Chasing the storm

21

Elijah had found himself pacing outside the door of the room he had placed Scarlett in when he rescued her from Tristan.

He had thought about going in, but he didn't want to disturb her. It was only when he heard movement inside, indicating she was awake, when he finally gained the confidence to open the door.

Her curtains were shut, light attempting to deep in, creating an almost grey atmosphere.

Scarlett was lay, where Elijah left her, her arms wrapping around the teddy bear Alex bought for her when he came to her apartment that night.

She stared at the frame that was on the bedside table, the photograph that Alex had only just given her.

"I suppose I should give you an explanation..." Elijah perched on the other side of the bed and twisted his neck to face her back

"Don't" she said, almost effortlessly. "I don't want to hear about any of this yet"

Elijah looked towards the floor, in all the times he was left speechless, this time was the worst.

"I want to go home" Scarlett followed up. Her hand reached from the bear to the frame, where she pushed it over, so she wasn't haunted by Alex's stares. Scarlett then proceeded to turn her head to Elijah.

"I'm afraid-" Elijah processed the words in his head and tried to replace some to make his sentence sound somewhat gentle.

The real truth was that Marcel had reported that Tristan's men had raided the house for anything of interest or of any value.

"When Niklaus killed Aurora" Elijah sucked a breath in and began "Tristan vowed to enact revenge..."

"So he wants to kill me" she didn't even ask, or flinch, her expression didn't change. All she did was stare, her eyes had lost that spark as it had been replaced with the slight shimmer of tears that threatened at every moment.

He nodded his head "he wants you dead, so he can get to me, he wants to kill everything I love so he can finally weaken me" Elijah explained "he wants to start with the ones I care most"

Scarlett actually would walk straight to her death, the overwhelming feeling of a broken heart wrapped her up, not to mention the crippling fear of being in the presence of a vampire.

Elijah stood, to leave. But Scarlett spoke out again "I told him I loved him" she stopped Elijah from stepping forward, causing him to sit back on his side of the bed "and it was the first time in a while I actually felt it, I meant it. It's just a shame that I realised that just before he died"

"I'm such a selfish bitch" she criticised, nothing had affected her so much. Alex had died. Alex had died knowing that Scarlett only partially loved him, knowing that Scarlett was in love with his best friend.

And now she didn't want to feel anything.

"Let Tristan kill me" she said

"Don't speak like that" Elijah almost snapped at her, he was watching her and realising she didn't care about anything else "you are not selfish and I am sure as anything that I won't let you walk into your own death because you are grieving"

"I just want to be able to talk about it without hurting, I don't want to feel the pain I do, every time I breathe or blink or just live" she cried "I need a distraction"

Scarlett wiped her eyes as she looked at him "tell me about you, I changed my mind, maybe it'll help me forget, tell me everything"

Elijah sat for a moment, pursing his lips, was she really ready to know everything? Was she in the right state of mind? But all of his thoughts melted when she touched his hand gently.

"It was 1,000 years ago, my family settled in a town in Virginia called Mystic Falls, I had Finn my eldest brother, Klaus, Kol, Rebekah and my youngest brother Henrique" he listed, almost hearing the laughs and screams of children playing in his home town "my mother was a powerful witch, my father a great warrior"

Witches and vampires. The world was finally opening up and showing its true colours, although everything seemed grey to Scarlett, she hoped that soon enough she would be able to see it vibrantly, the way Elijah described to her.

"Niklaus took my brother Henrique to watch the werewolves transition on the night of the full moon, it was incredibly dangerous and wreck less, but the fascination Niklaus had struck upon him was far past an obsession"

"Werewolves too?" She looked up at him, almost resembling a child being told a bed time story, but this was all real, even though it sounded like a fantasy.

Elijah nodded his head "when they transition, they have no control, and when they sensed my brothers, they chased them... Unfortunately Henrique wasn't fast enough, he died before mother could help him"

Scarlett related to the shred of pain that clung to Elijah's voice, this was 1,000 years ago and it still effects him. "It lead my mother to believe that she needed to protect her children more than she was. So she decided a spell that would make us immortal. She fed us the blood of a girl in the village before father pierced us in the heart with his sword" his hand reached to his chest as he vividly remembered the events, every small detail, from the sound of the sword, to his mother's peculiar scent.

"We awoke to realise that our skin burnt in the daylight, the flowers that grew in the meadow by our house, we're now toxic, we could not enter other houses unless invited" he listed "the White oak tree now our only weakness"

"Vampires die from a stake to the heart?" Scarlett recalled what she read in books and heard in stories

"Most vampires, yes. My family? We only die by the white oak, which we ensured was destroyed" he explained "our father wielded one for years as he chased us around the world, that has far gone, as is his body"

Elijah was ready to get onto the whole other subject of Niklaus and his wolf side, Mikael and how he destroyed everything. But her eyes were closed and she was lay back in bed. He had been talking for a while, he hadn't realised that she lay back down and finally went to sleep.

He chuckled. If there was one way to get her to sleep... He'd just bore her to death.

Placing his hands on the bed, he pushed himself up silently trying not to disturb her.

"Where are you going?" Her voice was low, as she was half asleep. She hadn't slept since the whole ordeal, and she needed to.

"I was leaving you in peace" Elijah lowered the sound of his voice

"Stay" she said "please" she didn't know what she was doing, she couldn't even believe the man that she was inviting to lie down with her was the oldest vampire in existence.

And he had a soft spot for her. A normal girl, she wasn't anything extraordinary. In fact, right now she was damaged, Alex had broken her when he left; although it wasn't his fault, she still kept thinking that he had left.

She didn't want to embrace the fact he had died.

Elijah lay on top of the blanket, his arm reaching the other side. Scarlett rested her head on his chest, feeling safer.

"Please don't let Tristan take me" she said as she drifted, not aware she was thinking out loud.

"Don't you worry" he began to brush her hair with his fingers "I'd sooner die"