SIDE CHARACTER [ 1 ]| THE ORIGINALS & LEGACIES

T W O

The car ride was most definitely awkward. The distance between Mystic falls and New Orleans was long enough without the excruciating pain of the silence that was so loud, my vampire self contemplated ripping my own heart out so just off myself already.

Don't make Hayley Marshall mad, she's scary.

As we walked into the Mikaelson compound, Hayley walked quickly in front of us, anger basically steaming out of her ears.

"Can you just yell at me already?" Hope called after her. "Seven hours of hostile silence is punishment enough."

Hayley stopped abruptly, turning around. "The whole point of sending you two to that school and calling you Hope Marshall was so that you wouldn't draw attention to yourselves, to keep you safe."

She turned to me, and for a second I felt like she was going to mom me as well. Instead, her expression softened, and she said, "Lilah, can you go up to your room? Sorry that I'm making you miss classes, too, I just thought if I was going to take your irresponsible best friend," she turned to her daughter when she said this, before turning back to me, "home, I might as well let you enjoy some time off as well."

I nodded, giving her a closed-mouth smile before I headed up the staircase towards the room the Mikaelson family had given me when they found out I had been compelling a landlord to let me stay in an apartment.

I passed by Freya on my way up, who instantly stopped walking towards the staircase with a knowing look on her face, staying right next to me.

"How bad is it?"

"Aunt Hayley's anger count be comparable to Uncle Niklaus," I told her.

I always called them all Aunt or Uncle when addressing them. Well, all but Elijah, though he's been gone for the past seven years, his memory taken. Even before, when I knew him, he and I had a close bond. I never called him Uncle Elijah, and no one ever asked me why not.

"Damn," Freya said, before slinging an arm around me. "So, update me on everything."

I smiled at her, my heart warmed with how the Mikaelson's opened their arms to me all those years ago. They treated me like I was one of them, and sometimes it felt like always and forever applied to me, too.

"You first, since I have a lot to say. How's Keelin, how long until she's back?" I asked.

Her smile dropped, and she said, "Soon, but... I might be leaving with her. It was suggested last time we talked, and I don't know, I kind of want to go, but I can't just stop trying to find a way to reunite my siblings, I can't just leave Vincent to take care of New Orleans by himself."

I frowned. Freya deserved the world, she deserved happiness. Sometimes it pained me to watch her spending her mortal, finite days trying to get the immortals back together. I wanted them altogether, too, but Freya put her own happiness aside for so long. I knew that it wasn't fair.

"Hope made a mistake, and she'll learn from it."

"That's what I said, but bad things come in threes, and three bad things seem to be happening," she said. "Nothing for you to worry about."

"Freya, you treat me like a kid," I said to her as we rounded the corner into my bedroom, sitting on the floor near my bed talking. "I think you're forgetting I'm an ancient vampire."

"An ancient vampire in high school, who looks like she's 16 and acts like she's 16, therefore I will treat her like she is 16."

"I'm grounded," Hope said, walking into my room. "I feel bad, but Kol seems to think it'll blow over by Mardi Gras."