I went on a killing spree after the dinner, to forget about my emotions. I didn't want to turn my humanity off so this was the better option. Damon didn't even bother to come find me after the dinner so I knew something happened between him and Elena.
Once it has been long enough and I knew Damon and Stefan would have left already, I went back to Klaus' mansion, hoping I could stay over for the night. I didn't want to face Elena or Damon so this really only leaves Klaus.
As I approached the house, I used my vamp hearing to make sure they really were gone. However, I stopped as soon as I heard more than two heartbeats. I waited a little while longer until I heard Rebekah's voice.
"I like what you've done with the new place, Nik."
I carried on walking, until I reached the front door.
"I wanted it to be for all of us. A place we could all call home. A place we could all be a family. None of us would ever have to be alone again." Klaus explained.
"Well you're right, none of us will be." Elijah stated.
The next voice kind of shocked me, I haven't heard Finn's voice in so long. "You're staying behind."
I walked in and noticed how all of them were ganging up on Klaus, including Kol. His eyes have already teared up, the only people that actually get to him is his family, it always will be. I stood by Klaus, slightly in front of him, facing his siblings. They all saw me enter the house, only Kol and Finn looked confused but decided not to mention my presence here right now.
"We're leaving you, Nik. Right after I kill that doppelgänger wench, then you will be alone. Always and forever." Rebekah taunted.
"If you run, I will hunt all of you down." Klaus threatened.
I reached behind my back and grabbed Klaus' hand, interlocking our fingers together. I squeezed his hand in an attempt to comfort him. The others weren't able to see this since my body was blocking the view of our hands.
"Then you'll become everything you hate. Our father." Elijah stated.
I felt Klaus become even more tense and I knew I should step in now.
"Enough. You're all a family, act like one. What Klaus did, keeping you all locked away was not okay but holding a grudge for the rest of your lives will not make anything better. So instead of making each other miserable, why don't you get along?"
Before any of them were able to reply, a door swung open, revealing the original witch. Esther Mikaelson.
Everyone's eyes widened, and jaws dropped, including mine.
"Mother." Rebekah gasped.
She walked past all her children, stopping in front of Klaus and I. I could hear Klaus trying to contain his tears and emotions behind me so I squeezed him hand again, letting him know I'm here and he's not alone.
Esther glanced at me for a second but quickly diverted her attention to Klaus. "Look at me. Do you know why I'm here?"
With a shaky breath, Klaus began to speak. "You're here to kill me."
"Niklaus, you are my son and I am here to forgive you. She turned around, now facing the rest of her children. "I want us to be a family again."
I let go of Klaus' hand and stepped forward. "Well, I'm not part of this family, so there's nothing stopping you from killing me. Maybe this time, you'll even succeed."
Esther turned back around and looked me in the eye. "Brooklyn, I am not here to kill you. You are not a secret anymore. Besides, my children seem to all treat you as family."
I noticed Rebekah give me a comforting smile, letting me know what her mother just said is true, she sees me as family. However, something just didn't sit right with me, I just couldn't figure out what it was.
-
-
Once everyone started heading up to their rooms, it was just me and Klaus left.
I got up from the couch and looked over at Klaus. "Well, I guess I should be going then."
"Wait."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Why did you come back?"
I started grabbing my things, preparing to leave. "I didn't want to see Elena or Damon so I figured maybe I could stay here but this is probably a bad time so I'll just-"
"Stay."
I looked up from my things and straight into Klaus' eyes which were already looking into mine. "What?"
"Brooke, thank you. For everything, you have shown me numerous times now that you're here for me so if you need a place to stay, you're always welcome to stay here, love."
-
-
I borrowed some clothes from Rebekah in the morning and just spent most of my day with her and Kol, catching up.
Esther has announced a ball to welcome the Mikaelson's to town so we were all preparing. Rebekah and I were having our nails painted while the guys had their suits fitted.
"Ladies? Tell me how handsome I am." Kol remarked.
Rebekah and I looked up at Kol, I slightly laughed at his boldness. It's been a long time since I've seen him.
"Ah Kol, you know we can't be compelled." Rebekah retorted.
Klaus stormed into the room with an angry expression, heading straight towards Rebekah. "You went after Elena? What is wrong with you?!"
Rebekah sighed. "Here we go."
"Do you want another dagger in your heart?"
"Again with the dagger threats? Don't you have any other tricks?" Kol challenged.
"Oh, go back to staring at yourself." Klaus stated.
"And who are you, my father?"
"No, Kol, but you're in my house." Klaus stepped closer towards Kol.
"Then perhaps we should go outside." Kol stood up, now being face to face with Klaus.
"Enough! Niklaus, come." Esther shouted from the other side of the room.
Klaus looked at his mother and followed her into another room.
-
-
I got back into my guest bedroom and immediately noticed a large gift box on my bed that wasn't there before. I lifted the lid and found a beautiful black dress inside.
I heard the floor board creek behind me and as I turned around I saw Klaus leaning against the door frame of my bedroom.
"Save me a dance, love?" He smiled.
I couldn't help the smile that appeared on my face. "This dress is beautiful, Nik and of course I'll save you a dance. Now leave, I need to get ready."
Klaus chuckled to himself before leaving me to get ready. I put on some gold heals and threw my hair up into a high ponytail, the curls perfectly falling to the sides. I did my makeup as usual, but this time I swapped out my usual nude lipstick for bright red.
-
-
The mansion completely filled with people but there were 3 people that particularly stood out for me. It was Elena with a Salvatore around each arm. Damon's not even hiding it anymore, he didn't even bother talking to me, trying to apologize, to sort things out. No, he just went straight into Elena's arms.
"Uh, if everyone could gather, please." Elijah's voice sounded through the hall.
I looked up and found all the Mikaelson's standing on the staircase.
"Welcome, thank you for joining us. You know, whenever my mother brings our family together like this, it's tradition for us to commence the evening with a dance. Tonight's pick is a centuries-old waltz, so if all of you could please find yourselves a partner, please join us in the ballroom."
Esther headed back upstairs while the rest went back down, joining the crowd.
Klaus immediately found his way to me. "You look ravishing in that dress, love."
"You have great taste." I smirked.
He held out his hand for me. "Would you care to dance?"
I smiled up at him and placed my hand in his and allowed him to lead us into the ballroom.
We joined everyone else and waltzed around in the ballroom. I couldn't help but notice how Klaus never took his eyes off me throughout the whole dance.
"So have you and Damon broke up?" Klaus asked.
"Nik, please, I don't want to talk about him right now. I just want to enjoy this moment with you."
My eyes widened as I realised what I just said but Klaus just chuckled. "Don't worry love, I enjoy spending time with you too.
Klaus twirled me around and let go of my hand but another pair of arms landed on my waist and hand, taking over. I looked up and found Kol looking down at me.
"Hello, darling."
"Kol."
"After all these years, I really wasn't expecting to see you and definitely not with my brother."
"You can thank your mother for that but it was just a dance, I'm not with Nik."
"If you say so, Love."
Kol twirled me around again, but this time I landed in Damon's arms.
"You came with Elena." I stated.
"You came with Klaus."
"Well, since my boyfriend didn't even bother to explain himself or even check up on-"
"I kissed Elena."
Everything around me started spinning. I knew something happened between them but I didn't want to admit it, I knew that if I admitted it, it would hurt. And guess what? It hurts. It hurts as fuck. Being stabbed with the white oak stake would probably hurt less than what I'm feeling right now. My boyfriend and my best friend kissed.
"Never took you for the cheating type." I let myself out of Damon's arms and ran out of the ballroom, straight out of the mansion.
I stopped running once it was quiet and I couldn't see anyone around. I finally let the tears fall. I tried to contain my sobs but it just became too painful to keep them in so I let it all out. The tears just kept falling as I let out a loud scream, which felt so good after but it didn't stop the tears from falling. I felt so week, so human. I hated it. I sat down on the ground and cried into my arms until there was nothing left.
I got up after around 30 minutes of crying and went straight for my room to fix my makeup. Or re-do it, there wasn't much I could fix.
Once I finished my makeup, including the red lipstick, I headed back downstairs where Elijah offered me a glass of champagne.
"Thank you." I said.
He nodded his head and walked away, leaving me by myself again.
The sound of glasses clinking caused everyone to look up to the staircase where Esther stood with a glass of champagne in her hand.
"Good Evening, Ladies and Gentleman. Waiters are coming around with champagne. I invite you all to join me in raising a glass. It provides me with no greater joy then to see my family back together as one. I'd like to thank you all for being part of this spectacular evening. Cheers!" She raised her glass.
"Cheers." Everyone in the room repeated, raising their own glasses.
I drank my own glass and placed it down on a table. A hand placed on my shoulder startled me so I quickly turned around ready to defend myself but relaxed when I saw Klaus standing behind me.
"Sorry, Love. I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's okay. Is something wrong?"
"No. I just wanted to show you something, come with me."
I nodded and followed him into a room with paintings covering every wall.
"Did-did you paint these?" I asked, admiring every single painting in the room.
"Yeah, um... actually one of my landscapes is hanging at the Hermitage, not that anyone would notice. Have you been?"
I was still looking around the room when I answered. "I can't say that I have but wow, Nik, these are amazing! I never knew you could paint like this."
"Yeah, it's actually been a passion of mine for a while now."
I looked over at him and realised he has been looking at me this whole time I was admiring his work. "They're all incredible, I'm impressed."
"I'm glad you like them, love."
"How could I not? I mean if someone tried to tell me they didn't love these, I would think they're an alien or something."
Klaus chuckled at my alien reference.
He let me finish admiring the rest of the painting before we both headed back into the ballroom where everyone else was.
-
The next morning I went straight down to the Salvatore house to grab my clothes that I left there since I wasn't going to stay over there again. Just my luck that I got there at the same time as Elena.
We walked over to the front door not saying a word to each other but just as we got to the door someone opened it from the other side. I froze when I saw Rebekah and Damon standing next to each other. Rebekah still had her dress on from the other night and Damon was topless. Even an idiot could see what happened last night.
I pushed my emotions to the side and tried not to break down again in front of everyone.
"What are you two doing here?" Damon asked.
I looked at him in disbelief. "Oh I'm sorry, next time I'll call to make sure you're not busy fucking my best friend."
"Brooke, I-"
"Save it, Bekah. I just came to get my stuff."
I pushed past Damon and Rebekah and headed straight up to Damon's room to get my things.
As soon as I got into the room and away from everyone I let the tears fall again. This time however, I was being quiet so nobody would see how weak I am right now. I slid my back against a wall until I hit the floor. I brought my legs up to my chest and held myself for some sort of comfort.
I must have stayed like this for at least 5 minutes before trying to get myself together and stand up. However, the first thing I saw when I got up was my reflection in the mirror. I looked so hurt, so weak, so broken.
My hair was a mess, I was wearing baggy clothes, my makeup was completely smudged and I looked like I haven't been taking care of myself for weeks. I haven't gone through a break up which caused me this much heart ache in a long time.
I turned away as I couldn't stand to look at myself in this condition anymore. It made me feel like I was worthless. I didn't want to feel like this anymore, like I'm just going to break every time I see Damon, like I had nobody here for me anymore.
I shut my eyes and let all the emotions build up inside of me. All the heartbreak, all the misery.
And I turned it all off.
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