Ways of Grieving | Freya Mikaelson

Chapter Thirteen

 Roland couldn't sleep that night. There was no way he could actually sleep while Freya was out in the world somewhere, possibly in danger. He tossed and turned in his bed for a few hours until he finally fell asleep, and even then he couldn't seem to stay still, as the same terrible thoughts he'd had while he was awake kept on haunting him.

 He woke up in the morning to the sound of his phone ringing. He rolled over and grabbed his phone to see Freya's number on the screen. He immediately pressed answer.

 "Freya, is that you? Thank God you're all right, I was worried about you, I didn't know you were missing until I came back from work and your brothers were going to go look for you-"

 "Roland," he heard Freya say sternly on the other end. "One thing at a time, please. I can barely understand anything you're saying."

 "Oh. Sorry." Roland sat up. "All right. First, most importantly, are you okay?"

 "Yeah. Yeah, I'll be fine."

 "Okay. That's what matters most, you don't sound too convinced that you're all right. It was Lucien Castle, right?"

 "Yeah, it was. Hey, is it okay if I come over to talk? It would be really great to see you in person."

 "Oh. Yeah, of course. Um, I'll see you in a minute."

 As soon as he hung up, Roland changed into clean clothes, brushed his teeth, and tired making his hair look a little less messy after seeing it in the bathroom mirror. He thought he looked all right when he heard a knock. He hurried to answer it.

 "Roland." As soon as she saw him, Freya threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.

 "Freya. Here, come inside." Roland closed the door. "What happened? You look like you've been crying."

 "I was," she admitted. "Everything just...really sucks right now."

 "Well, come sit down. Do you want to talk about it?"

 She shrugged. "I don't know. But you were so worried about me and you've been such a great friend that you deserve to know what happened. You know I was kidnapped by Lucien Castle. He needed me for a ritual."

 "What kind of ritual was he doing?" Roland asked.

 "One that could make him into an Original, but one my powerful than my siblings. Werewolf venom is fatal to vampires, but Klaus' blood is the cure. Lucien bit Finn, and Klaus' blood couldn't save him."

 She let those words hang in the air as Roland took them in. "Then Finn...oh, God. That's why you were crying. I'm sorry, Freya. You had just gotten him back."

 He reached out to take her hand, but she said, "It's okay. We all said our goodbyes, and I've done my fair share of crying over it. Finn never wanted to be a vampire, and I think he would want me to be able to move on from his death as quickly as possible. Besides, we have Lucien to worry about now."

 "Right. So, if he's some kind of Super-Original, do you have idea what you're going to do to stop him?"

 "I have no clue so far. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I mean, Lucien could kill anyone and we wouldn't be able to stop him. That's the scary thing."

 "Well, there has to be something you can do."

 "I don't doubt that," said Freya. "There's always a loophole somewhere. I'm just gonna have to work harder to find it this time."

 "Is there anything at all that I can do to help?" Roland asked. "I honestly don't know much, but I am still a witch."

 "That's sweet of you to offer, and I mean that. But you've already done a lot for me by being a great friend. I've really needed that. So, thank you. Seriously."

 Roland nodded. "Um, yeah. Sure. No problem."

 "Okay. Well, I should probably go. I told myself that I would give myself a little more time to get over everything that happened, but I'm too nervous to be able to relax. I'm going to start looking through my books to see of there's anything to be done where Lucien is concerned."

 "All right. Um, you should go do that, then." Roland held the door open for her. "I can't tell you how glad I am that you came out of that alive, Freya."

 "Yeah. Me, too." She hugged him again. "See you."

 "Yeah. See you."

 Roland closed the door, and stood pressed against it for a minute. Freya was alive, and she would be okay. That was the most important thing to him in all of this. But now there was even more danger lurking about, which meant she could (and probably would) be put in danger again, and it made him feel even worse to know there probably wasn't anything he could do besides be someone to talk to when Freya needed someone.

 But then he thought about it a little longer, and realized that sometimes that was a good thing to have. If Freya needed someone, he could be that someone.