The Date: 1200 AD
The Site: England, the town of Batley.
The night sky was stormy and rainy. The town was ablaze. From the burning ruins of the Copley family castle, the screams and cries of people pounded towards the town gate.
The hoots of horses galloped across the stone streets. The cries of people in agony echoed. People burned alive, people whose homes had collapsed on them.
In the midst of all this chaos, a small family of four ran. They were a father, a mother, and two children, a boy and a girl.
The father could not walk; his feet were broken and charred. The mother was dragging her husband with difficulty across the street. Her hands were burned, and her body was covered in bruises and second-degree burns.
The little girl was crying loudly at her father's humiliating condition. The ten-year-old boy was trying to comfort his sister. "Juleka, please calm down! Our father is still alive!"
Thomas cried anxiously to his sister, trying to console her.
"Don't cry, Julika. Daddy is fine, nothing happened to him". Angelito said in a trembling, rough voice as he tried to stand on his own, using a long stick he found lying in the street.
"My dear, don't try to stand. Let me carry you!" Alvida cried anxiously to her husband, trying to stop him. Angelito gently pushed away his wife's hand, then steadied himself and stood stubbornly. "It's alright, my dear," he said in a pained, trembling voice. "I can stand on my own."
Julika looked at her father with tear-filled eyes, but she stopped crying. "Daddy, are you alright?" she asked, her voice trembling. Angelito smiled broadly and reassuringly.
"Of course, my little princess. Daddy is strong and can endure anything." Angelito said with a big smile to his daughter.
Julika snorted loudly, then ran to her father and hugged him tightly. Angelito's face twitched with pain as his daughter embraced him, but he smiled gently and made no sound. Then he returned the hug tenderly to his daughter.
Alvida smiled with both pride and sadness at the sight. She knew her husband's condition was very critical and he might never walk on his own again. Yet, he stood and endured the terrible pain just to reassure their daughter that he was alright.
Thomas also looked at the scene sadly. He wasn't foolish or naive like his younger sister, and he knew his father would never walk again. But he didn't care; all that mattered to him was that his family would remain safe and sound.
"Wherever you are, Marcus Corvinus, I, Thomas, will never forget your kindness as long as I live."
Thomas looked up at the sky and thought of his savior with a smile on his face. Angelito gently moved away from his daughter and said, "Now, let's leave town and go to the farmhouse".
"Ok,I'll look for a carriage and be right back." Alvida nodded to her husband and turned to leave, but she froze. His eyes widened in utter horror.
"Huh? What's wrong, my dear?" Angelito asked, surprised by his wife's expression. He looked in the direction she was looking, and his blood ran cold with fear.
Angelito saw a muscular man, two meters tall, five meters away. The man stood exhausted and heavy, yet proud and steadfast. His body was covered in blood from head to toe, and it was riddled with scars, claw marks, and enormous bites. The marks were so large that Angelito suspected several grizzly bears had tried to tear the man to pieces.
The man's face was also covered in blood; it was fierce and scarred, yet this did not detract from his handsomeness. The man had fiery red hair and deep blue eyes, as blue as the ocean. However, what truly frightened Angelito was the large gash on the man's chest. The wound was directly above the man's heart, and it was horrific and gruesome, with blood gushing from it.
The man was Michael, who had rushed out of the forest into the town at full speed to reach his children. Michael stood before the family of four with a hungry expression on his face.
He looked down at his hand, which had turned gray again, with large gray veins protruding from it.
Michael clenched his trembling hand tightly, then looked at the frozen family and said, "I'm sorry, it's nothing personal, but I need food to heal."
Black veins bulged beneath Michael's eyes and spread down his cheeks. The whites of his eyes turned blood red, and the sclera of his eyes turned black. Large, metallic-looking white fangs emerged from his mouth as he finished speaking.
"Aaaahhhhh!"
Michael let out a deep hiss and lunged at Alvida.
"Aaaahhhhhh!"
Alvida screamed in terror as Michael pounced on her and bit her neck hard.
Mother!
Mama!
Alvida!"
Thomas, Juleka, and Angelito cried out in fear and panic, then watched helplessly as Michael sucked blood from Alvida's body.
When he had drained every last drop of blood, Michael threw Alvida's body to the ground and looked at Angelito with hungry eyes.
Angelito shuddered at Michael's blood-stained gaze, then turned sharply to Thomas and Juleka, who were sobbing uncontrollably.
"Thomas!, Take Julika and run!" Angelito screamed then turned sharply to Michael when he finished speaking, then lunged at him with the cane he used as a crutch.
"Aaaahhh!"
Angelito screamed in fear and hatred, but Michael easily caught him and then lunged at his neck as well.
"Aaaahhhhh!"
Angelito screamed in pain and terror, and his eyes gradually lost their sparkle as he felt his blood being forcefully drained from his body.
"Daddy!"
Julika screamed loudly and sadly when she saw her father also being killed by the monster.
"Juleka, let's run!" .
Thomas screamed loudly as he pulled his sister along with him, tears streaming down his face like a waterfall.
Michael forcefully dropped Angelito's body, then looked at Julika and Thomas, but he didn't care about them. In his opinion, they were just children who didn't deserve to be killed, and if Michael wasn't forced, he certainly wouldn't have drunk the blood from Angelito and Alvida's bodies, as he had forbidden himself human blood for centuries and fed only on vampires.
Michael looked at his hand, now back to its natural color, then at the wound in his chest inflicted by Marcus when he stabbed him in the heart with the Nemeton branch.
Michael was truly perplexed. Ordinary wood wouldn't kill him, but it would only temporarily suffocate him. The white oak stake, however, would kill him for good.
This was what he knew, and this was what his wife, Esther, had told him when she turned him into a vampire.
But during his battle with Marcus and William, he was stabbed in the heart by a strange kind of wood he'd never seen before.
This wood didn't temporarily incapacitate him like ordinary wood, nor did it kill him like white oak. Instead, it slowed him down, weakened him, and made him feel ill. It was as if this wood was draining the life from him and... slowly killing him.
"What is happening to me?".
Michael clenched his fist and thought to himself angrily, but he quickly shook the thought from his mind and looked towards a magnificent mansion a little beyond town, about two miles away.
A mansion with a large letter M painted on its gate.
Elijah had expected this day to come someday—the day their father would find them again, the day he would be forced to flee Batley, the place that called his home for a whole century, the day he would have to abandon everything he had painstakingly built over a century.
But he hadn't thought it would come so soon, and he hadn't imagined, even in his worst nightmares, that his father would be strong enough to defeat him and his siblings combined and then wipe out the Strixes before his very eyes.
"Elijah!"
Elijah heard his sister's voice and turned to Rebekah, whose face was etched with worry.
"I've called you about seven times, Elijah," Rebekah said to Elijah. Elijah sighed and said to his sister, "I'm sorry, Rebekah. It's just that the Strixes and Aya have..." Elijah clenched his fist and didn't finish.
Rebekah looked at her older brother with silent pity, patted his shoulder, and said, "Don't be afraid, Elijah. Aya is a strong girl. She can use the Khēmri, and the Strix are powerful too. I'm sure some of them survived from our father's attack."
Elijah sighed and said, "I hope so."
Aaaahhhhh!
Elijah heard Klaus's pained cry and turned to his suffering brother, looking at him helplessly.
Klaus glared at Rebekah and Elijah and said angrily, "Will you both stop talking and help me get these damned wooden splinters out of my back?!"
Klaus yelled furiously at Elijah and Rebekah, as he was writhing in agony from the white oak stake that had pierced his back and was creeping deeper into his heart with every beat.
Rebekah looked at Klaus and said, "We've tried everything, Nick. Just be patient until we get out of thr town and escape far away from our father."
Rebekah's expression was helpless as she looked at all the tools, blades, and implements stained with her brother's blood.
She and Elijah had tried every method and tool to remove the splinters of white oak from Klaus's body, but they would never come out.
Rebekah sighed at Kol's gray, veiny, heartless body and looked at him anxiously.
"Try harder!"
Klaus called to her as he struggled to pry the piece of wood that was tormenting him from his back.
At that moment, Elijah stood up and said, "We don't have time, Niklaus. It's true we couldn't remove the white oak from your body, but at least we managed to get it away from your heart, and that's the best we can do in these circumstances. Our top priority is to escape from here as quickly as possible before our father finds us again."
Klaus was furious and about to reply when Rebekah suddenly jumped to her feet and exclaimed, "I've got it!"
Klaus turned to Rebecca quickly and said angrily, "What?! What have you got it?!".
Rebekah turned excitedly to her brother and said, "There's someone who can easily remove the white oak from your body!"
Elijah looked at Rebecca in confusion and asked, "Who?"
Rebekah smiled and said, "Hela could easily do it with her Khēmri."
"Absolutely not!" Elijah exclaimed angrily, dismissing the idea immediately.
Rebekah looked at Elijah and said, "It's our only chance, Elijah. If we wake Hela and she removes the white oak splinters from Nick's body, we won't have to protect him when someone attacks us again. Hela will also be a great help if our father finds us again before we flee the town, and our chances of escaping and surviving will increase with her there!"
"And who says she'll help Nicklaus, huh?! And who says she won't turn on us and try to kill us?! Have you forgotten what happened last time, Rebekah?!" Elijah shouted at Rebecca angrily at the suggestion of waking their other sister.
A major conflict had erupted between him and Hela 30 years prior. During this conflict, Hela attempted to kill Aya to inflict suffering upon him. She also tried to remove the silver daggers from Finn and Sol's bodies and behead Klaus. However, he and Klaus teamed up and managed to subdue her, stabbing her with the dagger.
"We don't have time for your petty squabbles, Elijah! Our brother's life is in danger, and we can't escape like this! Hela is our only chance to get out of this situation!" Rebekah shouted angrily at Elijah.
Elijah opened his mouth, about to reply, but fell silent when he heard Klaus's voice.
"Do it! Wake Hela!".
Elijah turned to Klaus and said, "Have you lost your mind, Niklaus?! she tried to behead you the last time you sat with her, so how could she possibly agree to save your life?!"
"I know Hela very well, Elijah. Despite all her disagreements and hatred towards me, she won't abandon me or let me die. Besides, if there's anyone Hela hates more than me, it's definitely our father, who killed our mother".
Klaus said with confident.
"Yes, Elijah, Hela certainly won't turn against us and side with our father!" Rebekah added firmly.
Elijah opened his mouth, about to reply, but fell silent when he saw Rebekah's determined expression and Klaus's pained face.
Then he sighed and said, "Well, if Hela goes mad and tries to cut off your head again, Niklaus, this time you'll be alone."
"Yes! Finally! I'll go wake her up right now!" Rebekah cried excitedly at the thought of waking her twin sister, as she had felt utterly alone for the past 30 years without her.
"Wait, Rebekah!" Klaus shouted angrily.
Rebekah stopped and turned to him. "What is it, Nik? Do you want to get rid of the White Oak on your body or not?"
Klaus looked at Rebekah and then said, "When you go to wake Hela up, move Finn and Sol's coffins away and hide them before you wake her up."
"Yes, Rebekah, it's very dangerous to wake the others now, especially Finn after what Niklaus did to him last time. I think the first thing Finn will do when he wakes up is try to kill Niklaus." Elijah add too with serious expression.
Rebekah looked at her brothers, then sighed and said, "Okay. Although waking Sol won't hurt, Nick didn't kill his girlfriend like he did with Finn."
"Nooo!"
Klaus shouted angrily and anxiously when he heard his sister's words. "Don't wake Sol, no matter what, Rebekah! Because if you do, he'll turn on us, side with our father, and try to kill us all!!."
Rebekah looked at Klaus with a puzzled expression. Her brother's words didn't make sense; the Sol she knew would never do something like that.
"Do as he says, Rebekah. We don't have time to deal with another angry brother. Hela alone is enough for us," Elijah added, with a serious expression.
Rebekah sighed and said, "Okay, okay. If only you'd been kinder to our siblings, none of this would have happened, Nik. I hope you've learned your lesson."
Then Rebekah turned and sped off in a blur of speed as soon as she finished speaking, without waiting for Klaus's reply.
Klaus glanced at Rebekah's back and sighed with relief.
"Sol found out, didn't he?".
Elijah asked his brother nonchalantly as he straightened his sleeves.
Klaus lowered his head and said bitterly, "Yes, he did."
Elijah inhaled deeply as his suspicions of the past 40 years were confirmed. "And how did he react?".
Klaus shuddered then said. "He tried to kill me immediately, and he said I'm no longer his brother." Klaus finished speaking in a trembling, broken voice.
Elijah closed his eyes at Klaus's expected response. "It's alright, Niklaus. One day he'll come to terms with it."
"I truly hope so, Elijah," Klaus said sadly, not wanting his brother to remain forever stabbed. Klaus's body trembled as he recalled his brutal fight with Sol.
Sol discovered that Klaus had killed their mother and then lied to them to turn them against Michael their father. He tried to take revenge in a furious rage, but Klaus was stronger than him, then he lost the battle and was stabbed in the heart. He then rotted in a coffin for forty years.
Klaus closed his eyes and tried not to think about the memory of stabbing his younger brother.
Sol and Henrik were his closest brothers; they loved him dearly and played with him every day. Sol even stood up to Michael and defended him when Michael beat him like a dog.
Meanwhile, Rebekah arrived at the ground floor of their mansion and entered a large room containing four coffins. Three were for her siblings, and one was a mysterious coffin whose contents she didn't know. Klaus had never told her what was inside.
Rebekah went to the coffins, lifted three of them, and carried them to another floor of the mansion. Then she returned to the ground floor and opened Hela's coffin.
Rebekah looked at her twein sister with a sad expression. Her sister's skin was gray and colorless, and large, gray veins bulged along her body and face.
She wore leather clothing, and a silver dagger was plunged deep into her heart.
"It's time for you to wake up, sister," Rebekah whispered, then pulled the dagger from her sister's body.
Rebekah then went to one of their servants in the palace, seized him tightly, and hurled him at Hela's face.
Hela's body shuddered violently, and she opened her eyes wide.
"Aaaahhh!"
Hela let out a deep, angry hiss, then lunged at the poor servant, sinking her fangs into his neck.
"Aaaahhh!"
The poor servant cried out in pain as Hela greedily drained the blood from his body.
When she had drained every last drop of blood, Hela dropped the servant's body. Then she sat down and glared at Rebekah.
"Hello, Hela. Before you get angry, I want to tell you that..."
Before Rebekah could finish, Hela raised her hand, and a black sword sprang from it, hurtling towards Rebecca.
*Brraahh!*
The sound of flesh tearing echoed as Hela's sword pierced Rebekah's stomach.
"Aaaahhhhh!"
Rebecca cried out in pain and knelt, clutching her stomach in agony. Hela rose from her coffin and stepped out, her eyes widening with rage.
A black sword immediately appeared in her hand.
*Clang!*
A cutting sound filled the room, and the coffin split in two, then shattered into small wooden pieces.
Hela turned to Rebekah, who slowly pulled the sword from her stomach.
"Well, well, look who we have here! My dear twin sister who left me to rot in a wooden coffin for an unknown number of years! Tell me, Rebekah, how many years did our bastard brother steal from me?! How many years did I rot in that coffin until you decided to pull the dagger from my heart?!" Hela screamed angrily and kicked Rebecca hard in the face.
Rebekah flew through the air and slammed against the wall of the room. She winced in pain, then slowly got up and looked at the furious Hela.
Hela's features were incredibly beautiful, almost a carbon copy of Rebekah's. She had the same emerald-green eyes, perfect nose, small pink lips, and large, beautiful eyes, but unlike Rebekah's fiery red hair, Hela's was a deep, ink-black. Hela wore tight, masculine leather clothing, unlike Rebekah's feminine silk, and she wore black leather armor with green stripes over her black and brown leather outfit.
Rebekah looked at Hela and said, "Hela, just once in your live stop throwing swords at people and trying to listen to them for a second!!".
"I have nothing to hear from you! You betrayed me! and left me in a box, Rebekah! You have nothing to discuss with me!"
"Listen to me carefully, Hela. Now is not the time to fight, because our father has found us! We must escape immediately!".
Hela's eyes widened in shock at Rebekah's words, then filled with intense anger. She said furiously, "I'm tired of running! Michael will pay! I will avenge our mother and rip out his heart, just as he did to her!. Then, when his heart grows back, I will tear it out again and again!!. And then I will cut off his head and limbs and scatter them across the ocean!!"
Rebekah's eyes widened with concern. She said, "Wait, Hela, you don't understand. Our father is very strong. We already tried to kill him and...".
Aaaahhhhh!!
Hela's angry roar cut her off.
Hela roared angrily, then headed towards the wall of the room and kicked it with great force.
Kaboom!!
The wall exploded with force, then Hela, furious, quickly came out of the hole she had made and ran at an invisible speed towards the burning town of Batley.
"Oh crap"
Rebekah groaned wearily at her sister's behavior and then ran upstairs to tell Elijah and Klaus what had happened.
To be Continued!!.