Enigmatic Finales: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {8}

Chapter 25: Excruciating Insurmountable Misery

A/N: So I technically missed May, but I will (probably) update twice in June so it'll be as if it never happened!

~Rebekah POV~

Rebekah had not expected to return to New Orleans so soon after her last visit for Grace's birthday. Nik's reveal that this Fiore was real came as a shock, but New Orleans was prone to such so she could not be too surprised.

She stood in front of the compound, well aware that once she crossed the barrier, memories of this forgotten person would come flooding back. She had no idea what Fiore meant to her, if anything at all. Were they friends? Enemies? Passing acquaintances?

She sighed, silently wishing Marcel was here with her. He had to stay behind and finish up affairs in New York before he could join. She had decided to brave the unknown by herself whilst the courage was still fresh.

Unable to delay the inevitable any further, Rebekah stepped over the boundary and immediately shrieked in pain as the memories she had been stripped of returned all at once. She screwed her eyes tightly shut as she examined the memories coming through, the inaugural Casket Girl Festival, teaming up against her brother and Marcel, until the final one. The worst one. The realisation that her sister had kept the solution to her life's greatest pain—the cure.

"Sister," Nik greeted, a sheepish smile on his face. "I take it the memories are back."

"Yes, they are," she said with a glare. "I almost wish they stayed gone."

"That's..." He seemed to remember the walls have excellent hearing and gestured for his sister to follow. "Let's not discuss here. Hayley is already waiting for us in the study."

Rebekah nodded and followed her brother to his study was Hayley was pacing around the room in a visibility futile attempt to calm herself down.

"Rebekah. Hey," the hybrid managed to say.

"I take it you're not taking the news well either."

"You mean the news that Fiore erased my memory and used the love of my life to help her?" She asked with a sarcastic smile. "Funny enough that doesn't sit well with me."

"Elijah was in on this?" Rebekah asked with wide eyes, searching her brother's eyes to see if he would dispel the rumour. But he did not.

"I knew Fiore was going to erase everyone's memory of her," Nik began. "Only I was supposed to be aware, not Elijah. Then she went rogue at the last minute. And here we are."

"I am so angry I can barely breathe!" Hayley seethed, her eyes flashing yellow. "We treated Grace like she was crazy when she was telling the truth. And...and she was my friend. Probably my best friend. And she took that away and she used Elijah to do it. Now I don't know how to be around either of them. I can't even imagine what it's like for you Klaus."

"Awful in many ways. Great in many others," Klaus said with a shrug that was anything but casual. "She was the love of my life for a millennium. To lose her was to live with an ache that could never be filled. And now that she's back, I can't help but think of all the things we were denied in her absence. Moments with Grace, with each other...But she's here now. And part of me wishes I could forgive her and go back to how things were. But I am not sure things can ever go back."

Rebekah examined the drooping eyes of her brother and the clenched fists of Hayley and wondered just how great the fallout from Fiore's absence would be.

"Perhaps neither of you will wish to hear it, but I wish she stayed gone," Rebekah said, much to the surprise of the other two.

"What? Why?" Hayley asked with a furrowed brow. "You love Fiore."