The Original daughter

104

My father and I walked into the compound, where Marcel and a bunch of vampires and a couple humans were gathered.
"Anything?" My father asked as we approached them.
"They're putting eyes and ears out everywhere. Daywalkers are working every contact we got. Cops, dock workers, guys in the treme. Word is out" Marcel said as the people around him disbursed.
"Anyone trying to earn favor with me gets a lifetime of it if they find them." Marcel continued as he glanced at me.
"Don't look at me with pity in your eyes. I'm not a wounded animal." I said.
He nodded and looked back at my father.
"Good. I need a pen and paper." My father said as he headed for the study.
"Hey. Am i taking ordered from you now? Or are we in this together?" Marcel asked as we both followed behind my father.
"Just get him a pen and paper" i said as my father took off his jacket.
"Look, i want her back just as much as you two do, you guys know that right?" Marcel said.
I nodded.
"We want them both back" i said.
"I know Maddie. And I do too" he said as he turned and walked out to find the pen and paper for my father.
I took a seat on the desk as my father took his shirt off.
"Hayley!" My father yelled.
"Elijah. Maddie. You're back. Did you guys find anything?" Hayley said as she walked in as she stopped in her tracks when she seen my dad shirtless with names coving his body.
"Um? What is happening?" Hayley asked as she looked at Marcel and then at me before looking at my father again.
"I need you to make a list of these names. Maddie will read them out and you can write them down" my father said.
She walked over to the desk where i was sitting and looked at my father.
"Please" he said.
"Ok." She said as she looked at me.
I jumped off the desk and walked over to my father and just studied the names that were on his body.
"What is this, Elijah?" Hayley asked.
"They represent the names of the women that Celeste inhabited the last two centuries." I said.
"Thank you Elijah" Hayley said with a small smile as she looked at me.
"It's called a devinette. It's old school. Kind of a riddle." Marcel said as he walked over with a paper and pen handing it to Hayley.
"Witches use them to tech their kids. If you solve, it disappears." I said as Hayley sat at the desk ready for me to tell her names.
"Why? What's the point?" Hayley asked.
"Celeste forced me to make a choice between yourself, my siblings, and my daughter, and now she means to mock that choice, taunting me with a childish game. The longer the game, the more they suffer. To find Klaus and Rebecca, and to end the spell placed on Maddie we need to solve this riddle. The solution lies somewhere in these names." My father said.
I stood next to Marcel.
"The name next to Sabine is Annie LaFleur. She's a witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago. I never knew why but i can find out." Marcel said.
"Do you know where to find her?" I asked.
"I know some people. I'll go get ahold of people while you two get these names written down" Marcel said to Hayley and I.
We both nodded and i started following the names starting at Sabine and going all the way around the body.
By the time we had all the names Marcel was ready to go so my father and I left with him.
We arrived at a house in the middle of the woods and my father and Marcel jumped out and started talking to a guy. I slowly got out and joined them.
"Annie was a good girl. Witches done her wrong, shunning her like that, saying that she's doing dark magic. There's no way. But they had proof. So, she just quit. And i cant really blame her for that. Because once you've been shunned, what's the point of going on, you know?" The man said all chocked up.
"She..." i started.
"Killed herself, yes" the man said.
"How?" I asked.
"Drowned in the Mississippi" he said.
I looked at my father.
"Thank you for your time" Marcel said.
The guy nodded and we went back to the car.
Marcel dropped us off in town and my father and i walked the streets
I called Hayley who was back at the compound with the names.
"Hey Maddie what did you find out?" Hayley asked.
"She killed herself" i said.
"She killed herself?" Hayley question.
"Yes. Drowned herself in the Mississippi, i guess" i said.
"Celeste had clearly tired of the body and was ready to take Sabine's." My father said as he took my phone.
"How do you know that?" I heard Hayley ask.
"She leap to her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss." My father said.
"Blek!" I said.
My father looked over at me as we continued to walk down the street.
"Poetic, i guess, in a creepy, vendetta kind of way." Hayley said.
"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us. Hayley, we have to go. I'll call you back" my father said
"Elijah, wait." Hayley said.
"What is it?" He asked as he stopped walking. "Ask Marcel if he knows anything about a name on that list... Brynne Deveraux. Sophie said that it was her family's bloodline that put the curse on the crescent wolves, but Celeste said that she was the only one that could break it. If Brynne Deveraux was actually Celeste when she cast the spell, then maybe Celeste can still break it." Hayley said.
"I'll see what he knows" my father said.
"Elijah, I'm really sorry that you and Maddie are going through this. If i had known that Celeste had made you choose who to help..." Hayley started.
"You were going to die in that fire along with my brothers child had Maddie not helped you. There was no choice." My father said hanging up the phone and handing it to me.
Marcel met us in front of a bar, where a guy was also at and Marcel throw him through the doors and then walked in with my father and I behind him.
"What do you want from me" the man asked.
"Well, i assume you're familiar with this pigsty, quite appropriately known as the pit. See, awkwardly enough, only weeks ago, a group of human beings just like yourself slaughtered many of the companions of the vampires that you see assembled before you here." My father said.
"You run the records room at city hall." I said.
"We're told the former mayor kept a detailed record of the supernatural community. A ledger of names of witches, werewolves, and vampires. Specifically, their death records. We need it." Marcel said.
"I don't know where it is." The man said.
"I think we both know that's a fib. Anyone feeling hungry?" my father asked as he closed the door.
Vampire headed to him.
"Oh! Ok. Wait. They moved the records. After the mayor died. They're are the sacristy of St. Anne's church." The guy said.
"See? There. Wasn't so difficult, now, was it?" My father asked as he walked over to the guy.