Long Way Back from Hell

Flashback - New Orleans, 1919:

It was hard to see the floor in the bustling jazz club planted right in the middle of the liquor capital of America. The sound of jazz could be heard from blocks away, the cheering and laughter from the crowds was something that would be spoken about in decades to come. A kaleidoscopic carnival of people spilled into this club, getting roaring drunk on the last of the city's liquor. Morals became loose, crowds would dance their night away along to the blues and ragtime forms of jazz.

Klaus sits beside Lola at their usual table in the bar, as he sits he softly kisses her cheek but her glare doesn't leave a table in the middle of the bar. His eyes follow her glare to see Rebekah laughing along with another woman. Klaus chuckles slightly, leaning back in the booth seat, "You're jealous, love."

Lola jumps out of her thoughts, at first not even realising Klaus is now sitting beside her. She shrugs as she takes hold of her drink, "Jealous of what?" She catches Klaus' amused grin when he gestures towards the table Rebekah is sitting at with an over friendly looking red head. Lola scoffs, glancing between the table and Klaus, "That? I'm not jealous at all."

"What's that on your cheek?" Klaus frowns slightly as he grazes his hand across Lola's cheek. He receives a confused stare from Lola as she too swipes her hand across her cheek but nothing rubs onto her hand. He smirks as he leans closer to her, "Looks like a hint of green for your envy of Rebekah's new friendship."

Lola rolls her eyes, bringing her drink up to her lips, "I've got nothing to be jealous about. That's not even a friendship, it's mediocre. She is just another one of Rebekah's playthings that will only last a short while." Lola scoffs, harshly placing her drink onto the table in front of them before glaring back towards the pair, "Rebekah has only befriended her because she is acting out due to me refusing to join her helping the sick."

"I've never seen you this jealous before." Klaus moves closer to his love, his hand slowly grazing up the bare skin of her leg before finding a place on her thigh just beneath the hem of her dress as he wears a playful smirk, "Is it odd that I feel envious that this jealousy isn't directed at me in any way shape or form?"

"Because I'd like to think that you know better." Lola moves her hand up Klaus' chest, she sends shivers up his spine as her hand grazes across his neck before pulling him closer to her by his shirt collar, "You know what happened last time."

Klaus has known from the start he wanted to spend the rest of his immortality with Lola, nothing would ever question his intention to do so. There were many things that drew the Original towards her; her beauty, her bright smile, infectious laugh, even her frequent stubbornness made him want her more. And yet, one night when a worthless nobody poorly attempted flirting with Klaus, Lola had it end with an immediate stop by compelling the woman to join a religious community to become a nun. From that moment onwards, Klaus fell even harder for Lola; seeing that she won't let anything end the unique bond they both share, just as much as he would make sure nothing would end it either.

A low rumbled chuckle escapes Klaus, "I certainly do." His lips brush against Lola's before they hover at the side of her face, "I remember how it ended as well."

Lola's smile is broad, her eyes close as she feels Klaus' lips against her skin. His lips travel down to the nape of her neck, the feeling of his lips and breath against Lola's skin makes it almost impossible to not pull him elsewhere and allow him to continue all over her body. The butterflies swarm around the pit of her stomach as Klaus' grip against her thigh tightens, his teeth nip at her skin and just when she is about to pull Klaus somewhere else a voice catches her attention,

"Your whole family is so..." Genevieve glances around the bustling club to see Elijah entering, "Elegant."

Rebekah smiles softly over to her eldest brother, "Yes, I agree, Elijah is quite peerless."

"I don't know...I mean, he's nice and all, but if I had to go for one Mikaelson boy..." Genevieve blushes slightly, glancing away from Rebekah, "The disposition of your other brother can be rather endearing."

"Klaus?" Rebekah scoffs as she shakes her head, "Sorry to pop your bubble but my brother has found his perfect match. The two have been inseparable for the last thirty years, it's a forever type of love."

"Oh, I don't know..." Genevieve drawls out, "The constantly up to know good kind of men often get bored of things after a while."

Lola's jaw tightens as she moves away from Klaus slightly, her eyes darken when a hint of veins appear underneath, "I suppose she'll want the dress I'm wearing as well."

Standing up from the booth, Klaus takes hold of Lola's hand as he smirks, "I think our bedroom floor wants it more."

—✤—

"Son of a bitch!" Anger quickly begins to build as Lola throws a map of New Orleans across the room, she starts to pace, running her hands through her hair.

Adrianna rushes into the room, her eyes soften as she sees Lola, understandably, getting worked up over Klaus and Rebekah both being missing, "Lo, you need to take it easy and relax."

"How can I relax when Klaus and Rebekah are god knows where!" Lola snaps unintentionally, "That stupid bitch is blocking my magic, I swear when I-" She winces, her hand going straight to the side of her stomach, "You have got to stop kicking me!" Lola's jaw slacks open, she scoffs glancing down at her stomach before over to Adrianna, "She just kicked me again."

Adrianna's lips form a thin line, attempting to fight back her amusement, "Well, I think it's safe to say that she has definitely gained your stubbornness." She opens the sliding doors and gestures towards another room, "You need to finish this story about that witch. Preferably without the sex talk between you and Klaus. It was bad enough living through it in the fifties, you both sounded even worse back then."

"Well–"

"Charlotte!"

The pair follows Elijah's voice into a nearby room, Lola immediately comes to a stop when Elijah comes into view, looking over to her as he begins to remove his shirt. Lola's eyes widen, turning her back to him, "Oh."

"I, uh–" Adrianna clears her throat, having her back to the chaos happening, "I think I can hear Hayley shouting me."

"She's not even here–" Lola frowns, glancing to her side where Adrianna was standing, now vamp speeding out of the room and closing the door behind her.

"Uh, so that's not what I was expecting. I know I joke that you have too many suits but I didn't mean for you to walk around topless." Lola turns back to face him, her hand covering her eyes as her head tilts, "I'm not saying I looked but since when did you have tattoos?"

Elijah throws his shirt onto a nearby chair, "I need you to make a list of these names."

Lola parts her fingers that are still across her eyes, narrowing a confused stare towards Elijah. She remains standing in the same spot for a moment before nodding, "This family gets more and more strange as the years go by." Lola circles around Elijah as she reads through every name tattooed on his body, she stops noticing a familiar name, "Sabine? Elijah, what is this?"

"I believe they represent the names of the women Celeste inhabited for the past two centuries."

It's then something begins to dawn on Lola, "I recognise this kind of spell."

"It's called a Devinette." Marcel answers as he stands beside Lola, holding notepad and a pen, "It's old school. Kind of a riddle. Witches use them to teach their kids. Solve it, and it disappears."

Lola continues to look at all the names confused, taking the notepad from Marcel, "And the reason she has done this to you is..?"

"Celeste forced me to make a choice between yourself and my siblings," Lola glances up from the notepad, looking shocked towards Elijah as he continues, "And now she means to mock that choice, taunting me with a childish game. The longer the game, the more they suffer. To find Klaus and Rebekah, we need to solve this riddle. The solution lies somewhere in these names."

"The name next to Sabine..." Marcel gestures at Elijah's wrist, "Annie La Fleur, she's the witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago. Never knew why, but I can find out."

"Have you got them all?" Elijah questions as he takes hold of his shirt, he glances over to Lola when she nods jotting down the final name. He quickly puts his shirt back on following Marcel out of the room, "Marcel, I'm joining you."

"Find out where the hell Sophie Devereaux is hiding." Lola calls out to both men before looking up from the notepad, "I need to speak with her."

Elijah stops in his step, with his back to Lola before he sighs, turning around, "Sophie Devereaux is dead."

"She's dead?" Lola echoes, getting a small nod from Elijah making her scoff, "She lingers around this city when we don't need her and the second we do, she's dead. Typical. Call me with any updates."

"I will and please, Charlotte, would you–"

"Stop being stubborn and look after myself, yeah, yeah." Lola rolls her eyes, slashing her hand through the air to stop him from continuing. A hint of a smile graces Elijah's face before he vamp speeds out of the room, "Ade! You can come out of hiding now, the topless Mikaelson is gone!"

Adrianna opens a different door to the one Elijah left, she peaks her head around the door, "Why did you want to speak to Sophie?"

"Because I want to know how to remove the curse that's on Hayley's family." Lola underlines one name in particular, "Have you seen my laptop anywhere?"

Adrianna walks fully into the room, already holding Lola's laptop, "I figured you'd have needed this. What do we need to do?"

"Try and figure out if any of these names are linked." Lola sits down on one of the sofas before taking the laptop from Adrianna, "But, I wanna start with this one," Lola points towards the name she underlined when Adrianna sits beside her, "Brynne Devereaux. Sophie said that it was someone in her family that created the curse on the wolves. Seems far too much of a coincidence that a Devereaux name is on the list of creepy Sabine body jumps."

"So..." Adrianna drawls out, she sighs dramatically as she jumps onto the sofa beside Lola, "Did you make this Genevieve cry?"

Lola shrugs still looking through the laptop but with a hint of a smirk appearing, "Just a few harmless threats, nothing more. Her and Rebekah became fast friends and that resulted in Rebekah pulling away from me. Klaus would always tease that I was jealous and maybe I was a little bit. But, something never sat right with the witch and I wanted to look out for the girl who was and still is like a sister to me."

Flashback - New Orleans, 1919:

It felt like a rare moment that Lola was in the compound alone, especially when Klaus has been watching her like a hawk; constantly checking up on her after the altercation she had a few weeks ago with Damon. So, as Lola walked through the compound, she smiled to herself being able to enjoy a small ounce of peace and quiet.

Alas, that lasted mere seconds before she could hear movement coming from upstairs. Lola stands in the doorway where the movement was to see the red headed witch that has befriended Rebekah looking through various drawers.

"Looking for something?"

Genevieve gasps, quickly turning herself round to see Lola leaning against the doorframe, glaring over to her. Genevieve laughs breathlessly, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there."

Lola raises a brow, looking at the witch up and down before looking towards the opened drawer beside her, "Clearly."

The red head picks up on Lola's hostility before glancing down at the floor sheepishly and clearing her throat, "I'm looking for Rebekah."

"Well, you're not going to find her in that drawer." Lola pushes herself off the doorframe, stepping further into the room, "Why are you looking in places where you shouldn't?"

"Well, I–"

"You know I can't compel a full sentence out of you but I'm sure you know I'd be able to get it another way." Lola vamp speeds towards Genevieve, her hand grips around the witch's throat and pushes her against the nearby wall. Genevieve attempts to pull away but it's no use, she squirms around in Lola's hold as she gasps for breath.

Lola's grip tightens only for a moment before she lets Genevieve go, she falls to the floor gasping for breath. Lola smiles down at the witch, a sinister laugh escapes, "I'm sorry, where are my manners. I did not quite catch your name."

Genevieve watches as Lola steps away from her, pouring herself a glass of scotch. Genevieve continues to cough, catching her breath as she comes to a stand, "It's Genevieve."

"Genevieve." Lola repeats in a condescending tone with a grin to match it, she turns to face her, "That's french, isn't it?"

The witch nods, "That's right. My great grandmother was french."

"What was her name?"

Genevieve laughs slightly, looking perplexed, "You're rather invasive considering only a few minutes prior you were trying to kill me."

Lola's brows shoot up in somewhat surprise, before laughing breathlessly, "What's invasive is you entering my home without permission. Besides, I wasn't trying to kill you. I'd have done something more fun than a simple strangulation."

"Delphine Wetherby." Genevieve blurts out, "My grandmother's name was Delphine Wetherby."

It's as though all of the colour in Lola's face disappears, her heart completely drops hearing that name after thirty years. Lola swallows harshly, "You're part of the Wetherby family?" Genevieve frowns at Lola's sudden change before nodding. Lola clears her throat, her eyes darken stepping closer to her, "You need to leave. Right now."

Genevieve awkwardly nods before she begins to rush out of the room, Lola takes hold of a fork on the table, throwing it in the direction of Genevieve who screams out when the fork impales in the doorframe, inches away from her. A shaken up Genevieve looks back towards Lola who once again wears the same condescending grin, "Whoops, me and my clumsiness. Don't come here again without permission or my aim may go to the left a few inches next time."

—✤—

"Wait." Adrianna stands up from the sofa where they're both sat, her eyes are wide looking down at an unfazed Lola, "Wetherby? As in, from the same family as the sick fuck who killed your aunt?"

"Bingo." Lola nods, her lips form a thin line before rolling her eyes, "He was her grandfather. After she left, I done some digging into her past. Before Thomas became a vampire in 1855, he had a secret fling with another witch family in New Orleans." Lola stands, she walks towards the wall covered with books, "She birthed a son but never told Thomas this. Fast track a few decades later and that son had a daughter; Genevieve."

Adrianna watches as Lola starts to remove books from a certain shelf, "Did you ever find out why she was looking in here when she thought no one was home?"

Lola glances at Adrianna, then back at the bookcase, she slides the back of the bookcase to the side, revealing a hidden compartment where the Whittaker grimoire is, "She was looking for this. Back then I thought this book turned into ash along with Thomas in 1891." Lola takes the book before closing the hidden compartment, she flicks through the book, "There was a constant war between the Wetherby's and Whittaker's; my family. They're the ones who written this book and the Wetherby's have been trying to get it from us ever since."

"Why do they want this book so badly?" Adrianna stands next to Lola, glancing at the page she has it open, "What's in it?"

"A lot of dark magic." Lola sighs, shutting the book and throwing it onto the nearby coffee table, "Dark spells like different kind of hexes, spells to create prison worlds. Even a spell to bring someone back from the dead."

Adrianna's jaw is slacked during the entire time Lola explains this story, she stays mute watching as Lola sits back on the sofa. Adrianna sits beside her, "What? So then why did you want it to burn in the house back then?"

"Because not only does it have spells I can use, the Wetherby's figured out loopholes so they can use the spells against me." Lola rolls her eyes as she scoffs, "I figured burning it was the best solution, I didn't expect to see it on Sophie Devereaux's bookshelf over a hundred years later!" Lola shrugs before looking over to Adrianna who continues to wear the same confused stare, "Why are you pulling that face?"

Adrianna exhales a nervous breath that turns to laughter, "In the space of not even twenty four hours, you tell me your history with some asshole called Thomas Wetherby and then say that another psycho witch has just came back from the dead, who is also his evil granddaughter. Who was the one doing a spell to set the plantation on fire that you were stuck in." She picks up the book from the table, "Then you have some mystical book that has a bunch of dark magic spells including bringing people back from the dead! How can I not pull this face? Join me in pulling this face!"

Lola sighs with relief, being able to move away from the conversation when her phone starts to ring. The screen lights up with Elijah's name, "Oh, thank god. Did you find anything?"

"Annie La Fleur was shunned from her coven, Marcel was correct about that. Which resulted in her taking her life, or rather Celeste did so."

"She killed herself?"

"Yes, drowned herself in the Mississippi, to be precise. Celeste was clearly tired of the body and ready to take Sabine's."

"How do you know that?"

"Because she leaped to her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss."

"Poetic, I guess..." Lola cringes, shuddering slightly, "In a creepy-vendetta sort of way. But also sorta gross."

"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us. Charlotte, I have to go. I'll call you back."

Adrianna catches Lola stare, pointing at a crossed out name in the notepad making Lola speak up, "Elijah, wait!"

"What is it?"

"Ask Marcel if he knows anything about a name on that list, Brynne Devereaux. Sophie said that it was her family's bloodline that put the curse on the Crescent wolves, but Celeste said that she was the only one that could break it. If Brynne Devereaux was actually Celeste when she cast the spell, then maybe Celeste can still break it."

"I'll see what he knows."

"Elijah," Lola sighs, she takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes, "I'm really sorry that you're going through this. If I had known that Celeste made you choose who to help–"

"You were going to die in that fire, Charlotte, along with my brother's child. There was no choice." Elijah sighs on the other end of the call, "Niklaus would have never forgiven me and I'd have never forgiven myself. You're the most important person in our family."

Lola sighs staring down at her phone as Elijah hangs up, she places it to the side and leans against the desk where Adrianna looks through the laptop, "Any other names we've not looked at yet?"

"Just one." Adrianna points at one last name on the page, "Clara Summerlin." She starts to look through the opened up page on the laptop until she frowns, "Wait, you said that the book has a spell to bring someone back from the dead. Does that mean you can use it on Davina?"

"It's a complicated spell." Lola sighs, she picks up the purple grimoire, "That kind of spell, you have to take a life in order to bring one back."

—✤—

Adrianna walks back into the study, staring down at her phone, "Hayley is on her way. Did you find anything?"

Lola nods, tilting the laptop to the side to show Adrianna, "I think so." 

Adrianna nods, her attention goes towards the door leading to the courtyard, "They're back. I'm gonna go and meet Hayley and we'll be back."

Lola perks up as Elijah soon walks into the study after Adrianna leaves, "Hey, look, I found–"

Elijah places his hand on Lola's shoulder, bringing his index finger towards his lips, stopping her from continuing. He leans closer to her, "You were right about the Devereaux witch."

Before Lola can respond, Marcel walks in looking in Lola's direction, "Find anything about Clara, the mystery witch?"

Elijah gives Lola a quick knowing glance, quick enough for Marcel not to notice. Lola shakes her head as she looks back at the laptop, "Not much. She was a nurse at the Fleur-de-Lis Sanitarium, where Rebekah worked briefly."

Elijah stands behind Lola, leaning against the back rest of the chair she's sat on. Marcel freezes in his step, visibly beginning to panic but the pair don't notice. Lola enlarges the image on the website, "Do either of you recognise her? Because I don't." She points towards one particular witch, " Top row, second from the right."

Lola looks up to Elijah who leans closer to the screen before shaking his head, "No, I don't." Elijah looks up to see a speechless Marcel, he frowns as he notices how concerned Marcel has began to look, "Marcel?" Elijah straightens himself up, narrowing his stare towards the vampire, "Marcel? Do I need to remind you that Niklaus and Rebekah are somewhere suffering horribly?" His tone becomes assertive, stepping closer to him, "If you know something, talk."

Marcel remains silent for a moment before looking over Elijah's shoulder towards Lola, "The Sanitarium. That's where you'll find them."

Lola's stare follows him as he begins to pace around the room, "Are you sure? How do you know?"

"I just know."

Elijah watches as a sudden vision of guilt begins to overcome Marcel's expression, "How do you know?"

"If I'm right, you need to know exactly what we're walking into. We did something, Rebekah and I..." Marcel sighs deeply, looking down at the ground, unable to look at either of them, "I think the witches are trying to use it against her. It was, uh...something that you're not gonna like."

Lola narrows her stare towards Marcel, "What did you do?"

Marcel swallows harshly, glancing between the pair and starts to pace once again, "We thought Klaus was never going to let us be together, he spent years making sure it was never going to happen. We wanted freedom, we wanted to be together and we thought there was only one way for us to get that. The whole friendship between Rebekah and Genevieve only started because we wanted to use her to help us get our freedom."

"Enough about this so called freedom!" Lola snaps, standing up from the desk and steps closer to him, "What did you do, Marcel?"

"We summoned Mikael to town." Marcel shamefully admits, at first he can't even work himself up to looking in the direction of where Lola and Elijah are standing, both looking as equally shocked as the other, "We had Genevieve perform a spell that would inform him of your whereabouts."

There's an uncomfortable, eery silence between the trio. Lola remains standing in shock, she leans against the edge of the desk and inhales sharply. Elijah clears his throat, jaw tightening at an attempt of calming himself down before closing the gap between he and Marcel, "For the better part of a century, I have wondered how Father found us, what foolish mistake that we had made to destroy our time in the one place that we could finally call home. Did you know, I even blamed myself for a time, Marcellus?" Elijah rushes Marcel towards the wall, his hand grips around Marcel's neck as his anger increases, "Niklaus treated you like a son." His grip tightens, "Rebekah–"

"I loved her." Marcel breathes out, struggling in Elijah's grip, "I still love her. All we ever wanted was to be together, but as long as Klaus was around, that was never gonna happen. But hey, I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, huh?"

Elijah's grip remains against Marcel before he releases him, "When Klaus learns the truth, there will be no end to his rage. I will not let my sister suffer that wrath."

"Then we need to get to them before he learns the truth."

Lola watches as Marcel rushes out of the room, Elijah takes a moment before he begins to follow until Lola steps closer to him, "Wait, Elijah. What are you going to do?"

Elijah remains with his back towards Lola, he leans his hand against the doorframe before looking back in her direction, "Whatever I need to do in order to make sure Niklaus doesn't harm Rebekah. Even if I–"

"You can't hurt him, Elijah." Lola's tone is sharp, her stare is cold. Elijah looks at her, his eyes soften, only for a second before he vamp speeds out of the room, "Elijah!" Lola sighs before grabbing her phone, "Shit."

Lola rushes out of the compound, making her way to the car when she sees Adrianna sitting in her own car. She quickly gets out of it, staying by the door, "Lola!"

Lola shakes her head as she keeps on walking, "You can't talk me out of this, Ade."

"She knows she can't."

Lola frowns when she hears Hayley's voice, who's smiling back at her. She turns to see both of them standing at the side of Adrianna's car when Adrianna wears a mischievous grin, gesturing to the passenger side of the car, "Get in."

The trio get closer and closer to the Sanitarium while Adrianna and Lola explain everything to Hayley, including how it's possible that Sabine is going to be the only one able to break the curse on the wolves. 

A hopeful Hayley watches out of the car window, "Do you think she's gonna be there?"

"Without a doubt." Lola turns in her seat, glancing at Hayley sitting in the back, "Use something to knock her out and do what you need to do."

"We're here." Adrianna pulls up outside of the Sanitarium, her nose scrunches up in disgust, "Well this looks lovely."

Lola gets out of the car first, her heart already racing not knowing what she's going to do in order to save Klaus, if she is even able to do so. The moon shines against something that catches her eye, she looks over to see a piece of metal piping across the floor. She picks it up and passes it over to Hayley, "Use this to knock her out." 

Everyone's attention goes towards footsteps, they lower themselves out of sight when Celeste begins to walk out looking proud of herself and humming. Hayley vamp speeds behind her without making a sound and hits her hard across the back of her head with the metal piping, immediately knocking Celeste out, "Hey, there, witch bitch." She throws the piping beside an unconscious Celeste, "You and I are gonna have a little chat."

Both Hayley and Adrianna look over to Lola who is already half way up the steps towards the abandoned Sanitarium, "The two of you take her and get the answers you deserve."

Hayley steps closer to the steps, "What about you?"

"I'm getting Klaus."

So many things rush through Lola's mind as she takes the few short steps towards the building. Everything suddenly making sense from back in 1919, Rebekah being off with her when Lola would sit thinking of what she may have done that could have upset the girl she soon classed as a sister. When in fact, she was being off with Lola due to her deceits she created with Marcel and Genevieve. If only Rebekah realised how much Lola brought up the idea of Rebekah and Marcel towards Klaus, talking him into being more open about the two being together. 

She takes a deep breath before opening up the large wooden door, greeted with nothing but broken pieces of furniture and dust. Lola only takes a couple steps into the building before Marcel appears, holding a weak looking Rebekah up. They both stare at her wide eyed, expecting an argument from her. 

Lola remains silent, the air is thick with tension and is so silent you can practically hear Lola's heart break as she looks at two people she trusted the most in this world, instantly looking like strangers. Rebekah's breath is rapid, her eyes turn glossy as she stares over to her best friend who's eyes are full of hurt and betrayal, she swallows harshly to coat her dry throat, "Lola..."

Lola shakes her head, she lowers her head as she walks past them, hiding tears that are beginning to fall. She pushes past Rebekah and walks further into the Sanatarium, having no idea where to go but would rather be anywhere then enduring that awkward encounter.

She can hear movement at the bottom of a nearby staircase, Lola didn't think it was possible for her heart to sink even further until she sees an unconscious Klaus on the floor with Elijah towering over him, "Nik!" She kneels beside Klaus, holding his head up and resting him against her lap, her shaky hand runs through his hair, "Oh my god, can he hear me?" She slightly gasps as she notices the large gash in his chest and blood stained shirt, she looks up at Elijah horrified, "What did you do to him?"

"I had to mobilise him, Charlotte." Elijah's breathing is erratic, frozen in his spot as he stares down at Klaus in Lola's arms, "I won't let him hurt Rebekah."

—✤—

this chapter is probably the shortest one i've written in god knows how long, oop.

the flashbacks in the next chapter are gonna hurt to write...

a lil hint:
can anyone remember klaus bringing up the fact he's proposed to lola before?
...um, yeah

hope you're still liking the story!

holly x