Forever Original | Alaric Saltzman

Chapter 21

She was thrown into another nightmare the instant she fell asleep.

This time, she was in Lafayette Cemetery. She was in one of the tombs— the Claire tomb, which she hadn't been inside of since 1914. It was filled with all the trinkets and grimoires she and Kol had collected with Mary-Alice.

"Hilda?"

"Vera," she whispered, looking at the gorgeous beauty in front of her. Slim, tall, with cinnamon colored skin and two long braids on either side of her majestic face. Hilda had been attracted to the werewolf because she was built like a goddess. She didn't care if she was widowed or if she wasn't a vampire.

"Remembered me, have you?" she said, leaning back against the doorway of the tomb.

"It's kind of hard to forget a face like that," she said, coming closer. "You left a few months after I met you. A few days before I was daggered. I just... assumed you didn't want to see me anymore."

"How could she want to see you?"

Hilda whirled around to see Mikael, glaring malevolently at her. When she turned back, Vera was gone, and Mikael seized her, pressing the White Oak stake into her back. "It's disappointing to know you as my daughter," he growled. "Falling for abominations like her. Supporting a beast of a brother. Aiding a tainted child. You never learn, do you? You're a weak girl and I should kill you... but alas, I believe that I'd prefer to let you watch me tear out the throats of Niklaus and Elijah, first. Then, I think, I may prefer to have Rebekah follow suit, after all, she supports that hybrid bastard more than any of you. And when you are the last one left... once you are the last vampire remaining on Earth because you have not sired any of your own... I will make sure your death is painful."

He shoved the stake into her heart and she gasped as she sat up on the bed, holding her chest. It took a few seconds of panting for air for her to realize she was now awake and safe in the Compound.

She got up quickly and washed her face before putting on the outfit from the day before for the funeral procession that was taking place that morning. She met Klaus, Elijah, and Hayley in the courtyard.

"Another dream of Mikael?" inquired Elijah. She nodded glumly. He nudged at Klaus, who sighed and stepped in front of her.

"I am sorry," he said slowly, daring to meet her eyes.

"Are you?" she asked coldly.

"Yes, I am, for heaven's sake, Hilda, take the apology," he insisted, looking uncomfortable with the fact he even had to say he was sorry. He was clearly ashamed, but Niklaus Mikaelson wasn't one to feel good about admitting he was in the wrong. "I should not have said any of it. You are free to go, if you wish."

Hilda nodded her head. "Well then, thank you. I'll stay, for a bit, just until the baby is born. I'm not sure where I'll go after that, but we'll be keeping in touch."

"Just know that you will always have a room here," he told her, half-smiling as he offered her his arm to escort her outside.

Together, the group walked out into the streets that were now filled with the sound of jazz as pallbearers moved behind the casket holding Father Kieran. Hayley kept coughing as they followed the procession, which was strange to Hilda.

"You alright?" she asked her.

Elijah frowned and looked over as Hayley kept coughing. "You look—"

"A hundred months pregnant and pissed off at the world?"

He offered her a smile instead. "I was going to say you look lovely."