Elena, Ric and I walked into the Old Lockwood Cellar with flashlights ready to light the way.

"So the Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" I asked.

"Careful where you shine that thing," Ric told Elena. "Bats hate the light."

"Wait, what?" Elena asked.

"Elena," we heard someone whisper. "Nikki."

Elena jumped, turning to face Damon, hitting him. "God, Damon!"

"Scaredy-cat," Damon said.

"Just ignore him," Ric said. "That's what I do."

As we walked closer to the cave, I looked at Damon. "So, you really can't get in?"

"No," Damon answered. "Seems even the ancient Lockwoods were anti-vampire."

"What do you mean, ancient?" I asked.

Damon gestured forward. "See for yourself." We walked into the cave,  Damon unable to enter. "Well, this is as far as I get to go."

Elena and I looked around at the ancient drawings.

"What is all this?" Elena asked.

"Well, as far as I can tell, it's a story," Ric answered. "In simple archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story." He pointed at a picture. "That right there is the moon cycle." He pointed at another drawing. "A man, a wolf."

"A werewolf," Elena realized.

"Yeah, it's the 'Lockwood Diaries: Pictionary Style'," Damon said.

"I don't understand," Elena admitted. "I thought the Lockwoods came here with the Original Founders in the 1860s."

"I don't know," Ric said. "Maybe the Lockwoods did, but according to this wall, these werewolves have been here a lot longer than that."

"How long?" I asked.

"Long," Damon said. "It gets better. Show them, Ric."

"Names," Ric stated, shining a flashlight on an old script of written, carved names. "They're not native. They're written in Runic, a Viking script."

"Vikings?" I repeated.

"This name here, I translated it, and it reads Niklaus," Ric told us.

"Klaus," Elena said.

Ric shined his flashlight on another name. "And Elijah . . ." He shone it on another. "And Rebekah."

~

"These are the names of the Original Family?" Elena asked.

"Carved into a cave that's been here since way before the founding of Mystic Falls," Ric said. "Or even the entire New World, for that matter."

I shook my head, not believing this was real. "Okay, this has gotta be one of Klaus' fakes."

"That's what I said," Damon agreed.

"That could be true, except the last name up here made us think otherwise," Ric said, shining the flashlight on the last name.

"What's the name?" Elena asked.

Ric looked to us. "Mikael."

Whoa, wait, I thought. "Mikael . . . Mikael, as in, the vampire hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?"

"Yep," Damon answered. "I now like to call him  'Papa Original'."

Mikael was hunting down his own family?

Why?

~

In Ric's loft, Damon was helping Elena with her combat training as Ric looked at the pictures of the carvings from the cave.

"These images tell a story . . .to learn the story, you have to decipher these images," Ric told us.

Elena tried to stake Damon without any effort at all, and Damon took the stake from her. "Sloppy."

Elena took the stake back. "Shut up. I'm new at this."

"Let me try," I said, taking the stake from Elena.

"'Ghost of Christmas Past' Mason Lockwood set up the cave and led us to a weapon that can kill Klaus," Damon said.

I sent a kick to his stomach, turning around and kicking him again. "Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?"

"Yes," Damon answered, holding his stomach. "Ow." I smirked. "Which probably means the wall will lead us to Mikael, who we have already found . . ." Damon tried to catch my wrist as I tried to stake him, but I swung my arm to hit his arm away, pretending to stake him. " . . .and lost."

"Bang,"  I said. "You're dead."

"Lucky shot," Damon denied.

I took a step away, smiling. "Aw, is somebody a sore loser?"

Damon pushed me toward Elena and Ric at the table.

"These images at the very least might tell us what the weapon is," Elena said.

I stepped up next to the table. "Then all we have to do is find out what they mean."

"Fine!" Damon said, looking at Elena and me. "Fine. If I am being irritatingly optimistic like you two . . . how do you suppose we do that?"

"Well, if the story is about the Original Family living here, then we go straight to the source," Elena said.

Rebekah.

~

After school, I walked into my own home, and Rebekah looked toward me with wine in hand, saying cheerfully, "Hey!  What's up?"

"Heard you had a talk with Elena about your father," I said nonchalantly, dropping my bag. "What are you doing?"

"All right, girls, have at it," Rebekah said.

Six girls in jewel-toned colored Homecoming dresses walked into the room. I saw green, yellow, blue, red, pink . . .

What the hell was she doing?

"Okay, now twirl please," Rebekah told them, and they did as told.

"You compelled your own private runway show?" I asked dubiously.

"I need a Homecoming dress," Rebekah said. "So, what do you think? Pick one."

"I'm not down here talking to you to help you shop," I told her. "I want to talk about why you don't want us to wake up Mikael."

Rebekah rushed behind the blonde in the blue dress, grabbing her neck, her face changing. I took a step forward but then stopped. "I said pick one, Nicola."

I exhaled, gesturing randomly. "The . . .red one."

"There," Rebekah said. "It wasn't so hard, was it?" She looked at the girls. "Go away. Remember nothing."  The girls left, and Rebekah turned to me. "You do not threaten me. You'll learn what I allow you to learn. Is that clear?"

I nodded barely, Rebekah walking past me.

I turned around, sighing.

This was not going to be easy.

~

Rebekah walked into Stefan's room first with me following. "How fun is this?"

She started to open the drawers in his dresser as I asked, "Why are we up here, again?"

"Come on, like you've never wanted to snoop," Rebekah said. She held up a pair of underwear. "Boxer briefs. A lot has changed since the '20s."

"I really don't feel like rooting through his stuff all night because you don't know what you'll find about your distant uncle, so why don't you start telling me your story?"

"Ah . . ." Rebekah trailed off. "But therein lies the fun. You know what else is fun? Drinking, just to get through the day. There could be multiple reasons, but I think I can narrow yours down to two. To get some sleep at night and to numb your ever-frequent headaches, am I right?"

I didn't answer. "Enough about me. We're not here for my story, we're here for yours."

Rebekah smirked. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe. How did you guys end up here?"

"My parents just started a family when a plague struck their homeland. They lost a child to it. They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate."

"So, how did you end up here? This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet."

Rebekah chuckled, looking toward me. "Not by anyone in your history books. But my mother knew the witch Ayana, who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy . . .blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That led my family here, where we lived amongst those people."

A beat of silence passed.

"The werewolves?" I asked.

"To us, they were just our neighbors. My family lived in peace with them for over 20 years, during which time my family had more children, including me."

"You make it sound so normal."

Rebekah looked out of the window. "It was. One full moon, Klaus and my youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts. That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price . . ." Henrik had died. "And that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors." Rebekah had a glazed over look in her eyes as she finished. "And one of the last moments my family had together as humans." My phone ringing made us both snap out of it. "You better get that. It'll be Damon checking up on you."

I turned away to answer. "Hello?"

"Hey!" Damon said over the noise of the music in the backround.

"Damon, where are you?" I asked.

"No idea, but I'm pretty sure I'm overdressed. Still standing?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, can't talk right now, bye!"

"Wait, wait, wait. What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

"Where's Elena?"

I exhaled. "That's sort of the nothing that I'm hiding."

"You're alone? Are you serious? You're talking to the she-devil alone?"

"I'll be at the bar," Stefan said in the background.

I looked to the side. "Is that Stefan?"

"Yeah, so, I guess maybe you're not the only one hiding nothing," Damon said. "I kinda went off book a bit. Just like you went off book a bit by talking to Rebekah alone when you know you weren't supposed to. Don't worry.  I know what I'm doing.  I got this, Nikki. So, are we pissed at each other or not? Because I'm not the one risking my life at the moment."

I exhaled. "Not. If you got that, then I got this, Damon."

I hung up.

~

Rebekah was lying on the bed, going through one of Stefan's diaries.

"Did you get your fill of snooping yet?" I asked. "Can we get on with the story?"

She stood up, picking up a picture of Elena and Stefan fron the table. She looked up at me. "Honestly, I don't get them two as a couple."

"Why would you? You don't know anything about who he really is."

"I know exactly who he is. He's a vampire. We're a predatory species." She leaned closer, trying to intimidate me. "We don't have time to care about humans and their silly little lives."

"Is that why you did that runway show earlier?" I asked, because she was so not intimidating me. "'Cause you don't care about the Homecoming Dance? And if you're trying to get a reaction out of me . . ." I lowered my voice to a whisper, tilting my head. "It's not working." She didn't answer. "You know what, I'm just gonna go."

I started to walk for the door, Rebekah saying, "You haven't even heard half the story."

I turned back around. "And you're not gonna tell it. You're just bored and looking for someone to push around. Let me let you in on a little secret. I don't care if you're a 1000 year old Original vampire, I will not let you push me around in my own house, or anywhere. Find someone else to play with . . .maybe you can compel yourself a friend."

I started to leave again.

"The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give," Rebekah told me. "It belonged to the Original Witch."

I smirked, knowing that would've worked. I turned back around with a blank, bored face. "The one who put the hybrid curse on Klaus?"

"Not just the hybrid curse," Rebekah told me. "She's the one who turned us into vampires."

~

Rebekah had been eavesdropping in on her parents and Ayana as they had talked about the spell to turn them into vampires.

"I'm thirsty," Rebekah said. "Do you want  drink?"

I followed her down the stairs, t the hall, closer to the library. "So, vampirism was a form of protection?"

"What else would it be?" Rebekah asked.

"A curse?" I asked.

"My parents only saw a way of keeping their children alive," Rebekah told me.

"Yeah, but why stay, if they were so afraid of the werewolves? Why not . . .leave?"

"Oh, come now, Nicola. The answer is the same as to why you're not living anywhere other than this very house even with three vampires who could instantly kill you on a bad mood whim."

I slowly nodded. "Pride."

"My father didn't want to run any more," Rebekah said. "He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves. Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses . . ."

~

So, when Ayana had said no, Mikael had told Esther it was up to her, in her hands.

"In her hands?" I repeated. "How could she do anything?"

"Because my mother was also a witch," Rebekah answered.

"What?" I asked.

"The witch of the Original Family," Rebekah explained. "The Original Witch?"

I stopped for a second.

What?

In the library, Rebekah searched the shelves. "Where do you keep your best vintage?"

"But if your mother was a witch, then . . .?" I trailed off.

"Am I?" Rebekah finished. "No. A witch is nature's servant, a vampire is an abomination of nature. You can either be one or the other, never both. My mother did this for us. She did not turn."

"How did you turn?"

"She called upon the  for life, and the ancient white oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects, for immortality. That night, my father offered us wine laced with blood. And then he drove his sword through our hearts."

I wad surprised, stunned, whispering as I handed her the alcohol she wanted. "He killed you?"

Rebekah took the bottle numbly. "And he wasn't delicated about it either."

She broke the neck of the bottle off, throwing it into the fire.

~

After Rebekah told me about feeding on blood, she went on. "It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribale. But the witch Ayana was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us, and nature fought back. For every strength there would be a weakness. The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks. And though my mother found a solution, there were other problems. Neighbors who had opened their homes to us could now keep us out. Flowers at the base of the white oak burned, and prevented compulsion." Vervain, I realized. That was why it was vervain. "And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away . . . so we burned it to the ground. But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated . . . The hunger. Blood . . .had made us reborn, and it was blood that we craved above all else. We could not control it . . .And with that, the predatory species was born."

Whoa.

~

"Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" I asked.

"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene," Rebekah answered. "With that, he became my father's greatest shame."

"Yeah . . ." I trailed off. "Elijah told me this part of the story. Your mother had had an affair with one of the werewolf villagers. Klaus wasn't his sun."

"She tried to make it right. She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side, and then she turned her back on him. But Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As  vampire, that was magnified. He went on a rampage and killed half the village. Then he came home and killed her."

Once again, I was stunned enough to whisper my question. "Mikael killed your mother?"

"He said she broke his heart, so he would break hers," Rebekah answered. "He tore it from her chest as Nik watched. Afterwards, my father took off in a rage, and the rest of my family scattered. Nik stayed, so he could help me bury her. He knew I had to say goodbye to  mother."

I held my head as she went on. With the "always and forever" pact with Klaus and Elijah.

Rebekah held a glass toward me. "Here. It'll help make the pain go away."

I took the glass. "Always and forever . . . Even though he locked you in a coffin for 90 years?"

"We're vampires," Rebekah said. "Our emotions are heightened. I'm stubborn, Elijah moral, and Nik . . . Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. Over  thousand years as a family, we've  made that mistake at least once. I've made it several times."

"But you still love him?"

"He's my brother. And  I'm immortal. Should I spend an eternity alone instead?" I didn't answer, a beat of silence passing. "You've heard the story, it's time to leave me alone. I said go away, Nicola. I don't know what you're up to, but I'm no longer playing along."

"I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael," I said as I stood.

"And I've given you a thousand! But you will anyway. I know you want him to help kill my brother, I'm not stupid."

"It's no secret that I want Klaus dead. He has a hold over Stefan's life, over Elena's--"

"Do what you need," Rebekah cut me off. "Wake Mikael at your own peril. But make no mistake, if you come after my brother, I will rip you apart. And I get my temper from my father. Now leave me alone!"

I shook my head, shrugging, going upstairs and already calling Elena, Bonnie and Ric to tell them about what I'd found.

~

And Elena called me back. "Rebekah doesn't know the real story. I'm sending you pictures and translations."

I looked down at the phone.

Then I went back downstairs to see Rebekah drinking. "I thought I told you to leave me alone. Twice."

"How do you know that Mikael killed your mother?" I asked.

"Nik was there. He told me."

"He lied to you."

"And how do you know that?"

"The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols," I told her, showing her a picture on my phone. "The story of your family: how your parents arrived, how they made peace, the spell that turned them into vampires, and this." I scrolled to the next pictures. "This is the symbol for hybrid. It's a combination of the werewolf and the vampire symbols. And this is the one for your mother."

"Her necklace."

I hesitated before scrolling to the next picture of the hybrid symbol, the  witch symbol and a bleeding, upside down heart. "And this is the story of her death. The hybrid killed the Original Witch. Not Mikael. Klaus."

"No," Rebekah said. "No, he wouldn't."

"She put the curse on him, made it  so that he would be the only one of his kind, and then she rejected him. With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence . . . .when he turned, all of that was heightened. He killed her, Rebekah. And then he made up this entire lie about your father, so that he wouldn't lose you."

Rebekah was in severe angry denial. "These mean nothing! They're just stupid drawings done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was!"

She took my phone, throwing it into the fire.

I wasn't even mad. I had expected a reaction like that. I would get a new one soon.

"Then why are you so upset?" I asked.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Rebekah demanded. "I've done nothing to you!"

"Klaus killed your mother. He has a hold on you, on me, on everyone. He has for a thousand years. We have to make it stop!"

Rebekah grabbed my throat, pushing me against the wall as her face changed. "Shut up! Shut up! Don't talk anymore! Nothing!"

Stopping, calming down to absolute despair, she let go, backing away, gasping, sinking to her knees and sobbed in shock, pain and denial.

And I actually felt guilty and sympathetic for her.

She didn't deserve this.

But she wanted to be left alone with her sadness.

So I left her alone with her sadness.