Their Hope

Chapter Eighteen

Four months.

Four months Hope Mikaelson was sent away: The world still believes she's dead.

Four months Rieka and Klaus separated. They didn't do it on purpose, they just grew apart for mourning. Klaus and Rieka had different ways of doing so. Elijah told them to lay low and plot, so Klaus listened. Rieka did until month three, then she started finding and mauling witches to the point of death. Ripping limbs off, casting a death spell, snapped necks, and more.

She's a Bellissima, it was how she grieved. Javen got that because when his brother died he went on a rampage all over the world and didn't stop until three years ago.

The compound completely shut down, covers on furniture, gates locked, barely an activity, except on full moons. Full moons Klaus was in agony, Rieka cast a spell to dull it a bit but it didn't work. She wouldn't know anymore.

One her fourth month of grief she spent in the bayou alone in wolf form, killing animals of all kinds. Being in wolf form dulls emotions so she didn't feel so much at once. She only comes back to shower, sometimes to talk to her parents, since they know how this feels, to ease her mind with her magic by putting herself into a few-hour coma, similar to a snapped neck, but more peaceful.

It quells her anger so she doesn't try to kill Elijah when he tells her to behave, which happens. He stopped when she but liquid vervain in his underwear and his toothpaste.

Ouch.

_

A white wolf, covered in blood from killing animals in the woods, and a few straggling humans, saunters to the clothesline as she shifts into a human form. She cleans the blood off as possible and dresses herself in the clothes she left there. A white tank top, jeans, combat boots, and a leather jacket. She walks down the hill, towards the shack where Eve died.

She only stops when she sees something that makes her eyes water. A dirt and burn babydoll. She picks a few leaves and things from its dress and thinks about her daughter. How she'd never see Hope running around, imagining her dolls on adventures, walking around the house on her own feet, Klaus holding baby Hope in his arms, teaching her to paint.

She starts sobbing, heavily sobbing. She sits on the dirty, cold ground and sobs. She places a hand on her stomach and cries. Her baby is gone, she might not be dead, which Rieka was thankful for, but she isn't with her. Nine months. Nine months of protecting and loving her, Klaus and her bonding and getting closer because of her, Hope was the best thing to happen to her and now she's not here.

The person she loves the most isn't around and she wants someone to tell her it'll be ok and she'll see Hope before she misses everything, but they can't they don't know. She tries to get visions but, in her stress and grief, they gone out the window like a paper bag in the wind. If she'll see them again, she doesn't know. Or care. She's only concerned that her baby is safe, loved, and seeing her again.

And that's how she spends the rest of that day, mourning. Crying, being a wolf, again, if anyone were to see her, they wouldn't know she's one of the most powerful beings to ever walk the earth, that's how horrible she looks. She hasn't eaten in weeks, almost a month and a half. She's lost weight and the tan on her face is gone, she's pale, but since she's immortal she'll be fine.

She's surviving.

But surviving doesn't mean living. She wasn't living. She was a human body dumped with supernaturally heightened emotions, and this hurt.

Badly.

_

Rieka, after going back to the compound, walks into her and Klaus' room. They grew apart but share a bed at night out of both parties wanting comfort, yet not asking. It was complicated but help numb some pain. She was going to grab clothes and shower but pauses when she sees Elijah clearing out the nursery, all she feels is rage.