In New Orleans, bodies couldn't be buried. Instead, in boxes above the ground, the dead clustered together, when a man passed on his family tomb was cracked open. Old bones were shoved aside to make room for fresh remains. Bloodlines rotted, entangled. The houses were that way, too. Layer upon layer of peeling paint, hiding little tragedies. Scorch marks from the fires. Waterlines on wallpaper. These were the tombs of the living, where we rotted alongside memories of our dead. Crowded with people we had failed and those who had failed us, we were forced to struggle with those we loved.

When there was a monsoon brewing in New Orleans thanks to Hope gathering up the bodies of the four siblings, Marcel and I had tried to stop her, but she threw our spirits into a chambre de chasse where the siblings were trapped as well, also with Freya.

"Marcel?" Rebekah asked. "Noah?"

"Damn it," I told them. "We got to go now."

"Hey," Klaus told us. "What game is Vincent playing?"

I scoffed. "Oh, this has nothing to do with Vincent. We got to get out of here. The city is about to wash away. She's out of her damn mind."

"Who, Noah?" Klaus asked. "Who put you and Marcel here?"

"It was Hope," Marcel answered. "Hope is responsible for all of this. Ivy was telling Noah, Vincent and me all about the latest prophecy when a hurricane showed up off the coast out of nowhere."

"A monsoon from the water is the final curse before the firstborns die," I explained. "That means me, Freya, Hope, Marcel, anyone else who was born first in this city."

"We went to go find you guys," Marcel went on. "Hope was at St. Anne's. She had Klaus and Elijah's bodies laid out on the floor. She's gathering up all of you to take back the power that's been split up inside of you."

Klaus was desperately worried. "She can't do that. It'll destroy her. That was the whole point."

"She threw us in here when we tried to stop her," I explained. "We can't leave until you guys find your keys."

"Well, she can't find my body," Rebekah told us. "It's halfway across the world."

"She has help," Klaus told us. "I created hybrids with her blood, they're sired to her. They'll do anything she asks. She'll take the power back. She'll end the curses, she'll keep the firstborns safe, and then my daughter as we know her will be forever lost to the darkness."

*****

Marcel and I were talking to Kol in the music room of the compound.

"You got something against literature?" Marcel asked.

"Well, these are the collective works of William Shakespeare," Kol explained. "Love, power, betrayal. How to thrive in the Mikaelson clan 101. Davina and I sent these to Hope on her ninth birthday."

"How is Davina?" I asked. "You know, she doesn't call much these days."

"Well, that's how normal families work," Kol told us. "You learn what you can, and then you grow up. Join a cult, start a rock band, find love, make your own family."

Marcel nodded. "Hmm. Doesn't that fly in the face of always and forever?"

Kol scoffed. "You know, to think I spent a thousand years dying to be a part of that vow."

"What changed?" I asked.

"I met a girl," Kol answered.

I found a key in a book. "Voila. Four more keys to go."

"Why would your book of plays be in the music room?" Marcel asked.

"Kids are messy?" Kol asked.

"Yeah, but this room doesn't even exist anymore," I explained. "There was a storm. Everything was damaged. That was at least a century ago. Hope's never even seen this room."

*****

We walked into a room to talk to Freya and Rebekah.

"It doesn't feel real yet," Freya told her.

"I guess I've always been jealous of her," Rebekah admitted. "I was jealous when I saw her with Hope. Jealous when I saw her get married. I guess I'm even jealous that she's dead."

"Wow, that's morbid," I told her. "Freya, we're trying to sort out a puzzle. A chambre de chasse of this size would be constructed from the depth of memory, right? But there's a room here that hasn't existed for a century. And Hope would've never seen it."

"Oh, that's impossible, Noah," Freya told me.

"Wiped out by a storm," Marcel explained. "The music room."

Kol pointed at Freya. "Oh, I brought you there during the Christmas party, where Nik, Rebekah, Elijah, Marcel and I drank as a family, Noah played 'Carol of the Bells', Niklaus stabbed me in the heart. You remember."

"Kol..." Freya trailed off.

Klaus appeared in the doorway. "Freya." We all looked at him. "What have you done?"

*****

We heard Freya and Klaus arguing in the courtyard.

"Hope asked for my help."

"So you decided to lend a hand in her destruction?"

"The plagues are nearing their end. All it would take is one more meeting between you to end it all. Something needed to be done."

"I was leaving New Orleans when you struck me down."

"Who's to say you wouldn't be weak again? Test the limits to lay your eyes on Hope, as you did with Elijah?"

"Don't put this on me! I was trying to protect her. Perhaps I was wrong to have faith in you. Maybe your obligations to family were infringed upon by other plans. Keelin's back, isn't she?"

"Stop it, Klaus. I have sacrificed everything for you, for Hope. I understand that you were trying to protect her, but that is not what she needs right now."

"I'm her father. I decide what she needs and what she doesn't."

"Do you? Because while you were gone, I was here, with Hayley. Hope did everything we ever asked of her. The one time she acted out, it was because she missed her dad. You want to see what she does with a lifetime of missing both her parents? We have to let her make her own choices."

"She's a child."

"Her childhood ended three days ago, when she lost her mother. And as long as that magic is inside of you, Klaus, she's as good as orphaned. Look, we've all done dangerous things for family, and we've seen each other through it. Now it's her turn."

"Freya. You have to stop her."

"No."

*****

I heard Marcel and Elijah talking in another room.

"Kol and I already searched this room, unless you're just here for the trip down memory lane."

"There is no memory lane."

"That's what I'm told. Though I find it very hard to believe, considering Vincent finished the spell."

"Maybe Vincent should find himself a new hobby, 'cause clearly this witchcraft thing isn't working out for him. Either that, or whatever meddling you did fried my brain."

"You don't remember teaching me how to play the piano in this room? Or welcoming me home from the war, in the courtyard? How about exiling me from the city that I built? Or ripping my heart out, before dropping my body off a bridge?"

"No."

"Well, I guess if I were you, I wouldn't want to remember either."

"What are you suggesting here, Marcellus?"

"'Marcellus'. I guess something in your memory is working after all."

After hearing that conversation, I went to talk to Klaus. I walked into a room where Klaus was burning something in the fireplace. "What are you burning?"

"Ancient history," Klaus answered.

"You know, you're all the same," I told him. "You're setting fire to your guilt, Rebekah and Kol are trying to run away as usual, and Elijah, lying about his memories."

"What do you mean?" Klaus asked.

"He just called Marcel in the other room, Marcellus," I answered. "Things are creeping in, only nothing of substance, nothing that hurts. If Elijah doesn't know who he is, it's not because of magic. It's because he doesn't want to remember."

"Well, now he's gonna have to, if he wants to save his girlfriend's life," Klaus told me.

I nodded in agreement, looking around. "All right, Hope, where did you put his key?"

*****

Marcel and I stayed upstairs while the four siblings were arguing about Elijah's memories.

"You've been lying to us all day," Klaus told him. "You remember everything."

"I remember nothing," Elijah argued. "For all I know, I was born at a bus stop seven years ago."

Klaus glared. "Lie."

"Why would I lie?" Elijah asked. "I want out of here as bad as you."

"What's going on?" Rebekah asked.

"Our brother has been deliberately repressing his memories to keep us trapped here," Klaus told them.

Elijah raised his voice. "I am not your brother! And I didn't ask for any of this."

"You most certainly did," Rebekah disagreed. "It's not like you held a family vote before you decided to erase all of us."

"You ever consider the possibility that perhaps you don't even want me back?" Elijah asked. "I mean, it seems to me that I make you all incredibly miserable."

"We all make each other miserable," Kol answered.

"But through it all, we are family, and we made a vow," Rebekah told him. "Always and forever."

"I made another vow!" Elijah told them. "And the woman that I pledged my life to is out there, and she is dying. So if you believe in any way that--that I am your family, then I'm begging you... I am begging you... help me."

"When Vincent and Marcel were recovering our memories, what did you see?" Klaus asked.

"A white corridor," Elijah answered. "A long white corridor with a red door."

Kol nodded in understanding. "That's where you hide the things you don't want to remember. You've been doing it for a thousand years."

"Then what happened?" Klaus asked.

"I tried to open the door," Elijah answered. "The handle was on fire. It was a searing heat. I mean, I've been in broad daylight without my ring, and I've never, ever experienced any heat like it."

"So you know how it feels to have our flesh melt from your bones, have your insides turned to lava," Klaus told him. "Because that pain is the last thing Hayley knew. No swift and painless death for her. Just raw fire! It's true, and that is what's behind your door. The truth about what you did to the woman you love."

Elijah shook his head in disagreement. "The woman I love is Antoinette."

"How can Antoinette possibly hold a candle to Hayley, to the way that you felt about her?" Rebekah asked. "You loved her."

"I mean, did I?" Elijah asked. "Did I really? Are you sure that my feelings weren't simply the product of my ridiculous crusade to try and save you? Any excuse whatsoever just to maintain that pathetic entanglement of always and forever?"

Rebekah looked up worriedly. "The storm's escalating. We're running out of time."

Klaus scoffed. "We're wasting it rehashing ten centuries of separation anxiety, and none of this has anything to do with our vow."

"It has everything to do with our vow," Rebekah disagreed. "Why do you think we never tore Elijah and Hayley apart? You knew that Hayley would stay close because of Hope, and as long as Elijah was in love with Hayley, he would never leave you, either."

Klaus raised his voice angrily. "But he did leave! Elijah was always there for me. Swooping in when my rage got the better of me, setting me on a path to redemption. For a thousand years, he made me need him. My brother was my greatest ally. He was the only one who could give me a chance of being worthy of Hope. And he was my best friend. You killed him. And I hate you for that."

The four siblings started to glow with blue energy as the power was being taken away from them.

"Hope's taking the power from us," Kol told them. "There's no stopping it."

Rebekah gasped. "It's too late."

*****

In the dungeon, I found Elijah's key, the last one, in a coffin, sighing. "Oh, great." I walked upstairs, rejoining us in the courtyard. "Guys. Elijah's key, I got it."

"How did you find it?" Rebekah asked.

"Well, Kol's key was in 'As You Like It'," I explained. "Act one, scene three. 'Now go, we in content to liberty, not banishment'. Hope knows you can't stay. She's setting you free. Rebekah, she put yours on the necklace that you gave her, hidden somewhere safe and secret."

Rebekah nodded. "Just like I hid her when she was a baby."

"Klaus found his in letters Hayley wrote to him about Hope," I added.

"Get on with it, Noah," Klaus told me.

"Elijah has been a lot of things to us over the years," I went on. "After you ripped Marcel's heart out, all you represented to him was death. After what happened to Hayley, Hope sees you the same way. Your key was in a coffin, in the dungeon. Come on. Let's be done with her maze of metaphors."

The siblings each put a key in the locks on the table, which led us to the white corridor with the red door.

Kol sighed. "Oh, bloody hell. Now we're in Elijah's mental maze. Of all the hells I've had to endure..."

"The door?" Elijah asked. "What is this, Hope's revenge? Imprison me till I reclaim all of my memories, forcing me to accept accountability for all of this."

"Well, as much as I love a cherry on top of a scheme..." Kol trailed off. "I have somewhere else to be."

Kol left through his door.

"We can't just leave him here," I told them.

"He can find his own way out," Klaus argued.

"Nik, we made a vow," Rebekah told him.

"I made a vow to my brother," Klaus corrected. "That's just the man who got Hope's mother killed."

"I thought the same thing about you once," Rebekah replied. "Do you remember our mother? Before all of the turmoil? Because I do. I remember when she would put flowers in my braid, and I remember when she would sing to us in the morning. And then you killed her."

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Marcel asked.

"Because we are capable of doing terrible things, but we are also capable of forgiveness," Rebekah answered.

"It's just a door, Elijah," I told him. "Open it."

Klaus sighed. "Rebekah? Marcel? Noah? Go on. We'll be right behind you. Both of us."

Rebekah, Marcel and I nodded, leaving the corridor through our respective doors to wake up in the real world.

*****

In St. Anne's, after we all had woken up, Klaus and Elijah did as well. Elijah had regained his memories, overcome with the pain of Hayley' death. We all watched on in sadness and suffering as Elijah cried out in pain and guilt.