𝐒𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘||𝘑. 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘺 ✔️

𝐈𝐈

  ----- act one, HIDDEN LIES
Chapter 2. Alethea's Outburst

THE THROMBEY HOME,
2 DEERBORN DRIVE
MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A
11:35 A.M.

ASTRID SITS BESIDE JACOB. She aimlessly picked at her purple paint-chipped nails and holding her breath, trying not to breath in his scent. Though it usually didn't bother her, she hadn't fed in a week, making everyone's blood seem like a 3 course meal to her.

"-CSI:KFC?" Jacob smirks at his cousin's remark, yet his eyes never left the screen of his phone. Astrid rolled her eyes, slapping his hand away. "Seriously?" She hisses. Jacob shrugs. She watched him carefully as his eyes turned sad, stopping on one comment.

Before he could react, she snatched his phone away and turned so he couldn't reach it. She ignored his desperate pleas to give it back as she started reading the comments under his tweet.

'You're an insignificant troll.'

'You deserve to die'

'No wonder why your parents don't love you.'

'Go kill yourself.'

  Jacob suddenly snatched his phone out of her hand, glaring slightly at her. "Jacob," Astrid whispered accusingly.

"It doesn't bother me," he shot back.

Astrid gives him a withering look. "I'm not stupid, Jacob," she hisses scathingly. "I know that look first-hand because that's exactly the same way I was."

He scoffs. "I'm not talking about it right now," he mumbles.

Her eyes soften some, putting her hand on Jacob's shoulder. "But you have to talk eventually," she says firmly, but not pushing.

He nods absentmindedly, immediately going back to his phone.

Alan Stevens, the family's attorney, knocks and enters with an assistant, Sally, who juggles several attache cases. "Hey everyone. Hey. I'm just going to set up in the other room, be ready in ten minutes," he says. They go off to the library, leaving the group together in tense silence.

"Funny, Ransom, you skipped the funeral but you're early for the will reading," Walt remarks, staring with hard eyes at his nephew.

"Ok, people grieve in different ways, let's not," Joni says.

Oh, Joni. Ever the peacemaker. Astrid frowns slightly, but says nothing.

  "It's funny you're here at all. Why are you even bothering, that's what I want to know," Walt demands to Ransom.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ransom asks, playing dumb.

"He knows what it means."

"Walt, what?" Linda asks her brother in confusion.

"Jacob was in that bathroom the night of the party," Walt said.

Astrid tenses when Jacob's face turned red slightly, listening to his heartbeat speed up. "Is that where you were all night?" Joni looks at Jacob.

"The hell were you doing in the bathroom all night?" Richard demands.

"Nothing," Jacob responds sharply. Astrid glanced at him, grasping his hand to give him reassurance. His eyes flicker to her, surprised by her initiated contact, but says nothing about it.

"Swatting Syrian refugees," Meg accused.

"No, he wasn't," Astrid snapped, the others surprised at her speaking up. She was always the shy one who never raised her voice.

  "Alt-right troll," Meg spat at Jacob. Then she glared at Astrid. "Little bitch."

"Liberal snowflake," Jacob snapped back at her. Jacob didn't care that Meg was insulting him, but he wouldn't let her insult his friend.

"I don't know what any of that means," Walt decides.

"It means your son's a little creep," Richard growls.

  "I think you might be confusing him with yourself," Astrid mutters under her breath.

Jacob snickers quietly upon hearing her.

"Oh, MY son's a creep?" Walt raises his voice. It was like a tennis match, shots being fired back and forth between Walt and Richard.

  "Guys! Walt, he was in the bathroom..." Joni tried to move on the conversation.

"So was Francesca," Meg threw in.

Eyes turned to Astrid and Jacob.

"How about it's none of your damn business, Megan," Astrid snarls, clenching her fists to stop them from seeing her elongating nails.

"I was asking him something and wasn't even there for five minutes before I went outside. The door was open. You can ask anyone else."

"So they were in the bathroom," Walt tried to move the conversation along, growing tired of the incessant chatter.

"Joylessly masturbating to pictures of dead deer," Richard snaps.

Both Jacob and Astrid's faces twist in disgust. "What the fuck, Richard? And you say Jacob is a creep. Sounds like you're confusing him with yourself," Alethea raises her voice, her blood to the point of boiling.

She stands up and glares at him. "No one likes the sound of your grating voice except you. So why don't you do everyone a favor and shut up?" Astrid snaps.

The cops in the corner carefully watched the situation, ready to step in at any moment should it further escalate. 

Everyone was taken off-guard at her sudden defensiveness. "Or else what?" Richard scoffs. "You're just a kid."

Astrid's pale face turns deadly in an instant, before she calms down and smiles sweetly. "You know, that's what the last guy said too. I don't think you want to know what happened to him," she says and smirks before sitting back down.

It was obvious to those who knew of her parentage where she got that from. She truly was her father's daughter.

The whole room went silent, but was interrupted by Ransom who started laughing, clearly loving every moment of this. "We gotta do this more often," he laughs.

Astrid scowls as she sinks into her seat briefly glancing at her profusely bleeding palms.

She was starting to get pissed off, and when she was angry, she became like every Mikaelson; she became murderous. And a murderous Astrid  always ended in bloodshed.