Eternal || Elijah Mikaelson

CLIII - Default Setting

Chapter One Hundred & Fifty-Three

When Elijah came home that night, he was quiet. Silent, actually. He did not speak to me, and from the expression on his face, he was a mixture of confused and disturbed. I saved him the trouble of a sleepless night and slept in one of the guest rooms.

He probably didn't understand how I could do what I had so easily.

But quite frankly, I didn't know either.

Perhaps it was because she was like Celeste; Elijah needed to kill her but would damage himself in doing it, so I decided to keep him untainted and kill her myself. Perhaps it was because Aya had harmed my family. Or, maybe it was an act of pity. Maybe I wanted to finally give her the release she wanted.

I hoped it was the latter, but as I said, I didn't know.

The next morning, when I went into Klaus' room, I of course was met with him looking down at the letter that he had collected over the years.

"Dear god, why on earth have you brought out those vile things?"

Before he could answer me, Elijah and Freya entered as well. Elijah looked up at me, then looked away rather quickly.

After Elijah explained what the letters were, Freya was disturbed.

"You collect trophies from all your victims?" Freya asked.

"Letters from their loved ones, to be specific," Elijah said.

"It was a phase."

Elijah narrowed his eyes at his brother. "A phase in which we were forced to learn a different kind of stealth. You see, over time, Niklaus' enemies grew so numerous that we had no choice but to artfully withdraw from the world, and then... Well, I wouldn't exactly describe our presence in this city as discreet. Wouldn't you agree, Niklaus?"

"We all saw the white oak destroyed. Plus, this city was crawling with vampires, all of whom had no choice but to shield me from potential foes! Were I to die, they would die too, I couldn't have been more safe!" Klaus said, panic seeming to seep into his very being. "Now my sire link is undone. Those very foes will come for me like never before."

"It's only been a few days since the link was broken," Freya said, becoming exhausted with her brother's reaction. "Must you jump into crippling paranoia already?"

"It's a default setting," Elijah mused.

"And with good reason!"

"Listen, Klaus," I said, moving over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're terrified, understandably, but you also need to calm down. Why don't you go see Cami for a while?"

His jaw tightened a little, but I could see in his eyes that he was rather eager to go see her. And so he nodded, and left.

I did too, not particularly wanting to deal with the awkwardness that consisted of being in the same room as Elijah.

I went to go find Hayley, eager to go see her. She wasn't at the compound very much lately, and Klaus and I were often looking after Hope for her. Whenever she was around, I was very much wanting to see her.

"Hayley," I hummed from the doorway, smiling at her.

She closed a paper she had been holding and folded it up, then put it in her pocket and stood to look at me.

"Rose," she smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well, and you?" I asked. "I assume you're going back to the bayou, now?"

She nodded.

"I was just coming in to feed Hope," I said.

"It's all right, I already did. She's just taking a nap."

I nodded, then narrowed my eyes a little as they landed on her forehead. "What is that, Hayley? On your forehead?"

She blinked a few times, then wiped at her head. She wiped away the tiny blood splotch that had appeared there, but not well enough. It still lingered.

Something told me it wasn't her blood.

"Oh, I just caught myself on a thorn," she said. "No big deal. Hope'll be asleep for another hour, by the way."

She was quick to change the subject.

I nodded. "I can look after her. Klaus is a little... Preoccupied with everything. Though I'm sure you can understand that."

"He has a reason to be. I mean, it seems like with this family, there's a new enemy on ever street corner. Each time we stop to catch our breath, someone ends up dead."

I couldn't help but frown a little, knowing full well that she was talking about Jackson.

"I hope you know that he would be proud of you, Hayley," I told her.

She looked up at me, blinking a few times as the memories seemed to wash over her.

"He would be happy that you are looking after the people he loved. The people he used to lead."

She sent me a sad and soft smile. "Thanks, Rose. I appreciate it."

We were in an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Are you sure you want to look after her? I know you've done it a lot lately. I could stay if you want a break."

I shook my head. "No. It's all right. Go, help the wolves. They need a leader, Hayley. You can do that just well enough."

When she thanked me one last time and left the room, I knew that it definitely wasn't to go to the wolves. She was hiding something. Perhaps I would have to find out what it was.