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

twenty

*A/N* Damn, twenty chapters just hits differently. I honestly never thought this shit would make it this far lmao. For reference, my book closest in length to this only has SEVEN chapters. You guys are actually so patient though. There is NO. FUCKING. WAY. that I could wait a whole week for a new chapter, this shit takes fucking forever. Anyways, I guess there's some violence and such for this chapter, barely a trigger warning since it's not any different than everything else you would typically see in this show but there you go. I don't know, some torture, blood, gore, violence, abuse, and a pinch of kidnapping, you know, just out here doing Klaus proud. Enjoy!

Continued Flashback

Klaus was seated in the private box that Rebekah had compelled for the three of them when a cold chill ran through him. Not one from a cold draft that raised the hair on his arms, this one shook him to his core. It felt as though it came from within, like some deep sense within himself was sounding a warning of impending doom. But, somehow, he knew he was already too late.

It didn't take long for the threat to make itself known. Even without seeing or hearing said entity, the hybrid knew precisely who the ominous, uninvited guest was, and that was why he stayed seated rather than whirling around to rip the intruders head from their shoulders. There were some fights that even the supposedly most powerful creature to walk the Earth couldn't win and didn't want to risk the casualties of. Just like there were only a couple of people that he had ever met to carry an aura about them so cruel, and cold, and uncaring that you could practically taste it just standing in their vicinity. And there were only a few eyes that could bore into him so full of hatred, and scorn, and malice that at moments it was almost tangible. And one of them was Mikael.

Few words were traded between the two, it was just the usual game of cat and mouse. Of exchanging power plays and dominance and each attempting to one-up the other. As hard as they both tried to be the other's polar opposite, they couldn't help but to be so similar. It was painfully poetic, in one of the most heart-wrenching ways. Two monsters rearing up but both trying to act civilized to spite the claims of the other.

It was difficult to tell which of them was worse. Of course, when you feed on human blood to survive, the lines of morality become more than a bit blurred, but some things still stood out amongst all the chaos. All of the son's evil came from his father, but what if Niklaus' evil was greater than even Mikael's? Then who was at fault? Which was the right side to be on? These were the questions that Elijah had been asking himself as he and his siblings had run from his father, as he had followed behind Niklaus, although very careful to stay well out of the hybrid's footsteps.

So much like Klaus, Mikael was never satisfied. It wasn't enough that all his children hate him above all else, they had to fear him, the most powerful creatures in the world had to be scared. They had to run as soon as they caught word that he was within a hundred miles in any direction, they had to shiver at his touch and flinch at the sound of his voice. Indeed there had been many times where he could have simply killed them, but that wasn't as fulfilling as watching them limp and hobble away, or keeping their nerves shot with paranoia for decades at a time.

Mikael knew Klaus, inside and out, because how could he not? As much as they both hated to even think about it, the apple undeniably didn't fall far from the tree. He knew how unsteady the hybrid was, how easy it could be to teeter him off the edge into a spiral of rash outbursts and daggering sprees. He knew how simple it was to make his son question everyone around him, turn his back on his family, isolate himself, until he was well and truly all alone.

Once the play had started, the curtains drawing back, of course their father was more than a few steps ahead. A gruesome scene was revealed, dead innocents strewn up all over the stage, hanging from chains, impaled on stakes and poles. And there was Marcel, right in the spotlight, strapped up, like just being associated with Klaus made him a criminal of the highest degree. It wasn't about killing, executing, abolishing, or any of the other claims that Mikael made about his senseless hunting of his children. It was simply torment for the sake of torment. Just something to fill the infinite, black, bottomless abyss that was some twisted, sadistic need that their father had to see them run from him in terror.