CHAPTER EIGHT

Death Keeps Knocking On My Door

_____________

     RYAN KIND of wished he did not know about the events that transpired the night of the twins' birthday. Not only did Josie and Lizzie's biological mother come back from the dead, she was possessed by some kind of demonic being and asked her children to siphon the magic away. A process that killed Josette Laughlin for a second time.

     Once the woman disappeared into thin air, Alaric and Dorian discovered the monster responsible for bringing up such harsh memories for the Saltzman family. Another one after the knife. He called himself the Necromancer. He apparently thought highly of himself. Ryan tried and failed to get more information about the monster. Alaric refused to say anything else, wanting him as far away from the creatures as possible.

     The man wanted Ryan, along with the rest of the school, to take part in the town wide event called Remembrance Day. A day where the residents of Mystic Falls swarmed the local cemetery to reflect on the loved ones they have lost. They were supposed to write letters to the dead and then leave them around the mausoleums and tombstones as a gesture. Ryan understood it. At least, to a certain extent. The act of writing to a fallen loved one could be relieving, even borderline therapeutic, to many people. To Ryan, on the other hand, it felt like a chore. An assignment that he would rather forget in the bottom of his backpack.

     Over the course of his life, Ryan encountered more than his fair share of death. He witnessed vampires and witches alike die at the hands of their own people and beings more powerful than they could have ever dreamed. His own family met the doors of the afterlife in one form or another. Some on more permanent terms.

     Ryan walked alongside Rafael and Hope as they made their way to the common room. Ever since the twins' birthday, the three hung out often together. Ryan loved that his sister finally decided to break out of her shell and make a few friends, even if they were some of his. They were hoping to grab a spot next to the fireplace, one of the most popular spaces in the main building of the school. It sure beat a secret trip out to the werewolf transitional cells where Alaric locked up the Necromancer.

     Ryan came to a stop with his eyes landed on a stranger as they strolled into the front entrance ahead of him. The girl shook, sluggish in her movements. Her curly dark hair fanned around her in tangles, while dirt and grim covered her face. "Wait," Ryan called out and brought his sister and friend to a halt.

     Rafael followed the Mikaelson boy's gaze. "Cassie?" he questioned in complete disbelief.

     The girl turned to him and breathed, "Raf?"

     Hope's eyes widened. "Cassie? Isn't that your..."

     "My girlfriend," Rafael finished, dropping his backpack to the ground, and then rushed forward to wrap the girl in strong embrace.

     Ryan froze at the sight. What the hell was going on?

     _______

     The Mikaelson siblings set out to find Alaric once the shock of Rafael and Cassie's reunion faded a bit. Ryan knew something had gone wrong. He figured the Necromancer resurrected the girl to keep them busy, hoping that it would take the attention off of him and his quest for the mystical knife.

     "Dr. Saltzman," Hope voiced as they moved into the only cell that held voices.

     Ryan's eyes narrowed at the scene before them. The Necromancer sat in the center of the barred space chained to a chair. His face was marred, merged together from what looked to be burn scars of some kind. A red line followed the edges of his features, looking as if someone had peeled the creature's skin off and then tried to put it back.

     Alaric stood directly in front of the Necromancer with a blowtorch held in his hand. He extinguished the blue flame upon their arrival.

     "Oh, there you are, lovely children," the Necromancer exclaimed in an accented tone when his eyes fell on the siblings. "I was wondering if you two'd come visit me again. How's your friend, the one I saw you with earlier, trying to steal an illicit peek a me?"

     "Well, at the moment, he's reuniting with his dead girlfriend," Ryan said, more toward Alaric than the creature.

     "I assume we have you to thank," Hope added toward the strange being.

     "Poor dear. Her spirit was clinging to him like a vine in winter. It took barely any effort. Just a little wrinkle of the nose and poof. Young love reborn," the Necromancer stated. "You're lucky that's all I did. The way you've treated a man of my stature, you should be ashamed."

     Alaric set the blowtorch down onto the table in the cell with the other torture devices. He exited the space as the creature ranted, slamming the bars closed behind him. "Literally, nobody knows who you are," he countered back when the being fell silent.

     The Necromancer scoffed. "That's impossible."

     Ryan pressed his lips together. "Eh, not really.

     Alaric shook his head and headed toward the exit. "I'll check on Raf," he said, leaving the room.

     "If you want an end to this misery, simply bring me the knife and I'll be on my way," the Necromancer told them.

     "Ryan! Hope!" Alaric shouted from corridor for them to follow.

     Ryan gave the creature one last look, before he and Hope went after the man. Something was definitely off with the Necromancer. And yet, Ryan had a feeling he knew more than he let on. What? Now that was the question.

     _______

     The siblings trailed after Alaric as they tried to find where Rafael and his resurrected girlfriend ran off to. Hope questioned the man about his methods and if he learned anything from his interrogation, but he obviously did not. His way of threatening and torture failed to work on the Necromancer, which came to no surprise to Ryan. If the creature could bring people back from the dead with only the mere thought of them, he would most likely have the ability to reject pain.

     While Alaric dealt with Rafael and girlfriend's past, Ryan and Hope set out to find information about the Necromancer. Dorian helped, telling them that there was no information on the guy. There were multiple necromancers over the years, but not one book mentioned a creature by that name and that name alone. It was as if he had been erased from history. Just like the dragon, the gargoyle, the Arachne, and the dryad.

     Ryan held a set of books in his arms and carried them through the halls to find Alaric. Hope was next to him, doing the same. Dorian asked them to deliver the volumes to the man before he left for his one and only day off throughout the year. Ryan figured that he would still be busy, so they decided to do something else.

     The siblings moved down the corridor in the direction of the Necromancer's cell. Despite Alaric's warning, Ryan felt drawn to the strange being. He did not know why, but the weird pit that developed in his stomach grew tighter in his presence. He wanted to figure out the reason.

     The Necromancer's deep breaths were heard from the open entrance. "You two have a powerful scent of death on you," he called out as they entered. "It's quite lovely, really."

     Hope maintained a placid expression and said, "we thought maybe we could talk." She then raised her hand and twisted her wrist to unlock the chains around the man.

     The Necromancer sighed heavily and stood to his feet. "Such puny creatures dare to dalliance with The Almighty Necromancer?"

     "Actually, there's something you should know about that," Ryan voiced, stepping closer to the rushed bars. "You don't exist."

     "I won't fall for you mind games," the Necromancer exclaimed.

     "This isn't a game," Hope retorted. "Let me lay it out for you. You died, you were in a dark place for what felt like an eternity, until suddenly, you were pulled into the light with a singular, inexplicable mission to retrieve a knife."

     The Necromancer stared at her for a long moment. "Do continue."

     "It's the same as all the other creature that came here before you," Ryan added. "A dragon, a gargoyle, an Arachne, and a dryad."

     The Necromancer scoffed. "Such creatures exist only in fiction."

     Ryan shook his head. "No, they don't. Not anymore."

     "They've been erased from history, and so have you," Hope finished her brother's statement.

     "That's preposterous," the Necromancer said through a laugh. "I'm world-renowned. People tremble at the sound of my name."

     Ryan rolled his eyes and leaned toward his sister to say, "he sounds familiar."

     Hope gave him a flat look, before she turned her attention back to the being. "Don't believe us?" She stepped forward and held out her books through the bars. "Read up."

     The Necromancer took them, lifting the pages to his nose to inhale their scent.

     This should be good.

     _______

     "No! No! No!" the Necromancer shouted, ripped the books apart in his hands and throwing them against the wall. "No! No!" The grabbed ahold of his chair and tossed it into the cell bars. "A lifetime's work, my legacy, reduced to something as – as pitiful as a brand of sorcery? Where I am barely a footnote?" He rested against the far wall, before he strode forward to address the Mikaelson siblings. "Who's responsible for this vile affront?"

     Ryan pushed himself from his chair in the corner. "That's what we're hoping you can help us figure out."

     The Necromancer stared at the boy and then picked up his chair to set it back up on its legs. He sat down, crossing his leg over the other as he said, "well, then, I'm all ears."

     "If you want to get to the bottom of this, we need to know who's communicating with you," Hope told him, standing from her own chair to approach the only thing separating them and the mystery being.

     "No one's communicating with me. My mind is a steel trap," the Necromancer stated in offense.

     "But you knew to resurrect Dr. Saltzman's dead fiancée right after he mentioned her to the dryad," Hope countered. "That's why he had questions. It can't be a coincidence. You're all coming after the same thing, communicating in some way, so who's pulling the strings?"

     The Necromancer rocketed up from his seat. "I am no puppet!" Neither of the siblings reacted to his outburst, so he exhaled and began to move around the cell. "It's less of a voice, more an instinct. I simply know things."

     "Like how you know that you're here to retrieve a knife and take it back to this place called Malivore," Ryan said. He learned of the locations exist through Alaric and Dorian. The men only knew of it themselves when the dryad told them. Other than a name and that it is a bad place, they figured out nothing else that was useful.

     The Necromancer nodded. "If I return the knife to Malivore, I will be free."

     "Of what?" Hope asked.

     "The blackness. The void. The empty oblivion..."

     "Do you ever just say things once?" Hope interrupted in frustration.

     The man's attitude began to get on Ryan's nerves, too. His elaborate personality started to become annoying.

     "Do you know how to get there?" Ryan questioned, ignoring his sister's quip.

     "Only that the knife will lead me," the Necromancer said.

     Hope grabbed one of the books Ryan still held and opened it to the front blank pages. She had drawn the symbol shown to Alaric and Dorian by the dryad. A triangle with two other triangles overlapping on the left and right. "I'm assuming you know this symbol."

     The Necromancer flinched back at the sight. "It is the sign of the worst existential nightmare. The ultimate hell. The..."

     "Okay, stop," Ryan cut him off. "Stop rambling. What does it mean?"

     "That symbol represents what you say has happened to me. It means no one remembers you. No one celebrates you. No one mourns you. Loosely translated, it means 'permanent death.'"

     Ryan nodded with his lips pressed into a fine line. Wonderful.

     _______

     After a while, they moved onto more questions. They needed to know more about Malivore, and whoever there wanted the knife.

     "Do you remember how you died?" Hope asked the being.

     The Necromancer leaned against one of the walls in the cell and voiced, "I was wandering the beach of Normandy in need of a pick-me-up, so I thought I'd resurrect a few G.I.s to toy with some Nazis."

     "Good to know even evil creatures don't like Nazis," Ryan quipped from where he took up his previous chair.

     The Necromancer scrunched his face. "Nobody likes Nazis." He then proceeded with his story, pushing himself away from the wall to wander the cell. "One minute, I'm dancing with the dead on the sand, and the next, there was just blackness."

     "But you don't remember who killed you?" Hope asked him.

     "No, although, that's not uncommon. The subconscious has a way of protecting the mind against the trauma of death. I see it all the time in my line of work."

     "But theoretically, that memory still exists. Right? What if there was a way to access it?"

     Ryan's eyes widened. "Oh, no," he exclaimed, jumping up from his chair to where his sister stood in front of the cell's bars. "I know what you're thinking, and no."

     The Necromancer stared at girl with newfound interest. "You want to take a wake through my subconscious?" He laughed. "Well, at your own peril, my dear. 'Cause I'm not sure you're quite tall enough to – ride the scary rides, huh? I assume you've got a powerful vampire handy?"

     Hope met the creature's stare head one and said, "absolutely."

     Ryan shook his head and grabbed ahold of his sister's arm. "I don't think so." He dragged her away from the cell, not bothered by her objections. Once they were outside of the transitional space, he let go of her arm to face her. "Are you out of your mind?"

     "We need to find out what he knows, and why everyone wants that knife," Hope said.

     "And that involves a mind jump into the narcissistic necromancer?" Ryan questioned her.

     Hope sighed. "Ry, it'll be fine. We've done something like this before."

     Ryan scoffed. "Uh, no. We created a fictional world in our family's minds. That is completely different than jumping into someone else's."

     "Not really. And besides, it will be the vampire of our choosing that does the head dive. We'll just be passengers."

     "Yeah, even I know that's not how it works," Ryan voiced, before he released a long breath. "You're going to be the death of me one of these days, you know that?"

     Hope grinned. "You're so sweet, little brother." She reached out and grabbed his arm. "Come on. We need a vampire."

     _______

     Ryan knew exactly where they could find one. He talked to MG earlier in the day and discovered that the boy wanted to become as strong as Kaleb. The discovery that the school had been feeding the vampire students animal blood did not go over well with him. MG wanted to prove himself to his peers. The same ones getting in trouble for feeding on the locals. Ryan did not think that would go over very well, so he steered clear of the situation altogether.

     The siblings entered the gym to find MG and Kaleb. MG laid across a weight bench with a barbell hung above his head, while Kaleb exited the room in what looked to be a mood. Ryan could not bring himself to care. He did not know the boy at all, and after the trouble he got into the last few weeks, he really did not want to.

     When MG sat up, Hope approached him and asked, "MG? Do you know how to do a head dive?"

     "Is that a thing?" MG questioned.

     Ryan nodded. "Yes, it just takes some –precision."

     MG stared between, unsure of what they were asking. "I don't know. I mean, you might want to get Kaleb."

     "Kaleb's not in our Avengers Squad, now is he?" Hope countered with a pointed look. "Here." She shoved the book she held in her hands forward into his chest. "But not a word of this to Dr. Saltzman."

     _______

     "It's so cold," MG voiced in an excited manner as they made their way back to the transitional cells. The boy blew through the book and could not get enough of the new vampire skill. "It's like compulsion, but while I'm on the surface of his mind, heroic-like, I'm plunging you guys into the deep end..." he cut off the moment they stepped inside the room.

     Ryan figured that it had to do with the Necromancer stood at the edge of the cell. It did not help that he decided to stand in the shadows. The sight would probably give MG nightmares.

     "Holy Mary, mother of demons," MG exclaimed, confirming Ryan's suspicions.

     "Hello, Milton," the Necromancer greeted him. "Your great-nana Imogene is waving hello just over your shoulder."

     MG's brows furrowed as he looked over his shoulder, although no one was there. "You can see my great-nana?" he asked, moving further into the room.

     "Oh, I can see everything," the Necromancer answered. "She's most disappointed in you for forsaking Jesus, who I can also see, but – oh, I know, that's another can or worms. Shall we begin?"

     Ryan ignored the being's babbling and moved over to the cell door. He swiped the keys from Alaric's office, not wanting to go through the trouble of an unlocking spell.

     MG stepped up behind the Mikaelson boy and asked, "uh, we're going in there? With him?"

     "With me," the Necromancer said and sat in his chair in the center of the cell. "The Almighty Necro..."

     "Please, can we not do all that again?" Hope called out from beside her brother.

     MG seemed unnerved, but he set his attention on the item in Ryan's hand. "Did you steal them keys from Dr. Saltzman?"

     Ryan finished unlocking the door and slid it open with a heave. "Yeah, I did."

     "Oh, boy."

     "MG, pull it together," Hope told the vampire and then entered the cell.

     Ryan pulled the door shut behind them.

     "You have no reason to fear me, I assure you," the Necromancer stated.

     "You're basically the Grim Reaper," MG breathed.

     The Necromancer released a huff. "Oh, the Reaper is a carnival sideshow hack! No, you –you dirty your mouth mentioning his name in my presence. Perhaps I should summon Nana to wash it out with soap?"

     "Now, you leave my Nana be. Don't nobody need to be whupped by Nana right now."

     Ryan disregarded their conversation and placed himself behind the Necromancer with Hope at his side. They needed to make contact the being to enter his mind.

     "Okay, I stand here – hands on his shoulders," MG said when he regained his senses. He stood in front of the Necromancer and told the siblings what they had to do.

     Ryan and Hope did as they were told, bringing a 'ooh' from the creature.

     "Now, you and I join – hands," MG instructed the Necromancer, squirming at the mere thought of touching him.

     The Necromancer raised his hands and revealed his abnormally long nails. MG took a deep breath and reached out to the take his palms. "Now, I look into your eyes. Open your mind to me," the young vampire said as he crouched. "Like, lifting a window to let the breeze in."

     Ryan closed his eyes and felt a surge run through his body. Air and space swirled around him, shoving him and his sister into an entirely different plain of existence. Ryan stumbled forward and opened his eyes to take in his new surroundings. The familiar sound of jazz alerted him, before the setting registered. Rousseaux's?

     "I'll be damned," the Necromancer laughed from where he sat at the bar. "I mean, I'm obviously damned, but it worked."

     "What the hell are we doing here?" Hope questioned him.

     "You two are the ones who invited yourselves along."

     "No, she means here. In this restaurant," Ryan said, looking around at the place he basically grew up in. "This place is in New Orleans. We spent most of our childhood here."

     "Yes. Rousseaux's," the Necromancer bellowed and grabbed a bottle of vodka to pour himself a glass. "I spent a good amount of time here before the 1920s. Your father was good for my business, always killing people."

     Hope's brows creased. "How know about our dad?"

     "Well, he's standing right behind you."

     Ryan tensed, but he remembered his father was alive. He and his mother were busy travelling the world, enjoying their drama lives. "Good one, but I know for a fact that you can't see our dad because he's alive."

     The Necromancer nodded. "True. He and I did do our fair share of drinking here when he was at his most murdery," he said and took a drink from his glass. "Although, your uncle's spirit is all around you."

     Ryan froze. "What did you just say?"

     "Are you messing with us right now?" Hope questioned, a twinge of hurt in her tone.

    Neither one of them wanted to think about their Uncle Elijah. So much happened between him and their family before his death. A lot that they never came to terms with. Ryan tried his best to, even if Hope did not. He wanted to believe that Elijah found some type of peace after the last few horrible weeks of his life.

     The Necromancer slammed his glass onto the bar and whirled toward them. "Frankly, I think you're the one messing with me," he nearly shouted when he stopped in front of the Mikaelson boy. "All this talk about solving the mysteries of Malivore. I think you and I both know which mystery you'd love me to solve. You want to know how your uncle is. Or should I say, where he is?"

     Ryan ground his teeth together and shook his head as the Necromancer stepped around him. "No, I don't."

     "Sure you do." The Necromancer turned on his heel, walking backward to face him. "You want to know if he's at peace or if he's suffering. Regretting his sacrifice," he said, glancing to where Hope stared at him with a fallen expression. "After all, he did die to save your life. A lovely gesture for such a mercurial man. Hmm. Not to bother. I'm not telling either of you anything until we've finished our journey. Now, let's get started, shall we?" He clapped his hands an indicated to the area around him as he spoke. "This is my conscious mind. We need to find the door to my subconscious. Look for a hallway to nowhere, or any endless staircase. Something like that." Music began to play loudly outside the bar, drawing his attention. "Ooh, a second line. My favorite."

     Ryan followed after the Necromancer through the front entrance of the building. As soon as he exited, he found that the entire street was covered in dozens people. Some were dressed in elaborate costumes to look like skeletons, while others simply had their faces painted and held parasols of vibrant colors. They danced down the street as an upbeat jazz toon played from the trumpets of nearby musicians.

     Ryan had never been an advocate of the second line, particularly after his Aunt Hayley's ended in disaster. Partying tourists, purist vampires, and fire do not mix.

     "Yeah! How I love the macabre!" the Necromancer yelled as they moved out onto the busy street. "Oh, oh, the dance of death. I wonder, who's the guest of honor?"

     Ryan followed the man's extended arm to where a coffin sat in the middle of the street. Not pulling on a wagon, or hoisted up into the air by others. Ryan knew exactly what the Necromancer meant. Who was inside? The creature was mocking him.

     "Let's take a look," the Necromancer called out and moved over to the coffin. "Perhaps, Elijah Mikaelson?"

     Ryan glared at him. "I don't think so."

     The Necromancer grabbed ahold of the coffin's lid and flipped it open with ease.

     "No!" Ryan shouted and raced over to the side, but he relaxed when he found nothing and no one inside.

     Hope appeared at her brother's side and stared down into the coffin. The only thing they found was a gapping pit of blackness. Not a body, and certainly not Elijah Mikaelson. "There's nothing there," she stated.

     "You're not ready for the truth," the Necromancer said, dancing by himself next to the coffin.

     "No, like, literally nothing," Hope told the creature, bringing him to a standstill.

     The Necromancer stopped and moved over to the coffin to find the same thing. Nothing. Absolute black. "Ah, clever children. May I present the door to my subconscious? Well done, you."

     Without warning, the Necromancer grabbed the edge of the coffin and jumped to land inside. Once his body hit the cushions, the lid snapped shut and prevented Ryan and Hope from following. Ryan raced forward and ripped it back open, but white linens were all that greeted them.

     "Dick," Ryan hissed, slamming the thing closed.

     "Ry," Hope voiced to draw her brother's gaze.

     Ryan turned around to find the chaos of the fictional second line to be gone. Not a speck of anything to allude to that they were even there in the first place.

     _______

     A second later, Ryan gasped and found himself back in the transitional cell of the school.

     "I'm glad that's over," MG said, stepping away from the Necromancer. "I'm shaking. My hands are sweaty, I..."

     "I can't believe him," Ryan exclaimed and moved to stand next to the vampire. He looked at the creature and found his eyes fixed on nothing in particular. Lost in his subconscious.

     Hope did the same and scoffed. "He ditched us." She faced MG. "Send us back in."

     Ryan retook his position behind the Necromancer with Hope, waiting for MG to reclaim his spot.

     "I'm not that good at this," MG told them, still uneasy about the entire situation.

     "You'll be fine," Ryan tried to reassure him. "He's going to look for answers, and we need to be there when he finds them. We're ready." He placed his hands back on the creatures' shoulders with Hope.

     "Cool. That makes one of us," MG said and retook the Necromancer's hands.

     _______

     In an instant, the siblings were thrown back into the depiction of Rousseaux's with no sign of the Necromancer. Ryan ran over to one of the doors to go after the being, but they were locked shut. Hope went for another and came to the same conclusion.

     "Hey, look at this," she voiced to her brother.

     Ryan looked toward her to see her stare aimed at the pictures hung on the wall. Instead of the ones he came to know over the years, they were replaced with ones of the Necromancer. The longer he looked, the more he noticed that the creature's hands were pointing in one direction. "Come on."

     They followed them, hearing a cackle in the distance. Hope moved ahead of her brother to where a door faced them. She reached out and twisted the knob, pulling it open to find a staircase to pitch black. "This is a little much, don't you think?" she called out to nothing, only hearing her echo in return.

     Ryan sighed. "And I thought dad was dramatic."

     "Let's just get this over with," Hope said and began to descend the stairs.

     Ryan groaned, but he trailed after her. He started to not like this plan.

     The two of them continued on for a moment, before the stairs dropped out from underneath them and sent them plummeting into darkness. 

<January 3, 2019>

Seriously? I'm only half way through 1x07. Like, what the hell?

Anyway, I personally love the Necromancer. He's honestly hilarious. I really hope he makes another appearance some time through the series.

And instead of Hope searching for answers for Klaus, it's Ryan and Elijah. A great substitution, considering Klaus is alive and well in this version. I also feel like Ryan would want to know what happened to Elijah more than Hope. He and Elijah ended their uncle/nephew relationship on better terms, and Ryan is pretty sensitive when it comes to his family. 

Don't forget to vote and comment.

-Jordan

P.S. Unedited chapter.