GETTING DOWN TO NEW ORLEANS was a hell of a car ride. After hours of driving, she found herself rather hungry, despite consuming a few blood-bags Elena had stored in her car. Dahlia needed fresh blood, and lots of it. The girl parked the stolen car in the parking lot of a bar on the side of the road that looked very old and tattered. As she got out of the car, she saw a group of men sitting outside and eyeing her hardly. She closed the car door and felt their burning stares while walking up the cement.

"Take a picture. It lasts longer." She smirked as she sashayed past. The men shifted their gazes away uncomfortably and began speaking to one another. The wooden bar door creaked as she pushed it open and saw the lack of customers, and lack of food. She scanned the dim bar and counted a mere eight rednecks day-drinking. Dahlia sighed and walked up to the cleanest one she could find. She sat next to him and looked at him seductively.

"Well, hello." His unexpectedly deep voice spoke. She smiled and looked him dead in the eye as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You're gonna go to the washroom without saying anything. Don't be scared." She stood up and headed to the bathroom with the man following. She closed the door and turned to him before jumping at his neck.

She sucked at the mans neck eagerly, the sweet liquid splashing in her mouth and taking over her. The taste only made her hungrier as she kept drinking from the fading man. Dahlia finally pulled her head back for air, and when she leaned in for more, she noticed she went a little overboard. The man swung his head dizzily and looked up at her, squinting and then finally gasping at the blood staining her mouth. She bent down and held the gaping man's shoulder.

"Forget this happened. You slipped and hit your neck on the sink." She mentally scolded herself for her horrible excuse. The girl turned to the dirty mirror and wiped the dripping red from around her mouth and neck using toilet paper. Throwing the man one last glance, she stepped over him and walked out of the bathroom searching for her next human bloodbag.

Her hunt for food was interrupted when she saw the little clock overhead the door. The clock read 3:32pm, reminding Dahlia of the long roadtrip ahead of her. She groaned and slugged out of the bar and into Elena's car. Taking some time to hotwire the vehicle again, she finally got the shitty engine to start and fixed herself up in the rear-view mirror before taking off.

The vampire drove towards New Orleans for another few hours, resisting the urge to pull over and drink the delicious, sweet blood of any one of the drivers next to her. She wanted to be there before the sunset, but she was behind. The once bright, yellow light was turning an orange colour, shining in her face while she drove as if taunting her. The sky was a shade of pink and purple mixed. 

As Dahlia stared out into the sky, she remembered seeing the sky being a similar hue the evening of Qetsiyah's wedding. The two were once very close despite Dahlia being slightly younger. Dahlia admired Qetsiyah's relationship with Silas. Although she'd never seen him before, she thought he was the perfect man, at least that was how Qetsiyah described him. The way she spoke of him made her truly believe in love, despite never finding the one. 

Missing her own friend's wedding was awful, especially since said friend was left at the altar. Dahlia couldn't attend, as she was busy trying to find out who the hell these people she was with were. A group of people took her in and weren't all that bad, but every once a while, she'd black out and do things she had no memory of doing. Since all the sketchy people were at Qetsiyah's wedding, Dahlia had no other chance to find out the truth about them. She watched the last of them exit their mud-brick houses, and went into their homes. Unfortunately, she came out with nothing. No plans on paper, no weapons other than the one's every villager had, nada.

The guilty girl rushed under the full moon to her friend's wedding, only to find her with her back to the guests and staring at the table in front of her. Dahlia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, wondering how the wedding wasn't done by now. But as she searched for the groom, it all clicked. Silas left her on their wedding day. Unconsiously, she ran down the aisle lit by torches, and tugged on Qetsiyah's arm to pull her away from the guests' view.

"He drank it." She deadpanned while staring at a dead flower in her hand. Dahlia shook her head, completely lost to what she was talking about.

"Drank what? What are you talking about?" Suddenly, the bride stomped off and out of her own wedding. Dahlia followed her with questions spurring out. "Where are you going? Qetsiyah!" They were now in the woods, and Qetsiyah turned and hissed at her.

"Lower your voice!" She whisper-yelled. The woman turned her head at fixed her gaze on something, so Dahlia looked at what it was. In the distance, the girl could make out a tent with two figures. "No." Qetsiyah breathed out as she got closer to the tent. Dahlia followed and when she saw who the two were, she threw her hand up to her mouth to stifle her gasp. In the tent was a man, who she presumed to be Silas, with his hand around Amara, Qetsiyah's handmaiden. 

"Hide!" Qetsiyah whispered when Silas stepped out of the tent, looking around carefully before walking away from the tent. Dahlia held her breath next to the woman as Silas walked past the two, unaware of them hiding from him. When out of sight, Qetsiyah stared at the tent before pulling out a small tube with what looked like blood swishing in it. Understandably, Dahlia shook her head in shock.

"What...What is that?" She asked. The almost-bride smiled psychotically to herself.

"The cure. To getting Silas back, and ridding the Earth of Amara─" She began to walk forward with her eyes glued to the tent ahead of her. "─Stay there. Do not follow me." She commanded. Dahlia did as she said and stood there, watching her step inside. She couldn't make anything out due to how far she was, so she turned forward with her back against the tree trunk and took a deep breath. Her breathing and the crickets in the forest filled the silence, until there was a muffled shriek from the tent. The girl instantly turned at the tent, but still couldn't see anything. She squinted and craned her neck forward, but still wasn't able to see anything. She turned away from the tent and looked around.

After a few minutes of silence, Dahlia was about to walk into the tent but stopped and hid when she saw Silas treking back towards the tent. Her breath hitched in her throat when she remembered Qetsiyah was in there. She peered over the tree in time to see Silas step in and freeze. Watching intently, she sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, contemplating whether she should go in or not. Curiousity getting the best of her, she licked her lips and slowly inched towards the tent. She moved the white fabric and stepped in, gaping at the sight before her.

The once white-colour of the tent was now stained with red blood all over. Unable to find Amara, Dahlia hoped she wasn't killed, but Qetsiyah's hands covered in blood proved her wrong. Her attention was drawn to in front of her where Silas on his knees, groaning in pain.

"Take the cure, Silas. We can live long, human lives together." Qetsiyah pleaded with her hand out towards him. Her face was towards Silas, leaving Dahlia to stare at her back. Dahlia gasped.

"Qetsiyah! What are you doing?! Stop!" She yelled at the woman, unsure of what she was really doing. The scorned woman turned her head to the side, glancing at the girl from the side of her eye.

"I thought I told you to stay there." She said sternly.

"Qetsiyah. Please stop...whatever you're doing. He's clearly in pain." Dahlia ignored the woman's comment, her pity growing. She couldn't take people being hurt; it was really one of her weaknesses. But she knew Qetsiyah wouldn't just hurt him, she'd probably even kill him.

"That's the point. Get out." She sneered at the girl, who stiffened at her tone. She sent a sorry look towards Silas and reluctantly stepped outside. Unable to handle his torture, Dahlia ran back to the garden in search of anyone to help the man. By the time she'd found someone who believed her and made it back to the tent, Qetsiyah and Silas were gone. 

Dahlia didn't see Qetsiyah for days after that, until she finally returned with joy. Dahlia couldn't help but question what the hell she was doing to Silas, and what he drank that was so important. Qetsiyah decided to tell her the truth about not just her and Silas, but about the group of people Dahlia investigated. As she listened, Dahlia couldn't believe what she was hearing. The people she slept across from, smiled at, talked to were some kind of witches named travelers. The reason she had blacked out was because someone was literally inside her. Thanks to Qetsiyah, she was able to get the person out without doing the practical knife-in-gut method. 

Qetsiyah also revealed that she and Silas were powerful, known witches in the traveler community. The thing that Silas drank was an immortality elixr so that the two of them could spend eternity together, but Silas gave it to Amara. Speaking of Amara, Qetsiyah never really killed her. She made it look like she did, but actually imprisoned her to a supernatural dimension called "The Other Side". 

 Hearing the word immortal, Dahlia's eyes lit up. She'd always wanted to be immortal, but never really tried since she thought it was impossible. Noticing this, Qetsiyah offered to make her immortal, to which Dahlia immediately agreed to. Not thinking about it was quite possibly her biggest mistake, as she later regretted it when she couldn't live a normal human life.

Unfortunately, the travelers killed Qetsiyah one day when Dahlia was on a walk. Overhearing a group of people talking about it, she fled the country hoping they wouldn't kill her next. The immortal trailed across Europe and Asia for centuries, until meetng Niklaus in France in the 1800's.

Dahlia honked at the idiot walking in the middle of the road. As she drove, she realized there were many idiots walking in the road. She had reached New Orleans and was in the small pocket of the city that was overflowing with supernatural creatures. Pulling her phone out while driving, she checked the time. Before she could see what the hour was, the car hit something and she laughed.

Her laugh, however, quickly faded when she saw what, or who, she hit. A familiar dark-skinned man with a stubble fixed his collar before raising his hand at the car. Dahlia felt the car lift into the air and gasped as she looked down at the man, who now had a crowd behind him watching the shit-show. She gritted her teeth at the idiocy of the man.

"Marcel! Put me down, NOW!" She stuck her head out the window and yelled. Marcel tilted his head and brought the car down slowly. Once on the ground, Dahlia stormed out and glared at him. "Are you a fucking idiot?" She howled at the man. His eyes widened at the sight of the girl and he slowly walked up to her.

"Dahlia Vixen? No way." He studied the intricate details of her face. 

"In the flesh. Now let's talk about you flinging me in the air." He smiled, flashing his pearly whites that Dahlia once loved, but could care less about right now.

"It's my city now, what can I say? I see you've gotten your memories back." She scoffed.

"Actually, this was never really your city. All Niklaus'─" She watched his smile twitch. "─As for my memories, why do you care? You never visted." He scrunched his eyebrows.

"You wouldn't have recognized me." Dahlia rolled her eyes.

"Excuses." She glanced over his shoulder to a crowd of people listening in to their conversation. "Is there something interesting here? Shoo, you worthless blood-suckers." She laughed. "Oh wait, I'm one too now." Marcel's mouth formed a small 'o' before speaking.

"When?" He asked softly. He was always caring and protective, especially to her since they were basically family. She'd met him and Niklaus introduced him as his son, which caught her off-guard. He was always the kindest soul in a room, despite everything she knew he'd been through.

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, Marcellus, I kinda need a favour." He clenched his jaw. "Oh relax. I'm not asking for your lame ass city, don't soil your pants." What Dahlia loved was that if she ever did ask for his city, she knew he'd give it up for her. 

"Where's Niklaus?" He ran his tongue over his bottom lip.

"You know I can't take you to him." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not gonna ask again." The Original sighed before beginning to walk. Dahlia squealed and ran up next to him. The two walked in an uncomfortable silence, which Dahlia didn't really care about. She was busy planning how to kill the bitch that Niklaus impregnated. And Niklaus too, for fucking another girl.

Marcel finally stopped in front of an enormous house that almost looked like a three-story apartment complex. The girl smirked as she knocked on the door.

"He's probably not home." She ignored him and kept knocking. Eventually, she started banging on it until Marcel held her arms. "You turned off your humanity." He observed.

"Thanks Captain Obvious. Now move." She pushed him off and banged even more. Seeing there was no response, she grunted in anger and began to walk off, looking for Niklaus. But as she stepped away, she didn't hear the front door swing open.

"Dahlia?" The voice she'd been yearning to hear again said. She turned to find Niklaus standing at the door with a look of shock and confusion on his face. 

Dahlia smirked. This was going to be so much fun.

a/n

goddamn this is long