Apocalyptic (Book 7: The Vampire Diaries & The Originals Fanfic)

The Axeman's Letter

Flashback - 1922 

I was dancing through Gloria's Bar in a dazzling bead dress, sipping on martinis. I sat at the bar to finish the drink.

I felt the wind of a rushing vampire, looking around in confusion.

A letter appeared on the bar in front of me.

I picked it up to read.

It was from Klaus.

I never meant for you to know me. I never meant to let you in. But then, I should not have kissed you. Not the first time. Certainly not the second. There is a light in you so bright it makes me feel like the man I wish I was... and forget the thing I am. There may be a time when I have to flee and for you to forget, but I wish this was not the case. I am chained to certain hungers, and you are damned to my fate. We hunt. We feed. We kill. But I also desire. Deeply. And I can love. As I love you. 

I smiled a small smile, touched.

  *******    

Still locked away, I was struggling to get free and stay out of the sunlight, only to get weaker and weaker from vervain, breathing heavily, weakly.

Aya was leaning against the doorway. "You just never give up, do you?" 

"I never know when to," I answered. "That's not the worst thing in the world, is it? Oh, no, I think the worst thing is knowing that you know you will never amount to the big leader of the Strix like Tristan is. Not until he's dead. So you can pretend like you're the big bad, but the truth is, you're always gonna be in second place. And you can't kill himself yourself without getting killed yourself because he's older than you. Isn't he? I mean, I see the way that you're jealous of him, and I get it. I do, believe me. You want it all. But you're never gonna get it unless he's out of the picture. You want to know a little secret? Klaus and Elijah are going to kill him, if not do something to him a lot worse than death. They are all going to brutalize you. And I hope I'm there to see it."

Aya rushed closer angrily, grabbing me by my hair, pulling me into the sunlight, making my skin burn and making me groan in pain until she finally let me go.

I sat back, gasping.

Aya used her triangular ring to cut into my neck.

It felt like poison was coursing through my veins. 

I groaned in pain, slowly drifting off.

  *******    

I woke up painfully, feeling even weaker than before.

Aya was standing in front of me.

"What the hell did you do to me?" I asked.

"Scratched you with a toxin of my own devising," Aya answered. "Kicks like a mule, doesn't it? I also added more vervain to your system to make you behave." She pulled out a blood bag, tossing it to the floor in front of me. "Here. This should help." I was already starting to transform hungrily at the sight of blood, picking up the blood bag, ripping it open, drinking hungrily, the blood spilling over my hands. "My friends and I could help with our daylight necklace situation, as well." I looked up from the empty blood bag, licking the blood from my fingers. Aya held up my daylight necklace for me to see. "As long as you play by our rules."

I dropped the blood bag, rolling my eyes, sighing. "Okay. Now you have my attention."

"I want you to tell me all about your time with Klaus Mikaelson," Aya told me.

I looked at her warily, tiredly.

  *******    

Flashback - 1922

Klaus and I were in my old apartment, in bed, underneath the sheets.

Klaus rolled me onto the bed, smiling. "Well, that was fun." He kissed along my arm, trailing up toward my shoulder. "Delightful... delirious... delicious fun."

Klaus kissed me on the cheek.

I smiled teasingly, taunting him. "Mm. And yet, you would appear to want more. I fear I've not satisfied you."

Klaus smiled, leaning closer. "Your fears are absurd."

Klaus kissed me. 

I rolled him onto the bed, straddling him, leaning him back against the headrest behind him, kissing him deeply, passionately. After several long moments, I pulled away. "I want to show you something."

"Please do," Klaus told me.

I smiled. "Not in the way you think."

I stood, pulling on one of his shirts, walking toward the built in shelf door, opening it to reveal hidden alcohol inside.

Klaus sat up curiously. "You've been hiding your alcohol in the Prohibition era. Why doesn't this surprise me?"

I smiled a small smile, shaking my head. "It's not that. Come. See for yourself."

Klaus pulled on his shirt, walking closer, stepping into the hidden room to see the wall written on from the ceiling to the floor, in many different columns. "You wanted to show me a list of names?"

I stepped closer, nodding, waiting for him to get it. "Mm-hmm."

Klaus realized. "These are all your victims."

I nodded. "Mm-hmm. Now here comes the question that I know you're waiting to ask. 'Why do you write the names of your victims onto a wall?' Even if I am the way that I am, killing and torturing my victims... I memorialize them... to remind myself that their lives did matter. I know that I'm a vampire. I know that I hunt, that I feed, and that I kill. I know that this is who I am. But I also have a heart and a conscience. I can have immortality and compassion, can't I, Nik?"

Klaus didn't answer, seeming very impressed with what I had said, very much moved.