A Different Breed ▻ Legacies [1]

34

Hope used her magic to de-spell  Alaric's office door to find him putting his bottles of bourbon in the trash. He looked over at the door to see them entering. Hope was crying while Valerie had the look on her face that showed that she knew she just did something wrong and regretted it.

In the Library, Ophelia and Dorian were in the middle of lecturing Kaleb, "What the hell is wrong with you, Kaleb!" Ophelia shouted at the boy angrily.

"I was just having a little fun," Kaleb replied without a care in the world.

"Fun? By feeding on human blood?" Dorian questioned him.

"Man, don't think we don't know that all you feed us at school is that bunny blood," Kaleb argued with an attitude, "That's not being a real vamp! Even Ophelia gets to leave the school every day to get actual blood. You talk a real big game about shaping young minds, but you ain't even letting us be who we really are."

"Do you know why I was at the cemetery today?" Dorian asked Kaleb angrily, "Why I take only this day off--every year? It's because I am honoring my father and my little sister, both of whom were murdered by the very vampire whose memorial library we are standing in right now. The place I come to work every day. 364 days a year, I love my job, but one day out of the year, I cannot stand the sight of this place."

When Dorian backed away from Kaleb, letting out a scoff, Ophelia decided to speak up, "Do you know what a ripper is, Kaleb? Do you!" She questioned the boy, who shook his head in response, "A ripper is a vampire who is driven by obsession, who lives only for the gratification of their deepest darkest desires. A ripper will feed until there is not a single drop of blood left in their victim to feed on, and after that, they find their next warm body, and then another, and so on and so on. And do you have any clue what kind of vampires are prone to being rippers? I'll tell you who exactly who; An impressionable, obsessive, clinically ADHD, horny little bastard of a kid. Someone exactly like Milton Greasly."

Kaleb sighed in defeat, avoiding eye contact with Ophelia when he realized what he had done.

After her lecture with Kaleb, Ophelia found herself sitting in the main room of the Salvatore School, writing her last letter of the day.

Dear Klaus,

For the past two years, I've written a letter to everyone I've lost on Remembrance Day except you. I couldn't bring myself to, it hurt too much.

I'm no stranger to death, but none of the losses affected me like the loss of you did. Once a year, for Remembrance Day, the students and the teachers at the Salvatore school are asked to write letters to their lost loved ones. We sign our names, fold them up and scatter them throughout the cemetery. I know if you were here with me right now you would say it's pointless, but it actually helps.

Not a single day goes by when I don't think of you. No matter what I do, I just can't. You're always on my mind. If I didn't have Hope and Valerie by my side, I'm pretty sure I would've turned off my emotions by now. But I can't. I have to be strong for them. Hope's growing up to be a strong, independent woman and I know if you were here, you would be so proud of her. Just like me, she tries to hide how she feels. She isolates herself, only allowing herself to be close with Valerie. It pains me to see her like that, but I know exactly how she feels.

You told me before you sacrificed yourself for your daughter that I shouldn't refrain myself from loving anyone, but I can't seem to think about anyone else. I'll be honest, I have a thing going on with Jeremy Gilbert, but it isn't anything serious though. Just something casual. Hah. It's pretty odd though, am I right? Jeremy Gilbert, of all people. He told me all about the stuff that happened when you were the big bad wolf in Mystic Falls. It was honestly pretty amusing to hear about what happened between you and Caroline Forbes. Wonder why she was acting so weird when she saw us together when we all worked together to save Hope.

But anyways,  I'm about to reach the end of my paper and even though there's so much more I want to write down, I can't. I just can't. It'll only make me miss you more.

I love you, Klaus. I always will. Hopefully, one day we'll get to see each other. But sadly, I have a feeling that won't be for a very long time. Until then.

With love,
Ophelia

A single tear fell down Ophelia's cheek as she folded up the piece of people. She stood up and headed in the direction of the front door. She made it there, only to see Rafael just entering.

He seemed to be feeling the same emotions as her, causing her to give him a sympathetic look, "Do you...Do you know where Valerie is?" Rafael asked her quietly, trying his hardest not to cry anymore.

"She's at the cemetery with Hope. I was just about to head there. You can come with me, if you'd like," She informed him and Rafael nodded his head.

At the Cemetery, before Rafael went to look for Valerie, Ophelia insisted that he light a candle for Cassie, telling him that it would help with the pain a bit. While Ophelia lit a candle for Klaus instead of the rest of the people she lost for once, Rafael lit one for Cassie. After doing so, he turned to Ophelia, "Cassie said she knew that something was going on with me. That my heart didn't fully belong to her anymore, that it belonged to someone else," Rafael told her and Ophelia knew he was referring to Valerie, "And even though she was upset I was starting to move on already, she told me she wanted me to be a better man, for the sake of the girl I liked. Can you help me with that?"

Ophelia smiled slightly, knowing exactly who Rafael was talking about. She didn't think Rafael, of all people, would ask the mother of the girl he liked for advice on something like that, "Yes, I can." She replied after a moment of silence, "I promise you, I'll help you."

Rafael nodded his head, looking down at the ground. Ophelia turned her head to see Hope and Valerie from a distance, "Well, there's Valerie," she informed Rafael, who immediately looked up, "I'll be honest with you. There's not going to be a lot of times when Valerie's alone and not with Hope by her side. They're basically a package deal. So if you want to be a better man for Val and win her over, you're going to have to convince Hope you're good enough for her first."

Rafael stared at Ophelia with wide eyes, "How did you--" He began to ask, shocked that Ophelia knew that he was talking about Valerie the whole time.

"Well, I'm not stupid," Ophelia replied, patting Rafael on the ground, "Now, go over to them."

Rafael nodded and began to walk over to them, causing Hope to look up. Valerie didn't notice him yet, causing Hope to tap on her shoulder, "What?" Valerie asked her friend, only to turn her heard to see Rafael walking over.

"Hey," He greeted both girls.

"Hey," Valerie replied first before Hope did too.

Valerie sighed out, noticing how sad Rafael looked after losing Cassie for the second time, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you today," She told him quietly.

"Yeah, apparently, Val was assisting me as I launched phase one of Mali-pocalypse," Hope commented, causing Valerie to smile slightly as she shook her head at the accuracy in the small joke.

"It's okay," Rafael assured them both, "Ophelia, she, uh, she had my back today. Dr. Saltzman did, too."

Hope and Valerie sighed, turning to look at Alaric alongside Rafael. Alaric was standing in front of Jo's grave with a sad look on his face, "He's still mad at you guys, isn't he?" Rafael asked the two of them.

"He's probably going to be mad at us for a while," Hope admitted quietly, "More so, me since I'm the one who dragged Valerie into this after she told me not to. I tend to do that a lot, sadly."

Valerie and Rafael didn't respond, all three of them knew it was true, but didn't want to say it out loud. Hope began to walk through the cemetery and both Rafael and Valerie shared a glance before following her, "Yeah, well, at least with the knife gone maybe we can finally get some quiet around here," Rafael commented deciding to change the subject about Hope dragging Valerie into dangerous situations.

Valerie scoffed, "I don't think that's possible." She remarked.

Just then, Hope's bracelet began to glow, causing the group to stop walking. Hope lifted up her hand while Rafael frowned, "What's wrong?" He asked, not knowing what the glowing bracelet meant, not as Hope and Valerie did.

"Landon's in trouble," Hope informed the group, causing their eyes to widen in shock.