CENTURIES | Lucien Castle

XXX. Queen Death

Abandoned Cabin, Unknown Location

Juliette was struggling to pull the stake out of her lower back. All she felt was pain as she laid down in a circle made of various leaves with candles spread out through the room she was being held captive in. Sweat dripped down her forehead to her cheeks as she reached her hand further to try and grip the stake that was causing her all of this misery. She grew frustrated as her fingers ran across the stake but she still couldn't hold onto it and dropped her hand and rested her head against the cold flooring.

The Hollow, in Sofya's body, sauntered into the room while smirking at the original on the floor. "Such a will to live. Wouldn't it be easier to give in?" The Hollow taunted Juliette. "To simply let go? Part of you must crave that peace. The silence of the nothing that lasts forever."

Juliette, despite her not being able to move that much, looked up at the Hollow. "Why don't you come a little closer, Inadu. I'll take you there myself."

"You'll have enough company. When you die, so, too, does your entire sire line," Inadu reminded the Mikaelson heretic. "The great sacrifice which will return me to flesh and blood. All I need now is the last of my remains for the ritual. Your family has done the job of finding them, and they should be coming to me soon enough," she explained to Juliette, who still felt sweat on her face and neck and had dried blood covering her hands.

"You can't expect to torment and torture my family and survive," Juliette smirked at the Hollow.

Inadu spun around to face Juliette and stopped running her fingers over the bones she had laying on a nearby table. "I survived far worse fates than your family. I say let them come. They will try to save you from the poison coursing through your veins, and in doing so, they will give me what I want," she walked around the circle and squatted down behind Juliette and leaned closer to speak directly in the original heretic's ear. "And as a reward for their efforts, I will let your family watch as you finally die, including your precious love, Lucien."

Inadu simpered and reached out her hand and twisted the stake that was still impaled in Juliette's back. Juliette screamed as the poison from the stake moved faster through her veins and as the pain increased.

****

Lucien blinked to adjust to the sunlight that was streaming in from the window with the curtains opened. He sat up slightly and looked to his left to see an empty spot. He scanned the room to see if Juliette had already gotten up, but she was not in the bedroom at all.

In the courtyard, Kennedy sat across from her Uncle Klaus and Hope with an enormous amount of her new favorite treat, beignets. "Now, you can't call yourselves a connoisseur if you have not sampled each and every one of these," Kennedy helped herself to a beignet as Klaus held out one for Hope to bite into.

After taking a bite, Hope had a look of delight on her face. "Mmm, it's so good!"

Kennedy had sugar lingering on her lips as she finished her little pastry. "These are my favorite."

Klaus had an amused look on his face as he watched his daughter chew her beignet. "Did I ever tell you the story of my first beignet?" Hope shook her head no as Kennedy grabbed another one from the plate in front of her. She was trying to eat as many as she could before her parents found her and made her stop eating all the beignets. "No? You are in for a treat. Long ago, three French nuns came to New Orleans looking for a fresh start and they came here. They marched right into our courtyard, and they presented your Uncle Elijah and me with these rather lumpy-looking, sugar-coated pastries. Well, needless to say, we were entranced. We set them up quite well."