Eternal || Elijah Mikaelson

LII - I Know What It's Like

The song for this chapter is "Flares" by The Script. :) You should listen to it to get the full effect.

I hope you like it. ^_^ It made me all teary-eyed when I wrote it.

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Chapter Fifty-Two

When Elijah and I arrived back at the abattoir, I was kind of surprised. I could hear Marcellus practically begging Klaus to kill him, and Klaus wasn't saying a word. Then I heard him walk up the stairs.

But just because Nik wasn't willing to fight Marcel, that didn't mean that Elijah wasn't.

"Elijah, no!" I told him as he rushed inside the building. And by the time that I got there, he had thrown Marcel at a wall and was now speaking to the other vampires.

"Good evening," he said, adjusting the button to his jacket. "I trust I need no introduction, after all, this was once my family home. Tonight, I'm taking it back," he continued, then turned to Marcel and began to walk towards him. "Your privileges here have been revoked. Marcellus, out of respect for my sister, I will grant you this one mercy. I will allow you to keep your life. However, you are hereby exiled. If I find so much as a trace of you in the French Quarter, it will not end well for you, do you understand me?" he took Marcel's silence as a yes. "That is all. Run along," he said, gesturing to the door.

The vampires all quickly left, not wanting to know what Elijah would do to them if he didn't.

"Nicely done, brother," Klaus said. "You're beginning to sound like me."

He looked over at me, and I saw his eyes moistening. Then he turned and left.

"Well, thank you for not killing him," I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. "I imagine it was hard for you not to."

He nodded. "It was. I hope that, for his sake, he never returns."

"I hope so too," I replied, and we both went our separate ways.

I found Nik in the study. He was sitting on the couch with a little box of his favourite things in front of him, while he was holding that little carved knight, tears in his eyes.

Neither Nik or myself said a word as I went and sat down beside him. And neither of us said a word when I wrapped my arms around him and the tears he had been holding back began to soak my shirt.

"She's gone," he whispered hoarsely when he pulled away.

"I know Nik," I replied. "I know."

He stayed with me for a little while longer, until I convinced him that he needed to rest after the long day he had had.

I couldn't get to sleep. I was tired, but I couldn't sleep. And I didn't really understand why. So I went outside, and my thoughts began to consume me.

I stood at the balcony, leaning over the railing and watching the people walking up and down the streets. It was slightly calming. But in reality, I wanted to scream my lungs out.

I had killed Celeste. I had murdered her in order to protect those around me, and to prevent Elijah from feeling the pain of doing it himself.

Rebekah was gone. Niklaus told her to be free, even when he knew that now was when we needed her most.

I heard footsteps outside my door, but I didn't turn to see who it was. I already knew.

He walked out to the balcony, standing beside me and watching me silently.

"Are you alright?" he asked, after staying quiet for a while.

"That depends on what your definition of 'alright' is," I sighed. "But I'm not dead, so I guess I'm fine."

"You don't need to be dead to not feel alright, Rose," he said. He didn't ask the question at first, but I knew he was dying to. I knew what he wanted to ask.

"You want to know why I did it... Don't you?" I muttered.

He didn't reply for a few seconds, but nodded. "Yes. I do."

"I did it so that you wouldn't have to," I whispered, my voice cracking.

"But now you are feeling pain of losing one of your closest friends all over again," he said. "And that is the last thing I wanted."

"Elijah, I know what it's like to put someone you care about to death in order to save those around you," I said, my voice continuing to crack as I watched the people below us. I didn't want to look him in the eyes, because if I did, I wouldn't be able to fight the tears that threatened to leave my eyes as I remembered what I had done only a night before. The night that I stabbed Celeste in the chest and took her life. "I felt it with Richard. And that pain is something that I could never wish on anyone else. Especially not you."

He stayed silent for a long time. It felt like days had passed when he placed a hand on mine, which was resting on the railing. "Rose, look at me."

I knew what he was going to say.

He was going to say that it was stupid and I put myself at risk by being near her and that I should have told him about what I was going to do and that I shouldn't have killed her on my own.

"Roseia, please," he said, his tone almost turning to that of a begging man.

He moved his hand over to my right cheek, turning my head so that I was facing him. I reluctantly looked him in the eyes.

He didn't say what I expected him to.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Something sparked in his eyes at that moment. He looked like he wanted to say something else. But instead, he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly.

I laid my head on his chest as I felt the tears slowly fall.

He was the one person that I needed. The one person that could make me feel better about this, and who could understand what it felt like.

And having him here meant the world to me.