I'LL REMEMBER APRIL // KLAUS MIKAELSON

BUT NOT FOR ME

The mirror seemed to crack further as she stared into it. Another bruise graced her skin, ugly and purple and blue. She let her hands glide over her face, over the bags under her eyes, over the bumpy skin, over her scars where blemishes once hid.

She felt curls tickle in the nape of her neck and thought of blades of grass at home. Seemingly endless green pastures, belly laughs.

That church that they lived in, old and hollowed out filled with spiderwebs. And how at night she could hear water dripping into the bucket by the leak, and the short and shallow breaths of her sister beside her. How she'd wake up sometimes, screaming and how no one would come for her any longer. They had given up long ago.

She had been using magic back then, had been using way too much magic and it had started to corrupt her. Their coven, all their magic came from themselves and the elements. There were no ancestors involved, no one to tell you that you couldn't do something. Everything was allowed.

You'd pay the price with bruises, with pain, with hatred. Aurora had paid her price for the family, Odette's scars and bruises were her price. Some inflicted by others, some inflicted by herself, some inflicted by the magic.

Another crack in the mirror when she looked back up. It seemed like there was something black rising from her, the evil she felt inside her soul was trying to find its way out. It got closer with every magic spell she cast, she felt it creeping into her heart, turning it to charcoal.

She remembered his spidery fingers on her body. His heavy breath that smelled like coffee and cigarettes though neither of those were allowed, and how that was the thing she focused on. The bruises weren't even noticeable with how black and blue Odette had become in those times. His body odor, still grifted inside her mind almost two years later, she would never forget how heavily he smelled of sweat and dirt, he worked on the fields.

She opened her eyes again and saw the real mirror in front of her, her hand embedded in the shards. Now it was completely gone, the one crack that had been there before overshadowed by the thousands that were there now, by the glass stuck in every crease of her knuckles. She slowly lifted her hand from the glass, letting shards and blood drip into the sink.

There was no magic to heal her, magic only destroyed what was left of her further.

-

Today she would do something for her. She would ignore the temptation of visiting Klaus, of helping the Mikaelsons. It was her day off, she only had one every week where there was nothing she needed to do. Her studies were already suffering, just after a day of Klaus being back in her life.

She didn't want this to take over her life, she didn't want him to take over her life. She had only just gotten to living it.

Her hand was wrapped up and it looked like she had gotten in some kind of fight, and really, she had.

She walked into the café with confidence, opening the door and hearing the bell ring. It was quaint and sweet, with plants trickling down from every shelf and handwritten menus.

It felt so light compared to all the darkness she had been living in lately, like a dream inside of a nightmare.

"An iced coffee, please." She asked the girl behind the counter, who wrote it down on her computer.

"What name?"

"Odette." The girl nodded and pressed some buttons until the cash register opened.

"That will be four dollars, please." She handed her the cash and held her hand up when the girl wanted to give her change back.

"You can keep it." She smiled and nodded, mouthed a thank you. Odette walked to the back of the store, where there was a small table next to a window. She liked being next to windows, she always wanted to see her surroundings, know where to go if she had to escape. Odette took out her phone and started reading her history assignment, she only noticed that someone had sat down opposite her when the person coughed. Not much for being aware of your surroundings.