Her Name Was Abigail {Elijah Mikaelson}

[15] Unleash the Monster

We all stood in the center of our home, bottles of bourbon and whiskey strewn about. Niklaus sat in the corner of the room, holding onto a bottle of whiskey the way that a child holds onto his mother. We had stayed up all night, attempting to devise a strategy to take down our mystery enemy. Not knowing who our enemy was however, was nearly impossible. We didn't know his strengths, weaknesses, or even his reasoning for coming after Abigail.

Had she hurt him or someone that he loved? Was he simply a hunter looking for a game? We didn't have the answers to any of our questions and we were beginning to get desperate. Rebekah sat next to Niklaus, pulling the bottle of whiskey from his fingers to drag a drink herself. Khaleesi stood at the edge of the room, watching the world outside from the window. We had sent Herelda off to her shop in an effort to find any information possible on who was coming.

Abigail sat on a chair next to where I stood, as quiet as night. She hadn't spoken a single word the entire evening. She only sat in that chair, eager to hear others' suggestions. I could tell that she was frustrated, even frightened by the situation. To have someone who you didn't even know coming after you for your life was frightening to even the strongest supernatural creatures.

While Abigail could probably kill this hunter in a matter of seconds, having to fight for her life wasn't her fear. Her fear was that she could've done something to hurt him in the past, and she couldn't even remember if she had or not. She was also fearful of having to take another life. Abigail wasn't born a monster, she wasn't even taught to be a monster. She hadn't quite hit that stage yet and I knew that she never wanted to.

But with taking more lives comes hiding more secrets. You push your darkest secrets into the darkest corners of your mind and shut the door, making sure to lock them tightly before leaving them behind. She didn't want to ever have to hide her past. Hiding her past meant that she had become a monster, like me. She would have to forget their faces, their names, just so that she could survive herself.

I had taken many human lives and it never became any easier. Even if I had to kill them to fulfill a plan, the guilt would eat me alive. I had locked myself away many times in an attempt to run from myself. I sat in dark rooms, curled up in the corner of a room, stashing away all of my dark secrets. I fought every demon within me to forget but they fought to keep me remembering.

"So," Niklaus muttered after a thick sip of the dark whiskey, "is our strategy to sit around here waiting for him to kick down the door?" I paced heavily around the room, unamused by Niklaus' sarcasm. He wasn't in a place to make sly comments about the situation, given that he had offered some pretty senseless strategies himself. I huffed out a breath and buried my hands in the pockets of my trousers.

"Niklaus," I groaned, "do you have any other strategies yourself except for the laughable strategies you've already suggested, of course?" Niklaus bit at his bottom lip to stop himself from snapping back at me. "Well," he smiled arrogantly, "I don't suppose that your strategies were any better than mine...." I rolled my eyes. "This isn't a contest between us brother," I whispered, "this is us trying to protect Abigail." Khaleesi shot me an annoyed glance from across the room, "and Khaleesi," I added.

"Besides," I whispered, "Herelda should be back at any moment with some more information for us." Rebekah took the last swig of the alcohol before tossing the bottle to the floor. "I have a feeling Herelda may not be coming back to provide us with anymore information," Rebekah sputtered as she sat further back into her chair. I narrowed my eyes on her. "And why do you say that Rebekah?" I asked, standing straight in front of her.

She ran a finger up the side of her forehead, leaning her elbow against the arm of the chair. "Elijah," she smiled carefully, "she's been gone for a few hours now. Isn't that kind of a long time?" I sucked in the cool New Orleans air as I turned away from Rebekah. She was right. It had been quite some time since Herelda had left us to head to her shop. She said it would take only an hour, maybe a few minutes more. But it had been a few hours already since she had departed from us.