Closed World || Kai Parker || Kol Mikaelson

02. Madness

|| MAILYN

At first, I thought I was dreaming. That I'd dozed off somewhere and my brain was playing tricks on me. I blinked and drew in my breath, pinching my arms until they were almost numb with pain.

It wasn't my imagination, this guy I'd never seen before in my life was really standing in front of me. For some reason, I felt the urgent need to hug him and feel the warmth of another person for the first time in months. But there was this voice inside me that stopped me. I didn't know who he was and, more importantly, what he was. Ever since the revelation when I died that supernatural beings existed, I always had this fact in the back of my mind.

And so I resorted to the second option that came into my head as to how I could react. I questioned.

"Who are you?" As expected, my voice sounded raspy and I had to clear my throat immediately after saying it. He inspected me from head to toe and narrowed his eyes. "I'm Kai, but the more important question is: who are you?" Now it was me who narrowed my eyes and looked at him in confusion. Kai took a step towards me, stalking me as if he was the hunter and I was his prey. Inevitably, I took a few steps back until I found my voice. "I'm Mailyn," I replied to his question.

But instead of stopping as I had hoped, he quickened his steps and pushed me against the window. I felt the edge of the windowsill uncomfortably against my hip as he positioned himself directly in front of me and returned my gaze piercingly.

Then he lifted his hand and touched me almost tenderly on the cheek. I looked at him, frozen, watching his every move. For a few moments he didn't move at all, then he suddenly jerked back and his face contorted. "A human?!" he exclaimed and kicked one of the chairs with all his might, causing it to slide across the floor and finally topple over. Startled, I looked at him and quickly went over to him to put my hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, what's wrong?" He interrupted me by grabbing my arm and pushing me off him with a jerky movement so that I bumped into the chest of drawers and lay there with my back throbbing.

"Someone sends me another person into this hell after 18 years and it's a human?" Kai yelled at me and I was shocked to see his face contort in anger. His eyes were so cold, his stature so defensive and frightening that my heartbeat wouldn't calm down. Panic rose in me, I became afraid of him and so I frantically got to my feet and wanted nothing more than to get away.

I ran out of the villa, pulled open the car door and started the car. The adrenaline replaced the dizziness from earlier. It was as if I had sobered up in one fell swoop.

I was just putting the car in reverse when I saw Kai running out of the building, but he couldn't stop me. I had already pulled out of the driveway and only saw his silhouette in the rear-view mirror.

*

In my mind, I saw busy streets, heard loud music and perceived all kinds of different smells. I wanted to hold on to this image so much, because it made me forget reality. That I could forget the fact that I was standing alone on a lonely and desolate street.

In my memory, New Orleans was probably the liveliest city I had ever been to. There was a busker on every corner, people were open and the arts were highly regarded. This city was enchanting and unique. But in this version, it was nothing but bleak and rainy.

It made me sad that it had rained in New Orleans on May 10, 1994, because that meant it rained every day for me. If I stayed in this city.

I had chosen a hotel to stay in. There was a restaurant nearby where I regularly cooked myself something to eat.

It had been almost a week since my strange encounter with Kai. I had been in New Orleans for almost five days now and I knew that I would have to move on soon. It was clear to me that Kai would come looking for me. And I was also sure that he could read my tracks.

I had found out that the world reset every 24 hours, but things that I had moved did not reset. For example, if I took a packet of potato chips from the shelf, ate them and left the garbage in front of the shelf, a new packet of potato chips would appear on the shelf 24 hours later, but the garbage would also remain. It only disappeared when it lay untouched in place for another 24 hours. I had once seen something I had moved disappear again. I then tested how long it had to remain untouched. At least 24 hours without being moved and then the next reset would make the previously moved object disappear.

Slowly I thought I understood the system a little better, but I was still regularly surprised.

The wind swept the rain directly into my face and I pulled my jacket tighter around me, the hood lower over my face. Then I entered an old library that looked like it sold antiques. Inside it was wonderfully dry and warm and I took my jacket off straight away to hang it over the chair that stood not far from the entrance. Then I rummaged through the store until I reached the Mystical Legends corner and leafed through the books there. I did indeed find stories of vampires, but they were all different in content. I cursed and immediately thought back to the diary I had found in the Salvatore villa. I would have loved to take it with me, but I had completely forgotten about it because of the commotion with Kai.

Now it bothered me that it was still there and I actually thought about going back to get it. I sighed. I wouldn't be able to escape Kai forever, I knew that. Sooner or later I would have to face him again, but I actually preferred that meeting to be as far in the future as possible.

Nevertheless, he had piqued my interest. His excitement because I was human instead of... Yes, instead of what? What could he have meant? A vampire, for example?

Did he know? Was he perhaps supernatural himself?

Frustrated, I threw this stupid book to one side and looked at the small bookshelf. My eyes fell on a small book that I had always overlooked before. I frowned and unceremoniously pulled it off the shelf, realized it was handwritten and flipped to the first page. As I started to read, I had the feeling that I might finally be getting closer to my answers. Even without the mysterious diary from Salvatore Villa.

The book consisted of a collection of notes. At first it looked as if the notes were randomly put together, but the closer I read, the more I thought I could make sense of them.

The notes were headed by Latin words and then an effect was described. It sounded like a series of spells and their respective effects.

And finally I turned to a page that gave me pause. It talked about covens. And there was a name that sounded all too familiar.

Bennett.