Shadows Within

FOURTEEN

If Jeremy Gilbert was to be entirely honest with himself, he didn't really have a very lucky life. Not that any of his friends had one, but he was just saying, his life wasn't definitely easier than any of them. He had misluck with girlfriends (not as much as Alaric's love life, though), the way how everyone seemed to have something against his sister and then in process, after him as well. So, suffice to say, Caroline Forbes showing up on his door so early in the morning didn't help matters in the slightest. "Your vacation is over, Jeremy." She informed him, looking slightly apologetic at the interruption. "We need your help. The school is under attack." Beside the vampire stood Klaus Mikaelson (whom he still harbored a bit of a grudge against) and Dorian Williams (who looked as if he would rather be anywhere else but here).

If Jeremy was full awake, he probably would have said something that sounded actually intelligent like who's attacking us? But seeing as he had just woken up to their rude wake up call at nine in the morning without even having had a single cup of coffee, all that came out of his mouth was, "Huh?" It was a wonder he didn't ask them about what school they were talking about, seeing as his mind was still in a sleepy state.

"Sober up, Gilbert. We are going back to Mystic Falls."

Hope Mikaelson felt as if somebody had stabbed her in the gut thousands of times. "Why?" She stared at Ryan, who all suddenly seemed like a stranger she didn't recognize. This didn't seem like the man she loved, this man with cold eyes and words that seemed to ache her heart like nothing else.

Ryan shook his head regretfully with a bitter smile on his face. "I've told you, Hope, I've always told you that it was a complicated matter. You just didn't listen."

"Were you just using me all along?" Hope gasped the words out like a cutting knife, glancing at Ryan with disbelieving eyes. "I've believed you. I fucking believed you." She had trusted him like nobody else, had loved him with all of her bleeding heart, had given up everything for him and he had stomped on it all without a care in the world.

Ryan looked almost hurt by the accusation. "Someday, I will explain everything to you, Hope, but right now, you are in the way." He stood tall before her, his face indifferent as he glared at her. "Move." Would she learn to forgive him though? Because as of now, every little thing he had done to Landon (his brother, Landon had said), had done to her (all the lying and deception, except he didn't really lie, did he? He merely kept the truth away from her) and everyone else, seemed really unforgivable. She may love him always, but she didn't think she was going to learn to forgive him anytime soon.

Hope stepped even closer, forcing her head up pointedly. "No."

"Hope." He almost sounded pleading, eyes softening.

"Ryan, you may think you have us in the corner, but let me tell you one thing, my love, you are not going to win."

He smirked at her and it was all very Ryan that it clenched her heart like a needle. "You seem awfully certain."

Hope smirked at him knowingly. "Because I am." She then waved her hands in front of herself and muttered, "Imitator Pupulus." And pulling him by the collar before he could protest, she jumped into the Malivoire along with him. It had all began because of them. So, it seemed only fitting it shall end with them. Always and forever they shall be, together.

It was the oddest feeling in the world. Ever since a few weeks ago, Klaus couldn't stop feeling as if he had forgotten something very important. Something huge. "Late night?" Dorian asked, pouring him a drink as he sat down beside him on the stool by the bar.

Klaus quickly drowned the drink and nodded his head. Today, all day long, he had helped everyone out with their bags and whatnots, hopping from one side of the school to another. Before, he had spent thousands of years scarring children (and sometimes, murdering them) to no end. But now, children were looking to seek him out for advice as if they actually trusted him, as if he was family. For the longest time, family had meant blood to Klaus Mikaelson. It was all he had known. But now that he barely even contacted with his siblings (each one of them was still suffering from Elijah's death in their own respective ways and they had their own lives to live that Klaus had no room in), family meant something different entirely. Family was Caroline Forbes and her pair of troublesome twins in a house full of children that treated him as if he were one of their own and not a monster that parents told their children about during the late nights to scare them off. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. "Where's Alaric?" Klaus inquired about Dorian's so-called best friend, though he supposed they weren't much of friends as of now, not after everything that went between them this past year.