Almost is Never Enough

Haunter of Ruins

Emma
Mom’s been gone for a few weeks now and Hope and I have been here with Grandma Mary. Most of the time we’ve been drawing, painting, reading, or playing in the garden. After our daily check to see if Mom is home, we were in our room drawing. I am drawing another picture of that snake eating its own tail. I saw it in my dream and I think Hope is doing the same thing.  We’ve been drawing the same thing all day until it was time for us to go to bed.

The next morning, I woke up before Hope and heard Mom’s voice. 
“Hope! Hope wake up! Mom came home!” I say as I shake her. As soon as I mentioned Mom, Hope shot up and Mom walked into our room.
“Mommy!” We say as we run into her arms. 
“ Hi my beautiful girls” Mom says and kisses our heads, “why don't you guys get ready for the day and come outside, yeah?” we nod our heads and go get ready.  I put on 

Hope and I walk out the front door with Mom.
“Everybody, look who's awake.” Mom says and everyone looks at us. I look around at everyone before Hope and I speak.
“ Hello” we say at the same time as we look up at our dad. 
“Hello” he says back. We look at each other for a few seconds before I look up at mom.
“Mom, can we go play in the garden?” I ask, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

Hope and I were sitting down painting when dad walked over to us.

“That's lovely,” he says looking at our paintings. 

“Mom says you like to paint too” Hope says to him. 

“I do. Very much.” I tear out a piece of paper from my sketchbook and put it on the table next to me then go back to painting. Dad sits down and paints with us.

We were walking through the forest with dad listening to him tell us about his childhood. “ I painted on animal skins mostly” he starts as we’re  walking “ Bark, cave walls…” 

“You lived in a cave?” I interrupt with curiosity

“I lived in a hovel, all of us crowded into two rooms. It was actually nicer than it sounds. Though your Uncle Kol snored. Loudly, I might add.” He takes Hope's hand and helps her over a log then does the same with me. 
“I bet it was cool” Hopes starts
“Yeah, always having other kids to play with” I finish her thought.
“It was cool, actually. But I still felt alone. Different from my siblings. For one thing, I loved art. I used to make my own paints from flowers and berries. These orange ones are the most vibrant.” he says as we were walking past some flowers. 
“ I like orange.” Hope tells him. I see a butterfly on one of the flowers. It looks hurt.
“ Oh, there's a butterfly.” I say as Hope and I bend down. 
“ I think it's stuck.” Hope tells me.
“ Yeah, it has a broken wing.” Our dad says next to us. We take off our bracelets and hand them to him. “ Shh. Don't tell our mom.” We say. We close our eyes and I grab Hope’s hand. We always do our magic together because it makes us stronger. We both put our hand out and focus on healing the butterfly. Once we open our eyes, we smile as it flies away. 

“Mom says when we get bigger, Freya will teach us real spells. “ Hope says as we continue our walk. 

“I think you're both doing rather well all by yourselves.” Dad says.

“ We can't always control it so well. It scares us sometimes.” I respond.

“ You, luvs, are the daughters of Klaus Mikaelson. You're going to be the greatest witches the world has ever seen. And nothing will scare you.” He tells us crouching down in front of us.

“We  know what you are, you know. The strongest in the world. Strong enough to keep all of the bad things away.” Hope tells him.

“ What bad things?” He asked worriedly.

“ Just bad guys. Monsters. People who are mean, selfish, and angry.” I add on.

“ Nothing is going to harm my little girls. Nothing will even get close. You two are all that matters to me.” He says and we both hug him

“ You're trembling. Are you cold? “ He asks.

“Yeah. We’ve been cold a while now.” We say shyly.

“ Well, let's get you two inside then, eh? You can show me your drawings.” He picks us up andwalks towards the house.

Later that night we were in bed. Mom and dad tucked us in. We woke up from a nightmare and looked at each other. “Do you think we should tell dad?” I ask Hope.

“Yeah, lets go” we slide out of bed and walk to where Dad is holding hands.

“Dad? I think something's wrong.” Hope says as our dad looks up.
“We had a dream... about a bad man. He was hurting these kids and I think he hurt us, too” I say and Dad makes his way over to us.
“I feel dizzy. And my head hurts.” Hope says.
“Me too. Dad, everythings blurry. I can’t see” I say starting to panic.
“ Hayley!” Klaus calls as he holds on to Hope and I. Mom comes running into the room.
“Mom, I'm so cold.” We say at the same time. Then everything goes black.