(CHAPTER SIXTEEN :
BEST SERVED COLD)

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HONEY HAIR PINNED BACK, I unlinked my arm from that of my date's after catching the distortion of my reflection in a locker. Gently, I tapped the boy on the shoulder and hinted for him to enter the decade dance alone whilst I took a detour to the school toilets, needing to rub red lipstick off of my teeth. His face sagged in disappointment, he thought that this would have been our 'power couple' announcement to the population. Easily, I decided to prohibit going public with our status because I could see the end before we even began, which was a bad sign. There was also the added fact I really did have lipstick on my teeth, certainly not the most attractive.

Sighing, I flung the door to the bathroom open, immediately running the cold water tap to help remove the stain. It took a minute at most, giving me sufficient time to rehearse a smile in the mirror. To my horror, when I glanced up, my vampire features had been unwillingly brought forward — the thick, pulsing veins, malicious, red eyes and sharp, pointy fangs had invaded. Inhaling, I squeezed my eyes firmly shut, only opening them again when I knew the abnormalities had retracted. Unknowingly, I released a breath, but was gasping for air only a second later. Fiercely, a rather vital crimson fluid had begun pouring out of my upper body at an immense speed, in the exact spot where an extremely necessary organ was located — my heart was bleeding.

Clutching my heart, I stumbled into a cubicle, whimpering. "Kol," his name slipping from my lips on instinct, like a reflex.

"Charlotte," the Original sped into the room not a moment later, leaving me rather perplexed, yet indebted. "Who did this?" He demanded sharply. As the man sunk to my level to analyse the wound, he discovered that the substance had no opening, it was coming from nowhere.

"I don't know." I mumbled. Rather than it being a physical pain, an overwhelming wave of dejection consumed me. "It's peculiar. I was looking in the mirror and my vampire face appeared, no trigger, then I started bleeding and now I fe——" I coughed, mud, dirt and grime spluttering out of my open mouth onto the tiled floor. "I feel anguished, heartbroken almost and, apparently, I'm throwing up the contents of the ground too."

'Heartbroken' undeniably struck a cord in him. There was no plausible explanation for the three significant events being mere coincidences. On the contrary, he deduced that they all had one common thread and it was him. "A witch, it must be." Kol clicked his fingers as all the jumbled puzzle pieces fell into place. "It's how you should have died. Nik compelled you to stab yourself in the heart and you've bled from your heart. He gave you the letter that left you heartbroken. Then, as a result, you became a vampire." He listed, folding his arms a little too snugly when I accepted he was right. Even the dirt made sense, I was buried alive originally.

"But, who would do this?" I posed a valid argument, lost at to which enemy of mine knew enough about my life to construct such a brutal attack. "I told Bonnie about what happened, but she is the only witch that knows all the ev——" Again, I was cut off to vomit the contents of a grave, maggot inclusive.

"Esther." Kol voiced his suspicions. "She's back, Charlotte. I left Denver because of something she sent me." He said ominously, striking paranoia into me.

"So, you stopped playing Klaus' lapdog to jump through a hoop for that witch?" I couldn't resist the urge to taunt him, his loyalty was second to none.

Kol clenched his jaw. "Ironic how crap still manages to come out of your mouth without the aid of my Mother." He snarled, inching closer to my face in a manner that he was intended to be seen as intimidating, but I perceived to be intimate. "For a dying girl, you're incredibly sarcastic, darling." His voiced oozed contempt. However, the tone was layered, holding more emotion that I ever knew could come from such a cold being.

"I'm not dying." I insisted confidently. "That would be far too easy for her. It would be far more satisfying if I hated you." I claimed, mustering the strength to stand up and clean myself up. Seemingly, the worst of the plagues passed. All I could hope now was that no more were to follow.

He looked taken aback by my response and my movement, rushing to place his hands on the small of my back to 'steady me' — even though I was okay. "You don't hate me?" Kol questioned rhetorically. "I'd beg to differ." Unmistakably, he was annoyed, for it was an expression that I seen him wear often.

Consumed in ridding my dress of the gaping marks, I hummed. "Presumptuous, but I'll bite." I surrendered to his little game, unable to focus when his eyes locked with my mirror reflection. "Why do you think I hate you?" I asked, softer than anticipated.

"Darling," he cleared his throat, which coerced chills down my spine. The endearing term sounded heinous, capturing my attention for once. "I thought about this for every day of my undead life, about the words you wrote that cut my skin like poison-laced blades. Somewhere, buried underneath me, I hoped it wasn't you, that you were as hopelessly in love with me as I were you." Kol recited. It wasn't his fault he knew it by heart, he read it multiple times, the words now smearing him like splattered ink.

In the air, sirens and the slow beat of our two undead hearts could be heard — the warning signs before the calamity. "Where did you get that?" I demanded, unable to devise a way to divert the disaster.

Regardless, he continued, unfazed. "To think, I had the nerve to love the man that did not deserve an ounce of me, and I regretfully gave him all of me. I wish I could forget you again because you, Kol Mikaelson, are a tyrant and a cynic, one I had the uttermost disple——" I cut him off, the string of sentences all too familiar. 

"Stop!" I cried out, my hands clenching the granite counter tighter.

"Oh, would you prefer if I skipped ahead?" He challenged, denying me the opportunity to defend myself as he carried on. "In every vivid and violent way, burn. I wish your ultimate death to be an excruciating one, I hope the flames will swallow you to the point of no return and I truly plead for the fire to bring the fierce sting I am sure I will never be able to." Kol concluded, a fearful emphasis on every syllable. 

Borderline hysterical, I pressed my nails into the palm of my hands to the point it drew blood. "Enough, how did you get that?" I shouted, replaying the events of the night after the ball in my head. I remember writing the resentful letter, but I never gave it to him because Alaric daggered the vampire before I managed to. Later, I was thankful for his intrusion because a critical error of mine dawned on me — it was penned in the heat of moment. Partially, I meant the things I wrote, but, moreover, I was angry that I had my neck snapped.

"Like I said, I came back because of Esther." Kol said, the shock of a package — from his runaway Mother, no less — being delivered to his compelled home in Denver having subsided. "I wanted to hurt you tonight for what you said, kill your date, maybe. Then, I heard you call my name when I was about to go into the dance." He divulged, an emptiness lurking even with his overbearing honesty. "When I watched you suffer here, I figured that it didn't matter what I did, it would be impossible to hurt you more than I already have." Openly, he admitted to his unkind actions. Although his strong stance never dropped, I saw through him, internally laughing at how he thought I would ever be immune to pain, to him. An accurate description would be to say the two combined were more like a drug to me — pain and love made the world spin.

I swallowed. "Is that a mangled version of an apology?" I knew he didn't apologise, not in a concise format, at least.

"Rather a proposition." The brunette corrected stiffly. "In a more tactful way than my beloved sister, I can erase your memories again." He explained in reference to the point in the letter I mentioned wanting to forget him. Ultimately, I was caught off guard by the selfless offering, instead searching for a loop hole or a catch.

Unable to find an ulterior motive, I pondered on it. "I want to keep them, I will keep them." I decided firmly. "You need to understand that I was furious when I wrote that. I only just remembered all of you and you snapped my neck." I reminded him, leaving out the miniature arguments that erupted between us also. "Even though your ego is already the size of the ever expanding galaxy, I'll tell you that a part of me found you extremely charming too. All of us knew the Originals to be bad, my friends would have staked me themselves if they knew I was interested in you." I shared my deepest feelings with him, the feelings I had been denying. "But, I'm not the same girl that would drop all she built in a heartbeat for you. I'm not in love with you like she was — God, don't take that wrong. I'm not sorry in the slightest that I'm not somebody who will wait an eternity." I breathed, maintaining that the confession from our first meeting changed nada. "We're too different from who we used to be, I mean, I am. If you really think you can still love this — somebody who has been battered, broken and bruised to the point of no return — we can try as friends." I concluded, roughing up my curls until it looked stylish and touching up my make-up until it looked presentable.

Kol's demeanour shifted, it wasn't as tense as it were. "In another lifetime, we would have worked." He expressed his distaste towards the new slate.

"In another lifetime, I would be dead." I countered. "Take it, leave it, it makes no difference to me." I shrugged my shoulders, squinting at the man. Lust, or love? He held the cards, so maybe it did make a difference to me, to know if I could truly be cared for or not.

"See you in Amsterdam then, darling." Kol winked slyly.

He zoomed away before I could interrogate him on he found out I was leaving this forsaken town, but not before a female attendee observed him leave the girl's bathroom with an agape mouth. Holding back a snicker, I strutted out, running with my vampire speed when I knew there were no prying human eyes.

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PORTLAND, OREGON [1908]

Niklaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson — always and forever. Plus, the Wily Fox, of course. Although, he was an outcast, exiled from their vow until they wanted a favour from him. Kol had more than a sharp wit and good looks though, he held an intellect that few of his family seemed to possess. In exceptional circumstances, he displayed this to cause a rise out of his family and in others, it helped him plan a great escape. His brother organised a meal, wanting to dine with four of him, and he knew that spelled trouble. Aware of the danger, Kol made the choice to run with a girl, a girl he wanted to hold onto for the first time since 'her who shall not be named.'

"You are late, brother." Nik called, catching his younger brother in the act as he failed to quietly sneak upstairs.

Kol had a bad night, the sweet icing of the poor excuse for a ball he attended being that he convinced his love to flee with him. "To what?" Deliberately, he bumped shoulders with his sibling, in no mood for an infamous temper tantrum of Niklaus'.

Darkly, his brother grinned. "Our gathering, what else?" His beady eyes trailed Kol, scrutinising the boy's appearance. A black tie hung loosely around his neck and his crisp white shirt was untucked. "Given that, I might choose to forgive your indiscretion if you choose to help me. Now, come." Klaus pointedly gathered he had sex and Kol did not object to the false accusation, rather silently followed him to the dining hall.

Elijah was at the head, being the oldest, and the most uptight in Kol's opinion. Then, Rebekah was to his left, her hands resting on her lap and eyes evading him. Klaus tossed an arm around his brother casually, not quite sitting down yet, which unsettled the youngest male. Something was wrong, the dinner was scheduled for tomorrow, he was sure, by then he had planned to be long gone too.

"We are moving to New Orleans, Kol." Elijah started the conversation. "All of us are in agreement you should join, we have reason to believe a coven could assist in breaking Niklaus' curse." Declaring himself as noble, it was within reason he was the composed one. However, Kol was the impulsive one, quick to learn and find a solution. Per mentioned, he was smart and knew that his family recruited his company for purely for the magical connections he gained over the years. For that reason, he caused a riot.

"No." He said simply.

Klaus was oddly satisfied by this, he had been dying to go in for the kill since his oblivious sister let her brother's secret slip. "Perfect." His lips curled. "I do believe it is time for a certain Charlotte Hatton to meet the family. Oh, I know all about her." He happily plotted the murder of the innocent in his mind, prepared to punish the defiance of Kol.

And, just like that, Hell broke loose with the false pretence of a corrupted paradise shattering. 'Rebekah!' was screamed across the room, her being the only one who knew about the mystery girl. This was followed by a mean attack on the quiet blonde, curtesy of Kol, although it was impossible to kill her. Curtains were torn down in his rampage, the table was destroyed and the stained glass windows were stained indeed. Through the red in his eyes, Kol almost didn't catch the mumbles of treachery as he was stabbed in the back by his own brother. Destined to be carted around in a casket until deemed fit. It would have made him flinch if only this wasn't another day in the Mikaelson household.

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Stumbling, I fell to my knees against a wall of blue lockers. There was a surge of energy bubbling inside of me, it was the next attack and the magic was yearning to escape its cage. Similar to one of the waves from earlier, it was an emotion — not heartbreak or anguish. But, Kol seemed to be correct in his theory, it was the consequences of meeting him and this time, it did a time jump because I was back in the 90s. And I wanted to die because I was a monster.

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A.N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter and very exciting to build the relationship with Kol and Lottie more in present time. It is a slow burn but progress, right? Also, do comment how you feel about diverting from the episode. This was all set whilst the dance was happening because I don't want Lottie to be that unnecessary side character with no purpose but to observe. So, I gave her a little witchy plot. I have too much to say about this chapter, any Qs just drop them in the comments.

Who is your favourite Original?