Promise Me, Always And Forever

The Witching Hour

~Nik~

She wakes a few hours later at Elijah's insistence.

The teenager huffs, opening her eyes as she squints at the morning sun. She slept a few hours after their last rest stop somewhere in Alabama, the car having lulled her to sleep as it had when she was a small child.

She scans the area around her, noting that they are in front of a huge house Elijah has only ever referred to as the Plantation House. She learned stories about the house from Elijah and stayed in it a few times when she was little, though she hardly remembers it. The house is pristine white on the outside and has red, brick steps leading up the porch and to the front door. The sidewalk is the same brick all the way out until the driveway, turning into black pavement.

Then, Nik looks over to Elijah who smiles. "Rest well, Sleeping Beauty?"

"Very well," Nik comments, stretching her body out. She yawns and reaches up to rub her eyes, letting out a long sigh. "You're just too boring to put up with,."

Elijah hits her arm playfully. "You're not a joy to travel with, either. I heard your dreadful pop music coming through your headphones on the trip down here."

"Adam Levine is better than Bach and Mozart," Nik says in an almost sing-song voice.

"Out of my vehicle," Elijah says teasingly. Nik laughs and clambers out of the car and goes to the back where Elijah had already lifted the trunk. She grabs her bag and hangs it over her shoulder, grabbing Elijah's own bag and the garment bag for his suits.

Elijah meets her, taking his bags and Nik closes the trunk. The duo walks inside and Nik frowns slightly at the heat- another bad thing about these ancient houses. No air conditioning.

Nik looks up at her uncle. "With all of the work you put into this place, you don't have air conditioning?" She looks around the house, noting that most everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.

"It keeps up with the integrity of the home," Elijah says. "You know, hundreds of years ago, we had no such thing as air conditioning. We had to tolerate the heat and you can imagine how unbearable it was here in New Orleans."

Nik makes a face. She'd hate to have lived without modern technology- especially indoor plumbing and electricity. "It's sweltering outside. I could not imagine corsets and long sleeves and waist coats... It seems absolutely miserable."

"Right you are," Elijah says, motioning to the stairs. "Now, let's find our rooms so we can get settled. Then, should you want, we can go out for breakfast. Do you remember the restaurant in the Quarter that prepares crêpes?"

"The one where I doused myself in chocolate syrup from my crêpe?"

"That's the one," Elijah laughs, following behind Nik as she pads towards the stairs.

Nik takes the lead up the staircase. She recalls running up and down them as a little girl- and she remembers Elijah scolding her for doing that very thing. At the top, she looks over the several rooms in the house. Her hazy memory leads her down the hall to the very end, to the last room on the left. She opens the door and takes in the sight- a large, four poster bed sits against the farthest wall, positioned in the middle. It has lavender bed sheets and pillows to match. The curtains are open, letting light into the room.

Elijah steps into the room behind Nik. His brown eyes scan the room and he smiles fondly. "When you were little, this room was so big in comparison to you. I feared I'd lose you in here- not that anything has changed. You would play in here for hours."

"I remember I had a doll house and a crib for my toys," Nik replies, smiling softly.

"How things change... I wish you were small again," Elijah says, his eyes seeming to fade years back when Nik was small and relied on him for everything.