AN:
Introducing : Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) as Sybil Vane
and
Yusuf Gatewood (The Originals) as Basil Hallward
The smell of blood surrounded him, it coated his bare chest, his arms, his jaw as he stalked towards his next prey. Emma.
The tail end of her white night dress as it billowed behind her was what caught the vampire's eye as well as her drumming hear beat as he turned the corner of the long hallway to see the blonde woman scurrying away from him as he continued his relentless pursuit of her.
Her escape came to abrupt end when the young woman hit a red door at the far end, reaching for the handle she found the door locked as she continued to pull and tug at the handle as the vampire closed the distance between him and his prey as she frantically hit the red door in desperation for someone to help her.
Looking back the blonde gasps in fear seeing how close the vampire drenched in blood was before continuing her frantic attempts of escape only for a strong hand to take hold of her arm, forcing her to turn toward him.
"Elijah" she quivered as her hazel eye's met his emotionless ones as she tried to fight her way out of his strong hold only for the vampire to pull her by her long blonde hair ,turning her neck towards him before his fanged teeth sunk into the soft flush as her scream's her drowned out by the drumming heart beat slumped in rhythm before her squirming body slackened in his arms as he continued to take every drop of blood he could so that it quenched the unquenchable hunger in the pit of his stomach.
Waking himself from the image of draining Emma of her blood with a gasp, he finds himself still inside his sister's vault chained up by his wrists as the images of draining the saviour of her blood flashed through his mind. He needed to get out of here. Using every ounce of strength he had to muster, the vampire pulled at the chains bolted to the ceiling, only it did nothing as not even a link wavered nor bent under his supernatural strength.
"Have you forgotten where you are, son?" her voice reached his ears making him stop to see Cora with a teacup in her hand emerge from the darkness.
"Save your strength. My chains don't break so easily" she adds pointing to the poppet figure that hung behind him, binding the vampire to the spell that kept him powerless but to endure the consequences of his past actions "Having sweet dreams?" she grinned at him.
Lunging at her, the restraints held him back as she stood still in her place as the restrained vampire pulled at the chains needing to gain the inches he needed to put an end of her existence once and for all.
"Get out of my head" he glowers at her as she smirks back at him.
"I'm not in your dreams dear. You were screaming" she corrects him under his hard glare before he himself back on the chains to the distance back between them "Go ahead, get your bearings. We have much to discuss" at that the sorceress turns her back and ventures down the vault to leave her vampire son to think.
With strict instructions to both David and Mary Margaret to find the two people caught up in the mess that was the frame-job of Archie's murder, the blonde saviour left Storybrooke with Henry and Mr. Gold to find the older man's missing son. But even their reassurance made it easier to cross the town line into the Land of No Magic at the thought of Cora being in town this whole time.
Despite holding the title of his mother, she never showed any evidence of being one, or at least what she thought a mother should be. There was this spite behind all her actions against him, like he done something to her. Leaving it up to David and Mary Margaret to find him was the best she could do at the moment.
Stood behind the breakfast bar the former Princes caught a glimpse of her husband getting ready to leave with a gun holster wrapped around his shoulders continuing on as the town's acting Sheriff while his daughter was away.
"You like the holster, huh?" she teased her husband with an impish smile on her lips.
"I miss carrying a sword" he simply replied to his wife.
"Well, it looks good on you" Mary Margaret complimented her trueloves appearance.
"Come on" he prompts her heading to the coat rack as his wife follows him "Leroy has the dwarfs on Cora watch. They've got eyes everywhere" he informs his truelove as he helps his wife put on her coat to shield her from the chilled Maine air.
"Really?" she questioned him "How hard can it be to find a powerful sorceress and a vampire in a small town?" Mary Margaret asked rhetorically as they opened the door to leave only to come face to face with Regina, who was about to knock on the other side.
"Apparently, not very hard" David answering his wife's question.
"Regina" Mary Margaret stated in surprise "You're back".
"I know you think I'm responsible for poor Dr. Hopper's death..." Regina starts only to get interrupted by the Prince.
"He's… Alive" David corrected her.
"What?" she exclaimed as her brows furrowed in confusion.
"You were framed" her former stepdaughter told her.
"Who would do that?".
"Your mother" Mary Margaret informs her "She's here".
"But… But that's… not possible" Regina stuttered out in disbelief.
"When we found a way back, so did she. We were wrong. And we're so sorry" Mary Margaret apologized to her.
"I know" she accepts the woman's apology "But, if Cora's here, then we're all in danger. Please, you have to let me see my son. I can protect him" she told the Charming couple.
"He's not here" the pixie haired woman tells her.
The former Queen stilled for a second or two before realizing what the younger woman had said "What?".
"Mr. Gold asked Emma to help him find his son" David speaks up "They left town about an hour ago with Henry".
"And no one told me?".
"We didn't know where you were" Mary Margaret argued "And, to be honest, Regina, I don't think Emma has to run anything by you".
"No, I suppose she doesn't" Regina replied shaking her head to herself "What about my brother? I can't seemed to find him. Did he go with them?".
"We were actually hoping you'd be able to tell us that" Mary Margaret slowly told the former Queen "He's been missing for last day or so saying he was going to try and find you".
"Well I haven't" she tells them looking between the pair she saw "Unless you all think I might've done something".
"Regina, we don't-" Mary Margaret didn't get a chance to speak as the former Queen quickly turned and left the Charming couple hanging, leaving Mary Margaret to close the door knowing that conversation could've gone much smoother than it had.
"That went well" Mary-Margaret exasperates to her husband.
"With her, it doesn't get much better" he reminds her much to his wife's frustration "Come on, let's go find Cora".
"Where?".
"No idea" he tells her handing her her bow and quiver full of arrows "But I know who to ask" he adds opening the door for her to leave the apartment as he follows her, taking his jacket with him.
Before going to find Hook still at the hospital to take them to where Cora might be, the Charming couple agreed meet the apprehensive she-wolf outside the town's library for any sign of the missing vampire a day or so after she last saw him outside the loft asking Emma if he could try and find and talk down his sister before the Sheriff's did.
She herself hadn't spoken to the vampire since the day 'Archie' was found in his office, after he left the Inn to find his sister. There seemed to be a pattern emerging. Every time his sister was involved, something happened to him. She turned down his offer to take her to the funeral himself, only to decline, instead he hung in the background to yet again deal with the consequences of his sister's actions.
Since the news of his disappearance, she had gone out herself to search for the man, including the Rabbit Hole in case he thought the answer's of his problems would be at the bottom of a bottle, only to catch the smallest hint of blood in the air when she walked past the library.
With the town's resident librarian, Belle, in the hospital after the altercation at the town line involving Captain Hook and accidently crossing the town line, the place had been closed until further notice, the three of them let themselves into the building as the she-wolf carefully sniffed the air for anything that told her where the vampire had been.
The smell of blood hit the back of her keen nose straight away paired with a hint of his cologne that still lingered mixed with Belle's perfume as David and Margaret Margaret looked for anything physical that might point them in the right direction.
"Blood" she states to the pair pointing to the splatter on the metal door's "And a lot of it. There was a fight".
"Who's?" David asks her.
"Elijah's I think" Ruby answers him deep in concentration.
"Do I need to ask how you know that?" the former Prince asked her, knowing how close the pair had gotten since the curse had broken.
"David look" Mary Margaret caught her husband's attention, changing the subject, pointing to the spots of blood on the tile floor "She's right. There's a trail, it stops in the middle of the floor before going out".
Without hesitating the she-wolf headed out of the door looking at the pavement for any spots of blood to strike lucky as she find it going across the road. With an air of determination the she-wolf sped across the road not caring about the oncoming traffic as she followed the same way Elijah went after leaving the library.
"Ruby wait!" her friend called after her as she and David carefully stopped traffic to follow the she-wolf across the road following the same sporadic drops of blood that appeared on the ground.
Easily tracking the she-wolf, the Charming couple turned a corner to find themselves in an alleyway near the docks with broken fishing crates scattered to the side, they found their friend stood in the middle of the alleyway
"Ruby!" Mary Margaret yelled after her as jogged the last few metre's to catch up to her to see a something even the pixie haired teacher recognised having received one herself during the curse to dry her tears after being stood-up by David Nolan during the curse, before returning it the morning after their one-night stand.
In her hand was the bloodied cotton handkerchief that had the letter's E.M elegantly stitched into the corner. The trial stopped cold right where she stood. He was gone.
"Who were you dreaming about ripping apart when you woke earlier?" Cora asked her son as she re-joined him int he part of the vault he was being held in "Was it you new little plaything, that werewolf perhaps? Or was it someone else?" she trailed off knowingly before Elijah aggressively lunges for her again, still not getting any closer "Oh stop fighting, Elijah!. I brought you here to listen, and you're not going anywhere until I've said my piece".
"So speak" he ordered his mother with his fury edging his voice.
"I want you to re-join our family, but as a witch as you were always meant to be" the notion made him roll his eye as she continued to lay out her plans for him "I want you to leave behind the grotesque savage vampirism has made you. Take the body of a mortal, and we can all be happy again. Start over",
"You do know you're entirely demented, don't you?" he replies with a straight face.
"Am I?" she chuckles in amusement, turning away from him place the tea cup down "I'm not the one who pulls the wings off of every beautiful butterfly that he finds" she replies as her son continues through his chains, gritting his teeth "Like the woman who flits across the edge of your nightmare".
"Let me go" demanded "Now" he growls as the dark views crawl under his eye's and as Cora stood unfazed by his vampiric features.
"Hmm" she hummed "How quickly you slip back into your more savage self" at that his features turned back human "The moral son I raised is now but a mask worn to hide ancient demons".
"You know nothing".
"See, that's where you're wrong. I know more about the secrets you carry than you do. Shall I list them? I can begin with the first little butterfly you destroyed. The sweet young actress from the theatre that caught your eye when you were still human".
The vampire averted his gaze from his mother not wanting to give the woman the satisfaction of striking a nerve. "Ah, you do remember her. Of course how could you forget the girl to ever steal your heart, to call you her 'Prince Charming'".
"I never loved her" he said snapping his head back to face her "I was compelled. There's a difference " he argued "I didn't even care when her body was found".
His excuses made her chuckle to herself as she turned her back on his to find something behind her "I know that's what you believe... which is precisely why you are here" she says picking up her book of spells "I need to show you the monster you really are. When I do, you will beg for salvation, and happily I shall provide it".
Blowing on the page, the ink floats off the page and into Elijah's face as he lurches back as he is pulled back into his past and relive the memories that had been safely tucked away from harm.
Enchanted Forest
Years Ago
Three weeks or so after Lady Wotton's demise to a fever shortly after she attended Snow's last birthday celebration, he didn't know what possessed him to attend a play in a pokey theatre he and Henry frequented together, but there seemed to be something about that night, something in the air perhaps, but as he watched Sibyl Vane perform that night and met her backstage, he knew he was in love.
He needed to tell someone straight away. That person happened to by Henry Wotton as the the young son of a duke found the man slumped across his sofa with a forlorn look on his face as he looked up to the ceiling of his living room dressed in black stuck in his own thoughts as his young friend paced his floor.
"Never marry Elijah" Henry tells the man "Men marry because they are tired; woman, because they are serious: both are disappointed" he concludes.
"I don't think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one your observations. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say".
"Who are you in love with?" the Lord asked after a pause.
"With an actress" Elijah replied blushing to himself.
Shrugging his shoulders the Lord had to keep the smirk off his face seeing the fruition of his compulsion come to affect.
"Her name her Sibyl Vane" the boy went on "Everyone will know her name one day Henry. She is a genius" he gushed to his friend.
"My dear boy, no woman is a genius. They are merely decorative. With the exception of your dear sister perhaps. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals".
"Ah! Harry, your view terrify me sometimes" .
"Never mind that. How long have you known her?" he pressed him.
"About three week's".
For three weeks Elijah returned to the pokey stage-box inside the theatre he watched Sibyl become Juliet, Imogen, Rosaland. The first night the doorman came to him after the first performance as Juliet and offered to take him behind the scenes and introduce him to her. He refused. The third night, she had been playing Rosaland. He couldn't help but to go round after throwing her flowers, she had looked at him, or at least he liked to think she did. So he agreed, he was curious wanting to know her.
"Tell me about her".
"She was so shy and so gentle" Elijah replied "There's something of a child about her. Her eye's filled excitement and wonder when I told her what I though of her performance, she seemed quite unconscious of her power. I think we were both nervous. She insisted she on calling me 'My Lord', so I has to assure Sibyl that I wasn't anything of the kind. She said quite simply to me 'You look more like a prince. I must call you Prince Charming".
"My word, Elijah. Miss Sibyl knows how to pay compliments".
"Sibyl is the only thing I care about. Every night of my life I go to see her act, and every night she is marvellous. I get hungry for her presence, and when I think of the wonderful soul that is hidden away in the little ivory body, I and filled with awe".
"That is the reason, I suppose you never dine with me now. You can dine with me tonight, Elijah, can't you?".
He shook his head "Tonight she is Imogen" he answered "and tomorrow night she will be Juliet".
"When is she Sibyl Vane?".
"Never" he answered his friend with a bright grin.
"I congratulate you" Henry replied suppressing the smirk on his face.
"How horrid you are!" his friend exclaimed "She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. You laugh, but I tell you she has genius. I love her, and I must make her love me. You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me! I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want to breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God Harry, how I worship her!".
"And what do you propose to do?".
"I want you and Basil to come with me some night and see her act. I have no fear you will not think the same thing as I. You are certain to acknowledge her genius. She will make the world as mad as she had made me. She is not merely art, consummate are-instinct, in her but she has personality also and you have often told me that it is personalities, not principle, that move the age".
Blowing the spell back in her son's face Cora brings her son out of the memory of the false happiness he felt of loving Sybil Vane as he stumbled back to reality.
"But, that was just the beginning" Cora continues as the spell floated back into the open book in her hands as her son regained his bearings to face his mother yet again "A brief moment of happiness. That is how it always begins. A butterfly lands upon your finger, unaware that it will lead to her tragic end".
"Her tragic end came after I broke off our engagement and left her dressing room. I left her heartbroken, but very much alive".
"Actually, Elijah, your memory doesn't serve you at all. You just don't realize it yet" she tells him reaching up to stroke his stubbled face almost lovingly if the vampire didn't know better "But, by the time we are done here, you will" she adds for her son to snatch his head out of the palm of her hand.
Arriving at the theatre in love and newly engaged to the woman he truly loved and not some girl he barely knew that was arranged by his own mother as a reward for saving her from her runaway horse. He, Henry and Basil Hallward were escorted to the box.
For one reason or another the playhouse was crowded that night as Hallward kept him amused watching the faces of the common folk in the pit below them as cork bottle's popped nearby.
"What a place to find one's divinity in!" Lord Henry suddenly exclaimed to his friend not seeing the beauty in the place in which he found his love in. The comment made the painter look over to the man from his seat hearing the blatant sarcasm that was laced within the 'compliment'
"Yes!" answered Elijah, not having heard the cynicism in his friends comment "It was here I found her, and she is divine beyond all living things. When she acts you'll forget everything. These common, rough people become different when she is on the stage. They weep and laugh as she wills them do. She spiritualizes them and one feels that they are of the same flesh and blood as one's self".
"Oh, I hope not!" exclaimed Lord Henry in horror at the thought of being one of one of the same as the folk below them.
"Don't pay attention to him, Elijah" said the painter and good friend Basil "I understand what you mean, and I believe in this girl. Any one you love must be marvellous, and any girl that has effects that you describe must be fine and noble. The marriage is quite right. I did not think so at first, but I admit in now. Sibyl Vane was made for you, and you for her. Without her you have been incomplete".
"Thank you Basil. I knew you would understand me. Harry is so cynical, he terrifies me. But once the curtain rises, you'll see the girl to whom I am going to give my life, to whom I have given everything that is good in me".
"And what of the Princess Snow White. Your other fiancée?" Henry reminded his young friend as "Her Father, the King, won't be happy once he's learned you've married another".
A knowing smile grew on his young friend face at that told the Lord that he had already thought of the implications of an angry King after him "I have a plan for that my friend. Worry not" was all Elijah tells him before faded red curtain raised as the opening Prologue was read out by the narrator.
A quarter of an hour later Sibyl Vane stepped on stage amidst the turmoil of applause. Yes she was one of the loveliest creatures he had set his sight on. Her performance had Basil leaping on his feet to applaud as he heard Harry murmuring praises from his seat.
Elijah simply gazed upon on her figure as she swayed, while she danced, as a plant sways in water. Although curiously lame. She showed no sign of joy when her eye's rested on her Romeo, the words she spoke were artificial manner. Her voice was exquisite, but from the point of view of tone it was absolutely false. It made the passion unreal.
He grew pale and quiet as he continued to watch her, puzzled and anxious. His friends dared to say anything, she seemed to be absolutely incompetent. They had been horrifically disappointed.
The true test of any Juliet was the balcony scene. They waited for that. If she failed, there was nothing in her.
She looked as charming as the first time he saw her come out in the moonlight. But the staginess of her acting was unbearable, and only grew worse as it went on. The beautiful passages that had been well thought out by its writer as declaimed in painful precision that held no meaning to her. I wasn't nervousness, for she absolutely self contained. It was simply bad art. A complete failure.
Even the common folk in the pit grew restless as they lost their interest as they began to talk loudly and whistle. As the second act came to a close a storm of hisses erupted from the pit as Lord Henry stood from his seat to put on his coat.
"She is quite beautiful" he tells the young man placing a comforting hand on his shoulder "But she can't act. Let us go".
"I will see the play through" Elijah tells his friend in a bitter voice "I' am awfully sorry that I have made you waste an evening, Harry. Especially so recently after losing Lady Wotton. I apologize to the both of you".
"My dear Elijah. I should think Miss Vane was ill" interrupted his apologies "We will come another night" he reassured the young man.
"I wish she were ill" he retorted to the painter "Last night she was a great artist. Tonight she callous and cold" She has entirely altered that to the girl he loved last night.
"Don't talk like that about anyone you love, Elijah. Love is more wonderful than art".
"They are both simply form's of imitation" Lord Henry remarked "Best us go. Elijah you must not stay here any longer. It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting. I don't suppose you will want a wife to act. So what is she plays Juliet like a wooden doll? She is lovely, and if she knows as little about life as she does about acting, she will be delightful experience" he goes on only for his words to go unheard of the heartbroken boy still sat in his chair "Good heavens, my dear boy, don't look so tragic! The secret to remaining young is never to have an amotion that in unbecoming. Come with Basil and myself. we'll drink to the beauty of Sibyl Vane".
"Go away, Harry" Elijah cried "I wish to be alone. Basil you must go. Can't you see my heart is breaking?" hot tears came to his eyes as his lip trembled as he tried to hide his face from his friends that could not do anything to console him.
"Let us go Basil" Lord Henry said with a strange tenderness to his voice as he and the painter left the young man to torture himself through the rest of the play.
He must've dozed while the memory ran through his mind like a film off as he found himself waking himself up, upright still in chains as he felt the familiar ache come from his stomach
"You're hungry, aren't you?" Cora observed from her seat "It's been hours since you fed. What an awful thing, to feed upon the blood of others. For this, I blame myself. And your father. We tried to make you and Regina strong. But, instead, we cursed you".
As soon as it was over, Elijah Mills rushed backstage, letting himself into her dressing room. The moment she laid her eyes on him an expression of infinite joy came over her.
"How badly I acted tonight Elijah!" she cried out to him.
"Horribly!" he answered her question bluntly "Horribly! It was dreadful. You have no idea what I suffered".
"Elijah you should have understood. But you understand now, don't you?".
"Understand what?" he angrily asked the girl.
"Why I was so bad tonight. Why I shall always be bad. Why I shall never act well again".
"You were ill I suppose" he shrugged "You are ill. When you are ill you shouldn't act. You make yourself ridiculous. My friends are bored. I was bored!".
"Elijah" his name on her lips felt a like a blade slicing through his flesh, each time she said it a shudder went down his back now instead of the warm swell he felt thrum through his body.
"You are the reason for tonight's performance" she tells him with the brightest smile "Before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. I thought it all true. I was Rosalind one night, Portia the other. The joy of Beatrice were mine and the sorrows of Cordelia were mine".
"I believed in everything. Tonight I no longer feel these pretend emotions, have no interest in them, when they pale in significance to the one's I feel for you. You have me understand what love really is, my love. My Prince Charming!. Take me away Elijah, take me away with you, where we can be alone . I hate the stage. I might mimic a passion that I do not feel, but I cannot mimic one that burns me like fire. You have made me see that".
"You have killed my love" he muttered falling into a chair, facing away from her.
She looked at him in wonder and laughed as she came towards her with her little fingers stroked his hair. She knelt down, taking his hands into hers, pressing them to her lips only for him to draw them away and shudder.
"Yes" he cried leaping from the chair "you have killed my love. you used to stir my imagination, now you don't even stir my curiosity. I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and intellect. And now you've thrown it all away!".
"You are shallow and stupid. My God! how mad I was to love you! What a fool I've been!" he exclaimed outload threading his hand through his hair. He was missing something. Something important.
"I will never see you again I will never think of you. I will never mention your name. I wish I never laid my eye's on you!".
"You are not serious, Elijah?" her voice trembled "You are acting".
"Acting!" he scoffed "I leave that to you. You do it so well" he replied bitterly.
Rising from her knee's with a pathetic expression of pain in her face, she came across the room to him, put her hand on his arm and looked into his eyes, only for him to push her away "Don't touch me!".
Flinging herself at his feet the girl laid there like a trample flower "Elijah! Elijah, don't leave me!" she whispered "I will try better! I am so so sorry. I was thinking of you all the time. Don't go away from me. I couldn't bare it. Oh don't go away" her continued fit of chocked sobs filled the room as Elijah looked down at the girl with his beautiful eye's. Her tears and sobs annoyed him.
"I am going" he said at last, in a calm, clear voice "I don't wish to be unkind, but I can't see you again. You have disappointed me". She wept silently as her Prince Charming walked around her and left her to return home to the palace.
Returning to his room at the palace, he was thankful not to run into his family at the late hour as he made his way through the long corridors until he reached the door that would allow him sanctuary for the rest of the night.
Stepping into the large room, his His eye's fell on the portrait Basil Hallward had painted of him that was sat above the fireplace mantle. How odd.
Walking towards the painting, the examined it closer. The expression looked different, a faint sneer had appeared at the corner of his likeness's mouth. One with a touch of cruelty to it. Rubbing his eye's, and came closer to it still, and examined it again.
There were no signs that this was simply another painting and yet there was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. and it was not a mere fancy of his own.
Throwing himself onto the couch that sat in front of the fireplace, he thought back to the mad wish he had muttered e inside Basil Hallward's studio the day he went to pick it up. Yes he remembered perfectly. He wished to remain as young as he was in the portrait and for the portrait to grow old, so that his own likeness would remain untarnished , and the face on the canvas would bear the burden of his passion and his sin's.
It seemed monstrous even now to think of it, and yet there was a picture before him, with the touch of cruelty in the mouth.
Had he been cruel? It was the girls fault not his. He had dreams for her, and then she had disappointed them. Shallow and unworthy. And yet the feeling of regret washed over his being at the words he uttered to her face, thinking of the way she laid at his feet sobbing. He had been cruel to her, just like his mother to him.
The illusion on the portrait was a warning. He had to change his way's before the portrait altered more. For every sin he committed, a stain would fleck and wreak his soul. The picture changed or unchanged, would be a visible emblem of his conscious.
He would resisted temptation, he would not see Lord Henry. He would go back to Sibyl Vane and beg for his forgiveness if he had to. Keep his word and marry her, try to love her. They would be happy together. His life with her would be beautiful and pure.
Standing from the couch, Elijah found the gold coloured rope that drew curtains across the portrait and pulled. Hiding it from view.
"How horrible" he muttered to himself before heading toward his bed. He needed sleep. And then he would make things right.
"I fail to see your point, here" Elijah blinked at his mother "I remember, leaving her to return home. Clearly".
"Do you?" she questioned him as she stood from the chair to approach the hungry vampire "You thought there were still lines you wouldn't cross. People you wouldn't hurt. Things you wouldn't do. But, you're wrong. That is what I'm here to show you. You've taught yourself to hide from who and what you are for years!".
No" he fiercely denies her accusations to her, swinging on his chain as he shook his head "I did not hurt Sibyl! I could not".
"BUT YOU DID!" she yelled at him angrily before taking a breath to compose herself "Oh, my beautiful boy" she breaths out wrapping her hand around his neck almost lovingly if it hadn't been for the chains keeping him from throwing her off him "No more hiding. It is time, now, for you to remember it all".
Flinging herself at his feet the girl laid there like a trampled flower "Elijah! Elijah, don't leave me!" she whispered "I will try better! I am so so sorry. I was thinking of you all the time. Don't go away from me. I couldn't bare it. Oh don't go away" her continued fit of chocked sobs filled the room as Elijah looked down at the girl with his beautiful eye's. Her tears and sobs annoyed him.
"I am going" he said at last, in a calm, clear voice "I don't wish to be unkind, but I can't see you again. You have disappointed me" he sneered down at her pathetic form before turning to leave her behind.
Looking up from the ground in which she lied upon she saw her Prince Charming about to leave her forever. She wasn't going to let go so easily.
Forcing herself onto her feet, her limbs became a mind of their own as they reached out to stop her love from leaving only for a flailing arm to strike her hand and fast in the face and head, sending her falling into her dressing table and mirror, a sicking crack emitted from behind him before something heavy hit the wooden floor making Elijah freeze in place where he stood.
Something of what he could only call dread washed over him at that moment as he slowly turned to see what the noise was.
"Your distorting my memories" he accused his mother coming out of the memory "She killed herself, threw herself off a bridge and drowned".
"You're half right my son" she replies "She was found in a river, dead. But she was already dead by the time she arrived there".
"You can't rewrite history".
"No. I can't. And I did not..Not until Lestat came to your rescue".
The sound of his friends cries made Lestat venture further back into the emptied theatre than he originally intended, but he needed to take Elijah out of this place before he did something he would regret. It seemed however, he was too late as he let himself into Sibyl Vane's dressing room to find her dead body in his friends arms sobbing into her hair, rocking back and forth in a state of hysteric grief.
The smell of fresh human blood filled his nose as he found the red sustenance matted in the young girl's blonde hair and corner of the hardwood vanity table now covered his friends hands as he held her lifeless body against him.
He had killed her.
This wasn't what he had in mind when he compelled his friend to forget about his late wife. Perhaps it had been a misjudgement of how fragile he had made his friends mind. The warning signs had been there, but he ignored him as long as he didn't remember Hayley. And if somehow this broke his original compulsion. This would break his mind. He would be no use to him, if his mind was not its own.
"When you became yourself again, it was too late for even him to help her" Cora goes on "Lestat compelled you to believe that you had left her dressing room with her unharmed, and to let him to care of her. That he could help make it all go away".
Briefly leaving the theatre with Sibyl's body in his arms to cover up what his friend had done, by throwing her over a bridge into a river known for it's tales of taking the lives of the heartbroken, he returned to find his friend still in the room to do the one thing he could do to help his friend the only way he could.
Taking hold of his head and chin, Lestat gazed deep into Elijah's eye's as he took over his mind to take away the memories that pained him the most.
"You will not suffer from this memory or be tormented from the guilt of your misdeed" Lestat states to his friend "What goes behind that door shall stay there and be forgotten" he goes on handing him a washcloth "Clean yourself up, if you are clean, no-one would know what you are or what you'd done".
"And you did exactly that.. and more" Cora states to him coming out of the memory once more "You created a place in your mind to put your victims, even after you had turned and the compulsion broken. The door remained closed. You began to believe that as long as your suit was immaculate and your hands clean, you could look in the mirror and tell yourself it's all okay. No one need know what's behind that red door".
"It's been a long time, Elijah. And a place meant to hold one unforgivable sin is now full to bursting with your most monstrous deeds".
"STOP!" he yells at her overwhelmed by the horrible memory of Sibyl's unmoving body in his arms. The guilt. The shame that he would hurt her.
"How long before it's your beloved Emma's corpse behind that door?".
"Stop" he whisper's in desperation.
"You must be afraid that... that loving you will destroy her! As it destroyed Hayley. Sibyl. Take my offer. In a new body you will be alive again! You could have a child, that's what you have always wanted isn't it? To have that unconditional love only a child can give you. Have someone look up at you like Henry used to look up at your sister, before he was taken away from her".
"You will not break me" he tells her defiantly.
"Oh, you are already broken, my dear boy, but not beyond repair. I am here to fix you. I am here to fix you".
Waking well past noon the next day by his father with some tea and a pile of letter's, the Mill's patriarch had wondered what had his son sleep in so late. Since the start of his friendship with Lord Wotton, it became a common occurrence for the young man to sleep in late after a night out.
Once awake and dressed for the day in a suit that had been long forgotten about sat at the very bottom of the trunk in which it had been packed in, the young man combed his unruly and almost wild hair in a mirror before paying his attention to the pile of letter's he had received, including one from Lord Wotton himself. Recalling the vow he made to himself last night he put it to one side to write a letter himself to Sibyl only for his eyes to be drawn the to set of curtains that were blocking the view of his portrait.
Was it all true? Had the portrait really changed? Or had his imagination gotten the better of him? Surly a painted canvas couldn't alter? It was absurd. An yet he was too curious not to pull the curtains back as see for himself in the daylight.
Pulling at the rope his dream from the previous night came to life as see the cruel sneer in his face. It was true. The portrait had changed.
Had magic done this? Made his likeness to mirror his cruelness?.
Whatever it was, he still had time to fix his mistake. She could still be his wife. He just had some grovelling to do first. A letter will have to do for the time being, one addressed to the home she shared with her mother and brother, James, if he recalled correctly, to blame his behaviour the previous night on madness as he begged for forgiveness.
Suddenly he heard a knock on his door, hearing Lord Henry's voice on the other side "My dear boy, I must see you. Let me in. You cannot shut yourself away like this".
Jumping from his desk, the young man quickly pulled the curtains over his portrait before letting Henry enter the room.
"I am so sorry for it all, Elijah" said Lord Henry as he made his way into the room "You must not think much about it".
"Do you mean about Sibyl Vane?" the younger man asked slinking onto his couch.
"Yes of course" he answered "It is dreadful, from one point of view, but it is not your fault. Tell me, did you go behind and see her afterwards? Did you make a scene with her?".
"Yes" Elijah admits to his gulping "It was brutal But it is alright now. I am sorry for anything that has happened. I was taught to know myself better. I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous".
"I am glad to hear that my friend" the man let out a breath of relief "But how are you going to begin?".
"By marrying Sibyl Vane" he answered.
"M-Marrying Sibyl Vane?" Lord Henry stuttered "But my dear Elijah-".
"I know what you are going to say. Something dreadful about marriage. I asked her to marry me. I am not going to break my word to her. She is to be my wife".
"Didn't you get my letter?. I wrote to you this morning, and sent the note to the palace, by my own man".
"Oh, yes, I remember. I have not read it yet".
"You know nothing then?".
"What do you mean?".
Crossing the room, the Lord sat next to the younger man and turned to face him "Elijah, my letter, was to tell you that Sibyl Vane is dead".
The piece of news make the younger man's head snap toward his friend "Dead? Sibyl's dead?" saying the words outload felt odd as he looked for any sign this was some kind of joke on him, but no smile grew on his friends.
"No, no, it not true! It's a horrible lie!" Elijah cried leaping to his feet to pace the floor in front of the fireplace "How dare you say it!".
"It's quite true Elijah" the lord defended himself "She was found on on shore line of a river this morning by your sister's guards near the King's road".
"Which river?" he asked his friend asked at the mention of a river.
"Elijah-".
"Which river!?" Elijah pushed his friend to answer.
"Acheron River" he answered "Not far from the bridge. They think she fell and drowned from the wound on her head".
She killed herself. Because of him "So I have murdered her" said Elijah concluded as tears fell sown his face"
"No!" Henry refused to hear this from the man as he jumped from hi seat to take a hold of the young man in front of him "The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life. If you had married her you would have been wretched".
"But I loved her once. She was everything to me. I said I would go back to her. I felt I had done wrong. And now she is dead".
"You loved, the character's she brought to life each night. Imogen, Juliet, Rosaland. Mourn them. Do not waste your tear over Siybl Vane. She was less real than they are Life, has everything in store for you, Elijah. One dead girl won't change that. There is nothing that you, with your extraordinary good looks, will not be able to do".
"Suppose, I become haggard, and old and wrinkled? What then?".
"Then, you would have to fight for your victories. As they are brought to you. People like us don't not care, nor do we feel. Join me tonight, we shall drink and eat at the club, and them move onto a small discovery I made the other evening I think you will enjoy".
"I will Harry. Thank you".
"Good" Henry smiles "I'll come fetch you in few hours" he adds leaving the room.
As he grew weaker from the lack of blood in his system so did his resolve he held against his mother's attack's on his mind. On his knee's, the vampire still chained to the vault ceiling was faulting under the memories that were being re-lived in his mind.
"No more" he weakly tells his mother from his place.
"I'm afraid we've just begun" Cora tells him "You will hang here, remembering. Every atrocity you've hid behind that door will emerge to haunt you. And, as you grow weaker, you will be ripped of your strength, your will, your hope. And, as you rot here, alone, you will reconsider my offer. A new life. A way to be freed of your demons. A chance at peace".
A sudden thud in front of him made the vampire look up to see his mother suddenly collapse on the ground unconscious to see Emma stood behind her red leather jacket with a sword in her hand having used the pommel to knock the woman out.
"Huh! That's about enough of that, don't you think?" the blonde saviour say to the unconscious the older woman, before looking up to see him on his knee's and chained up by his wrists as his whole body seemed to sag in relief seeing her after hours in his mother's hands.
Dropping the sword on the ground the saviour walk towards the chained vampire the saviour tugs on the chains to see a way of freeing the man only for Cora's speel to prevent any attempt made of the chains being broken.
"How do I get these off?" she asks him seeing no way of freeing him from the chains.
"The doll, up there" he tells her looking up at the doll that hung behind him "Break it. She's using it to bind me".
Moving around the chained vampire, the saviour reached up to rip the doll from the ceiling, and rips apart with her bear hands before throwing it on the floor. Moving back in front of him, one by one the saviour easily pulled the chains from the all leaving the weakened vampire to sag further to the ground.
"You need to feed" Emma states the obvious as she kneels before him to help him on his knee's
"I can't..." he quickly tells her refusing to give into the hunger he felt in his stomach as the smell of her blood engulfed his senses.
"You're weak" she says readily offering her wrist to him only for him to turn his nose up at the view of the veins under her skin "And somehow I doubt your Mom offering you a drink, while you've been down here".
"I can't!" he gasps himself louder this time looking straight at her, trying to control himself "I crave you. My hunger, it could overwhelm me".
"Look at me "she says, reaching up to caress his face the same way she did when they were trapped in the mine-shaft back home, her mere touch made him focus solely on the woman in front of him, the woman he was falling for, the one that he selfishly wanted for himself "I'm not afraid".
After a beat two of staring at each other, it was Emma that leaned forward first to capture his lips in a heated kiss that he never wanted to end as he was drawn closer to her body, keeping a firm hold of the back of his neck as his feverishly kissed her back resisting the painful urge to pull away from passionate embrace and feed from her as she tried to distract him from the hunger that screamed for him to feed.
Sensing his discomfort Emma leant back to move her long blonde hair to the side to expose her neck to him. Watching him closely the blonde watched the dark veins crawl out under his eye's as his fangs filled his mouth before they quickly latched onto her neck and his arm cradled the arch of her back.
A painful gasp was heard from the blonde as she felt the sharp fangs piece her skin before it slowly turning into something else as fed on the blood that escaped the wound as she held onto him.
Out of the hero's custody, as a giant run amuck on the surface looking for the Prince's blood, Hook was able to slip away to find the older sorceress where she said where she would be when they had her son her 'care'.
Despite the pain he felt from he injuries he sustained on the town line, the pirate stood in front of the catatonic vampire as he hung unmoving from his wrists in his sister vault, waving his hand in front of the 'sleeping' vampire's face as the latter knelt slumped on the ground, with his eye's still open only to get no reaction what so ever to the movement in front of him. This was dark magic at work. Darker than what magic he had witnessed.
"What'd you do to him?" the pirate grimaced to himself as he stared at the vampire.
"I let him dream" Cora tells the pirate.
"That's... considerate of you" he replied patting Elijah on the shoulder he stood to join the older woman with the slight limp in his steps as he held onto his broken ribs.
"I cannot lead him out of darkness by simply exposing him to the horrors of his past. I have to let him bask in his version of a better world to come".
Wrenching himself from Emma's neck to pause in his feeding as she continues to pant in pleasure, he knew he should stop, but he was just so hungry, and her blood. It was delicious, it tasted better than he ever thought it ever would. Baring his teeth again the vampire plunges his fangs into her neck again as Emma held onto him tightly, letting him continue, despite the danger she was in.
"And by the time he wakes, he will know the only way to find peace is my way".
AN: Hello! The Red Door! Ahhh!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! This chapter cover's Tiny.
Quick Disclaimer: Scenes Season 2 Episode 5 'The Red Door' of the Originals was used for this chapter and changed for the purpose of this story. I don't own it. CW own the show. etc.
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