"You do realise that was the moment you should have kissed him, right?"

"I know. Dumb me." Maeve said agreeing with her. She slapped her forehead and dragged her hand down her face.

"I mean, are you serious? He literally told you he loves you and you leave it like that? Just like that. Seriously?" Caroline's voice shrieked over the speaker.

The two friends had been catching up on everything that was happening for the other. New Orleans had witnessed it's fair share of Drama in the last twenty-four hours with the suspicious resurrection and then death of a witch named Papa Tunde.

Ever since the Harvest Ritual, Maeve had not spoken with Elijah again. Maybe it was because she didn't know what to say.

"What were you thinking about anyway that you just...froze like a sculpture."

Maeve sighed and hung her head low. "You know what I just realised? The gap I felt, the emptiness I felt even after achieving so much is Elijah. It was him...always──why I never truly enjoyed what I had done. Why even after everything I still felt incomplete."

"Mae...that is so sweet. So, what now?"

Maeve kicked a stone off the curb of the street. "I think, I should talk to him. Tell him how I feel."

"And that is..."

Maeve sighed. She gulped down a lump that was forming in her throat "I'm going to tell him that I want to give us another chance. That I never stopped having feelings for him." Maeve stopped in her step, glancjng up into the space ahead, suddenly a blushed look crept up her cheeks.

"I'm going to find him and tell him that I lo──" her words trailed off when suddenly Maeve noticed a dark figure emerge from the night's mist. The figure strutted closer toward her.

"Excuse me?" asked Maeve tilting her head sideways as if attempting to recognise or make out who was in the shadows. "Is someone there?" she asked hoping it was just a shadow.

"Maeve? Who's there?" asked Caroline.

Maeve noticed an unknown woman slowly reveal herself under the streetlight. "Can I help you?" she asked the lady.

"Yes. I'm actually looking for you." asked the woman. "The Serene witch who lost all her powers."

Maeve's heart began to race and her palms became sweaty at the woman's words. "You don't know me...but, Celeste sends her regards." The woman smiled malignly.

"Maeve what's happening?" Caroline yelled again.

Maeve turned around and began to rush away. She still held the phone to her ear, listening to Caroline yell her name repeatedly to understand what was happening.

Her run was cut short by a woman almost twice her age who appeared in her path with a devilish smile, "Not so fast."

"You always lorded over the rest of us with your petty kindness. And here is the last one who foolishly sacrificed it all. The power, the magic, the pathetic so-called reign over us. All for those scoundrels──the original vampires."

Inside the dorm room at the Whitmore college, Caroline was pacing, her feet thudding on the floorboard. Elena and Bonnie watched her suspiciously. Caroline couldn't hear anything more than muffled voices sounding feminine.

"Maeve?" she attempted again. There was a momentary pause, and Caroline could hear indistinct voices. She strained to catch any snippets of the conversation, her anxiety growing.

Suddenly she stopped pacing as a loud painful and familiar voice screamed at the top of her lungs over the speaker. Desperation took over as Caroline repeatedly called out Maeve's name, but there was no response. The line seemed to be filled with chaos—indistinctive voices, the echo of hurried footsteps, and, most unsettling, the eerie silence that followed.

Caroline's mind raced with fear as she continued to call out to her friend. "Maeve! Maeve, answer me!" Her voice trembled with anxiety.

She heard Maeve's brief crippled and bleek voice before the call ended. Caroline's hands trembled as she pulled the phone away from her ear.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." she kept muttering attempting to gather together her racing thoughts.

"Care, is everything okay?" asked Bonnie looking at her best friend. Caroline didn't even glance her way. She picked up her jacket she had discarded on a chair next to her bed, picked up her purse and sped away from the room leaving her two best friends in suspicion and worry.

Maeve's heart raced as her eyes shot open, the cold terror of realization gripping her. Bound in iron shackles, she found herself in a dimly lit chamber, the flickering shadows cast by a circle of candles revealing ancient symbols etched into the stone walls.

With growing panic, she struggled against her bonds, only to hiss in pain as the cold metal seared her skin like white-hot fire. "Hello? Is anybody there?" She screamed, her voice strained and desperate, echoing off the damp walls. Her throat burned from the effort and felt as parched as a desert.

"It's of no use. No one can hear you," replied a sinister female voice from the shadows. Slowly, an enigmatic figure emerged into the wavering light; a woman in her mid-twenties, with cascading blonde hair that framed a cruel smirk adorned her face. Tattoos on her arms shimmered in the candlelight as she toyed with a razor-sharp knife between deft fingers.

"Who are you?" grunted Maeve, biting down hard on her tongue to suppress a scream that threatened to tear through her throat.

"My name is... a mystery," she whispered into Maeve's ear, glee ringing in every syllable. "What you must worry about is how long you can hold on before you surrender your life."

The blonde witch sauntered over to an imposing table nestled in a corner and picked up an incense stick adorned with arcane markings. Its sickly-sweet scent began to fill the room as she lit it with the tip of her knife.

"It's about time you see the day you were born," she said cryptically – but it was less of a promise and more of a threat.

The pain that followed was indescribable – it felt as if a thousand knives pierced through Maeve's head, causing her to throw it back in a primal scream that would echo forever in the cavernous chamber.

Unbeknownst to her, the game had just begun; for behind her torturer's sinister smile hid countless secrets and power struggles within a dark and dangerous world, and the stakes were higher than Maeve could ever imagine. As the haunting aroma of burning incense filled her nostrils, she would soon find herself drawn into a labyrinth of deceit, confronting both her innermost demons and an enemy more terrifying than anything she had encountered thus far.

What followed was an endless night of harrowing visions: Maeve's parents dying again and again, their happiness evaporating amidst bloodshed and broken smiles. The dead warriors littered around like discarded memories only served to deepen the scars etched upon Maeve's soul.

Maeve's heart pounded mercilessly in her chest as she tumbled into the abyss of her own nightmares; the night seemed darker than ever before. The cold stone chamber echoed with Maeve's shallow breaths as she found herself haunted by harrowing visions: her beloved parents, perpetually dying before her eyes, their joy dissolving into a gruesome display of blood-soaked expressions and shattered dreams.

As Maeve struggled to make sense of the gruesome scene, the chilling atmosphere of amusement surrounding Lilly began to grow ever more apparent. With dark hair cascading over her slender shoulders and icy eyes that fixated gleefully on Maeve's suffering, Lilly reveled in the cruel power she wielded; it was evident that she had mastered the art of precise torment.

The dead warriors scattered across the floor like debris from a forgotten battle served only to deepen the scars etched upon Maeve's soul. She swore vengeance through her anguish and fought desperately to hold onto that stubborn flame burning within her.Inhumanely cautious and cruel in every detail, Lilly continued to push Maeve's limits with brutal precision, driving silver needles tipped with deadly Wolfsbane deep into her flesh.

The searing pain reached an unbearable crescendo as it twisted through every fiber of Maeve's being.Sensing Maeve's rapidly diminishing strength, Lilly grinned malevolently and released one final strike upon the tormented woman – snapping a heavy collar from around her neck. Gasping for air while fighting against an ever-looming veil of unconsciousness, Maeve knew all too well that there would be no end to these horrors – not until Lilly had been well and truly satisfied.

With every sharp stab of pain, a debate raged furiously within Maeve's tortured thoughts. No one had survived long enough beneath Lilly's torturous hands to reveal what dreadful fate awaited them at the end. Was death truly a release from this torment, or a fitting punishment for her past sins? Would she ever find the strength to make that choice?

As Lilly continued to relish in the suffering she had so effortlessly inflicted upon her captive, it became chillingly clear that there was far more at stake than just one life. This sinister game held graver implications, and its devastating consequences lurked in the shadows beneath a veil of dread.

She prayed and prayed that it would end. The night would end and with it, her pain would as well. Maeve hoped she would be rescued. That someone would somehow find her and take her away from this terrible situation. 

"Don't look so tired just yet, Maeve." said Lily, her voice filled with mockery and cruelty. "Its only been like two hours. We have so much to do. Get to know each other better, get to know how much of a pathetic waste of space you are."

While Maeve was forced to confront many haunting events of her life, Marcel and his vampires had gathered inside the compound.

"He's no where to be found. We torn apart the quarter. Wherever he is, he ain't in the city." Diego mentioned walking up to Marcel.

"Marcel." Elijah's loud voice thundered in the compound. He stalked rapidly inside the compound. His eyes were laser set on the former king of New Orleans. "Where is my brother?"

"I got my guys out looking for him right now." Marcel explained calmly. "He threw one of his classic tantrums and snapped my neck. Tried to take on a coven of witches and got dropped."

Before Elijah could get another word out, his phone rang again. It was the thirtieth call in the past two hours. He pressed his lips together attempting to hold himself back from throwing his phone across the compound.

He answered the call and immediately bombarded the caller with a quick threat. "Whoever this is, I am not interested in any scheme or plan you have for me."

"Elijah, it's me Caroline. Thank God you picked up my call."

Elijah's head swirled in every horrible thought, his mind projecting reels of possible terrible situations as Caroline introduced herself.

"Caroline, why are you calling me? How did you get my number?"

"How did I get your number? Not important. Listen, something's happened to Maeve." Elijah's undead heart clenched and skipped a beat. He felt it drop to his stomach upon hearing Caroline.

"Tell me exactly what happened." he demanded a clear run through everything.

"I was on the call with her when she...I think she saw someone. I could not hear the conversation but she screamed──painfully and loud. The last thing I heard before the call ended was her saying two names. Celeste and Agnes. I have been trying to call her but her phone's switched off."

"Caroline, do you know where she was when you were talking?"

"Yes! She had just left a bar...Rousseau's. Yeah, she had two drinks and was on her way."

"Where?"

"She was on her way to you." Elijah's distress knew no bounds any longer. With his brother and sister gone, he had only hope that Maeve was safe.

"Thank you for informing me Caroline. I'll handle it from here."

"What? No," shouted Caroline, "I am on my way to New Orleans. I want to help."

"Caroline..."

"Elijah, I am not listening. Keep me posted with whatever you find or if there's anything I should do or get on my way there." Caroline disconnected the call. Elijah looked ahead, took a deep breath, and then nodded. "Marcel. Deploy some of your best men to search around Rousseau's and see if they find any clues about Maeve or who took her."

"No need." came a familiar voice from the door. All heads turned to see three men prowl in with guns drawn. The one standing ahead of the other two was none other than Onyx, himself.

"I have already asked my men to scour the city for Maeve, as well as for Klaus and Rebekah." he announced. He hesitated for a moment before he continued on,

"I...was with Maeve in Rousseau's before she was taken." he informed them all with a grieving voice. "I found her phone broken and discarded in a wooded area back of the side street. We'll keep you posted." Onyx turned on his feet and left to continue with the search. It wasn't until he reached the corridor to the front door that he stopped when Elijah called him.

"Onyx, if you do find the witch or whoever it was foolish enough to kidnap Maeve, please bring them alive. I would like to finish the perpetator myself." declared Elijah. He took a moment of pause before continuing, "No one goes after my Maeve and lives to tell the tale."