Enigmatic Fears: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {7}

Chapter 21: Too Late

~Klaus POV~

"I sent your hotline squad back to the precinct where they belong." Marcel told him as he waltzed through the compound. "They don't remember a thing."

"They were useful." Klaus insisted bitterly. "Unlike the rest of you."

"They were your playthings!" Marcel refuted. "And I think you have enough of those in your dungeon. Your goodbye letters didn't do any good. Now instead of searching, the vampires and the werewolves are back in their corners. Paranoid."

"It was your motivational speaking that proved to be a failure, not my letters." Klaus countered causing Marcel to groan in his frustration.

"And what about Fiore, huh?" Marcel questioned causing the hybrid's heart to beat erratically. "The woman you claim to love but instead just keep pushing her away with your idiocy!"

"SHE WILL COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS WAS ALL NECCESARY!" Klaus roared.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Marcel asked the hybrid who eyes began to flit about with nerves. "I don't know what happened between you and Elijah in France and if he were here, he'd know the perfect thing to say. But he's not. I am. And I am saying, you misplayed this. So let the prisoners go."

Klaus merely glowered at the man who stood before him with no interest in listening to his words. "So you think I should be weak? Just give into my enemy?"

"If keeping Hayley alive makes you weak, then yes."

"Don't presume to lecture me!" Klaus snapped at him. "For centuries I have bent the wills of countless fools to do my bidding because they feared me! I know how to protect this family."

"This is my family!" Marcel shot back as the two stood toe-to-toe. "For the last seven years I have been a phone call away whenever Grace needed me. Whenever Fiore needed me—"

"But not Elliott." Klaus interjected. "Who will be the most affected by Hayley's death."

"If Elliott doesn't talk to people in this family, then it is your fault!" Marcel fired back at the riled hybrid. "But if he ever reached out to me, I would be there to help, would you?"

"Of course I would!" Klaus said in exasperation. "I am here looking for Hayley, am I not?"

"In that case, listen to me!" Marcel instructed. "I am trying to talk you out of making the biggest mistake of your life! To protect you from yourself! So you won't have to tell Elliott that you're the reason his mother is dead!"

"HE KNEW!" Klaus beloved, releasing his pent-up frustration from keeping quiet about his interaction with his brother. Marcel looked back at Marcel in confusion and the hybrid sighed before elaborating on his point. "Elijah knew he was and he still told me to leave—I begged him. But he didn't want anything to do with any of us. He's gone, Marcellus, he's gone."

"I understand." Marcel said as he looked into his sire's glassy eyes, comfortingly resting a hand on Klaus' arm. "I do, look, I understand that pain. You think it doesn't suck that Odessa chose that life over the one she has here? But you gotta move through it. You can't let it cloud your judgement, not with Hayley's life on the line."

As Klaus sighed in understanding, a noise was heard from behind them. The two turned and Marcel walked up to the box that had been dropped in front of the door as Klaus watched in horrified anticipation. Marcel walked over and opened the letter attached to it which read: Per Your Request.

"What's in the box?" Klaus asked Marcel, his anger steadily climbing. The hybrid opened the box and to his revulsion there was Hayley's crescent birthmark that had been carved off of her shoulder. "They mutilated her." Klaus said in horror. "Fiore can never see this."