CHAPTER FIVE | I HEAR YOU KNOCKING

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

SINCE THE THREAT TO HOPE AND AVERY HAD PASSED, THEY DECIDED THEY WOULD LET THE GIRLS VISIT MARY BEFORE THEY LEFT NEW ORLEANS. Hayley walked a few paces ahead, watching as the two little witches giggled and through the forest whilst Elijah and Riley walked hand-in-hand behind. Nothing made Riley happier than seeing Avery happy, despite everything that she had been through. 

"She looks happy." Riley exhaled with a small smile and a sigh of relief as she watched Elijah drape his suit jacket over his shoulder. 

"She deserves to be happy." Elijah reminded her. He lifted her hand up, noticing her engagement ring as he smiled. "And, so we shall. You, me, and Avery."

"I never really got the chance to say thank you. You could've just told me to abandon her, but you didn't." The strawberry-blonde kept her gaze firmly on the little girl she loved like a daughter. "I love her so much, Elijah. And, if I'm really honest with myself, If something happens to her, I think it might kill me."

"Hey." Elijah grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back to face him. His hand lifted her chin slightly, forcing her to look in his eyes. "Nothing will happen to that little girl. I give you my word."

"Grandma Mary!" Hope's excited voice echoed as Mary ventured out of of her cabin to see the two children standing on her front porch.

"Well, hello my sweethearts!" Mary pulled Hope and Avery into her embrace, letting the two children wrap their arms around her. Though, her attention was taken by Elijah, who stood beside Riley. "Why don't you two run on inside. I need to talk to your Mommies."

"Race ya!" Avery squealed aloud the moment Mary stepped aside and the two headed into the cabin. 

"Didn't know you were bringing him." Mary's demeanour shifted into a hostile one the moment Hope and Avery were out of earshot. 

Hayley exhaled. "Mary, come on."

"Vampires aren't welcome." She snapped, then her gaze flickered between Riley and Hayley. "You two are the exception. Rules of the house." 

"I'll leave you three." Elijah gave Riley a pointed look as he placed a delicate kiss against her forehead before he left Hayley and Riley alone with Mary.

Hayley scoffed quietly once the Original was gone. "Seriously?"

"You girls know how I feel. Our kind winds up dead when they're around. Yesterday was lost Lara, I wake up to hear there's been some kind of a cult massacre in the woods." Mary watched their faces fall at the mention of yesterday's events. "Let me guess, Mikaelsons are involved."

"Actually, that's kind of why we're here. We need to chat about what actually caused the massacre last night."

 ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"All we know is that this cult wanted to sacrifice children." Hayley's voice lowered as she, Riley and Mary stood on the decking which overlooked the water. "Somehow Lara got caught up in it and when she tried to get out, she couldn't and she killed herself."

"It doesn't make sense. Someone is recruiting Crescents into a cult?"

"I don't think it's just Crescents, Mary. At this point, I think these people are willing to take anyone that'll believe in his damn thing." Riley stressfully exhaled as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "They're obsessed with this image of a serpent eating its own tail."

At the mention of the image, Mary's face suddenly fell. "What'd you say?"

"A serpent. Like a dragon." Hayley shrugged. "When the girls were was affected, they drew some." Riley handed a few drawings over to Mary that both Hope and Avery had drawn and they were identical. 

"There's something you need to see." Mary breathed deeply as she handed the sketches back to Riley. 

Mary had kept a journal from her late husband which contained the same drawings that Hope and Avery had been producing— a serpent eating its own tail. She let Hayley and Riley examine the journals whilst she kept the little witches occupied inside the cabin. 

"This is—" Riley shook her head as she watched Elijah slowly approach from the distance. "Crazy." 

"Hey." He smiled once he stepped behind his fiancé and ran his hand against her shoulder. "What's all this?"

"This journal belonged to Mary's husband." Hayley extended the book toward the Original vampire, who began to flip through the pages. "He filled it in the months before he died. Most of it's just revolutionist garbage. Plots for an uprising but there's still about my parents in there."

Elijah's attention was piqued. "What does he say about them?"

"Ramblings about how they were traitors for dealing with vampires."

As he flipped the pages, Elijah sat down beside Riley. "I can see this writing deteriorates as his thoughts do."

"Yup. And, toward the end, he can't even from a proper sentence and then—" Riley leaned over him and flipped to the next page of the journal where the sketch of the serpent was. "Hayley thinks the Hollow made Mary's husband kill the parents."

"Growing up, I never belonged anywhere." The Hybrid mother nodded in agreement with Riley. "Not in school. Not in foster care. I always thought if I could find my parents, I'd finally belong somewhere. I did terrible things to find my family. And, when I did, they were already dead. And now I find out that the same people who killed them are—" Her voice quivered. "The one's who hurt Hope and Avery."

"Okay. Okay." Riley moved so she was in front of Hayley and immediately gripped her hands within her own. "Nothing is going to happen because they are not going to win. We are. Like we always do."

The attention was taken as Elijah's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He furrowed his brow before he placed it against his ear. "What is it?"

"You need to come back to the city or Marcel's going to kill Klaus."

"Go." Hayley urged Elijah before he disappeared immediately. Her gaze fell back to Riley. "He'll need you, too. It's okay. I'll watch the girls."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I prefer my mind remain unaltered, for the time begin." Klaus hummed after Elijah offered him a drink. They had managed to subdue Marcel, however the threat of the Hollow still remained. 

"Weird. I feel the exact opposite." Elijah took a large swig straight from the bottle of whisky just as his eyes followed Riley, who immediately entered.

"Avery's asleep. Hayley's reading to Hope. Thankfully, no signs of any infection so far." Riley exhaled as she stepped into the room. Elijah extended the bottle toward her, which she accepted and started to drink.

"Rest easy. My spells have Marcel bound and cloaked." Freya announced as she entered the study. After they had snapped Marcel's neck, it was suggested that he was brought to the compound since he was a threat. "Even more, I can find no trace of the Hollow's magic in either of you."

Elijah appeared anxious. "So, where has it gone?"

"It's a ghost. It could be anywhere. And, since we know that it wants to sacrifice someone powerful, we have to be prepared." Freya attempted to grab the dagger that she had crafted as a weapon against Marcel, but Klaus beat her to it. 

"I think I'll hold onto it for now."

"This wasn't a gift." She snapped. "Today proved Marcel's a threat, whether used as a sacrifice or possessed. What good is having a weapon if you won't use it?"

Riley remained quiet, unwilling to interject herself into the conversation whilst Elijah sighed. "Niklaus, give it to her."

Klaus handed over the dagger with a pointed glare. "Having a monopoly of power makes you a target, sister. Remember that." He smirked toward his sister before she finally left the room. "You think I spared Marcel out of some mawkish sentimentality. The Hollow wanted both of us dead. Killing him would have given it what it wanted. Mercy was necessary, that's all."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───