From a Cradle to a Grave

Chapter 39

Okay okay I know I haven't updated in forever but it's because we're nearing the end of the book and I needed to think of the perfect way to end it!! Anyways, double update today :)

Klaus Mikaelson had spent over one thousand years on this earth, and he had experienced an astounding number of emotions during this time. Happiness. Sadness. Loneliness. Misery. Fury. Yet not once, had such a deafening roar sounded in his ears before. Not once, had his vision blurred and his tears fallen like this, hotter and thicker than the time he had shed tears of blood.

 Two screams had sounded, neither of them having come from the lungs of the tribrid nor the original hybrid. Beside them, Aurora de Martel and Hayley Marshall had their hands stuck inside each others’ chests, wrapped around each others’ hearts. A thousand thoughts had run through Aurora’s mind in that split second, her internal self waging wars over just how much she wanted the Marshall girl dead.

 The Crescent Queen had made the decision for her. Aurora had felt her heart getting pulled out of her body, the organ severing itself from the veins that surrounded it- So she had pulled, too, she had torn Hayley’s heart straight out and cast it off to the side. Two seconds later, Aurora had realized she was desiccating, she saw her heart in the wolf’s hand… And just like that, the oldest non-original vampire in the world… Died.

 Hope screamed and shrieked and instantly stopped with her attacks against Klaus. She knelt beside her birthmother, the woman she should have gotten to know better than she had. She shook Hayley’s shoulders, begged her to come back…

 And while all this was happening, Klaus Mikaelson simply stared silently, unable to process what his eyes were showing him. Hayley wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be. He refused to believe it, refused to accept it.

 “Hayley,” his voice cracked as he approached her and knelt beside his daughter. “Hayley.”

 But of course, no answer came. He’d lived for so long, he’d killed for so long, so why was it so impossible for him to register the fact that she was… Hayley, please. I can’t lose you, was what he thought in his mind. Out loud, he roared for her to wake up, shouted a number of horrible threats into the air, each time hoping that this was indeed nothing more than a nightmarish dream, nothing that couldn’t be fixed by maiming the right people…

 Regret. An unbearable flood of regret washed over all the emotions of sadness and horror he was surely feeling right now, numbing them- There was still so much he wanted to say to her, he needed to let her know how much she meant to him, how she had pulled him out of the dark depths he had sunk back into after losing Hope.

 As for the tribrid herself, she had no idea what was happening, what had just happened- Professor de Martel, the only person she’d let herself trust over these past few months, she had just… Killed? The idea that her birthmother was dead was terrifying enough, but to have actually seen it happen, to have seen Hayley’s heart getting ripped out of her chest… Aurora had never cared about Hope. So the only explanation that remained was that Aurora had been using Hope, but why? Why? Hope would have eagerly helped Aurora kill Klaus, no manipulation would have been needed. What Klaus had done to Hayley was motivation enough.

 Unless… For the first time, Hope considered the notion that maybe it was Aurora who had been lying the entire time. Hope looked at Klaus, tried to understand the agony that was apparent on his face. His pupils were dilated and shaking- Hope had never seen anyone look so scared before.

 She couldn’t take it anymore. None of the facts aligned, nothing made sense. She stumbled backwards, glanced over her shoulder, and recoiled at the sight of Aurora’s body. Leaving Klaus to remain frozen in place, she raced towards Cedric’s body, dragged him over to the Portkey, and with one last brief glance at her birthparents, she took herself back to Hogwarts.

 A horrible roar shook the French Quarter that night. Klaus couldn’t cope with it. He’d surrounded himself with immortals since the beginning of time so he would never have to deal with the tragedy of losing someone to death. The only other time such a thing had happened was fourteen years ago, when Hope had died. Though others would beg to differ, Klaus considered that period of time to be when he’d been at his darkest. He’d gone on mad rampages, and that, that was what had caused Aurora to do all this. He’d killed Tristan, and in return…

 His fault. It was all his fault. He'd heard guilt was a natural part of mourning, but in this case, it was actually true. It was his fault she was dead.

 Love is a vampire’s greatest weakness.

 He’d said this to Elijah over half a millennium ago, and at long last, the truth of his words struck him across the face. He had dared to love, and his oldest enemy had exploited that weakness mercilessly. Now, Klaus couldn’t imagine a world worth living in.

 So if he could, would he take it back? Would it have been better if he’d never fallen in love with her in the first place?

 “Thank you, little wolf,” he whispered. “For everything.”

 He couldn’t bear to say it out loud, but he thought it in his mind- I will always love you.