𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐓 𐦟 𝐓𝐕𝐃𝐔

Chapter 55

The sound of a small tune being hummed made Cassie smile. She had noticed in the past few days that Lorraine loved to hum, some of the tunes she recognized, some were completely foreign to her. Lorraine also loved to clean, with Cassie's messy lifestyle it was a perfect mixture. The days had gone by in a blur, for once she felt happy and at peace with her life. From her once chaotic life, chasing the Mikaelson's around this was a nice change of pace. Though it still felt odd, not having any of them there. Part of Cassie missed the chaos, waking up to them bickering about things they deemed to be of the utmost importance. Or when they would settle down and have a nice normal family dinner, discussing their days and telling stories from the past. She didn't have that here, there really was no history to be told, anyone at the dinner table already knew the stories. Yet she found herself happy, for the most part, something was still missing. She wasn't quite sure what it was, if it was the Mikaelson's, Hayley, or even Hope.

"You seem to be lost in thought... anything you wanna talk about?" Cassie lifted up her head to find Lorraine looking back at her, "Do you ever feel as if there's a hole in your life? I can't help but shake that feeling and yet I'm the happiest I've ever been." She smiled, "Take it from someone who's had a lot taken from them... take pleasure in the little things, no matter how small." Cassie nodded and lowered her head again, "You miss her, don't you?" Lorraine watched Cassie's demeanor, the way she played with her daylight ring, twisting it around and around on her finger. "That's quite the loaded question." Cassie shrugged and stood up from the dining room table, leaning on the chair she once sat in. "I'm off to tend to the yard, once I'm done out there I might have an answer for you... we shall see." With that she was gone, out the front door and wandering towards the backyard.

"She is so in love with Hayley." Avery strode into the room, Griffin placed on his hip. "Please, her and Elijah are made for each other." It was Allison who entered next, Briar happily asleep in her arms. "Have you seen the way Hayley and Cassie look at each other? You'd think they were lost." She scoffed, "You should have seen her and Elijah in the 60s, they were like Romeo and Juliet, meant to be." Avery came and sat down in a chair, opposite of Lorraine. "Romeo and Juliet both died." After a few moments of silence Allison shrugged, "So? Cassandra Marshall. It doesn't have the same ring, but Cassandra Mikaelson... now that sounds powerful." Lorraine raised an eyebrow, "I'm on Avery's side... she loves Hayley but I've seen the way she is with Elijah, they were the love of each others lives." Allison rolled her eyes, "And how would you know? Hayley married another man."

Lorraine finally looked up from her diary, "Don't forget that Cass was in my body when she slept with Hayley." The room suddenly went silent, you could've heard a pin drop. Lorraine looked at the both of them, stunned with shock. "She was in your body when she kissed Elijah. What was it like with them?" She paused and set her pen down, leaning back into her chair, "Passionate, you could sense the love between them, and when they kissed it was like a hurricane of both admiration and guilt." Allison made small sound, something close to a squeak showing she had won. "Elijah also cheated on her, more than once." Avery raised his eyebrows when he saw her pause for a moment, "I never said he was smart." He huffed, neither one of them willing to accept defeat just yet.

     Cassie sat in the garden, tending to the rose bushes she had planted when she first bought the house. They were flourishing, small buds sprouting from the tips of the leaves. She smiled at the thought, these bushes reminding her of her beloved daughter. Cassie looked deeper inside the bush and saw the thorns at the base of the plant, also something that reminded her of Briar. Sweat began to pool on forehead, she began to panic, frantically looking around. Her hands were shaking all of a sudden, no warning but the pit in her stomach told her all she needed to know. Cassie stood up from her kneeling position, she could see inside the house and saw that they were all busy in conversation. She fled to the side of the house and opened up the large, wooden cellar doors that laid on the ground. Once open she walked down the steps, and into the cellar beneath the house. It was warm and sticky inside, the smell of mold overpowering her senes as she searched for the light switch. It took her a few moments of searching before she finally found it, flipping it upwards the singular light in the place turning on, flickering a few times before it was fully working.