Faith was a funny thing.
Either you have it or you don't.
Though, some people that do have it lose it.
Then the people that don't have it gain it.
Aspen never thought of her faith. She always believed that the gods had no road for her. She was unplanned, she was never thought of.
Which was true.
She was a loophole, one not even the gods had seen. She was a mistake, although her mother would argue it was a beautiful mistake, or not a mistake at all but a gift.
She was accepting her position.
She didn't believe that she was going to survive this. She felt her heart beating faster than it had ever done before. All those times running, those times fighting the hollow that was inside of her, the dark black magic that was in her veins had never hurt her or made her fear for her life the way she was right now.
Perhaps she was depressed, maybe she just had Suicidal Thoughts but she was ready to die.
She was tired, tired of the way her life had been.
She had endured more dangerous and life-threatening situations than any child ever did.
She was still a child, a child who's scared and wants nothing more than to run into her father's arms.
Right now she would have even accepted Klaus'.
She closed her eyes waiting for her end to come.
Yet all her thoughts, all her denials had been erased the moment she heard Hope yell for her mother to stop.
She opened her eyes and saw her sister watching her own mother about to murder her sister. And she remembered she wasn't the only child who went through a lot, Hope did too.
Hope grew up halfway like she did, although not a lot of obstacles got in the way of her life, she still lost her sister, her other half, her twin.
Aspen looked at Hope and saw the tears in her eyes.
She glanced at Alaric and Caroline who looked more than beyond scared. She had grown quite close to Caroline, a good friend, a best friend even. Caroline didn't want to lose a best friend.
Alaric looked at Aspen with devastation and panic. He thought of her as a daughter, hell she was his daughter, it didn't matter if it was by blood or not. And to see that she is about to die in front of him when he could do absolutely nothing made him feel helpless, Made him feel absolutely unnecessary.
She glanced at the Mikaelson Brothers and saw both of them with panicked faces. Although she may not have considered them family anymore yet she still believes that there was a part of her heart that loves them.
The last person she looked at was Stefan. He had tears in his eyes crying, pleading with Hayley to just let you go. You didn't need to really hear his voice to see the pain and the pleading in his eyes to not lose Aspen.
He loves her, more than anything, more than anyone he had ever met. Sure he had been in love with Elena once and thought they were true love but that was all thrown out the window when he met Aspen.
She was the one he wanted to spend eternity with. The one he would love to marry, possibly even adopt children with.
Aspen's heart hurt even more when she saw Stefan. She had never been in love before him. She never had the time, she never met anyone that she loved enough, that she knew long enough. He was her first love and she intended to be his last.
Seeing all these people who cared about her, she knew it wasn't her time to go. As much as she wanted to see her mother one more time, to be with her, she knew she wouldn't have wanted her to go so soon.
She couldn't leave the people she loved behind, she couldn't leave the people that loved her behind.
She had just gotten her sister back, she didn't want to lose her.
Aspen took in a deep breath. She grabbed Hayley's wrist and twisted it till it snapped. Hayley had to let her heart go in order to cradle her arm.
While Hayley was distracted Aspen grabbed her neck and picked her up, lifting her off the ground. She made her claws come out and started to stab her long nails into her neck.
Hayley screamed from the pain trying to scratch Aspen's wrist. She didn't show any signs of pain.
"You claim to be my mother's best friend, even raise me as if I am your own child, then try to have me Hunted for death? Make me not come home so I can be with my sister? Then you have the nerve to come into my home and try to kill me?" Aspen's voice showed nothing but anger.
Her eyes glowed, showing her tribrid eyes.
Hayley stuttered trying to speak but Aspen just closed her fist more, making Hayley choke on her own words.
"You talk as if you are a part of this family, as if you carry the Mikaelson name. News flash Labonair, you are not a Mikaelson, you never have been and you never will be. You're just some bitch my biological father knocked up. Although I do thank you for giving birth to my sister, other than that you're nothing but a flea attached to this family."
She threw the woman on the floor. Hayley guest for breath.
"Your mother would be disappointed." Hayley rasped out.
Aspen took steps towards her slow, menacing steps.
"She might not have liked how I've handled this but I know my father is. I can see the pride on his face. Call it the Mikaelson in me." She nodded her head towards Klaus who was leaning against the wall letting his daughter take the reins. She was right. He was proud, you could see it on his face, he had a smirk and his eyes were glowing with pride.
Not only from Pride was he smirking but because she had called him his father. Albeit because of anger issues but he's still took it as a win. He looked towards Alaric with a gloating face, Ric just rolled his eyes at the Hybrid.
This wasn't the time to gloat about a small win.
"I can smell your jealousy, it's truly pathetic how much you would be jealous of my mother that you would go after me. I mean honestly, did you not have anything better to do? Did you not have any other guys coming after you? So what if Uncle Elijah had a crush on my mother, he's still got with you, my mother was madly in love with my father."
"He only fell in love with me because she was unavailable! If she had said that she had chosen him he would have left me in a heartbeat! Same with you! He kept choosing you over me and Hope, he kept trying to find you after everyone else had stopped!" Hayley screamed at Aspen.
"I think it's time that someone got Hope out of here. She should not be here for what comes next." Aspen spoke out to the rest of the room.
"No, I'm staying here." Hope said trying to convince Aspen to let her stay.
"That's not going to happen, you're going to leave. I want you to try and remember the last shred of dignity and self-respect your mother had. I'll see you after but for now you have to go." Aspen said gently to her sister.
Hope nodded her head and Elijah and took her with him. As much as he did not want to be anywhere near Hayley he did not want to see her death, which he could tell by your eyes and tone was inevitable.
Aspen waited until she heard the car leaving the driver so she could race towards Hayley and punch her arm through her chest so she could grab her heart.
"You have a miserable life. A vendetta against a little girl who only looked up to you. I bet it was you wasn't it? The voice that would speak to me in my sleep telling me to take the hollow from Hope. Telling me it was my time. You truly are an evil person, I would say to tell my mother I said hi but there is a special place for you. I know my mother's not in hell, so say hello to the devil for me Hayley Marshall." She whispered before ripping out her heart.
She felt it bumping in her hand still, the blood dripping down her forearm towards her elbow. She stared at Hayley as her body fell down crumbling to the floor.
She had killed her fair share of people; Her hands were coated with blood. Red on her Ledger. Yet this kill seems to affect her a bit more.
Not only was she the mother of her sister but she was the best friend to her mother.
Her mother told her stories of how she and Hayley first met. Stuck inside a cemetery captured by witches, forced to stay in New Orleans, both of them going through the same thing, becoming closer during pregnancy.
Both of them dying for the hands of witches only for them to come back.
How they cried together for their children when they were forced to be sent away with their aunt Rebekah.
She remembers when Hayley was kind, when she cared about her. When they were staying in the safe house, remembering Hayley always coming in and reading her stories.
She felt regret.
Which was new for her when she killed.
Not only had she killed a mother figure but she killed a mother.
Her sister's mother.
She killed Elijah's lover.
She killed Klaus' mother of his child.
She felt the tears rushing to her. She didn't want to cry but her heightened senses made that extremely hard.
Stefan saw her shoulders starting to shake a little and rush to her.
He wrapped his arms around her, making her drop the heart onto the floor.
Then she started sobbing.
She wanted a happy ending.
One where she lived happily ever after, like in the stories.
She wanted to get past this, to get that ending.
But her heart was so heavy. Her chest felt as if a thousand weights were on top of it. She didn't know if she would be able to get over it.
She didn't know if she wanted to.
Right now she didn't know what she wanted .