CENTURIES | Lucien Castle

XXVI. I Hear You Knocking

Lucien stood on the balcony in the compound. His hands gripped the railing tightly. His thoughts were swarming with images of Simon de Martel taunting him. Simon tortured the upgraded original countless times and tried to take his love multiple times.

"Pity, isn't it?" Simon appeared next to the Castle vampire as they overlooked the courtyard. "Lowering yourself to the Mikaelsons. Kissing up to them after what you did."

"What do you want?" Lucien asked annoyed and irritated that the Hollow was messing with his head. The first time Lucien saw Simon he knew it wasn't real because he was there when Juliette killed the de Martel.

Simon inched closer to the upgraded vampire to taunt him more. "You don't deserve Juliette. You never have and you never will be good enough for her. She should have chosen me. I could have given her a better life than you," Lucien had enough with Simon's teasing and lashed out.

"Shut up! You are pathetic to think that Juliette would've wanted to be with you!"

"Aww, did I touch a nerve?" Simon feigned innocence and placed his palm onto his chest. "Perhaps, I could go find your precious daughter."

"You harm my daughter in any way and I will kill you myself," Lucien spat at the Hollow posing as Simon. The de Martel vampire just laughed and resulted in Lucien tightening his hand around Simon's throat.

"Lucien!" Juliette choked out as the oxygen was leaving her and saw her love's eyes glowing blue which confirmed her suspicion that the Hollow was messing with him. Lucien loosed his grip on Kennedy's mother after Simon disappeared and was replaced by Juliette. She glanced over at her beloved to see him shaken up and approached him. Her palm rested on his shoulder and made him look at her. "What's going on?"

"The Hollow," Lucien sighed and moved one of his hands to Juliette's hand on his shoulder. He picked up her hand and held it in his own. "It's messing with me and disguising itself as Simon de Martel."

"If it's messing with you then it has to be messing with Nik and Marcel, too," Juliette theorized while she kept her grip with Lucien's hand.

Their little moment of peace was interrupted by little footsteps. The two parents turned their heads to see their daughter barging out of her room. Juliette pulled away from Lucien and bent down to make eye contact with Kennedy. "Aren't you supposed to be leaving with Aunt Hayley and Uncle Elijah?"

"Yes, but I wanted to say goodbye first," Kennedy latched onto her mother which Juliette loved. The little witch pulled away and then ran over to give Lucien a hug, who still seemed a bit out of it.

"Be good for Mary, okay?" Juliette pleaded with her daughter. She kissed Kennedy's forehead and smiled down at her. "We'll see you later."

"I promise!" She cheered and the ran down the stairs to meet up with Hope. "Bye mommy! Bye daddy!"

Juliette smiled fondly at her daughter before turning to Lucien. "Hey, I'm going to meet up with Freya to figure this out and in the meantime you just stay here," Juliette took both his hands. She leaned up and kissed his cheek and left the compound.

****

Juliette walked into her sister's hiding spot at the bell tower. Freya beckoned her sister toward her to help with figuring out how to help their brother and Lucien.