CHAPTER 23 – THE HISTORY LESSON FROM HELL

"So where would we go?" Rhiannon asked the next morning, stretching out on the bed. "I'm sure Klaus has already half of the house packed by now."

"Hmmm, I'm thinking an abandoned island," Elijah muttered cuddling close to her breathing in her scent. "Far, far away from all this drama. God knows we deserve it."

"That sounds amazing," Rhiannon mumbled happily.

"However," Elijah started again. "I think you should finish the high school first. You only have couple of months left."

"Yea, I've been thinking about it too," she agreed. "You're probably right. Do you think Damon and others will behave though?"

"I don't see why not," Elijah said. "Their main problem is with Klaus. With him gone, I don't think they would cause any further trouble. We'll stay out of each other's hair and maybe you get to restore your relationships with your friends."

They way he said it only assured her that he partially blames himself for the current state of things between her and her old girlfriends. Sighing, she said: "Yea, that'd be nice. Although I don't know if we'll ever be able to come back to the way things were before. They made it blatantly obvious that me, or the people I care about, are not high on their priority list."

"I know," he muttered solemnly. He was about to say something else but was cut off by Rebekah knocking on the door, yelling: "Rhiannon! Get your arse up! The clean up committee starts in fifteen minutes!"

"Shit!" she muttered and almost flew out of the bed hauling her clothes hurriedly on her way to the bathroom. "Give me five minutes!"

"You're late!" Rebekah almost snarled at Caroline who turned up to help clean up the place. "Clean up committee started at eight o'clock."

"It's like eight o'two!" Caroline objected.

"Exactly," Rebekah went on. "We managed to turn up on time."

"Not that I had a say in the matter," Rhiannon muttered trying not to yawn.

"Excuse me," Rebekah barked at her. "I'm here and I didn't even get to attend the dance I organized!"

"I know, I know," Rhiannon retorted apologetically. "I was just kidding."

"Alright, alright," Rebekah said walking towards the big trash bin, dumping all the empty plastic glasses there.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Caroline said making both Rebekah and Rhiannon to look up at her. "I mean I know you like hated her and everything but… still… I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry about your teacher," Rebekah reciprocated. "He seemed like a nice guy."

"He was," Caroline retorted. At that point Rhiannon had trouble trying to hold back tears. She really was sorry. Even though her and Mystic Falls gang weren't on the best of terms at the moment, she still mourned Alaric. "I'm gonna get started on the gym," she muttered and escaped the room.

She was walking through empty hallways when she thought she heard someone blur behind her. She turned around listening closely to her surroundings, but then shrugged it off. It was probably just Caroline or Rebekah. She was just placing her hand on the door handle when she heard it again, this time way closer to her. She jumped up turning around but again, there was no one there.

"Yea this is not funny!" Rhiannon called out into the empty hallway.

"You're right, it isn't," she heard Alaric's voice growl from behind her. She turned around again to see him stand in front of her, his eyes blood-red and the expression on his face murderous. Before she could do anything else, he snapped her neck and everything went black.

Elijah was sitting behind the kitchen counter, trying his best to ignore the mess Klaus's hybrids made while packing the house up, nonchalantly ignoring the loud bang that would suggest that they dropped something heavy and most likely invaluable. He perked up, however, when he heard Rebekah's panicked voice coming from the living room. First he thought it was just one of her temper tantrums but then he heard Alaric's name.

"What is going on?" he asked as he vamp-ran into the room.

"Alaric Saltzman just tried to kill me," Rebekah elaborated.

"But how? He's supposed to be dead," Elijah retorted incredulously.

"Well he's not," Rebekah went on. "And he's a vampire thanks to mother's spell and with a white oak stake that can't kill him. He's stronger Nick. Too strong."

"Where is he now?" Klaus asked dispassionately.

"He's stuck at the school without a daylight ring," Rebekah elaborated. "But as soon as night falls he'll come after us."

"Wait," Elijah interrupted. "Where is Rhiannon?"

"He… uhm," Rebekah stammered.

"Bekah," Elijah growled. "Don't make me ask again."

"He's got her and Caroline at school," Rebekah muttered, ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry. I had no other choice."

"Alright," Klaus chimed in. "I'll collect Elena and we'll be on our way."

"What about Caroline?" Rebekah asked. "And Rhiannon? We can't just leave them to be killed because of us!"

"Your tone implies that I should care?" Klaus asked with his usual bravado.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Elijah asked, trying hard not to yell at his younger brother.

"Oh c'mon Elijah," Klaus objected. "You're seriously asking me to risk my life to save your latest plaything? You must be out of your mind!"

At this point Elijah couldn't hold himself back anymore and lunged at his younger brother landing a good solid punch onto his left cheek. Klaus didn't hesitate and reciprocated with equal fervor.

"Stop it!" Rebekah yelled trying to pull them apart. "Stop it you two!"

Elijah stopped first, panting, and readjusted his shirt while glaring at Klaus. "I'll get in touch with Salvatores."

When Rhiannon started to perceive the world around her she realized she was in a lot of pain. Her hands were tied behind her back with a vervain soaked rope that was burning her skin continuously and two metal stakes were plunged into each one of her thighs, pinning her to the chair effectively. She also realized she wasn't alone. Sitting two rows in front of her was Caroline whose hands were pinned to the desk with two pencils and her mouth was gaged with a vervain soaked rag. She was sobbing in pain and Rhiannon wasn't far from following closely behind her. She tried to free her hands but to no avail. Then she realized Alaric was watching her casually from behind his desk.

"What the hell do you want from us?!" she snarled at him. This was clearly no longer Alaric she knew.

"Well not that I need to explain myself to you, but I'm using you as bait," Alaric elaborated. "Caroline to get Elena here, and you to lure out your Original boyfriend and his siblings."

"You're crazy if you think this is actually going to work," Rhiannon bit back with as much defiance as she could muster at that moment. Truthfully, she was terrified. As if on cue and just in time to prove her wrong, Elena barged into the classroom. She, of course, fell for the whole "go free them yourself" trap which ended in Alaric maniacally lecturing her on how vampires were the bad guys. Then when he forced her to kill Caroline, she smashed the beaker with vervain water against his face gaining just enough time to free Caroline and loosen Rhiannon's tied hands a little before Alaric caught up to her and threw her out of the classroom.

Caroline bolted and Rhiannon didn't really blame her. She just hoped she'll be able to loosen the rope and get the stakes out fast enough to try and stop Alaric from squeezing the life out of Elena. She heard the noises of struggle somewhere down the hall and she managed to wiggle her hands out of the vervain ropes. Stakes would be a much bigger problem though. For one, her hands were still badly burnt from vervain and stakes were shoved through her thighs with the force that made it impossible to get them out on her own. She was about to start crying out of a sheer despair when Elijah barged in the room with a furious expression on his face. He gestured for her to be quiet. She muffled her screams with the sleeve of his jacket as he made a quick work of the stakes.

"Can you walk?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't think so," she whispered back. "I'm gonna need a minute. Leave me here. Go help the others."

"Like hell I am," Elijah shot her down making her raise an eyebrow at him. "Rebekah's with Klaus and Salvatore boys. They're gonna take Alaric down. I'm going to take you home."

"Elijah," Rhiannon objected.

"I'm done talking about it, now c'mon," he retorted whisking her up in his arms and carried her to the safety of the house.

Elijah just left Rhiannon resting upstairs and went downstairs. He heard Klaus come back home and he knew Rebekah bolted. He went into the living room and found Elena strapped to a chair, the blood being drained from her veins into blood bags.

"What is this Niklaus?" Elijah asked incredulously.

"Exactly what you think it is," Klaus retorted casually from the sofa. "As it turns out, Alaric's life is linked to Elena's so I'm draining her of her blood, killing the history teacher in the process."

"Have you gone utterly insane?" Elijah objected sternly.

"It's the only way to kill him once and for all," Klaus retorted.

"What happened to the plan to desiccate him?" he continued.

"I'm done with half measures," Klaus shot him down.

"Well I'm not," Elijah bit back walking towards Elena.

"You're not going to have a say in the matter," he heard Klaus mutter from behind him and then he felt the dagger in his heart. "I'm sorry Elijah."

Rhiannon woke up half hour later, confused. She was in their room, her legs were completely healed and there were couple more blood bags ready for her in the ice bucket on the night stand. However, Elijah was nowhere to be found. She got up, trying to find anybody but the house sounded empty. Then she heard a commotion coming from the living room and when she hurried up there, she saw Elena lying on the floor and Klaus pinning Tyler against the wall about to rip him to shreds.

She hurried towards them breaking Klaus' arm and freeing Tyler from his grasp. Then Stefan and Damon appeared from somewhere and all of them grabbed Klaus as Stefan plunged his fingers in his chest making Bonnie work her magic and desiccate the Original hybrid. Soon there was no need to hold Klaus back so Rhiannon backed off and almost tripped over Elijah's daggered body. Poor Elijah, always suffering the consequences of Klaus' righteous madness, she thought to herself as she pulled the dagger out.