with one destination in mind.
Elijah catches Klaus' chest in one of his hands before he reaches the hall. Klaus notes his lack of speed (he will need some blood to rejuvenate – to help ready him for the slaughter).
Elijah's strength rebukes his brother's attempts of capturing those people his sister converses with. (As if she is one of them, as if they are to be trusted).
Their lies – brought to others in forms of sweet, endearing smiles and innocent eyes – have gone on far too long.
After all, where is the honour in that?
"Elijah," Klaus barely sounds human, more like a wolf Elijah supposes bitterly.
"Niklaus, we-"
"Please reserve your speeches regarding self-morals and dignified necessities to attain a level of honour for another day? These people you so willingly talk to, consult and bargain with are clearly far-less honest than I."
Elijah's grin is full of mirth, "I was merely going to ask, Niklaus, whose heart we tear out first?"
The Hybrid pauses, properly stunned by 'Elijah the good', 'Elijah the nobles', query.
"Our negotiations with Miss Gilbert have run their course and soured. If she refuses to meet her end of the bargain, I see no shame in re-evaluating our own terms and conditions." He continues.
"And what of your word to the precious doppelganger?" Klaus solicits.
Elijah is profane in his response, "No longer contingent for my course of action."
Klaus steps away and walks over to the body he has been meaning to bury, "And of your honour." He catches his (alive) brothers' eyes when he wraps his arms around Kol's body, pulling him off the floor. Pressing the child to him. Like he had Henriks lifeless corpse.
The thought runs rampant through his mind and the older man notices with concern.
They share the vivid memory- cruel and interminable. He walks over and assists in the carrying of their younger brother. Understanding, in that moment, what he must do.
And with some finality, Elijah says, "I believe that, sometimes there is honour in revenge."
ok, so this is pretty much me waiting for the return of Elijah. I truely hope he comes back with a vengeance! I think i am going to just leave this as a one-shot.
Drop a review if you have the time, always enjoy reading any and all critiques/enjoyments/likes/dislikes :)