23 | How Long Does Forever Last?

TW: Elena and Jeremy Gilbert. That's it.

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐄 lying if she said she hadn't wanted to die at one point. She wanted to at many points in her life. She wasn't supposed to live that long. She was just supposed to live long enough to reclaim what was rightfully hers. She had no idea it would lead to all of this. She had lost a lot. She had lost everything. But her reasons to live just expanded. Cordelia. Maxime. Klaus...Kol.

"Mary?" Kol called.

Mary didn't answer, nor glance at the man. Her eyes were closed as she sat on the steps of her front porch. She could hear everything, even sounds from far away. She felt and heard Kol approach her before sitting down next to her, careful about his actions so as to not overwhelm or freak her out due to her adjusting to this new nature.

"It's quiet." Mary muttered under her breath, her eyes still closed.

Kol watched her in awe, his eyes narrowed a bit in confusion because of what she said but a small smile tugged on his lips.

"I find that to be untrue. At this point, everything that makes a noise around you, you can hear." Kol told her.

"I mean my mind." Mary responded. She slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the sunset, casting a bright orange light above the houses. She then turned to her left to look at Kol. "I don't hear her anymore."

The original vampire didn't respond right away, or rather, couldn't, because he was too hung up on how the yellow-orange light from the sunset illuminated her delicate face and auburn hair. It saved her from the paleness that was her skin when he first saw her in that coffin. Now, she was warm.

"Yes." Kol said before ripping his gaze off of her when he lowered his head, reality hitting him once again. "At the expense of your own life."

Mary tilted her head at him, his eyes squinting slightly as she observed his expression, his behavior.

"You don't have to mourn me. I'm not dead." She pointed out.

"Technically, you are." He responded almost instantly, as if he was expecting her to say that.

The former queen, now former witch and siphoner as well, looked away from him and settled her gaze ahead of her, staring into the wind. "What matters is that I'm free."

"And you will be eternally imprisoned with the curse of being a vampire if you complete the transition." Kol muttered, unenthused by the outcome of events.

"It's a price I'm willing to pay."

"Well, I'm not."

"Too bad you're not actually paying for it."

"Actually, I am." Kol argued, causing silence to befell Mary as she listened to the original vampire beside her. "Seeing you right now, what you have become, reminds me of how everything started because of me. All of the horrible things that have happened to you thus far have been because of me."

Mary had never seen so much regret in his eyes. She knew he was at least capable of feeling it. But never did she once expect him to be this guilty.

"The only person I could ever love and I ruined her." He whispered. But because Mary was already experiencing the effects of pre-vampirism, she heard him. Loud and clear.

"I find that to be untrue." Mary replied, mimicking his answer earlier. This earned a confused look on Kol's face while he glanced at her, oblivious to what point Mary was going to make next.

"My emotions are heightened. And I was dreading it because I was afraid that my hatred toward you would overshadow everything else that I feel for you." She explained with her gaze fixated on her hands as they gently caressed one another. Then she turned to him. "But almost vampirism helped me realize something."

She watched Kol watch her. There was something in his eyes that she almost missed. His soul. Klaus always said that his eyes were the windows to it. But instead of a rogue and wild soul that stared back at her, it was a vulnerable soul, warm and peaceful. His humanity was peeking through them and it melted her heart.

"I was broken long before you came into the picture. I didn't want to admit it, but being a Queen was what broke me. It set me on a path that no person should have ever experienced. But will I do it all over again? Shamelessly, yes. Scotland is my home and I will break myself to see her thrive." She explained.

Kol slightly furrowed his eyebrows, starting to get where this conversation was going.

"You didn't break me, Kol." Mary said, then a small, genuine, sweet smile that broke him in an instant tugged on her lips. "You're my gold lacquer."

He wasn't going to lie, this wasn't what he was expecting when they started this conversation. It was clear on his face how taken aback he was at the words that Mary let go. She fought the urge to giggle at how his lips stretched into a victorious grin with his eyebrows still knotted together. Like he was happy, yet also in need of a confirmation before completely losing it. It was adorable.

"Are you saying—" Kol was on his way to grab the needed confirmation when Mary decided to show it to him instead.

The former queen leaned in, placed her gentle hand on his cheek, and caught his lips in hers. Kol was surprised for mere seconds before he began to deepen the kiss as he snaked his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him before placing his other hand on the back of her neck.

Kol felt like he was on cloud nine at the europhic taste of her lips against his while Mary was beginning to get drunk on how much of his emotions Kol was bringing into the kiss. The yearning, the lust, the admiration, the passion. His love for her. She was intoxicated on how amazing he was at projecting so much of his feelings onto her that her heart was bursting.

She decided to return the favor, earning a smile to form in Kol's lips as they continued to kiss, his heart beating out of his chest when he sensed her emotions in this. It was all so thrilling. It was at that moment they both knew that they had changed from wanting to kill one another to wanting to kill for one another.

Kol was the first one to pull away, despite not wanting to. But he knew he needed to let Mary breathe if she was going to survive long enough to be with him. Their foreheads were still touching while the original vampire watched Mary catch her breath with her eyes closed, a small smile curling on her lips. It felt surreal. Just her mere smile was enough to weaken him. The effect this woman had on him was strong.

But he knew that if he wanted to live like this forever, something had to be done.

"I have to do something." Kol said before he stood up and moved away, stepping down the porch. Mary's gaze followed him with confusion written all over her face.

"What? Where are you going?" She asked, standing up herself and walking down the porch to follow the vampire who had stopped just in front of the house.

"I just need to finish something." He told her, maintaining a sweet expression on his face to not alarm her. He then stepped close to her, causing Mary to crane her head up as Kol tilted his head down on her. "But while I'm gone, feed. I need you to complete the transition so when I come back, our forever will finally start right away."

Mary narrowed her eyes, her feelings uncertain about the fact that suddenly he was the one giving orders. After all, she was a ruler and she was used to giving commands rather than accepting them.

"I may not be a queen anymore but I like to think you're still my subject." Mary joked, arching an eyebrow at him.

Kol could not help the wide smile that stretched on his lips. Suddenly, everything Mary did was tugging on the original vampire's heartstrings. And he could not exactly complain about that because it was the most alive he had ever been.

"Relax, darling." Kol placed both his hands on her face, his thumbs tenderly caressing the soft skin of her cheek. "You're still my queen and you'll have an eternity to rule over me."

This caused Mary to smile just as wide, her teeth biting her lower lip as she did. "Very well."

The original vampire continued to smile at her before leaning in to place a kiss on Mary's forehead. He took one last look at her before he moved and sped away.

The former queen sighed, the smile still lingering on her lips before her knees went weak and she collapsed on the pavement. She had been dead for three days. Her transition should not have been extended this long. She was quickly dying.

"Mary!" She heard Maxime's voice ring in her ears as well as the heavy steps he took while he ran toward her. He immediately knelt to the ground and picked up the redhead in his arms, walking her back inside the house where Cordelia waited.

"She needs to feed, now." Maxime told Cordelia while he gently placed Mary on the couch. He knelt down beside the couch and pushed away the strands that covered her face.

Cordelia, with teary eyes, opened her mouth but not a word came out. She was hesitant. She loved Mary. She was her best friend. But she was sincerely afraid of what Mary might become if she turned. With a broken mind like hers tainted with vampirism, she'd be too out of control. Cordelia was worried that Mary would blame her for how things turned out because she couldn't help her get rid of the spirit in another way.

Maxime whipped his head toward the Bennett witch when he heard nothing from her. With an alarmed expression on his face, he tried to snap Cordelia out of whatever she was thinking.

"Delia!" He shouted at her, making Cordelia flinch at the volume of his voice. "She needs to feed. She's dying."

"She's already dead, Max." Cordelia noted.

Maxime stood up from beside a suffering Mary and slowly walked toward Cordelia, rather intimidatingly. "I've done everything you've asked me to. But at the end of the day, I listen to her. And if she wants to turn, I will help her do so."

"Max—"

"I owe her my life."

Cordelia took a step back as she narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion. Maxime looked at her in confusion, puzzled about how the Bennet witch was glancing at him.

"Do you love her?" She suspected.

Maxime furrowed his eyebrows. "She's my best friend, as are you."

"Do you love her?" she asked again.

That was when he understood what exactly she was asking him. And at that moment, he was hurt. One of his best friends was acting as if she didn't know him. That she didn't know what he had been through when in fact her and Mary had a front row seat of how he was treated in France before he was taken in as Mary's knight then later on the commander of her Queen's Guard.

"How little do you think of me that you suspect the reason I do this is because I'm in love with her?" Maxime said. "I'm not in love with her, Cordelia."

Cordelia regretted the words that came out of her mouth as soon as she witnessed the hurt expression on Maxime's face.

"She gave me purpose, she held me in high regard which is more than what I can say for most people in France, including you." Cordelia looked away in Maxime's words. She was guilty. Before knowing Maxime, she used to see him as someone below her. Someone who could never meet her level in protecting Mary. She was proven wrong, of course. She doubted him and was proven wrong. Just like she was doubting him now and once again proven terribly wrong.

"She was a supernatural being and I a human, yet she chose me to be her guard because she never once doubted my abilities. She made me commander of the Queen's Guard. Now, she brought me back to life because she thinks I can still help her." He explained. He watched as Cordelia clenched her jaw. He could already see the guilt in her eyes for once again thinking low of him. That was something that at least made him feel a little better. "Nobody has ever believed in me in years more than Mary has in a minute. I intend to do right by her this time around."

The Bennett witch just stood there, silenced at the loyal knight's words. Maxime looked at her for a few seconds longer before he turned around and walked back toward Mary, pulling out a knife from his belt before kneeling down next to her. With s sharp intake of breath, he sliced his own palm open, blood seeping through the wound.

Mary suddenly shot her eyes open at the fresh, sweet scent of blood in front of her.

Cordelia exhaled deeply before making her way toward Mary and kneeling beside Maxime. "She's too weak to move. I'll lift her head."

Maxime glanced at a worried Cordelia and he nodded his head toward her, which Cordelia returned before the two of them assisted Mary in completing the transition. The Bennett witch helped her lift her head while the loyal knight urged her to drink from his hand. When the scent of blood had become too strong to resist, Mary had given up her control and drank the blood.

Both Cordelia and Maxime witnessed the way her previously pure, deep brown eyes turn into something completely unnatural. Her brown irises turned into pitch black ones. The white around them turned bloodshot red. Then veins started to pulse under her eyes.

It took everything in her to remind herself that this was Maxime she was drinking from. With enough determination, Mary pulled away from his hand and blood trickled from the sides of her mouth. Her eyes were still black and red, the veins around her eyes not stopping from bulging, and now her two best friends had a clear view of her new set of sharp fangs.

The transition was complete.

• ─────────────── •

"What's taking him so long?" Mary worried as she paced around the living room, waiting for the return of a certain brunette original vampire.

"He'll be back, don't worry." Maxime tried to reassure her, but Mary's paranoia seemed to have amplified as well.

"It's been hours and I haven't heard from him." She pointed out. She was hugging herself, her right hand unknowingly caressing her left arm nonstop as she paced back and forth.

Cordelia and Maxime shared a glance, trying to figure out how to soothe the new vampire's paranoia before the Bennett witch spoke. "I'm sure he'll return soon. Why don't you sit down first."

"I don't want to sit down!" Mary suddenly snapped at her, earning a startled gasp from the witch when Mary whirled around and normal eyes were replaced by her vampire ones. Cordelia staggered backward as Maxime stood in between the two of them.

The auburn haired vampire quickly realized how she was acting, causing her to revert back to her original appearance while she flickered her gaze between the witch and the knight. Mary opened her mouth, wanting to say sorry but she couldn't form the words as she was too stunned by what just happened. The rage just flew out of her before she could even recognize it was even there.

"I-I didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry." Mary said.

"It's alright, you're new to this. You're just overwhelmed." Maxime assured her. "Right, Delia?"

Maxime looked back to Cordelia, his eyes telling him to help him reassure the shaken up Mary. The witch swallowed hard and smiled before nodding. "Yes. You're not used to your emotions being heightened yet. You'll learn to control them soon."

The woman nodded, taking their word for it before she proceeded to pace around the room. That was how they spent the night until Mary's phone rang and in an instant, she picked it up.

"Nik, are you with Kol?" Mary immediately asked.

"That's funny, because I was going to ask you that same question. But I think we both know the answer." Klaus said. Mary sensed the bitterness and anger in his voice, causing a confused expression to creep into her face.

"What do you mean?" She asked, her forehead creased.

"Kol just phoned me. He's at the Gilbert's stirring up trouble. And because I honor our friendship, I'm calling you first as a courtesy before I take care of him." He replied.

Mary felt her body stiffen at his words. Knowing Klaus, she already figured out what he meant by that. And the former queen nearly whimpered from that alone, it was like someone punched her in the gut.

"No. Nik, please don't." She pleaded. Mary could feel her eyes starting to water, tears gathering them.

"He has left me no choice, love. Clearly, his love for you is not enough to snap him out of his delusion about Silas. He has continued to sabotage my plans and I will not sit idly by and let him get away with it." Mary could hear the firmness in his voice, as if nothing could change his mind at this point. The thought of Kol being daggered already pained her, what more when she actually saw him like that when they were supposed to start their forever right away?

Mary was crying now. She had little control over her emotions. Tears were flowing down her face as her breath hitched on her throat. Her sobs were so clear over the phone that it broke Klaus's heart just hearing them.

"Nik, please." She begged, her voice straining. "Please don't take him away from me."

Klaus stopped in the middle of the street when he was already making his way toward the Gilbert Residence. The original hybrid closed his eyes and sighed deeply as he gripped the phone to his ear, hating the sound of her broken voice and crying through the phone. He could imagine her clutching the phone and pleading.

"Fine." Klaus gave up. "I won't dagger him. I'll bring him back to you. You have my word, little fox."

With that, he hung up to get Kol out of the mess he had gotten himself into and bring him back to Mary safely.

A relieved smile stretched over Mary's lips before taking the phone away from her ear and turning toward her other two best friends. "I'm going after Klaus and Kol. You two stay here."

"No, we're coming with you." Maxime said. He was so determined to protect her, it warmed Mary's heart. Even though he wasn't the queen anymore, his loyalty never faltered.

"No, it's okay. It'll be quick." Mary said, wanting him to not worry about her. "I'll be fine. I'll be more than fine."

She stayed there for a few seconds longer, looking at both of them and giving them a small smile to reassure them that she'd be alright before she sped out of the house.

Mary was excited. She felt alive. The air was cooler, the path was clearer, the future was brighter. She was looking forward to her forever, because she knew that she would finally be spending it with someone that she loved. After centuries of being alone, yearning for the feeling of being in love and loved, there she was again, basking in it. Did she expect that person to be Kol? Not in the slightest. Would she change a thing? None.

He was her air. He was her heart. He was her gold lacquer. He was her everything. He was...dead.

It was like everything had stopped around her as soon as she stood in front of the Gilbert's House. Her entire body became numb, even the pounding of her heart in her chest before it shattered into a million pieces she couldn't feel. The sight before her was blazingly bright but her vision had never been darker. Her surroundings had grown quiet but all she could hear were his screams. She couldn't feel, but the tears that escaped her eyes indicated her pain.

Kol's body was burning on the dining room floor of Elena and Jeremy's house, and Klaus and Mary were just in time to witness how he was just murdered. Mary and Kol's forever didn't even begin, now it never will.

"Mary." Mary heard Klaus call her, his voice careful and delicate, as if not wanting to alarm her more than she already was. But Mary did not say a word. She didn't even spare him a glance. She was too focused on the two Gilberts that hid behind the power of invitation.

Her broken expression gradually turned into a furious one. Her teary, glistening eyes became dark and grim as she glared at the two people in the house. Her hands that were trembling balled into fists so tight, her nails were digging into her palms drawing blood and dripping to the ground. Her jaw tightened, her teeth gritted, her breathing became heavy. What was left of her innocence and kindness abandoned her that night.

And with the smoke of his burned body carried in the air, the wave of her wrath besting that of the devil's from beneath her feet, and the windows of her eyes now unlatched to unleash whatever evil lurked in her soul...

A monster was born.

• ─────────────── •

That is the end of part one! Sorry for updating a little late. Had to do a couple of things for school. Anyway, like I said, I'll be taking a break from publishing chapters just until I've written enough for part two. I hope you enjoyed part one! See you again soon <3