Awaiting a Changing fate ↠ Elijah Mikaelson

06

Elijah and Lottie snuck down into the wine cellar. He placed his hand in front of Lottie to stop her from walking through the door.

"I'm going first" he said

"I can handle myself" she huffed, noticing what Elijah was trying to do

Elijah brushed the comment off and unlatched the door before pushing it open.

The faint smell hit them and Lottie immediately covered her nose. It was strange though, it should've been stronger.

Elijah used his senses to find the way around to where they found there body. As soon as he reached his destination, his body froze.

"What is it?" Lottie asked "we need to hurry" she walked beside him and tensed. "Where is the body?" She asked with a renewed fear in her voice

Elijah knelt down to get a closer look whilst Lottie ran to the entrance to grab the nearest lantern.

The light flooded their space and revealed large bloody footprints stuck to the floor.

"I highly doubt Jessica would have gotten up, brushed it off and walked away, and I doubt her feet were that huge" Lottie exclaimed "someone else must've taken her"

"Someone who was desperate to cover their tracks" Elijah rubbed a droplet of blood between his fingers as he tried to think

"Well whoever initiated these peculiar murders in the first place wanted his or her presence to be known, why begin to cover it up now?" She asked pacing the room

"Maybe this one might've clued us in to their identity or it was someone completely different" Elijah suggested two options, the most plausible ones he could think of.

"How am I going to break it to Charles that his girlfriend is dead?" Lottie began to panic "she was a common whore as well, sleeping with my father and flirting around my fiancé" she hyperventilated

"This girl had a lot of connections to you" Elijah observed

"I didn't much care for her" she shrugged back "feelings were mutual"

That could make you a suspect

And out of the short sentence Elijah had just heard, he formed 4 potential suspects to the murders.

Joseph- he might have been behind the mysterious handprint on Lottie's dress as well as having a past relationship with the deceased

Charles- maybe he found out about Jessica's doings and decided it was her turn to go

William- If Jessica made advances on him, he might've not wanted anything to ruin the engagement. So he got rid of her

Lottie- she has been affected by Jessica most of all as she had witnessed her loved ones and Jessica together. Plus openly admitting they didn't like each other.

Elijah had to be cautious around them, especially Lottie. She was a wolf and she had a temper as well as a useful amount of magic to match.

"Is that a trail?" Lottie asked, dragging her feet along the stone floor and lighting up the path of dried blood, trailing around the corner and to a shelf.

Elijah stood from his crouching position and followed the curious girl to the dead end.

"My father bought this house years ago from a merchant" Lottie said, feeling the side of the shelf and placing the lantern down "he told us about the series of tunnels underneath that connected the town together; Charles and I used to play down here when We were younger"

Both hands got a good grip on the shelf and she began to push, using the entirety of her body weight against the large piece of wood filled with barrels.

Elijah stepped forward, placing his hand next to hers and simply just pushing it to the side like it was nothing whatsoever.

"Thanks" she glanced down at the floor and back up to him, she didn't want to ask for his help. She never liked asking for anyone's help.

Lottie stormed to grab the lantern and pushed in front of Elijah to be first down the tunnel.

The cold air hit them as soon as they stepped through, the sound of rats scurrying from one wall to another out of fear, echoed in their heads.

Their footsteps, no matter how lightly they stepped, sounded so loud.

Lottie immediately halted and dropped to the floor, examining something between her fingers.

Elijah knew by the way she held it from his view that it was something of great importance, belonging to someone of great importance to her.

"What is it?" He asked, trying to see however Lottie held the object tightly in her fist

"It's nothing" she shook her head and stood up "just a rock"

"A rock?" Elijah asked with disbelief "I don't think you'd be that protective over a rock" he grasped her wrist, forcing a whimper out of her.

"Okay!" She exclaimed, slowly releasing the grasp on the object for Elijah to take

A golden cuff link, it was small, splashed with red. "Who's is this?" He asked, not expecting an easy answer out of her

"It's uh mine" she said defensively

"I don't recall women needing cuff links" Elijah looked closer "especially those with the initials CT"

Elijah thought. Who was close to Lottie with those initials? Who was close to the victim with those initials?

Charles Taylor.

"You said that Charles and you used to play down here when you were young?" Elijah asked "and Charles initials are CT? And he had a relationship with Jessica?"

Lottie reluctantly nodded her head in agreement with everything he had just said. But she kept quiet.

"My dear Lottie I think we have just found your murderer" Elijah exclaimed "now let's go and find him"