Forget me Not

Chapter 6 - Once in a Lifetime (Finale)

My hatred for Van Helsing had only ever grown over the years but instead of killing him like I know he would not hate to do to me, I imprisoned him when I had the chance, and then he broke free and captured myself and Rebekah, and once again I decided to imprison him although I had told myself I would kill him and I believed I was more than ready to end his existence but to my own shock someone had already beat me to it, leaving me now to wonder forever if I could have really killed the monster who I once called father.
"I cannot help but think that Van dying at the very convenient time of you taking me away from him is exactly the kind of shit you would do," I said accusing Klaus, as he, Rebekah, Elijah, and myself had gathered within the Victorian gothic library of the castle I had claimed as my own.
"I was with you the entire time we were away from him besides who bloody cares who killed him the point is he's dead now," Klaus replied denying any trickery on his part, but I did not believe a word he said.
"The point is I was supposed to get to kill him nobody else!" I shouted at the original hybrid, furious to have missed my opportunity.
"Calm down Salem the point is your daddy drama is dead now...literally," Rebekah told me before turning her attention to Elijah. "Well done brother!"
"If I had got my hands on him, they would have heard his screams halfway across the world nor would his death have ended so quickly either," Elijah responded to his sister's accusation, denying that he too was the killer.
"Well, somebody had to kill him, and we are the only ones here," I argued with them all.
"Unless it was a witch, your father was not exactly caring of which supernatural he killed as long as they were different, he hunted them surely you are not his only enemy on this earth," Rebekah suggested, making far too much sense for my own liking.
"Salem things may not have ended the way you like it but take a moment to appreciate that Van is gone and his reign of terror over you is finally over." Elijah wisely advised me as he walked over and gave me a hug. "We will find out who killed him, and I will forever be in the debt. He's gone now, he cannot hurt you anymore!"
Elijah was right, Elijah was always right, whether it was the way I planned it or not my ordeal with Van Helsing was finally over, my centuries-long fight with my father was over and I should be pleased with that alone, and perhaps I was but I do not know if some of Klaus' paranoia had rubbed off on me or if my gut was telling me the truth, the truth being that something was far from right.

Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah left to return to New Orleans that night and although I wanted to go with them, I had to stay put at least until I could answer some of my many questions. How did Van break out of his prison in the first place? How did somebody kill my so-called father without anyone hearing so much as a pin drop? And other than myself the Mikaelson family and the newly deceased Van Helsing, who else knew where my home was? A secret I had hidden for over a century.
I returned to the dungeons underneath my castle to examine the scene in which Van was murdered even though I had examined it already with no telltale signs to be found, I spent most of the night there examining every inch of that place for something, anything, even if it led to how Van escaped beginning with although his murderer was the reveal I wanted the most when suddenly I heard footsteps from above and as I focused on those steps I could tell somebody has just let themselves into my library, a place where I kept everything of value to me, the many grimoires I had collected over the centuries, and so I sped my way into my library with all the vampire strength I could someone within me only to find Klaus stood there clearly waiting for me and nowhere near New Orleans where I had believed he was on his way to.
"I took time to think over your paranoia having something of an expert in that area and I could not help but wonder whether or not you may have a point. Whoever killed your father knew enough to know where this place was...information I believe only Elijah was privy to until now." Klaus told me, surprising me by agreeing with my right to be suspicious. "If I was intent on killing Van, I would not stop at just him I would wipe out his entire bloodline which unfortunately for you no matter how much you try to deny it includes you."
"So, what you are here to protect me?" I asked him in complete disbelief. "Because I do not need protecting least of all from you."
"Oh, I know you do not need any protection in fact I knew that long before you even did. I m mostly here because my curiosity got the better of me but if you would rather, I go..." He replied but before he could finish his speech, I decided to cut him off.
"Leave!" I demanded. "This is the closest thing I have to a home, and I'd rather not have you here."
"You really hate me?" He asked all too smugly with a devilish grin on his face. "If you hate me so damn much then there must be a part of you that cares about me enough to hate me."
"Why are you doing this to me?" I wondered, growing tired of the games I believed Klaus to be playing. "You really need to stop doing this to me Niklaus because it took me a lifetime to get over you and what you are doing now is far crueler than anything I have ever experienced."
"Do you still fall asleep watching the stars sometimes? I remember we spent countless nights under the stars, how I used to wrap you up in my arms wishing that I'd never had to let you go." He said to me as he began walking towards me, trying to charm his way out of an argument. "When I kissed you, I would wish I'd never have to stop or when you looked at me with nothing but love in your eyes it made me happier than I have ever been. I should never have lied to you when I said you meant nothing to me."
"How am I supposed to know that you're not telling me lies now? How am I supposed to believe that you have ever been truthful to me?" I questioned him, wanting to believe what he was telling me, that he really did love me, but fearing this was all a part of some twisted plan.
"Because I love you, Salem Helsing! And now that my memories are fully restored it feels like only yesterday, I first laid my eyes on you." Klaus declared. "I loved you then and I love you now whether you choose to believe that is up to you but let me just say one thing I should never have left you then so please do not make me leave you again!"
I wanted to believe him more than anything, he had said everything I had been longing to hear from him for centuries, and it was only then when he began to walk away from that I reached out for his arm, knowing at that moment that I had no choice but to believe him because I never wanted to leave him again.
"Stay!" I told him, as he turned around to face me, before pulling me into his embrace and kissing me passionately, feeling as magical then as it did the very first time and it was his lips not his words that told me this was real, he really did love me.
And that night, all suspicions were put on hold, as I only thought of him and he of me, as we took to the castle grounds and made love under the stars, falling asleep in each other's arms like no time had passed between us at all.

After all the centuries of loneliness and despair, I had finally found happiness, I was loved by a man whom I loved too, I found a father in Elijah, a sister in Rebekah, and a brother in Kol made friends with Freya, Davina, Keelin, Hayley, Josh, and even Marcel. Finally, any fears of being forgotten, not meaning anything to anyone, all those worries were lifted in a single night, I finally got my happy ending...
But what makes a happy ending is never the final moments of one person's life, it does not matter if they lived happily ever after it mattered that they lived and were happy for even a moment of your life. You get a happy ending if you were loved if you loved, and it is the greatest of endings if you are remembered.
I awoke early hours in the morning after my passionate tryst with the love of my lifetimes, but as I turned over to look at Klaus I was left horrified to see him grey and lifeless as I heard footsteps from afar, as I quickly sped through the castle grounds to find my clothing, clothe myself and shortly after just outside the front door to my castle, there he stood, a man I believed to be only a myth, the prince of darkness himself.
"It is nice to finally meet the son of my greatest foe," Dracula said, greeting me with the same accent I had grown up hearing. "I doubt your father ever spoke of me just like he never spoke of you, for we were both his greatest shames. Me, I was the one monster he could not kill, and you were the one monster he was responsible for creating."
"Well, I guess that answers who killed my father before I got a chance to," I replied to him, still getting over the shock that Dracula really existed after all. "I'm guessing with the magic as well as being undead that I am not the original heretic after all."
"No, but you are a creature who has earned my respect not only capturing the man I never could but turning him into the very thing he hates most...us," Dracula responded. "Together we could rule this wretched world, no longer lurk in the shadows and be the most powerful creatures on this earth. Klaus Mikaelson does not deserve your loyalty nor does any of his siblings."
"If you want me to be your bride then you are out of luck because I was never one for sequels, you just can never beat the originals," I said rather smugly, a little too proud with my choice of words as I charged at the undead Impaler.
Before I even had a chance to lay a hand on the notorious, he pulled out a wooden stake from his jacket pocket and launched it into my chest, the stake quickly piercing my heart as I began to feel death was approaching me quickly. I knew I had been defeated but I was never one to give up easily and so I pulled the stake out of my chest and launched it into Dracula's chest, knowing that if I were going to die then he would be coming with me, saving Klaus from whatever cruel fate Dracula may have had planned for him.
"We could have been the greatest partnership of all time," Dracula said with his final words as we both fell to the ground, our bodies turning grey almost instantly.
And that was it, after centuries of wanting happiness, I finally got what I had always wanted only for my story to come to an end shortly afterward but that does not mean that just because I met a grizzly end, that I did not have a happy ending and as for Dracula well his story never really has an ending just another new beginning.
As a human child I grew up in several unhappy homes being tossed around like an unwanted pet, only seeing my father from time to time in which the only attention he showed me was training me to one day take over as the next great Helsing hunter and when I made clear that was my destiny I was quickly abandoned.
As a heretic I found love with Klaus Mikaelson and family within his siblings, his brother Elijah becoming the only true father figure in my life and for the first time I had a taste of what true happiness could be only for it to cruelly be taken away from me.
My whole life then became a search for happiness, to mean something to someone, and to be remembered in fondness, and that's exactly what I got in the end so do not feel sad for me because I spent centuries truly miserable and only in death did I find the happy ending I was looking for.