Dark Moon | Klaus Mikaelson

Chapter 73

No one could really sleep that night.

Freya was doing everything she could to figure out how to take Lucien down. Elijah and Marcel were searching for Aurora. Davina was thinking about how to help Kol, who had been resurrected, but was under the Ancestors' control. Hayley and Hope were keeping Esmeray company, and Klaus was struggling to keep himself out of her room.

How he missed her. How he longed to pull her into a hug and kiss her until she couldn't breathe. But he couldn't, and he hated himself for wanting to. She was traumatized and he felt he was to blame. It was because he went for Aurora, knowing Lucien fancied her, that Lucien wanted revenge. It was because he sired him and let his ego shoot through the roof. It was because he allowed him to be compelled to live as him for so long. It was because of his cruelty that Lucien, like so many others, sought to hurt those he loved.

He could hear that it was mostly Hope and Hayley speaking. The little girl was babbling on and on about all the things she wanted to show Esmeray, who was fairly quiet. She couldn't sleep, either. This all felt too good to be true, and as exhausted as she was, she feared that if she closed her eyes, she'd be back in the laboratory when she opened them again, and Lucien would be taunting her, saying that he implanted that dream into her mind. Or worse— she'd enter a nightmare that would trap her in the reality she'd endured for the past year, and wouldn't be able to wake up.

"I cannot work properly when you are hovering over me," said Freya when Klaus kept pacing the room she was in.

"The one bloody time I wish there were two of you, and there isn't," he huffed. "Rebekah would know what to do. She would know how to help her. But we cannot wake her, or her curse will drive her mad, and she'll only startle her more. What she needs is to be somewhere else. I ought to call Damon Salvatore— to see if he is willing to take her somewhere she can get help."

"Only if you talk to her about it, first," Freya told him, setting down the charcoal she was using. "Klaus, you cannot send her off unless she agrees. She was stripped of her dignity and her free will, tortured repeatedly both physically and psychologically. She doesn't know where it's safe anymore, she can't trust that things will be alright. She's scared of being alone with a man because he took advantage of her and objectified her until her only choice was to retreat into her own mind and try to go to a happier place. She might even be blaming herself for it. Even if Damon is her best friend, I doubt that seeing him will make things any better. She might not feel safe being away from you, even if she's afraid to touch you. You were the center of that torment, you're the one she anchored herself to so that she could stay strong, and you're the one she needs to be around to heal. I would suggest you contact Cami."

He nodded slowly. "I should. I... I simply cannot stand to be this helpless. When will I ever be good enough to help her heal? Lucien constantly emulated me. Everything I do will remind her of him. Everything he did to her reminded her of me. How do I disrupt that connection?"

Freya gave him a sympathetic look. "There is never one correct way to go about this. As long as you're careful, respectful, and gentle, only approaching her when she says it's alright, listening to what she needs, it will help. She might want you to do something different to disassociate you from Lucien. Or, she might handle that on her own and just want for you to remain the same so that she can fixate on the good when it comes to you, even if similarities exist."

"I ruined her, Freya. I never should have pursued her, I should have let her be free. She would have been happy and safe if she never became a part of this family."

"Or, she might have gotten hurt another way. We don't know why things happen, we don't know why the best and most innocent people are the ones that get hurt. Jackson and Esmeray didn't deserve what they got. Perhaps that is the Mikaelson curse— we ruin anyone we bring into our lives."