Until Forever Ends (TVD+TO FF)

Can't we be Seventeen?

They looked directly at Kara and Esther cut in, "Kara, my sweet. Don't you think it's time you marry? You are seventeen after all... Don't want to be twenty and alone."

Her comment earned a harsh glare from both Mikael and Kol. The sweet motherly voice that Esther used sent a chill down Kara's spine. She decided on the perfect response. One that would both serve as a warning of what was to come and one that would creep the hell out of Esther.

Kara took Kol's hand in hers, "There is no need mother. I shall never reach twenty."

The air in the room changed as all eyes snapped to the young witch. "What do you mean by that Valkyrie?" Mikael asked, moving towards his beloved daughter. Kol's hand nearly crushed hers as he stared in wide-eyed horror.

"I am seventeen now, papa... This is the year I die."

The room grew still and quiet. Kol was the first to snap out of it, grabbing Kara by the shoulders and pulling her to face him. His eyes were quickly clouding with tears, "Kara what are you talking about!"

His words were frantic, his breath was labored. Kol was panicking. 

Kara was the center of Kol's universe. She was everything to him, half of his fucking soul. If Kara died, Kol would follow her soon after. There was no world in which Kol lived and Kara didn't. There was no world without Kara.

While Kol was the picture of crippling fear, Mikael turned his fear into rage as he always did. "What does that mean, girl!? ANSWER ME!"

Kara turned from Kol to her father, walking towards him like one would a startled animal. Once she was close enough she slide her arms around Mikael's neck, embracing him. 

"Something wicked this way comes, papa. I can not embrace it nor can I run... I have felt the blade pierce my heart in my dreams. Fate has decided, the story written. There is no changing what is to come."

The haunting prediction broke something in Mikael as he held his little girl to his chest. That fear and hatred he felt when Freya died ached like an old scar that had never quite healed. A sob escaped Kol as Kara returned to him. He pulled her into his embrace trying to protect her from the world that might take her away, "You can't leave me! You can't! I can't live without you, Kara!" Kol nearly collapsed under the weight of his agony. 

Kara held onto him as he sobbed. Mikael stormed out the moment Kara left his embrace. Her eyes met a frozen Esther from across the room. She had not made a move since Kara's prediction left her lips. 

Kara couldn't place the look on Esther's face. It wasn't fear like Kol, nor was it anger like Mikael. It wasn't sadness or joy, not relief or acceptance. The look on her face was indescribable in the most abstract way. They weren't close, Kara knew that, but she expected... something. 

Anything. 

For a moment, she wanted Esther to just be her mother. 

For a moment, Kara just wanted to be a seventeen-year-old daughter to a caring mother. 

But that moment never came. 

Soon Esther left too, leaving a seemingly unbothered Kara in the arms of her heartbroken twin. 

That night, the full moon rose. That night the plot would begin to untangle. 

Kol held Kara to his chest as he fought sleep. He and the rest of their family hid from the wolves' monthly transformation as they did every month. But tonight felt different to Kol. Fear plagued the boy as he held his sister close. Her warnings echoed through his thoughts like a clap of lightning. 

'Something wicked this way comes'

'there is a bad moon rising'

'I am seventeen now, papa... This is the year I die.'

'I can not embrace it nor can I run... I have felt the blade pierce my heart in my dreams. Fate has decided, the story written. There is no changing what is to come.'

Her words played over and over again in his head. He prayed to the gods to take someone else, anyone but Kara. Take Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Rebekah, or Henrik. Take mother or father or both! Bloody hell, take him as well! Anything, so long as Kara lived. She was his heart, his universe, the better half of his soul. The world could go on turning without the others but there was no life after Kara.

He feared the day Kara would not walk beside him. He feared the day when his laughter, his secrets, and his pain would be his burden alone. Kol had never been alone, even in the womb Kara was at his side. The thought that at some point this year a blade would pierce her golden heart took the breath from his lungs. 

Kol snapped from his morbid thoughts as Nik began to creep towards the cave entrance. Henrik hopped up after him, quietly making his way out as well. 

For a moment, one awful moment Kol couldn't help but think, "Good... May the gods take them and not her. Let their blood decorate the earth, not hers. Not ours." Kol felt guilty for the thought immediately afterward, but as he looked down at the twin in his arms he did nothing. 

He held her as he allowed the gods to play their game. Maybe they were answering his most hidden prays. Maybe they would take the sacrifice of two brothers rather than one sister. 

So the next few hours as the sun rose, he lay in silence, holding his sister in the realm of the living, praying that she would stay. 

They were only seventeen. 

He was barely considered a man. Don't take someone young and kind. Take Mikael who was cruel and wicked and old. Take Esther who was heartless and false and past her prime. Take them all who made them outcasts in their own family. Punish the rest but not her. She was the kindest of their kin, the best of them. 

So as the morning sun rose and the bad moon set, he prayed once more. Until his prayers were answered by Niklaus' cries.

"MOTHER, HELP!"