18

—18. Klaus

ALWAYS AND FOREVER

Stefan is in his bedroom. He wakes up with a start and notices Elena's not there. He goes downstairs. "Elena!"

Andie is there in a doorway, holding a cup of coffee. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Have you seen Elena?"

"Uh, no."

Damon walks over to her. "Hi, sweetie. Oh, my coffee."He kisses her.

Aurora walked down the stairs right after him, "Oh, you really need to stop." She closed her tired eyes from the disgusting scene in front of her.

"Good morning."

"Mm, good morning."

"Hey, where's Elena?" Stefan looked between his siblings.

Damon shrugged, "I don't know, Stefan. It's your girlfriend. Mine's right here."

Aurora only shrugged when Stefan turned to her, moving to the bourbon cart and pouring herself a glass.

Damon looks at Andie. "Oh, and how's the shoulder? Got time for a bite? I'm so hungry."

"Oh, it's really messy. Can you just use a blood bag today?"

Stefan is on the phone and looks at them, while Aurora sips on her bourbon -rolling her eyes at the couple.

"I'm already late for work."

"No!" He pouts.

Stefan leaves a message to Elena. "Hey, it's me. Where are you? Call me." He hangs up. Damon and Andie are kissing. "What are you doing? She's not a wind-up toy."

Andie looks at him. "It's really none of your business, is it, Stefan?"

"Yeah. What she said."

"I have to go to work." She kisses Damon.

"Ugh! Bye."

She leaves. Stefan sees that the basement door is open. He rushes over to it to investigate. Damon and Aurora sense concern and follows him. Stefan arrives at the cellar and sees that Elijah's not there. Damon and Aurora appear behind him soon after.

"No, she didn't."

Aurora couldn't help the smile that graced her face. Elijah's awake. "Oh, she definitely did." She murmured.

——

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Maddox told Klaus.

"Yes, do hurry. I'm anxious to get out of this body,"  Klaus insisted, clearly impatient.

With that, Maddox left and closed the door behind him. "Where is he going?" Katherine asked them curiously, holding out a mug full of coffee towards him.

"To retrieve me," Klaus grabbed the mug, "So I can get out of this bad hairdo." Klaus informed Katherine, not caring about what he told her - it's not like she could leave.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Klaus?" Katherine slightly mocked, while also discreetly grilling for more information.

Klaus took the moonstone out from his pocket, "Well, the full moon is almost upon us. We've killed the witch, we have the moonstone," He placed the  moonstone down onto the counter top, "And the doppelgänger is waiting in the wings. Oh, I am ready to break this curse." Klaus breathed out excitedly.

"And why would you do that here? There are so many people that would try to stop you." Katherine questioned.

"Because I have to," Klaus informed, "It's the birthplace of the doppelgänger."

"Didn't realize that was a requirement." Katherine said - now realizing why Klaus hasn't just kidnapped Elena and taken her to a whole new country to complete the sacrifice.

"How could you?" He retorted, "You betrayed us and fled England before we could give you the details, Katerina."

Klaus walked closer to Katherine - making her tense up in fear, "But we did find your birthplace and we slaughtered your family...so I guess we're cool," Klaus reached up and pushed Katherine hair back, "let's just hope that Elena...isn't as stupid as you are."

"She won't run," Katherine informed, "She'll die before she lets anyone that she loves get hurt." Katherine shook her head in disgust.

"And that's exactly what I'm counting on." Klaus replied.

"What about Aurora?" Katherine quickly spluttered out before he got too close.

Klaus halted, her name bringing up happy memories and ones he didn't like to think about, "What about her?" He asked coldly.

"She wouldn't want you to do this. Her brothers love Elena, and you know how much Aurora loves her brothers."

Klaus tried to ignore the pang of guilt that struck his heart when he heard that. He plastered a big, fake and arrogant smirk on his face as he began to compel Katherine,"You can't leave until I tell you to."

——

Elijah and Elena were sitting in her vehicle, Elena was trying to get Elijah to trust her again by giving all the details of what happened the other night.

"He's here." Elena informed a slightly better looking Elijah.

Elijah looked slightly alarmed - Klaus is here, all he could think was, hopefully he doesn't find Aurora. She was one of the reasons he decided to kill Klaus, he ruins everything he loves, "Klaus is here?"

Elena nodded and turned to face him, "He's taken over Alaric's body."

Elijah scoffed, "Of course he has. One of his favourite tricks."

"Well, what are his other tricks? What is he going to do next? You're the only one who knows him." Elena looked frightened as she asked her next question's.

"Yes, I do," Elijah informed. If he was being truthful -Aurora knew him the best. She could spot the tells of Klaus when he was lying, she knew everything about him.

But what's worse is, Klaus knows everything about her too.

——

Aurora picks up her phone. It's Jenna. Damon and Stefan are in the living room too. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ro. It's Jenna."

Aurora smiled, "Jenna, hey."

"Where's Elena? And Jeremy? No one's answering their phones."

"Ah, Elena's not here at the moment. Is, uh, is everything okay?" Aurora looked to her brothers who were listening into the conversation.

"She left me all these weird messages telling me to stay away from Rick. What's going on?"

"It's really hard to explain over the phone, but, um, she was hoping that you could stay on campus for a little while longer."

"Oh, that's kinda hard to do from my kitchen."

Auroras eyes blew wide, as well as Stefan's, "Wait, you're home?"

"Yeah. What's going on? Where's Elena? I'm supposed to meet Ric at the Grill for lunch, to talk."

"Jenna, listen to me carefully. Whatever you do, do not meet Alaric at the Grill. Me and Stef are going to come over right now and I'll explain everything."

She hangs up and her and Stefan looks at Damon, who's pouring himself a drink. "Wow, I'd love to lend you a hand, but you wouldn't want me doing anything stupid."

"It's seriously going to be like this?" Stefan asked with a roll of his eyes.

"You and your girlfriend are calling the shots. I'm just backing off, Stefan. But you've got the little Gremlin now, so I think you're good."

Aurora rolled her eyes at the raven haired man, "You don't have to be such an ass." She and Stefan leaves, slamming the door behind them.

——

Jenna opens the door for Stefan and Aurora, they walk in. "Hey, Jenna. Thank you so much for not going to the Grill."

"Um, guys..."

Stefan shook his head, "No, listen. I can explain."

Jenna looks over Stefan and Aurora's shoulder. They turns around. Klaus/Alaric's there. "Hi, Stefan, Aurora. How's it going?"

——

Klaus/Alaric is chopping some food with a big knife. Jenna, Aurora and Stefan are looking at him. "You know, I find chopping...calming. The feel of the blade in the hand, maybe."

"I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what the hell's going on."

"Well, would you like to tell her, Stefan, or maybe Aurora would like to?" Klaus set his gaze on Aurora, who wanted to leave as fast as possible.

"Tell me what?"

"Do you believe in vampires, Jenna? No?" He laughs. "Well, who does, right? But believe it or not, they do have a place in our history. And as a history teacher, I find them fascinating."

"Why are we talking about this?"

"Well, you've been angry with me for keeping secrets, and this is one of my secrets. I'm obsessed with vampires. There. I said it." He laughs.

"Are you joking?"

"Not at all. How about you, Aurora? Are you a fan of vampires?"

Aurora sucked on her teeth in hatred. Was it really hate, though? "In literature. Bram Stoker. It's dense, but I appreciate it."

Klaus smiled at her, "Hmm. Did you know that vampires are the oldest creatures of the night? Except for werewolves, of course."

Jenna nodded harshly, "Werewolves. Werewolves. Now I know you're joking."

"You know, I've read that there's an Aztec curse on both species that keeps werewolves slaves to the Moon and vampires bound by the Sun. Isn't that right, Aurora?" He was taunting her -she knew the truth, and she was lying to her brothers. He knew everything. Everything about her. "You know, they say these creatures would do anything to have this curse broken and that they wouldn't care who they had to kill to do it."

Jenna looks at him alarmed.

——

Alaric/Klaus, Jenna, Aurora and Stefan are sitting at the table having dinner. "Oh, I know this all sounds so crazy, but...vampires are real. Would you care for some more wine?" Klaus gets up to get a bottle of wine for Jenna.

"Get out." Jenna ordered quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know what it is you're trying to do or why you're saying these things, but..."

"Jenna..."

"I said get out!"

Stefan and Aurora get up. "You heard her."

"I'm afraid I don't want to."

"Fine! I'll go." Klaus/Alaric picks up a kitchen knife off the counter. "You're not going anywhere."

Aurora grabs him and pushes him against the wall with her super speed and puts the knife on his throat.

"Aurora!" Jenna shouted in shock.

"Stefan, get her out of here now!" Aurora yelled.

"You can't kill me, Aura. You know you don't want to." Klaus spoke quietly. He could smell the sweet smell of her perfume. The way she held up against the cabinets —should he be turned on? Cause he might be... only a little.

"Watch me! Stefan, go!"

"I may not have a witch protecting me today, but if you kill this body, what's to stop me from choosing Jenna as my next one?"

"Go."

"But you're...you..." She looks at her. Her face has changed.

Aurora shouted, "Stefan! I said go!" Stefan sped Jenna out of the house.

She looked back up to Klaus, her eyes shining with fury. He didn't like that look on her face, he didn't like her hating him. "You won't kill me. You may think you hate me, but you can't, you know I'm right."

Aurora punches him in the face and once Klaus is on the floor, she kicks him in the stomach. She throws the knife on the floor and leaned down, whispering in his ear, "After what you did, I have nothing but hate for you."

And then she left.

——

At Alaric's apartment, Klaus stood with Katherine when he heard the door open. He turned his head, only to see Maddox enter, "Maddox, what took you so long?" Klaus asked impatiently.

"You've got a lot of luggage," Maddox commented as numerous compelled people walked in, bringing Klaus' belongings with them.

Lastly, Greta entered, smiling at Klaus, "Greta," Klaus greeted the younger woman. "Finally."

"Hello, love." Greta greeted Klaus with a smile on her face while looking him up and down, "Nice body. You ready to get out of it?"

"Mm-hm," Klaus turned his head to see the rest of his followers walk in with a crate that held his body.

——

Damon punches Stefan so hard that he flies into a bookshelf and breaks it. He gets up and rushes over to Damon. They grab each other by the shoulders, trying to harm one another. Elena and Elijah enter the room.

"Stop!" Elena yelled and they immediately broke apart. Elijah is looking at them.

They're looking at Elena and Elijah. "Now you've invited him in?"

"Elijah and I have renewed the terms of our deal." Elijah informed.

"Really?"

"The two of you will come to no harm at my hands. I only ask for one thing in return."

"What?"

"An apology."

"A what?"

Stefan walked closer to them. "I'm sorry for the part that I played in your death. I was protecting Elena. I will always protect Elena."

"I understand." All eyes look at Damon.

"The sacrifice is going to happen, Damon. Bonnie will be able to kill Klaus without hurting herself and Elijah knows how to save my life. I told you I'd find another way. And I did."

"Is that true?"

"It is."

Damon looks at Elena. "And you're trusting him?"

"I am." Elena answered with a nod as Aurora walked in, noticing Elijah standing there.

Damon was the first to notice her, "Thank god, Aurora please tell me you don't agree with this."

Everyone looked to Aurora. She and Elijah shared a smile —which only Stefan noticed, and furrowed his brows, since when do they know each other?

"Well, Klaus is going to get her either way, so might as well do it when she has a chance of coming back." She shrugged, pouring herself a drink, Elena looked at her with an appreciative smile.

"You can all go to hell." Damon leaves.

Stefan looks at Elijah. "He's angry with me right now. But he'll come around."

"Perhaps."

——

At Alaric's apartment, Maddox and Greta were on their knees, chanting the spell that put Klaus back in his original body. There were lit candles all around them and Klaus in Alaric's body stood near the box, his head bowed and eyes closed.

They stopped for a moment, looking up at Alaric —who opened his eyes.

Alaric glanced between Katherine, "Elena?" He called out, frowning in confusion before he collapsed to the ground.

Maddox stood up, walking over to the box. He opened it, allowing Klaus in his original body to walk out. He glanced down at Alaric, "Now, that's more like it." He smirked.

WORD COUNT : 2295