Chasing the storm

22

"Look who is awake"

Scarlett heard the remark from Freya as she walked down the stairs. She had believed that three days spent lying in bed, going over the event over and over again in her mind wasn't doing any good.

She had her arms around her, hugging herself at the same time as grasping the edges of her cardigan and holding them in place.

Her eyes were dry and red, a constant sniffling noise sounded. And every so often, a wave flows over her which makes her feel nauseous, it makes her want to sit down and cry again.

She hadn't witnessed many losses, like they have, Elijah took days to mourn Gia, and then he got on with it. But he had lost a hell of a lot in his life, he was used to it.

"I just wanted some air" she said, her voice was quiet, as if she felt shy around them, with her new found knowledge. Elijah took it upon himself to talk about how Freya inter grated herself Into the family, and how she's not a vampire but a witch.

"Alone?" Freya asked in a sort of surprise

"Oh right" Scarlett realised, sniffling again "I'm not allowed out"

"Right, however I do have something that we can do" Freya stood up and rummage through a pile of papers beside her. "I need you to sign this"

"I'm not signing anything until I know what it is" she refused, trying to read the small print

"Just sign the damn papers love" Scarlett didn't realise that Niklaus and Elijah stood just before the gates, watching her every move "before I change my mind and rip out your jugular"

Elijah nudged Klaus firmly with his shoulder. Doing this was like trying to lure a deer out of the forest, Scarlett was scared enough. She didn't need any threats against her besides the ones Tristan had been handing out.

"It's the deed to the compound" Freya spin the sheet around for Scarlett to look at "it's for your safety, no vampire can enter unless you invite them"

Scarlett looked at Freya with her eyebrows knitted together, she then glanced outside at the brothers and then to the papers. "So you're just going to sign this whole thing over to me?" She asked "and why are they out there?"

"When you sign the papers, any vampires residing in the house gets immediately thrown out, I thought we could cut some corners and make them stand outside" Freya laid a pen on the papers in front of her "I thought it best as well if you didn't have two vampires looking over your shoulder as you did this"

"You're talking like I'll just sign the paperwork" Scarlett said, she was still very fragile and her head was still spinning. All she needed was this, it was more stress over her and she didn't want it "maybe I won't"

She threw herself down on the chair and held her head in her hands "I'm not even allowed to go out, and now I need this supernatural barrier so nobody unwanted comes in... It was only last week I went and bought groceries, on my own"

By this time, she was almost pulling her hair out. And Elijah knew that he shouldn't have expected her to do this without speaking to her first.

"By all means love, leave, I'd like to see who gets you first" Klaus returned with his sarcastic humour again, which didn't seem so funny.

"Excuse me" Scarlett stood up and almost ran upstairs again, her sleeve wiping the tears away quickly so she thought nobody would see.

Elijah walked through the door so quickly that Freya didn't even see him take the paperwork. He didn't make any sound nor give any eye contact, he just headed straight upstairs.

"Go away" she groaned, this time , she was perched on the end of the four post bed, her back towards the door and the teddy bear just sat on her knee.

Elijah had had enough of not knowing what to say, or being too nervous when speaking. "I need to talk to you" Elijah said confidently "about the dangers we now face... All of us"

"I know, Tristan is going to kill everything you love and then he'll kill you... I mean, when he unlinks you or whatever" she summed everything up vaguely

Elijah didn't want to be harsh, he didn't want to be extremely vivid, but the girl was already scared, she just needed that extra push to move on to the stage of being careful and not careless "he'd do more than kill you, I mean, we killed his sister for goodness sake. He'll torture you, for days and days until you beg for death.. Which he would not grant. I've seen this before; it is not pretty"

Scarlett could imagine a whole world of possibilities, not naturally, she had watched a lot of tv shows relating to torture and murder. But if she could think of so many ways after such little time, what more could Tristan have up his sleeve?

"There isn't a point, he's not going to stop" Scarlett shrugged "he's already confined me"

"I promise, when I get the time, I will accompany you out" Elijah said "in the meantime, please sign the papers, and we will ensure Tristan does not live to see another week"

It took her a moment, what harm would it really do if she was the one to decide who got in and who didn't?

Scarlett took the pen "do you want to wait outside?" She asked as it hit the paper

Elijah smiled down at her "I'd much rather be here right now"

And with that, a quick flick of the pen, the deed was signed.

Elijah didn't make any attempts to hold on to anything as the house rejected him. He just let himself go and drop outside of the gates, awaiting for an invitation into his own home.