JEZEBEL † The Originals †

12. In My Dreams

Rebekah, I apologize for my absence of understanding, care, passion, concern. It was one of the things I'd like to say before I tell you of my ensuing sin. My life was taken today. It was long overdue. The secrets I harbor are no more a crime than that. Because they are no long to be secrets. I am leaving them to you. Do what you will with them.

ELIJAH
November 11th

"Burn down the city? Have you gone mad!" I cried.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, my slatternly brother slumped in the seat by the grand fireplace.
"What other choice do we have! Running will put a strain on our sister, leave our city in the hands of the next tyrant who comes along! I'd rather it be eliminated than be overthrown," he pieced his reasons together.
"...Is that what Jezebel told you to do?" I assumed.
There was no one he'd rather have spent his time within the last two weeks. Ever since she came along, several poor twists in events had already happened.
The front of his half-buttoned shirt lurched forward before him, his feet stomping into the ground as he stood.
"And what does our father's arrival have to do with her?" Klaus dared me.
I wouldn't make a direct correlation, I knew better than that.
"Will you consider it? Kol perishes, Celeste is in a horrid mood when she's here, she put her unloved child inside Rebekah—"
"And she's not liable to be the reason for any such events! She's done nothing but kindness for us. She gave Rebekah her dream, she's been there for me more than you have in an entire week—! And Celeste, oh, don't get me started. A hair out of place on your head has her splitting her britches!" Klaus crowed.
"I tremble only for the thought that your happiness is conceivably happening upon false terms, Niklaus. Endangering you!"
"So, now you're worried about me and my happiness? Well, allow me to make it easier on you. You agreed to break the vow we made when you chose to put a ring on that blasted woman's finger. You made the choice to care about one person's happiness, not even your own! When we flee this house, you're free to honeymoon in a favela on the southern coast. I'm going to be here, lighting a match, and taking my sister to safety in the bayou. Once our father has passed, we'll rebuild—and we'll not expect a visit from you or your merry hag." He ends his claims by sipping his wine glass of our last servant's blood, stepping over the gigantic stain he'd left on the fur rug to obtain it.
"You want to push me away, now of all times in this hellish ride of life?" I yelled.
Klaus jabbed his finger into my face. "I want you to make a decision! Are you my brother, are you on my side or are you the slave of a witch, just like we were to our mother!"
In the dead of night, we were void of the sound of echoing quarrels and breaking glass. All we could hear was the bang of our front gates opening and closing in the stormy twilight. This time, we heard them close, the rain and thunder attempting to mock the distinct sound of an intruder.
"Stay here," Elijah commanded.
"Excellent escape, brother, pretending to be frightened by a little wind and rain. Quite extraordinary of you!" I jeered at him.
He halts my speak with a single hand, leaning toward the side of the grand dining area's glass-door entrance.
"Do you smell that?" He questioned quietly.
A hand bursted through the glass and pulled Elijah out into the storm, breaking through the rest of the door's wooden sills. Silence fell, and in my sensitive vampire ears, I could not even sense a struggle.
"Elijah!" I called out frantically.
Elijah dives from a tall height head first into the cobblestone of the courtyard, suffering a temporary death. Touching down next to him, barely missing my brother's chest as a landing, is Mikael himself.
My eyes dry up in their sockets, my legs swollen with paralysis and a disabling tinge of tension.
"Hello, Boy," beckoned our father. "We have some business to take care of."

REBEKAH

I'm pressed to the wall of the hallway, just before the grand dining room, where Klaus has met our father in the dark. I gazed down at my enormous belly, torn between running and trying to find the white oak daggers. Elijah always tells us when he relocates them, but never to where. He tells us the room; this time, it just so happened to be the room where we enjoy our meals and where I am in plain sight.
"What are you doing here? How did you find us!" Klaus cries angrily.
"A little birdie I plan on saving for last." Mikael paces around Elijah's unconscious body to be in front of it, in front of Niklaus. "I'd ask who I should start with, but given you're low on defenses..."
He looked back at the son he was proud of, the one who had the ability to bring honor and control had Mikael been a hands-off parent.
"...I say I take my chances and put you down. Unless, you'd like a delay, I'll call your sister and brother out here and...they can go first."
A hand clamped down on my shoulder, making me jump. Jezebel stood behind me, concerned for my state.
"What are you doing?" She frowned.
I put a hand in front of her mouth to stop her from giving us away.
"You shouldn't be here," I quaked even as I mouthed my words.
Still unable to understand, she leaned into the doorway and pulled me back.
"You mean Kol? How could you be so daft as to not know when one of your own children, one of the sirelines you co-created falls to a far superior source?" Klaus scowled. "I daresay, you're losing your touch, old man."
"Would you like to test me?" Mikael dared him, his eyes rippling with a menacing red and black rainbow of thirst.
A battle begins, Klaus foolishly taking a running start and failing to see Mikael equip his elbow readily to knock him to the ground. Klaus kicks off Mikael's lurching torso and pushes off, sending him across the courtyard.
"Why aren't we stopping them?" Jezebel frowned at me, coming out of view again.
"That's our father! He wasn't supposed to find us, not now!" I panicked. "What am I going to do, what if he—"
Niklaus sailed through the dining room, not able to do much more than destroy the table and half its artisan chairs. He's halfway to being beaten.
"Klaus," Jezebel quietly checked for his conscious.
His eyes came up for one second alone to see her as he lied there in the wreckage. It made him act quicker, with more preparation for Mikael's incoming attack. White oak stake in hand, Klaus is able to roll out of the way and draw him away from us.
My eyes are frantically searching the dining room from afar for any hint of a dagger's hideout. My eyes fall on the wreath above the smashed crystal candelabras and golden wine tray.
"Jezebel...they're going towards the courtyard. Bring me that wreath. Now," I led her.
Jezebel looked between me and the wreath I stared at. As brave as they came, she took the wreath before either soggy and bloody men could notice. I took it to the ground, searching it frantically, opening its bindings and its false twigs. There was nothing.
My eyes landed on a glimmer caused by lightning form above. It had shone down on the dagger that had now skidded towards the open door of the dining room, close enough to the two originals where Jezebel could end up hurt or worse. Klaus would never forgive me; he wouldn't be awake to make the decision, either. One fatal snap of his neck and he lay atop Elijah like a kebab of lambs for Mikael's slaughter.
We were doomed. I pressed back against the wall hopelessly. There came one drawback with my state; if I did anything, this baby would cease at a chance to know me. This was never a good idea, and I can't believe I bought into it. I knew this was bound to happen, and I would have no means to stop it. Jezebel watched horrifically, with an open mouth and a befuddled more than anxious expression. Her eyes watered like a child who was loved by their father.
"...I made a mistake," I muttered, dreading the worst. "You have to take it back."
Jezebel's wet eyes met mine. "What!"
I watched Mikael's breath heave into his chest upon hearing her voice. She hid herself again, still looking at me.
I whispered to her, "Jezebel. You tried to make a dream of mine come true. That is more than anyone, even my brothers, have done for me. But I forgot just one thing. To be a mother, I have to be able to take care of myself. And I believe it when you say your story is no different. My father is here and if he sees me like this, I won't get far. You need to take it back. Right now."
"I can't, you know I can't do that," she resented.
My eyes began to imitate the rainfall. "Yes, you can! Just do it! Please, don't let this baby die!"
Jezebel shook her head stubbornly, throat closing up on her and her shallow breath. "Rebekah, you don't understand—"
"Understand that you're afraid? That you just don't want to go through with something that is not nearly as threatening to you as it is to me? Don't be a fool. Take it back!"
Mikael's footsteps then began to approach. We hadn't been quiet enough. Jezebel looked down, mouth widened with word loss as she observed my pastel skirt turn orange-red.
"...You're bleeding. You're bleeding," she panicked.
A sharp pain churns in my stomach, like a thousand needles trying to turn my insides to crochet. It travelled downward until it was in the pit of my stomach and throbbing like hot coals.
"No... No, Rebekah, stay awake. Stay awake, please, stay awake," Jezebel hollered as my eyes began to close and irrevocably shut.