"Cassandra!" Elijah shouted, his voice echoing through the bayou, he heard it repeat over and over again, fading into the night until he shouted her again. He hoped he heard wrong, he hadn't heard anything since that one scream, but he couldn't just leave it.

He used every ounce of his power to channel his speed, to go faster, to reach his destination quicker. Elijah knew he'd hate himself if he was too late. He jumped over a root of a tree that had embedded itself into the ground, hitting the floor with force and then carrying on his travels.

Elijah felt something wrong, like he shared a connection with her. And for some reason, he had an idea of where she was, he could see it in his mind.

Elijah's feet slowed to a halt as he saw the crumbled up body on the floor; his heart stopped for a moment as the area turned a deathly silent. But a heartbeat could still be heard, her breathing could still be heard, though it was slow, it was something.

He knelt down beside her and lifted her head to see her flickering eyes; her nose bled and she had cuts over her face that seeped too. Her white dress now covered in a velvet red.

"Cassandra, I'm here" he whispered to her as she felt his presence.

"Elijah" she muttered, using some of her energy to say his name "is that really you?"

"Yes, it's me, I'm real" he assured her "Cassandra, what happened?" He helped her to sit up, her body still swaying with dizziness.

"I-I heard a scream when I was in my chambers, I thought that maybe I could find whoever was doing this, to prove it was not my friend" she explained, every word had a few seconds interval so she could catch her breath "I don't remember much after, only I stopped and then something hit me to the floor, and something just kept hitting and hitting"

Elijah could see the worry in her face as she retraced her steps up to the disaster; she was scared of something.

"It left me alive though, and that's all one could ask for" Cassie went to fidget but she cried out in what Elijah believed to be pain.

"You're hurting" he observed, trying not to stare at the blood on her skin, trying not to stare too long at it to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Please don't eat me" she managed to joke as she realised Elijah was very much eyeing her up for dinner. But he wouldn't do that, she knew it.

"I won't" he smiled

"Elijah, it hurts so badly, I fear I am dying" she cried "I'm too young to die, not this way"

"Listen to me" he held her head so she looked at him dead in the eye "you are not dying, you are not going to die"

"I might as well say now that I have some feelings that I've never experienced before, feelings towards you, Elijah" She admitted, caught up in the nightmare where she was actually dying. "I'm too stubborn for my own good, and I can't admit it when I have my whole life ahead of me because we could never be together"

Elijah quickly bit into his wrist, stunned at what she thought were to be her last words. Did she really want to waste them on her confessions to him?

If Cassie truly believed she would die, there would be a hell of a lot more to explain than just this.

The blood poured from Elijah's wound as he forced it into her mouth. Cassie felt the warm droplets of metallic liquid fall onto her tongue and glide brilliantly down her throat. That was what she needed; her wounds healed and the blood dried, and alas, she was no longer dying, she was as healthy as she had ever been.

Her mouth slipped from his wrist and she wiped his blood from her mouth, smudging her own blood a little more. Cassie's eyes flickered up to Elijah and she just stared.

"Do you think we should talk?" Elijah asked "about your choice of last words"

"Please, let us forget about that" Cassandra turned away "I was scared, I say foolish things when I'm scared"

"But it must've sparked from somewhere" Elijah urged; he thought that she might think those feelings wouldn't be returned. Yes, they did have some work to do on everything, but he did return them.

"I heard Rebekah talk to Niklaus about you all having to move" Cassandra said, turning away "I thought maybe I should at least admit it, to be fair to myself. Apologies if it has caused any discomfort, I haven't really felt anything like this..."

Elijah leant down and stopped her mid sentence, both sat on the muddy floor of the bayou, and he kissed her. But it wasn't long before he felt her hands press on his chest as he was pushed away.

She had to catch her breath, feeling an overwhelming amount of butterflies attack the lining of her stomach, her heart raced faster than it did when she was in danger. But somehow, Cassandra couldn't let it carry on.

"But I am not ready" she replied, making it sound like she had not finished her sentence, when she only saw a million endings to their story and none of which were happy. It all ends in heartbreak, for her. "I have been through a lot, being shunned by my own family and it does really take a toll"

Elijah stared at her in silence "we can work together, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, I'm not like that"

"I know" Cassandra smiled "and I know that if we had all of the time in the world, then I would definitely not say no; but our time is limited here, I know it, you know it"

"What do you mean, limited?" There were so many possibilities, so many definitions of the word; it linked to so many different things.

"You will have to flee, whereas I'm keeping my feet firmly planted on New Orleans soil in case we don't catch this person before you leave" Cassie said "you'll be leaving; I'll be staying with a heavy heart and a giant sized Elijah shaped hole in my life, yet another thing that i'll have to miss"

"Whoever this is..." Elijah sighed "they've singlehandedly destroyed the community I sought to create, and now it's causing even more issues; when I get my hands on this person..." Elijah stopped, he didn't want to speak of such torture in front of her, though she's probably thinking the same thing.

"But I respect your wishes" it would be better anyway, it saves them from getting into something and having to rip each other's hearts out because they wanted different things. But it was nice to know she cared. "By the way, do you know where we are?" He asked.

Cassandra nodded "far from the city now, or anything to be exact"

Elijah tried to keep a smile on his face, most of him wanted to actually be with the girl. But she was too smart, she knew that it was a bad idea.

"Should we start walking?" Elijah asked, taking her hand and pulling her up

"We can't" she refused "it's, it's too dangerous, just in case whatever is there is still out there" and it could be, he didn't know where Eloise and her new friend went. They still could be lurking around.

"Where is there to go?" Elijah asked "here we are sitting ducks"

Cassandra didn't have to think hard before realising where abouts she was. Her feet stepped forward as she carefully looked around "I have an idea"