𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞 ⟪♥︎⟫ Elijah Mikaelson

XI

The loud music from the club met Leah before she'd even entered it, as did the smell of alcohol and sweat. Deeply regretting her decision to prove Natalie wrong, realising that she could instead be sitting at home with a hot cup of tea and a bar of chocolate, she walked inside.

A tight black dress was hugging her body and her hair fell loosely down her shoulders. She didn't feel as confident as she wanted to, but she was good at keeping up a facade. It was something she'd learned during her childhood, keeping up a brave face was her way of coping during the time she spent in foster care. Feelings shoved aside, room for nothing but determination, like a machine that had to keep running.

Her eyes scanned the room for the British redhead that had invited her along, stopping once she looked at the bar and saw her chatting to a man she didn't know. Her nails trailing patterns across her hands, she approached her friend and her male companion.

'Hey Natalie, wanna dance?' she asked with a small smile on her face.

'Oh my god, you're here!' she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Leah, 'and I really wanna dance.'

A few minutes later they found themselves dancing on the middle of the dance floor. Swaying her hips, Leah smiled, for it felt good to move without restraint. Natalie's fiery red hair danced like a blissful party aura around her and Leah felt her worries float away, sucked into the sea of fire. Her body was light, lighter than a feather, lighter than the clouds. She felt free, free of worries and sadness, maybe most importantly, free of him.

The evening went by in songs, dances with strangers and drinks with alcohol. The fiery red sea that captured her like a flame, told her to dance and have fun.

'You having fun?' Natalie screamed with a hoarse voice over the loud music as they stood by the bar, sipping on alcohol.

'I am,' she answered, 'we should do this more often.'

'Cheers to that!'

But not much later, Leah looked at her phone and noticed that it was already two in the morning. Tomorrow would be another work day and she'd stayed long enough. Once she left the club, the harsh cold hit her skin. She could feel a shiver run all the way down her spine, not sure whether that was entirely because of the cold. Wrapping her arms around her body she regretted the fact that she hadn't brought a jacket.

Natalie went home with the man she'd been chatting with from the start, so Leah was walking home on her own. Not that she hadn't done that before, but it always made her feel uneasy. On top of that she was slightly buzzed from the alcohol, not enough to make her wobble on her heels, but enough to take her worries away.

'Paris is a big city, don't you think, Leanne?' a low voice whispered in her ear.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she turned around to see a man, veins popping out from underneath his eyes and fangs growing from his gums. Her heart started hammering against her chest, she wanted to run and scream. But she couldn't outrun a vampire and what would she scream? Elijah's name was what she'd have screamed a year ago, but she couldn't count on him for help.