Shadows Within

Twenty One

Everything was Christmas around here. It was driving Hope insane. "Come on, Hope, stop looking so gloomy. That's making me gloomy, and believe me, sweetheart, you don't want me gloomy any day of the week. Just ask our friends." Jed Lockwood said, dressed clad in the most obnoxious looking, red clothing he could have gotten his hands on. "Come on, it's Christmas."
Hope glared at him, not really in the mood for his Malivore affected brain. She needed the usual Jed back. That Jed was fun. He was helpful and supportive. After everything with Ryan, when he found her crying yesterday night, Jed had gotten her a cup of hot cocoa and just listened while she talked. Jed was one of the good guys. "It's not Christmas." Don't get her wrong. Usually, Hope would have loved if it was Christmas, but since her life had been a series of misfortunes lately, she was in no mood for a Christmas.
It really was no help that both her father and Caroline, and on top of it, Dorian and Alaric had gotten affected.
She didn't know where uncle Kol had dragged Jeremy to — she was sort of worried; apparently last time those two met, her uncle Kol had torn the other guy's arm off. Hope made a mental note to herself to go and check out what they were doing later on after she dealt with this whole Christmas monster and everything.
"Hope — smile! You look so pretty when you smile. Now, you just look like a smaller, witchier and less greener female version of Grinch." Jed pulled at her face, forcing a smile.
Hope snapped at his arm, glaring. "Haven't you been listening to me? This isn't — it's a Malivore monster."
Jed rolled his dark eyes at her rather dramatically. "Come on, relax a little, Mikaelson. You are such a party pooper."
"Yeah, Mikaelson. You are such a party pooper." Kaleb repeated after Jed, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. "It wouldn't kill you to enjoy yourself a little. Just because you have a murderous, psychotic ex boyfriend down there doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself."
Hope glared. "It's not because of him I cannot enjoy myself." She said, playing with the pencil.  "In fact, I plan to have as little to do with him as possible before he disappears into that portal and dies, leaving me alone to rest."
Jed sipped his drink, arching his eyebrows. "Sure, I believe you."
Hope glared. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means, Hope, that we both know it wouldn't take you long before you go seeking him out, whether to gloat or watch how miserable he is, you will go and see him. Believe me, I know you."
"Well then, maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do, because I am absolutely not going to go and seek him out down there." Having said that, she stormed off, not before having heard Jed telling Kaleb what a little liar she was, bumping into a very wide-eyed looking Maya Fell.
"Hope, please tell me you are not buying any of those stuff. I need to find someone sane before I drive myself insane. I've just bumped into your father and Caroline and they were calling each other pet names and looking at each other in the most love sick possible and I think I am going to be sick. Please say you aren't affected by all of this." She looked very stressed and freaked out. Hope smiled reassuringly at the werewolf, grasping her hand tight.
"Maya, it's okay. We are going to solve this."
Maya arched her eyebrows. "How?"
Hope sighed. She really hated he was the only solution they had right now. Jed may have been right. "We are going to see my ex boyfriend."
***
Hope Mikaelson walked down the stairs along with her tall, dark-haired friend who definitely wasn't in her friend group before. Believe him, he would have remembered her if she had been. He had a very good memory. "Ah, the notorious Hope Mikaelson. What brings you to my humble abode? How could the little me possibly could do to help your royal highness?"
Hope rolled her eyes. "Cut off the act, Clarke. This isn't a social visit. Unfortunately for us, you just happen to be the only expert on anything Malivoire related. And we have a Malivoire related problem. We need your help."
"And what if I refuse?"
Hope walked closer to the cell he was locked in, touching the edges of the cell with those soft fingers he knew so well. "I know you won't. You aren't a fool to let an opportunity to get out of here pass by his eyes before he would go off his journey to die. So, what do you say?"
"Add something to eat for me, would you? I am famished. And then, we have a deal."
***
Maya Fell didn't know how she had gotten a front seat to an ex lovers' spat while trying to escape her own relationship problems. One thing she did know was that she desperately wished to escape from this, as if her life wasn't awful enough right now because of everything that had happened with Ethan discovering her secret, with her almost tearing his head off because of her lack of control. Hopefully, with the help of teachers around here she would learn how to control herself and no another accident like this one would ever happen again. She didn't want those she loved to ever die because of her. "You are so unbelievable!" Hope was stalking off, Clarke following after her. Once again, she wondered how she had gotten stuck here. "Don't bring Landon into this. This was our relationship. Our business. He was simply an unfortunate participant I've chosen trying to get over you!"
"And you've gotten over so quickly, didn't you? It didn't even take you a week!"
"I am the bad one here when you were the one who broke both my heart and trust?" Hope scoffed disbelievingly, shaking her head, tears falling off her eyes. "You know what, I hate you so much. It wouldn't even matter to me if you died! You egoistic, self involved asshole! I can't believe I ever trusted you! Obviously, you weren't worth it all."
Clarlke glared at her, his eyes going cold and indifferent. A mask to disguise the hurt, Maya recognized. "Well then, that's just good, isn't it? I don't care much for you either."
Hope's face twisted in an obvious hurt and she stalked off. "Well, good! I am going to fight this Krampus thing myself! Don't you dare to follow me!"
"Believe me, I wouldn't even dream of it, Mikaelson."
Fuming in anger, Hope stalked away from the room. After Hope was gone, Clarke signed in the defeat and sank down onto the floor. "Why don't you just tell her the truth, Ryan Clarke?"
Clarke looked at her, obviously shocked anyone would treat him as anything more than a monster he probably thought himself to be. "None of your business."
Maya breathed hard, smiling. "Cookie?" She offered him.
He blinked his eyes, hesitatingly accepting them. "Thank you."
"I am Maya." She said.
"It's nice to meet you, Maya."
She nodded her head, throwing a cookie into her mouth. "Likewise, Clarke." And then, she said. "Tell her, Clarke, or else you may come to regret it." With that, she forced herself to her feet and left him to wander off in his thoughts.
***
ANNABELLE ZHU
1260-2010
BELOVED DAUGHTER
AND FRIEND
FOREVER MISSED
Kol Mikaelson remembered the way Annabelle used to be before, the way she would look at him, at the monster that stood before her and shook her head and told him she wasn't afraid. And it hadn't been a lie. It always seemed as if she was afraid of nothing, but the loss of her humanity and their daughter had broken her. Annabelle couldn't even look at him in the eye for weeks after that fateful day where Cassandra had been stolen away from them and then, one day, she just left him.
I love you, I will always love you, Kol, but living with you here after what happened like nothing happened, as if my Cassiandra hadn't been taken away from me, as if I haven't died, is too hard for me to endure. So, I am leaving. And maybe someday I would be able to look at you in the eye and maybe we will have a nice little reunion over a cup of tea. Until then, please respect my choice to leave and kindly stay away.
Yours only, Annabelle Zhu-Mikaelson
He remembered every word, every curve of letter and how exactly he had felt when he went home to an empty house with no wife to keep him a company from the pain they were both suffering. But Annabelle had always been fragile of a heart and her heart just couldn't take the reminder of a daughter she had lost. Cassandra Mikaelson, forever missed and loved. Kol took a deep, painful breath as he moved to put the sole rose on top of his darling's gravestone, dead before he could move to save her.
For a very long time, Kol had hated his brother for daggering him when he did. If only he had been awake, Kol couldn't help but to think, he could have saved her. His darling wife, his lover and the mother of his child. But in the end, he awoke to a world where his beloved was dead and he only had a family who distrusted him with the most important matters left in the world. Kol loved his family. Don't get him wrong. But he would have switched any of them for his wife if he could have.
"What was she like?" Jeremy asked, eyes wandering off to the name on the tombstone. "When you knew her?"
"She was very stubborn, but she was also very kind. Always there to help out those in need. She never liked to follow rules. Always found some way to go against her father's words. He was a very proud man, a noble man. He wanted Annabelle to marry young to a respectable gentleman, wanted her to settle down, to tame her. But Annabelle wasn't someone that could be tamed. She was wild and unpredictable, would have given you a right hell if you tried. I've found her quite fascinating even then, when we first met." He took a deep, painful breath. "Anyway, shall we go back?"
"Why are you really here?"
"This place attracts supernaturals of any sort. It's a supernatural hotspot. If I have any chance of finding Cassandra, my daughter, it's here. And I've missed her so very much."
Jeremy nodded his head.
"For what it's worth, I am sorry for the way that I have treated you then."
Jeremy stared. "Life is too short to hold a grudge for something that happened so long ago." He simply said, turning away. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink." Chuckling, Kol quickly followed after the human.
***
After having left a message to her phone, because he was still very much of a coward, he was ready to sacrifice himself. It was the least he could do. "Stop!" It was Hope Mikaelson who was running towards him, panting hard. "Don't go."
Ryan arched his eyebrows confusedly. "Hope?"
"I thought a long time about what I really wanted. I've tried really hard to hate you. I really did. But I've found that trying to hate someone you love is just exhausting. So, please don't go. I love you. I am in love with you. Please." Hope was crying now, tears spilling from her eyes.
Ryan couldn't make himself believe it. For Hope to love him even after all he did? It must be a dream. "I — Hope." But there was something else coming. He could feel it in the air. And just like that, there came a man, an uncomfortably familiar looking man. "I've always preferred a Halloween myself." It was Necromancer.