Through His Eyes (The Originals)

Voodoo In My Blood

 And did I yell the next morning. Elijah, of course, paid little attention to me, even though I made it very clear that the reason I was angry had to do with his little brother, and not me. Eventually, he said, "Father, please use your inside voice. Now, I'm going out for something important. I imagine you don't want me taking Henrik this time, so you can stay here and babysit him and Hope."

 "Well, where are the rest of you going?" I demanded.

 "Dad, it's okay," Henrik said, grabbing me firmly by the arm. "Just let them go. We can have a quiet, peaceful day." 

 I sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

 "You mean when you were yelling at Elijah like a lunatic? Yeah, I think I could have done without that part. But I'm okay, I promise. I actually feel a lot better today."

 "And you're sure about that?"

 "Yes, Dad, I mean it. I'm better today. It's just that I've never helped to kill a person before, and it freaked me out a little, especially coming from Elijah."

 "I suppose you have a point there," I said. "I really don't know what's been going on with him recently. Well, Hope's safe upstairs, and this place probably needs some dusting. I did my best to clean the blood off the floor last night, but it didn't seem to work too well."

 Henrik looked around at the floor. "A lot of people have gotten killed here, huh? Now, that I would expect form Klaus, but not Elijah. So, what do we do now that we're home alone?"

 I shrugged. "I really don't know what we're expected to do. Protect Hope, guard the compound. I think that's it."

 "Does that mean I'm not welcome? Or are you allowed to have visitors?"

 "Erik. What are you doing here?" I asked him.

 "I thought I'd come by again in the morning," he said, giving me a smile. He glanced down at the floor. "Is that blood?"

 "Um, yes," I answered. "We were attacked last night."

 "Attacked?" he repeated. "You weren't hurt, were you?"

 "Oh, no, I'm fine. They weren't, though. Of course, I was the one stuck cleaning up everything. Now everyone's gone off on some secret mission, and we've been left behind. Henrik, you met Erik, didn't you?"

 Henrik nodded, eyeing Erik skeptically. "Yeah. Hi."

 Erik gave him a smile. "Nice to see you, Henrik. You are Mikael's youngest, yes? He's spoken of his children before."

 "Yeah, I am the youngest," Henrik replied. "So, how exactly do you and my dad know each other?"

 "We met when we both involved with the Strix," Erik said, "But I left them long ago. Quite mad, they were."

 "So, you know that Tristan guy?"

 "Oh, yes, I knew him. Not very well, but I didn't like him much."

 "So, what exactly brought you by?" I asked, desperate to change the subject form Tristan.

 "I told you, I wanted to see you, Mikael. Are you all right?"

 "Yes, I-I'm fine," I answered. "Henrik, can you go check on Hope, please? It's been very quiet up there." 

 Henrik nodded. "Okay."

 When he was up the stairs and out of earshot, Erik said, "I take it you do not like to discuss Tristan de Martel?"

 "Henrik hasn't even met him yet, and he already doesn't like him. I don't know what to do about it, honestly."

 "Perhaps you should worry about fighting the Hollow first," Erik suggested. "Rid yourself of the villains, and then you can focus on the good things in your life."

 "Dad!" Henrik came running back to the stairway. "Hope's not in her room, and I can't find her anywhere."

 No one even had to say anything else. We all three immediately began searching for her, but found that she was nowhere in the compound. As I frantically searched, a horrid whispering came from the back of my mind.

 You lost her. Your only grandchild, and you lost her.

 "I have to call Hayley," I said, pulling out my phone. "She has to know about this." I paced, waiting for her to pick up. "Hayley, Hope is gone. We just searched the whole compound top to bottom, and she is nowhere."

 "Mikael, slow down," she said. "I know Hope got out. She's here with us. We're all okay, thankfully. We'll be home soon."

 When I hung up, Henrik asked me, "Is she okay?"

 "Hayley said she's with her, and that they're fine." I let out a sigh of relief. "Why would she ever leave? She must know what kind of danger there is."

 Erik stayed with us until the others returned.

 "What happened?" Klaus asked me. "How could you let my daughter's departure slip past your notice?" He looked over at Erik. "He was distracting you, isn't he? First it was Tristan de Martel who you let lure you away, and now it's this fool."

 "Klaus, you know that's not fair," Henrik said.

 "I don't care," Klaus said. "I want him out of my home."

 Erik nodded. "It's your home, and your daughter. I understand."

 After he had left, I turned to Klaus. "What is wrong with you? Do you think I don't feel bad that Hope got out without me noticing? Erik wasn't distracting me. He came here to check up on me because we couldn't much of a conversation yesterday because I was stuck in here with you!"

 "Where are you going?" Hayley called as I marched to the door.

 "Out." 

 "Erik!" I called, turning down the street.

 One of the people walking by stopped, and turned around. "Yes? I don't think it's a good idea fro me to go back inside."

 "I know." I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him. "Wherever you're going, I want to come with you."

 "I was just going back to my hotel for the night."

 "Then I'll go there with you," I said. 

 I could see his eyes widen a little in the streetlight. "You-you want to-"

 "Yes." I nodded. "Just get me the hell away from here for the night."