(vex)

Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty-six hours. An insufferable amount of time. One that used to feel so fast now went by in what felt like seven years.

The loneliness was caving in on her soul, eating away at her reason for existence as she stared up at the very same concrete ceiling she had years before. Silently watching the small light above flicker every now and then.

Her knees were held loosely to her chest and her body rocked slightly in an attempt to comfort herself. A futile attempt.

In truth, there was no amount of comfort to be found in the small room. There was nothing in the room for her to look for. Nothing but the same concrete walls with the occasional splatter of dried blood. Her blood.

Her eyes were dull and her stare was blank. Her lips were chapped and pursed tightly as she leaned her head back to hit the wall softly. A soft breath of air escaped from her lungs as she did so.

Margot had stopped fighting. She stopped screaming. She stopped pushing and pulling with all her might at the steel door that sat across from her.

She could feel Samuel and her coven trying to steal her mind, trying to get inside and unpick everything that made her who she was. She felt as they pulled up and surfaced every dark memory she had hidden.

She saw them. The memories that she had locked away to be forgotten. Everyone. Each one felt like hell as she watched them, as she watched her younger self be pummeled for nothing but being born different.

How she held her younger bleeding body as it wept in pain and despair. The feeling of her blood leaking onto Margot's twenty-two-year-old finger tips.

She couldn't do anything but watch as the younger versions of her were pushed around, shouted at, punched, kicked, thrown, and stabbed. All she could do was hold them and clean the blood off their skin before watching them disappear only for a new version to reappear.

It was a continuous never-ending cycle.

The only thing keeping her sane, the only thing stopping her from giving in was the thought of the twins. Hope and Henry. Her beautiful babies. The beautiful babies she refused to let grow up without their mother to protect them.

And so as she sat there, silently rocking, her own blood staining her clothes and skin, her eyes saw only one thing. The small smiles on her children's faces. She imagined the sounds of what their laughter may sound like, what their voices may sound like, what they may grow up to be and do.

Will they stay in Mystic Falls? Perhaps they would go to New Orleans as Klaus had always said he wanted to.

Would they go to school? Or would Elijah teach them? Kol would be a terrible teacher. He'd only show them French dictionaries that have all the seemingly bad words circled so they could get away with swearing.

She could almost imagine Henry shouting 'FUCK' and then blaming it on him meaning to say 'seal' in French.

Maybe Stefan would teach them. He would take away the dictionaries from Kol and give them brand new ones only for Kol to circle them once more. They would probably fight over it for a few months, Kol going to the lengths of circling the words on every dictionary in the world before Stefan is forced to give up.

Kol is the bane of my existence and the root of all my problems, Stefan would say through a heavy breath as he pressed his hand against his creased forehead.

Stop being so serious. Take a joke, Kol would tell him before accidentally pouring a drink over the younger vampire's head earning giggles from the twins. Klaus would, begrudgingly, hand the vampire a towel to please Margot before high-fiving his brother behind the man's back.

Klaus. Klaus, the one man whom she loved in a romantic sense, the one who she entrusted with her heart. She could only hope that he would realize something was wrong.

— — —

It was as if his vision shifted – like the colours of the day had disappeared and had been replaced by black and white. The surrounding fields of the Mikaelson mansion were no longer a sea of greens and blues, instead, they were dull and almost boring to stare at.

Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. That was the only explanation he could come up with as his paintbrush danced along his canvas leaving dark black strokes in its wake.

She had to love him still. How had she fallen out of love in such little time? How could the one person who had ever actually loved him have slipped out of his tight grasp?

Was he not enough for her? he asked himself. Had he been too clingy? he questioned.

Did she finally realize who he was? How he was the devil on Earth sent to cause only death and destruction. Did she realize she deserved better?

His small paint strokes that were once concentrated became thick and messy, the paint dripping down the canvas as if it were drops of blood falling from his lips.

Perhaps he was being dramatic. Maybe she just wanted space? Some breathing room after having two children? That could be it, he thought to himself silently.

She wouldn't leave him, she had promised him she wouldn't. But that wouldn't explain the look of distaste that lingered in her eyes every time he joined her in their shared bed or the way she distanced herself from his awaiting, hopeful arms that searched for her in his every living moment.

It didn't explain how when he woke she was already gone, her side of the bed cold and made as if she hadn't slept in it. Or the way the kitchen no longer smelled of the sweet scents of caramelized sugar and warm honey. Why the room she was in was always locked when it never had been before?

She was different, he knew that for certain. Klaus just didn't know what he had done wrong to turn her away from him so quickly.

— — —

"Stefan! Malachai!" the hybrid shouted as he knocked on the door of the Salvatore boarding house with haste. It wasn't long until he heard the loud footsteps of both men before the door opened, Stefan's face appearing in his view with Kai standing behind him, a bag of pork rinds in his hand.

Klaus frowned in distaste at the sight of the food before pushing past both men and entering the parlour, his steps heavy and quick as he paced back and forth.

"I messed up," he admitted.

Both men's stares hardened as they met him, their minds turning foul. "You're the reason why Margot is acting strangely aren't you?" Kai questioned, though it sounded more like a statement.

Stefan, who was usually the more composed one, didn't say anything to stop Kai's harsh statement, instead, he stayed silent as he waited for the hybrid's answer.

"I don't know," Klaus muttered as he rubbed his forehead, still pacing on the mahogany wood covered by a red patterned carpet.

The green-eyed vampire stared at him curiously, "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Do you want the bloody definition?" he shouted angrily before slumping down on the couch. "I came here because I thought she would have told one of you morons. Clearly, I was wrong."

As he was about to get up to leave, Stefan's hand came down on his shoulder, hindering his movements. "Wait a minute, Klaus. Just take a deep breath and tell us what happened and we'll go from there."

Kai rolled his eyes, "It was clearly his fault."

Stefan sighed tiredly as he pointed to the couch opposite where Klaus was, "Sit down and shut up." When Kai begrudgingly followed his instructions, he looked back to Klaus before taking his seat on the chair beside him. "Go on," he urged.

Klaus stayed silent though. He wasn't sure what to say or what he had done wrong. Usually, when he did something against Margot's wishes or something she didn't like, she would tell him and they would talk it over but this time that was nothing of the sort.

Kai scoffed and stood up to leave only for Stefan to send a glare in his direction which made him quickly sit back down. "You were saying?"

"I don't know what I did wrong," Klaus began. "I've been racking my brain about everything I have done in the last few weeks and I can't come up with anything."

"When did this start?" Stefan asked in an attempt to find a timeline of Margot's strange behaviour.

"When she came back from staying here. Before she left she was fine, besides the voices, but when she came back she avoided me entirely."

"She was acting odd on her last day here. She left pretty abruptly when we came back."

"You left her alone? How was she before that?"

"She was fine," Stefan muttered, lost in thought before his eyes displayed a look of realization. "If it wasn't you and it wasn't us, something must have happened when we were gone."

A maniacal laughter filled the room suddenly causing their heads to quickly turn to the door only to see Margot standing there with a large grin on her face. "Took you long enough," she chuckled as she stepped through the door.

"Margot?" Stefan questioned aloud as he stood up warily, Klaus and Kai doing the same.

"Close... but no," she answered with a smile as she walked further inside the home, her finger catching a trail of dust as she dragged it along one of the tables that lined the entranceway.

"Where is my daughter?"

The woman chuckled once more as she picked up a small fruit knife and tossed it between her fingers. "You're asking the wrong questions, Stefan," she told him in a song-like tone.

The three men glared at her, hands held tightly in fists by their sides as they watched her freely walk around them in a circle as if she were taunting them.

"Nothing? You truly have no idea what I've done with her? And here I was thinking you were the smart ones. I mean sure it took you a week to figure it out but the rest haven't even realized something is wrong, but hey? I guess you're still as stupid as the rest of 'em."

"Who are you?" Kai questioned after a beat of silence, eyes searching hers in an attempt to find the girl he once knew. But he quickly realized there was no sign of her. Her eyes were cold and dark and filled with malice and deception. There was not an ounce of love like there had been once before.

"I think you already know."

"No," Klaus shook his head in disbelief. He didn't want to believe that she was gone.

Margot grinned as she walked towards him, her finger trailing along his collarbone in a taunting manner. "I never knew what she saw in you. I would've gone for that tasty brother of yours... What's his name again?"

Klaus didn't answer but a low growl escaped his lips causing her to chuckle again. "I mean at least she had some semblance of a brain to get with your sister. That was fun."

"Margot?" Stefan spoke up after seeing the anger flash in the hybrid's eyes.

"That is not my name," she answered, her eyes lighting up blue as she glared at the man. His green eyes widened slightly at the act before slowly holding up his hands.

"I'm not gonna touch you. I promise. Just tell us what you want with my daughter."

Her eyes flickered towards Kai's before moving back to Stefan, completely avoiding the hybrids pleading stare as she moved away to grab a stray glass of bourbon. She held it to her nose for a moment before placing it back on the table. "I never understood how she could drink this stuff. The taste is awful."

"What do you want with her?"

"So demanding..." she mused, her eyes falling amusedly on Kai's figure as she picked up the fruit knife once more before throwing it in his direction. Before it could touch him though, it was surrounded by a blue mist as it floated just centimetres away from his forehead.

The three men let out a breath of relief – one that was quickly short-lived when the knife lowered a few inches before it stabbed through Kai's stomach.

Their shocked gasps pierced the air as the knife was pulled out, blood falling freely to the floor as Kai's knees caved in.

Margot smiled as she watched Klaus and Stefan rush to help the siphon, all sharing the same shocked look as they stared at her from their kneeling positions.

"Leave me alone. Do not interfere with my mission. If you do... I'll cut out something worse than your spleen," with that, she disappeared into the forest outside the boarding house.

Klaus sighed as Stefan helped Kai to his feet after giving him his blood. "You two just had to raise her in your most murderous states?"

Stefan shrugged, "I will admit, it probably wasn't my greatest idea to teach her how to take apart a human body at sixteen."

"You– You taught her how to–" Klaus gaped at him, "Oh my god. We're so screwed."

"Fuck off," Kai coughed out as he slumped on the couch.

— — —

"This would all be a lot easier if you just gave up!" Samuel shouted angrily as his hand came down across Margot's bruised face.

"It would've been a lot easier if you would have pulled out but here we are!" Margot yelled back before her face smacked against the wall at her father's brutal force.

"Do not speak of your mother in such crude ways," he warned as he gripped her hair, forcing her to meet his eyes.

"Maybe I wouldn't have to if you hadn't of killed her!"

His hand wrapped around her throat causing the air to quickly leave her lungs as he lifted her so he was holding her against the wall. Margot choked loudly as his grip tightened to the point her skin began to turn a deep shade of purple.

"I never killed your mother. She killed herself because of you!"

"Oh, so we're putting the blame on the two-year-old? Very mature," she told him through choked words. "Besides, what could a two-year-old do to make a mother want to do that?"

"She knew! She knew you were a monster from the very beginning. She hated herself for bringing a demon onto this earth so she drove a knife through her heart on our anniversary."

Margot's eyes turned glossy. She had always remembered her mother to be loving and kind, not someone who would die from pure hatred. Ignoring the tears that threatened to fall, she grinned at him. "Are you sure she didn't kill herself to get away from you? I sure as hell would. I couldn't even imagine having to wake up every day to your god-awful face."

"Say another word and I'll tear out your spleen just like your so-called brother did to Josette."

"Go ahead. We could be twins. Better yet, cut out my appendix. I think I was supposed to have surgery for it a while ago."

Her father stuttered in his movements, his grip loosening for a moment before tightening once more. "I am not your doctor! I am torturing you, not doing you a favour."

"Oh. Well, it seemed to me like you were trying to be a doctor. I would recommend med school though, you don't seem very good."

Before she could utter another word, a knife stabbed through her stomach, right where her spleen lay. Margot coughed out blood as she stared at the wound.

"Dick," she whispered as she fell to the ground after he pulled out the knife. "You got the wrong side, dumbass. You're gonna be a shit doctor."