❝You're way more messed up than I thought.❞
In which he had the world, but at what price?
[ELIJAH MIKAELSON AU]
STARTED: AUGUST 21, 2017
FINISHED: APRIL 19, 2018
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Victoria had checked out of the hotel the day his siblings had left, he had checked with the receptionist at the front desk. Elijah had found himself wondering if she was still even in the city.
Had she left because of him?
He hoped not. New York was her home and he didn't want to be the reason that she left it again. He could never forgive himself if that were the case.
But she hadn't left. She had been staying with Jack, the bartender at the dive she had been frequenting to since she was a teenager. The pair had known each other since she was 16 and rebelling against her parents.
Elijah hadn't returned to the bar since his siblings left, meaning Tori had been spending most of her days there.
"I love him, but I think I have to leave him," she told Jack one day as he poured her a large glass of something strong. It was the first time she had said anything about the situation to him. "I don't know what to do."
"If you give me a little more detail, maybe I could impart some words of wisdom."
Jack poured a second glass and raised it to his lips, his grey eyes concentrated on the young woman in front of him.
"When we met, we used to walk around the city, just talking. I opened up to him more than I have to anyone before, and I'm pretty sure he did the same with me. Then I saw him... I saw him do something terrible. And I'm not sure I could ever forgive him for it because I'm scared that one day he'll do that terrible thing to me." Tori paused to take a large sip of the clear drink in front of her. "But I want to forgive him, so badly. He's the only man that has ever made me feel this way."
"What way?"
"I don't know, it's hard to explain," she furrowed her brows together as she spoke. "It's like I haven't been myself since I met him."
Jack was quick to point out, "I don't recall you being yourself was ever such a great thing."
Her green eyes locked with his grey ones as a single word slipped from her soft lips, her voice was so low that he barely heard her, "Exactly."
The bell above the door echoed loudly throughout the room, the two at the bar both snapping their eyes towards the sound to see who had just entered. It was an elderly man who was been frequenting to the old bar longer than either of them could remember. He took his usual seat in the corner.
Tori felt a relieve sigh escape her plump lips as she turned back to her drink.
"Trust your gut," Jack told her after a moment of silence, "if you really think that this guy will do whatever terrible thing you saw him do to you. Better safe than sorry, right?"
And with that, he left her alone to her thoughts as he tended to the old man.
