chapter one ; goddamn witches
IT STARTED as a normal Wednesday, nothing distinguishing it from the following days before. Hope came home from one of the only high schools near New Orleans, her father and mother were bickering about something irrelevant, Elijah in the other room reading a book, aunt Bekah and Marcel upstairs, Freya and Kol wherever they were. Things were finally setting down for the first time in months, since Hope's stunt to bring her father home. The hallow was gone, nothing was stopping the Mikaelson's for being for the first time, family.
It was nice having both her parents in her life at the same time, no longer having to feel like the burden who kept their family apart. On weekends she'd practice her magic with Freya, and Monday through Friday she got to be a normal human teenager. Everything seemed perfect, sickeningly perfect.
"Hope! You have a good day?" Hayley yelled from the manor downstairs, only now a basket of laundry glued to her hip, Marcel and Klaus were talking about something by the fountain.
She poked her head out of her room to let her parents know she had in fact survived another mundane day of school. One headphone in her ear and the other swinging by her stomach, "Yeah, Caliope wasn't there though" she replied before heading back to her bed.
It was a mere two minutes after that she heard something break downstairs.
"Guys? Everyone good?" she called out despite knowing everyone could hear her from here even if she'd whispered with their hearing.
No reply.
Hope paused whatever song was playing and put down the book she'd been drawing in before heading down the long staircase to a upsetting sight.
Hayley was on the floor, reaching out everywhere in an attempt to ground herself, her father was leaning against a wall nearby and Hope could only assume the sound she'd heard was Elijah dropping a glass or something in the kitchen.
"Mom? Dad?" she called out rushing to Hayley, only then did she notice their eyes were a dull milky white. Completely void of colour. "Mom? Mom! can you hear me? What's happening" she asked rushing to Klaus. Rebekah said something in the kitchen to Elijah but she could only focus on her parents.
And then in a matter of seconds everything unfroze, their eyes rolled back to their normal colours and Hayley let out a wince, holding her head in her hands.
"Dad? Mom? What happened?"
Klaus leaned into her before sliding down the wall til he was sitting on the floor. Rebekah and Elijah came out from the kitchen, Elijah leaning on her before taking a seat on the couch.
"Did we all see the same thing?" He asked.
"No, not all of us. What the hell was that?" Rebekah asked, "You guys weren't talking, your eyes were white. Did you see something? One of you needs to start explaining"
"Give us a moment sister, I feel like I'm having the worst hangover of my life" Klaus replied after nobody answered.
Hayley had her face in her hands, letting out little whimpered sobs which only worsened Hope's fear. What had happened to make her parents and Elijah speechless? What brought her mom to tears in a mere minute?
"Someone start talking, cause I'm freaking out thinking the worst. Did someone die?" Hope begged. Was the hallow back? Maybe they were foolish to think they could all make it out alive and live a mundane life, maybe she really would be the demise of her family.
"Stiles" Hayley whispered, testing the name out on her tongue. "You guys saw Stiles right?"
At Elijah and Klaus's nods Hope's confusion grew, her brows furrowed so tightly she'd be worried about wrinkles. "What's Stiles?" once she made sure her dad was absolutely okay to be left alone right now she slid over to where her mother was sat still, on her knees.
For the first time Hayley looked up to her, eyes already red and puffy. "Stiles, is your brother. You have a twin brother. I had twins. I gave birth to twins and forgot" she spewed out into one breath, "How horrible of a mother am I that I forgot my son?"
"It was the witches," Klaus spoke up, "You are not a horrible mother. The wicked witches stole him from us and then erased our memories. They left him alone, as nothing but food for whatever creatures found him in the woods. They left our son in the woods!" he yelled, veins spiralling up to his eyes.
"Dad, Dad!" Hope yelled at him in an attempt to ground him.
"Niklaus! Now is not the time to get mad. Your son is in a town nearly a days drive away. The witches who did this have been long dead. Your son needs you, we all saw he does" Elijah reasoned. "Now let's focus on finding him and bringing him home, until then you cannot lose your temper. Stiles needs you"
A look of realization hit Klaus, the gold irises and veins faded back to their natural green and he rasped out a quiet you're right before everyone went silent again.
"Well from the sounds of it he's alive, probably had someone looking out for him right? He hasn't been alone the last seventeen years and he's breathing, that's the all we can ask for" Freya said trying to put on an optimistic spin.
Hayley finally stood up, arms crossed. "He didn't look very alive in. . .whatever that vision was"
"What did you guys see?" Kol asked.
All three of them shuddered, but only Hayley spoke up. "I guess his life. Pieces of it anyway. He's with some kid his age most of the time, he plays lacrosse but isn't the best. It all flashed by so fast, like we were seeing every moment of the last seventeen years all at once one after the other. He seemed happy for the most part, til the end. I saw bodies, wolves, graves. And then I guess it caught up to where he is now. He looked so defeated, sickly" she briefed.
"He needs us" Hope said, "Like Lijah said, we need to find him and bring him home. Once he knows he has family here for him everything will be okay" she assured. It has to be.
"If he wants to come home," Kol intervened, then held his hands up in surrender to the death looks he got sent. "I'm all for bringing my nephew home, I am. But to him he has a family already, and friends. He's lived all his life without us and with them. It might take some convincing to get him to even believe us when we tell him the truth."
Klaus all but growled at him, "My son is coming home. I do not care who I have to go through, he will come with us"
Hope huffed, "You're gonna have to work on that Dad. If you try to control him he's going to want nothing to do with us and it'll only push him further away. We need to get to know him, maybe before we even tell him who we are and then well once he does know he gets to decide. It's the least we owe him"
Hayley nodded in agreement, "I don't care if he wants to stay where he is, we can move there if we have to. But I'm not missing out on anymore of my son's life. It doesn't matter where but we will be in it."
Marcel held his hand up like a child waiting to be called upon in class, once everyone's eyes were on him he spoke. "I'd love to meet the little guy but we can't all go. If we leave New Orleans open for whoever to come in it'll only end in another war. We need some people here, making sure nobody gets the idea it's open for the taking"
Rebekah sighed, "I think this is a family matter. Not a Mikaelson one. Hope, Hayley, Klaus, you guys go meet him, convince him home or at least tell him the truth. We can handle it here while you're away. But I will be meeting him no matter what!" she argued.
The three mentioned nodded and nobody objected to the plane, Elijah looked like he was going to but remained silent.
"Now that that's settled we leave tomorrow morning"
