City views were always the best from high up. I sat criss cross in the glass box. Apparently this place was called The Ledge, and was very busy.

It was literally a glass box, just a window pushed out a few feet from the building itself.

Stefan had compelled everyone away from our spot. He leaned against the side of it, his eyes on the city. "What is your relationship to Klaus exactly?"

"What do you mean?"

"So you're Elijah's kid right? Does that make Klaus your uncle?"

I smiled softly. "Elijah and Klaus found me shortly after I got to New Orleans. It was at the height of their reign, so no one questioned my sudden appearance or they were smart enough not to. Little did I know that I'd walked into a city crawling with the supernatural."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're hiding something?"

"I'm not going to tell you everything." Why couldn't we enjoy the view? Why did he have to ask questions?

"If you had such a happy childhood, I don't see why you couldn't. I want to hear what it was like living with them."

"You're the one who spent the entire summer with Nik. How was that?" I leaned back on my hands, watching him through the dark reflection in the glass.

"Felt like my life was constantly in his hands." Oh it most definitely was. "As if I made one wrong move, it'd be over."

"You're luckier than most. He usually gets too annoyed and starts killing people." Suddenly the lights didn't feel so magical. My stomach soured at the very thought.

I knew who they were.

The Originals.

For a time though, they were just the people who made me laugh, who told me stories about brave knights and little princesses, and tucked me in at night.

I drew my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. Was it wrong that I missed the innocence of that time? That I kind of wished I could go back to it?

"Sounds like you have some experience with that."

"Why are you so insistent on prying into my past?"

Stefan stepped further in, taking a seat in the far corner of the glass box. "I've missed so much of your life. I want to know you."

"You're lying or at least partially." He was as bad at it as I was. Really, it was tragic. "Why?"

And surprising.

How had Nik not clocked it yet? He had the most ridiculous poker face I've ever seen.

"It's about Elena, isn't it? You're trying to figure out if I'm a threat to her." Of course it fucking was. All paths lead back to the doppelgänger. "You realize that you're never going back there, right? Once Nik gets bored of you, you're dead. There's only one way this ends."

"Fortunately for me, I'm optimistic."

"Delusional seems more fitting."

His head tilted. "Why do you shut everyone out?"

"Why don't you?" Having people that are close never ended well. Nik and Elijah never approved of anyone. Enzo was lucky to have lived, much less turned. "It's better for everyone if I didn't get attached."

When I was a child, I was so easily fooled. It made Elijah tighten the already restrictive security surrounding the compound and myself at any given point. Though that didn't stop the zealots from trying.

And try they did.

"Sounds like that's hardly any life at all." He crossed his arms.

"I haven't been living, Stefan." I pulled my knees tight against my chest. "At least, not the last hundred and ten years." Ninety years on the run, twenty years either in a coffin or recovering from it. My very first ripper binge had been bloody and destructive. It'd taken a ridiculously long time to get it under control. "I'm a hundred and fifty six years old and I've only experienced true freedom maybe twice."

"Have you told Klaus or Elijah that?"

I barked out a laugh. "They're not the listening type. Especially if there's something they deem a threat to me." They did the same to Rebekah. Honestly I think she had it worse.

"Why not leave?"

"I did. And every second after, I was looking over my shoulder, paranoid beyond reason that they'd catch up to me and I'd be shoved in a box again. They don't let shit like that slide."

"I wish I had a solution for you, but I've been barely hanging on as it is. Klaus thinks I've gone full ripper."

"Oh, he definitely knows."

Stefan's brow furrowed.

"He has been suspicious since at least the whole failed hybrid thing. If not the very beginning." As if he hadn't been dealing with two rippers in his very own home. He knew the signs and he knew how rippers acted. "I think he's seeing how far you'll go, but that's just a guess. Who knows what's going on in that head of his. You should be more careful."

He opened and closed his mouth several times, nothing came out.

"We should leave before Nik sends his minions."