While Annabelle, Amy and the Doctor walked through the art gallery, a man wearing a bowtie said, "So this is one of the last paintings Van Gogh ever painted. Those final months of his life were probably the most astonishing artistic outpouring in history. It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth and King Lear over the summer hols." After a few members of the group had only let out a laugh in response to his words, the man said, "And especially astonishing because Van Gogh did it with no hope of praise or reward."
And while the man continued to talk to the group and Annabelle, who wasn't paying the least bit of attention to anything that he was saying, Amy turned to the Doctor and said to him, "Thanks for bringing me."
In turn, the Doctor said to her, "You're welcome."
Then Amy said to him, "You're being so nice to me. Why are you being so nice to me?"
The Doctor replied, "I'm always nice to you."
Amy told him, "Not like this. All these places you're taking me, Arcadia, the Trojan Gardens, now this. I think it's suspicious."
With a quick turn of his head, the Doctor said to her, "What? It's not! There's nothing to be suspicious about."
In turn, Amy said to him, "Okay, I was joking. Why aren't you?"
While Annabelle walked away from the two of them and over towards another part of the art gallery, the man from before said, "Each of these pictures now is worth tens of millions of pounds. Yet in his lifetime, he was a commercial disaster. Sold only one painting, and that to the sister of a friend. We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died, you could have sold his entire body of work and got about enough money to buy a sofa. And a couple of chairs." After a few members of the group had laughed once more, he said to them, "If you– If you follow me now..."
While a couple of kids walked past where Amy and the Doctor were standing, the Doctor looked around himself with furrowed eyebrows when he saw that Annabelle wasn't standing beside him anymore.
It wasn't until he was about to try and find Annabelle for himself and find out just where she'd gone off to that Amy grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over towards one of Vincent van Gogh's paintings as she said, "There it is, the actual one."
In turn, the Doctor said to her, "Yes. You can almost feel his hand painting it right in front of you. Carving the colors into shapes." Then he leaned his face closer towards the painting as he said, "Wait a minute."
With a slight turn of her head, Amy said, "What?"
With a point of his finger at one particular part of the painting, he said to her, "Well, just look at that."
Once more, Amy said, "What?"
The Doctor told her, "Something not very good indeed."
Amy asked him, "What thing not very good?"
With another point of his finger, the Doctor said, "Look there, in the window of the church."
After leaning her own head forward, Amy asked him, "Is it a face?"
The Doctor replied, "Yes. And not a nice face at all. I know evil when I see it, and I see it in that window."
Then he started to quickly make his way over towards the man in the bowtie, who said to the group, "It has changed hands for something in the region of 20..."
It was then that the Doctor said to the group of people, "Excuse me. If I can just interrupt for one second. Sorry, everyone." As he showed his psychic paper to the group and the man wearing a bowtie, he said, "Routine inspection, Ministry of Art and Artiness."
Then he turned to the man wearing the bowtie and said to him, "So, um..."
In turn, the man said to him, "Dr. Black."
With a wave of his hand, the Doctor said to him, "Yes, that's right. Do you actually know when that picture of the church was painted?"
With a nod of his head, Dr. Black replied, "Ah, well, ah, what an interesting question. Most people have..."
The Doctor said to him, "I'm going to have to hurry you. When was it?"
Dr. Black asked him, "Exactly?"
The Doctor said to him, "As exactly as you can. Without a long speech, if poss. I'm in a hurry."
With a shake of his head, Dr. Black told him, "Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June."
The Doctor asked him, "What year?"
Dr. Black replied, "1890. Less than a year before... Before he killed himself."
After repeatedly nodding his head, the Doctor said to him, "Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed. Nice bowtie." While Dr. Black had only nodded his head, the Doctor turned to Amy as he said, "Bowties are cool."
With a raise of one of his hands, Dr. Black said to him, "Yours is very..."
In turn, the Doctor said to him, "Thank you. Keep telling them stuff." Then he started to walk past Amy as he said, "We need to go."
While the Doctor started to drag her along with him, Amy asked him, "What about the other pictures?"
The Doctor told her, "Art can wait. This is life and death. We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh."
After being shoved out of the gallery by the Doctor, Amy asked him, "And what about Annabelle? You can't seriously tell me that we're going to be leaving her here on her own!"
As he started to lead Amy back over towards the TARDIS, he replied, "She'll be fine." While Amy started to insist that they find Annabelle before they go back in time to meet Vincent Van Gogh, he said, "Besides, she's Annabelle and she hasn't gone on a murder spree since about a week or two before I picked her up in the TARDIS. What's the worst that can happen?"
And while the Doctor continued to hurriedly take Amy to the TARDIS, Annabelle took it upon herself to go and visit the one part of the place in France that she hadn't personally been to in one-thousand and eight years of her life.
And that place just so happened to be in the southern part of France, where she met the first person outside of her family that she could consider to be a good friend of hers after she was made into a vampire by her parents.
And even though it had been one-thousand and eight years since she'd last seen her good friend Lucien Castle, a part of her couldn't help but hope that he was alive and hadn't been killed by her father– like she'd spent centuries fearing that he had been because of his refusal to leave France with her after he, Tristan and Aurora were each made into vampires by Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah.
* * *
Southern France, 1002 AD
While making his way past Klaus, Kol patted his half-brother's shoulder as he asked, "Who's ready for the next course?"
With a shake of his head, Finn told them, "Aside from Annabelle, you're all filthy gluttons."
Kol replied, "And you remain ever the dullard."
As she ran her fingers over the clothing that the women that they had just killed were wearing, Rebekah said, "Such pretty clothes." After straightening her back, she said, "What a shame they'll go to waste."
Then she turned to Annabelle and asked her, "Isn't that right, sister?"
With a sigh, Klaus said to Rebekah, "Just leave her be, Rebekah. You know as well as I that Annabelle hasn't spoken a word in nearly a year. Constantly poking at her like this won't get her to suddenly break her own vow of silence."
While Kol quickly looked over at Rebekah with narrowed eyes, Elijah said, "Rebekah, we have discussed this—"
In turn, Rebekah said to him, "No, you've discussed this. None of us had any say in the matter. This lot were traveling somewhere, their cart is full of silks and finery. Six of them, six of us. Wherever they were off to, why can we not simply go in their stead?"
Then Elijah said, "Masquerade as nobles from a land we do not know, whose customs we cannot begin to understand. Ridiculous."
Rebekah replied, "You saw the castle down the road, it was practically a gala. This bunch were headed there the—" As she gestured towards the bodies, she said, "Look at them, they're not any better than we are. We could live as they do, at least, for a time. Think of it. Elijah, we could hide in plain sight. We could live ordinary lives—"
It was then that Elijah said to her, "Silence."
It wasn't long afterwards that the sound of a rapid heartbeat could be heard from only a mere couple of feet away from where they were all standing, which got Elijah to turn his attention over towards the cart.
With an arm looped around one of Kol's own arms, Annabelle slowly walked beside her twin brother, while Elijah stopped in front of the cart before he quickly tossed a piece of linen aside to reveal that a man with dark hair was staring at Elijah with wide eyes.
With her own rather wide eyes, Annabelle silently watched as the man quickly got out of the cart and started to try and run away from them, only to stop when Rebekah had suddenly appeared only a mere couple of feet in front of him.
This alone had the man eye the six siblings with wide eyes.
And while the man brought his attention back over towards Rebekah, Rebekah said to him, "Well, aren't you a handsome one."
In turn, Kol said to Rebekah, "He looks like dessert to me."
After looking between the three siblings– one of whom was simply eyeing the man with her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows furrowed– the man yelled, "Wait, wait, wait! I can help you. Now, I am– I am the personal servant to the Count de Martel. Of the very estate you just mentioned. I-I was sent to escort these guests to his home for a lengthy stay. I know their customs as-as well as the Count's habits. If you mean to pose as the family you have slaughtered here then you'll need my help to carry out your ruse."
After looking around at each of her siblings, Rebekah asked, "Please, can we keep him?"
Elijah replied, "Rebekah, no. What is our most important rule?"
With a sigh, Rebekah– followed shortly by her siblings, excluding Annabelle– said, "Never leave alive someone who has seen what we are."
Then Elijah said, "Thank you very much. A practice that has served us very well indeed."
Just as Elijah went to walk towards the man, Finn quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and told him, "She has a point. He may be of use."
From where he stood beside Annabelle, Kol said, "Ah, a proper family squabble."
While the man silently looked between the Mikaelson twins with wide eyes, Klaus said to them, "Perhaps we should put it to a vote. All those in favor of letting him live?"
The first to raise their hand was Rebekah, followed shortly by Finn.
Then Finn and Rebekah quickly turned their heads to give Annabelle a pointed look, only to stop when they saw the way that Kol was staring at them.
Then Kol took it upon himself to pull Annabelle even closer to himself before he asked, "Those inclined to gut him?"
The only two that raised their hands were Kol and Elijah.
Annabelle simply refused to vote on the matter, since she only truly cared about finding out who had murdered her husband and children.
Before saying anything more on the matter, Kol looked over at Annabelle, who hadn't voted on the matter.
And due to the fact that he wasn't one to try and force her hand on the matter, Kol simply let out a sigh before he turned to Klaus and said to him, "Well, Nik. What shall it be?"
* * *
With narrowed eyes, Annabelle was walking through the city of Marseille with narrowed eyes and continuously eyed each of the humans that she walked past, while she waited for the Doctor and Amy to return from wherever it is that they'd gone off to.
And as she walked through the city, she was constantly being torn between giving into the urge of tearing into the necks of every single human that she walked past or actually allowing herself the chance to willingly fall asleep for the first time since about two weeks prior to her being picked up in the TARDIS by the Doctor.
There was a part of her that knew that she should fall asleep because of her lacking knowledge about how such a long time without sleep would affect an Original vampire such as herself, but a much larger part of herself was refusing to do that because of the deeply ingrained fear that she had about anything that had to do with the Master and the torture that he could inflict upon her in her dreams.
Although she knew that he couldn't actually physically hurt her, she still found her fear of him in her dreams to be just as strong as the fear that she felt towards him the last time that she saw him around Christmas of last year.
And this fact alone was yet another reason why she wanted to see Kol again.
Because she believed that if she could see Kol with the dagger back out of his heart, he could calm her down and reassure her that the Master couldn't hurt her anymore, despite him not even knowing who the Master was to begin with.
Granted, he would be quite angry on the matter when she would tell him about what the Master did to her before he disappeared the way that he did and had more than likely died with the other members of the Doctor's species, but she knew that he would be there when she needed him to be.
But the longer she went without sleep and without seeing Kol, the angrier she seemed to find herself becoming, which also made her wonder just how much longer she had until she either snapped and went on another murder spree or ended up killing the Doctor and Amy Pond in a single fit of rage.
And since the Doctor was the only one that could get her back to where he'd picked her up from and let her continue to visit Kol whenever she could and whenever she knew that Klaus was away from Kol's daggered body and doing whatever it was that he had been spending his time doing with another vampire of all things– one that was apparently known as the Ripper of Monterey– the last thing that she needed was to kill the only person that could take her back there.
And it was because of this fact that was starting to annoy her every single time the mere thought of it had passed through her mind that she was about to hurriedly go after a random young woman and make her into her next victim that she was suddenly forced to a halt when she felt someone quickly grab onto her arm and then ended up finding herself on a completely different street.
And upon finding herself on a completely different street, Annabelle twisted the wrist of the person that grabbed her and then grabbed them at the front of their neck.
Then she proceeded to throw them into a wall before she sped towards the person and had shoved her hand into their chest.
It wasn't until after she'd grabbed the person's heart that she heard the person let out a bit of a laugh before she heard a male voice ask, "Well, isn't this a sight? Annabelle Mikaelson holding my heart in her hand. Quite literally, I might add." When Annabelle only slightly tilted her head in response to the voice, the voice said to her, "But, you know, if you really wanted my heart, you could have asked nicely, instead of going out of your way to forcefully take it."
It was then that Annabelle quickly raised her head with a scowl on her face, only for the scowl to disappear and her eyebrows to furrow when she saw just who exactly the man was that was standing in front of her.
When she still didn't say anything more on the matter, he only let out a sigh before he said, "Oh, Annabelle, I know that it's been quite a long time since we last saw one another, but I would think that the mere sight of me wouldn't be enough to make you rather speechless." When she still didn't say anything on the matter, he only let out a sigh before he asked her, "Well, since you are quite speechless on the matter, would you mind letting go of my heart before I find myself dead at your hands?"
It wasn't long after he'd asked that question that Annabelle quickly looked down at his clothed chest and could see that she still had her hand shoved into his chest, which got her to let go of his heart and pull her hand out of his chest before she repeatedly blinked to herself as she stared down at her bloodied hand.
Then– after staring at her hand for several seconds– she looked back up at him and asked him, "Lucien, how are you even alive?"
In turn, he asked her, "How do you think that I'm alive?"
With a scoff, she replied, "How the bloody hell should I know? The last time that I saw you, you said that our friendship was nothing more than a mistake and that you wanted nothing more to do with me." While Lucien only let out a sigh in response to her words, she said to him, "So go on, then. Tell me just how the hell you survived my father and hadn't been killed by him already."
With a sigh and a mere raise of his eyebrows, he said, "Where to start?"
With a mere tilt of her head, Annabelle told him, "I think the beginning of it all– after going out of your way to tell me that our friendship was a mistake– would be nice before I do to you what I should have done then and kill you for what you said."
As he took a step away from the wall and wiped some dust off of his coat, he said to her, "Well, to start things off, Annabelle, that wasn't me who said it."
With a mere raise of her eyebrows, Annabelle replied, "Oh, no?" When he only stared down at her, she asked him, "Do you mean to tell me that there is another person running around the planet who just so happens to share the same face and name as you that had told me that, or are you perhaps suggesting that I was quite out of my mind at the time and had simply imagined the entire thing?"
In turn, Lucien said to her, "Neither. As it turns out, your darling brother Elijah had compelled me into saying all of that and also compelled me into spending an entire century running from your father and thinking that I was Klaus, whilst Aurora was made to think that she was Rebekah and Tristan was made to think that he was Elijah."
After silently eyeing him, she asked him, "Why would he do that?"
With a sigh, he said to her, "Well, as fun as it would be explaining to you in excruciating detail of everything that has happened from the moment that he chose to compel me into thinking that I was Klaus and forcing me to run from your father for an entire century, I do believe that it would be far better for you to ask him yourself and find out from him just why he chose to compel your dearest friend into betraying you like that." As he took a step towards her, he said to her, "Believe me, Annabelle Mikaelson, when I say that I would never say that to you. After all, why would I? You were the only member of your family that was truly and genuinely kind to me before everything that happened then."
In response to his words, Annabelle only repeatedly blinked to herself and silently gulped to herself before she turned away from him– leaving Lucien to only tilt his head and watch as Annabelle took several steps away from him and towards another part of the street that they were on.
And while Annabelle continued to walk away from him, Lucien watched as she clenched her hands into fists and some blood started to leak out of her hands from just how deeply she had dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands.
After silently staring at her hands with his eyes slightly narrowed and his head still tilted to the side, Lucien looked up from her hands and back up at Annabelle's face when she turned around to face him once more before she asked him, "What are you doing here in France, Lucien? After what happened the last time the both of us were here in France, I would have thought you wouldn't want to come back here."
As he slowly made his way over towards her, he replied, "You know, I could ask the same thing about you. I mean, you haven't been here in France– the same as me– in over a thousand years. So, why now?"
She said to him, "Well, I'm not here with my brothers, if that's what you were wondering."
In turn, he said to her, "Yes, obviously. It isn't exactly difficult to see that you're away from your brothers and haven't seen any one of them in quite a long time."
With a mere raise of her head, she said to him, "Yes. I'll admit that I haven't actually seen any one of them in quite a while." It wasn't until Lucien had come to a halt in front of her that she said, "Excluding Klaus, whose neck I had snapped just three years ago when I was in London before shoving him into a safe and burying him and the safe at least twelve feet into the ground."
In response to her words, Lucien only let out a chuckle before he said to her, "Honestly, I didn't think that you would have it in you to snap his neck after how I saw you be with him the last time that I saw you and your family."
With a sigh, she replied, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time that I'd snapped his neck– just as I'm sure that it won't be the last time."
In turn, Lucien said to her, "Hmm." Then– after watching her walk past him yet again and evade the hand that had tried to grab onto her– he asked her, "Why are you really here in Marseille?"
When she didn't respond to his question, he said to her, "Don't tell me that you were feeling nostalgic on the matter and came here for the sake of the good times that you had before your brother had ruined my life?"
With a scoff, she said to him, "Of course not." After turning around to look back at him and seeing him raise an eyebrow at her, she told him, "I've been spending some time traveling with an old friend of mine and his new friend."
With a mere raise of one of his eyebrows, he said, "Oh, his friend?"
After letting out yet another scoff, she told him, "It's nothing like that. Besides, he isn't exactly the type of person that I would find myself interested in, anyway."
In response to her words, Lucien only lowered his head with a bit of a smirk on his face and let out a bit of a chuckle in the process.
And while Lucien was feeling far too amused on the matter and felt something else that Annabelle couldn't quite honestly find it within herself to even care to decipher, Annabelle felt her anger start to quickly build up inside of her once more as the effects of her lack of sleep worsened with each moment that she continued to talk to Lucien.
And in response to this anger that she was feeling, she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw as her fingernails had dug even further into the palms of her hands.
It wasn't long after she'd done that that she felt a pair of hands grab onto her hands and carefully open them, which got her to quickly open her eyes and find herself staring into the hazel eyes of her old friend and someone that she had once had feelings for a long time ago– Lucien Castle.
She could see a certain look on his face– something that she hadn't seen before in the time that she knew him before he was apparently compelled by Elijah into thinking that he was Klaus for an entire century.
But before she could even think of trying to decipher the look that he had on his face, she looked past him and saw– what looked like– the Master waving at her with a grin on his face and then proceeding to let out the same laugh that would haunt her in her dreams.
And as a result of hallucinating the Master yet again, Annabelle squeezed her eyes shut and her veins had almost immediately come onto display, which got Lucien to say to her, "You're different now. You're not just angry– just as I've heard about you over the past few centuries– but it seems as if something's bothering you."
In turn, Annabelle said to him, "Not now, Lucien."
After choosing to ignore her words, he asked her, "What is it?"
Annabelle replied, "I said, not now."
It wasn't until she'd opened her eyes once more that Lucien could see a rather murderous look on her face as she stared up at him with that same scowl from before back onto her face.
As he eyed her, he said, "Surely this isn't a direct result from the many times that you've been daggered by your brothers." After seeing her face fall for only a second and then see the scowl simply reappear on her face, he said, "It isn't. This is because of something else."
Then– for the second time– he asked her, "What is it?"
In turn, Annabelle asked him, "What part of 'not now' is your brain just completely incapable of understanding?" When he only continued to eye her, she ripped her hands out of his grasp and said to him, "When I say 'not now' that is exactly what I mean. So, why don't you just piss off and go and find someone else to bother?"
As he shoved his hands into his pockets, Lucien said to her, "Fine, I'll drop it." When she started to let out a sigh in response to his words, he told her, "But only under one condition."
After only blinking at him, she asked him, "What's the condition?"
Lucien said to her, "The only thing that I need you to do is answer me just one question, and then I'll drop the matter entirely."
After silently eyeing him for a moment, she asked him, "And what sort of a question would that be?"
After slightly raising his head, he asked her, "Does the reason that you are the way that you are now coincide with the events that took place after Christmas last year when we all saw that one planet hanging above our heads?" After seeing her veins come onto display once more, he said, "So, it does have something to do with that, then. The only question that remains is just how that one particular event could possibly get you to become the person that you are now."
After watching Annabelle turn her back on him and start to walk away from him, he asked her, "And where do you think that you're going?"
Without even bothering to turn back to look at him, she said, "I need to kill someone until my friend and his precious little human returns from wherever it is that they've gone off to."
After only eyeing her for a moment, Lucien sped over towards her before he asked her, "Would you like some company, while you're going around and killing everyone that you see?"
With a sigh, she said to him, "Very well, but don't make me angry, or I swear that I might end up killing you, too."
As he pressed a hand against his own chest, he said to her, "Oh, I would never do such a thing, Annabelle. I promise."
In response to his words, Annabelle only quickened her pace, while trying to ignore the urge that she felt to laugh upon seeing the look that he had on his face when he had said those words to her.
* * *
Court of Marseille, 1002 AD
With a sigh, Kol said to her, "Annabelle, for one whole year ever since Atticus and your two children were killed, you had refused to talk. You didn't talk to Nik, Rebekah, Elijah, Finn or even me for that matter. What I'm failing to understand is just why you chose to talk to him of all people when I was waiting for you to say something to me for a year."
In a whisper, Annabelle said to him, "I don't know."
Kol asked her, "How could you not know? I mean, we had only been here for a few days and you chose to talk to him of all people. A mere human and a servant to the Count de Martel. I would just like to know why. What is it about him that is so special that you chose to talk to him over your own family?"
After gulping to herself, she replied, "I don't know why I did. I just did." When Kol only sighed in response to her words, she said to him, "If I knew the answer to your question, I would have told you it already. I swear to you, Kol."
After sighing to himself, he said to her, "You don't have to tell me anything. I can see for myself just why you've chosen to talk to him over me, your twin brother."
Annabelle asked him, "And what reason would that be, Kol?"
After grabbing her by the arm and forcibly turning her around, he told her, "You like him."
With her eyebrows furrowed, she said, "What? No. I hardly even know him. Why the hell would I even like him?"
Kol said to her, "Perhaps it's because I heard what you said to him the night that you chose to talk to him. The night where you thanked him for his kindness and said that– before our encounter with him– you had yet to meet a man that had been as kind to you as he was. And then there's the matter that you had told him not to worry about me and that you wouldn't let me hurt him." When she didn't respond to his words, he asked her, "What about Atticus? He treated you kindly before he was killed just last year. Do you mean to tell me that he didn't treat you as kindly as I thought that he had?"
With a sigh, she told him, "Kol, he has been dead for a year and you know how I feel when you talk to me about him. It makes me sad and really, really angry." When he didn't respond to her words and only stared down at her, she said to him, "I-I don't know why I chose to talk to him. He just seemed different, compared to the man that we've met after Mother had seen to it that we were made this way. He's kind, and his kindness takes my mind off of the overwhelming grief that I feel because of their deaths. Is it wrong for me to want to talk to someone that isn't family and that it's someone that doesn't pity me and look at me as if I'm some fragile doll that will crack at any given moment?"
With a sigh, he said to her, "Annabelle, you are not a fragile doll, and you aren't going to crack."
She replied, "You might think so, but our brothers and sister think otherwise. You don't see the way that they look at me. They look at me as if they are waiting for me to crack or snap at any given moment, which is exactly why I refused to talk for an entire year. I don't like the way that they look at me, or the way that they treat me as if I'm someone that can't take care of themselves. And, yes, I know that I had spent eight years being repeatedly hurt by our parents, but there's a part of me that feels as if they've forgotten just how capable I am of defending myself when it truly comes down to it. They've seen me defend myself in the past, so I don't understand why they treat me this way."
He told her, "Annabelle, they treat you the way that they do because you've never had someone that was so important to you to be killed in the way that they were. They're only worried about you." Then– with a tilt of his head– he said to her, "I mean, sure, they could do without acting like you're a mere doll or a piece of glass that they could break if they do or say the wrong thing, but the point of this is that they're worried. They've seen how you were during all the years that Mother and Father had hurt you, and they're concerned that what happened to them will get you to, well, snap."
After a couple seconds of silence, Annabelle asked him, "Have you really thought that I like him?"
With a mere raise of his eyebrows, Kol replied, "Well, it's hard not to think that you like that stable boy. After all, with the way that you've been looking at him, it's a surprise that you haven't tried to do something with him quite yet."
With a shake of her head, she said to him, "I'm not– I-I don't—"
After chuckling to himself, he started to lightly rub her back as he said to her, "Don't worry, sister. I'll make certain that none of the others find out about this. Because we both know that if they ever found out, they would use this against you for sure and tease you for falling for a human."
With her eyebrows furrowed, she said, "I-I haven't—"
It wasn't long after she'd started to say those words that a knock was heard on the door before both Annabelle and Kol heard a voice ask through the closed door, "Lady Annabelle, are you decent?"
After seeing the way that Kol was looking at her, Annabelle quickly gave Kol a pointed look before she said, "Yes, I am decent."
Then the door opened, revealing Lucien Castle– the very servant that had tricked the Count de Martel into letting them stay in his home.
After watching Lucien take a step into the room, she asked him, "Is there something that you need, Lucien?"
For a couple of seconds, Lucien said nothing and only looked between the Mikaelson twins.
From what he could see, Annabelle was quite close with Kol and Kol was just as protective of her as Annabelle had once told him that Kol was.
It wasn't until he saw Kol raise an eyebrow at him that Lucien said, "Right. My apologies. I just came to ask if you were available for taking a stroll on the grounds."
Then, with an eyebrow raised, Kol turned to Annabelle, who gave him another pointed look– one that Lucien didn't miss.
Lucien chose not to comment on the apparent conversation that the twins had with one another in just the look that they had given one another, shortly before Annabelle turned to Lucien and said to him, "Very well. Just give me a moment and allow me to say a few words with my brother, and I will be out shortly. I promise."
Lucien only nodded his head and left the room before he closed the door behind himself.
But instead of walking away from the room like he normally would have, Lucien stayed outside of it and carefully listened through the door and heard Kol ask Annabelle, "What was that about?"
In turn, Annabelle asked him, "What are you talking about?"
Kol replied, "You know what I'm talking about, Annabelle. Now you're off taking a stroll with him." After a couple seconds of silence, Kol said to her with a sigh, "You are far too trusting, sister."
Annabelle said to him, "No, I'm not. I'm just trying to get familiar with the very grounds that Lucien had helped us to stay on for the time being. That's all."
Kol asked her, "Are you sure that's all it is, Annabelle?"
With a chuckle, Annabelle said to him, "Yes, Kol, I am absolutely certain that is the only case." After a couple more seconds of silence, she said to him, "Calm down, little brother. You have nothing to worry about. Nothing will happen to me, and he has yet to find out where we are. So we're safe, so long as you keep control of yourself and your hunger."
With a scoff, Kol said, "Little brother? I'm not even that much younger than you."
With a laugh, Annabelle replied, "I'm fairly certain that still makes you the little brother, and me the big sister, Kol."
It wasn't until he'd heard approaching footsteps that Lucien quickly tried to move as quietly as he could away from the door and over towards where he would be patiently waiting for Annabelle to show up in order for him to show her the grounds on which she and her siblings were living.
* * *
With his head tilted to the side, Lucien silently watched as Annabelle tore into the necks of however many humans that were unfortunate enough to cross paths with her– or even the ones that had walked into Lucien, who would simply hand them over to Annabelle with the promise of letting her kill as many humans as she wanted because of just how visibly angry she still was about whatever it is that got her to become the person that he could see standing in front of him now.
Compared to the Annabelle that he saw over a thousand years ago, this one was willing to kill anyone and everyone that she crossed paths with, no matter who they were– not to mention the fact that she was actually quite angry, too.
He couldn't remember ever seeing her be angry with someone– save Tristan de Martel, who she considered to be an imbecile and she had done nothing but hate ever since the moment that she was unfortunate to meet him only a day after her family's arrival in the estate that Tristan and his own family lived on.
What he could remember, though, was the pure amusement that he felt because of the many times that– while he was still human– Annabelle had told him about just how much she hated Tristan and would rather have her father kill her than to ever feel anything past hatred for Tristan.
And although he was quite curious to see how she would react upon seeing Tristan for herself and just how much more irritating he might have become in Annabelle's own opinion, he was far more curious about what could have happened to her during Christmas that got her to be barely capable of controlling her own anger and to mercilessly kill others far more brutal than she had prior to the events that took place during Christmas.
Granted, he did remember the fact that many of the humans that he'd crossed paths with at the time shared the same exact face as one man for reasons completely unknown to him, but he had a feeling that Annabelle knew more about that day than she was willing to let him believe.
And this only made him that much more curious to know what had happened to her during that time and how bad it had to have been to get her to become like this.
For nearly nine-hundred years of his life, he had been busy with many things– including and not limited to the business that he'd made up for himself.
But one of the things that he was truly busy with was tracking Annabelle's every move, including the part where– shortly after the news of an entire hospital seemingly disappearing and then reappearing out of nowhere from London of all places and one of the humans in the hospital was going on about how they'd been taken to the moon of all places– she had seemingly disappeared and wasn't seen for two whole years.
And that was up until after the events that took place over Christmas, and he was given word about how she had gone back to killing however many people that she wanted.
The only difference this time, though, between that time after Christmas and the period of time that she had prior to her two-year hiatus was the fact that she was far angrier and a lot more violent than she was before her two-year hiatus– not to mention the fact that she appeared to become quite violent when he'd grabbed onto her arm and the same thing had happened when he'd grabbed her hands.
This alone made him that much more curious on the matter, but Lucien knew better than to question her about it.
Because the Annabelle Mikaelson that stood in front of him wasn't the same Annabelle that he knew when he was human.
Although she still seemed to be quite trusting towards him, she was a lot more temperamental now and much quicker to her anger and the last thing that he needed was for her to kill him in a fit of rage– no matter the apparent calming effect that he had on her.
Albeit his calming effect on her was nowhere close to the calming effect that Kol had on her, but it was still a calming effect nonetheless and it showed him that she still cared about him– perhaps just as much as she did before he was compelled into thinking that he was Klaus for over a hundred years of his life.
The only question, though, that remained for him was if this care that she had for him would be enough to keep her from killing him, if he ever tried to grab her arm or even her hand for that matter.
After only shaking his head to himself with a sigh, he thought back onto Annabelle's previous words about the male friend of hers and the human that she was apparently traveling with.
She said that she wasn't particularly interested in her male friend in a romantic sort of way, which was understandable after what had apparently happened the last time that she'd romantically involved herself with someone.
Regardless of her romantic or platonic interest in that male friend of hers, Lucien was far more interested in knowing if he could get the male friend into telling him just what got Annabelle to become like this once the male friend and that human that he was traveling with got back from wherever it is that they'd gone off to.
After tilting his head just a bit more to the side, Lucien couldn't help but find it odd how unsurprised and unbothered Annabelle was by the fact that her male friend had taken the human with him to go somewhere else.
It would mean that she had grown used to this sort of thing, which could also mean that this male friend was behind her two-year hiatus and why he couldn't find any traces of her during the years 2007 and 2009 up until after the events that had taken place during Christmas of last year and headless bodies were found piled up in whatever towns and cities that Annabelle had gone through in an attempt to make up for whatever it was that had happened to her.
And the more that Annabelle chose to be secretive about her friend and the true cause of the events that took place last Christmas only made him that much more curious that Lucien had become on the matter.
And as far as he was concerned, anything that had to do with Annabelle Mikaelson was worth checking out, which was why he'd taken out his phone and sent a single text of instructions to one of his– he supposed he could say– allies before he shoved his phone back into his coat, just in time to see Annabelle drop the now headless body of her victim before lunging towards another unsuspecting victim with little to no care about just how much blood was covering her because of the many humans that she'd killed in only a matter of two hours.
* * *
As he glanced up from his phone and away from the texts that one of his contacts had sent him, Lucien simply eyed Annabelle's bloodied state before he said to her, "Well, I would say that– if it was your aim to cover yourself head to toe in blood– you did a marvelous job at it."
In response to his words, Annabelle only grinned at him before she said, "It wasn't exactly what I intended on doing, but it was needed, nonetheless. It has been three years since I last felt this free and at peace about anything really." As she let out a bit of a laugh, she said, "I've honestly forgotten just how freeing and relaxing it is being able to tear into the throats of however many humans that I want without having to worry about Klaus shoving another dagger into my heart."
In turn, Lucien said to her, "Yes, I can tell with the way that you're staring at me right now." While Annabelle stared down at her blood-soaked clothes, Lucien took a step towards her as he asked her, "When exactly was the last time that you've been free to do this sort of thing, anyway?"
With a mere tilt of her head, she said, "I'd say that it was about three years ago, just before I stepped into that hospital."
With a mere raise of one of his eyebrows, he asked her, "Do you mean the one that was apparently taken up to the moon?" When she only nodded her head, he asked her, "Do you mean to tell me that the hospital was actually taken up to the moon?"
With a nod of her head, she replied, "It was, and there were these Judoon– according to the Doctor, they are some sort of a police-for-hire sort of thing for out in space– and they were looking for some alien and they almost shot me with that weapon of theirs, but then they ended up killing an innocent human after I stepped out of the way. So, unfortunately for the human, he simply disappeared in the exact same spot where he was shot."
With a shake of his head, he asked her, "Who's the Doctor?"
With a sigh, she said to him, "It's a long story and something that I would rather not get into right now." After Lucien had only blinked to himself in response to her words, she asked him, "Exactly how much blood would you say is in my hair right now?"
In response to her words, Lucien only smirked to himself as he silently eyed her and saw just how much blood was truly covering her.
If it weren't for the fact that he was trying to get an answer out of her about just who this Doctor was, he would be certainly enjoying the fact of just how care-free she seemed to be with all of that blood covering her.
Granted, it was apparently normal for her to have this much blood covering her because of the humans that she'd killed for over eight-hundred years now, but she actually seemed to be at peace and enjoying herself– and that was something that he understood had to have been the first time in centuries since before she was forcibly made into a vampire and still had that husband of hers that she'd told him about.
However, whatever serenity that she felt had almost immediately disappeared when her phone rang and she saw just who was calling her.
With a mere raise of one of his eyebrows, Lucien watched as Annabelle let out a sigh before she asked into the phone, "What is it, Amelia?"
Then he heard an unfamiliar voice ask, "Hey, where are you? The Doctor and I just got back from dropping Vincent off in his time, and you're not here at the museum."
While Lucien raised his eyebrow that much higher in response to hearing the mention of the Doctor, Annabelle said, "As it just so happens, Amelia, I am currently having a drink with an old friend of mine."
Then Amelia asked her, "When you say you're out drinking with a friend, do you mean at a pub or are you, you know, doing your version of drinking with a friend?"
In response to Amelia's question, Annabelle only smirked to herself before she said, "You can tell the Doctor that I will return to the TARDIS when I've finished cleaning myself up and not before then. The last thing that I need is for him to come and get me back to the TARDIS, whilst I'm cleaning myself. And you can also tell him that he doesn't have a choice in the matter. Either he respects my choice of cleaning myself up without lecturing me because of his belief that I can do better than to go out of my way and kill however many humans that I want or take me back to where he picked me up and then we can go our separate ways. Because although he and I haven't directly spoken to one another since our trip to Italy, I can still hear him ranting to himself about how he believes that I can do so much better and be so much better when I'm not going around and killing however many humans that I please."
Then Amelia said, "Doctor?"
Then Lucien heard– who he assumed to be the Doctor– let out a sigh before he said, "Very well. I'll just be, uh, waiting here, then. In the TARDIS. And not wondering just who this friend is and why this friend is taking Annabelle around France and letting her kill whoever she wants."
Lucien couldn't help but smirk to himself when he saw just how annoyed Annabelle seemed to be with this Doctor before she said, "Well, Amelia, if he's quite finished with acting like a child that has been scolded for something and is currently feeling guilty about it, I'm going to end this call and get myself cleaned up."
Then she ended the call and only eyed the blood that was now on it before she shrugged to herself and then turned to Lucien, who asked her, "Who's Amelia?" When Annabelle only rolled her eyes with a sigh, he asked her, "Is she the human that this Doctor is having you travel with?"
When Annabelle only turned her back on him before she sped away from him, he said, "I'll take that as a yes."
Then he sped after her– leaving the piles of headless bodies behind with the intention of taking Annabelle to the place that he was staying at, so that she wouldn't have to travel far in order to find herself in order to wash the blood off of herself.
He would even take it upon himself to walk her to where this TARDIS was and would simply blink to himself when he saw that the TARDIS was a blue police box.
And he only had a hint of a frown on his face when he saw two people step out of the TARDIS– a human girl with red hair and a tall man that wore a bowtie and had light brown and floppy hair.
While the human girl– who Lucien was quick to assume was Amelia– was quick to lead Annabelle back inside of the TARDIS and tell her about her meeting Vincent van Gogh, the man that remained behind only sighed to himself when Annabelle didn't even bat an eye in her direction.
From what he could tell, this man was the one that Annabelle and Amelia called the Doctor.
And from what he could see, the Doctor was quite disappointed that Annabelle was still ignoring him.
However, all signs of disappointment had quickly disappeared from his face when he saw that Lucien was looking at him.
The Doctor asked him, "Oh, are you Annabelle's friend?" When Lucien only nodded his head, the Doctor said, "I'm the Doctor, and that was my good friend Amy that you just saw. What's your name?"
With a mere raise of his head, Lucien said to him, "Lucien."
In turn, the Doctor said to him, "Oh. Well, she told me about you once. She thought that you were dead."
Lucien replied, "Well, I'm not." Then– after he'd sped over towards the Doctor– slightly raised his head before he asked, "What can you tell me about what's gotten Annabelle like this?"
The Doctor asked him, "Oh, she hasn't told you?" When Lucien only shook his head, the Doctor said to him, "Then, Lucien, I'm afraid that it isn't exactly my place to tell you what exactly it is that got her– as you so kindly said– like this."
When Lucien only tilted his head at the Doctor, the Doctor said to him, "But, hey, don't take it personally. She doesn't go around telling everyone every little thing about herself. And outside of myself and her twin brother, there is not one single person that she would ever tell about her problems." After going out of his way to pat Lucien's arm, he said, "But don't feel too bad. She still might tell you about it one day. As her friend, the only thing that you can do is give her the chance and opportunity to tell you about it and not just force it out of her because believe me when I say that forcing answers out of Annabelle before she's ready to tell you about something herself is not at all the smart thing to do– no matter just how close you think that you might be to her."
In response to the Doctor's words, Lucien had only tilted his head just a bit more to the side, just before the Doctor had quickly run back into the TARDIS after saying a brief goodbye to Lucien– despite not even knowing him prior to that moment.
It wasn't long afterwards that Lucien found himself frowning when the TARDIS started to slowly disappear in front of him before it had disappeared entirely, and both the TARDIS and Annabelle were nowhere to be seen– nor was there any sign left behind to show that any of them or even the TARDIS for that matter were even there to begin with.