The Investigation | Mikael

Chapter Nine

 I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. I picked up at looked at the screen. It was Marcel. I sighed and hit 'Answer'. 

 "Hey, Marcel," I said. "What's up?" 

 "I wanted to check up on you," he said. "I went to the old Mikaelson Compound last night, and someone else was there. I heard someone run out another entrance, but I didn't see who it was." 

 "Do you think it was Mikael?" I asked. 

 "It might have been, but I thought I heard more than one pair of footsteps. Have you been there?" 

 "I was there the night before last, but not last night. I didn't see anything suspicious when I was there." 

 "Okay. Well, I'm having people watch the place anyway, so you can go look around there again if you want to. Have you found anything yet, Finn?" he asked. "Anything at all?" 

 I didn't want to hesitate too long in answering, because I worried he might find out what I was keeping from him. How could I explain my situation with Mikael in a way he could understand? 

 "I haven't found him, or any sign of him," I answered. "Marcel, I think you might be underestimating him. He's obviously smarter than you think he is if he's been able to avoid you this long, and I have a feeling he's vicious and ruthless. He's someone we should all be wary of."

 "I know. That's why I have to get rid of him. Look, Finn, if you don't think you can handle it, I understand." 

 "No, it's not that," I said. "I'll keep looking. It's only been a couple of days, after all. Just give me a little longer and I might just find something." 

 There was a short pause on the other end of the line, but then Marcel said, "All right. Good luck. I'll be checking up on you." 

 I hung up and put my phone down on the bedside table. So, it was Marcel whom Mikael heard enter the compound last night. It was a good thing we ran when we did. 

 "Why does he seem so hesitant to trust you?" 

 Mikael was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. How long he had been there, I had no idea; for all I knew, he could have been hanging around in my apartment all night. 

 "Why are you here?" I asked him. "Wouldn't it look a little less suspicious if you weren't sneaking into my home?" 

 "No one is going to find me here, Finnamore, and you didn't answer my question. Why does Marcel seem to think you can't handle anything?"

 "It's not that-" I paused. "Look, would you get out for a few minutes? I'll get dressed, and then we can talk about it." 

 He threw his hands in the air. "Fine. I'll be in the kitchen." 

 After he left the room, I realized my closet door was wide open. I often left it open, but it looked like someone might have been rummaging around in there. When I looked inside, there was a box lying in the center of the closet floor, a box I usually kept in a corner. Inside was my old army uniform, something I hardly ever took out. 

 Once I get dressed, I made my way to the kitchen, where Mikael was sitting at the table, drumming his fingers impatiently. 

 "Were you looking in my closet?" I asked him. 

 "You didn't say you were in the army," he replied. 

 "I didn't say so because you haven't asked me about myself," I snapped. "All you care about is your story." 

 "And if you weren't interested, you would have sent a message to Marcel while you were alone in your room just now. But you didn't, did you? You're interested in me, Finnamore. I might go so far as to say you even like me." 

 "You know what? Why don't you tell you a little about you while I make breakfast? Do you want something?" 

 "I'm not hungry." 

 "Fine." I plugged in the toaster and opened the cabinet where I had a loaf of bread stored. "Since you don't want to talk about your daughter Freya, why don't we go over everything else? After you thought you had lost Freya, you and your wife came to this side of the world in hopes of a better life." 

 "And I wish we hadn't," he said. "We already had Finn, and Elijah was born a few months after we landed here. Esther and I began to drift apart after that. I had lost my daughter, and I was in a new land I didn't really know. I was miserable. But at one point, we began to merge together again, and things got better between us. Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik were all born. We had some good years. In fact, we might have just been an ordinary if we hadn't lost Henrik." He turned around to look at me. "Aren't you going to take any notes?" 

 "I'm making breakfast at the moment," I pointed out. 

 "I am telling you the important parts of my family's history, and you're acting as if it's something so trivial!" 

 "All right." I sat down to take notes of everything he had told me so far. "So, you lost Henrik. What happened?" 

 "He and Niklaus went out on a full moon night, when the werewolves were out. Henrik was murdered. It was...terrible. He was our youngest, and the thought another child gone was too much to handle. We lost two already; would any of the others be next?" 

 I slowly lowered the piece of toast in my hand as he spoke. I was suddenly not hungry. "Mikael...I'm sorry. I didn't know how awful Henrik's death was. And only a child, too."  

 "Have you ever had any children, Finnamore?" he asked me. "No? Good. That means you'll never done anything like what Esther and I did." He clasped his hands together. "That was how we became vampires. Esther and I couldn't lose anyone else. And then after that...well, we started killing people. I found out that Niklaus wasn't my son." 

 "Right." I leaned forward a little. "How did you feel about that?" 

 "I don't know. I was angry that Esther had been with another man. I went into a blind rage, and I killed the man and his entire family." 

 Mikael sighed and got up from his chair. "Well, this is more emotion than I've dealt with in a while. I'm sorry if I seem odd."

 "No, it's fine. I completely understand any reluctance to talk about this. We can stop for now if you want." 

 "Yes, I think I would like to stop for now. It suppose we can't meet at the compound now, but I'll be back." 

 I walked him down to the back door. Before he left, he turned back and said to me, "There's one more thing, Finnamore. Esther died the night I murdered Ansel and his family. Niklaus told his siblings I killed her, and they believed him. It was him who murdered my wife, not me. You might want to add that to your little notes."

 He turned away and disappeared, leaving me to digest this new piece of information.