descent | 𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐒 [HIATUS]

𝟎𝟐

"Yeah," Sam speaks up before Rory has a chance to. "Yeah, we are. Do you know him?"

"You two are..." Joe's voice lowers precariously. "Vampires?"

Rory raises an eyebrow in question as she registers the fright in the man's face. When she perks up her ears, she realises that Joe doesn't have a pulse either. This man was a vampire, just like she and Sam were, but for some reason he looked positively terrified to even be mentioning the word. Like it was forbidden or something.

"And so are you," Rory states.

Joe nods, a little insecurely. "Listen, this ain't the town for vampires anymore," he shakes his head. "Ever since the Mikaelsons came back to town—"

"The Mikaelsons?" Rory interjects.

"Who are the Mikaelsons?" Sam asks, confused.

"They're..." Joe's sentence trails off like white noise as Rory registers the name that fell out of Joe's lips. The Mikaelsons. Klaus, Rebekah, Elijah. The Originals were in New Orleans? "... since the hybrid lost his daughter, the town's been in disarray."

"Daughter?" Rory interrupts. Joe turns to face her. "Klaus has a daughter?"

Joe gives her a suspicious look upon realising that she speaks the Original's name with familiarity. Despite that, he nods. "Had. A little baby girl, Hope. She... died," Joe looks down at his hands in a forlorn fashion. "Since then, the werewolves have been running the Quarter ever since. It used to be us, the vampires. Marcel was our leader; he's been banished across the river."

"Banished," Sam repeats. "This sounds all too medieval to me."

"You don't even know the half of it. Those Mikaelsons are old age, kid. They've been alive for thousands of years. They're the first vampires. When they heard that Marcel was in power in the city they built, they weren't too happy. Took over within weeks. Since then, it's been pandemonium. But it all changed when the witches tried to take the reign and that little baby girl got sacrificed. We're at the bottom of the food chain now, thanks to them," Joe explains.

"You're awfully open for someone that's supposedly not even allowed in the Quarter," Rory comments.

Joe shakes his head. "It's because y'all mentioned Marcel. He said that the only reason that he came to this city was to see him, right?" Joe gestures to Sam. Sam nods in response. "The people you spoke to weren't lying. Marcel was a good king. He's still around, just not here. If you want to see him, you gotta find him—he's still recruiting, you know. We could use more vampires... most of them got killed. It's not often we have Daywalkers."

Joe gestures towards the daylight ring on Sam's finger. Rory remembers the struggle it took for her to find a witch that was willing to help Sam—believe it or not, not all witches were as good with vampires as Bonnie Bennett—and the amount of times she passed out from aneurysms due to them not wanting to get involved.

"Okay," Rory gives him a smile, which he returns. "Thanks, Joe. We'll... we'll be in touch."

Joe tips his head, making his way back to the cashier counter. Rory turns to face Sam, who looks at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "So... you want to tell me how you know thousand-year-old vampires?" he inquires. Rory immediately purses her lips, averting her gaze back to the shelves in a faux interested manner. "Rory, I saw the way you stiffened up when that guy mentioned the Mikaelsons. Your heart skipped a beat. That Klaus guy... you know him, don't you?"