Shadows Within

FOUR

Mystic Falls, Virginia

Tuesday

On the evening of Tuesday morning, Niklaus Mikaelson had buried an empty basket of his brother down the ground beside the woman he had loved until his death; the woman who had birthed Klaus his daughter, a single fact that he would always be thankful for despite how he might have felt at the beginning. Hope stood beside him with tearful eyes, holding onto him like she was afraid if she let go, he would leave her alone too. On the other side of him stood Caroline with her two daughters; Lizzie and Josie Saltzman, one of whom looked as much like her mother as Hope had her mother. Caroline lifted her eyes to meet his own from across the cemetery and gave him a reassuring squeeze in the hand, and it was only then that Klaus finally let himself to really break down since that fateful night his brother had sacrificed his life for his family, to finally accept for a fact that his brother was gone forever.

Always and forever, they had promised each other, but now, Klaus was forced to wander the eternity without his brother to keep an eye on him. Because even when they had fought and got angry at each other, they've always had each other's side the way they did with no other, including their own siblings.

Rebekah stood beside Marcel with tearful eyes as she sobbed against his chest, her sound getting louder and louder as each minute passed.

Freya stood with Keelin by her side, her face a tearful mess.

Kol and Davina stood side by side, Davina's hand on Kol's shoulders, as she looked at her husband worryingly, but it seemed that his little brother was dead to the world. He looked at the gravestone that bore their brother's name in a frozen shock as he repeated over and over again, "It should've been me." He kept saying, until the words started echoing in Klaus's own head.

It should have been him, but his stubborn brother didn't allow him that choice and now, he was here alive while his brother, the one half of his wicked soul, was long gone.

Klaus didn't quite know how he would come to live after today. How would he learn how to be fine again? How would he possibly learn to live without his brother for the rest of his life? It seemed like an impossible task.

"It's going to be fine." Caroline told him, her eyes worrying. "You are going to get through this." But Klaus didn't think that was possible. After all, in that awful moment when his heart was bitter with sorrow and pain, a life without his brother in it didn't seem like a life at all.

When Hope Mikaelson was a little, every time she would get angry at her parents for something or other, she would always go and seek her uncle Elijah. He always knew the right things to say. He understood far too well why exactly she was angry at them. Growing up, her Uncle Elijah was like her personal hero. And now that he was gone because of her, Hope didn't know what to do. She felt just as lost as her father did. "I am sorry for your loss." It was Josie Saltzman with her long, brown hair and brown eyes that stared at her in a deep regret.

Hope forced herself to smile. "Thanks." She might as well start actually putting an effort to get along with them instead of putting a shield in front of herself now. After all, Hope didn't doubt that in another few years or so, they would be a family and when one started distancing themselves from a family, awful things were bound to happen.

"Lizzie told me to give you this." Josephine handed her the prism. "You can use this to say goodbye to him. It's only your subconscious taking a form of the person you long to see, but Lizzie thought it might help you feel better."

Hope looked at the gift with tearful eyes and lifted her head back at Josie, biting her lip. "Thank you."

Josie shook her head. "I am only the messenger. Don't thank me. It was Lizzie's idea." She then added somewhat anxiously. "Besides, if we didn't help you, who would? After all, regardless of how those two might protest against the very idea, we might as well be a family and if family doesn't take care of each other, who would?"