June has just been full of surprises

LOCATION the mountains
DATE 18th of June 2021
TIME Evening
OUTFIT Link
TOPIC FOR @Elijah xx
________________________

She couldn't catch a break, from the second she had stepped back into this cursed city, the world around her was filled with unexpected events everywhere. First her meeting with Diego after thinking he was still back in Bulgaria in Sofia, having met up with Derek and reconnecting with her beautiful baby boy. Connecting with Diego. Then, you had the entire thing with Frederik, that she wasn't going to even think about nor her father, to much stress. So, to take her mind off things she had asked Elenora to look after Annika. To distract herself from her thoughts, there was always one thing she could come up with that was going to take her full focus, a good hunt. Logging on to her family's system, it was easy to find cases of supernatural activity in this town - not that you really needed it - the supernatural was breeding here faster than rabbits on speed.

Julianne had found her way up the mountains, looking down at her enchanted bracelet waiting to see if it would glow by the closeness of supernatural. She sat down looking at two bodies, checking them before getting up, they were dead. The blood was fresh running from the wounds so she knew the vampires or vampire who had done this couldn't be far away. For a split second she thought of calling back up, being in the mountains this late alone was stupid and she knew that. She should know better than this. The sun had yet to set, which still made it easy to look around. She started to walk around, following a smaller trail that other wise seemed to be covered nicely. Someone clearly knew they wanted no one to find them. She had seen this kind of hiding one's tracks before, because she used them herself whenever she had to hide somewhere. Griffin had taught her. Julianne shook her head before following the almost impossible path which got her to a cabin sealed away from the people who might be so rude to snoop around. It was a perfect hideout however, which was the reason why she went over and forced the door open.

She took a step inside and looked around the bracelet didn't activate, so the coast was clear - at least for her to check the place out and just hope it was a vampire hideout and not some strange bitter man who just wanted to be left alone. Despite that thought, the bracelet suddenly started to glow bright blue, making her aware that something supernatural was here.

It was a long way from the nearest grocery store to Elijah’s hideout. He always took a new trail and made sure to cover his tracks. He constantly calculated with every step he took when he walked back from a public space. He never really used his supernatural speed or strength when he was just by himself; only when he had to fight others or had to feast from animals. He walked with a shopping bag in each hand, filled to the brim, so he wouldn’t have to go shopping too often. He liked staying away from everything that could result in his cover to crumble. It had already been quite the experience to have Elena somewhat back in his life. This was also one of the reasons why he had bought more food than he would usually have bought, since he hoped that she would come by for a meal one day.
As he walked, his senses started kicking in with two bodies laying quite far away. Some vampires hadn’t been able to control themselves, clearly. As he walked past them, he also noticed that there was a smell of another human. Was this one hurt or searching for results?
He chose to continue back home – because he didn’t want to be a part of the trouble the vampire may or may not have brought, but as he got closer to his hideout, the smell of the human only got stronger. Shit.

Finally, he could see how his front door stood wide open. He pressed his lips together, and hoped for the best, that he could convince the human to leave, so he wouldn’t accidentally get in trouble or anything. Hopefully, this human wasn’t scared of going back down the mountains. As he got closer to his front door, he could see a blonde woman in what seemed to be a hiking/jogging outfit standing in his home with the back towards him. “Excuse me miss. This is private property,” he said as he entered and put down his shopping bags next to his very small dinner table, before he straightened back up, and rested his arm against the table, as he looked at the woman, only to realize that she looked quite familiar, making him frown slightly.

Julianne stood still for a second as she heard someone come inside. Her ears payed close attention to the footsteps, if the sound was coming closer towards her or not. The gemstone in the bracelet lighting even brighter by the second, she took a deeper breath in, not turning around just yet. Julianne listened to the bags being placed on the table, just as he spoke. The human frowned by the voice, it sounded so familiar. Way too familiar. Yet, it was a voice she couldn't quite forget. It was on recordings from back when they were children, their parents hadn't really done anything to create memories and record them, but luckily Frederik had found an old video camera back then and the siblings had been good at recording once in a while. Julianne turned slowly around, wanting to put a face to the voice, knowing it had to be her mind playing tricks on her. Griffin was dead. Dead and gone. She had even watched him kill himself when he was turned into a vampire. Her eyes locked with his, making her almost lose her breath. It looked like him. He even sounded like he brother. Her heart skipped few steps ahead and she felt lightheaded for a second, not sure if it was from this or the hike, or something else entirely.

She split her lips trying to say anything, but only air seemed to pass through her lips. Julianne took an even sharper breath in, looking at his face to see his reaction - mostly to get confirmed that he knew who she was. "Griff.. I- uhm.. you-- you were.. you were dead?" Julianne moved her left hand up to her head placing her fingers gently on her temple on the left side of her head. This could be a trick, she could just have lost her mind? But then again, she had just seen Frederik in the beginning of the month - crazy didn't seem to cover all this.

Griff. Shit, this wasn’t good. He looked away for a second, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do. Everything in his room was calculated and he chose to sit down on the chair by the dinner table. “Technically… I am still dead,” he said merging his fingers, shrugging. “And to you, I should still be dead,” he said and nodded slowly. He licked his lips a bit before he leaned back, “And I guess that I have to find a new hideout now, guessing dad and mom is already on their way?” He looked over his shoulder towards the front door which still stood open. “Or maybe Quentin has fucked up my senses and everyone is here to make sure I stay dead?” he asked.
He thought about Elena. She had seen his hideout and knew where he was. He thought about her finding him dead – forever dead. It would be so tragic, just like he had found her. He didn’t want her to experience what he had experienced. He didn’t want to cause her a reminder of his death. “Is that the plan?” he almost teased her, because he knew, that if his family knew he was alive, he was an even deader man.

And to you, I should still be dead, she watched him just sitting there by the dinner table. He looked the same, time had just stopped. Julianne could feel the small tear in her heart, and the heavy beats making her uncomfortable. Finding a new place to hide.. Mom and dad.. he didn’t know. Julianne licked her lips a bit, still stuck on the fact that he hadn’t been there when their mother died, or when they had believed Frederik to be dead as well. ”Oh shut it, they don’t even know I’m up here. I do have a life on my own, not that you would know about it.” she replied back. Oh how she had begged their father back then to not let it come down to Griffin killing him self, and all her begging had been for noting. She had wanted out of all this, but her oldest brother has stopped her, and she still had nights where she wished she had completed the task. Now her wish was granted. They were orphans now. ”Mom died a few years ago, and dad died this month. There is no plan. Or Quentin does the planning,” she informed before shaking her head a bit. Julianne could feel her eyes getting slightly wet, and she tried to blink it away. Overwhelmed. Completely overwhelmed. She knew what she should do. The same thing their father had yelled in her ear to do to Fredeik. Kill him. He is a monter. He deserves to die.

Yet, here she stood and barely knew what to do with herself. ”My heart broke by the thought of never seeing you again..” Julianne almost shallowed her words, trying not to sound too sentimental, but failed completely. She had loved him despite being turned, despite what their parents had taught them. ”I loved you through everything, and you didn’t even care..” she blinked a few tears out while taking a sharper breath in, not taking her eyes of him. A part of her understood, it wasn’t that. Had it been her she would have done the same. She had done the same, death had just not been involved. But there was a reason for the lengths she had taken to keep Derek and Diego safe from her family. Even if it had broken her heart traumatically. Julianne took a sharper breath in, didn’t even care where to sit, so she just sat down on the ground. Something she always did when she was confused or sad, just sitting down on the floor collecting her thoughts. ”You still use your old way of hiding your tracks.” She looked down at her hands shortly as they folded in front of her, before she returned her eyes to Griffin again.

He raised his hands as if he was trying to back away or something alike. Of course, she had a life beside the hunting. They had had time for that – or something. Griffin didn’t really think he had had the time to do anything he wanted when he was under the influence of his father’s commands. Therefore, Griffin had always been the one to bend the rules and go exploring only to get a scolding when he got home. Griffin raised his brows as she mentioned that their mother had died a few years ago. It touched him somewhat because he had really liked their mother. Their father, not so much. He believed that it was only Frederik, Elenora and Quentin who really liked and followed Leonardo’s commands. Griffin had somehow managed to pull Julianne and Nicole away from commands – or at least occasionally. He noticed how her eyes seemed to be wetter than he remembered, and he narrowed his eyes slightly. It seemed like she was fighting an inner battle.

As she finally spoke his whole expression softened and he could feel how his face felt heavier. Her words made him sad. And you didn’t even care. It wasn’t the truth. He cared a lot for her. To some, it might seem idiotic to choose the ones who loved you the most to watch you die, but to him everything was calculated and memorized in his brain. He had needed it to be someone who cared for him, because a person who really cared wouldn’t have enough guts to impale the dead body or something alike. He knew that his dad, Frederik, Elenora and Quentin would’ve made sure that he was dead by doing something like that. By choosing Julianne, he managed to continue to live. He just wished for the clan to crumble, one way or another. Leonardo leaving the throne, Quentin, Elenora and Frederik calming the fuck down and then he would be able to go back. Unless some of the other hunters would go after him. There was so many factors to that calculation.
She took a couple of sharp breaths before she suddenly just sat down. Every calculation on her lowered. Her being a threat was almost zero. She mentioned how he still used the same way to hide his tracks, which made him smile a bit. He got up from the stool and approached slowly before he sat down next to her, but his front towards her. “I always cared. I still do,” he reassured her, trying to smile softly at her. “I’m sorry for what I did,” he said. He wanted to hold her hands or just to comfort her in some way, but he knew that he was ice cold and that might trigger the hunter she was taught to be.

So many things had gone wrong since that day. It was like her life had turned into one disaster after the other, and every single time she found a shot of happiness - it had been taken for her, because of her fathers stupid rules, and his punishments for not following them. He got up from the stool and walked closer to her, for a moment she felt like no time had past, that they were still young and carefree, without a world weighing them down. Because she did feel weight down by the world. Griffin sat down next to her, making her look towards him, following his movements. Julianne had always been the weak one, she had lost count on the times her father had yelled at her because of it. Even when she had been influenced by the drug, yes, she became more reckless, but careless? Not careless, her heart was always in her sleeve. Especially after Derek and Annika. I always cared. I still do, Julianne took a deeper breath in, looking at him giving her a small smile. He apologized for what he had done. The scenario still gave her nightmares time to time, and when Frederik had died, her world had just crumbled - and hadn't it been for the Derek being on his way and having Diego at that time, who knew what her mental state would have made her become?

Putting herself in his shoes, she wasn't even surprised by his actions. It was smart really, she just wished it hadn't had to hurt that much. "I know," she sighed a bit before taking a deeper breath in. It had been a difficult time, first losing Nicole to the unknown, then losing Griffin. After that training had been even more harsh, not to mention the clan of shapeshifters they had been hunting down and slaughtered by the command of their father. Even Frederik had seemed it as too much, and left the country for another hunt there - where she had followed the year later. Quentin seemed to have been the only one okay with what they had done. Poor Quentin, always trying to be the best and to prove he was okay, but it was hard next to Frederik, and even in death, Quentin's best had never been enough. Julianne took a sharper breath in before looking at him. "Gosh I've missed that stupid face of yours," she spoke with a lower voice, pulling a small smile on her lips. She felt weak and exhausted. Overall, perhaps she should have slowed down this month, but she hadn't. She could never really seem to catch a breath.

Griffin smiled a wide teethy smile as she told him that he had missed his stupid face. He stuck his tongue out at her teasingly. “I’ve missed you too,” he breathed out afterwards. He thought through the news he had gotten though out the many years and thought about how all of the siblings were holding up. “Did you ever find Nicole?” he wondered looking from his interlocked fingers and up at her. He wouldn’t be disappointed if they had given up the search, because for many years he felt like it was only him, who were searching. Everyone else were so sure that she was either dead or worse; turned. Gosh, how he had been so frightened if something had happened to her. And then the worst had happened to him. Oh, all the calculations he had made for his survival, and right now – for every second he spent with her, he could see how his chance for survival got lower and lower. Everyone with some kind of tie or future tie to hunters would make his chance for survival decrease.
“And the golden boy?” he added, he wished to ask about every one but took the ones which he at least knew the most about. He wanted to be sure that his father had changed when Frederik died, or something at least, or just when Griffin had been changed by supernaturals – something which showed that the mand had had a heart.

Of course, he asked about Nicole and she shook his head to give him the answer. They had stopped searching after some years after he had died. They were hunters, and they had to be strong and move on from that sort of emotion. It was distracting, just like grief. Oh, the amount of times she had been yelled at by her father for crying over the loss of Griffin. The brother she had thought dead but now was sitting here in front of her, still dead, but undead. Julianne wanted to cry, she could even feel how her eyes burned and her lips started to tremble, but she repressed it. She was so tired and exhausted, from everything that had been going on lately. This was just the tip of the ice berg. Wanting to cry didn't even cover it anymore, no she wanted to scream. The mention of Frederik however, made her breathe out and close her eyes for a second. She was grateful for him being alive truly. Still coming to terms with the fact that he was a witch, and just weeks ago him and Elenora had killed their father. "He is alive, I just found out a few days ago.. he is a witch now - seems like you two have more in common than you first thought." She folded her lips a little bit together. "Father found out.. and wanted me to kill him. I didn't, I'm weak and we all know it," she sighed a bit, that was Jolene and Quentin's words, but she believed them. "Quentin is also far worse than dad by now, after you and Frederik died.. he made its his mission that Quentin didn't end up with same fate.. and he turned him into someone completely different, but what would I know, I wasn't there for him."

He frowned a little as she told him that they hadn’t found Nicole. It saddened him, because that had been the reason to why he had been turned and ‘died’ in front of Jules; to continue to search for his little sister, and not letting anything be in his way, not even the fact that his family wished for him to be dead. But he could see that Julianne was not taking this very well, even though she did her best to repress it. He could almost feel it. Not that she carried a specific aura, but it just felt like she wasn’t feeling well, and he understood why.
Griffin raised his brows a bit when she told him about the eldest of the siblings. Frederik was a witch now apparently. He forced a little chuckle out when Nicole said the two bothers had more in common that people first thought. He didn’t agree. The golden boy was and would always be the golden boy. He was certain that even their father would’ve still loved his golden boy or had respect for him if he knew he was a witch, but as soon as the thought was played in his mind, Julianne explained that traditions hadn’t changed. If you lived as a hunter and was turned into something supernatural, you would only have 2 weeks to kill yourself before hunters would come after you. And since Frederik apparently had been ‘dead’ for a longer period of time, Julianne had been put on the task to kill Frederik. What a cruel thing to do, when he knew that she had watched Griffin’s ‘suicide’ and now wanted her to kill Frederik. “Well now you just have to live with Frederik probably wanting to take over the world with his mate, if he has found one,” for a split second he waited for his calculations, “Okay, no kidding, but his mate was probably there when father asked you to kill him, right?” he chuckled a little. “They are very likely to be a powerful couple,” - “They could probably take over Gaia or Moonlight Falls,” he chuckled. He could see it, even though he couldn’t fully imagine how his mate looked like, but if he was left alone for a little while, he would be one hundred percent sure how she looked even before meeting her – just by calculations. It was an incredible skill, even though it could be quite annoying to see all of these calculations all of the time, but he had learnt to live with it.
Quentin was far worse than dad by now. It was incredible. He was bad before, and now worse? Griffin didn’t even want to know what Quentin had achieved while Griffin had been gone, and it didn’t seem like he wished to know, with the way that his father had made Quentin someone different. “Where were you?” he wondered, looking at her with interest and a slight bit of worry. What had occupied her that much that she couldn’t see her own brother?

Julianne frowned at first, but couldn't really help but crack up a small laughter. Well, she could only agree. "Yup," she replied when asked if the so called mate, or the storm named Zitora had been there as well. "I've seen her, them in action, it's going to be wild," Julianne laughed a little bit with a small shrug. "She owns a lawyer firm in Aston, I work there -" she mentioned. Julianne hoped for the family to get back together at some point. "Elenora is totally cool with it as well, the whole witchy part and all," she took a sharper breath in. Then the question she couldn't avoid when it came to Quentin and everything else: where had she been?

"I- ehm," she took a sharper breath in and looked a bit to the side. No one in the family knew anything about Diego and Derek, they knew something about Annika but nothing close to the real story. "I was happy somewhere else," she then breathed out and licked her lips a little, then she returned her head to Griffin. "I fell in love with someone, and we were happy for a while," she pulled a small smile by the memory. "We had a son, we do have a son. But he is born a werewolf, beta werewolf - so I had to leave. When father started requesting me to get home after Freddie died," she folded her lips together. It was a heavy burden to lift from her shoulders, clear she never had shared it with anyone - no one expect Diego, and it wasn't like he could completely see it through her eyes. "So, I let him take care of Derek while I went home, and it was already too late. But father has always been most cruel to Quentin," she breathed out in a smaller sigh. It was true though, at least to her perspective. "When I got home I realized a month or so later that I was pregnant again, and I was so scared that she would turn out werewolf like her brother, lucky for me she is born a healthy little human girl - I first shared the news with her father a few weeks ago. I couldn't risk Quen or our father to find out about Derek."

Griffin smiled and nodded confidentially as she approved the theories he had put up with the couple. He was quite sure the two of them could do massive things together. He raised his brows a little as she mentioned that the mate owned a lawyer firm in Aston and that Julianne worked there. He hadn’t seen that coming. The information about Elenora being cool with Frederik being a witch gave Griffin a little bit of hope. Frederik, Elenora and Julianne would seemingly be okay with Griffin being alive. Or he was sure the later was okay with it, in some way or form. It was still a process he believed.

He tilted his head a little as she hesitated with replying and looked away. This was going to be interesting. As she mentioned she had found happiness elsewhere his theory about it being interesting got approved. He liked getting up to date on her life, and some would even be able to see how his eyes shined with excitement.
The person she fell in love with was only one she was happy with for a while, which made him frown a little. Why would the love have to be interrupted? What had interrupted them? As she spilled the news about having a son his eyes widened. He was an uncle? He couldn’t help but pull on a smile. Beta werewolf. It made the smile crumble. Even though he hadn’t always been a vampire, he knew about the natural enemies, and it was not a good sign. But it also meant that her partner should’ve been a beta too. The calculations went on and on in his mind, until he was sure, that yes, her partner had been a beta.
He followed along as she explained how everything had been torn apart as Frederik had died. So, it wasn’t long ago since she had had her child. Or, at least not compared to how long Griffin had been gone for.
Jules had done the right thing and let the father take care of the child, now that it was a supernatural being, otherwise there would’ve been a chance that both of them would’ve been punished in one way or another. A lump formed in his throat as she mentioned that it had been too late when Julianne had gone home. Quentin had already been lost to a bad fate – and Julianne had gotten pregnant again. He understood why she had been worried, and he was quite certain he wouldn’t have been able to keep his cool like Julianne had. After all it had been her child. He smiled when she explained that her girl was a human. “You’ve done the right thing,” he assured her, not really thinking when he put his cold hand on top  of hers and caressed it. “What’s the girl named?” he wondered. He didn’t want to press her with a question about meeting her children just yet. He was sure it would come naturally at some point.