A.N. - Thanks so much for the support! 102 favs, 143 follows and 99 so far! Wow :) Keep it up! Please review and enjoy. Leave any suggestions or questions in a review.
Song: Earlyrise - Moments
As if on cue, Claudia emerged from the shadows behind Ester. She moved slowly and confidently, like a snake slinking through the grass toward its prey. Unlike Ester, her face was expressionless. She eyed her children with lifeless eyes as she allowed Ester to continue.
"We'd like to thank you all for inviting us into your charming home."
"Well the pleasure is all ours." Klaus' voice dripped with sarcasm. "Then again, you did invite yourselves."
Ester smirked. She and Claudia took their seats - Ester at the head and Claudia by Sabrina. "Well we thought this would be the most pleasant way to sit down and discuss what we need to."
"And what would that be?" Elijah asked, taking a small sip of his wine.
Belle was itching for a drink - a real drink.
"We both want the same thing: to reunite our families. To right the wrongs in our pasts." Claudia spoke for the first time that evening. Her eyes wandered aimlessly as thought she were bored, or anxious.
Belle scoffed. "Isn't that what you said the last time we were sitting at the same table?"
"It's still a bunch of bullshit," Max snapped. There was a look in his eyes that Belle hadn't seen for years. There was a fire in them. A raging, angry mass of flames that he couldn't hide. "If you wanted us to be a family again you would stop terrorizing us like the fucking Gestapo!" His voice shook with conviction.
Claudia flinched. "I've never terrorized you." Her voice was almost...frail. Her expression softened.
Max snorted and opened his mouth to release some smart remark before Belle stopped him. "Max," she warned. "Now is not the time." She looked at Claudia and Ester with a stern gaze and crossed her arms over her chest. "Get to the point. Some of us lack patience."
Ester held up a hand. "Patience is key. We'll 'get to the point' soon enough."
Everyone in the room held their tongue. Even Klaus, strangely.
The servers brought out food, but no one touched it. They just stared at each other, waiting for someone to blink.
"Belinda," Claudia said, holding her wine glass by the stem as she swirled it around. "How are you?" Her stern expression faltered, but Belle couldn't tell what she was trying to mask.
Belle rolled her eyes. "It took you nine centuries to ask me that question," she mused, locking eyes with her mother. Identical hues of light blue piercing one another to no avail.
"Well I've been curious ever since I found out about that little accident you've been carrying around for the past month." She said it smoothly as though it didn't phase her. Another bastard child? No surprise there.
Belle narrowed her eyes. "How do you know that?" It took all of her self control to not throw the knife that was just inches away from her hand right at Claudia's neck as she watched her mother's face contort into a mangled, distorted form of a smirk.
"I know many things, like what's in that stubborn little box you found." She looked down as she fished something out of the clutch bag she had been carrying. "In fact, I happen to be in possession of the key that will open it." She held a thin leather cord in her closed fist, letting it dangle from her grasp. The light from the candles illuminated the dull gold.
Belle's narrowed, skeptical gaze fixed on it. "I don't give a damn about that." She hoped her words didn't sound as false in Claudia's ears as they did in her own. Of course she wanted to open the box, but she wasn't about to walk into a trap; she wasn't that naive. "Let's move on to more important things," she said, adjusting her posture.
"Like why you're here," Rebekah said sternly. Her eyes shot daggers at Ester. "The real reason."
Belle could only imagine what it was like to have an enemy that you actually cared about. From what Belle had learned over her time with the Mikaelsons, Rebekah had been very close with her mother when she was growing up, even after she became a vampire - by her mother's doing of course. The betrayal must have been unbearable.
Ester sighed deeply. "Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any to extend my offer."
"Offer?" Skepticism was written all over Klaus' face. A crease formed between his eyebrows as he watched her every move.
"I meant what I said about wanting us to be a family again, but I can't bear what I did to you. To all of you." She spoke quietly. Her eyes flickered to each of her children's face, almost like she was too ashamed to look any of them straight in the eye, but didn't want them to think she lacked conviction.
Elijah moved forward in his chair, resting his chin on his steepled fingers. "To which affliction are you referring?"
Ester straightened and maintained her confidence. Whether or not it was a facade, Belle didn't know. "I am responsible for turning you into vampires, which isn't something on which I pride myself. I want to right this wrong so that we can be a family, as we once were."
"And how, pray tell, do you plan on 'righting' this wrong?" Klaus asked.
Belle cut in, "Is that why you hexed me? You want to turn your children human, so you tested it out on me?"
Ester scoffed. "Don't be silly, I can't cure vampirism. What's happening to you is only temporary. However, what I have in mind for my children is a bit more permanent."
The word "temporary" sent shivers up and down Belle's spine. If she was only in this condition temporarily, what would happen to the baby?
She opened her her mouth to interject, but Ester held up a hand, silencing her.
"To answer any questions you might have, I'm not sure how long the effects of the hex will last nor do I know any complications that may arise. Furthermore, what I intend to do for my children is similar to what I did to come back from the Other Side. I'll simply place you into a mortal body and destroy your immortal one."
Klaus scoffed. "Simply?" He shook his head. "If you think I'll let you do that to me you're even further out of your damned mind than I thought."
Ester's face contorted like someone had just punched her in the stomach. She reached out with one hand into the empty space before her and clenched her fist tightly, sending a wave of white hot pain through everyone's head, including Claudia - strangely. The room filled with strangled groans and cries of pain, both low and high pitched. "I'll leave you to reconsider. After all, the life of your unborn child depends on it. Without my help, I doubt it'll survive long enough to take its first breath."
Klaus rose to attack her, but Ester squeezed her hand tighter, sending out a stronger wave of pain and busting the lights above their heads and along the walls, leaving the room dark aside from the light that came from the candles on the table.
When the pain faded, everyone opened their eyes and looked around, allowing their eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Bits of shattered glass lay scattered on the floor and table like snowflakes. Belle's eyes anxiously scanned the room. Ester was gone, but Claudia stayed put, groaning as the pain ebbed away.
Without hesitation, Max flashed behind Claudia and snapped her neck before she had the chance to even think about escaping.
In the midst of the chaos, Audrey's voice rang out. "Where's Sabrina?"
They tied up Claudia in the spare room Belle started to call the "red room of pain", though it wasn't actually red. It was where any and every interrogation/torture took place.
It was were she had killed Charlotte. The months since then felt like such a blur, like another lifetime.
It was late and Belle was tired and equally frustrated. The uncertain fate of her miracle child mixed with Sabrina and Ester's spontaneous disappearance were the main contributors to her anxiety. So many unanswered questions filtered in and out of her head that she could barely hear herself think.
Klaus was downstairs waiting for Claudia to wake up so he could begin the interrogation. Although she would've loved to watch and participate, the exhaustion was getting the better of her, so she headed upstairs to get ready for bed.
Before they had hauled Claudia off, Belle snatched the key from her and wound the dark leather cord around her middle finger, absentmindedly fiddling with it as she walked up the stairs.
As she passed Klaus' study she remembered the box; she'd left it sitting on his desk. She opened the door slowly, closing it behind her as she stepped farther into the room.
There it was, just as she'd left it.
She sat down in the cushioned chair behind the desk, crossing her legs as she took the box in her hands. She shifted the box to her left hand and held the key in her right.
What if the key didn't work? What if what was in the box was better off left inside?
Her impulsive side took over as she stuck the key in the lock and turned it. There was a small, barely audible click. So the box was protected by magic, but not sealed with it.
She raised the lid and looked inside. She could feel her heart pounding faster in her chest.
Inside, resting on a layer of deep red velvet, was something she thought she'd never see again. Something she'd buried with her daughter's body over nine hundred years before: a necklace.