napalm skies <<>> kol mikaelson

05

But—before Kol could move toward Klaus in the midst of his annoyance and anger—all four of the Original vampires heard footsteps approaching the courtyard from the front entrance. They looked toward the sound to see a slightly older man walking into their home dressed in a suit. His attire was much less fancy than Elijah's, but the suit was nice nonetheless. He had graying hair and his dark eyes looked dazed; they all recognized the look of compulsion in his movements.

They watched curiously as the man stared straight at the youngest Mikaelson brother. "Sir Kol Mikaelson," he greeted before reaching into his suit pocket to pull out a small, pristine envelope. "A message for you."

"Oh look, Kol's got fanmail," Rebekah said sarcastically, making Kol roll his eyes as he grabbed the envelope from the man's outstretched hand.

They all expected the man to turn around and leave after his mission was completed, but then they watched as he looked Kol in his eyes, unflinching and unafraid despite being only human. "You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; yet if Hope has flown away, in a night or in a day, in a vision or in none, is it therefore the less gone? All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."

After speaking the last word, the man brought a knife from his pocket and stabbed himself in the neck. The Mikaelson siblings widened their eyes at the sight, and Klaus took a step forward as the man fell to the ground, suddenly intrigued by what just took place. Kol, still holding the note, was as confused as everybody else.

"What the bloody hell just happened?" Rebekah exclaimed, standing straighter as her puzzlement turned quickly to fear, and wondering if their father had finally found them. This could be the first sign of Mikael's arrival, and the rest of her siblings felt the same wariness as the thought entered their minds too. None of them were happy at the prospect of leaving New Orleans—not when they had finally found some semblance of peace here.

Kol unfolded the letter inside the envelope to find delicately written cursive. "I've grown rather bored waiting for you. Perhaps this will give you your next clue."

Kol suddenly smirked, knowing who had sent the letter despite the note not having a signature. He knew that the game they were playing was getting more interesting by the day, but he never expected her to do something like this. He remembered how young she'd seemed when he first met her—both in physical looks and vampiric years—and he was somewhat impressed by her gall.

Klaus turned to Kol with a raised eyebrow. "Would you care to explain?" He suggested, raising a hand to the bloody body on the floor. Kol could hear that his brother was annoyed by the stain they would need to clean, especially if he was to meet with the human faction soon. Klaus didn't want them to see the blood and declare the vampires even more monstrous than they already were. It would upset the precarious balance the Originals had created within the city.

"It's her," he said, surprising the others. Only a moment ago they had been making fun of him, and now they realized that this mystery girl was—in fact—real. "She said this is a clue, though I have no idea what it all means."

Elijah stood up, a bemused smile on his face while he set his glass on a side table nearby. "This girl certainly holds her own against you," he commented, straightening any invisible wrinkles in his suit. "She's also a lover of the written arts," he continued, making Kol look up at him from the note. "The words this compelled servant spoke were of Edgar Allen Poe's poem, 'A Dream Within A Dream.' Quite a drag of words if I say so myself."

"What does some poem have to do with me?" Kol asked. While he was intelligent and studied many things, poetry was not one of them. He didn't care for the words covered in silk and aimed to confuse; however, it intrigued him even more that the woman held some sort of love for it. He didn't know anything about her after all, and this was a characteristic that he would file away for a later date.