CHAPTER LXXVII
❝ She hates me so much. ❞
Lucy was back to base zero.
Brie hates me. She thinks the baby to be her replacement. And, now, she wishes to kill that replacement.
"She hates me. She hates me." Lucy sobbed, her hand tugging at her scalp hair aggressively as Niklaus pulled her closer into his arms.
"No, Brie could never hate you, Lucy." he said, prying her hands out of her hair and cupping her face with his hands, wiping the tears off with his thumb. "That was not Brie. It's impossible."
"She tried to stab me, Nik," she cried, looking at him with blurred eyes, "in my stomach. If I hadn't put my hand in between. . ."
She choked on her words and curled into his chest, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would shield her from the horrors of the world.
"But, you're okay. Both of you are okay." Nik whispered, rubbing her back in a comforting manner as he lowered his head to press a lingering kiss on her head.
"We would not have been if you hadn't been there on time. Brie pushed me down the stairs." she whimpered, her hands fisting the material of his shirt which was damp with her tears. "She hates me so much."
"That was not her." he said sternly, pulling away to look her in the eyes. "Listen to me, alright? That was not her. Okay?"
"No, it was her." she shook her head. "I saw her. I talked to her. She looks exactly like her! Talked exactly like her-!"
"-no, no." he said sternly. "Lucia Wright, ask yourself would Brie ever do something like that? Would such a sweet child ever do something horrible like murder her own sister? Why would she ever hurt her sister or her mother?"
"Because she hates me!" Lucy cried out. "And thinks her sister to be her replacement!"
"No. She doesn't think like that. The one who pushed you was not the real Brie. I'll prove it to you."
"What are you doing?" Lucy asked tearfully, covering her face with her hands as he stepped off their bed and began dialling someone.
"I'm arranging for a séance. You will talk to the real Brie and know that the one who pushed you was not her." he said, his tone full of determination.
"Niklaus-"
Lucy was cut short as the door was opened and Elijah stepped in, looking at them apologetically.
"I apologise for the intrusion, but you both ought to come downstairs. Now."
"Elijah, can't you see-" Niklaus began furiously, his hand almost crushing his phone in anger at his brother's insolent behaviour.
"-Brother, I insist." Elijah said firmly. "We have information regarding what happened. It'll be for the best if Lucy hears it firsthand."
"What information?" Lucy asked instantly, wiping her face clear of the tear stains.
"There's a witch who claims to be your friend, Marsha. She has information."
"Marsha is here." Lucy breathed out, hope filling her up.
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
"What do you know?" Lucy had almost instantly demanded once reaching the Compound and spotting the brunette seated there.
"Hello to you too, dear." Marsha offered her a tight lipped smile. "I heard of tonight's incident and I'm aware what might be going through your head, but trust me that was not Brie."
"What information do you have?" Klaus asked as Lucy sank down into the seat across Marsha, letting out a shaken sigh on her words.
"I would like to talk to Lucy, alone." Marsha demanded making Klaus' eyes narrow in suspicion.
"What exactly are you going to talk about that you can't talk about in front of us?"
Marsha ignored his words and simply turned her gaze to Lucy, asking for her decision.
"It's okay, Nik." Lucy nodded, squeezing his hand in assurance as Rebekah and Vaishali shared affronted glances at her decision.
"Fine." he blew out an annoyed breath when Marsha threw him a sarcastic smile, "Just take care of yourself. We'll be near."
"Thank you." she nodded as slowly the Mikaelsons, along with Vaishali and Hayley emptied the Compound, leaving the two witches alone.
"Give me your hand." Marsha asked softly, palm outstretching over the centre of the table.
"Marsha, please, just-" Lucy began in almost a pleading tone.
"-Lucy," she said sternly. "Your hand."
Lucy hesitantly brought it forth her lap and into her outstretched hand.
"Both of them."
She put them both in her palms, wincing as Marsha tugged onto them.
Marsha closed her eyes, beginning to chant a spell as the shackles around her wrists began to grow hot.
"Marsha. It's hurting me." Lucy hissed in pain.
"Pain is power." she whispered, lowering her head as the chanting ceased and she let go of her hands, and moments later the shackles dropped off her wrists, clanging down onto the table, singeing on contact, leaving behind burn marks on her wrists.
"There you go." Marsha shrugged. "Your shackles, gone. Now, allow me to make you aware of the so-called peace in your city. "
She leant forward, looking at Lucy in all seriousness. "What happened tonight was a planned attempt to murder. You know very well how much witches hate the tribrid you're carrying. Tonight, under the facade of a mirage of Brie, they tried to eliminate it, not caring about how much it'll wound you emotionally."
"You mean to say the New Orleans witches did all of this?" Lucy asked, anger rising inside her.
"Yes." Marsha nodded. "This Fête was just a cover up party. Their true motive had been to hurt you and the tribrid."
"How do you know all of this?" Lucy snapped, her fists curling in anger.
"Weren't your eyes bleeding, Lucy?" she asked. "How do you think Brie, I mean her mirage, managed to do that?"
"How do you even know Brie, Marsha? I never told you about her."
Marsha sighed, almost apologetically before meeting her eyes again. "Casper Daldron told me."
"What-?" she slammed her palms onto the table in anger. "You met him!"
"Yes, I did." Marsha said calmly, visibly unaffected by her anger. "And I know where he is. I can take you there."
"Don't lie to me, Marsha, because of any old grudges-"
"-I hold no such grudge, Lucy. Do you?"
Lucy hesitated for a moment. "Of course not. And if what you're saying is true, we must go see him right now."
"Right now, you must rest." Marsha advised. "You need sleep more than revenge."
"You don't get it, Marsha." she hissed in anger. "I have to see that fucking backstabbing bastard. He killed my daughter. It's about time he gets what he has got coming."
"Lucy," she said firmly, "no. We will go tomorrow morning."
"Marsha. . ." Lucy said, her voice taking on a warning tone as suddenly the flower pots in the Compound began collapsing with loud clunks.
Marsha sighed to herself as almost immediately Niklaus barged in, concern etched onto his features, probably having heard the crashing sounds, the others following shortly after.
"What's going on-? Are you okay-?"
"-yes, she is." Marsha said, her tone disinterested. "I wouldn't kill her."
"We know where Casper is." Lucy said immediately, turning to Niklaus. "That fucking piece of shit. I'm going, now."
"You're going tomorrow morning." Marsha said, their eyes turning to her. "Like I said, I'll tell you his location after you've rested."
"I do not need any rest." Lucy hissed in annoyance. "And what is it to you? Just tell me the goddamn location."
"What is it to me? I care for your well being. That's what it is."
"Lucy, it's alright. You need rest right now. We'll go tomorrow morning." Niklaus said, placing his hands on her shoulders and turning her angered stance towards himself.
"No, I am going right now."
"Lucy, you have waited for so long. Just a few hours more." Vaishali said, her eyes flickering to the unknown brunette ideally sitting, her face strewn with annoyance.
"Lucy, I have told you already. I'm not giving up the location until tomorrow morning. You may relax or keep shouting as you may desire." Marsha said calmly.
"Shut up, and just stop being so incessant-!" Lucy began, turning to the other witch in anger.
"-Lucy, calm down." Elijah interrupted, "Please sit down."
"No," she turned onto him in anger, "I am not going to calm down! Casper is finally within my reach, and you want me to calm down? And not to mention all that happened today, your stupid Peace Treaty did absolute wonders. Congrats!"
"Lucy, I don't understand." Elijah said in confusion. "What are you implying?"
"That Genevieve and her clan attacked me, creating a mirage of Brie!" Lucy exclaimed. "As if all their previous attempts weren't enough, now they've done this as well!"
"The witches?" Klaus asked sharply.
"Yes, your goddamn lover tried to kill me and our baby."
"I will kill every single one of them." Klaus seethed, turning to Elijah. "Your treaty can go to hell. They broke it first."
"Relax, people." Marsha said loudly. "I would advise you all to do nothing to disrupt the peace."
"And who the fuck are you tell Klaus Mikaelson that?" Klaus glared at her.
"Lucy, you want to tell them or should I do the honours?" Marsha turned towards the said witch whose face in turn morphed into a mask of irritation.
"What is it, Lucy?" Rebekah asked, looking at her worriedly.
"Yeah." Hayley added, nodding.
"First of all, Marsha," Lucy began with gritted teeth, "I don't give two heads fuck if my sorry excuse of a father comes here to build another of his stupid cult's branch. Second of all,-" she turned to face Niklaus, "-I want that sewer of a coven wiped out unless it'll, in the end, fall on me to scatter their remnants for show across the city."
"Don't be impulsive, Lucia." Marsha chimed. "You wipe out that coven, it gives the perfect opportunity for the Stygians to enter the city and cultivate. You know it better than me that the easiest method to replace a coven to enter a city, is to wipe it out. You eliminate that coven, you do half the work for your father. Maybe he'll even be proud."
"Don't get on my nerves." Lucy shouted at the witch, her nerves getting spiked up over her last statement. "Just give me the friggin location and be on your merry way."
"Ouch." she faux winced. "Not the best way to ask for a favour."
"I do not like this woman." Vaishali spoke up loudly. "Care to mention how you even know Lucy?"
"She was my teacher." Marsha explained. "At the Denver headquarters of the Stygians."
"So, you're a Stygian as well?"
"No." she said, her jaw ticking in annoyance at the assumption. "I don't indulge in cults."
"Fine. Nobody will die." Lucy interrupted, perhaps finished mulling over Marsha's warning. "Except Casper. Now, give me the god forsaken location. Or do I have to snatch it out of you?"
"Whatever." Marsha scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Marsha let out a screech of pain as Lucy made to enter her mind, breaking through the barriers around her consciousness.
"Lucy!" Everyone let out collective shouts of shock, rushing forward to snap her out of the madness.
"Go to hell." Marsha spat in anger, clutching at her pained head as she glared at the black haired witch being held back by the Mikaelsons. "Do hell with your location."
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
They found Casper in a small restaurant in Saint Rose.
Marsha relented at last when Lucy, finally out of her surge of anger, had pleaded to her for help, apologising for her actions almost at the dead of night, when everyone was fast asleep and New Orleans was roaring.
"It's him, right?" Marsha asked, glancing at Lucy who had lowered her sunglasses to stare at the back of the head of the said man.
Marsha was not liking the murderous look in them.
"Yes, it's him." Lucy nodded, an eerie calmness in her voice that creeped Marsha out.
"Are you sure you should have come here all alone, without telling any of your family?" Marsha asked, a hesitant tone in her words.
"Is it?" her gaze turned sharply to her and without waiting for the latter's response, she sauntered ahead, tapping Daldron's shoulder.
"Cassie?!" Lucy asked, a faux cheerfulness in her tone.
She loved the way his whole body tensed up.
She caught him before he could scramble his way out hastily, slamming his head into the table he was dining over, the glass of wine smashing into the side of his face.
The whole restaurant turned to look at the scene before them, an elderly man right next to that table gasped in shock.
"EVERYBODY, OUT!" Lucy hollered, and despite the pregnant belly quite visible over her dress, and her one hand supporting her aching back, the whole restaurant emptied out due to the sheer ferocity of her voice and the look of mad anger on her face.
Marsha pursed her lips to herself, standing by a side, her hands crossed over her chest and shook her head to herself as Casper made a failed attempt at pleading forgiveness.
"Lucy, I-" his rest of the words got stuck into his throat as Lucy slammed down his face into the bloodied shards of glass, partially embedded into his face.
The next second he was thrown onto the floor, landing onto his side, as he looked up at Lucy though the blood dripping into his eyes.
"Miss me, Cassie?" she sneered, kicking him in the gut eliciting a garbled cough from him.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." he wheezed, holding onto his damaged parts.
"YOU FUCKING KILLED MY DAUGHTER AND YOU THINK SOME SHIT-FACED HALF MEANED SORRY IS GONNA MEAN ANYTHING TO ME?!"
"Lucy, I swear-!" he broke off, yelling out in pain as Lucy kicked him in the face.
"Oh, you don't fucking swear to anything!" she hissed, her fist clenching as her magic made his blood boil, ignoring the scream of pain he gave. "You are to die today, Casper Daldron. That is for certain. That is fated. But not before you answer my questions. Tell me exactly what you did!"
"I'll tell you. I'll tell you." he wheezed in pain, sighing as her fist unclenched and his body temperature returned back to normal. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. They made me do it. Trust me. Please. They forced me. I would never kill Brie-"
"Shut up!" she shrieked, the chair flying to crash into him in the chest, definitely creating bloodied wounds. "Do. Not. Take her name from your filthy mouth."
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." he groaned in pain. "She was your daughter. I knew her! I adored her! I would never kill her!"
"Then what was that message you sent me!" Lucy shouted, her anger rising. "You confessed to your sins and now you have the audacity to pretend innocent!"
"They made me do it. I swear-"
"Who!?"
"Our fathers!" he cried out and Lucy just noticed that he'd begun crying. "Last year when Steve's death anniversary was approaching, Richard had gone ballistic with his madness of bringing Steve back to life. He and my father were planning something big and I knew it. As soon as I came to know of it, I tried calling you, but you wouldn't pick up, so I left you a voicemail. And as I was recording it, my father walked in and he'd heard it all. He condemned me and deleted it and took away my all sorts of communication and grounded me. And he decided to use me in his plan of killing Brie."
Lucy stared at him, her eyes wide in shock and anger.
"He had brain washed Richard into undergoing the sacrifice, saying that your and Brie's parent child bond will be perfect for replacing your and Steve's bond up there. The plan was foolproof. My father sent that vampire, Katherine, to spy on you, to confirm that you're romantically involved with an Original. Trust me, Richard was bloody ecstatic when my father gave him this information. They changed their plan to sacrificing the Original."
"What?" she stared at him in shock.
"Yes. It was their plan but when they arrived at your house on Brie's birthday, they met Brie first, and then saw you and Klaus. Richard wanted to sacrifice Klaus but my father convinced him to sacrifice Brie, I have no idea why, but he did it. He forced me to go there tomorrow afternoon, when Brie was all alone playing in the garden with her friends. I took her with a promise of a birthday treat, and she came, because she knew me and trusted me. But I had to take her to Richard. He sacrificed her on the altar and when it didn't work, he made me deliver her body, with that wretched note. You didn't see me that day, because I was invisible. I'm so sorry that I couldn't do anything to stop them."
"Yes, you could have!" she shrieked in anger. "You just needed to come to me! Inform anyone, just anyone! You came home, you could have told literally anyone! Any staff, even Klaus. Just ANYONE! BUT YOU DID NOT! YOU CHOSE TO DO IT! YOU CHOSE TO KILL HER!"
"I didn't have a choice!" he exclaimed. "My father forced me! He would have killed me if I stepped even a millimetre out of line."
"You had a choice." she hissed, her voice hard. "Everyone, everytime has a choice to choose between right and wrong. And you chose wrong. Because you are a fucking coward!"
"Yes!" he cried out. "I am a coward. And I'm sorry that I'm so fucking scared of my own father, so fucking scared that I know that when he says he'll kill me, he will!"
"Well," Lucy scoffed, "so will I."
All colour drained from his face as he began scrambling away from her. "No, Lucy. Please. . ."
"You don't get to plead." she sneered as Casper began choking onto his own blood. "You don't get to choose now, when you should have chosen better then! You could have saved her, but you chose not to. If you would have not gone with your order's that day, Brie would have been alive today and trust me, I would have protected you from your father at all costs. But, pity, your father is not here to protect you from me."
"No. . ." he let out garbled noises, his hand clutching his neck, and moments later squeezing it as Lucy's magic forced him to.
"Don't rest in peace." she sneered at him, as Casper let out his last choked breath.
Silence fell into the restaurant following the Daldron witch's demise, broken off by a sigh.
"He won't revive?" Marsha asked. "No protection spell?"
"No, I don't sense it on him." Lucy answered shortly.
"What if it's hidden?"
Lucy blew out a sharp breath of annoyance. "Are you challenging my abilities?"
She shrugged. "You never know."
Marsha pursed her lips to herself when Lucy answered her with utter silence.
"They threw him out of the coven." she mused. "His father must be too cruel to do that to his own child."
"I always doubted if he was his father for real." Lucy rolled her eyes.
"They look exactly the same, Lucy." Marsha sighed.
"Oh, you've seen them, then?" Lucy turned to her in question.
"Briefly." she shrugged. "Who's gonna get rid of the body?"
"Not me."
Marsha rolled her eyes. "Why do you think he did not fight back? Not even use his magic?"
"Who cares?" Lucy sighed. "Let's go. That body may rot here."
━━━━━━✰━━━━━━
I'm back to action bbgs! 👺
School life keepin me busy ngl nd ofc me losing motivation is the worst but I've given you guys my word, i won't ever abandon this fic (unless I die lmao), and i never break my word (Elijah rizz)😙💫.
The compound scene feels kinda messy to me😂. But Cassie bby got what he deserved <333
Thoughts on Marsha?
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 3276