✓ | 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂, Stefan and Damon

Chapter 59

You guys, this is the end. I would like to thank each and every one of you. Every single vote and comment matters to me. I still am in awe. So many of you actually care about these characters and the way I have written them. There are so many favorites for me and I want to write more about them in the next book I have planned. The Original Throne is the sequel to this book and should be out at least 24 hours after I publish this chapter.

Again, I really do want to thank you. You don't know me very well and I don't know much about you, but I really care about all of you. That may be hard to fathom, but a 15 year old sophomore cares about you.

I started this book at the beginning of August when I was 14. Now, I'm 15. Time flies when you're having fun. During that month that I didn't publish anything I felt guilty. Whenever I don't publish I do feel the guilt creeping up on me. I want to impress you and make you all happy. If I could make at least one person's day or life better, my life will be complete.

This chapter is dedicated to all of you who have made it this far. To you, I hope you have your own happy ending. I sure am waiting for mine.

Well, Caroline's whole plan had in fact worked. We were now able to go out into the city. That was, unless someone tried to attack us. We're both heavily pregnant, so it made sense that our mates would be weary. Stefan had tried to convince me to stay home and watch some Netflix with him, but he knew that I needed some time outside, out and about the city I had once called my home.

Everyone else was okay with Care and I coming out as long as Laurel was with us at all times, something that was easy enough to comply with since we had formed our own little trio friend group already. Care wanted to see some of the older shops, I wanted to reminisce, and Laurel wanted to make sure that we did everything we wanted since we would be preoccupied with babies in a few months.

God, it wasn't even a few months. More like a month and a half before these little buggers left the womb and started in on their lives. Tove and Tova would be getting a lot of attention during the first few months, meaning that staying home would be my best bet. I mean, I didn't have much else to do with my life other than taking care of my babies.

"So basically the best places to eat always have locals," Care said for the millionth time today. Pregnancy had made her repeat everything at least fifteen times before realizing it herself. It was adorable, really. "Ooh, we should also go and see the graveyard."

"Are you trying to get me into trouble, babes?" Laurel questioned, her honey-laced voice dripping with disbelief, "I get you out of the house for air and you want to go to a place full of people who aren't breathing? No, the graveyard is off limits until you don't have a baby inside of you."

"You're no fun," Care pouted, looking through her phone for more ideas off of a little checklist she had made for the day. "Maison Bourbon Jazz Club would be a nice place to go. I've never listened to jazz music, but Nik says it's not so bad."

"Sounds like a plan, babes," Laurel looked around for any wandering eyes. "Where is it?"

"Bourbon street."

______________________________________________

I never thought I would see the day in which I came back to the city, any city, let alone the French Quarter. The witches here had tolerated my presence for so long. To be fair, I was quite rude to them at first, but that was because they tried to hurt my brother. The only people who're allowed to mess with my brother have the last name Mikaelson.

"Look at you," I cringed at the sound of the man's voice. Fuck off, can't you see I'm taken? The baby bump? The huge baby bump? I'm about to popp, creep, leave me alone.

"I'm not here to chat with you," I rolled my eyes, ordering a water for myself since I wouldn't put my babies in harm's way. I noticed the way his jaw dropped. It was clear that he had taken a whiff of my blood, which was clearly that of a vampire's, since I was an Original.

But he didn't know that.

"What the hell?" he pointed at my baby bump, "You can't be pregnant as a vampire, lady, that's not how it works."

"Clearly not," I drawled out, sipping my fresh water. The water in the city was much better than it had been hundreds of years ago. "I'm here with my friends. Do you have a problem with that or are you going to leave me alone before I make you? Pregnancy can lead to acts of homicidal violence, did you know that?"

The brown haired man took a step back, looking behind my shoulder. I turned around to see Kol, who started to make his way over to where we were chatting.

"Is this guy bothering you, Striddy?" Kol asked, kissing my cheek. "Don't mess with pregnant women, mate, especially when the pregnant woman is my baby sister. You'll have the entire Original family on your ass if you do that, we all know that Striddy here is the favorite."

I gave him a harsh glare. He wasn't supposed to be exposing us so early on. We had just gotten here yesterday! Typical Kol, always making a fuss over everything. Wonder what Kai would say if he saw his beau being naughty. Right, he would join in on the fun. Damn those two for being perfectly insane together.

"Original family?" the man almost stuttered out, looking at Laurel, who had just found herself beside Kol and I. "He'll kick you out, you know. You left, you don't just get to come running back whenever you like. Boss said you left him in the dust to die."

"This city has and will always be ours, nobody else's. If he has a problem with that he can come and express his concerns with the real king of the french quarter," Kol insisted, looking the vampire dead in the eyes. "We have the Originals, hybrids, and heretics, what kind of army do you have that could possibly bring us down? Oh right, you don't have anything because all of you are baby vampires and don't know the true meaning of power when you look it dead in the eye. If you want a chance at surviving the next few minutes I would recommend that you tell that little boss of yours that I want to see him as soon as possible so we can get my brother's city back."

"That isn't- you won't get anything back, you Original bastard!" Kol's face turned to anger as he ripped the man's heart out, making Laurel flinch as his body fell to the floor.

"Now you don't have a messenger, brother," I reminded him, looking down at the corpse that stained the red floors with blood. "Guess we'll have to find this guy on our own. I knew that coming out today would be a good idea. Well, Caroline did, but I accepted the idea and now make it a part of my own broad range of good ideas. We can just find this supposed king and you can rip out his heart. Seems like the city has forgotten who the real royals are."

"You haven't changed one bit," I took in a deep breath as I heard a man's voice coming from the other side of the building. My entire body shook as I felt him coming closer and closer. This voice, it wasn't one that I had heard for so long. Tears almost welled in my eyes at the mere memory of what this voice sounded like.

What a haunting memory New Orleans had become.

"I wondered when he would wake you up," he spoke, calculated in the words he used, "After all, he was the one to put you down in the first place. Imagine that, betraying the one person who always stood by your side. It had been 900 years of Astrid and Niklaus Mikaelson, fighting side by side no matter what happened with their other siblings. No care in the world for anyone but himself, Klaus let her down, didn't he? I thought he had thrown her off of a ship, sinking to the bottom of the ocean like she had never given him her whole heart. I waited for Astrid Mikaelson to be undaggered for years. I begged him to bring her back to me. I waited for Klaus Mikaelson for even longer. After he had abandoned us. Now you're finally here, Astrid. After all of these years."

A single tear to fall as I turned around to the center of the stage. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him standing there. I thought it was all some horrific dream created by my mind. He was dead. No, he couldn't be dead, not if my eyes weren't failing me. The way that his brown eyes gazed into my own hazel ones, it hit me, who was right in front of me.

"I failed you, didn't I?"