The Originals
ALWAYS AND FOREVER
I do not own The Originals. It belongs to its respective owners.
CHAPTER 1
A cherry red convertible car pulled into the circular driveway of a large, three story mansion on a plot of open land. The residence was right outside New Orleans, the "Big Easy".
"Elijah, if not answering your phone is part of your clever plan to get me back to this godforsaken city, then well done. I'm here, and I'm worried." Rebekah was saying into her phone, leaving a message to her brother. "Now pick up before I kick in your bloody door."
She walked up the front steps and opened the double doors into her family's home.
In front of her, coming down the stairs with an iron fire poker in her hand, was a young woman. "Who the hell are you?"
"Ah, you must be the maid. My bags are in the car—get them would you?"
The woman smiled wryly and put down her improvised weapon. "Hello. Not the maid."
Realization flashed across Rebekah's features and she nodded. "Right. You're that werewolf girl my brother knocked up. I was expecting to see some kind of supernatural, miracle baby bump. Guess you're not showing yet. It's Hayley, isn't it?"
The girl, Hayley, nodded. "You have your brother's manners."
"And his temper too so watch it. Where's Elijah?"
Hayley shrugged. "Beats me. He's long gone."
"What do you mean, 'long gone'?"
"Well, one minute he was here making epic promises about protecting me—he was all poetic about how we're family—and then Klaus told me he bailed. Guess that's what I get for trusting a vampire."
Rebekah shook her head. "No. Elijah is not just any vampire, and he doesn't break promises. Which means Niklaus has done something dastardly and Klaus-like. Klaus!"
Hayley held up her hands. "Hey, he's not here. You can stop shouting."
"Where is the narcissistic, backstabbing wanker?!"
"I don't know he only said he was going into town. He may be back soon."
The Original paused and thought for a moment before speaking again. "Okay, wolf girl, there's only one other person I trust to help me and we're going to go see him."
"Okay then where is he?"
"Here." Rebekah said simply, walking to the basement door and heading down the stairway with Hayley following.
"The governor who owned this place a century ago had lots of secret rooms. I'll show you his favorite."
They arrived at a dusty, cobwebbed cellar. Rebekah flipped a switch and the lights in the room turned on, revealing a set of six, dusty coffins.
Hayley looked at them all and said slowly, "you think Klaus killed him?"
"We can't be killed, silly girl." Rebekah said seriously. "But that doesn't stop Klaus from finding ways to torture us. He has a set of mystical silver daggers. One in the heart sends us into a deep slumber. Klaus gets his jollies from keeping us in a box, until he decides to pull the dagger out. That must be what he's done to Elijah. This one's mine." She said, indicating the coffin next to them.
"He keeps your coffin on standby…" Hayley says incredulously.
Rebekah only nodded as she walked along the center of the room, examining each box. "He likes to be prepared for when his family members inevitably disappoint him. Elijah's isn't here – he must've stashed him elsewhere."
"I thought you said someone in here would help find him." Hayley was saying as Rebekah stopped at the coffin to the far right and smiled.
"He's right here." Rebekah said, opening one of the coffins. "My brother, Christophe."
Hayley walked closer to have a look and saw the pale, withered, desiccated body of a young man. The dagger was in his heart as it's been for many years. "Klaus did this to his own brother?" She said stepping back and leaning on the wall. "Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick."
Rebekah took hold of the dagger and pulled it out. "Christophe and Elijah are the only ones who could ever rein in Niklaus. Since Elijah is gone, Chris will help me."
"What will Klaus say when he finds out you freed him?"
"Oh he'll probably be pissed. Maybe even try to dagger me again."
Hayley shuddered. That's so sick.
"He'll need to feed when he wakes up. Do we have a maid?" Rebekah asked as she walked to the stairway.
"Uh, yeah she's upstairs I think." Hayley answered, moving to follow Rebekah but the Original held up her hand.
"Stay here and watch him. I'll be back."
Before Hayley could protest Rebekah was gone.
She sighed and turned to the open coffin. "Guess I'm stuck with you."
The room stayed silent for a while longer while Hayley waited and occasionally talked to the corpse before her.
"So, are you more like Klaus or Elijah? Hopefully Elijah. Klaus is an ass so I don't think we'd get along very well if you were more like him."
"For all I know I'm pissing you off talking about your brother. But then again he did dagger you so…"
Hayley sighed and slumped against the wall again. "You're not very talkative."
Right as she said that a gasp could be heard from the corpse as Christophe's eyes flew open and he took deep breaths.
Hayley stepped closer. "Hey, are you okay?"
Christophe took a few more breaths and coughed. His eyes turned blood-red and dark veins pulsed under his eyes. With an angry hiss he moved out of the coffin, grabbed Hayley and slammed her against the wall.
It all happened so very fast that it took a moment for Hayley to register what just happened.
Before Christophe could sink his teeth into her flesh, he was suddenly pulled away from her and thrown across the room and into the wall.
He groaned and got to his feet slowly. "What the hell, Rebekah?" Clearly he was weak from the lack of blood consumption.
"You can't eat her." Rebekah said, crossing her arms.
"Ugh, well what can I eat?"
"The maid is at the top of the stairs. I told her to wait and let you—"
He sped up the stairs before she could even finish her sentence.
~ A&F ~
"What year is it…?" Christophe asked. He was sitting on the couch in the living room of the mansion next to his sister.
"2013."
Christophe growled under his breath. "The bastard left me daggered for over 70 fucking years!"
"What kind of brother does that?" Hayley said, more to herself than them. She was sitting across from them on the second couch.
Christophe eyed her curiously. "And who may this be?"
"I'm Hayley." She said with a small smile.
"Our brother knocked her up." Rebekah said with a roll of her eyes.
"I know you can't mean Elijah so that leaves Niklaus." He looked back at Hayley. "Why the hell would you let him, of all people, put a child in you?"
Hayley sighed. "A bottle of scotch and bad decisions got me into this mess."
"Welcome to the family then, love. You really should've bailed the second you realized Elijah was gone." Rebekah said with little sympathy.
"Wait, where is Elijah? And I'm pretty sure Klaus doesn't know you freed me so that means you did it behind his back… Which is kind of dangerous."
"Elijah is missing and Klaus has something to do with it. Once we find him we can get out of here before our dear brother decides to stuff us in the box again."
Christophe looked at Hayley again. "Why didn't you just run? Getting involved in this family in any way is practically a death sentence."
"Yeah, well, the witches have put some sort of hex on me. As long as I'm carrying this baby, I can't leave New Orleans. If I do, they kill me."
"My advice would be to find some way to break that hex and run far, far away." Christophe said as the front door can be heard opening.
Christophe grabbed the dagger that used to be in his heart and left the room with super speed.
Within seconds he had Klaus against the walls.
"Christophe…" Klaus said, clearly very surprised to his younger brother. Before he could speak, he groaned in slight pain as the dagger was plunged into his chest, missing his heart.
"Hello, brother dear." Christophe said and tossed Klaus across the room and into another wall.
Groaning with annoyance, Klaus got to his feet and yanked the dagger out of his chest. "You knew that wouldn't kill me."
"I was hoping it would hurt more."
Klaus turned to see Hayley and Rebekah coming into the room. "Ah, little sister, I should have known you'd be here before me. I assume the six dead vampires are your handiwork?"
Rebekah huffed. "Yes, they were being rude. So sorry, were they your friends? Oh, that's right, you don't have any friends."
Klaus smiled. "I do have friends. I have Marcel. You remember him, don't you Christophe? Yes, of course you do. He fancies himself the 'King of the Quarter' now, and he has these rules about killing vampires. It'll be fun to see what sort of punishment he comes up with for you."
"I don't care about Marcel or his rules. Elijah doesn't welch on deals, what did you do to him?"
"Perhaps he's on holiday... or taking a long autumn nap upstairs." Klaus said with a shrug. His phone suddenly starts buzzing. He checks it and moves to the door to leave.
"Where are you going?" Christophe asked.
"It would appear the night is not quite over, yet. I'm off for another drink with Marcel."
"Another drink? My understanding is that you want to snatch Marcel's so called empire for yourself. That involves drinking it up through New Orleans?"
Klaus stopped at the door. "I know you don't have many friends, Christophe, but what some friends do when they get together is they drink. And when they drink, they tell secrets. Marcel has somehow found a way to control the entirety of witches in the Quarter, and I aim to uncover the 'how' so I might take it for myself." He turned and opened the door to leave. "Finding Elijah didn't make my to-do list today. Oh, and welcome home, little brother and sister."
Once he was gone, Rebekah turned to her brother. "He took you being here better than I thought he would. Now, Elijah told me about a witch named Sophie Deveraux. She's our best lead to find him."
"Well, you go find this Sophie girl and make her help us. I, on the other hand, have some shopping to do." Christophe said.
"Shopping? What in bloody hell is more important than finding Elijah?"
"Oh, finding Elijah is very important. But finding new clothes is too. I mean, look at what I'm wearing." He gestured to his clothes. "I got to stay with the times."
Rebekah walked to the door. "Same old, same old with you. I knew I was cursed with idiot brothers."
"Aww, I love you too, little sister." Christophe said as the door closed shut. "We're going shopping, little wolf." He said to Hayley, who was sitting on the bottom stair.
"If I leave this house Klaus will kill me." Hayley said as if he was crazy to even suggest it.
Christophe just smiled. "If you haven't noticed, I don't care about what Klaus says. I've been asleep for 70 plus years so the city has changed. You know where everything is these days."
"I won't let anything happen to the woman carrying my niece or nephew." He said, noticing that she still looked unsure.
Sighing, Hayley stood. "Fine. Let's go."
The Originals
~ ALWAYS AND FOREVER ~