These Are Dark Times (The Originals: Season 4 Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: Back to New Orleans

We entered the city under the cover of night, entering into the old Mikaelson compound. 

'Our home. Once the pride of our family, now a flophouse,' Klaus scoffed. 

'Indeed, the mighty have fallen.' 

'Where's Vincent?' Hayley said, carrying Hope in and laying her on a nearby couch. I came to stand near Elijah. 

'Right here,' Vincent said, coming into the room. 'Kept my word. Now, my only question is whether or not you guys are going to keep yours. As soon as I'm finished healing your kid, you've got to leave the city.' 

'Well, we're not going to stay, are we?' Klaus snapped. 'Your city has lost its charm.' Hayley stood. 

'What he means to say is that we're very grateful, just... help her and we'll leave.' 

'Just give us what we need, and we'll do so, happily,' Elijah spoke. 

'Excuse me,' he said, kneeling down by Hope. 'Okay...' He rubbed his hands together and began chanting a spell. Then, he touched his hands to her head, and her eyes slowly opened. 

'Mom?' she said softly. Hayley let out a sigh of relief, coming to kneel beside Hope to comfort her. 

'That's it,' Vincent said, getting to his feet. 'Your little girl's purified.' 

'Thank you,' Klaus said. 

'Now look, the only gratitude I need from any of you is seeing you leave the city.' Hayley turned Hope around to face Klaus. 

'Go see your daddy,' she said softly. Hope stepped towards Klaus, but just then, a crow hit the ground, dead. Then, after a few seconds, several more began to hit the ground in an alarming pattern. 

'Mom?' she said softly. 'Can you hear that? It's - whispers. Saying a name. Over and over.' Her voice dropped to a whisper. 'Kre Nah Han... Kre Nah Han...' 

'Vincent, what is that?' Hayley asked in panic. 

'It's a nearly forgotten dialect,' Vincent said. 'It's Creole. It means "The Hollow". The Hollow is coming.' All around Hope, the birds that had dropped dead to the ground were arranged in a sinister-looking circle. 

The next day... 

'Look, guys, I know what we're up against,' Vincent said, several of the witches of New Orleans listening to Vincent speak inside of the old church of St. Anne's. 'There's a faction of our own people, witches. They've started to make human sacrifices to a spirit called the Hollow. Now, this thing is dark, it's angry, it's very powerful.'

'It is a force that my family and I are here to erase,' Elijah said, he and I stepping into the room together to face Vincent. 'Now, kindly excuse us, please. Mr. Griffith and I have much to discuss.' The group of witches left, leaving the three of us alone in the church. 'So, now that we've dispensed with the needless hysteria...' 

'I got a lot on my plate, Elijah, without whatever trouble you're trying to bring my way.' 

'You need us,' I said, and we walked past Vincent. 

'And unfortunately, I have a long history of removing anything undesirable from New Orleans,' Elijah spoke. 

'I'm probably one of the things that's on your list, so I reckon it's best for me to work alone.' 

'Oh, it's not an offer. Children's lives are at risk.' 

'You care about children's lives at risk?' Vincent exclaimed. 'What about Davina Claire, Elijah? Lilliana?' 

'So, you can only see us as some kind of merciless butchers?' I asked. 

'Yes. I do.' 

'We'll be whatever you want us to be, Vincent Griffith,' Elijah said, his voice becoming menacing in an instant. 'I'll be the very devil himself, but make no mistake, we would violate everything sacred under the sun in the name of rescuing our niece. And right now, according to you... you are facing two evils. Wouldn't it be nice to have one of those by your side?' 

'We're going to do this my way.' 

'Beautiful. Your way it is.' I spoke. 

We stood on the top balcony of the church as Vincent conducted spells, taking ashes out of an urn and placing it on the table in front of him. 

'And who might this be?' Elijah asked, walking around him to observe the spell. 

'These are the ashes of a witch who lost his way, and it might just be the key to helping us find ours. This thing - the Hollow, its magic has a very unique signature. I felt it on this witch the other day when Marcel and I took him out, so if I can trace that energy back to its source -'

'You can find the rest of these fanatics,' I said. 

'So, this thing which haunts our niece...' Elijah asked, 'has it spoken to you?' Vincent turned to him. 

 'It's more like a - a broadcast. And I was able to shut it out, but a lot of people have a harder time doing that.' 

'Like your wife.' 

'You know, there's a difference between what we project and what we have inside of our hearts, what we try to hide inside of our hearts, right? Now that thing, it took everything that's dark and twisted inside of me and it used it against me. It used it against my wife, and it ended up taking everything that I've ever loved away from me.'

'So, then, you have every reason to want to remove it from this earth.' 

'Yes. But let's say we run into that thing today, Elijah. It's going to take everything that you want to keep buried, it's going to use that and make you do exactly what it wants you to do. And that's what makes you a liability to the very niece that we're both trying to protect. And then it will take your unborn child.' Elijah and I looked at each other. 'Yeah. I knew from the moment you two stepped foot in here. You have done the impossible. With Freya's help, I'd imagine. Nature has found a loophole and you are now pregnant with a child.' We turned back to Vincent. 

'Let's get to work,' I said.