𝟏• 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ✓

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

"NIKLAUS? IS T-THAT YOU?" At the sound of the frail, quiet and scared voice, Klaus' head perked up and shot towards the woman underneath the blankets, her white nightgown's sleeves rolled up to her elbows. "I just had the w-worst dream!" She forced a small smile that struggled to stay up due to her drowsiness. "I dreamt that I had a horrible fall that—" Her hands went down to her stomach as she spoke, and she suddenly frowned midsentence. "What?" She slowly and tiredly raised her head to look at where her hands had been resting.

"Aurelia, y-you're awake!" Klaus spoke up, trying hard to cover the tremble in his voice. "There is something you must know." He chose his words carefully; the last thing he wanted in that moment was to stress the young girl out more than required. "But I don't think I should reveal it to you right now. You're much too weak to retain and take this well." Aurelia used her hands to push her torso upwards so she could sit up comfortably, and Klaus quickly aided her by flattening his hand out on her back to support her.

"Tell me, Niklaus..." She insisted kindly. "There's no good in delaying the inevitable." With her words, he couldn't help but smile at her thought-process, especially considering how young she was. "It would do nothing but worsen things." Despite her attempt to keep a calm demeanor, Klaus could tell she was nervous and anxious to hear what he had to say. "Please tell me."

"I've always admired how maturely you see matters." He remarked sweetly, a fond smile making its way onto his lips. "You'll live on to be one of the most stunning women any man would know. And I don't just mean it physically." Finally sighing, he looked away from her quietly, as if in conflict about what he was going to say. "You..." Aurelia tilted her head to get a closer view so that she could listen to him intently. "Do you remember what happened? After your fall?"

"I..." He could see her expression falter slightly, but he didn't find that surprising; the amount of pain she was in before she was given his blood. "So it was reality, not from my strange imagination?" Her big, stormy blue eyes looked up at him, glistening slightly with tears. "What about Adam and Karissa?" She asked. "I had named them that, hadn't I?"

"They're well and healthy, Aurelia." He replied softly, taking her smaller, dainty hands in his. "However, what I'm worried about is you." After a small nod of understanding from the young girl, he continued to speak. "Even after the blood I had given you...everything happened much too quickly for us to do anything."

"You had given me your blood?" She blinked a few times in shock when she looked at him. "Hadn't Rebekah said that it was dangerous?" He nodded twice in response, and began to caress her hand to ease the evident stress in her features.

"It was after..." He insinuated, watching her carefully as she sighed in slight relief. "But you had passed out when I gave you my blood. There was no way to tell if you were going to wake up at all. I had even checked your breathing. It had stopped e-entirely. You were..." He trailed off, his words catching themselves in his throat as he found it too hard to speak.

"Dead." He looked at her, trying hard not to shed any tears in front of her. "I was dead." She repeated his statement, lips trembling. "So, my heart had stopped entirely?" She continued to ask questions for which she knew she would receive unbearable answers. "Did you hear it stop, Nik?" The question turned out to be more of a plea as she reached out for his face with both of her hands and forced him to look at her. "Did you hear it stop?"

"I did." His answer was like a key that opened the gates for her tears, which began rolling down her cheeks as soon as realization hit her harder than ever; realization of the fact that her worst nightmare had proven to be more than a mere nightmare. "You're now in transition, Aurelia. You have to drink human blood to remain alive."