As Valentine's Day came and went, Hayley and Eden had begun narrowing in on the different ways that Hayley could get to New Orleans. A plane was not an option as Hayley had no way to afford flying anytime soon, and she felt that there were too many creeps on the bus. The older girl had opted for hitchhiking, but Eden refused it as she felt that it would be worse than the bus as well as the fact that a full moon would probably come around before she made it all the way to The Big Easy.
"I really wish you would just let me pay for it." Eden complained as they hunched over Eden's laptop in the dining room. Hayley was now looking up the fastest route to Louisiana through Florida. Hayley shook her head, her hazel eyes still planted firmly on the small screen.
"No no, I can do this. I understand that you want me safe, but I can't accept your money." Eden frowned, leaning on the table slightly to be able to look at the older girl.
"It has nothing to do with money Hayley, I want to help. And if getting you a plane ride is the way to help than that's what I want to do." Both girls heard the door shut before they watched Jana and Jupiter walk in, both with bags of clothing in their hands.
"Hey guys." Jana greeted, patting Eden's shoulder lightly. She sat the bags on the floor and took a seat beside Eden, peering down at the laptop screen.
"The fastest route to New Orleans? Well it definitely isn't by bus. Who's planning on going?" Hayley raised a hand.
"Eden and I were trying to find a way for me to get there because I can't go by plane." She said quietly as Jupiter walked back into the room silently. Eden hadn't even noticed she'd gone.
"Why not?" Eden cleared her throat and gave Jupiter a pointed look. Hayley put her hand up.
"No it's fine. I can't afford a ticket out there." She told Jupiter, who nodded in understanding.
"That's it?" Jana asked, laughing lightly and Eden kicked her under the table.
"Seriously Hayley we could have bought you a ticket. You're going for a good reason." Jana broke off, and Eden saw the look on her face. The exact face she made before she had a reckless idea.
"Jana no." Eden said before her cousin could open her mouth. Jana scoffed, rolling her eyes playfully.
"You don't even know what I was going to say." She pointed out.
"I don't have to Jana, I know that it's a bad idea." Jupiter's head snapped up and she met Jana's eyes. They shared a small smile between the two before Jupiter put a hand on Hayley.
"Why don't we make this into a trip. Like a girl's trip?" She suggested, and Jana grinned brightly. While a little suspicious of how Jupiter was able to tell what Jana was going to say, she agreed with the idea all the same.
"What?" Eden choked out in shock, looking between the two New Yorkers as though they had lost their mind.
"That sounds like a great idea." Jana piped in and Eden held her hand up.
"You guys are serious?" She asked in disbelief and Jana nodded eagerly, pushing the computer towards her before typing in something and turning the laptop around to show to the other girls.
"This is the perfect opportunity for all of us to get out Eden! Hayley can spend the day looking for her family and by night we can all go out partying." Eden sent Jana a look, upset that she let slip that she knew about Hayley's search for her pack.
"Jana we-" Hayley pulled the laptop towards her.
"Actually, this sounds like a great idea." Eden paused, looking at Hayley with a raised eyebrow.
"Hayley you just told me that you wouldn't take a plane because-" Jana spoke over her.
"Well lucky us, Hayley changed her mind." Hayley paused, looking around at the three girls in slight confusion.
"Not to sound rude or anything, but I haven't really noticed any of you leaving for work or anything. So how are you guys going to afford your ticket and mine?" Jana made a small swiping motion towards Hayley and pulled her phone out.
"We're New Yorkers, Upper East Side at that." She said as though that were supposed to be an explanation for Hayley. Eden rolled her eyes before turning to Hayley.
"My mom sold apartments and lofts to pretty much all of the Upper East Side in New York, and my dad is a Producer. Jana's mom is a fashion designer and her dad was a mogul, hence her blatant disregard to money." Jana rolled her eyes, but Eden went on.
"Jupiter's father is distantly related to the Rockefeller's." The red head nodded her head proudly.
"My dad was a bastard and so my grandfather has been throwing us hush money ever since he was a kid." Hayley gave her a strange look and Eden smiled slightly before turning back to her cousin.
"Be that as it may, we can't miss two weeks worth of class when we just started and my mother had to threaten the board to get us in." Eden reminded Jana.
"Then we won't stay the whole time, we'll stay a few days. Just long enough for Hayley and you to look around for her family and for Jupiter and I to have some fun around the town." Eden hesitated, still very unsure of if she wanted to do this. She had just gotten into a habit down here in Florida and she wasn't sure it would be for the best if she messed that up yet. Truthfully, there was a part of Eden that wanted to go, but she also wanted to stay here and continue to build her life here in Florida. She had even been contemplating a job and she couldn't do that if she was behind in school.
"Eden," Hayley started, snapping the brunette out of her thoughts, "Come on its only for a few days and then you can come straight back. I just, I really need to find out if the answers to what I'm looking for are down there." Eden groaned internally, she was going to severely regret this.
"Alright fine." The three girls surrounding her cheered and Eden sighed.
"Five days guys, and then we come straight home. Does everyone understand?" Jana nodded, pulling the younger Latina into a hug.
"That's the spirit Eden!" She cheered happily. Eden granted her cousin a tiny smile before looking at Hayley, who was smiling widely.
"So a girls trip it is." She announced quietly.
* * *
It wasn't until later that Eden found herself with a moment of peace. She was mentally tired, drained. She had this feeling that she couldn't shake and it was almost completely the equivalent to the feeling she had when Klaus died. She sat on the bed, brushing her damp hair absently as she thought.
After Hayley left, she started to think about her promise to Jana to start looking into her and Klaus' dreams. Eden agreed to go with Hayley to look into her pack, but she was curious about the chance of it possibly being a able to find out if he had any ties to one of the packs.
She sat the brush down, wrapping her fingers around her necklace before sighing. She was unsure of the way to go about even trying to search. There was a two in seven chance of Klaus' pack being down in New Orleans and if she was wrong, then she really had no chance of knowing. She couldn't keeping moving around the country on a whim and it's not like she had a job to fly anywhere around the country. Selena was getting antsy about the fact that she was traveling and there was no way she would let Eden abandon school to fly around the country.
She crossed her legs and sat back, holding the necklace up to examine it. The diamond shined as brightly as ever, sitting beautifully inside the silver chain. She turned it around and ran her finger over the markings over the necklace, thinking about the first time she saw it. Both Klaus and Kol had complimented it on her, though now she wondered about its first owner. Normally, she would have been offended that she got second-hand jewelry but the fact that Klaus had given it to her made it feel like it was made especially for her. She laid down, still gripping the necklace in her hand as she closed her eyes, Klaus still on her mind.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Eden groaned as she looked around. She was dressed in Victorian wear, her pale pink dress billowing slightly in the summer breeze. She pulled the hat off her head, annoyed with the thing though she only wore it for a few moments. She threw it to the ground and looked around, trying to find how she had gotten wherever she was.
She began walking (used to this type of routine) though she vaguely hoped that she would be able to possibly have an interaction with Klaus and his family this time. She walked for about five minutes before she came across a caravan of people. They walked in black, following a carriage with a coffin sitting atop of it. Eden picked the skirt to her dress up, jogging lightly to catch up to the crew. She followed them, stopping slightly when she saw Rebekah was one of the mourners following the carriage.
"Rebekah!" She yelled, only for the blond to continue to walk as though she'd said nothing. Eden frowned, and continued to look down the line before seeing Elijah and Klaus as well.
"Elijah! Niklaus!" She tried again, and again her calls fell on deaf ears. She walked forward, ready to try to touch the oldest sibling when she heard the sound of whips cracking. She looked around, searching for the cause of the sound when she saw a young black boy. He was pulling at the carriage while a man on a horse mercilessly cracked his whip at the boy again and again. From the corner of her eye, she saw Klaus stop, taking in the sight of the boy in pain.
Eden frowned, wishing that she could help the poor child but she knew that once again she would be of no help. She whined as she heard the boy cry out and fell to the ground. She stepped forward and watched as he took an apple from the ground and launched it at the man on the horse. Eden's lip upturned slightly, happy that the boy could at least defend himself since she could not. The man on the horse growled and reared back to hit him again when his head snapped back and he fell off the horse, and giant gash in his head.
"What is your name?" She heard her dead boyfriend question as he walked towards the dark-skinned boy. The boy looked on, taken aback by Klaus' kindness and honestly Eden was too. Klaus continued to pursue the boy, staring down at him.
"Don't got one." He answered gruffly. He licked his lips.
"Mama wouldn't name me til I turned ten. 'Case the fever took me, and then it took her." He continued. Eden walked forward until she was standing next to Klaus, peering down at the young boy as well. He was nice looking, albeit the fact that he was dressed in rags from his slave status and he spoke more intelligently than Eden knew most slaves did. Klaus crouched down so that he was eye-level with the child, his blue eyes meeting the child's brown ones.
"You are a survivor, and survivors need names." The two stared at one another before Klaus squinted his eyes in thought.
"How about Marcellus?" He tested; Eden thought the name fit him nicely.
"Marcellus?" The boy questioned and Klaus nodded.
"It comes from Mars, the god of war." He answered, standing up and holding his hand out. The boy looked around and Eden watched in wonder, curious to know if Klaus was seeing the same thing in Marcellus as Eden did. Marcellus took Klaus' hand and pulled him up. The two smiled at each other and Eden looked up at her lover, tears spilling slightly as she watched Klaus smile brightly at the young boy.
Before she could watch anything more, she saw the scene fading away into black and white. She frowned, knowing that it was about to end, that she was about to lose another chance to try and talk to him. To talk to the man that she had fallen so helplessly in love with.