CHAPTER XVI
❝ I see, you've done quite a bit of research on me, haven't you? Impressive ❞
Casper Daldron was a complicated person, driven by the mind of his father rather than his own. His decisions and actions were completely influenced by the words of his father.
This phenomenon made him quite unlikable in Stefan Salvatore's eyes, but Lucy saw past all this, trying to get the real him out. But, alas, all her attempts since the past several years proved quite unfruitful in her own eyes, as today Casper handed her a phone call from her father, Richard Wright.
"Lucia." Richard greeted in a business-like tone.
"Morning, Richard." she greeted back, all the playfulness and any trace of happiness gone from her tone turning into a straightforward emotionless one.
"Morning? I thought it's evening at your place."
"But, it's morning at yours. So morning to you and evening to me."
A short silence followed her comment before Richard cleared his throat.
"Am I right to believe that you are aware of what you are supposed to do?"
Lucy licked her lip in contemplation before telling the truth. "I'm unaware of that all."
"Expected." he sighed before continuing. "The Original Witch will be performing a sacrifice today. You will aid her and in return use the power generated to resurrect Steve."
"What sacrifice?" she gulped.
"You need not know that. Just focus on the second bit." he said.
"And don't be under any sort of pressure." he scoffed lightly. "Because I don't have any expectations from you. Still, I've still sent Casper to help you, because you don't seem capable enough of doing it yourself."
"I don't need anybody's help." she said quietly.
"I'm not offering, I'm telling." he stated.
"And why, pray tell, you think you are capable of doing such a powerful spell alone? Because of your so wonderful capabilities and your so great past ten year that you have so wisely spent?" he said sarcastically. "Tell me, have you been practicing any sort of magic since the past decade, except your meagre daily use of teeny spells? Have you been able to heal that wound over your right arm? Have you?"
"How do you know about my wound?"
"Don't tell me you've not understood by now that I've been keeping tabs on you?"
"Tabs on me?"
"Don't feel so elated." he added. "I keep tabs on all my people. Making sure they don't step a foot out of the line."
"And I believe Casper is the one keeping tabs on me, isn't he?" she laughed bitterly.
"What if he is? Either way, he's doing a good job then."
"I never interfere in your life, then why are you?" she laughed humorlessly.
"Because this time, it concerns both of us. So you better not mess anything up." he said, hanging up the call without even waiting for her to say anything in reply.
She sank down to the nearest bench, holding her head in her hands as a disbelieving look swept across her face.
"Seriously......." she scoffed, covering her face with her hands as she leaned back in the seat. "This nonsense is happening again? Everytime people fool him, make him believe that it's gonna work, just to get his help, but we both know it's not gonna work, it's over, everything is over, there is no use in trying any more."
"Lucy," sighed Casper, "let's just do this for his sake, OK? He won't listen to any of what you have to say, he'll just tell you what to do and that's it. He still hasn't moved on."
"The constant presence of your father by his side says otherwise." she scoffed.
"Look, Lucy-" began Casper but a newer voice cutted him off.
"Am I interrupting something?" said Klaus, a forced smile etched on his face as his eyes travelled to the pair of them.
"Yes, you are." said Casper in an irritated voice just as Lucy said, "No, it's fine."
Casper's neck snapped to Lucy's direction as Klaus smirked at him tauntingly.
"Well," said Klaus, sitting down next to Lucy on the bench, smirking towards Casper, "move along Caper, you've had your discussions."
"It's Casper, not Caper." he said haughtily, throwing one last look to the pair of them, which Lucy promptly ignored and Klaus just made Casper's blood boil more by passing him his infamous smirk, taunting him.
Casper's departure followed by them resorting to a peaceful sort of silence. Well, only for Lucy, because for Klaus those few minutes, which seemed to be hours to him, were the most painful and increasingly annoying, given his impatient self.
"You look...." said Klaus, trailing off by the last words of his sentence, wanting her to finish it instead of him.
"Frustrated, annoyed, irritated?" she said in one breath as Klaus looked at her with an amused look on his face.
"No." he furrowed his brows. "You don't look frustrated or annoyed or irritated. You look sad, unhappy, depressed."
"What?" she gaped at him. "I'm not sad...... or unhappy...... or depressed!"
"Well, it does look so.." he shrugged innocently.
"No, it doesn't."
"Yes, it does."
"No, no, no."
"Yes, yes, yes."
"What's your problem?"
"My problem is that you look sad, unhappy and depressed."
"No, I'm not sad or unhappy or depressed. I'm frustrated and annoyed and irritated" she said hotly, her annoyance rising by the passing second.
"Well, now you look frustrated and annoyed and irritated; instead of sad, unhappy and depressed." said Klaus with a triumphant look on his face, having turned her unhappy mood into an annoyed one, if turning into a happy one is not possible. But, you know, baby steps. First unhappy to annoyed; then annoyed to happy. Weird psychology.
"Really." Lucy sighed exasperatedly, a tender smile growing on her face at Klaus' such an extraordinary behaviour, something she was witnessing for the first time.
"And now, you look happy." he declared with a wide smile spread over his face.
"Oh, come on, Niklaus." she said, a soft laugh finally leaving her lips at his funny antics.
"Call me Nik." he said softly as Lucy raised her brows at weird request or maybe demand? Who knows. But it did sound like a request though.
"Umm... okay then, Nik." she said strangely. Klaus' behaviour since the ball was irking her. First inviting her to a ball as his date, then showing her his art studio (which is an artist's most prized possession, as per Lucy), then asking her about her health, and now asking her to call him Nik instead of Niklaus. What was this man up to?
"So, do you mind telling me why you were unhappy- I mean, annoyed earlier?" asked Klaus curiously. "Did that Caper do something?"
"Casper, not Caper." she corrected him, before continuing. "And you needn't worry about me. I can take care of myself."
"Casper, Caper, same thing." he waved his hand dismissively.
"And I didn't mean it that way. My apologies if it implied otherwise." he said earnestly. "I was merely wor- curious, curious about what possibility would have happened."
"Nothing. You won't understand." she gave a mirthless laugh.
"Well, then make me understand," he said in a determined tone "try me."
She sighed loudly, before looking at him for a moment as if contemplating his offer but just resorted to shaking her head lightly in denial with a final no.
"Forget it." she said. "You tell me, you came after me. Somethin' you needed? Or did I forget something at the -"
She stopped abruptly as a stinging pain striked through her chest, the feeling spreading slowly through her body before it was gone like it was never there.
Klaus seemed to have felt something similar as they both shared a look and the turning gears in their minds came to the same conclusion.
"Kol"
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
"I should have killed you months ago." said Klaus as he and Lucy arrived at the back alley where the Salvatore Brothers and Alaric Saltzman were carrying the daggered body of Kol but unfortunately (for them) were subdued by the pair of them with Lucy undaggering Kol and Klaus smashing the head of the history teacher in the concrete wall and the oldest Salvatore standing in front of them.
"Do it." dared Damon "That's not gonna stop Esther from killing you."
"What did you say about my mother?"
"You didn't know I was friends with your mommy?" taunted Damon. "Yeah, we have a lot in common. She hates you as much as I do."
Klaus tried lunging at him but was stopped as Elijah's voice rang, making him stop in his way, "Leave him!"
"We still need him, Niklaus."
"What did mother do?"
"She bloody linked us all." growled Lucy lowly. "What happens to one, happens to all."
"Ooh, mother original plans on killing you as well, how amazing." smirked Damon.
"What did you say?" asked Stefan, his shocked eyes travelling to where Lucy stood. "What does Lucy have to do with all this?"
"You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now." warned Elijah, walking towards Damon as everyone remained silent at Stefan's question whose mind was going in a whirlwind.
"You told me we had until after nine."
"I'm sure Rebekah would be more than happy to start her work early."
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
"My sons, come forward." greeted Esther (as if she had invited them to a dinner party) as Lucy and the Mikaelson brothers reached the forest clearing where Esther had set up the necessities for the ritual. "And the Koruyucular Witch."
"Koruyucular, hmm..." smirked Lucy falsely, beginning to saunter around the salt circle, the torches flaring as she tried to enter. "I see, you've done quite a bit of research on me, haven't you? Impressive...."
"That's lovely." commented Kol as he also tried entering the salt circle but his attempts turned out futile only resulting in the torches flaring yet again.
"We're stuck out here while the favorite son plays the sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn."
"Be quiet, Kol." said Esther. "Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine."
"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children would be an atrocity." said Elijah. "And why include someone who isn't even distantly related to any of this?"
"I thought maybe a thousand years of sleep would have an effect on you." said Lucy, angrily banging her fist once against the invisible barrier not caring about how the torches flared yet once again as Esther remained silent at Elijah's question about her relation to all of this. "But you still have a few tricks up your sleeve. So, tell me, the Original Witch, what exactly do you want from me?"
"My only regret is that I didn't let you die a thousand years ago." said Esther calmly.
"Enough. All this talk is boring me." interrupted Klaus. "End this now, mother, or I'll send you back to hell."
"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, felt the pain of every victim suffered while you shed blood." said Esther. "Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility; you're no better. And of course the infamous Koruyucular Witch or must I say the Wright Witch. You've been talked about quite a lot since almost a century for the heinous crimes you committed alongside your fathers.-" Lucy's jaw clenched at her words "-Slaughtering hundreds, to no remorse, for your auspicious rituals, ceremonies, practices and dark magic. Destroying the balance of the nature tremendously. You are, also, no innocent. All of you, you're a curse on this earth, stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time."
"I get it." snarled Lucy angrily. "You're trying to talk us through all this. Distracting us. Playing with our minds. I know, you're waiting for the moon to hit the apex. But not so fast."
She started chanting loudly and the wind began to blow fiercely, the torches flaring and flickering constantly, others ducking just as the torches flared violently with Esther crying out, "Sisters, no! Don't abandon me!" and the next second the Original Witch and the oldest Mikaelson were gone as Lucy's chanting finally ceased.
"Where did she go?" asked Kol, voicing the same question which was swarming in everybody's mind.
"I didn't do this." said Lucy, her left eye twitching as she thought hard. "I was chanting to get us through that barrier, not to break the link between the witches. Which means that........."
"Salvatores succeeded in breaking it" said Elijah.
"by killing a Bennett" whispered Lucy, her eyes widening as realisation struck her.
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A/n:
The episode is not over yet !!
Next chapter will be out soon (not sure when 😂, sorry)
It's my Social Science exam on Monday and I've only prepared 3 chapters out of 7 😭
So, ya, it will take time...
But on a better note 1/4th chapter is done :)
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 2103