Gods & Monsters ✧ Elijah Mikaelson

VII ✧ Rattle

This is a bit of a filler, but the next chapter has Avarice and Elijah in it. :)))

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Chapter Seven

Hayley looked at Avarice in pure confusion. Then, when she suddenly registered in her mind that Avarice knew who she was, she went to slam the door shut. Avarice didn't really know what that would have done, considering she just would have locked herself in. Even so, Avarice put her palm against the door, and with little to no effort being used at all, she held it open.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I have something to tell you," she hummed, glancing into the motel room to see that Mary and a little Hope were both watching her closely.

Hayley looked interested, but still wary. She certainly didn't trust Avarice, and she had a right not to.

"I think you are going to want to hear this, my dear. It involves your family, and how we are going to save them. Together."

Immediately, Hayley's hand went lax on the door. Avarice pushed it further open.

"Hayley."

Avarice hadn't recognized the voice, and looked over Hayley's shoulder to see that Mary had taken a seat on one of the two beds.

"You need to let her in."

Hayley looked back to Avarice, seeming uncertain. Nevertheless, she opened the door all the way and moved aside.

When Avarice came in and Hayley shut the door behind her, she moved her hands upwards swiftly, her palms facing the ceiling. Hayley immediately jumped away from the wall, moving in front of Hope in a protective stance when the black dust suddenly encased the entire room. It went from Avarice's feet to spread out onto the floor, travel up the walls, and meet in the middle of the ceiling within only a few moments. The dust then shot back down to her, going to her fingertips and snaking up her arms to vanish in the process.

"There. No supernatural being will know you are here," she said.

"A cloaking spell?" Hayley asked, her arms crossing over her chest as she glanced down at her daughter. "We already have one on Hope."

"Ah, but that magic can be damaged; ruined. Mine cannot."

Mary blinked a few times, looking at Avarice with cautious but curious eyes. "Are you a witch?"

"No. Far from it, actually," she hummed, going to take a seat in the only chair that existed in the small room.

"Tell us what you know about the Mikaelson's," Hayley said, her patience wearing thin.

"Well, for starters, Freya wasn't strong enough to complete the spell."

Hayley's expression went from annoyed to horrified in a split second.

"I, however, was. Unfortunately, I could not complete Freya's part of the spell, and put them into her own dream world. My power is very different from that of the witches in this this world. I had to bring them into mine."

"'Your' world?" Mary raised a brow. "It's different from ours?"

She nodded. "Indeed. I am from a world that, in a way, helps to keep the balance in this one. I control the dreams that a person has the moment that they die; the last thing they see before they are taken away to Hell,  the Ancestral Plane, or put to rest and At Peace."

It was interesting how neither of them even bothered to question whether or not she was telling the truth about what she was. Perhaps her spell she had cast only a few moments before had convinced them enough.

"So, you're kind of like a Grim Reaper?" Hayley asked.

"Yes, I am. Our jobs are a little harder, though. I decide if a person is good or evil; the Grim Reapers are just the ones that take them to where they belong."

Hayley didn't really react at all.

"In my world, we have to always follow 'the fates'. A piece of our job is to make sure that the fates are never changed, and that people in the mortal world follow them. They are books that have every possible path that a person could make, and every outcome. In those books, the Mikaelson's are also written in. They were not supposed to die that day, a week ago when they were attacked by Marcel and his vampires. The only one that was supposed to die was Finn, but he was not supposed to die by Lucien's hand. In fact, Lucien himself should never have become the Beast. In turn, neither should have Marcel. So, as a result, I needed to make sure that I fixed what was wrong. I needed to change their course to fit the pathway that the fates had laid out for them. In a limited time span, there was only one thing I could really do. I needed to take their souls away without killing them, and that involved keeping them in my world for an undetermined amount of time."

Throughout this little speech that Avarice had given, Hayley and Mary were completely silent. They had no idea what to say when she was finished, but she assumed that they would both want proof. So, she gave it to them.

She raised her hand, and an image suddenly formed. It hovered like a sphere above her palm, and showed the Mikaelson's. They were sitting at the long table in the dining room, the head spot of the table empty. That would have been her seat. They were talking with Aspin and Levi and thanking the servants for the luxurious breakfast that had been prepared. It was nice to see them looking so... content.

"They are currently in my home, as you can see."

Hayley and Mary stayed quiet, and the only sound at that point was Hope cooing. Avarice watched her for a few moments, then got up and went over to her. Hayley stood up as well and gravitated over to them, still very wary of her.

Avarice knelt down to the child, a genuine smile on her face. She put her hand out to Hope, who immediately grabbed it and immediately started to try teething on her finger.

"Ah-ah, little one," she chuckled, taking her hand away. "I have something else for you."

With a soft swirl of her hand, a silver rattle appeared in her palm. It glowed for a moment, then calmed back to be only silver. This, however, was not under any circumstances a normal rattle. It had a symbol carved into it.

The 'M' that stood for her family name. Mikaelson.

The child grabbed the rattle, shaking it wildly for a few seconds before bringing it up to her mouth to teethe on it again.

"I am, of course, hoping that I can help the Mikaelson's. However, my first priority right now is the safety of this little girl," Avarice said, then stood, looking over at Hayley. "I've gotten you a house. I did so right before I came here. It is in Southern Indiana. I put a spell on it; it is entirely hidden from every supernatural creature in your world. Everyone except for me, and anyone else I choose. Mary, for example," she said, gesturing to the woman still seated on the bed. "I can come back once every week. I'll help to find the antidotes. Freya will be easy, as will Rebekah. Kol and Elijah will be a little harder, but I can assist with that."

Hayley didn't know how to reply, and stuttered for a few moments.

"Don't worry about this, all right?" she asked. "For now, you have nothing to be concerned about. I can look after your family. All you need to do is keep your daughter safe."

After that, she looked up at the clock on the wall. "I will need to leave. My limit isn't quite over, but I will get weak the longer I stay here. I will be seeing you soon, Hayley."

She wrote down the address of the house, left behind the deed she had put in her own name, and went back to the Reaper's world.

She couldn't ignore the small bit of happiness she felt at the thought of going back to the Mikaelson's.