STOLEN | THE ORIGINALS

2.7 | Protecting the Innocent

[ Chapter Twenty-Two ]

SOMETHING ALWAYS seemed to happen when it came to Mikaelson family. If they were not at each other's throats, then they were at someone else's. A vicious cycle. One they were trapped in for the last thousand years.

But, things were different. They needed to be.

Hope and Ryan were now the most important members of their family. Their protection came first. Everything they did had to be considered before the two children were involved, especially with an unknown and mystery enemy in their midst.

Freya placed a spell over the entire compound to keep out all visitors. No one allowed in, and no one allowed out. She, along with Elijah, believed it would be the only way to keep Hope and Ryan truly safe from the Hollow and its followers. So, Mary brought them back to New Orleans from the bayou to keep them within the walls of their newly restored family home.

With Hope and Ryan settled in, Raylynn turned her worry on Hayley. Her best friend discovered more about her parents than she ever dreamed. The night of the failed party, Hayley and Freya found an old storage locker that held everything left behind by the late Crescent Alphas. Dozens of boxes were inside, holding the last memories of Hayley's childhood and her life with her parents.

They were moved from the storage locker to the first floor study. Raylynn proposed that she and Hayley go through them together, while Hope and Ryan went off and played on their own.

Raylynn sat next to Hayley on the couch, flipping through a photo album that held various pictures. Many of them were of Hayley's parents, along with Hayley as a baby. A smile formed on Raylynn's lips when she saw her best friend with chubby cheeks and dirty blonde hair, sitting on her mother's lap, who had the same color hair as Hayley had in recent days.

"I have to say," Raylynn voiced, drawing the hybrid's gaze from the picture to her, "you were adorable."

Hayley smiled, before she set her eyes back on the album in her hands. "It's strange seeing myself this small." She turned the pink page, finding the rest of the book blank.

Footsteps sounded and alerted the two women to someone's approach. Raylynn looked over her shoulder to where Klaus entered the open door of the study.

He stopped for a moment, glancing around at the boxes that filled the room. "Are two you hosting a yard-sale?"

Hayley closed the photo album and set it on a box next to couch. "I just figured, while we're stuck here, I may as well work out which stuff to keep and which to donate." She leaned toward the box on the coffee table, plucking a red blouse from it to set on the box with the photo album.