1986 Flashback

New Orleans was beautiful this time of year. There were street festivals, music, and art, all the things I greatly enjoyed. I had only been living here for 4 years, and I was sad to say that I would have to move on again in a few months.

It was also a place in which I had heard there were many supernatural occurrences, which was the original reason I had moved here. But no matter how hard I tried, the citizens didn't like to talk about it.

They would talk about creatures of the night who fed on blood and men who turned into animals every month, but I had a hard time believing that crap. I also tried to see women who claimed to be witches and had them run tests on me, to see what I was.

They all turned out to be fakes. Or maybe, there really WERE witches, yet they couldn't figure out how I was still alive.

My time in Augustine had turned me into an even frailer shell of myself. Now 3 decades after I had escaped, I slowly started jumping less at noises, having horrible nightmares, and puking at the sight of blood.

"You're supposed to be Layla, the witch of the underworld right?" I asked tiredly as the woman sat down in front of me, her props in hand.

I had been meeting with various women and men who claimed to see the future or know the supernatural every few months, and I was running out of ideas.

"Yes yes!" she said extravagantly. "And you are the girl who does not age."

"Yup, that's me."

"Give me your hands dear," she ordered, grabbing them before I could resist.

She closed her eyes and started humming deep in her throat, and I looked around to make sure no one thought we were crazy. She squeezed my fingers so hard they almost started hurting, and right when I was about to pull away in frustration, she let go with a gasp.

"Oh child," she whispered under her breath, leaning in towards me. "This is not good at all."

Her breath smelled like stale lettuce and pepper, and I had to refrain from making a face.

"What," I waited patiently, leaning back and crossing my arms over my chest.

"There's a beast in your future!" she croaked, making motions with her hands. "A man that others call a monster, but that you see as your savior! Ah yes."

"Lady, I didn't ask for a romantic future sighting," I rolled my eyes in anger. "I thought you said you could help me figure out what I am!"

"Eh?" she looked confused. "Oh right, yes. Well, let me see. Mmmm, yes, yes, you are.... you are a special type of something. SUN! MOON! SKY! EARTH!"

She started shouting random words, making me realize that she was absolutely useless, just like all the other ones had been.

"That, um," I tried to find the polite words. "That sounds like–"

"A whole lot of rubbish," a British voice interjected. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear the last bit of your conversation."

I looked up to see a man standing at our table, and he motioned for the lady to get up, then promptly shooed her away.

"Um, excuse me, who are you?" I asked indignantly, watching my offended last hope walking away.

"Kol Mikaelson. Pleased to meet you," he offered his hand for me to shake.

"Kaitlyn Paige," I told him unsurely, breathing in sharply when he brushed his lips to my knuckles when I had expected him to shake it.

"That woman was spewing a load of rubbish to you. She was probably hoping you were another young naive girl to suck money off of," he said matter-of-factly.

"How do you know?" I demanded. "For all I know, there could be a beast in my future!"

"Unlikely," he scoffed, smirking a bit.

"So, Kol Mikaelson," I smiled a little. "What brings you to New Orleans?"

"My family lives here," he explained, his face going a bit tight. "I haven't seen them for, um, many many years. I have been occupied one might say."

"Oh, cool," I replied. "Well, uh, I should get going."

"Wait!" he called out before I took my stuff. "Would you like my number?"

"Oh, um..."

"Isn't that what a guy does when he wants to stay in contact with a girl?" he scrunched his nose in an almost comical look of confusion. "I'm a bit behind on the times."

"Of course. Sorry, I just haven't really chatted with someone for real in a long time," I gave him my mobile and he typed his number in.

"Well, see you around Kol," I waved before I left.

End of Flashback

"Rudy. Come on! It's too hot to make me come looking for you," a woman yelled out impatiently, picking up a toy off the ground.

Klaus had a hold of my hand, and he whooshed us across the big front yard so that we were standing directly in front of the young woman. She stood up and gasped at the sight of us, clutching her chest.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Klaus apologized in a faux American accent, so bad that I almost snickered.

"Can I help you?" she asked rather impolitely, side-eying me as I glared right back at her.

"Yeah, our carr ran out of gas a couple of miles back. We've been walking for ages and yours was the first house we saw, so we were just hoping we could use your phone?" my lips pulled back in what I hoped was a friendly smile.

"Don't you have a cell phone?" she looked me up and down with distaste. "Skank."

I was about to smack her out of frustration when Klaus pulled me behind him gently, getting a broken phone out of his pocket.

"Battery died. Look, we promise we're not serial killers, we just want to use the phone," he persuaded her.

I rolled my eyes. Please, telling someone you're not a serial killer would definitely set alarm bells going off in their head.

"Sure," she sighed with impatience.

"Soo, I can come in?" Klaus asked hopefully.

"No," she said flatly. "I'll get the phone and I'll bring it out to you."

Klaus's expression turned dark as he said, "I thought you country folks were supposed to be more trusting."

"I'm from Florida."

"Well, that explains it," he growled, grabbing her neck and compelling her. "Now show me a little southern hospitality. Sweet pea."

He grabs my hand again and pulls the woman and me towards the house, and into their kitchen where another lady was cooking.

"What's going on?" she asked in alarm, assessing the situation.

"Please don't be alarmed. I was told Ray Sutton lives here," Klaus reassured loftily.

"He's almost never here. He's on the road mostly," she avoided our hard gazes.

"But I expect he makes it home, once a month. That's what I thought. Where is he now?"

She looked from me to him, not responding. I took a threatening step towards her, my hand falling from the hybrid's grasp.

"Answer us, and we won't have to do this the hard way," I warned, and she gulped nervously, no doubt seeing my eyes fill with black.

Klaus looked at me in shock, not understanding how I did that, but stayed quiet and waited for the woman to respond. She set her mouth in a hard line and dashed past us, throwing open the front door, but a man blocked her path. Stefan.

Klaus pulled the lady from Florida down the hallway, and I followed.

"Ah, I love it when they run," he smirked devilishly, and I couldn't help but smile at the terror on the girl's face.

For weeks now I had soaked up the pleasure of other people's fear and pain. It satiated whatever dark cloud was churning within me, and it made me feel more powerful. Of course, the daily bottles of Hellcraft were helping as well.

" He's in Toll. It's near the border. A bar called Southern Comfort. It's on Highway 41," the woman finally cried, evidently giving up.

"Thank you," I drawled impatiently. "Now can my friend over there come in?"

"Yes," she sobbed.

The Salvatore steps in, looking threatening in his stance. Klaus pushes the girl into his arms and turns to the other one.

"Kill this one quickly," he ordered. "And make that one suffer. Kaitlyn and I will be in the car."

"Wait I want to watch!" I exclaimed, hissing when he grabbed my arm and shoved me out of the house. "Hey!"

"Don't HEY me!" he yelled. "What the bloody hell was that back there?! Where your eyes filled with black?"

"It was nothing," I huffed, striding towards the car.

He caught up with me quickly, his fingers closing around my upper arm as I squirmed with distaste.

"Kaitlyn, I'm....," he looked like he was trying to choke the words out. "I'm worried about you."

I let out a loud laugh as I climbed into the car. He got into the driver's seat and tried to capture my gaze.

"This isn't you," he whispered, and I scoffed.

"And how would you know that?" I grimaced. "You don't know me."

"I could sense the type of person you were when I talked with you in the woods that night," he murmured, and my mouth frowned even further.

"I don't want to talk about this. Especially with you!" I spat, turning around to face the window, pleased when I saw Stefan walking towards us, wiping the blood splattered on his face.

Klaus merely sighed in exasperation, quieting when Stefan got into the backseat and ordered us to start driving.

"I can't talk about it," I repeated under my breath, a sinking feeling in my stomach.

∆ ∆ ∆

We reached the bar about 30 minutes later, and when we got out I was grateful to be able to stretch my legs out.

"Just talk to him for a bit, warm him up, flash him that beautiful smile of yours," Klaus smirked, and I refrained from rolling my eyes. "Just make sure that he's Ray Sutton. We'll be waiting across the room."

I sat down at the front and ordered a glass of coke while I waited. Soon enough, a short sleazy-looking man with unkempt blond hair sat down next to me, leaning in a bit too close.

"Hey pretty lady," he smiled. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Sure," I giggled, trying not to gag from his breath. "What's your name handsome?"

I could swear I heard Klaus sigh in disbelief from across the room.

"Ray," he introduced, holding out a grimy hand for me to shake. "I think I'm gonna like you."

"Oh Ray," I made sure to talk loud enough so that Stefan and Klaus could hear. "I don't think you're gonna like me at all."

"Ray Sutton!" Klaus sauntered over, swinging an arm around my shoulders, but not before I threw them off. "Just the fellow I've been searching for! I had 2 lovely ladies in Florida lead me right to you."

"I think I'll be going," Ray got up nervously, but I wrapped my fingers around his upper arm, and he winced as I dug my nails into his flesh painfully.

"Not so fast. We aren't done talking to you," I hissed, pulling him back down in his seat. "Why don't you buy me that drink you were offering before? I'll take a bourbon."

"What are you?" he questioned in confusion.

"Oh me? I'm just a regular girl who works out," I laughed, obviously not giving away my true identity. "But these two hunky men with me are vampires. Well, one isn't even that."

"She's right," Klaus murmured, throwing an arm around me again and this time not letting me shake it off. "I'm a completely different kind of monster. I've got some vampire. I've got some wolf."

"He's a hybrid, Ray," I spelled out for him sweetly. "And you're going to help him make more, aren't you?"

"You can't compel me," he growled, looking at the three of us.

"Oh no, but we can hurt you," I smiled. "Until you reach your breaking point, and even then, we'll keep pressing, to see how far we can go until you shatter. This is gonna be fun."

"Can you bring out the darts please?" Stefan asked the man at the bar, then turned to the scared werewolf. "Tell you what Ray, we're gonna play a little drinking game, something I like to call truth or wolfsbane."

He pulled out a pouch of wolfsbane and poured it into his hand, crushing it with his fingers. He then left to set up the torture device, and I followed him with glee.

"You're a little scary. You know that right," Stefan whispered in my ear. "Everything okay?"

"Yup," I replied curtly. "Just eager to keep going."

A few minutes later, Ray was chained to the wall and we were all taking turns throwing wolfsbane darts at him. His face contorted with pain, but he refused to make a noise every time the dart embedded into his skin.

"Ray, you can end this right now. Just tell me where your pack gathers for the full moon," Stefan sighed, taking a dart from my hands which I was about to throw. "Kaitlyn, let me do the torturing."

"I can't," he let out in menace.

"You can, and you will," I picked my nail idly, bored by the lack of screaming. "I'm going out for some fresh air."

As I walked away, I picked up on Stefan and Klaus giving me a worried glance that they thought I wouldn't notice. Rolling my eyes, I walked faster out of the bar and into the cool summer air. I took out a small flask of Hellcraft and gulped a few sips down. I had many more bottles in my travel bag, but I brought the flask everywhere I went.

"What's that?" I heard a voice say behind me, and I spun around in surprise, seeing Klaus lean against the building. "Drinking so early in the day love?"

"Don't call me that," I said under my breath. "I'm not some girl you can charm into telling you everything."

"I just came to check up on you. You looked a little unhinged in there Angel."

"Angel?" I laughed. "Wow. And no, I wasn't unhinged, just bored."

"What happened to you?" Klaus mumbled, looking me up and down, his eyes resting on the beverage in my hand. "Can I have some?"

"NO!" I yelled when he began to reach for it. Then to cover up my outburst, "Um, it's just a special vitamin drink. Keeps me healthy."

"You're a terrible liar," the hybrid deadpanned, grabbing the flask out of my hands. "You don't get sick, you're supernatural."

"Give it back!" I demanded, trying to take back the Hellcraft.

He just chuckled and held it above his head, where I was too short to get it. After a few humiliating jumps, I crossed my arms across my chest in frustration as he looked down at me in bemusement. He then opened the flask and sniffed the liquid inside.

"This is not vitamin juice," he furrowed his brow, and in his distraction, my hand shot towards the flask.

I miscalculated the distance and the liquid splashed over the pavement, smoke billowing from it. The hybrid's eyes widened as he realized how toxic it was, and grabbed me by both arms, backing me up against the wall of the building.

"What is that?" he growled softly, his chest almost touching mine. "Why would you put such liquid inside your body?"

"It's none of your business," I hissed, pushing him to the side, but he simply pinned me tighter. "It keeps me strong okay? Why are you so interested in what I'm doing, huh?!"

He stayed silent for a few minutes, looking into my eyes with rage swirling in his. I tried to control my breathing when in reality I was focusing on how good he smelled, how disgusting I probably looked, and how much I wanted to connect my lips with his.

Then he let me go, obviously not wanting to answer the question, and ran hand through his short golden locks. "Stefan went to take care of Damon and Ray told me where his pack is. Come back inside."

I followed him back with a huff, still a little flushed from our last encounter. I was also mad that my Hellcraft got wasted like that. Now I would have to wait until this evening for my next portion. I could already feel the aching need rising in my gut.

Klaus marched over to Ray, who looked completely done with life, which is how I felt every morning on a daily basis.

"Okay, it's a three-step process, Ray. This is step one. I want you to drink from my wrist."

"I already told you where to find the pack. What more do you want from me?" Ray pleaded in whimpers, looking at me as if I was going to help him.

"Don't look at me," I put my hands up. "I'm not gonna help you, buddy. You're on your own on this. Klaus has great plans for you."

Klaus nodded at that, then forced Ray to drink the blood seeping out of his wrist. "You'll thank me for it later. There we go, attaboy!"

Klaus then abruptly snapped the werewolf's neck, and I almost flinched, feeling an unwanted emotion of guilt. Great, the lack of Hellcraft was making me feel things again. I clenched my hands into fists.

"You're back," Klaus said in a pleasant surprise to Stefan arriving.

"Did you doubt me?" Stefan's eyebrows raised.

"Not for a second. I knew you'd pass the test," Klaus smiled, then added, "But you still care for your brother, for your old life.

"Nah, I don't care about anything anymore," Stefan tried to shrug nonchalantly, but we could see right through him.

"You put on a good show, Stefan. I almost believe you. Let's hope, for your brother's sake, he does. You never stop caring about family, do you? But, every time you feed, the blood makes it easier to let go."

"You can't keep forcing him to drink human blood," I snapped angrily. "Eventually he's going to snap."

"That's exactly what I'm counting on," Klaus smirked. "Now come, let's go make some more hybrids."

∆ ∆ ∆