𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 ━━ KLAUS MIKAELSON

89

EMERY WHIPPED HER phone out to look at the text she received from a certain original vampire. She was sitting in the mystic grill, her sketchbook in front of her.

She had left the Gilbert Residence a few minutes ago after Elena and her had an argument yet regarding the Mikaelsons. The doppelgänger wanted Stefan to take the dagger from Rebekah and also wanted to kill Kol. Naturally, Emery wasn't on board with the plan so she voiced out her thoughts which resulted in a verbal argument. Wanting to be away from all the problems for a while, the witch went straight to the grill. She fully intended on returning back home in an hour.

Kol : Trust me, Em, I'm doing this for the benefit of everyone. But fine, I might leave your brother alone. However, you have to convince them to stop with this whole cure thing. You don't want to deal with Silas, believe me. I'll see you in the grill in an hour, we can talk about it.

Emery sighed at the message. She sent a quick reply saying, 'okay,' before she downed the rest of her drink.

Meanwhile, Klaus was pacing around in the cellar at the Salvatore Boarding House while Damon was lying down on the bed, tossing an object up in the air.

"You know, none of this would be an issue if you'd have just done your job properly," the hybrid spoke, "I was perfectly willing to let you train Jeremy."

"No, you weren't," Damon scoffed, "are you kidding? You got there day two. Do you know how hard it is to get these Xbox brains to focus?"

"And then when I turned a room full of barflies into vampires for him to slaughter," Klaus looked down at him, "you let Kol kill them."

"Your brother problem, not mine, buddy."

"And whose bright idea was it to saddle Jeremy with a conscience, hmm?"

"Well," Damon clicked his tongue, "we couldn't have him trying to stake Elena in her sleep, now, could we?"

"Ah, yes, for the love of Elena," the hybrid's tone held a hint of sarcasm before he turned serious. "How is it that she manages to overlook every horrific thing you've ever done? Is it willful ignorance, or perhaps something more pathological?"

"Some people are just more capable of forgiveness than others," the older Salvatore shrugged, "bet you score about a negative 500 in that realm."

Klaus's lips twitched up, "come on. There must be a secret. It can't just be the sire bond. What is it? Compulsion? Manipulation?" When Damon said nothing, he hesitated for a second before he finally asked, "what is it you say to her?"

Damon caught what he was throwing and sat up, realisation hitting him like a ton of bricks. Amusement filled his features for a moment before he composed himself and cleared his throat. "I think this has something to do with a certain witch." When Klaus pursed his lips, Damon knew he was right. "I think you half-murdered Carol Lockwood, and I think you're worried that Emery's never going to forgive you."

"You've done worse."

"Debatable," Damon turned to face him from where he was sitting, "see, I don't mind being the bad guy, because somebody has to fill that role and get things done. You do bad things for no reason. You do them to be a dick."

"Debatable,"

Damon shrugged, "if you're gonna be bad, be bad with a purpose. Otherwise, you're just not worth forgiving."

"I did have a purpose," the hybrid said, "she broke that stupid curse, didn't she?"

"Maybe," Damon only lied back down and sighed. "But you still killed Carol and you made her do it. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the curse's gone. I would've done the same if I were in your place minus the killing Carol thing. Maybe I would've gone for Matt."

"She doesn't care about Matt," Klaus leaned against the wall, "and she cares about the rest of you a little bit too much. Making her kill one of you would've been worse. The curse was killing her, I fixed it."

"She didn't have to kill anyone." The older Salvatore said, "we would've found another way."

"Would you now?" Klaus's tone was mocking him and he knew it. "How long have you known about her curse? A year? Ten months?" He tilted his head to the side, watching Damon press his lips tightly together. "And what have you done about it? Nothing."

"There was nothing I could do."

"Is that so?" The hybrid scoffed, a hint of bitterness in his voice as he said, "had it been Elena the one with the curse, you and your little group would have found a solution to that a long time ago."

He clenched his jaw when Damon looked up at him, ready to say otherwise. However, the older Salvatore could get nothing out when Klaus said, "go on then, tell me I'm wrong."

"I tried to help her," Damon revealed as he swallowed thickly, "I told her to kill me when I was bit by Tyler Lockwood."

"But she didn't, did she?" Klaus stared at him blankly, "instead she helped you, found a cure for you— a solution to a problem that supposedly had none."

Damon was silent for a while, letting his words sink in. He was starting to see things from the hybrid's point of view, as much as he hated to admit it.

⎯⎯ ✧˖*°☽࿐

IT HAD BEEN OVER AN hour and Kol was yet to make an appearance. Emery waited for him for another thirty minutes before she decided to leave.

The second she stepped outside, Matt rushed to her. "Em, wait!"

The witch stopped, her brows furrowing at the sight of the boy, "what is it?"

"I've. . ." Matt began, clearing his throat, "I've been meaning to apologise for you know. . . everything." The witch shot him a look but said nothing as he continued, "we used to be friends, Em. And I've been selfish, I realised that. I'm sorry."

"Alright, great. I gotta go, we can talk about this later." Emery tried to get past him but Matt stepped in front of her, blocking her path. She frowned, "Matt, I have things to do."

"But I'm apologizing," Matt mumbled, crossing his arms. "Look, Em, I really want us to go back to the way we were. Can we please do that? Can we put all this behind us?"

"Sure." Emery wasn't paying much attention to him, not when she had a thousand things on her mind.

"So are we good?" Matt gave her a smile which made her skeptical. It looked forced and fake. She brushed it off and offered him a nod before truing to walk away again. But once more, he stopped her by grabbing her arm this time.

She took a deep breath, annoyed. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Why are you so eager to get away from me?" Matt asked, frowning. "I'm trying to set things right here. Can't you contribute?"

"Like I said," she shrugged his hand off, "I got stuff to do."

"I'm sorry," Matt apologised again which made her shoot him a confused look. "For what now?"

"For this," Matt mumbled and before Emery could wrap her head around what was happening, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. Her vision started to blur at the impact and the feeling of someone's hands wrapping themselves around her waist to prevent her from hitting the ground was the last thing she remembered.

Matt looked at the witch in Tyler's arm, feeling a hint of guilt. The hybrid swallowed, "she'll kill you when she wakes up."

Matt scoffed, "she won't. Come on, we have to get her to Elena and Bonnie."