Rose sat waiting for everyone to settle down, the return of Damon and the arrival of the Bennett witch had stirred everyone up.
“Please tell me story time is almost over, miss-y Rose, I want to get to nap time.”
“Yes, Damon the story is almost over, soon enough you will have all the information I do, then you can try whatever misguided plan you’re cooking up in that tiny little brain of yours and I’ll be sure to raise a glass for you when I hear about your demise when I’m halfway around the world hiding from our mutual enemy.”
“Oh, how nice of you.” Sighing, she looked to Elena for help. When it came to the elder Salvatore the doppelganger seemed to be the only one who could control him even slightly. His brother would try but he was just as likely to stir him up as calm him down.
“Enough Damon, so Rose where were we?”
“The turning, Klaus had just proposed to Caroline and was on his way back to his village to tell his family the good news and also to tell them that he would be leaving them now to be with Caroline.”
“Wait so they were a day away from being rid of him like they wanted? You’re telling me that if they had just waited a few hours and heard his news then mama and daddy original would have had all their dreams come true? That is hilarious.”
“Damon!”
“Yes, if they had waited then they would have been rid of Klaus and maybe he never would have been turned in the first place. But, since that didn’t happen how about we focus on what did happen instead. While Klaus was walking back his parents were starting the spell that would inevitably create the vampire race….”
“Are you sure about this? You must be certain for once this is done it can never be undone.”
“We are certain Ayana now please help me.”
She looked into her old friends eyes and saw the determination there that she had only ever seen in this family. They were all so stubborn and once they set their mind to something that was it there were no other options not for any of them. Ayana knew that this thing they were attempting to do would bring nothing but pain and suffering to them all but she also knew that it was going to happen with or without her help and she would rather have a hand in it than have it take her wholly by surprise.
“Very well let us begin.”
Klaus had just reached his brother’s home when the moon began to rise he could hear the howling of wolves in the distance and the sound made him shudder in revulsion. He did not think he would ever think the same way about the wolves again after what had happened to his beloved brother. Raising his hand to knock he was greeted by his brother Elijah at the door.
“Enter brother, we have worried for you since the sun began to set. You know it is unsafe to be out this night.”
Walking past his brother he found all of his siblings huddled around the fire.
“Where are mother and father?”
“They will be here soon, they spoke of needing to help Ayana with something before they returned to be with us.”
Should he tell his siblings now while they were alone or should he wait for his parents return. In the weeks since his brother’s death his parents had been increasingly cold to him and he knew they would be more than pleased to see the end of him but he did not think they would be pleased to hear his news. Mind made up, he decided to tell the ones that loved him first.
“I have news.”
“What is it brother?” Rebekah leaned forward eager to hear the news that made her brother glow with such excitement.
“I am to be wed.”
“To Tatia?” Elijah sounded so defeated it made his heart break for him, to be so sure of such a betrayal must be agony.
“No, brother mine, have no fear it is not her I speak of. She is yours if you still wish her to be by your side. No, I have been in love with another for some time now. Her name is Caroline she and her mother live between our village and the wolves. This night she has consented to be my wife.”
“That is fantastic brother, I am happy for you and can not wait to meet this girl who has bewitched you so body and soul.”
“And I can not wait for you to meet her. I know you will love her as much as I do.”
“Tell us about her Nik.”
Before he could open his mouth to answer his sister the door swung open quickly and their father rushed in sword in hand. At first they all panicked thinking the wolves were attacking until in one swift move their father ran his sword through Elijah’s chest delivering a mortal blow. They were all so confused they could not move until Finn had been felled as well. Seeing their elder brothers fall snapped them all into action he and Kol rushed at their father as their sweet sister Rebekah ran for the door. They were knocked back easily and within moments they were all on the floor struggling to breathe. He felt his fathers sword as it slid from his chest.
“You should be grateful boy. This is a gift I give you, the last you will ever get from me.”
The last thing he thought of before his world fell away was of Caroline and what a beautiful bride she would have been.
Bonnie sat stunned as she listened to the tale of how the originals came to be. How could anyone be so cruel?
“Why would they do that? Why didn’t they talk to them first, explain, give them a choice?”
“They thought they were protecting their children and Ayana was clear in her demands it had to be all of them or none of them. Esther and Mikael were afraid that if they gave them a choice that they would refuse and that would leave their family forever vulnerable to the wolves around them.”
Even still, they deserved to have a choice didn’t they? She knew that most people who were turned into vampires weren’t given any kind of a choice in the matter, Damon and Stefan had been compelled to the point that even though they were given the choice it was essentially made for them. Many others were the same so she didn’t know why she thought the originals had been any different. It just seemed more wrong somehow, she’d always thought that being the first vampires and all, that they had chosen this. That they’d gone into it eyes wide open knowing the consequences and selfishly deciding to do it anyway. This story made them sound like victims though and she was a little worried about hearing any more. If she was starting to feel sorry for Klaus she didn’t think she wanted to know anything about Caroline.
“What happened next?”
“Esther and Ayana finished the spell calling on the moon’s power while Mikael helped them to complete the transformation forcing them to drink human blood when they woke. The change took place almost instantly. They were stronger, faster, and angrier. Their own father had attacked them, killed them even, as vampires when faced with this threat their first instinct was to attack. But when they tried to attack Mikael after first transitioning they found themselves being forced out of their home by an unseen force.”
“They hadn’t been invited in.” Stefan was the first to understand.
“No, they hadn’t, it was their fathers home and he hadn’t transitioned yet. Not that they understood that, there had never been vampires before remember and the rules hadn’t been established yet. All the things you and I know to be fact about our kind the originals found out by trial and error. While Rebekah, Kol, Finn, and Elijah all kept trying to get back into their home and to their father consumed by their instinct to kill, Klaus’s mind was only consumed by one thing.”
“Caroline.” Bonnie knew it had to be her, even with only hearing a part of their story she knew Caroline would be the only thing Klaus cared about.
“Exactly, she was what he thought of as he died and she was all he thought of once he was reborn. He quickly left his siblings behind and using his new found speed he ran to her side…”
“Caroline!” Klaus pounded on the door which blocked him from his beloved, desperate to see her face to know she was alive and safe.
“Nik, darling what is the matter?”
When the door flew open he tried to will himself across the threshold but found he could no more enter her home than he could his own. He was locked out.
“Nik, you’re bleeding what’s happened. Quickly come inside before the wolves catch the scent of your blood.”
Just like that the barrier was lifted and he was free to be with her again, to hold her in his arms.
“Oh, my love, the strangest thing has happened. I would explain it to you but I do not know where to begin nor do I truly understand it myself.”
“That can wait for now, sit and let me tend to your wounds.”
He sat as she asked and found himself lost in his thoughts as he tried to understand what his father had done to him. The trip here that would normally take several hours, he managed it in moments. He could not enter without an invitation. He could hear things from so far away that it was nearly maddening. He had died and yet here he sat living still, or maybe living again. The more he thought the less he understood. His mind was brought back to the present by the sound of Caroline’s hum of confusion.
“I can not seem to find a wound. There is a whole in the shirt where I know you were cut and there is blood but I see no injury. Niklaus what has happened?”
“I don’t know.” He hated that he sounded so lost but he was becoming more and more frightened the more he tried to understand. The sound of a crash made his head jerk up quickly. Seeing the bowl that held the wash water in pieces on the ground he realized that it must have slipped out of her hands while she was trying to put it away. But the shards of porcelain were not what held his interest, no what held him transfixed was the cut on her finger that was dripping blood.
“Going into bloodlust haze around your girl, never a good thing.”
“Thank you Damon, we would never have guessed that. Whatever would we do without your genius insights to see us through this?”
“Is that sarcasm, cause if it is then you’ve got some work to do if you want to get up to my level cause that was just pathetic.”
“Alright you two settle down.”
Stefan had, had just about enough of Damon and Rose bickering back and forth. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what came next in the story of Klaus and Caroline. Obviously he didn’t kill her because she was still alive today, but he more than most of them knew that killing someone was far from the worst thing you could do when triggered by the scent of their blood. The more he found out about them, the more he felt sorry for them.
He wasn’t feeling bad enough to back down from their plan, Elena’s life was just as important after all, but he did feel bad for the humans they once were. They had just been going along with their lives doing whatever they needed to in order to get through to the next day when an accident changed everything. They were never meant to be this thing they had become and now more than ever he wondered just how things would have gone in all their lives if Esther had never cast her spell.
Granted he hadn’t known until recently that that was what had created his kind but over the years he had wondered how things would have been different if there had never been vampires in the world. How would his life in 1864 have been different? Would he have been happy? Would Elena be happy? She would definitely have been safer that was for sure. Without vampires in the world the danger level goes down dramatically. In trying to save her own children Esther had condemned everyone else.
Even knowing that he couldn’t hate her and the more he learned about Klaus and Caroline the less he hated them as well. Unfortunately, no matter what Damon said, he was sure that Klaus didn’t feel the same way about them.
Klaus stood in front of the bleeding boy hanging from his ceiling and tried to get his rage under control. Even now covered in the boys blood he only wanted more, they had taken Caroline and there was only one response to that. Hearing someone behind him he tensed for a moment before spinning around to confront this new threat.
“Hello, brother up to your old tricks I see. Where is the lovely Caroline, I do prefer talking to you when your better half is here to help keep you reasonable.”
“Elijah.”
Kasey1939 