(untold tale)
A nagging feeling surrounded Margot's mind, clouding her every thought with every second. She couldn't think, breathe or feel anything. It was as if she was just existing but not truly living.
She had felt this before; a flurry of senses and feelings powered by years of abandonment and repressed tears. She knew now that it was her family causing her this pain. Only Samuel would know how to truly kill her from the inside out.
Her years spent in the Orion basement allowed him to see what made her brain tick. He knew her weaknesses and her strengths. Her thought process and how she sometimes acted without thinking of the consequences – something that became obvious by her going to dinner with the man that was planning to kill her best friend only hours later.
Margot's entire relationship with Klaus probably seemed like one made on impulse and rash decisions; at least to Samuel it probably did. Not that the woman cared. Since Stefan took her in, she began to not care about what the older man thought of her.
Still, some thoughts remained. That was a given though. You can never truly escape your demons, no matter how hard you try they will never fully leave you.
It seemed now, as she was stood alone in the Salvatore boarding house's kitchen, that he had made some sort of connection between his and her minds. After three consecutive nightmares all in the same night, Klaus had thought it best for her to spend time with Stefan and Kai.
Stefan had given Kai permission to stay in the boarding house not long after he escaped the prison world. Damon wasn't fond of the idea and new presence but one glare sent by Margot gave him second thoughts. It wouldn't be so bad living with a sociopath.
With the convincing of all four Mikaelsons and the promise of them taking care of the twins, Margot agreed to stay in the boarding house for a few days. She didn't like the idea of leaving them but she knew she wasn't in the proper headspace to care for two newborns.
It was obvious that the twins quickly noticed the loss of their mother and had been tearful ever since the realization. Sure they loved Klaus, but Margot was their mother and they needed her more than anything.
Knowing this, Margot thought it was best for her to go back home later that day.
Stefan, Kai and Damon had all been out at the time under the orders of Margot who had forced them out of the house to retrieve baking supplies. That was the one thing that hadn't changed in Margot's life since having the twins. Her baking was always consistent – it needed to be due to Kol's incessant need for freshly baked treats every day.
Turns out, after Margot moved out, the remaining Salvatores had chosen to stop going grocery shopping altogether and moved all their blood bags to the main fridge. An act that immediately made Margot cringe, sure she was a vampire too but she didn't feel the need to put it out on display.
The nightmares nor the voice had stopped during her short visit with Stefan and Kai. Not like they had hoped it would. If anything they had been amplified. What once stayed in her dreams now stayed throughout the day.
Her mind was plagued by sights of her childhood, memories of her father berating and beating her, of the times when she was forced to bleed out on the concrete floor, the red substance floating around her body, once warm only to go cold, as she stared up at the ceiling wishing for nothing more than to see the sky one last time before death took her in its fiery arms.
She lived through her father once, though. She could do it again. Or at least that's what she told herself.
The voices were getting louder with every minute that passed. She could hardly stir the dry ingredients for the cupcakes she was making as the sounds of "Midnight Witch" penetrated her every sense.
She stopped her movements to hold onto the countertop as she leaned down to press her forehead against the cool marble. A lone tear slipped from the corner of her eye as the pain became unbearable.
Her hand came up to grasp her neck as it felt like the air was being pulled out from her lungs, the feeling leaving her gasping for air as she fell to the floor, slumping against the cupboards. Margot held her knees close to her chest as more tears fell from her eyes.
All she could see was the basement, the blood that covered the walls, the flickering light that hung unevenly from the ceiling and her father stalking towards her with a knife in his hand.
She closed her eyes and squeezed them shut just as the knife was about to stab through her heart only to feel nothing. Instead, she was overcome by a paralyzing rage. Every cell in her body, every blood vessel, every muscle, it was all changed in a split second.
The small blue wisps that once floated between her fingers glowed brightly in large orbs from the palms of her hands. The room was lit by a deep blue light as her power surged through her body, leaving every inch of her, but mostly coming straight out of her heart.
Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as the blue mist flowed freely from the muscle. She couldn't control it, let alone stop it. But she didn't want to. She liked the feeling of it. She embraced the feeling of it.
It wasn't until she heard the door unlock that the blue mist disappeared from the kitchen, retreating back into her palms as if she had called on them. Margot calmly stood back up, her head no longer aching and the voice no longer piercing as a small smile took place on her lips.
The sounds of Kai's maniacal laughter and Stefan's broody groans filled her ears as they walked into the kitchen with three bags of food.
"Ellie! Kid, you should've seen it! I was pushing the cart, right? And Stefan, being the boring person he is, is putting fruit and shit in the cart so I ran him over with it and he broke his leg before toppling over onto a group of mall walkers. He's getting sued now–"
Kai paused for a moment as his eyes looked across his daughter's face. "What's up with your face?"
Margot hummed as she shrugged her shoulders only for Stefan to stare at her with the same odd look.
"Yeah, what's your mouth doing?"
"Smiling?" Margot answered questioningly with a dumb look on her face as she stared at the two older men.
Kai glanced at Stefan, the men sending each other odd looks before looking back to the heretic. "Since when did your face do that?"
"23 years ago, I'd say." Margot shook her head, "Did you get the butter?"
Stefan slowly nodded at her before handing her the two bags that he was holding, both full of baking supplies and food.
She glanced at them once more before turning to the bowl of flour. "The cookies will be done soon. You may go now."
The men glanced at each other once more before reluctantly leaving. As they reached the parlour, their conflicted faces met the eyes of Damon who sat, oddly enough, crossed-legged on the couch with a bottle of bourbon pressed to his lips.
Damon glanced up from the glass bottle to meet their eyes only to roll his own before looking back to the bottle. He was still angry at the pair for Kai slapping him over the last box of double chocolate cookies.
A scowl fell on his lips when he saw Kai pull out the very same box that he had been yearning for. Stefan glanced at Kai before a sigh left his lips. "I thought I told you not to get those. You don't even like them, you said there was too much chocolate in them."
The siphoner shrugged innocently as he moved to sit adjacent to Damon. "Damon wanted them. I took them. I like them now."
"Dick," Damon muttered, causing Kai's smirk to widen in triumph.
A moment later, Stefan joined Kai on the red-lined couch before grabbing the box of cookies and placing it on the small coffee table, sending glares to both men who made attempts to grasp it. His lethal stare turned them both off of the cookies and dampened their need to eat as they stared at him.
"Are we going to talk about what just happened?" he asked, hearing Margot turn on the kitchen tap, as he took the bottle of bourbon from Damon and set it beside the abandoned box of cookies.
Kai nodded, his mind no longer clouded as a serious look found its way onto his once smirking face. "Somethings wrong. Very wrong."
The eldest Salvatore glanced at the pair in confusion. "What's wrong with her? She seemed fine this morning before we left."
"She smiled at us," Stefan and Kai answered synchronously.
A chuckle escaped Damon's lips. The glares that were sent his way caused his amused actions to come to a slow stop. "Come on. It's Margot we're talking about here. She can get through anything and this probably means that she has come to terms with her childhood. You two should be happy to see her smile."
Stefan let out a soft sigh as he rubbed his forehead. "But it's not her smile. Her smile is light, it brightens up your day, and it makes you feel safe. This one... it's not her smile. Her eyes were full of pain– anguish even."
"You're just being dramatic. Maybe you need to write in your diary a little more – try out some poetry for a change. Besides, even if she is feeling that way, which she probably isn't, it's probably because she hasn't seen her kids in three days."
Kai shrugged with a small, reluctant nod as he glanced at Stefan. "He might be right. Being here, with us, hasn't much helped her situation. We might have been wrong thinking it would clear her head being with us – maybe she should have been with her kids all along."
The middle Salvatore stared at his lap for a moment, his mind contemplating every possibility, every option, and thought that could be running through his daughter's head, only to come up with nothing. Perhaps, the suppressed trauma of years alone, years without a single gentle touch, years without hearing anything but shouts of pure anger had finally fought their way past the brick wall she had made within her mind.
Or, perhaps all it was was a feeling of loneliness, a feeling of guilt from being away from her newly born children, a kind of guilt that eats you away until you are half a shell of a human being.
Maybe it wasn't all that bad that Margot was going home, he convinced himself. Maybe it was what his daughter truly needed – to be with her new family, one that was built on pure love rather than a need or rather a yearning for safety.
Maybe she didn't need him anymore. She didn't need a father to protect her, she had a husband to do that now.
He let out a sigh, one that was filled with a hidden sense of anguish and sorrow, before sending a nod to Kai. "You're right. Margot should be with Klaus and the twins. It's what is best for her."
Inside the kitchen, Margot's hands moved gracefully underneath the tap, water pelting off her skin before falling down the drain with small bubbles of soap lining the liquid.
A smirk was set on her face, one full of only a single emotion: desire. Not a desire for love, though. It was a desire for death.
Margot Salvatore-Mikaelson was no longer herself.
Instead, she was the Midnight Witch.
Somewhere Unknown
It was cold and it was dark in the room she was being kept in. A slight draft flowed through the room, brushing against her ankles as she shivered in discontent. The air she breathed had felt like small dust particles slowly filling her lungs, some never leaving her body causing small coughs to leave her cracked lips.
In the corner of the dark room, she could see a silhouette of a man, his shoulders were broad and his eyes were pitch black as if they were staring into her soul, maybe they were.
She felt naked in his eye. She felt like he could truly see her for what she was: a monster simulating herself to be a person with a pure heart.
The man soon began to walk forward, the single light that shone unevenly and swayed from the small wires that connected it to the ceiling cast him in a low glow, revealing the harsh shadows on his face.
The woman stayed quiet though, her mouth wouldn't move, it couldn't as if it had been sewn shut. All she could do was bury herself in the corner, avoiding his lethal, death-ensuing stare as she heard his harsh, loud footsteps inch towards her with every passing second.
The dust that collected in her lungs became more prominent at that moment. She couldn't breathe but she couldn't bring herself to gasp for air. Instead, she just sat there plainly, hiding the pained look on her face as she stared at her knees, tears of pain falling from her eyes.
"Pathetic," she heard the man mutter. She could feel him kneel in front of her as his hand came up to touch her chin. He let out a grunt as if touching her pained him before sending a harsh slap to the skin of her cheek, sending her face flying before smacking against the concrete wall behind her.
He gripped her chin once more as he heard a small whimper of pain leave her lips. His hold was tight as he forced her to face him, blue eyes meeting brown. "Why couldn't you have been like Jo?" he asked her as he wiped the blood off the side of her cheek with his thumb. "You just had to be like Malachai, didn't you?"
A look of pure hatred fell on her face, the scared look abandoning her eyes as she met him. "Say his name again and I'll kill you."
He grinned maliciously, "So she speaks... I wasn't sure if you'd be able to anymore."
"Why are you doing this? Why now?" she asked hesitantly, eyes wavering as they moved from his palm to his eyes.
He chuckled at her futile attempt to appear brave in his presence. "Such a scared little girl. You truly are pathetic, Ellie." He let out a small huff before a soft chuckle, "Or should I say, Margot?"
Mystic Falls
"Love! You're back, early," Klaus greeted happily, with Hope in his arms as he walked toward his wife, his free arm reaching out to her, only for her to dodge and move to the side.
Klaus frowned in confusion but chose to let it slide. He assumed she was tired, the dark circles that lined her brown eyes told him enough.
Before he could utter a word to her, Kol ran down the stairs, the sound of his feet hitting the floor echoing loudly until he reached Margot and lifted her in his arms. As he spun the girl in his arms, Klaus rolled his eyes.
He ignored the pit of jealousy that was blooming in his chest and instead, chose to stare at his daughter who was sleeping peacefully in his arms. His eyes cast over to Margot one last time before retreating back into the kitchen where Rebekah and Elijah stood, the former with Henry in her arms.
"Where's Margot?" Elijah asked.
"Kol took her," Klaus said with a sigh.
Rebekah rolled her eyes, "Hogger."
The elder brother shook his head fondly before spotting his half-brother staring at the countertop with a barely noticeable frown on his face. "What's wrong?"
The hybrid hummed as he played with the sleeve of his henley. He could feel their prying eyes on him as almost refused to meet their eyes.
Rebekah watched him with a confused look that mirrored Elijah's. "I don't think you've ever been this quiet. It's... frightening almost."
Klaus looked up at her only to glare before looking away once more. "I can be quiet. I'm quiet all the time," he grumbled.
"Only when Margot is speaking. Sometimes even then you can't help yourself but speak," Elijah thwarted, causing a small chuckle to erupt from Rebekah's lips.
The hybrid let out a soft sigh and he ignored his brother's words as he finally spoke up, "I think something is wrong with Margot."
"She just got in the door, Nik. How could you possibly think there is something wrong with her?"
He exhaled sharply, "She dodged my hug."
"She probably heard Kol coming. We have all seen how he pushes everyone out of the way in order to be the first to hug her. Margot was merely looking out for you... and any nearby walls," Elijah cautiously explained, speaking slowly so as not to anger the hybrid.
Klaus sighed before nodding hurriedly, "You're probably right. Margot's fine. She's cool. I'm cool. I am so cool right now. I'm like... a cucumber. Very cold..."
"Stop talking. Please," Rebekah begged with an eye roll as she poured herself a cup of coffee before walking away. "I swear they get weirder every bloody day."
"We heard that!"
"You were supposed to! Bloody dickheads," she muttered, shouting the first bit as she stormed into her bedroom with her coffee and a tub of ice cream. She had been living in the same house as her brothers for far too long and was beginning to get tired of their constant nagging and small problems.
Elijah chuckled at his sister's words before he turned back to his younger brother. "If you are truly worried about Margot, perhaps you should speak with her."
Klaus nodded silently as he held his head in his hands, his elbows pressing against the countertop as he looked at his older brother. "I will." He paused, "Whenever Kol lets her go, that is."
The suited man smiled as he patted his brother's shoulder, "You're going to be waiting for quite some time, Niklaus. It appears to me that Kol has developed some form of platonic love for your wife."
"It better be bloody platonic," Klaus muttered.
"Their love of hitting people with baseball bats may have started it."
The blonde breathed out, "I never should have let them speak about torture methods and cupcakes for so long."
"Did those conversations coincide?"
"Yeah?"
"You definitely should not have let that happen. You are the one to blame for this, Niklaus."
"What the fuck? I just let them speak to each other. How the bloody hell is it my fault that there are two psychopaths living under my roof?"
Elijah held a smirk on his well-groomed face, "Well if you hadn't pursued our dearest Margot, we would only have one psychopath living under our roof."
The hybrid sent a glare towards his brother, one that lasted only a minute before falling into a delicate smile as both Kol and Margot entered the kitchen space. The smile, however, did not last as it dropped the second he saw his wife's face.
He quickly hid the odd look on his face by smiling once more. Margot didn't look like herself. He knew it but he just didn't know why.
There was something wrong and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.