Darkness I Became

Chapter 2: So Close No Matter How Far

Author's note: Okay, here's a mini-chapter just to get you through to the next update. The chapter title comes from Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think and/or want to see from future chapters.

Chapter 2: So Close No Matter How Far

A little girl with shock blonde hair toddles across the carpeted room, her eyes busily taking in the still – fairly unfamiliar room around her. She held tightly onto the stuffed animal in her arm – a white wolf puppy she'd had her entire life.
This little girl didn't have a care in the world. She had no idea the evils of the world around her or the bad things that could happen. Or that she specifically was the target for one of the most powerful witches the world has ever known.
"Hope, sweetheart....we need to go!"
The girl – Hope – watched her aunt scramble around her gathering their bags to take out to the car. She wasn't talking much yet – which constantly worried her aunt – but countless specialists, witches, psychologists, and even her brothers told her it was normal. Hope would talk when she was ready.
Hope happily ignored her aunt in favor of continuing to explore the room with her stuffed wolf as she a dozen of times since they'd come to stay at that apartment.
Moments later she was scooped up in the air as her tummy was tickled. "There's my birthday girl!" Hope giggled, twisting on her aunt's arms as the woman tickled her and showered her face with kisses. "You just get cuter and exponentially more adorable every day!" Rebekah laughed.
"No go." Hope shook her head.
Rebekah let out a deep sigh. "Oh bug . . ." Hope's bottom lip popped out. "Hey how about we find an extra special treat for you on the way?"
"No!"
When she did communicate, Hope was extremely stubborn – just like her father. "Love, we have to go. I'm sorry, but there is no other choice. Now, I have all of our things in the car – except you. So let's go, bug."
Tears sprung in Hope's eyes but she didn't say another word as her aunt carried her outside to the car. The routine was the same every time they left a city. Now that Hope was getting older, however, it was getting even more difficult. The young girl wanted a home and everything (or, everyone) that came with it – and Rebekah desperately wanted to give her niece that.
But that was impossible with the witch that was after the young girl.
Their mother – Ester – had returned through the bodies of other witches and was, once again, hell bent on wiping out not only her children (and by extent, all vampires) but her only grandchild as well. Ester and the other witches wanted Hope's power as a part-witch to fuel their own. So . . . Klaus and Elijah had faked Hope's death after Hayley's real death and sent the young newborn off with her aunt Rebekah into hiding. They'd been on the run ever since, jumping from town to town – never staying in one place too long. A witch Rebekah had once known years earlier (and trusted) cloaked them and bound Hope's magic so they couldn't be traced.
Rebekah had only heard from her brothers sporadically over the last three years. The last she'd heard (which was over eight months earlier) was that their father was back as well and working with their mother along with their brothers Kol and Finn (both of which were also in new bodies).
She climbed into the front seat of the car after strapping Hope in her booster seat (with her stuffed wolf, of course). She was just about to drive off when her cell phone rang.
The electronically and mystically secure phone she only used to contact her brothers on.
Quickly she answered it, glancing back at Hope in the back seat. "Hello?"
"Rebekah, it's done."
Her eyes widened. "Elijah?"
"Yes, sister. I'm calling to inform you that it is done – our parents are dead. The witches are no longer a threat." Elijah told her.
"No . . . but how?" Rebekah sputtered.
Elijah let out a very deep breath. "Suffice it to say, it is a very long-winded and complicated story. One I will be more willing to divulge . . . when you and our niece return."
"Do you really mean . . .?" Rebekah gasped.
"Yes, I believe it is long overdue for my sister and our niece to be among family once again." Elijah chuckled.
"Are you sure?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow, glancing back at Hope once more. The young girl was alert as if she knew what was going on.
"Yes, sister—" This voice was Klaus himself. "Bring my daughter home, if you would be so kind."
"I-I will." Rebekah told him. "We can be there in about seventy-two hours."
"Then you best be going, then." Klaus hung up the phone.
Rebekah put her phone back in her pocket. She turned around to where Hope was cuddling her stuffed wolf. "Guess what, bug?"
Hope looked up, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"I just talked to some very special people on the phone who are very anxious to see you." Rebekah told her niece. Hope's head tilted to the side. "They are my brothers, Elijah and NiKlaus. Elijah is your uncle and NiKlaus – he's your daddy. We're going to go home to see them, for good!"
"Mumma?" Hope whispered, cuddling the stuffed wolf to her chest.
Rebekah faltered, heartbroken. How was she supposed to tell her niece that her mother was murdered trying to bring her into this world?
Hope knew that Rebekah was her aunt and not her mother – the blonde Original had made sure of that as the girl grew. Rebekah could never replace Hayley in Hope's life – nor did she want to. Rebekah hadn't told Hope much about her mother (or the supernatural), but the young girl idolized the she-wolf she'd never met.
Hope held the stuffed wolf up – the one given to her by her father the one and only time she'd met him when she was just six months in. The stuffed wolf Hope had later named 'Hayley'. "See Mumma?" Hope asked again.
Rebekah gulped, feeling the slightest of moisture in the corner of her eye. She hadn't always liked Hayley nor did she much care for wolves but Hayley was her friend – a sister of sorts, even.
"Bekah!" Hope sniffled, kicking her small feet.
Rebekah wiped her eye before Hope could see her tears. She let out a breath and turned her attention back to her niece. "I'm so sorry, bug, but . . . Hope, your mother won't be there. When you were born, your mother was hurt and . . . and she didn't get better."
"Mumma . . ." Tears fell from Hope's eyes but she turned her head away from her aunt.
Rebekah sighed and turned back to face the front. She started the car and drove off, away from Madison, Wisconsin and back toward New Orleans. For the next three days, Hope never stopped crying – quietly mourning the loss of the mother she was never allowed to know. Every little cry broke Rebekah's heart all the more.

To Be Continued . . .