The Jewel of the New Orleans ⚜ The Originals

Chapter 16: Breaking Point

"Rebekah!" Klaus yelled at his sister. Colette broke away from Elijah and Rebekah, going to stand in the middle. "Don't move!"

"Klaus, she's your sister! You can't kill her!"

"Colette," Elijah called to her. "Come back here now."

She shook her head. "All your talk of family and you're willing to kill her?"

"She betrayed me!"

"Spare me the tears, Klaus. This is one of your tantrums. Don't end your vow on such a small slight."

Klaus raised the White Oak Stake. "I brought it for you, sister." He quickly turned it on Colette. "But I will end you first if you stand in my way."

She took a step forward, but she was tugged back. Elijah had brought her back to their side and passed her off to Rebekah like she was some object. He ordered Rebekah. "Get out of his sight. Your presence here only serves to anger him. Bring Colette with you. Leave him to me now."

Rebekah's grip tightened on Colette's arm as she raced them away.

"I've never seen him like this before. He's out of his mind with rage, up all night howling one obscenity-laced tirade after the next. He's gonna kill me." Rebekah looked from Colette to her brothers standing outside as she spoke with Marcel on the phone. They had been there in a tomb all night and well into the morning. It would be hours before the spell was broken. "That's a brilliant strategy. But, given that that dead bitch Celeste has trapped us in here 'til moonrise, my options are somewhat limited. I lived for centuries looking over my shoulder, ready to run at a moment's notice. Am I to go back to that?" Rebekah hung up the phone.

"Did he promise to find us a way out of here?"

"Of course he did," Rebekah sighed. "Not that he'll find his precious loophole. Why are you stuck in here anyway? You're not an Original."

"Not in the traditional sense." Colette stood up from her seat on a raised step. "I promise, when all this is over, I'll tell you and your brothers what I am. I just really hate repeating myself. Only slightly less so then having witches just give out my secrets like it's theirs. My turn: why is your brother wanting to kill you over this? Didn't your father want to kill all vampires?"

She nodded. "Yes, but he especially hated Klaus, even before we became vampires."

"What did he do to him that would warrant this?"

Rebekah took Colette's arm and sat her down. "I don't think I could put it into words..."

"Show me then. I can handle it, I promise."

She placed her fingers against the other's temples, both of them closing their eyes as Rebekah entered Colette's mind. Colette did her best to shut her mind down so Rebekah couldn't see into hers. What Rebekah showed her though were images that Colette knew all too well, though in her own memories she was Klaus. It was strange and horrifying to see things from an outsider's perspective. The abuse, verbal and physical that their father, Mikael, had put him through. Rebekah's feelings poured in with the memories and she had been just as sick to her stomach watching them as Colette was. Unlike Colette's though, Mikael's abuse on Klaus and his siblings spanned centuries as he hunted them down.

When Rebekah pulled her hands away, Colette's cheeks were damp with tears she was quick to wipe away. Colette shook her head. "So I was right."

"About what?" Rebekah asked.

"Klaus and I are alike," she said. "But at least he had people who loved him."

Rebekah shook her head. "You tell him that."