CHAPTER XLV
❝ Is my father in town? Is he- is he doing all this? ❞
tw : panic attack
Memorial ceremonies were never Lucy's favourite. In fact, she hated them. The smoke billowing from the candles in everybody's hands, the photograph of the gone member, it all just reminded her of what they'd lost, whom they'd lost.
But today, sitting amongst the countless mourning members of the Mystic Falls town, Lucy hated something more - not being with Carol at her last moment, not being able to see her off. Hell, she even had no idea when the funeral was or if it was already done.
She could remember the last time they'd have a heart to heart, good conversation, but it felt like it happened ages ago. They spoke in passings, sharing friendly greetings, and a few words about the current happenings. But, that, that real conversation they'd had was a long time ago. Lucy had not even seen Carol, let alone talk to her, on her last day on this earth.
Lucy felt cold, and alone, at her seat, even though she was surrounded by so many people of the town. Niklaus wasn't by her side, not that it was his fault to be not able to make it here.
He'd gone into a frenzy moments later after Lucy's proclaiment of the contents of the 'invitation', and had begun pacing the room in absolute worry as Lucy had blankly stared at the invitation not believing her eyes. But was snapped out it when Nik had dropped to the floor, his eyes wild and breath heaving, muttering something along the lines of 'we need to leave this town' and Lucy had held him close, trying to pacify him as she tried to keep her tears at bay. She had left for the memorial ceremony about three hours later when Nik had finally calmed down and had fallen asleep out of exhaustion; and she had almost begged Vaishali to look after Brie and make sure that she does not in any way possible happen to stumble upon Niklaus while she was gone.
Niklaus' frantic pleas of leaving this town in the middle of his panic attack worried Lucy too much. She feared something very wrong was going on and Nik had come to know of it and thus his persuasions to leave the town. First the whole council gets blown up, and now the Mayor dies. The coincidence seemed too coincidental to be a coincidence. Something was very wrong.
Lucy had come to know of the cause of Carol's death by picking it up from the whispers of the town members. It was almost humorous, that when Lucy was afraid that Carol would get hurt due to the supernatural dwellings, she just died of drowning, a simple human cause, drowning.
The memorial service was yet to start and people were still filling in and out in bundles. Most people were already seated, including herself, with the exception of a few, amongst whom Lucy soon spotted the person she'd been wanting to see since morning, Tyler. After all, he had lost his mother.
"Tyler." she called out softly, prompting him to turn and look at her.
But his eyes didn't hold the sadness Lucy had presumed, it held anger. Or more specifically anger towards her.
His jaw clenched and he took a step away from her, his eyes flaring with, again, anger.
Lucy frowned. What has she done?
"Tyler." Caroline Forbes' voice called out softly, as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
He was unaffected and spat out in anger, "What are you doing here?"
Lucy was taken aback by the edge in his tone. Has he gone crazy?
"Are you okay?"
This was all she could manage.
She understood Tyler's anger. He had just lost his mother. She knew this pain, the pain of losing a parent. She was fairly angry too. But why was this anger directed towards her? She had done nothing.
"Why is she here?" Tyler demanded, his tone holding absolute loathing for her. "After all that has happened, she still has the nerve to turn up here? Oh my god!"
Lucy was now thrown into the dark abyss of utter perplexity. Why was he letting out his anger on her?
"Tyler, calm down." Caroline said in a pleading tone, noticing the drawing attention of the onlookers with his increasing volume.
"Care, get her out of here. I don't want her anywhere near my mom." Tyler said to his girlfriend, but his eyes were still fixated on her and they held nothing but anger and hate.
"Okay, okay," Caroline rushed on, trying to calm him down, "she won't be here, okay? Just calm down. Calm down. She is not going to be here."
Lucy scoffed, confusion lacing her voice, "What is going on? And what have I done now?"
"Don't you even act like you know nothing!" Tyler hollored as Caroline tried to stop him from lunging at her.
"Tyler," Lucy began, slight anger lacing her voice, "I know you've lost your mother, but that doesn't give you an excuse to lash out at anyone. And just keep that voice of yours down. I will tolerate it only this much, so you better keep this anger of yours in check."
Tyler scoffed, his voice wavering and by the next moment tears had started falling down his cheek, making Lucy feel guilty instantly.
"Stop acting like you don't know anything. Just, please, don't be here. I know that even Mom doesn't want you here. Just leave."
She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but she couldn't even grasp the current situation.
"Please." Caroline whispered to her pleadingly as she held her sobbing boyfriend.
A hand on her shoulder weighed down Lucy more as Bonnie turned up from behind her and with a pleading gaze led her away from the pair and out of their eyesight.
"Bonnie, what is going on? I don't understand why Tyler is so angry with 'me'?" Lucy questioned almost instantly, making Bonnie sigh.
"You don't know what happened last night?" Bonnie questioned, her brows furrowed.
"I don't know everything, but just that Carol died last night of drowning. And I came to know of this through an invitation to this memorial. No one even bothered to tell me. When is the funeral or is it already done?"
"I'm sorry, Lucy, I had no idea you didn't know, but the funeral was done just this morning."
"God." she scoffed numbly, "The funeral is done and I was not even there with her."
"I'm sorry. Everything was done in a hurry. Even I was not there. I just came to know of it through Caroline."
"But what happened? How did it happen? Carol- drowned?"
"Yes and no. Because she drowned in the fountain. Which is so absurd."
"Drowned in a fountain?" Lucy's brows furrowed and Bonnie watched as her eyes darted in confusion and the gears of her mind turned until a gasp of shock left her mouth.
"Oh my god." Lucy covered her mouth in shock, her eyes widening. "Something is very wrong. First the council blows up, now Carol. Nothing is good."- her face suddenly went pale -"Wait, is my father in town? Is he- is he doing all this? No, no, no, this can't be happening."
"Lucy, it's nothing like this." Bonnie said hurriedly.
"What if, what if, it's all because of me? That's why Tyler is so angry. My father did this. No, no."
"Lucy, calm down. Your father didn't do anything." Bonnie exclaimed, snapping her out of that trance of guilt and self-blame as her eyes focused on the Bennett-Witch. "He is not even in the town. And he has nothing to do with any of this."
"Are you sure? Then, then, why is Tyler behaving like this?"
"It's because-" she began, her voice apprehensive but stopped short as Lucy's phone rang.
"Tell me." she prompted, blatantly ignoring her ringing phone.
"Lucy, your phone is ringing. You should pick it up." Bonnie said anxiously. She now understood that Lucy knew nothing of Klaus' doings last night.
"Just tell me." Lucy repeated, her voice firm this time.
"Please, Lucy, at least check who's calling."
"I-"
"Please, look at it at least."
Bonnie needed the time to gather the courage to tell her the truth. She would be torn after learning the truth, especially if it wouldn't be Klaus himself telling her the truth.
She watched as Lucy stopped short on seeing the caller ID and calmed her breathing before picking it up.
Bonnie sneaked a glance at the caller ID.
Niklaus Mikaelson
"Hey, how are you feeling now?" Lucy said into the phone in her most normal voice as possible, but apparently the person on the other side was not so normal.
"Lucy, where are you?" Niklaus' panicked voice filled her ears. "Are you at the memorial?"
"Yes, I'm there."
"No, no, no, no, we need to leave Lucy, please understand. You can't be there. We can't be in this town. We have to leave. All three of us."
"Nik, please calm down." she said soothingly, "Everything is okay. I'll be back in a moment. Everything will be okay."
"No, Lucy, please, you can't be there." he pleaded. "Please come back. I need you."
"Nik, Nik, calm down, I'll be there, I promise. Okay? Just calm down. I'm on my way."
"What happened?" Bonnie questioned as Lucy lowered her phone, the worry swirling in her eyes.
"It's nothing. But I will leave now." she shook her head, forcing a smile. "And, um, you were telling me about Tyler. Why is he behaving like this?"
Bonnie shook her head with a strained smile. "He's just spillaring. And maybe he is angry at you because he thinks you could have saved Carol. He is just hurt and not thinking straight. Please don't take his words to heart."
"I hope he gets well soon." Lucy muttered with a forced smile and pocketing her phone waved her goodbye and Bonnie watched as she hurried out of the gym, her whole body high on worry.
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
Stefan Salvatore was not sure of today's predicament. His whole friend group knew of Klaus' doings and they'd assumed that Lucy also knew the same.
But after Caroline's phone call describing Tyler and Lucy's word exchange at the memorial, he was dead sure that Klaus had lied to Lucy. Just like always.
He was no fool to not understand that they were together now. But he knew that Klaus was fooling her. In no way was it possible that the Big Bad Hybrid actually loved his best friend, was there?
If he actually really loved her, then he would have never killed someone who meant something to her. He would have never hurt her like this.
"Lucy, please call me. We need to talk." Stefan said into his phone, leaving a voicemail for the umpteenth time.
But, little did he know, he was too late and she was already gone.
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A/n :
Why do I feel like I've suddenly made them toxic? Is it just me or is the chapter actually giving off this vibe?
Also, the Stefan paragraphs are Stefan's point of view, not the reality guys 💀💀
This chapter feels a little wierd... meh..
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 1821