confessions
Whoever said you can talk to your family about everything was wrong. For the last ten minutes, Lily had been sitting on an expensive couch in the living room of the huge Mikaelson mansion.
She stared at her phone trying to find the courage to tell her family about her pregnancy by a psychopathic hybrid and the witches who were threatening her.
When the redhead heard two feminine pairs of footsteps on the giant wooden stairs she chose to shove her problems into the back of her head and take care of them later on.
"How are you, bowling ball?", asked Lucy as she entered the room. Lily rolled her eyes at the dumb nickname referencing her pregnancy. "Just packed out our stuff. I mean we've been here for days so it was kinda time. Even if Elijah isn't here anymore."
"So-", Blaise stopped talking as they heard a car pull up in front of the giant white house. The three of them instantly pulled their wands out of their pockets and walk to the door. Blaise and Lucy in the front as if they try to protect Lily.
Lucy gave the other two a questioning look asking for their permission to open the fulminate door. Blaise nodded slightly causing the redhead to reach for the golden doorknob.
When she opened the door they saw a beautiful woman. She had light blue eyes, pink full lips and pale light skin with a small dusting of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her natural light blonde hair was open and wavy.
She looked slightly confused for a short moment as she saw the three girls. Until she realized who they were. "Which one of you fucked my brother?" Her accent was similar to the one of Elijah and Niklaus.
"Lily is the one who makes stupid decisions", replied Lucy as she pointed at the only other redhead in the room. Normally Lily would have rolled her eyes but considering their situation she wasn't wrong.
"I was expecting to see some kind of supernatural, miracle baby bump. I guess you're not showing yet. It's Laura, isn't it?", she said as she shoved herself between the witches into the hallway.
"Actually, it's Lily and you are Rebekah I assume." She spoke this was at the same time as Blaise mumbled with her usual annoyed expression: "Somebody has their brothers manners."
"And his temper, too, so watch it. Where's Elijah?", snapped Rebekah at her. Lily replied untypical for her maybe she was annoyed by her friends and Rebekah or she was angry at herself because of her situation or at Elijah because he left or it was simply the hormones. "After making big poetic promises about family, and protecting the baby, he disappeared faster than Blaise's dad."
Rebekah seemed worried by that statement, making a frown appear on her face. "Did he tell you where he went?"
"Nope, he didn't even tell us that he was going to go away. Klaus had to tell us the next day.", said Lucy walking to the comfortable green couch in the living followed by Lily. Blaise chose after a few seconds to also go into the living room as well. "Things like that happen if you trust vampires."
"Elijah is not just any vampire, and he doesn't break promises. Which means Niklaus has done something dastardly and Klaus-like.", explained Rebekah unexpected calm as she walked into the living room. Only to then start screaming for her brother. "Klaus! Get out here and tell me what you've done with our brother, you narcissistic, back-stabbing wanker!"
Klaus opened a pair of white doors and entered the room. "Enough with all the shouting. Little sister, I should have known. I assume the six dead vampires were your doing?"
"Ooh it's getting dramatic", whispered Lucy to the friends who sat next to her on the expensive sofa.
"They were very rude", answered Rebekah her brother now calm again ignoring Lucy's comment. "Trying to victimize a poor, innocent girl just trying to find her way to the Quarter. So sorry, were they friends of yours? Oh, that's right, you don't have any friends."
"I do have friends. I have Marcel. You remember him, don't you? Yes, of course, you do", Klaus said his tone hinting on something the girl he impregnated couldn't really identify. "He fancies himself the 'King of the Quarter' now, and he has these rules about killing vampires. It'll be fun to see what sort of punishment he comes up with for you."
"I don't care about Marcel or his rules. Elijah doesn't welch on deals. What did you do to him?", Rebekah asked sounding a bit desperate which made her a little more sympathy to Lily.
"Perhaps he's on holiday... or taking a long autumn nap upstairs. Well, go on. Take a look around. You remember this house as well as I do." Rebekah walked to the door to leave the room but before she arrived she stopped again and shot Niklaus a look over her shoulder. "I remember everything."
"I remember how the drunken fool of a governor hid away all of our vampire sins in exchange for gold. I remember the lavish parties the governor threw as if to impress you. I remember finding a moment of affection with the governor's son, Emil. And I remember that even Elijah was happy."
"Well, he wasn't good enough for you", replied Klaus without sounding regretting. Rebekah answered now becoming aggressive: "No one was ever good enough for me, Nik, you made sure of that. Now, where is Elijah?"
Klaus' phone started buzzing. He checked it and then moved to leave.
"Where are you going?", Rebekah called after him. He replied without even stopping to walk. "It appears the night is not quite over, yet. I'm off for another drink with Marcel."
"Elijah told me about your plan to take apart Marcel's empire piece by piece. I don't remember it involving you two drinking New Orleans dry together", his sister said mocking him.
Picking up on her tone he answered sarcastically: "I know you don't have many friends, Rebekah, but what some friends do when they get together is they drink. And when they drink, they tell secrets. Marcel has somehow found a way to control the entirety of witches in the Quarter, and I aim to uncover the 'how' so I might take it for myself. Finding Elijah didn't make my to-do list today."
After this explanation, he continued his way towards the white wooden door, but he stopped again before he left to say: "Oh, and welcome home, little sister."
The door shut behind him loudly and Rebekah turned on the spot to the green couch with the three young witches, contemplating what he said.
"You. I'm going to search this house inch by inch until I find what my evil brother has done to my good one. You're helping.", commanded Rebekah the three girls.
After around ten minutes the four females made their way down a spiral staircase to the basement.
"The governor had lots of secret rooms. I'll show you his favorite", explained Rebekah leading the group. They arrive in a dusty, cobwebbed cellar room. Lily spied the coffins that Klaus kept his siblings daggered in.
"Do you think Klaus killed him?", asked Lily shocked. Rebekah replied annoyed: "We can't be killed, silly girl. That doesn't stop Klaus from finding ways to torture us. He has a set of mystical silver daggers. One in the heart sends us into a deep slumber. Klaus gets his jollies from keeping us in a box until he decides to pull the dagger out. That must be what he's done to Elijah. This one's mine."
She pointed at the one in the middle. Lily shot her a sympathetic look: "I'm so sorry."
Rebekah replied after a short moment of surprise showing her emotions away: "He likes to be prepared for when his family members inevitably disappoint him. Elijah's isn't here - he must've stashed him elsewhere."
"I feel sick.", commented Lucy which earned agreement by Blaise: "Me too."
"Welcome to the family, love. You all should've run the second you realized Elijah was gone."
"Well, the witches have put some sort of hex on me. As long as I'm carrying this baby, I can't leave New Orleans. If I do, they kill me", said Lily causing Lucy to add: "And we're just here to look after her."
"Well, knowing Klaus, he's planning a box for at least Lily here the second she gives birth to whatever's cooking in her tum. I'm leaving as soon as I find Elijah. Being daggered in a box for decades sucks, trust me. You'd best find a way to break that hex and run."
"I'm working on it", replied the pregnant redhead. "But they practice a different kind of magic then we do so we aren't able to break their spell."
"Good luck, girls, I really hope you can figure something out", Rebekah turned away and went off to continue her search for her brother, leaving the girls to consider what said.
A half-hour later the three best friends walked up to a shop front in the French Quarter right when the shopkeeper appears to be leaving.
"Hey, hey!", Blaise called out for the brunette who ran the place.
"We're closed, sorry", excused the women herself. In reply, Lily begged: "I just need one teeny, tiny little herb. I really need it. Please?"
"Which herb?", wanted to know the New Orleans witch getting more comfortable with the idea of helping them. Lily replied relieved by the help of the women: "Crushed aconite flower."
"Wolfsbane? That's a poison. You're gonna kill a wolf?", asked the women who hadn't introduced herself as Katie yet. She gave a look to Lucy before focusing on Lily's faint answer. "Just a little one."
"Give me a minute." Katie entered the shop again. After a few seconds, she came back, holding a vial in her hand.
"Cut it with jimson weed. A few drops in some hot tea - that should do it", she adviced the pregnant one pitiful. Blaise handed Katie some money but she refused it shaking her head. "It's an ugly town for wolves. You're doing the right thing."
After they thanked the New Orleans witch, the friends bought a cup of tea and sat down on a bench. Lily took shaky breaths as she dripped the poison into a cup. She talked to herself trying to calm herself down."Come on, Lily. One upset stomach and all this stupid drama is ancient history."
"Whatever you do we will support you", reassured Lucy patting her shoulder. Blaise nodded reassuring.
Lily lifted the cup toward her face, closed her eyes, then opened them and lowered the cup again without drinking it. She sighed deeply. The noise of a branch nearby snapping was heard.
They shot up, looking around, grabbed their wands and then turned to find a vampire right in front of her. "Dumb move, coming into the Quarter. You're coming with me, witch."
"I have had it up to here with vampires telling me what to do", said Lily as she threw the cup's steaming contents into his face, causing him to roar in pain. They spun around, only to be faced with two more vampires.
"Petrificus Totalus!", shouted the girls in unison at the two of them paralyzing the two men.
Suddenly Rebekah showed up, snapped the neck of the first vampire who just got burned by the tea. "And I thought you needed help."
Klaus appeared next to his sister. "Wonderful Rebekah now I have to get these two of vervain, compel them to believe their mate found religion and moved to Utah so that they can explain to Marcel why he lost more vampires tonight."
He dragged the vampire to the house followed by Rebekah and Lily.
As they entered Klaus asked them angrily: "Does anyone have any more questions? No? Good, because I have a question. Lily, what were you doing in the bloody French Quarter in the first place? Answer me!"
"Leave her be", Rebekah yelled trying to calm down her halfbrother.
"You wanna know what I was doing?", asked Lily now also yelling. "I was buying poison, so I could put your little baby out of its misery."
Klaus ran at her with vampire speed and pinned her to the door by the neck. She gasped for air as he choked her.
"Nik! NIK!", called the blonde for the hybrid. She ran at Klaus with vampire speed, pushed him off of Lily and grabbed him by the shoulders. Lily coughed and spluttered, massaging her throat.
"Keep your hands off her! She is pregnant, for God's sake! All of this bluster about not wanting the child, and then the second she tells you she's ready to get rid of it?" She got calmer and her voice became more sensitive. "It's okay to care. It's okay to want something. That's all Elijah was trying to do, all he's ever wanted for you. All we've ever wanted."
Klaus, calmed down but reeling from being confronted with his feelings, and sat down on the stairs. Rebekah sat down beside him.
"I gave Elijah to Marcel", admitted Klaus quietly. Lily eyed him surprised and Rebekah asked shocked but confused turning her head slightly: "What?"
"Marcel was nervous", explained Klaus to his sister as if the witches weren't present. "It's bad enough one Original returned to town, but two? His crew was getting antsy. He wanted Elijah gone, so... I gave him a peace offering."
"You bartered our brother?", questioned the blonde vampire betrayed looking him straight into his eyes. Klaus tried to excuse himself: "I have a plan. Gain Marcel's trust, dismantle his empire, honor Elijah's wish that that baby is born. I am executing that plan the only way I know-how. If you don't like it, there's the door. See if I care."
Klaus rose from the stairs and left the room through a pair of wide doors. Following that Rebekah decided to also leave but into another room.
"We should give her the daggers", exclaimed Blaise after a bit of silence. Lucy replied: "Yes that should we do but actually I was going to call my sister."
"I can also do it alone", replied Blaise before turning to Lily. "So Lils has time to tell her family about the pregnancy."
"How do you know I haven't told them already?", asked Lily trying to sneak out of her misery but Lucy and Blaise only gave her 'the look'.
"Yeah you're right I'm going to call them... Now", said Lily reassuring herself that she could handle the situation.
A few minutes later the pregnant redhead found herself on the wooden bench on the back porch. She dialed the number of her older brother James who after a few moments picked up. "How can I help my favorite sister today?"
"I'm your only sister", replied Lily. "The only one I know about but seriously what do you need?"
"It would be great if we could talk face to face", replied she now also getting serious.
"Sure where are you?", James asked his sister who instantly gave him the address and told him to bring their other brother Albus along.
Shortly afterward two boys in their twenties with messy untidy jet black hair appeared next to her. The taller and slightly more sporty one with hazel eyes and dark bags under them also known as James wore glasses. The other one was Albus who had a thin face, a short stature, and bright green almond-shaped eyes.
Lily got up and pulled both of them into a hug saying: "I have missed you, boys."
When she let go of them she told them to sit down which made Al curious. "What's going on?"
But they still sat down. Lily made eye contact with them before she started walking up and down. "You know that I and the girls have been living in New York for the past years-" James interrupted her sarcastically: "What you have moved out of country years ago? Why didn't you tell us?"
"So back to the topic shortly ago aunt Luna and uncle Rolf were lead to Virginia by their travels. So we chose to visit them and later on me and the girls ended up in this bar where I met this guy... And things happened... And now I'm pregnant with Klaus Mikaelson's baby", she rambled the last part before turning to her brothers for a reaction.
"Merlin's beard, Lily, you can't be serious", yelled James shooting up from his seat. Lily stayed calm and continued: "I know it's now optimal." James mumbled something interrupting her but she ignored him. "After that, we still had a few days off so chose to visit New Orleans for no particular reason. Then we got into some trouble with the witches here who are now threatening to kill me and whatever is going on in my stomach if the Mikaelsons don't follow their orders or if I try to leave New Orleans."
"I'm sorry, Lily. Is there anything we can do?", asked Al giving her a sympathetic look. "Well, actually it would be great if you wouldn't tell mom and dad or anybody else til I do it myself... And maybe you can try to find a way to break the witches spell"
They were silent after that til James said: "Have you heard what Roxanne did?"
Relieved of the change of topic Lily chuckled and replied: "No, I didn't. Spill the tea!"
⭑⭑⭑
The next morning as Lily was already awake but still laid in her bed because it was so warm and comfortable. When she heard footsteps enter she acted as if she still was asleep. The girl could feel somebody's eyes on her and concluded that it was Klaus because the girls would have rudely woken her up, her brothers had left late the day before and Rebekah had no reason to be there.
She heard him walk again to the corner of her room where her bag stood. Something rustled so she opened her eyes and saw Klaus smelling on the package of wolfsbane he held in his hands. He must have pulled it out of her bag.
"I didn't use it", she said causing him to look up from the herbs making eye contact with her. "I didn't know you're awake."
She sat up in bed while Klaus looked away from her and stared out the window. "What stopped you? You could have been free of all of this... of me."
"I don't know. I couldn't do it, to be honest... I always felt like I disappointed everybody around me and making this decision for some reason felt so right if that makes any sense", she said looking at her feet shyly while playing with a strain of her red hair. Then she added kind of jokingly: "Also I'm not going to back off from a pair of witches."
"I'm beginning to think we're a lot alike, you and I. We're both somehow alone in big families and have learned to fight when we're backed into a corner", his strong accent clearly hearable while he spoke. Lily looked him straight into his eyes. "Well, we're backed into a corner now."
"Ah, that we are. It's time to fight... little sorceress." They smiled at each other as he stepped closer to gently place his right hand on Lily's shoulder. He then backed away to leave the room.
"This whole thing with Marcel - the deal you have with the witches, trying to take him down, take what's his - Rebekah told me that you two once loved each other like family. What happened?", she asked curiously without trying to invade his privacy.
"I made Marcel everything that he is. I treated him like a son. And when my father chased me and my family from New Orleans a hundred years ago, we believed Marcel was killed - we each mourned him, in our own way. Yet, when I returned, I found not only had he survived, he had thrived. Instead of seeking us out, instead of sticking together as one, he made a choice to take everything my family had built and made it his own. Now, he is living in our home, he is sleeping in our beds. That 'M' he stamps everywhere... it does not stand for 'Marcel'. It stands for 'Mikaelson'. I want it all back, and if I have to push him out to get it, then that's exactly what I'll do."
After a last look at Lily, he closed the brown bedroom door.