Open Coffin - The Crescent Descent

Chapter 07: "Next Stop, Certain Death"

Life in the compound was improving on all fronts. Your knowledge in unlinking spells improved greatly with Kaleb as your teacher, you acquainted yourself with Hayley when she wasn't off in the Bayou, and even Klaus was in a better mood. You even shared a drink or two at night when none of you could sleep. You had always thought he would sleep like a baby even after the heinous things he had done, but apparently, he had a conscience yet.

One night you told him about the time when Damon snuck out of the house when he was a teenager, dressed in your mother's clothes to fool the prying neighbours to meet up with some girl. Klaus laughed so loud it scared off the birds that were sitting on the rooftop.
It looked like - and the whole world gasped at the thought - that you might become friends. Or non-enemies at least, whatever that meant.

However, despite the good mood, the cards shifted and the consequences of particular actions of yours came back to haunt you when you least expected it.

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The house was deserted for the first time in a few days. Klaus and Mae were off somewhere, Kaleb was running errands for Klaus and Hayley was off in the Bayou with her wolves. And what does one do in a deserted house full of secrets? Snooping, obviously.

Kols' room especially held several items hidden underneath the floorboards, wall panels and even tucked away in a compartment in the wooden dresser in the corner. Within 5 minutes you found a lot of Kol's stashes, mostly containing vicious spells, some black objects and even a 100-year-old bottle of absinthe. The latter you stashed away again, promising to open it when he was with you again.

Before you left the room to further your search, the crystal mobile that hung over a partially destroyed crib swished in the wind and the light broke within your line of sight. It drew you closer. It was a grand mobile with one diagonally carved crystal at the bottom. You felt the tickling power coming off from the carved crystal, and as you stepped closer you were drawn to it like a magnet.

When you heard someone coming back through the opened doors downstairs, you swiped the bottom crystal into your pocket, hoping you could use its undeniable power in one of the unlinking spells.

But magic was not on the agenda today, when you were met with Klaus seething anger which was written on his face your day off quickly cascaded into a nightmare.

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Kaleb opened the door to the compound hurling a dozed shopping bags in his hand, some around his wrist the others balancing on his chest. Klaus elected him errand boy because he liked to keep you on a shorter leash. And because he knew that you'd probably end up in a fight.

At the shop, Kaleb skipped through the aisles in a hurry, paranoid to see Esther or Finn standing there to punish him. But he made it back without anyone seeing him. He made sure of it.

The furniture was in disarray when he walked in, as if a hurricane swept through it. He doubled his steps and skipped over a chair leg in his way, only to almost trip over a second one that lay beneath a flipped table. He heard talking now and followed the voices and saw you and Klaus in the wine room.

Klaus was leaning over a map spread out on the wine room table furring his brow over the execution of a plan. You stood next to him facing the door, wiping away blood from your nose with the back of your hand.

"I suggest we charge in, slaughter the lot of them and send my wretched mother back to hell"

"Wow, you really have the subtlety of a brick wall." You said, "They'll hear us coming from a mile away! "