Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 4

She couldn't sleep that night.

Graciela kept feeling worried about Elijah, who was still missing. She found Hayley in the dining room that morning and with a simple shake of her head, the hybrid let her know he was nowhere to be found.

Two seconds later, they heard several anguished screams upstairs.

"What the hell was that?" said Graciela.

"Klaus is torturing one of the witches to see if they have Elijah," said Hayley calmly, getting up to go and speak to the Original upstairs.

Graciela followed. Klaus was now in his bedroom, covered in blood from head to toe. He was washing his hands calmly in the sink as if nothing was wrong.

"So, I see your interrogation went well?" asked Hayley.

Klaus smirked. "Eh, it turns out these witches are delicate creatures. No matter! I suspected my mother had Elijah captive."

"Great," said Hayley. "Let's go find them!"

He shook his head, approaching them and drying his hands. "Esther is too powerful. She won't be easily found. I need to draw her out." He started to shut the sliding doors that blocked off his room, but Hayley stopped him.

"Wait," she said, "where are you going?"

"I'm going to change my shirt," he replied, "and then I'm going to find my brother." He made to shut the doors again. Once more, Hayley made sure he couldn't.

"Klaus, let me come with you!"

For a moment, Graciela thought Hayley wanted to go in the room to watch him change his shirt. Then, she realized she was referring to tracking Elijah down.

"I know you want to help," the Original replied, "but you can't. My mother is wretched. She will target you in order to thwart me, and I can't very well save Elijah if I'm busy saving you, can I?"

FInally, she didn't stop him from shutting his door. The two women left the room, and not long after, they heard Klaus exiting through the front door.

"Well," said Hayley, "I'm going to go and follow a lead on my own. Watch the house."

"Wait a minute!" said Graciela indignantly. "Are we passing a baton that reads 'sitting duck' or something? I want to help find Elijah!"

"No," said Hayley. "Just like Klaus told me— he can't save Elijah if he's busy saving me. So, I didn't go with him, but I am going to go on my own because I'm a hybrid with the ability to get things done. You're basically a human, what are you going to do? You'll just be in danger and Elijah will be pissed if he comes back and you're dead because you tried to help save him. I appreciate the effort but no."

"Everyone here is treating me like a child," she said. "I'm what, two years younger than you? Three years, at most? Surely there is some way I can be useful, you just have to tell me."

"You want to be useful? Watch the house. If I have something you can help with, I'll tell you."

Thankfully, not even a full hour later, Hayley came back. "Alright, time for a field trip," she said. "I need to find Jackson, the Crescent Alpha, and you need to familiarize yourself with the Bayou."

Graciela was happy to accompany her, even if walking through the Bayou wasn't fun. The one good thing about it was that despite how far they were moving into it, there were no hills to climb, and no major rocks or branches that Graciela would easily trip over.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Hayley told her as they continued their walk. "About the fact you're barely two years younger than me. I triggered my curse when I was thirteen. You'll be twenty in half a year and you haven't triggered yours."