Into Thin Air

Chapter 94

TW: Blood/Gore

Hope sat off to the side of the cell, just out of the reach of Klaus' chains, reliving everything she’d just put her father through. Her clothes, her arms, her hair - it was all stained with blood. Pieces of her father were stuck under her fingernails and caught in the crevices of the stone walls and floors. He had healed but the evidence remained. Hope’s stomach turned, but she was too exhausted to actually hurl.
“Just get on with it already,” Klaus groaned, his voice raspy with his own blood. 
Hope stared off into space, clenching her jaw. “I will get there in my own time.”
“What’s the wait?” Klaus coughed. When the fit was over, he spit blood on the floor and went on, “You’ve tortured me enough for a lifetime.”
“And what if a lifetime isn’t enough?” Hope pulled herself to her feet, almost slipping in the thick layer of blood under her. “I’m immortal!” She bared her teeth, heart pounding viciously. “What if I want more than one?”
“Then you find someone else to take it out on!” Klaus shouted. “Displaced anger is the Mikaelson way!”
Her voice got eerily low and steady. “I’m not a Mikaelson in any way but name.” She stepped up behind him. “I am nothing like you.”
She raised the blood-stained stake in her hand, nothing between it and her father’s still-beating heart. He made no moves to defend himself, not even to turn around and face her. Her hands started to tremble first, then her mouth. When the tears appeared too, she let out her breath and lowered the stake.
Klaus laughed bitterly. “You can’t do it.” 
Hope appeared in front of him, plunging the stake deep into his chest with no hesitation. “Actually, I just decided against stabbing you in the back,” she said, staring into his eyes, watching as he realized what was happening. 
Black veins spread from the stake’s entry point, taking over his face and turning his skin grey. He sank the rest of the way to the floor, body thudding heavily, face landing in the puddle of his own blood before he turned into a murky puddle of red ash.
Hope turned away quickly, trying not to let too much of the scene burn into her mind forever.
The door to the twins’ room swung open shortly after Hope’s knock. Josie’s eyebrows rose at the sight of Hope, splattered head to toe in blood and dirt, face blank and distant. Lizzie jumped up from her bed, and Alaric stopped pacing, both staring at her.
“Here.” Hope handed the stake to Lizzie, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “It’s done.”
Lizzie’s eyebrows pulled together. “Are you -?”
“No.” Hope shook her head and left the room before Lizzie could finish her question, heading towards the bathroom with her head down. She needed to shower before Penelope saw her like this.