15: Broken Dreams

She was running. Something was chasing her, and she didn’t quite know what, but it was scary. She had gotten out of the house in the middle of the night to do some stargazing, but it was then that it happened; she heard them come from the sewers outside the gates and no matter where she ran, they kept following her and every door she knocked on the property was locked.

Bella thought she would be safe back in the house, but she couldn’t get back in as the doors were all gone. Freaking out, she tried the storm doors of the cellar, but they wouldn’t budge either, and she rolled into a ball when a flash of light hit her, illuminating her and the area around her. “Don’t hurt me!” She screamed. “Please, I didn’t do anything wrong!”

She wanted to outstretch her hands in defense, but she could feel how the grass was giving way and sucking her up. She managed to turn around and tried to crawl out of the hole she was disappearing in, but the suction was too great, and she fell through.

She fell right onto Carlisle’s doctor chair and had somehow, in the process of falling, had lost all of her clothes. When she gave herself a proper look, she must have lost her skin too. It only hurt if she looked at it. “Let’s open you up and see what makes you tick,” Carlisle’s cold, dead voice sounded before she saw the saw. Her eyes widened in shock when he started to saw through her body, and she managed to let out a scream.

This couldn’t be real, but why did it feel that way?

She screamed again and fell through the chair, turning upright and found herself being fastened to some cross by a big man with long blonde hair. It was dark, and a woman was chanting over a fire while she was struggling against her bonds. “No,” she whimpered and managed to pull away but the man pushed her back against it, calling for Elijah to help him out. Blinking, she saw Elijah’s frightened face.

Hold him down!”

She realized that this wasn’t one of her nightmares, or one of her memories turned into a nightmare, but that it was someone else’s. And Elijah had something to do with it. She let out a cry for help; she didn’t want to be chained up, and something was going on that she didn’t quite understand. It hurt. She felt hurt. Betrayed. Angered by the betrayal, it’s what kept her fighting against the bonds. She needed to escape. “Please, don’t let them do this to me!” She cried out, hearing Klaus’ voice instead.

Do it now, boy! Now!” the man ordered Elijah, and she could feel Elijah push her up and against the cross. His strength was making it unable for her to escape, his eyes showing nothing but sadness.

Help me,” she begged him. “Please, don’t… help me.”

Elijah showed hesitation then but kept her on the cross. When the woman at the fire stopped chanting, she could feel a pain in her body and she fell through the cross, through the earth and landed in the basement of the house, surrounded by the Royal Guard, and a smirking Jacob.

No!” She screamed, trying to crawl away as the men’s hands were all over her. One stifling her cries with their manhood, another one was tugging on her hair. She felt being split open from below when someone forced themselves inside of her with their shaft and a fist on the other side.

She was dreaming. She was having a nightmare. She had to wake up. Another sense of panic overwhelmed her as she blacked out for a moment from the violence of the men before she fell through the world, light as a feather, a familiar warmth enveloping her and guiding her to safety.

When she finally woke up, she felt tears on her face, and she realized that she wasn’t the only one crying. “I had hoped you never had to go through that as I have…” Klaus murmured as he ran his fingers through her hair. “I am so sorry, love, so sorry.” She had been screaming in her sleep, and he had been unable to rouse her. Against his better wishes, Klaus had slipped into her dream, watching things unfold for her, trying to pull her back whenever she fell through a nightmare.

When she landed in a memory of his, the one where his mother placed the curse on him, he had hoped it had been short lived, but she had experienced it all, just like him. Of course, he could have told her that it was nothing but a nightmare. But like the others, it would have felt so real to her, he didn’t have the heart to tell her that it wasn’t real.

At first he thought it was strange that she was having one of his recurring nightmares, but then he realized that she had taken some of his blood that day. Sometimes it was quite the inconvenience to be a thousand-year-old supernatural being.

The moment she realized she was in a nightmare and needed to wake up, was the moment where he could pull her to safety, but he was afraid that more damage had been done than good. “Are you alright, Bella?”

She nodded as she looked at him. “Why are you crying?” she asked softly and reached out to dry his tears with her sleeve.

“When you didn’t wake up from your nightmare, I decided to join you,” he admitted, not daring to look at her. “I went into your head to see if I could pull you out… I’m sorry you had my nightmare, love.”

“That was yours?”

He nodded. “It’s a nightmare I was fully awake for at the time. A memory.”

“Elijah really did that to you?”

He nodded again.

“What were they doing to you?”

He rubbed his eyes and sighed. He didn’t particularly like to talk about the whole experience; it was a long time ago, and the curse has long since broken. “Binding my werewolf side with a curse, but not to worry, I finally managed to break it a while ago.”

“Who were the other two people?”

“My mother and father.”

She blinked at him before putting her arms around him and kissed his head. “I’m so sorry,” Bella whispered. “They weren’t very nice.”

He couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, her choice of words still fascinated him. “No, they were not.”

“And you still trust Elijah after that?”

“It’s been a long time ago, but yes, I’ve never fully trusted him after that. You see, when you get to live as long as we have, more often than not you find yourself forgiving someone for their transgressions against you, only to keep the peace. Especially when you can’t be killed. It makes life a lot easier that way,” he softly explained to her, enjoying sitting like this, in her arms for a change. “We always promise to be better, and it will be better for a while before things turn around again.”

“What kind of stage are you in now?”

“We’ve reached an impasse and are now courteous. Only time will tell when things will get rough again,” He looked at her face, giving her the once over. “Are you alright?”

“It was an awful dream,” she said with a nod. “And some scared me, and I felt incredibly betrayed when I landed in yours… but I’m alright,” Bella replied as she played with a small strand of his hair. “I am sorry that you had to go through such a traumatic experience.”

“You’re sorry? Bella…”

“No, I mean it,” she said as she softly kissed his lips. “You’re too good to be tormented like that.”

He smiled wickedly at that. “Oh, you have no idea, love, you have no idea!”

~o.O.o~

Elijah was in the dining room the next morning for breakfast when Klaus and Bella joined him. “Hello, brother,” Klaus greeted him chipper. He was glad that after Bella’s nightmare, they both had the opportunity to catch up on some dreamless sleep. After the happenings of the day before, she was now fully restored and back to her usual self. For which Klaus was grateful.

He was also grateful for not having completely screwed things up for himself with her.

There was some commotion in the courtyard that he and Elijah shifted their attention to while Bella had zeroed in on the pancakes that Klaus had specifically wanted on the breakfast table as he knew she loved them so much. After having been out all night, his brother and Jeri looked exhausted as Kol carried in the vampire that had caused so much trouble.

“Do I smell waffles?” Jeri immediately perked up as a whiff of the waffles wafted her way. “Oh!” She said giddily as she pushed through the two brothers and joined Bella at the table. The girl was immediately shying away, and she realized that she had to fix that. But breakfast first.

Kol dropped Jessica’s unconscious form to the floor at Elijah’s feet with a big smile on his face. “Congratulations, brother, you are now officially a daddy,” he said as he pat his shoulder. “I had to save her from Marcel because he wanted to kill her for what she did. I know that you think that everyone is worth saving, so he agreed not to, as long you took care of her. Good luck.”

Elijah peered at the vampire at his feet and turned around to say something to his brother, but was at a loss. Instead, he huffed, dragged the out cold vampire into the room and made sure he could keep an eye on her so he could snap her neck again.

“Oh, pancakes, that must be brilliant, poppet! Can I have one? Or shall I wait until you’re done, seeing as you’re hogging the entire platter?”

Bella looked at her stack and then at the shape Kol was in, slightly dirty and fatigued. She lifted up one of the pancakes and placed it on his plate. “One.”

“Aw, how about another?”

“You asked for one,” Bella simply stated before pouring the rest of them with maple syrup and icing sugar and continued to eat.

“Alright then,” Kol said as he turned to Jeri. He didn’t even bother asking her when he grabbed a waffle off the plate she was hogging. In return, she stabbed his hand with a fork, causing Bella to flinch and pull her plate out of harm’s way. “Hey!”

“Leave her be and keep your filthy paws off my waffles,” she said as she reached for the maple syrup. “Have some eggs. Or you know, blood.”

“I already drank, darling, thank you.”

“Then don’t take our food.”

“May I enquire why Jessica’s all banged up?” Elijah spoke up as he looked at Kol and his… floozie witch as he returned to the table.

“Anger management,” Kol shrugged. “Be happy she left her alive and that she focused her anger on her and not on regular humans. That would have been a mess you’d have to clean up!”

“Me?”

“You always clean up our messes, don’t you, ‘Lijah?” Kol smirked at his brother. “What does it feel like? Like changing our nappies?”

“That’s enough, Kol,” Klaus shot at his brother, watching Bella closely as she ate. For the first time in a very long time, she was eating like a regular person, devouring the not-so-modest pile of pancakes as if she hadn’t had food in weeks.

“So, that’s your duties? To clean up their messes? Wow,” Jeri said to Elijah. “What about your own? Because I had to go and fetch your vampire, Elijah. The one you are responsible over.”

He stared at her affronted at her accusation. “I am not! I took her to Marcel the morning after.”

“Perhaps, but had you given her to Marcel when it happened, your hands would be clean. Instead, you decided to take her to your room, making you responsible for her and you fucked up,” she pointed out calmly before she chewed on her waffle. “Marcel didn’t want to deal with her, and especially after what happened here, with Bella. That would put a target squarely on him. It’s your mess. You’re going to teach this young vamp the ropes.”

“Unless I kill her first,” Klaus growled lowly. “This time I’ll do it right.”

The witch glanced at him and shook her head. “No. She is his responsibility, but I do agree. The next time she fucks up epically like this, I will join you in ripping her apart. No matter how I feel about the situation, she was treated like shit by this douchebag. She reacted like any newborn, emotional vampire would when betrayed by someone they believed would guide them in a new life. Even if they conned their way into it, she lashed out.”

Elijah let out a sigh. “Very well. I shall take care of her.”

“Keep her away from Bella,” Klaus shot at his brother. “I’m not going to put her on vervain just because your young vampire can’t resist temptation.”

“Hey!” Bella looked at Klaus. “What is this vervain? Will that stop her from going after me?”

“Not necessarily, but it would stop her, and any other vampire, from compelling you.”

“I want.”

“Sorry,” Jeri said apologetically. “Can’t. With your permission, Bella, I’d like to continue the testing of your and Klaus’ blood, now mostly to satisfy my curiosity and not to help that asshole. I’d rather have it untainted, but I can use magic to keep her away from you, restrict her movements through the building.”

Bella looked at her and thought for a moment. “Are you sure?”

“Would you like me to throw your boyfriend through the room again?”

“No!” Bella said shocked. “Don’t ever do that again!”

“I’m sure,” Jeri smirked as she looked at Klaus. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

“I have,” Klaus replied evenly. “However, I do not appreciate being taught a lesson on the expense of Bella. Do you have any idea what I had to walk into after your… display of power?”

“Kol has told me some of her history, not in full detail like you all seem to know about, and it’s not my business. But from what I saw, I have an idea,” Jeri said and then looked at Bella. “And I’m truly sorry for what happened yesterday, but I’m not responsible for your actions nor for what has happened to you in the past.”

“What did she do, Nik?” Kol asked, still staring at the fork in his hand.

“She had a knife on her!”

“Oh,” Kol sighed, slightly shaking his head as he finally pulled the fork out of his hand and watched in fascination as it healed up again. It never grew old. “We need to install a metal detector for her to walk through.”

“However,” Klaus continued as he walked over to a dresser and grabbed a book out of it. “You were right, and I hope you can accept my apology as Bella has done.” He handed Jeri a book. “This is the witch Rebecca’s grimoire. Maybe there’s something of use to you in there. It’s yours.”

She looked at the item in surprise, feeling the magic that it held flow through her hands and into her body. She could most certainly use it. She then looked up to Klaus and nodded. “Apology accepted and thank you.” Who knew that the hybrid had the ability to admit that he was wrong and do something nice? “But for future reference, Klaus? If you want to have a long lasting relationship with someone, you need to learn how to communicate.”

“Yes, I figured that out, thank you, Jeri,” Klaus smiled at her before taking his seat again.

Rebekah sauntered into the room and took her place at the table after kicking against Jessica to make sure she was indeed unconscious. “Oh, lookie, can I kill the bitch now?”

“No, Rebekah you can not,” Elijah shot at her. “We’ll see if she wants to even out and if she doesn’t, I’m afraid you’ll have to get in line.”

“Ah, why am I always last!”

~o.O.o~

Klaus found himself wide awake a few nights later, Bella blissfully curled up against him, all tuckered out, but he couldn’t sleep. Kol and Jeri were being far too loud for his taste. What if their constant thumping would wake Bella? Maybe he should go over and tell them off but he didn’t want to wake Bella. Instead, he tried to block the sound from his ears. But that didn’t work.

He was tired. He had been on the hunt for a couple of days to figure out which regular vampires had been hanging out with the Cullens. Who had hurt his Bella when they did and had managed to get most of them so far, he was still a few short. And they were all male, some were even saying there was a female vampire involved at one point, but no one dared to speak her name.

He needed sleep. He felt pity for Elijah, as Kol and Jeri had a room close to his and only hoped that he would be able to save his own sanity.

Klaus quietly sat up when he heard the door open and blinked when he saw Kol enter, followed by the witch. “What is going on?”

“We need your sofa, can we sleep on your sofa? Please?” Kol begged as he walked into the bedroom. “That sex is tiring as fuck! Hell, it even makes us tired and seem lazy compared to it!”

“So that’s not you?”

“Obviously, Nik,” his brother rolled his eyes at him.

“Then Rebekah-”

“Oh no no no no no,” Kol sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb Bella in her sleep. “Rebekah already took off.”

Jeri had already found the couch and after wrapping her in her blankets, she had curled up and fallen asleep again, mumbling something about Rebekah seeking refuge at Marcel’s.

“Then who?”

“It’s Elijah, brother,” Kol visibly shuddered and rubbed the back of his neck to smooth out the tiny hairs that were standing up. “Elijah and Jessica have the wildest sex ever. I’m pretty sure it’s tantric and then some.”

“That…” Klaus was at a loss for words.

“Exactly. So, we’re taking the sofa. Don’t snore.” Kol got up from the bed and joined Jeri on the sofa. “Good night!”

Klaus let out a growl as he laid down again.

“Shush! I’m already working on a spell to soundproof his room when we wake up again but please, let me sleep!” Jeri groaned as she hit Kol in the face with her elbow as she turned around. “I need my beauty sleep.”

“No you-”

“Shh!”

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