The Girl In The Woods (Short Version)

Part 6A

A/N: This part includes scenes and lines based off other novels that I thought would be perfect here. I have put in curly brackets {} what I've referenced.

~Recap from Part 5~

"What's your name?" He asked. His soft voice somehow calming her down.

"Faith." She answered. "My name is Faith."

~Part 6~

Elijah's POV

He fiddled with the ring on his finger as he waited.

He was early for their meeting and had decided to grab coffee. He took a sit in one of the single couches facing the window.

Outside, the streets were bustling with people coming and going. As he took a sip of his coffee, he let his thoughts wander.

He thought about all the women he'd ever loved. There were several over his lifetime. Each woman was unique, and he loved them each in his own way. Finally, his thoughts went back to the first person he ever loved. Faith.

From the first time he met her, she had incited feelings of protectiveness in him. She wasn't the greatest of beauties but with each passing day she became more and more beautiful to him. True to her name, she believed in people. She placed her faith in people even when they did not deserve it.

At least, that was what he had thought.

She had betrayed them. She was the very reason they lived such a cursed existence.

And yet...when he saw her at the ball...all his feelings of love for her came back. That is, until he remembered her betrayal. Then the feelings of affection quickly turned to hate.

Even now, as he thought about her, mixed feelings of love and hate surges up within him. He couldn't stop thinking about her.

His Faith.

He loved her and he hated her.

But...what kind of man would he be if he didn't try to find his Faith beneath the façade of the woman who had betrayed him?

She sounded so desperate after the ball. Her eyes filled with pain when she said sorry. After all this time, had she changed? Or had he?

Should he not give her a chance? Afterall, she had once taken a chance on him.

As Katerina had once said, "Life is too cruel, if we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?"

Or perhaps it was easier to believe that she betrayed them. Better to think that she was someone who betrayed them rather than believed in them. Better to think that she used them rather than loved them.

Had he given up on love too soon?

No, he should not be thinking about her. He should not be making excuses for her. He should not even contemplate forgiving her. He had long given up on love.

Thinking about her only brought up feelings he did not like. Sadness with tinges of guilt. Love blinded by hate.

He shook off such thoughts from his mind and glanced at his watch. She should be here any minute now.

"Elijah"

He felt her before he heard her. He knew instantly whose voice it was. He looked up to see the beautiful woman in front of him.

"Katerina."

~TGITW~

Klaus' POV

He was standing at the entrance to the cave of writings. His hands tucked in his jacket as a chilly winter breeze blew around him. This cave was the place that he and his siblings spent a lot of time in. It was also the place that he had visited several times over the centuries. And now he found himself back here again.