Shouting was the first thing Alice could register as she began to gain consciousness. That and the fact she was sprawled across leaves and mud. She groaned and twisted around and the shouts halted to a stop. Alice's eyes blinked open and all she could make out where the black silhouettes of people and large flickering orange lights. They seemed to surround Alice in a circle. Containing her.
"Ah, I was wondering when you'd awaken."
Alice jolted up and her eyes adjusted quickly. Flamed roared and flickered around her, and the people finally came into focus, however all she could see was Ester. She was standing within the same Fiery circle beside the man who had attacked Alice originally.
"What do you want with me?" Alice demanded, but the fear in her voice detained any threat that could have been underlying her demand.
"It's not particularly you I require. My children mostly." She gestured to the three men standing tall and stiff out side the circle.
"Why? What are you doing?"
Alice stepped backwards and the flames behind her grew angrily. Roaring at her to back away.
"Doing something I should have done a thousand years ago."
Ester started chanting. Words Alice couldn't understand floated through the air and everything seemed to heat up drastically. The flames increasing in size for a moment before relaxing back to their original size.
"Mother! Stop this madness!" Alice 's attention snapped over and she found Klaus standing on the other side of the flames, Kol by his side and an unknown man the other side of him.
"Klaus." Alice whimpered.
Everyone's attention fell to her.
"Alice?"
Alice's bottom lip trembled as tears stung at the corner of her eyes. She was terrified. She had no idea what was going on but everyone seemed to know just who she was.
Ester laughed bitterly as she looked between her son and the scared girl. "Do you not see it, Niklaus? The resemblance? It's uncanny, is it not? But yet you've still convinced yourself to call her 'Alice?' Why?"
Klaus ignored her question instead throwing his own. "What is she doing here, Mother. She has nothing to do with this."
"Actually." Ester said. " You'd be surprised with how involved she is."
Alice quickly shook her head as each of the men turned to face her, accusingly. "She- she's lying. I don't know anything! Please believe me."
"Yes," Ester agreed. "She truly does know nothing. But that's not what I meant." Ester made perfect eye contact with Klaus. "Niklaus, say 'hello' to your lost love, Aleysia."
Alice froze. So it was true. She wasn't who she thought she was. Her name wasn't Alice everything had been a lie.
"No." Klaus growled. "You're lying! Aleysia's dead. She died hundreds of years ago. I killed her!"
"You thought you killed her." Ester corrected.
Klaus shook his head. "No, she was dead. I-i know she was dead."
"How could you have known? You left her there, all alone in the Forrest. You ran from it. Unfortunately I was dead still at the time, I could do nothing myself, however there was fellow witch living in the village. I was able to contact her from the other side and once you had left Aleysia's side that night; my witch did as she was told." Ester moved to look at Alice. "Sweet, innocent Aleysia was frozen in time... Until now."
Ester walked around the circle of fire to stand before Alice who was shaking like a leaf in the wind. "It was a Bennett witch that cast the spell for me, so that explains how Aleysia's awake. Bonnie set me free, it's the Bennett magic that was the key to Aleysia."
Ester reached forward, everyone watching carefully. Alice wanted to step back but the roaring fire stopped her. Ester's hand went to Alice's neck and slowly began to tug on a small golden chain. When the blue pendant appeared, Ester stepped back to allow the others too see.
"Recognize it, Niklaus?"
Alice's eyes found his wide blue ones. She could see the disbelief shining brightly. He didn't want to believe what his mother was telling everyone but how could he ignore it. Alice couldn't. Her stomach was twisting violently as the understanding washed over her. As much as she wished it not to be true, she knew deep down that it was. It made sense. She could finally understand why this world seemed so different to her, everything was unknown. And now she had a reason why.
"Who was I?" She managed to ask quietly. Her voice just above a whisper.
"It's who are you, you should be asking." Ester said. "But that doesn't matter." She turned her attention back to her children.
"Why are you telling me this?" Klaus growled. "Why did you do this? You took her from me!"
Ester shook her head. "I saved her, Niklaus. You left her to die alone."
He frantically shook his head. His pain was clear. "No, she was already dead." He seemed so adamant on that thought.
"That's what you chose to believe. You could have saved her yourself, but you ran instead."
"Mother," The man beside Ester said, glancing up at the full moon. "It's time."
Ester smiled at him. "Thank you, Finn."
"That's lovely. We are stuck out here while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn." Kol spat.
Finn ignored his brother and starting lighting several candles within the pentagram.
"What is going on?" Alice eyes flickered everywhere, taking everything in. "What are you doing?"
"Fixing my mistake." Was Esters answer. That didn't help Alice what so ever. But it seemed everyone else knew what was going on.
"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children would be an atrocity." The last unknown man spoke up beside Klaus.
"Enough. All this talk is boring me. End this now, mother, or I'll send you back to hell." Klaus threatened. He was trying to be strong through this whole situation but Alice could see him wavering over the new information he's just received. Alice could understand that, i mean how should he be processing all this information?
"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you, feel the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility you're no better. 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."
What are you? Was the one thought in Alice's mind. It was obvious that neither person here was human, but what are they. But that question wasn't important because as uneasy as Alice felt she knew that it wasn't what they were that was a threat to her, but the two people trapped within the fire circle with her.
Klaus would never hurt her, especially if what Ester said was true and she was his past lover. Kol has been nothing but humble and kind towards her, apart from his flirtation comments but that was just who Kol was. And even though Alice had never met Elijah before -she couldn't explain it but she trusted him and she could only name that down to memories she couldn't remember.
All of a sudden Alice's airways were cut off and a strong hand gripped her throat tightly. She could barely breath and every breath she took felt like a strain on her lungs. Alice's eyes widened in fear as Ester stood in front of her, a knife glinted in the light of the flames.
"Originally I saved you as a way to save my son. You made him understand what it was to be human again, but watching him for years after your supposed 'death' I realized he was beyond the capability of being saved. There was nothing left for me to do but kill off my mistake." Alice's breath hitched as she realized what was happening. She was going to die, and there was nothing left she could do. She felt sick to her stomach, terrified. But it wasn't death that frightened her, it was the unknown that was her life. Dying in this moment would have no meaning because she isn't really anybody. She has no memories, no family, no loved ones. This life of hers had no meaning, because who was she?
That's what she feared the most -not knowing, not feeling. She wanted to know who she was before, she wanted to feel the love that she had apparently shared with Klaus. She wanted to feel something other than lost and loneliness. All she wanted to know what where she belonged.
"And i'm sorry, Aleysia, but that includes you too." And then she plunged the knife into Alice's gut. The hand that was curled around her throat relaxed and released her. A strangled screamed retched from her and she fell to her knees, painfully clutching at the knife with shaking fingers.
"No!" Klaus' shouted.
Alice used the small amount of energy she had left to look over at him. He was staring with wide eyes just at the boundaries of the fire, like he's tried to get in.
Blood seeped from her wound freely, coating her shaking hands completely in red. Alice could barely hold herself up now, the pain shooting through her was blinding, she was having trouble focusing on anything else but the knife.
"No." He repeated.
Alice wanted desperately to say something -anything, but her throat had closed up as she coughed on her own blood. She hunched over as blood dribbled from her mouth and a sob escaped her. She could feel herself losing everything.
"No! Sisters, don't leave me!" Ester cried out, as the flamed surrounding them faltered before falling flat.
Alice felt a small glimmer of hope as she realized she might just survive this, but it was that moment that her body started feeling numb, she couldn't hold herself up any longer and fell to her side, once again lying on the leaves and dirt.
A loud monstrous growl rippled through the air, but Alice couldn't keep her eyes open. Her eye lids felt heavy and it was struggle to keep them open for even just a moment.
She let them flutter closed, it was easier and she just laid there unmoving, waiting. She could feel the darkness creeping in as her pain started to diminish. Her entire body tingled and felt numb.
The hope she had felt deflated, she was too far gone. There was no possible way for her to survive this and she was beginning to accept that. She didn't need to life, because she didn't have anything left to live for.
Cold hands pressed to her cheek. "Aleysia." A deep voice said, but they sounded so far away. She wanted to call out to them, but she could no longer move.
"You're going to be okay. I'm not going to leave you this time. I'm going to protect you." Each words sounded quieter and quieter than the last. Alice had to strain her ears just to hear her.
A hand gripped hers tightly, holding on for dear life, before something pressed to her lips. Something dripped into her mouth but she had no energy or strength left to fight it.
"You're going to be okay." Whoever it was repeated again.
After a few moments, the liquid that had collected in Alice's mouth finally slid down her throat and her mouth was released.
"...Klaus." was the last thing she was able to mumbled out before greet unconsciousness with open arms.