It was the middle of the night, the night before Klaus was supposed to meet Marcel and set his plan in motion, he heard an ear piercing scream coming from Hayley's room. Racing to her room, passing Rebekah on the way, Klaus pushed open the door and. . .

There was nothing there.

Hayley was thrashing around in her bed.

"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Rebekah hissed.

Klaus went over to her bed and took her upper arms in his hands and gently shook her awake. "Sweetheart, wake up."

Hayley jolted awake, breathing heavy.

"Wha-?" Hayley muttered, looking into the faces of Klaus and Rebekah, feeling the embarrassment rising in her cheeks.

"Bad dream?" Klaus asked as Rebekah rolled her eyes and stalked off, back to her room.

Hayley stared at the duvet for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Bad dream."

Klaus went to stand, when Hayley grabbed his arm. "Can you-" She swallowed thickly, her gaze lifting to look at his. "Can you stay?"

Klaus comtemplated this for a moment. She was asking him to stay? Why? Instead of arguing, Klaus sat on her bed, his back leaning against the headboard as Hayley settled down and rested her head against his chest. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and when she didn't protest, his fingers began to rub light circles on her arm.

You can blame it all on fate and the universe, but in the end you alone decide if you're going to lie down and let hell take you under, or if you're going to stand strong in defiance of it all with your middle finger raised. If you muster that courage to stand under fire and not go down, you will amass an inner strength that no one can touch. You won't be another faceless, nameless, forgotten human in a long historical line of the defeated. You will be a steeled warrior, and a force to be forever reckoned with. And beneath the pain that lingers, you will have the comfort of knowing that you are strongest of all. That when others caved and broke, you kept fighting even against hopeless odds.

We don't have a choice in how or when our bad days will blindside us. But what we do choose is how we allow them to leave us once they're gone. You can use those moments as a catalyst to spur you on to greater things or you can let it be the event that breaks you and leaves you shattered and forever lost in darkness. But there was only so much worrying you could do before you just had to accept what life throws at you and move on, because some things were going to be out of your control, and others can't be fixed or changed. And for everything he'd lost over the last couple of months, he still had a lot. More than he expected, actually.

"Can I ask you something?" Hayley whispered, lifting her chin to look at him.

"Sure." Klaus nodded.

"Can you do that on my forehead?" She nodded toward where his hand was, still tracing soft circles on her arm.

Although she was ashamed to admit it now, the darkness in him had been the largest part of his allure. It was such an anomaly, a contrast to what she'd known from life. It had made him dangerous. Exciting. Sexy. But that was a fantasy. This was real. He suffered. And there was nothing sexy or thrilling about that. You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.

Klaus raised an eyebrow. Whatever nightmare got her shook up, it must've been one hell of one, he thought, but nonetheless, he waited until Hayley got settled, laying her head down on his lap and then continued tracing light circles on her forehead. It only took fifteen minutes before he could hear her steady heartbeat, telling him that she had finally dozed off. Who could of thought he'd be the one that could keep her nightmares away? He sure as hell didn't.

He stayed there, the whole night. It left Klaus alone with his thoughts.

Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it's not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way. But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can't be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders. It means we can't be controlled. And it means that no matter what they do, we will always cause trouble for them. Klaus had been the biggest troublemaker since Lucifer. He had gone against everything any vampire stood for, everything they believed. They try to make you think they care about what you do but they don't. They don't want you to act a certain way. So you're easy to understand. So you won't pose a threat to them. Hayley was a mere human in her own right, that was more worried about who she'd be marrying rather than vampires and werewolves.

It's dangerous to need someone that much. She's trying to save him and he's hoping she can. They were a disaster. The past doesn't change no matter how much time you spend thinking about it. Good and bad all add up to the whole. Take away one piece, no matter how small, and the whole changes. Whether it's optimism, pessimism or fatalism, it was never going to change. You could lose the ones you loved in the blink of an eye—and he was willing to bet, when it happened, you weren't thinking about all the reasons that could have kept you apart. You thought of all the reasons that kept you together. And, no doubt, how you wished you'd had more time. Even if you'd had centuries…

When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-n-switch—when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had. No one got forever. And it was a fucking crime to waste what you were given. He was truly handicapped when it came to emotions, and falling in love hadn't changed that. He wasn't suffering from his insanity. In fact, he enjoyed every minute of it. It's what made him the warrior he is. He hates all humans for their cruelty. They are all animals fit for nothing but slaughter, and he enjoys wholeheartedly playing the butcher.

Hatred is a bitter, damaging emotion. It winds itself through the blood, infecting its host and driving it forward without any reason. Its view is jaundiced and it skews even the clearest of eye sights. Sacrifice is noble and tender. It's the action of a host who values others above himself. Sacrifice is bought through love and decency. It is truly heroic. Vengeance is an act of violence. It allows those who have been wronged to take back some of what was lost to them. Unlike sacrifice, it gives back to the one who practices it. Love is deceitful and sublime. In its truest form, it brings out the best in all beings. In the back of his mind he can barely even remember when there was nothing left to hide and then, Hayley walked into his life and she had found a way inside. A way inside to tame the monster that resided inside his head. Nothing left but a broken man, terrified of everything. Nothing left of his foolish pride, his fond memories slowly dying. A prisoner in his own mind, ready to allow the dark to penetrate his broken heart, still afraid of the light. And now, a thousands voices shared their laughter at his demise. He still couldn't figured out how this could possibly be his future, this child, it was just too much for him when he allowed himself the time to think about it.

He hadn't realized the sun was rising until it peeked through the curtains.

Another day.

Take down Marcel.

Take over his kingdom.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about the lack of an update, been a little uninspired but I figured since The Originals is on tonight, it might gimme some inspiration and I might be able to get another chapter done. Hope you enjoy!