Out of Spite

Truth

Hours.

Klaus had been sitting at Elise's bed for hours since she passed out.

Every slight movement from her made him perk up, eager to see her awake. Every breath she took made him anxious and every mumble from her lips made him on edge.

The longer she stayed asleep, the stronger his worry became. The worry and fear of how she'd react to him before he could compel her to forget what happened. It was cruel to have her memories scattered about like broken glass from that night, but Klaus knew it had to be done.

He kept glancing at the area where her stab wound was, the dry blood staining her shirt in a large patch around the cut from the knife. Klaus was used to injuries and not caring about whenever a human he knew got hurt as they would usually turn into his blood bag.

So why was he feeling so different about Elise?

His eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it but he quickly jolted as she shuffled in the bed again - this time she woke up. He inched closer to her, resting his hand beside her on the bed as he waited for her to react to him being beside her.

She looked to him, "Klaus?"

"Hello, love" he said in a soft tone. "How are you feeling?"

She brought her hand to her forehead with a groan.

"My head hurts" she muttered, her voice raspy. "Am I hungover or something?"

Klaus chuckled, "no".

She smiled but it faded.

"You don't remember anything from last night".

There it was. The compulsion. He had to make it quick, waiting for the bubbling panic in her eyes to fade.

"What?"

"Elise" Klaus continued. "Whatever happened last night, you don't remember it".

She frowned at him, her expression puzzled by what he said. This made him share the same look and confusion.

"I do, though" she said. "I remember going to buy clothes with you, I remember talking about how you don't like chamomile tea, I remember those men-".

She stopped.

Klaus watched as Elise began to remember what happened despite his compulsion. Why did it fail? She wasn't a vampire herself so it should've worked.

"Klaus".

Klaus' chest stung as he heard her words break from fear. He would hear her heart begin to quicken despite her trying to stay composed and calm.

"When that man was holding me" she said as he dreaded every word she spoke. "You were too far to get to me yet you...".

"I was closer than you think" he chuckled, nervousness hidden behind it. "I wasn't that-".

"But then you kill him and I was hurt" her eyes darted around the room in panic. "You brought me back here".

Her hands rushed to pull up her shirt to find the wound, but there was none. Her shirt was blood soaked so Elise knew she hadn't imagined it, her dark eyes then shot to Klaus.