Mary's cabin
Hayley paused at the door before knocking. She swallowed the fear of being chased off but when the door swung open she saw Mary stare at her for a moment before letting her in.
"What are you doing here?" Mary asked hoarsely "Mikaelsons returns and there's a massacre in the the bayou, your wife have anything to do with that?"
Hayley bit her lip "No, look, that's why I'm here, I'm here to explain what happened in the bayou, what happened to Jack. You deserve to know the truth."
Mary narrowed her eyes "Fine, tell me."
"There's this spirit, it has a cult of followers, that day Jackson died. I found out that he joined this cult, they're bad people Mary and I have no idea why Jackson thought it was a good idea but he was seen drawing their sigil, a snake eating it's own tail.."
Mary's eyes flashed with recognition "A snake eating its own tail? Are you sure?"
Hayley nodded "Yeah, Hope's been affected by this and it wants my little girl, right now we're running a race against time, because if I don't , If we don't figure out anything to keep her safe, Kara will take the last resort .."
Mary's eyes softened at the admission "She's a mom."
Hayleys eyes welled with tears "I know, I'm too but I refuse to lose my wife, I refuse to have Hope believe she's the reason for her mama dying.. so please if you've seen anything like this before it would really help."
"You need to see something." Mary said before leaving the room, Hayley waited for a while, texting her wife and then Freya to hear whether they found anything.
"Here" Mary came back with a book "That's my husbands journal, the sigil, that marking it didn't make any sense to me, but it's all over that."
Hayley took the journal and slowly nodded "Thanks." She went to sit and speed read through the journal, most of it revolutionist trash but in the near the end it became gibberish, but the sigil marking going never faltering. She closed the journal and closed her eyes "excuse me , I need to make a call." She said walking outside she dialed Kara's number and waited for her to answer
"Little wolf."
A smile curled up on her lips "hey, I found something."
"You have ?" Kara asked watching Hope paint.
"Yeah, Mary gave me her husbands journal, most of its revolutionist trash, plots for an uprising but there's something about my parents in there as well." Hayley said looking at the book.
"What does he say about them?"
"Mostly that they're traitors for dealing with vampires that sort of thing, in the end his thoughts clearly deteriorated as time went on, but the sigil markings , the ouroboros are all over the journal."
Kara smiled at the painting Hope created "It's gorgeous darling, go wash up, we'll have lunch soon." Kara said to Hope before responding to Hayley "So you think that the hollow made him kill your parents?" Kara asked
Hayley hummed "Yeah, I do, I really do."
"Okay, I'm going to get out daughter something to eat, be careful, and call me if anything happens, I mean it Hayley."
Hayley looked at the journal "Yeah, okay, love you."
"I love you too." Kara said before ending the call. Hayley glanced at to Mary's cabin before walking to the door.
"Hey.. thanks for this." She said handing back the journal but Mary looked at her with sadness.
"I'm sorry—"
Hayley cut her off "Okay, no, don't do that. You're thinking of you'd stop him I'd be happy and have my parents. Thing is , while I'll always miss what I could've had with them, I wouldn't have Hope, I wouldn't have my little boy. I wouldn't have been in mystic falls and fall in love with the most mysterious Mikaelson of them all."
Mary's sighed sadly "No one deserves to go through what you've gone through.."
"Yeah but because I went through it I have my family, I have a wife two perfect little kids. We may not be perfect but it's perfect to me." Hayley said with a small smile before it fell "We're Mikaelsons, but I'm still a labonair .." she paused thinking back to what Jackson told her about her family "So is Hope, Jackson said that tragedy always followed my family, floods, fires executions or just vanishing.. what if it went after the labonairs before and what if it wants to finish it now?"
••••••••
Abattoir
"Hope?" Kara called listening carefully for her daughter
"Hope?" She walked through the compound and heard a small heartbeat coming from the basement. She followed it down and found hope standing at the cage , staring at the boundary circle, the chains hanging off the walls. "Hope why are you down here?" She asked firmly.
Hope/Hollow turned , and looked at her mother feigning an innocent look "Is this where you were trapped mama?"
Kara affixed with daughter with a look, she glanced back at her cell "That's right, and it's no place for you to be playing. Come on, lunch is ready and it's getting cold." She said taking Hope's hand and leading her from the basement.
"Mama?" Kara looked down to her daughter
"Yes love?"
Hope/hollow spoke "How did you break free ?"
Kara turned her eyes from her daughter , Hope was never interested in how she broke free before and while she'd tell her daughter the truth someday, that day wasn't today, Hope was much to young.. "I'll tell you some day."
Hope/Hollow cursed inwardly before nodding playing the role of child "Can you show me more of grandma's Esther's grimoires?"
Kara furrowed her brow "I thought we explained to you that until the hollow is dealt with, you won't be practicing magic love."
Hope/hollow laughed sheepishly "Thought I could get away with it." She said sticking her tongue out before running off. Kara forced a laugh but she watched her daughter disappear into the dining room, when she was gone the smile on Kara's face was vanished, replaced by one of concern.
•••••
Vincent's house
Freya, Klaus and Elijah looked at Vincent "Well what have you found?" Klaus asked losing his patience.
Vincent pushed old newspaper clippings, printed pages to on the table "The history of New Orleans , Kara was right, looking into chaos, well New Orleans has seen plenty of chaos .
This thing has been haunting the city for a very long time. And before today the only thing I knew about it was that it was a spirit, practiced some very dark magic, and it was trying desperately to get back into this world. And that's why it tried to sacrifice those kids. That's why it tried to do the exact same thing to Kara. But Kara's been keeping it at bay either by willpower or that drive to protect her daughter is pure and she'd rather sacrifice herself permanently and take the hollow with her."
Klaus's jaw tensed "That is the last resort and one we're trying to avoid all together, depriving our niece of her mama is the very last thing we wish to do, so what else."
Elijah sighed "Forgive my brother, we're rather stressed .. all of us." He motioned to the bags beneath Freya's eyes.
Freya glanced at one article in particular "Talk to us about this." She tapped on the article .
"Uh that's Madame Lalaurie, the axeman, I mean the list goes on and on, it's a ghost, a very depraved ghost, it feeds of despair, loneliness, weakness..."Vincent explained..
Freya's phone buzzed in her pocket "Excuse me." She checked the caller iD
"Where are you?" Kara asked without preamble.
Freya furrowed her brow "At Vincent's, we're going through the history of New Orleans and the hollows been using it as a feeding ground for a very long time—"
Kara cut Freya off before she could continue. "Fascinating, however, I need you to return home immediately, somethings' the matter with Hope."
Freya shared a concerned look with her brothers "I'm on my way."
••••••••
Abattoir
Kara stared at her daughter standing on the terrace overlooking New Orleans . Something was wrong with Hope, usually she'd be so excited to speak to her brother, but when Kara mentioned the daily video call, Hope looked bored and refused to speak, and ran off to her room.
"Hope darling." She said walking up to her daughter "is something bothering you?"
The hollow/Hope sighed in annoyance, keeping up with playing the doting child was getting stale, and it hadn't even been a day yet. She turned to face Kara and smiled "There is"
"Come on, you know you can always talk to me .." Kara said gently
Hope/the hollow, ripped off the silver bracelet from her hand "You're annoying me ." She flicked her wrist snapping Kara's neck magically.
The original fell to the ground Hope/ the hollow smirked "Better, now to find a way to kill you Kara then I have a few acolytes to reward .." she said stepping over Kara's body and left the compound.
That was how Freya found her sister, neck snapped at an awkward angle, she cut open her palm and let her blood drip all over Kara's lips before whispering a spell to revive Kara faster.
Kara took a deep breath before sitting up, rubbing her neck "Shit that hurt."
"What happened?" Freya asked "Its not like you to be caught off guard."
Kara snapped her eyes to Freya in annoyance "My daughter snapped my neck Freya."
Freya's eyes widened "What?"
Kara stood to her feet "Yes, Hope or rather the hollow snapped my neck without hesitation, it's safe to say things have gotten bad. Now I'm going to find her, try and sedate her. Because the last resort is no longer on the table!" She yelled angrily and stalked from the compound leaving behind a flustered Freya ..
••••••
Kara walks through the streets, desperately searching for her daughter when she sees Hayley running up to her "What happened."
"Short version? Our daughter has been taken by the hollow, our worst fear, I assume since she bares a grudge against me because I murdered her sister, she'll attempt to put a permanent end to me, using our daughter to do that while I'll not lift a finger because I cannot hurt Hope."
Hayley walks beside Kara "How did this even happen!" She asked angrily
Kara shook her head "I have no idea what I do know is we need to find her and if I'm right.." she pointed to the Catholic Church in the distance "Jane and Alec said the few acolytes they've killed were using this as their meet up spot."
Hayley looked at her wife anxiously "How do we beat this, we can't fight our daughter ?"
Kara stopped her walk and pressed her lips against Hayley, and put a needle in her hand "I'll distract, you get close enough to inject her with this. We cannot hurt her, in the end our little girl is in there. But we can make her sleep." Kara pressed their heads together "Remember.. everything she says, everything that vile spirit uses our daughter to say.. is not Hope. Our daughter is kind, sweet, compassionate.. an artist. An amazing big sister.. that's hope , the evil in her isn't her.."
Hayley nodded tearfully "Okay, okay.. you distract and I'll get close enough to sedate her."
Kara smiled weakly "Easy .. and no matter what happens to me Hayley, our daughter first.. okay?"
Hayley's green eyes pierced violet "Our daughter.. let's get her back.."
Kara pressed another kiss to wife's lips "I love you."
Hayley sniffed "I love you too.."
•••••••