I Hate That I Love You

Chapter 21

 The moonlight glinted off the waters of Marseille's canals. Despite the late hour, the French city was still being crowded by tourists of all sorts. Out of the masses of foreigners stood an auburn haired girl. She was young; Her fifteenth birthday had only recently passed. Her heart thumped in her chest wildly. She couldn't believe she was really here. She had actually managed to arrive here, despite her aunts' security measures, and despite the fact that she'd been using stolen money when she had purchased the plane ticket.

She held her breath, waiting for him to come out. She'd been standing in the same spot for nearly an hour now, unmoving, hidden by an invisibility spell she had cast over herself.

And there he came. From the largest building in the square, a man who looked to be in his early twenties stepped out. He was different from when she had seen him last; His hair was pushed back, and he was wearing a suit, of all things. His appearance reminded her far too much of her dead uncle.

The man took a few steps forward, paused, then stared directly into her eyes. She didn't move, wondering if it was possible that he was somehow seeing through her invisibility spell. But a few moments passed, and the man shook his head. He turned away to begin his walk through the harbor city.

One year since she had last seen him. According to all the people she had hired to keep her aware of his whereabouts, he had been quite busy these past few months. The first three weeks, he had spent cooped up in a penthouse in Berlin, having no regard for his health or wellbeing by refusing to eat or sleep properly. He had emerged from the penthouse a new man; Though he was incapable of turning off his humanity, he had taken up the option of refusing to acknowledge his feelings. A feat that most depressed humans pulled off on a daily basis.

He had been traveling the globe, and at first, she had been confused. To spend twenty days pissed at the world, only to begin a world tour right after? But she had soon found out his destinations were no random tourist attractions. He had been killing people, off of a list, at that. He'd been doing something similar to this during the seven years they'd been forced apart when she had been younger. Everyone who had heard of him had believed he had truly gone mad.

But this time... It was different. He was no longer acting like an insane person. All of his 'executions' were precise and were designed to make a point. He had taken up the role that he had been famed for during the Middle Ages, back when his name alone had been enough ot make people fall to their knees. He was building up his reputation again, brick by brick, kill by kill. He'd even gone to the lengths of acquiring himself a new wardrobe, all so he could multiply the fear his name wrought in tenfold.

Why? Well, sources claimed he was doing it for his family. He'd heard the whispers and rumors of how the Mikaelsons had gone soft over the past decade. His family was losing their reputation, was becoming vulnerable in the eyes of the supernatural world. So naturally, he'd decided to do what he could to restore the infamous glory to the Mikaelson name. That way, no one would dare harm his sisters nor his brother. And above all else, he would make sure he was monstrous enough to never let anyone think of hurting his daughter.

The plan backfired. She didn't know if he knew this or not, but other rumors had been circulating, too. That the mighty Original Hybrid had abandoned his daughter, that he did not care for her. Thankfully, this had kept her safe in a very different way altogether. Since Hope clearly meant nothing to Klaus Mikaelson, none of his enemies had bothered to come after her.

But now, after a full year of mischief making in order to capture her father's attention, she'd made her own share of enemies. Mostly witches, who believed they needed to rid the world of the abomination that she was before she could turn into the full, unstoppable tribrid. Her father's neglect only made them more confident that they could kill her without suffering Klaus's wrath.

Hope had recently gone through another one of the witches' attacks, and had barely made it out with her life. Rebekah and Freya had been horrified, of course, which was why they had brought in help from the Salvatore School to make sure no supernatural being could make it across Mystic Falls's border without their knowledge. Fortunately for Hope, the spell didn't work the other way around- Her aunts couldn't detect the leaving of a supernatural presence. During all the commotion, Hope had left town.

She followed her father through the winding French streets. They entered a warehouse and climbed the stairs to the second floor. There, Hope saw a sight that...

She swallowed the grotesque taste in her mouth. She'd spend an entire year trying to convince the world she could be just as beastly as her family. That had been easy. It was already something people had begun to fear, so a bit of acting on her part was all it had taken. But she had never quite changed that way herself. She was still Hayley Marshall's innocent daughter at heart. A girl wanting to do good, not evil.

So at the sight of half a dozen people having been strung up to the ceiling by their wrists, with blood splattering the ground beneath them... She stumbled forward and landed on her knees. Her concentration on the invisibility spell broke, and to top it all off, she had stumbled straight into a pile of discarded bricks which shattered on the ground upon impact.

A hand wrapped itself around her throat, and she was slammed onto the nearest wall. She flung her legs around wildly, forgetting that she was capable of magic, and merely started gasping for air.

She heard his breath hitch. He stiffened, then she felt his grip on her loosen. She crumbled to the floor, coughing and rubbing her sore throat.

"Hope," he breathed. No emotion was present in his voice. "What are you..."

"Please come home," Hope sobbed.

This wasn't how this was supposed to go. She'd had a whole speech prepared. She was supposed to deliver it confidently, then she was supposed to show him that his reason for staying away was stupid because she was just as evil as him anyway.

But who was she kidding? She was nothing like him. She couldn't stomach seeing her friends hurt, let alone be the one doing all the killing. Maybe in a few years, things would be different. Right now, though... There was still too much of Hayley left inside of her.

"Where are your aunts? Why aren't they- Do they know you're here?" he said.

He was keeping calm, but she could sense the anger in his voice. That was ridiculous. He had no right to be mad at her.

"I'll kill them!" Klaus shouted, causing Hope to- Causing Hope to flinch. She felt horrified at the surge of relief that filled her when she realized he wasn't angry at her. It would have been better if the reason for her relief was that she was frightened of him, and that she merely felt safe at having his fury be directed away from her. It would have made her a coward, a non-Mikaelson at heart, but at least it wouldn't have made her out to be a pathetic fool groveling for a sliver of love. But no, she was feeling relieved at the fact that she hadn't disappointed him. Even after so long, she was still craving his affections.

"Leave," Klaus said in a low voice.

"I just want you back," Hope gasped, failing to keep her tears in. "I've already lost mom, and I can't... I can't lose you too."

"Get out!" he roared.

Hope let out a scream which came hurtling out of her with a burst of magic. The lights around them flickered, but she couldn't bring herself to do more damage than that. "I need you," she cried. "I love you. Please, dad-"

"You need to forget about me," Klaus breathed. "I need you to hate me. Why don't you hate me?" he shouted. "Stop holding onto the hope that I'll come back, because I won't. I can't... I refuse to poison you like that, to put not only your life in danger, but the good inside of you, as well."

Another guttural scream escaped her lungs, but this time, a tornado erupted out of her. The bricks hurled themselves at the walls, the bodies swung wildly back and forth, and her throat- God, her throat was bleeding. She began coughing up red, and when she finally looked up... He was gone.

Double update today, go straight to the next chapter :)