Grace // Klaus Mikaelson

32

25th August 2010

1114

Age was never such a confusing thing, but then she had stumbled into this world of immortality and life after death - suddenly the rules had shifted.  Death was not so final.  His words had registered and she understood them in the simplest sense - it was a date, one that marked his age, but also his aggression, his obsession.  What she could not fathom though was the depth of this obsession, had it had driven a relatively normal man to such lengths.  She new vampires were old but as often happened in mortals there had set in her a normalisation of ancientness - that a person could be over one hundred yet not look a day over twenty or indeed be one thousands years old and remained unchanged.  

There were plenty of hundred-and-something year old vampires out there as she well knew, but her misunderstanding came with the generalisation that everyone was truly ancient.  That though murder and the perversion of death were commonplace among the other mysterious of the vampire world, truly ancient beings were not.  Few made it to such old age, too many enemies and to little self esteem saw to that.  Vampires may be virtually indestructible, but they could die one final time.  Not many made it to such a age.  This, however, did not bare particularly heavy on her mind - she had far larger worries and concerns.  

Her perspective had shifted, and not just in the poetic sense.  Her vision had squeezed to a pinpoint and her head felt like it was in a vice.  The dangerous balance of complete over stimulation and a muffling of senses almost made her fall over.  She wanted to be sick, but there wasn't anything to come up - she had not eaten all day with the mixture of sibling tension and general background unease it had been the last thing on her mind. 

She leaned against the wall sinking to the floor, cradling her head she tried to settle herself and focus her mind but she could not.  She felt defeat in a way she didn't quite understand until that moment. She thought she had come to defeat her demons yet here was the monster bringing her further down. Victory was hardly what she expected, but the point of the confrontation was her misguided belief that the jumpsuit and handcuffs would lead to a shift in power yet he still made her feel weak and powerless.  

The reality of her universe had been torn to shreds, for so long an ounce of comfort had balanced on the assumed fact that what had happened to her and her parents was not premeditated, but the act of a truly unstable individual.  Learning that it was planned, that he had been there for a reason and that she was that reason.

She felt like the very reality of her universe had been torn before her eyes. 

"You did not come here for validation or comfort," he said, drumming his fingers.  "You knew I would brake you if you came to see me, so why are you here? 

She didn't entertain him with an answer, barely listing to what he was saying Grace wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.  He was right though, she felt like an idiot - coming to see him was a mistake, choosing confrontation over blissful ignorance was a mistake, being in Chicago was a mistake.  For the first time she was truly thinking that leaving Mystic Falls with Nic was a mistake.  

"You know I didn't just have to wait for you to be born, I had to wait for birth of an entire civilisation - the beginning of a new country.  Watching America rise in all its destructive capability, in the chaos of those early years no one paid much attention to me and so looking for clues was easy and the occasional murder went unnoticed.  As the years went on it admittedly got a little harder, but in truth this country is just as bloody and chaotic as when it was born - perhaps even more so."

Finally managing to focus on his words she gritted her teeth, she was breaking into pieces and he was giving a philosophical high road spiel about the state of the country.