COLBY'S LUNGS BURNED as she stopped running, trying to catch her breath. She didn't know where she was or where to go — everything looked the same to her. Her phone ringing cut through the silence, and it took her a moment to remember that she should answer it.

"Hello?" She asked, leaning against a tree, nausea beginning to set in.

"Colby? Thank god. Where are you?" Colby had never been more relieved to hear Rebekah's voice. She almost wanted to cry at the mere sound of it.

"I don't know, everything looks the same. Are you okay? Hayley?" Rebekah almost laughed at that. Colby was lost and alone in the woods while possibly still being hunted by whoever was at the clinic, and she was concerned about Rebekah and Hayley.

"We are fine. Hayley's fine. Look, Klaus took Hayley home and we're coming to find you. Stay there." A beam of light crossed over Colby before going back to her and stopping, shining directly in her eyes and nearly blinding her.

"Shit." Colby said, squinting against the light and seeing the gun that the flashlight was attached to. She slowly raised her hands up, ignoring the faint calls of Rebekah from her phone. The man took a step towards Colby, shotgun not wavering at all. His eyes were dark, angry.

"No more running. We weren't supposed to hurt you, but after what your wolves did, I'm not letting you leave here alive." The man growled out. Colby was confused, and terrified. She didn't have any wolves, it's not like she was a werewolf.

As he readied the gun to fire, Colby become startlingly aware that there was nowhere for her to run. She was tired, and her lungs were still burning, she wouldn't get far even if she ran. As a gunshot rang out, Colby screamed, the sound echoing around the woods.

-•-

Klaus and Rebekah both looked at each other in horror as they heard a gunshot followed by an all-too-familiar scream. The phone line went dead shortly, the call ending abruptly.

"If they did anything to her, I am going to slaughter those witches myself." Rebekah growled out, clutching her phone tightly. Klaus scanned the tree-line of the woods, attempting to catch any hint of what direction she was in.

"I think it came from this way." Klaus said, gesturing quickly in one direction. The siblings sped into the woods, trying to follow the remaining echoes of the scream, listening for any other sound from her. A wolf howling in another direction made them stop, contemplating what to do. It couldn't have been a complete coincidence. Reluctantly, both of them turned to follow the howling. They quickly skidded to a halt before a wolf standing in the middle of a path. It stared the two vampires down before turning, moving back towards a path, stopping to look behind at the two.

"I think it wants us to follow." Rebekah said, walking after the wolf. Klaus scoffed but followed, looking around warily. The wolf led them to the scene of where Rebekah had woken up earlier, staring at them for a moment before running off.

"Great. It just led us to somewhere we've already been." Klaus muttered, looking at the dead bodies. A cracking came from in front of them, twigs snapping beneath someones feet. The siblings were ready to kill whoever walked into the small clearing, but Colby came stumbling through, clothes tattered and splattered with blood, hand pressed against her right upper arm with blood staining the arm of her shirt. Rebekah and Klaus ran towards her, Rebekah wrapping a protective arm around her shoulder, being careful not to touch her injured arm.

"What the hell happened?" She asked as Colby looked down at her hand, covered in her own blood.

"The wolf saved me when that man tried to shoot me. It came out of nowhere just as the gun went off, attacking him. The bullet still just grazed my arm. The wolf led me back here. I think it was just trying to help me." Colby explained, slowly walking forwards, leaning heavily against Rebekah. After several steps, her legs gave out, and Rebekah quickly caught her, easily picking her up and slipping a hand around her shoulders and one underneath her knees. Colby leaned her head against Rebekah's shoulder, desperately trying to fight off sleep, her eyelids drooping as she tried to stay awake.

"I've got you, love." Rebekah whispered reassuringly, and Colby felt herself relax, eyes closing as she fell into a deep sleep.

–•–•–

Colby was standing in the woods in the bayou. She was at the edge of a small clearing, with a woman collapsed towards the center. She was on her knee's with her hands clutching at her head, pulling harshly at her hair.

"Leave me alone!" The woman screamed, crying out in pain. Wolves circled the clearing, watching from the safety of the tree-line. Colby slowly walked forwards until she was mere feet from the woman. I'm so sorry," The woman sobbed out. "I thought I had more time." She wailed, hands falling into her lap. The wind started to pick up then, whipping around both women's hair. Slowly, the the woman tilted her head back to look up at the night sky. There was a moment where everything seemed to stop, before she let out a piercing, blood-curdling scream. It was louder and more dread-inducing than anything Colby had ever heard before. She covered her ears, violently flinching away from the sound. The scream cut off abruptly as the woman fell to the ground, breathing fading out as her heart stopped. Slowly, the wolves began to howl as Colby stepped towards the body of the woman, hands dropping from her ears. Moving around to get a good look at the woman's face, Colby gasped in horror.

"Mom!" Colby yelled out, sitting up in bed, gasping for air. The sun was up, filtering in through the window as she kicked the blankets off of her body. She realized she was in a too-big t-shirt and a pair of her sweatpants, which she assumed Rebekah had changed her into. Colby carefully stood up from the bed, before making her way out of the room.

Slowly walking downstairs, Colby ran a hand lightly the cut on her head, feeling it begin to lightly scab over. The graze on her arm was also freshly bandaged up. As she entered the living room, she saw Sophie sitting with Klaus and Rebekah.

"What's going on?" She asked quietly, sitting down next to Klaus.

"Sophie was telling us about the witches Harvest." Colby nodded slowly as Klaus answered his phone. After exchanging some words, Klaus points to Colby. "Get dressed. Marcel has requested our presence out in the bayou." Colby scrunched her eyebrows together, but complied, running back upstairs to change. "Save the rest of your story for when I get back." Klaus demanded, pointing at the witch. When Colby bounded back down the stairs, Klaus grabbed her hand, speeding out of the house.

–•–

Colby sat between Klaus and Marcel at the bar as Marcel told Klaus more about the Harvest, which was apparently a brutal ritual carried out by the witches in the Quarter.

"I can't joke around about this. I've done a lot in my day, but I do have a rule about kids." Marcel said, lightly ruffling Colby's hair as he spoke. As Marcel spoke of how the girls were being killed, led blindly by faith into something they didn't truly know about, Colby's heart ached for Davina, whom she had never even met.

"You're the one who stopped it." Klaus stated, staring at Marcel, who nodded.

"Kieran knew every detail from Sophie. After his nephew's massacre in the church, he was so torn up. He left town just before the Harvest. But on his way out, he came to me, and he asked me to stop the Harvest. He knew I didn't want the witches getting anymore power. And I do have a rule about people abusing kids, so, I did what he asked. But I was too late. Even when I didn't come alone." Marcel explained, and Klaus looked mildly curious at that.

"You did bring other vampires?" Klaus asked, but Marcel shook his head quickly, taking another sip from his drink.

"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about a witch who was dead-set on stopping the Harvest, no matter what it took." Marcel hesitated a moment, glancing over at Colby before speaking again. "Claire Scott." Colby froze, her glass of water slipping through her fingers, shattering on the ground as she looked at Marcel in disbelief.

"What?" She muttered out quietly, fingers trembling as her eyes widened. Marcel sighed deeply: he didn't want Colby to find out like this.

"She's a witch who was shunned from her coven after killing some of her own while trying to stop the Harvest." Marcel explained, and Colby stood up from her seat, glass crunching beneath her feet.

"Claire has never, once, mentioned being a witch." Colby felt hurt, betrayed. She wanted to scream, anger building inside of her. She had never felt this way before. Claire Scott had lied to her, her entire life and Colby couldn't help but wonder what else she had been keeping from her.