You Don't Know What I'd Do For You (Love you like oxygen)

five

*A/N* Hello! Here's chapter five, your support means so much, please enjoy and don't forget to vote!

Elijah POV

Time seemed to be at a standstill, seconds and minutes and hours ticked by with no change. The air clung to my body making me feel suffocated. Every sound echoed endlessly, and the stench of the rotting building made my skin crawl. I felt dirty, worse than that, just disgusting in every sense of the word and I was sure I probably looked it too.

Being out of a suit for this long was horribly uncomfortable, it felt as though I was naked, exposed, for everyone to see. The skin around my wrists were stained with a red hue after the cuffs had dug into me, trails of dried blood still remained from my struggling. My shoulders ached from the awkward position and my knees seemed to be screaming after I had kneeled like that for hours. Cold sweat collected on my face and neck, occasionally drops trickled slowly down my back and chest, dampening my shirt and making it cling to my skin even more.

The blood lust was starting to take a toll on me, I had felt it coming the previous day but couldn't bring myself to take a sip from a blood bag. Just the thought almost made me gag, I couldn't, I had to keep my control. I could hold on, I could go a little while longer, there were more important things. Like poor, baby Hope, and Hayley, who would never hurt a fly, and Davina, who got dragged into all this far too young. And Kol, who just loved magic and music, and Rebekah, who just wanted to live a normal life, and Freya, who was starved of love for centuries, and Marcel, and Klaus, and the werewolves, and the witches, and-

My head started spinning, my breath caught desperately in my throat but I couldn't breathe in. There were too many of them, too many people that were in danger, too many targets that were close to me, I couldn't protect all of them. The threat to them the majority of the time was each other, I had to pick a side but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They all deserved something that I could never give them, that I could never offer. To me, they were all worthy of saving. No matter how many wrongs they had done, no matter how horrible and wicked they became, I could never bring myself to love them any less.

The sudden sound of heavy footsteps caught my immediate attention and my entire body froze. I knew those footsteps, the pattern, the slightly louder right side, the almost imperceptible drag of the left, the long strides, the thud of the heel landing first followed by the shuffle of the toes. I would recognize them anywhere. I had hardwired myself for decades to be woken up from a dead sleep as soon as they met the floor. Mikael.

As if on cue, the wall faded into thin air at the wave of one of the guard's hands. "Thank you, dear," Mikael said, smiling softly at the witch before stepping into the room as the wall slammed back into place behind him.

My world seemed to spin out of place, my mind and consciousness receding to the deepest depths of my mind as I stayed there, frozen on my knees. My head down and eyes closed, desperately trying to just will it all away. He couldn't be here, he just couldn't. Hope, and Hayley, and Niklaus, and Rebekah, and Marcel, and Kol, and Freya- they were all in danger. I mentally berated myself for letting this happen. Everything that he had been hunting down for hundreds of years was all right here in one city, under one roof even. If he hadn't found them yet he would soon and then there would be nowhere to run.

How could I have allowed this to happen? How could I have been this stupid, this foolish, to have honestly thought that we could make a home here, be at peace, that we could stop running and fleeing and fighting for once. That was a childish, hopeless dream. How could I have let my guard down this much? How could I have let them all down again!?

"Just let me out Elijah. I can deal with this. I'm strong, I can beat Mikael. I can protect them, protect us," came the harsh, raspy whisper in my head, like someone dragging a steel blade across stone.

"No," I answered it, determined to keep my walls up and not let him escape, I was too weak to battle him right now, I would lose and then he would gain control and hurt someone.

"You need to let go, Elijah, before you lose control," he whispered back, before the presence in my mind retracted itself again.

I heard the threat loud and clear but shook it off, I could do this. I wouldn't break, I wouldn't let him get out again. The past thousand years, I had built up my defenses. My mind's walls were high, rooted deep in place and set in stone, the gates locked and sturdy, nobody got in... and nobody got out. There was never a falter in my control, never a hair out of line, never a lapse in my judgement. Even if I wanted a break, to relax, to let go, I couldn't afford it, nothing was worth the consequences of that so I didn't let it happen.

"It's been a long time, Elijah," Mikael's rough, gravelly voice yanked me out of my thoughts and I had to repress a shiver just at the sound of it.

I stayed where I was, froze myself in place, every muscle tensed to the point of breaking. My nails digging into my palms as I balled my fists until my knuckles stood out white. My head bowed down, eyes closed tight, teeth gritting together. Setting my jaw and holding my breath, trying as best as I could to be invisible and forgettable, to blend in and to vanish. I heard him coming nearer to me, his steps were slow, but deliberate, taunting me as he circled closer and closer.

Calloused fingers traced underneath my jaw, stopping at my chin and forcefully pulling my head upwards to meet his gaze. Reluctantly opening my eyes, I tried to pull my face away but to little avail. His touch alone made my skin crawl and my stomach twist. His fingers felt rough and as though they were covered in some sort of grime and his grip would surely leave bruises that wouldn't heal for at least a day without me ingesting any blood. Those thoughts made me nauseous, firstly, drinking blood, but also having marks from his fingers that everyone could see, having his scent on me.

The cruel, malicious grin on his face made my blood run cold. Turning his back to me, making sure I could see everything he was doing, he meandered his way through the room. Passing delicately set up stands with white tablecloths draped over them and various instruments of torture spread out across the surface. He would mockingly pick up one or two, pretend to examine them, then shake his head and set them back down as he tsked his tongue. Needles, syringes, pliers, barbed hooks, entire tubs filled with all manner of chemicals. Occasionally, a particularly cruel one would catch his eye and he would smile lovingly as he picked it up but those too were set down again.

Eventually, he made his way over to a rather inconspicuous chain that hung from the ceiling in the corner. I hadn't noticed it until then, but as soon as I saw it, my heart stopped. "I'll go easy today, Elijah, don't worry. You can even scream as loud as you like, no one can hear, no one is coming," and with that, Mikael pulled down on the chain.

A metal shutter behind me was drawn open and the blazing sun poured in through the slot. The instant that the light hit me, my skin began sizzling, wide blisters appearing and bursting open as the heat boiled my very blood. I bit my tongue against the cries of pain, balling my fists tightly, I wouldn't allow him the satisfaction of hearing me in pain. Blood streamed down my body from the open wounds, soaking through my shirt all over. Just before my body gave in and burst into flames, Mikael released the chain and the shutter dropped back in place.

Approaching me again, he resumed his grip on my jaw, his thumb resting on my lips this time even as I tried to pull away. "Oh, I've missed you Elijah, you won't get away this time," without a further word, he turned on his heel, knocked once on the stone wall, and then exited the room after a witch removed the barrier.

Releasing a breath, I allowed myself to collapse, trying to ease some weight off of my knees and allow my skin to slowly stitch itself back together. Dread filled every nerve of my body but I tried to ignore it. If Mikael was here, it meant that he wasn't hurting anyone else. Wherever this place was, it certainly wasn't in New Orleans, hopefully, it was very, very far away. But despite all the reasoning, it was near impossible to convince myself to not hope that my family was on their way, however subconsciously. Wishing for that was hopeless and childish and completely irrational but that one part of me wished for it all the same. The other part of me just prayed that my wish didn't come true, that my family would stay far, far away.

*A/N* Thanks so much for reading, I'm sorry that this chapter was a bit late. I had a bit of a hard time getting all my thoughts together and I was also in the direct heat of exam season. The next chapter will also probably be a while since I'm starting some new classes but I will try my best to get it out as soon as possible. See you in the next one!

1694 words