DINNER FROM HELL

We are all still having dinner with Finn in the dining room, much to my great displeasure. This night wasn’t coming to an end and our mother is still a no show, ever after she’s the one who wanted this damn dinner in the first place. I was nurturing my second bottle of wine, along with the silence, when Finn spoke up again. “I'm rather enjoying my evening.”

“You’re the only one here.” I muttered to myself, taking another sip of wine.

“Well, I'd rather enjoy you getting to the point.” My blonde brother snapped in frustration, glaring at Finn. I was wondering how long it would take for him to snap, our practically non existent patience is about the same length and I’ve wanted to rip my eldest brother to shreds since the second he walked in. I’m surprised he’s held on this long.

I raised my bottle in Nik’s direction. “Hear, hear, twinnie.”

“I had nine hundred years to learn to be patient. Although, I am curious why you kept me daggered in a box for so long.” He responds as if our short tempers mean nothing to him. I rolled my eyes at his question.

“Oh honestly, Finn, this is getting annoying. Answer the fucking question. My limited patience is running ever lower than normal.” I snarled at my eldest brother, my Hybrid eyes surfacing briefly as I tightened my grip on my knife, glaring at him heatedly.

“You first.” He challenged and I cast a glance heavenward, hoping for some sort of guidance from whoever is out there before I rip his throat out. This is why we kept him daggered so long, his mere presence could ruin a perfectly happy mood and make it hit the ground. Well, not always. Just since we became vampires. He used to be a little fun when were humans, but it all disappeared and he became cold, distant and full of self-hatred.

“You were daggered for being an ever-simpering sycophant. Did Mother bring you back from the dead so you could wash her knickers?” Nik answers his question with snark and I chortled a chuckle through my nose as my twin smirks at Finn in amusement.

“She raised me because I was treated unfairly! Cheated of all but the smallest portion of my life!” He bellowed furiously, clearly starting to lose control of his temper. I frowned at him.

“Hey, hold on a second,” I interrupted, glaring at him. “You’ve hated what we were turned into since the second we woke up as vampires. The whole century you were with us, you were drawn back and depressed, hating what we were. And you want to know why you were daggered for so long? I’ll tell you. When Alexander daggered us, I was the one who told Nik to leave you daggered. I thought I was showing you kindness by sparing you all the self-loathing you would have suffered from for a thousand years. So, you want to be angry at someone, be angry at me. I made the choice to leave you daggered, but not because we didn’t want you with us, but because you wouldn’t have survived a thousand years of being a vampire.” He stared at me, mouth hanging open in disbelief. Finn turns to Elijah, looking upset.

“Elijah, I can understand such cruelty coming from them.” Finn point to Nik and I and I scoffed. Typical. I tried to explain to him why I did what I did, and he just throws it back into my face. “But I always thought of you as being the compassionate one! What did I do to deserve you turning your back on me? Were you afraid of Niklaus? Are you still?” Elijah kept silent as I pursed my lips, holding on to my control for the sake of trying to figure out what my mother is planning. “Or perhaps jealousy is what kept me locked in a box? You coveted the duties of the eldest brother, in which case you had near-on a millennium to fix the problems of this family, and instead, produced nine centuries of failure.”

“Finn, I’m warning you, do not speak to Elijah like that.” I growled, giving him a second warning for the night. I tried being nice, I answered his question honestly and from the heart, but he just ignored it. Now, I’m going to be a full on bitch towards him. I’ve had enough.

“Or what?” He challenged with a smirk.

“You seem to have forgotten that I am immune to the powers of witchcraft.” I noted, picking up the wine bottle and bringing it to my lips with a smirk.

“You might reside- somewhat parasitically, I might add- in another body, but I assure you, in nine hundred years, your tedious sentiments remain quite the same. You see, Finn, like Father, you've always despised our supernatural existence. Father, of course, slaughtered and consumed his own, whereas you became pretentious and dull... much like this meal. I will not ask you again- where is Mother?” Elijah spoke insultingly, not even bothering to be nice. I chuckled in amusement and I heard Nik do the same.

“Oh, my darling son.” A young voice says and I turned to the source. Cassie. Or rather, she was. Now she’s Esther Mikaelson. Biggest bitch in the universe. Huh, looks like I am my mother’s daughter after all. Finn immediately rises to his feet to greet our mother. I rolled my eyes. “I've missed you, too.” The sarcasm in her voice was clear.

“Well, I haven’t miss you, so can we please get to the fucking point of this dreadful dinner already?” I snapped, glaring at both my mother and my supposed to be dead eldest brother.

“That is no way for a lady to talk, Aleksios.” She scolds me condescendingly.

“Thanks for the unasked advice, I’ll make sure to pass it along when I see Bekah again.” I shoot her a bitter smile.

“Why don't you say what you came here to say, so this wretched night can end?” My twin snaps, clearly just as tired of this dinner charade as I am. I didn’t like Finn and I hate my mother, and now I’m forced to share a dinner table with them. Just lovely.

“I think that is the best idea you’ve had all year, Nik.” I swore with a bright smile on my face. He gave me a grin.

“It pains me that you, Aleksios and Elijah look at me with such disdain. I wish you could see that my every action has been to protect you!” She told us. Well, if that’s all it takes to pain her, I’d gladly to it for the rest of my life. I smirk as I looked at her with a glare on my face. Her face faltered as she looked into my murderous eyes.

“You actually believe that, don't you? I knew you were a liar, but now I see you're utterly delusional.” Nik said, his tone incredulous. I pointed to him and hummed in agreement as I picked up my bottle of wine that I put down on the table somewhere along the line.

“If you can forget the hatred that you cling to and remember all the times I've mended and healed you.” My twin and I laughs sarcastically, but Esther turns to Elijah. “Elijah, do you recall the day Niklaus challenged your father to a duel? Did I leave your brother to die alone? What did I say, when you came to me and asked me to help him?”

“That you would rather die than to see any of your children suffer.” He answered with a sigh and suddenly all the puzzle pieces fell together. Mother being worried when Nik lost his necklace. Being terrified when he hit Mikael without it. Yelling at me when I went after Mikael when he stabbed my twin. The starlings she used to invite us to dinner, the same bird that was on our necklaces. The necklaces being spelled.

“The necklaces.” Nik and I gasped in horrified realisation. Rage filled me and I was across the room before anyone of them had a chance to react, my mother in my grip as I held her by the neck in a tight grip, adding more and more pressure by the second.

“You weakened us, even then. Why?” I breathed, the word barely audible over my heavy breathing. “Just so that you’re affair could be hidden?” I scoffed, dropping her to the ground. “Death would be to merciful for you, mother.” I spat the word at her, walking back to the table and plopping down on my previous chair next to my twin.

“It wasn't spelled to protect us. It made us weak.” Nik snapped accusingly, glaring at Esther as he spoke.

“I sought to protect you from yourself! If you had killed your father in that duel, or anyone else in the course of your life, you would have activated your curse.” My mother defended and looked at me. “And you, you were so furious with Mikael that night, I knew you would have killed him, had it not been for the necklace.” I knew exactly what night she was referring to. The night Mikael stabbed Nik and I went at him. Mikael had a broken nose and bruises on his arms. I had cracked ribs, blue eyes and a broken arm.

I stood up, glaring at her as my Hybrid face surfaced. “Yes, because that would have been tragic!” I spat in anger.

“You ruined me! You left me to suffer at the hands of a father who valued only strength! Worst of all, you let Lexie get hurt as well!” My twin roared in outrage, smacking his hands on the table. The table shook from the force.

“I kept you from becoming a beast for as long as I possibly could!” She defended guiltily, but I didn’t care. I spent a thousand years with this rage inside of me. Putting it away in a box and never going near it. Now, it has burst open and she is going to listened. Whether she wants to or not.

“And what is you’re reason for weakening me?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. A dangerous glare on my face.

“Do you think me daft, Aleksios? You and Niklaus has had an protectiveness over each other since the day of your birth. When ever one would get hurt by someone, the other one would retaliate. And violently. Do you remember that day when one of the village boys called Niklaus a weakling? And you beat him so badly, he nearly died. He would have if I hadn’t healed him with my magic. I knew then I had to do something to protect you two.” My mother yelled back desperately. I shook my head, clenching my fists.

“Oh, you lied to me! To hide your own transgressions because of your own fear! My whole life, I sought the approval I was denied by the man I thought was my father! You turned me into the weakling he hated.” Nik shouted furiously, banging his hands on the table on more before rising to his feet, next to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elijah rises to his feet and paces anxiously. I fix my stare on my mother, who gulps and looks guilty under Nik and I’s glares, unable to look either of us in the eyes. “Look at me! You rant and you rave about the monsters that Lexie and I have become, but you, Mother, you are the author of everything that we are.”

“Don’t you see, mother, you didn’t just take away our strength and true nature. You took away our chance at having a father that would have loved us, protected us. Not beat us whenever he felt like it. And that, is something that I do not know if I can ever forgive you for.” I added on glaringly, clenching and unclenching my fists as I looked at her. She looks flustered, and suddenly begins gasping for breath. Then, she faints and slumps over in her seat. Elijah manages to catch her before her head hits the table, and he looks at us in shock.

“She's gone.” Elijah said and I cursed. She body jumped. Again. I hope the spell was done in time. Elijah goes to attack Finn, but he uses his magic to push Elijah away, which throws him over the table and into the nearby wall. I speed forward, knowing his magic is useless against me.

“Where is she?” I shout at him, grabbing his by the lapels of his jacket. Finn blows on his fingers and rubs them together, looking behind me. Suddenly Nik screams in pain and I let go of Finn and speed to my twin just in time to catch him as he falls to the ground in pain.

I hear my eldest brother run away, but I didn’t care. I focused on helping my brother up. Angry and concerned about Esther and Finn's motives, we decide to question Cassie. Coming to the conclusion that our mother wants to try and persuade Hayley to join her on the looney train, we sped off to Lenore’s Store.

I knew this night would be a fucking disaster.

***

Okay, so I am ready to end this episode already. Also, this was a fun chapter to write. All those feels.

-Mixi