The Originals - Revenant

Chapter 24

»»———— 2018, Cadiz, Spain ————««

I knocked on his door, which was open, but I didn't know if it was out of habit or because he didn't feel like he had a right to privacy in my house. I stopped mid-knock and, as he turned around and smiled at me, I started to wonder if the person I had before me would be a complete stranger. My memories of Henrik, though they were not faded or disturbed by time, were centuries old. Seeing how much he had grown, he must have come to life again some years ago. Maybe he had even grown out of the person I had once known.

"May I come in?" I said in a whisper that was intended to be louder than it actually was.

He smirked and gestured me in. "It's your house."

I couldn't help but copy his smirk as I came in and closed the door. We stood there for some seconds and I had to awkwardly gesture him to sit down on the bed. He did and watched me pace around the room for some seconds while I gathered my thoughts.

"You're alive," I started.

He smirked again. "I am."

"How."

He rubbed his hands together, looking down and smiling. "Two years ago, I was walking around the grounds where our village used to be. Now it's a city called Mystic Falls."

"I'm familiar with it, yes."

"Well, I happened to find a Bennet witch that was acting as an anchor to the other side. She was strong enough to do a spell so that spirits could come back to the living through her. I think she was trying to rescue a loved one, but I took the chance and popped back to life."

I nodded and bit my cheek trying to contain myself. I had spent centuries trying to get him back, trying to both remember him and let go. He was the only thing that was part of my human life that I wanted to keep but didn't have, and when I accepted it and decided to do let him go it nearly destroyed me. I had to turn off my humanity. I even had to get rid of the Mikaelsons because they were a constant reminder of him. I had to redo my life from scratch over and over again and, now that I had finally made it, he showed up. And he says that the only thing I had to do was find an anchor to the other side and use it to get him back?

I couldn't believe how furious it made me. It was all a waste of time when it had such a simple solution.

No, no. Olga was right.

It wasn't a waste of time.

Every step of the way, I did what I had to. Maybe those steps took me down some dangerous paths, some bad moments and a lot of pain. But they were part of the path. And I went through them and came out learning stuff: that sometimes doing the right thing is hard, but it's still the right thing to do; that running away from my problems won't fix them; that family doesn't have to necessarily share my blood, that talking about problems instead of tackling all on my own can be better... I had learned who and what was important to me.

"And you waited two years to come here?" I continued.

He nodded. "I wasn't quite sure what to do, honestly. I had no one and no way to find any of you. I had been stuck on the other side for centuries and that had taught me only one thing: if I was there was because I was a not human."