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Chapter Thirteen
You had the drink, you take a toke
Watch the past go up in smoke
You fake a smile, ya, lie and say
You're better now than ever and your life's okay
But it's not, no
First, you think the worst is a broken heart
What's gonna kill you is the second part
And the third, is when your world splits down the middle
And fourth, you're gonna think that you fixed yourself
Fifth, you see them out with someone else
And the sixth, is when you admit that you may have fucked up a little
-Six Degrees of Separation by The Script
Elijah Mikaelson was propped against his headboard nursing a glass of scotch. He was awake in the dead of the night, as sleep was playing the cruel game of dreams with him these days. He was knocking glass after glass to induce enough haze over his brain, so that he could shut his eyes for couple of hours without those dreams.
Loneliness was the favorite company of his these days. He had stopped going to the 'Vice'. He could not make himself touch other women. It looked like his brain had been rewired to just think about Elena these days.
Elena, Elena and only Elena.
Doing what he had done with Camille disgusted him when he thought about it now. He spent his days working over his varied business interests, and his nights were in arms of any liquor that could make him forget who he was.
This change had not been sudden. It wasn't as if he had been fucking Camille one night, and suddenly his heart had decided to ignore all the flavors of debauchery in favor of a single woman.
No, it had been her voice; Elena's voice.
He had returned from 'Vice' that day. He had reeked of sex, and the perfume Camille lavishly used on herself. He had been a bit drunk, and in his drunken state he had opened the TuneIn app and clicked on 'Diablo 99.9FM'.
She had been talking about friendship that day. She had been enumerating how a good friend changed your life. There had so much conviction and passion in her voice when she stated that friendship was the only relationship that was based on selfless motives between individuals. She had gone to dedicate a song to her friend 'Kol' who was the most amazing person she had ever known.
He had wanted to be that person; the person whom she loved with that passion and defended with that conviction. He wanted to be the most amazing human being she had ever known. He wanted that voice to mutter secrets in his ear in dead of night. He wanted those hands on his skin, those fingers leaving bruises on his body when he loved her.
He wanted her, no he needed her.
He had lain in his bed, wide awake as he had heard her voice, and drifted to sleep with a sad smile on his face.
Elijah Mikaelson didn't remember all that Damon had accused him of. He didn't remember taking hand of an innocent girl to drag her back to the room, where the man she had loved had been fucking another. He didn't remember tasting the lips of a naïve Elena only to mock her.
The liquor, the drugs and the orgies had maybe erased his guilty conscience. What more had he done to her? He shuddered when he thought about it, the depravities his younger self had indulged in. He had fashioned himself after a word his mother had repeatedly called him. He had made himself a monster; he had not been born one.
He had started to visit the charities he donated to, and in a way he felt like he was atoning. Maybe this life time won't be enough, but it was a start, wasn't it?
Elijah had not always been Elijah Mikaelson world saw him as. When he had been young, he had wanted to teach. He had recited all his grade school poetry for young Rebekah, and had helped Nicklaus with his sums. He had been delighted in making young Kol write his alphabets again and again, till his brother got them right.
He had loved his siblings, even distant unemotional Finn.
He could pinpoint the exact moment when he had started morphing in this man he had been from past several years.
It had all started when he had been sixteen.
It had been his mother's birthday, and she had been drinking. After putting his siblings to bed, he had gone in search of Esther, and had found her with the second bottle of gin nearly finished. She still had the bruises where his father had hit her in the evening.
He had guided her to her room in the farthest wing of the palace where she claimed she couldn't hear her rug rats making any noise. In reality she hid from his father, and from them. They were the reminders of her toxic years spent with Mikael.
'You are exactly like him, Elijah. Your father.' She had said. His skin had crawled on the mere mention of Prince Mikael. A quick answer had been ready on his lips about how he and his father were two very different people. But then she had said something he would always remember.
'You remind me so much of what I lost Elijah. I hate you so much. I hate you for reminding me the night when he first raped me; took my innocence and discarded me like I didn't matter.'
He had left her there, and had run back to his room to vomit. Esther had rewritten who he was with couple of sentences. He had tried, god was his witness he had tried so hard to be the man everyone had wanted him to be. He had been a stellar brother, a good son despite what Mikael and Esther were, and a good person, but the rot in his genes had started manifesting after his parents had made him marry Princess Sage of Monteria. He had done it because it had made his parents proud of him for the first time in his life. He had never known he would be killing his brother to make his mother and father happy.
He had never known that Finn had loved Sage; never known Mikael had bullied Finn to step aside. Elijah had never known Sage had married him against her will. He felt like devil himself when he thought about Finn and Sage, felt like a rapist when he thought about his wedding night. He had taken what should have belonged to Finn.
He would never know how his brother had lived under the same roof as him and Sage knowing that he could never have her, knowing that the woman he loved belonged to his brother.
Finn had committed suicide when Sage had been seven months into her pregnancy. Elijah had killed his brother. He was the reason Finn had taken his own life. The news of Finn's death had shocked Sage and she had gone in early labor. He had been her husband; he should have known the sadness that lurked behind her smiles, the tears that she hid expertly behind the discreet dab of tissues, the sobs that she muffled in her pillow. His son had been born premature, and even a legion of world renowned experts couldn't save him. Sage had followed his son after two weeks. She had lost her will to live. It was as if Finn had taken her soul with him.
He had buried his wife and child after two weeks of his brother's death. And then he had immersed himself in making money, and exploiting every facet of his monstrosity.
Now he realized he shouldn't have.
The vibration of his phone jarred him out of his morose thoughts, and he realized his face was wet with tears. He hadn't visited the graves of his brother, his son and his wife in seven years, he had never felt worthy to disturb the sanctity of their resting place, but it was time he sought forgiveness for everything he had done.
The number flashing on the screen was the one he was familiar with. It was the number of Kol's palace in Holstein. Why was his baby brother calling him out of blue?
But it wasn't Kol who was on the other end of the line. It was his wife; the woman who had recently lost Elijah's baby.
'Elijah?' her voice was quivering and timid. Guilt assailed him again. He had not only made a mess out of his life, but had destroyed lives of many people he didn't even remember. Bonnie Bennett was someone he remembered.
'What is it?' his voice was tiered.
'He knows.' And his world crashed on him again.
Kol knew what Elijah had done. There went another nail in his coffin. He imagined Kol coming to confront him. What could he say to his brother that would ever make up for what he had done? In the hindsight Elijah realized that he had done the same thing to Kol, as he had done to Finn.
Maybe Damon was right. Maybe he was jealous of everyone's happiness, and maybe that was the reason he sabotaged every one's elation. What could he tell Bonnie? Did he say sorry for goading her to kill their child? What was he going to do? Console her because her husband knew his brother had sex with her?
'Bonnie I-' he stopped. Even now he couldn't utter the simplest word of apology.
'He is gone, Elijah. He found someone else.' She was crying.
What? This was unlike his brother. The Kol he had known would have come to confront him directly. He would have knocked Elijah's teeth in his lungs. This was unlike the brother he had known.
'When did he come to know about the baby's parentage, Bonnie?' Elijah had to be the rational one in this situation.
'He has known since I lost the baby. I thought I would die; I hoped I would die. I wrote him a letter. I told him everything. He deserved the truth.' She whispered.
Was she crazy? Elijah doubted her mental status right now. Why the fuck had she decided to come clean all of sudden?
'And he didn't divorce you? I am surprised Kol overlooked betrayal of this magnitude on your part.' It wasn't only her betrayal, it had been his too.
'He isn't you Elijah. He is thousand times the man you could ever be. He saved me; ran all the way to the hospital with me bleeding in his arms. He cared for me while I was recovering. He brought me back to our home after I was discharged from the hospital. He knew about my betrayal all along.'
His brother had known for all this time? His brother had known about his sordid act while he had written that curt letter about the death of the baby?
'Then what do you want from me, Bonnie?' he asked.
'He left me to go to America. He said he needed sometime, but he has found someone else in U.S.' he heard her desperation. Bonnie might have betrayed Kol with him once, but she did not want to see Kol slipping through her clutches.
'You want me to drag him back to Holstein, away from the woman he has found solace with?'
'You don't understand, do you Elijah? I don't want him back because his money fuels my lifestyle.' She paused, 'I want him back because I love him. It may be difficult for you to believe, but I do love him. And that's why I am begging you. Please, don't let him stay with that woman. If it had been someone who genuinely liked him, I would have let him go, but that woman only wants him so that she could wash the stain of being a paid whore in all the aristocratic circles of Europe.'
'Don't talk in riddles, Bonnie.'
'He is with Elena Gilbert in Mystic Falls, Virginia. She will use him, and betray him in far worse fashion than I ever did. Please! Elijah.' He could hear her and yet it seemed as if he was far away from his own body. Kol was with Elena, his Elena.
'I will leave for Mystic Falls tomorrow.' And he hanged up without listening her reply. He did not want Bonnie Bennett's gratitude. He had his own selfish reasons for going to Mystic Falls. He didn't want Elena anywhere near Kol. He had an inkling why she was with his brother. If she wanted to exact vengeance for whatever he had done to her, it was fine by him. But he was the one who had wronged her, so he had to be the one who paid, not his brother Kol.
Life had brought him in a full circle where he found himself standing at the same place from where he had started.
Damon Salvatore paced the confines of his office, waiting for his head of security, Enzo. Damon had entrusted Enzo to find Elena. Night had descended over the skies of Luxembourg, and he could see his twinkling city from his window. He could feel the restlessness in his bones. Enzo had called him twenty minutes ago to inform him that he had found whereabouts of Elena Gilbert, and was on his way to the palace.
Seven years; his wait of seven years was going to be rewarded today. The knock on the door signaled Enzo's arrival.
'Mystic Falls, Virginia.' This was all that Damon Salvatore needed to hear.
He was going to see his Elena very soon…..
Elijah is on a misguided mission to save his brother while Damon thinks that a sincere apology will be enough to have Elena in his life again. What do you think? Review below and let me know what you thought about this chapter. Till then stay tuned for the next chapter of 'The Ugly Truth'.