𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 ━━ HOPE MIKAELSON.

23

AFTER SPEAKING WITH his two sisters, Jaxon was walking in the hallway, making his way to his room. Once inside, he closed the door and took off his shirt, tossing it somewhere across his room which was still a mess.

He walked over to his wardrobe and was searching through for another shirt when someone knocked on the door. Knowing who it was by her scent, he let out a huff before saying, "come in," in a rather annoyed tone.

Hope stepped inside, closing the door behind as she stood in front of it with her hands hanging to her sides and her lips pulled between her teeth. Jaxon glanced at her, "what do you want?"

"I wanted to..." She tried to ignore his perfectly sculpted body by adverting her eyes, looking at everywhere but him, "... Apologise."

"News flash," Jaxon looked at her, "your story is not going to fix shit."

"How do I fix it?" Hope asked, "I hate that you aren't even looking at me let alone talking to me— I... I don't like this. I want to fix this... Tell me what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing." He slid a grey shirt over his head, "now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed. I'm sleepy— exhausted even."

"You've been sleeping all day," Hope deadpanned, "there's no way you're going to sleep now. You just want rid of me."

"Aren't you smart?" He rolled his eyes, pointing behind her, "the door's just behind you."

"Jax, just listen—"

"—Come back tomorrow. Or don't." He cut her off, pulling the blanket over his head. Hope let out a frustrated sigh as she walked over to his bed, pulling the blanket off him, "I came here to talk to you and you're going to listen to me. I'm not leaving until I'm done."

Jaxon rolled his eyes, snatching his blanket from her hands as he shot her a look and was about to speak when she beat him to it, "Look, what I did was wrong and I regret it. I'm really sorry— I wasn't thinking." She took a deep breath and blurted out, "all I could think of was that dragon and I had to get rid of it before it hurt someone I held dear who includes you and I'm sorry for that. I panicked and I did something which I shouldn't have done. I'm sorry. I've lost people my whole life and I wouldn't have been able to bear it if either you or Alaric got hurt because of that dragon so I did what I thought was right, okay? I didn't think of the consequences. But then I realised that I was being a bitch and I ended up hurting you myself. I couldn't help myself, it's just that when I start using dark magic, I kind of run out of control. I'm truly sorry, I regret everything I did. I just wanted you to know that."

She said all that in one go without breathing while Jaxon stared at her, a look of indifference on his face. Hope sighed helplessly, lowering her voice, "I— I don't know what you saw... But I know it's bad. I'm sorry I did that."

After a long moment of silence between the two, Jaxon finally broke it. "Come here," he said, gesturing to the empty space beside him on the bed. Hope said nothing and did as she was told.

She refrained herself from blushing when Jaxon grabbed her left hand in his left cold one. She stared at his bruised knuckles, feeling bad but flustered at the same time "W–What are you doing?" She asked, her heartbeat picking up which didn't go unnoticed by Jaxon but he said nothing. Instead, he said, "close your eyes."

Confused, she did it anyway. Once she closed her eyes, she was brought back to a whole different place. Hope furrowed her brows in confusion. However, when she saw an around twelve year old boy who looked a lot like Jaxon, she realised what was happening. She was seeing a memory— Jaxon's memory.

Hope saw it all. She saw how Jaxon's mother attacked him in her wolf form, she saw how he was hurt and how he killed her— how his powers killed her. She saw how he triggered his curse. He was twelve and alone. But that was not all.

She saw how his mother's pack went rabid— to avenge their fallen alpha. They looked at the twelve year old as if he was a monster, a murderer. Hope felt the emotions he did, she felt her own heart break. Tears filled in her eyes and steamed down her face when the pack members grabbed Jaxon by his two arms, lifting him in their air after having injected wolfsbane in his body to weaken him. He was only twelve, he didn't know how to use his abilities back then.

They tortured him— with wolfsbane, with dark magic. They avenged their fallen alpha until Jaxon snapped. Hades couldn't see his son being tortured by some worthless dogs so he helped him.

Hope watched as twelve year old Jaxon's eyes flashed red, making the others scream in fear as he broke away from their hold and ripped their hearts out one by one— women and men included. Luckily, there weren't any children. When he was done killing them all, he set the whole village on fire before walking away.