Damon Salvatore looked up toward the bedroom door as it opened and Chogun White Feather entered.
The old man stopped immediately in his tracks, somewhat startled by the young vampire's presence, and then cast a glance over Damon's shoulder toward the casket resting on the large king size bed next to where Damon sat in a high back chair.
"My apologies…" the medicine man bowed sheepishly, "I thought that this was the bathroom. I wanted to wash up before dinner."
Damon smirked then pointed to the old man's left, signaling down the hall.
"You were close," he said softly, casting a quick glance toward the casket before bringing his eyes back to meet Chogun's, "Fourth door on the right."
"Ah!" the old man said, a small smile crossing his face as he looked out into the hallway, then slowly turned back to the vampire.
"Your brother?" Chogun asked in a quiet voice, nodding toward the coffin
Damon nodded sadly
"May I ask how he died?" the old man inquired
"You don't already know?" Damon scoffed good-naturedly, "And here I thought you were the 'Speaker of the Dead'?"
" 'Of' being the operative word," Chogun replied, "And sometimes 'for', but never 'to'."
"What is that? Some sort of riddle?" Damon asked, narrowing his eyes before grabbing for the nearly empty bottle of bourbon sitting on the writing desk to his left, "Because, if so…I plead myself too drunk to solve it."
Chogun smirked, as he watched Damon take a long swig directly from the bottle, keeping his eyes fixed on Damon until the vampire finally lowered the now empty bottle to his knee realized that the Indian was waiting for him to speak.
"Dominic, the hunter we are trying to stop…" Damon said softly, keeping his eye lowered onto bottle as he turned it in his hand, "When he first arrived in town, he tracked us to our home and killed my brother. He staked him right in our living room…right front of me…and I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it."
"So he was an innocent?" Chogun whispered, his eyes softening
"In a past life…not necessarily…" Damon replied looking up to the medicine man, "But, in all of this…yes. He didn't deserve this fate. Dominic staked him as a message to Misha and the others that he had risen—that he was coming for them."
"I see…" Chogun said under his breath, his eyes fixing on the coffin again for a few moments before he looked back to Damon, "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Damon muttered, looking down, "To be honest. I'm not sure how much more I can take."
"What is your meaning?" Chogun prompted
"First Rose, then Katherine and Stefan..." Damon sighed, "Even Elena...who my brother and I both loved...who I love still....gone...poof!" the vampire scoffed as he continued, "She's not dead of course. She chose to leave...with Elijah, the perfect original with the perfect smile and the perfect hair and the holier than though attitude. I mean him, Really?! What is so special about him?"
Chogun opened his mouth to say something in response, but decided against it.
He had remembered the originals from when they were young and new the magic that surrounded their family tree.
He had seen them as a family, watched them grow from his village's encampment nearby. From the spirits of his ancestors, he knew that two among them walked as werewolves, one as a powerful doppelganger and one as a powerful witch before they were turned into vampires by their mother.
And if the whispers he had heard from the spirit world about Elena Gilbert were also true, then he understood how and why two Doppelgangers would find each other in the mortal realm.
"You should come down for dinner. Man cannot survive on liquor alone…" Chogun suddenly suggested, breaking from his thoughts, "Trust me. I've tried."
"I'm not a man—" Damon replied
"But, you are no true demon, either," Chogun interjected "Trust me, I've seen evil and you are not that. And you have people who care for you—friends and allies. Now, Caroline's making a feast. You should go down…be with them. It will make you feel better...less 'woe is to me'."
Damon smirked at the suggestion, but replied, "I'm fine."
"Damon," Chogun replied, folding his arms across his chest, "You're sitting in the dark with your dead brother's coffin, drinking an entire bottle of bourbon because you're 'fine'? I don't believe that for a moment. Please come down. It will help."
"I'll think about it. But, in the meantime, don't you have a date with a bathroom or something?" Damon shot back with a chuckle, setting the empty bottle of bourbon back on the writing desk a little louder than he meant to.
"Alright," Chogun surrendered, backing through the threshold with a small smile, "I'm going…"
Then he departed, shutting the door behind him and leaving Damon alone with his brother.
After resting against the door for a moment, the old man proceeded to the fourth door along the right side of the hallway as Damon had instructed earlier and opened it to reveal the second floor bathroom.
Turning toward the end of the hall, he spotted Misha standing outside of Klaus' bedroom and the two men exchanged a meaningful look before Misha nodded in acknowledgement to him and Chogun turned on the bathroom light and disappeared through the threshold.
# # # # # #
Rebekah smirked sadly at Misha as she and Kol exited Klaus' bedroom and Kol shut the door softly behind him.
Misha took in a sharp breath before he spoke.
"Well?" he asked looking between the two youngest Mikaelson siblings.
"He's human," Kol concluded with a small smile, "I still can't believe it, but trust a vampire to know when a human is a human."
"And now that he's human," Rebekah added, "He wants to do the human thing. You were right—he told us that he wants to take Vivienne's place as the sacrifice in the ritual—"
"Which is a absolutely insane idea!" Kol interjected
"Kol!" Rebekah chided
"No, Bekah, it's true. He's finally the one to be cured and he wants to throw it all away!"
"You heard him in there, Kol," Rebekah replied, "He's trying to do something decent for once. And, while I agree that it's not the best way to spend his humanity, I have to say it's nice to see the old Niklaus return, even if it's to live out a death wish."
"Oh, your breaking my heart, Bekah…" Kol said, rolling his eyes
"Bite me, Kol," Rebekah shot back, narrowing her eyes
"Oh…Don't tempt me!" Kol replied cheekily, stepping closer to his sister
"Alright, children…" Misha interrupted holding up his hands, "Enough."
When they were silent he turned to Rebekah, "Tell me he's not seriously thinking about going through with this."
"He was," Rebekah replied, "But, Kol and I talked him down."
"Really?" Misha asked, raising an eyebrow in genuine surprise
"Well, for now," Kol added, "But, knowing our brother, I'm sure he was just placating us. He'll find a way to get what he wants...he always does."
He let his eyes linger on Rebekah for a moment, then blinked and turned to Misha as the warlock sighed.
"I suppose we'll just have to keep our eye on him," Misha said, "Elijah will kill me if anything happens to him, especially once he finds out that he's human again."
"And speaking of... Should we tell anyone else?" Rebekah said, lowering her voice, "You know…about the human thing?"
"I suppose we should eventually," Misha replied, "But, I think for now, it's best to keep this under our hats."
"I don't have a hat," Kol quipped, then looked to Rebekah and whispered with a smile, "It messes with the hair."
Rebekah smirked then turned as she heard a door open nearby and watched Damon exit the bedroom down the hall.
The older Salvatore brother raised an eyebrow as he ran a hand through his mussed hair and studied the group of three at the end of the hall as they all fell silent and stared at him.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Damon asked, giving a nervous smile as he lowered his hand from his head
"No." Misha, Kol and Rebekah replied simultaneously
"Okaaaay…" Damon replied, his face reflecting his amusement as he continued, "Well, I hear that Caroline is cooking up a storm and truth be told, Stefan and I could use some time apart."
Misha smirked at the quip and Rebekah chuckled under her breath as Damon asked, "You guys coming?"
"Yeah…" Misha replied, then nodded to Rebekah and Kol and gestured for them to start down the hallway, that they would continue their conversation later.
# # # # # # #
Minutes later, when he had heard Damon, Misha, Kol and Rebekah exit and the hallway was clear, the bathroom door opened and Chogun moved quickly and quietly to the bedroom where Stefan Salvatore's coffin resided.
He opened the door softly and gave a quick glance down the hallway before slipping into the dark room.
As he crossed the room and came to the side of the mahogany coffin, Chogun touched the lid with reverence before pulling a bundle of tobacco out of his left pocket with the same hand.
Then with his right hand, he unlatched the coffin and opened the lid slowly, staring down at Stefan's placid and ashen face.
Chogun brought both hands to cup around the small bundle of tobacco as he closed his eyes and started walking around the coffin in a steady circle, chanting softly under his breath.
When he finally reached the head of the coffin, he reached forward and opened Stefan's mouth and carefully placed the offering of tobacco inside before closing the vampire's jaw.
When the sacred words were complete, Chogun leaned forward and whispered into Stefan's ear.
"If your soul is true and strong, by the will of the Great Spirit, I grant it permission to cross over," Chogun said, "And if you wish to live again, you need only appear to me."