Bound in the Shadows / TVD N.M

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Always and forever

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Liora

Those words echoed in Liora's mind as she stood silently in the room, surrounded by the heavy sorrow hanging in the air like a storm about to break. Niklaus laid Rebekah gently into her coffin, his movements soft, betraying the tenderness he rarely allowed himself to show. He was always the villain, always the monster, but she saw beyond that. She had to. She had no other choice.

Bound to him. That was the connection she had never asked for, a bond neither of them could sever, no matter how hard they tried. And it wasn't just proximity. It was something deeper, something that tugged at her very soul, keeping her chained to his existence even from beyond the veil of life.

Liora watched as Nik, his jaw clenched, lowered his sister into her eternal prison. She could see the torment in his eyes, the unspoken apologies to the family he had torn apart time and time again. But underneath all that fury, that rage at the world, was something she'd always sensed—a desperate need for love and acceptance.

She spoke to him, knowing he wouldn't hear. "Nik, I know you hate yourself for this, but you had no choice."

His silence was heavy, filled with unspoken guilt. She had long since accepted that she was nothing more than a shadow, a ghost tethered to the other side, helpless to do anything but watch. And yet, there was still a pull—something that made her stay, that kept her from moving on to whatever awaited her beyond this purgatory. That witch, the one who had felt her presence so long ago, had hinted at something she hadn't fully grasped yet: a connection, a bond that made them more than just predator and prey, more than the ghost and the living.

The ginger-haired witch's words had replayed in her mind for centuries. "How you got stuck on the other side is a riddle to me, but I can feel the connection between you two."

What did it mean? Why was she bound to him of all people? Niklaus, with his power, his rage, his hunger for control—he was the last person anyone would expect to be linked to her. And yet, no matter how much she tried to fight it, she couldn't deny the truth. She was drawn to him, just as he was, in some way, bound to her. Whether he knew it or not.

As she watched him now, kneeling beside Rebekah's coffin, a fresh wave of sorrow washed over her. His hands trembled as he closed the lid, sealing his sister away yet again. She wanted to scream, to tell him he wasn't alone, that she was there, that she had always been there.

Instead, she whispered softly, "I'm here, Nik. I'm always here."

His hand paused for a moment, hovering over the coffin's lid, as if he had felt something, a faint shift in the air. But then he continued, shutting his sister away in the darkness.

Liora stepped closer, her form almost translucent in the dim light of the room. She knelt beside him, her fingers ghosting over his arm, though she could never truly touch him. She wished, just once, she could make him feel her presence. Just once, she wished he could see her, not as the ghost haunting his every move, but as someone who cared for him. Someone who understood.

Her voice was barely a whisper, a secret carried on the wind. "Nik... you're not alone. I'm still here. I'll always be here."

She saw the flicker in his eyes again, the momentary shift, the fleeting recognition of something beyond himself. But then it was gone, replaced by the cold, hard resolve that he wore like armor.

He stood, his movements heavy with regret, and left the room without another word. She followed him, like she always did, the tether between them pulling her forward. No matter where he went, she would follow. No matter how much it hurt to see him like this—so broken, so full of self-loathing—she couldn't leave.

Because she had made a promise to herself, to him, even if he didn't know it.

Always and forever.

And for Liora Lees, that was all that mattered.