Her Name Was Abigail {Elijah Mikaelson}

[13] Ansel

The sun had begun to fall when the parade began. Werewolves, witches, vampires, and naive tourists filled the Quarter. The witches were the ones that had decided to throw the parade to honor both Abigail and Khaleesi, showing them that the supernatural world was welcoming them with open arms. While the gesture was nice, I wasn't entirely sure that the supernatural world was as welcoming as they were letting on.

Valkyries had been run off, forced to live in secret thousands of years before, as Khaleesi had explained. In those thousands of years, witches, werewolves and vampires took over the supernatural world. Each group had it's own designated "king and queen," so I wasn't sure how willing all groups would be to welcome Khaleesi and Abigail as they're official queens. I began to fear for Abigail's well-being.

Both Abigail and Khaleesi sat aboard a wooden float made by the hands of witches as they traveled along Bourbon Street. People, both supernatural and human stood along the dirt street as more were perched in the patios up high. I walked along the float, only a few feet away from Abigail. Niklaus and Rebekah followed behind me, smiling and waving to the crowd as if the event was for them.

"Who are these girls?" Asked a tourist as he went along with the crowd. A tall, broad-shouldered vampire turned to him and smiled, "They're kind of like the new queens of New Orleans." The tourist nodded understandably before muttering, "Didn't our ancestors come here to America to get away from the dictators, um," he stammered with a laugh, "I mean, kings and queens."

I winced to myself as I shook the thought of the conversation I had overheard away. Abigail didn't want this. If she could of gone in living her life in secret, her human life a facade to her supernatural past, she would have. I turned to my left to lift my head up to see her standing on the float, her head held high as she fiddled with her fingers. She shifted her head slightly to the right, catching me in the corner of her eye.

She smiled sheepishly at me before sucking in a deep breath. Khaleesi stood beside her, waving and shouting to the crowd. She was eating the experience up, she was happy to be a queen again, to have people following after her, honoring her life with their own lives. She placed kisses upon her fingers as she threw her hands out to the crowd.

I groaned silently to myself as I dragged alongside the creaking float. Herelda walked in front of the float, also welcoming the crowd with shouts of enthusiasm. Thousands of bodies (both alive and well, half alive) surrounded us, pushing up against each of us slightly. They threw out flowers and gifts to the girls as they welcomed them with open arms.

I felt a pit grow in my stomach as I realized how many people they were revealing themselves to. They had been in secret for thousands of years and after all of this time, they were thrown back into the spotlight. I couldn't understand how Khaleesi could be comfortable with throwing herself and her sister back into a spotlight that could burst and come back to burn them.

Apart of me wondered if there was more to Khaleesi's story, if there was a deeper reasoning as to why she had come to New Orleans in a search for Abigail. I looked back up at her as she continued shouting, "Thank you!" to the crowd, Abigail standing awkwardly silent beside her. I reached up for Abigail's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Without looking back down at me, she squeezed my hand back.

Once at the end of Bourbon Street there was an alleyway where Khaleesi and Abigail stepped off from the float and drifted into a quiet, abandoned building. The brick walls had been splattered with dirt and muck from the time it had stood abandoned, but inside it was beautifully decorated with long, wooden tables full of food and drinks, blood included. Sunlight swept into the cracked windows, illuminating the haunted, dark room.

"This is beautiful," Khaleesi smiled as she took a seat at one end of the table, "thank you so much for the warm welcome Herelda." Herelda nodded her head in satisfaction as she set a plate full of food in front of Khaleesi. "Of course," Herelda whispered, "anything for my valkyrie girls." I rolled my eyes as I escorted Abigail to the other end of the table. She whispered a quick "thank you," before pointing to the seat next to her, silently asking me to sit beside her.