THE MUSE
noun
a person who is the source of inspiration
for a creative artist

───────────────
The Muse, Niklaus Mikaelson
"Never have in my life I have wanted
someone else as much as you.
Will you ease my pain?
Or will you leave me to suffer?"
───────────────

"I think death was the easiest part of my life.
You just—die. That's it."
The emotion was raw in her voice.
Her whole body was twitching from
remembering the excruciating pain.
"What about the nightmares?"
His question made her smile helplessly
as if someone tugged on the corner of her lips,
"You learn to live with them. With the pain.
With the never-ending circle."
But he wasn't content with this answer, so he
shifted closer, noticing the way her body reacted to him.
It ached for him.
"And life? What is life to you now? Another chance?
Another beginning?"
He was prying.
She finally turned to him, facing him with a melancholic
smile:
"You are my life now."

—s y n o p s i s

I. A woman has no property of her own. In case of marriage, her inherited property will be passed to her husband who owns her completely and utterly— her mind, her body, her actions, her words. All must be done to please the husband's wishes.

Isn't it weird to learn that from the moment you started to learn how to read? Oh, excuse me, from the moment when you were allowed to learn how to read. People were stuffing books, about men as divine creatures, down your throat that could barely let out a single breath since the lungs were chained by the corset.

II. A woman's key purpose was to give birth, provide emotionally and sensually for the husband until the end of the day.

You soon learned to differentiate the male looks that dropped on you, noticing if the cleavage was low enough to see bare skin that made men go wild. Noticing if their eyes dropped on your hips, trying to see from afar if you have the birthing hips. How do you even define birthing hips?

III. A woman shall not disagree or defy her husband's or any other man's wishes.

It only took a matter of time before a man will grasp her from the house of her father, unravelling her the life of boredom and obedience that she learnt to choke down to her stomach every single day. She wanted to say no, she knew about the rising protests of women, demanding rights to at least have even religious activities.

Women wanted rights and men didn't want them to have them since they knew that women were more powerful than them. It is quite sadistic, don't you think? Walking around the hall full of people, in your best dress, hair done up just to reveal your cleavage while men gawk at you as if you are for sale. As if you are a thing.

Instead, she wasn't.

Ophelia Salvatore was a woman with a reputation. Obedient, but her stare sent daggers if anyone's eyes looked at her cleavage. Mother's daughter. Intelligent, way more intelligent than most of the men that resided in the town. Fierce, but not enough to defy her father and his brutal hands that bruised her cheeks countless times.

She caught everyone's stare whenever she would go to. Of course, she would think they would look at her brothers who were both tall and attractive with their cheeky grins on their faces, making the ladies swoon off their feet. No, they looked at her.

Not once you could catch Ophelia walking or sitting without the perfect posture. Her calm expression on her face was indestructible, a faint amount of happiness seen from time to time.
"Show no emotion. Show them you are better than them." Mother always reminded her.

No one knew she was suffering from her father's hand, from the placed beliefs, from the fear that some man will get her and she won't be able to say a word ever in her life again. She was preparing for her future—to endure all when the times come for her to lose herself. That's why she was reciting those three rules from that idiotic book over and over again or else she would taste that metallic taste in her mouth again. Sometimes it seemed like father would never let her go.

Perhaps that's why Ophelia became the perfect scapegoat for the scared townies when the horrors were unleashed into this sacred little town of Mystic Falls. The murders spread like a virus, the stony roads bled with crimson, the distant wailings and screams were a lullaby for the night. Oh, yes, the terrified people suspected it was her doing.

Was it because Ophelia would have rather died from whatever was terrorizing their God-forgotten town than standing another day in her father's wrath? Of course.

That's why the short life of Ophelia Salvatore was soon forgotten as she was just another victim of people's fear, of their persistence of destroying everything that was good in that town. By taking an innocent life, they wrote their death sentences, a pang of immense guilt for themselves to carry until the end of their miserable lives. The nightmare that will haunt them as they hung the woman by her feet upside down and pushed her down in the river. It will mark the sins that will be forgiven only by their upcoming generations. Or won't they?

Why, you may ask? Because who would have thought that the woman who was brutally drowned will come back to life only to learn that there are so much more possibilities right now than before? Where she can perfectly express her pain and anger?

After all, hatred is best learnt from the hybrid that has been wandering around for a thousand years, not even realising that he was searching for her all that time.

Love and hate are not so far apart now, are they?

━━━━━━
t h e c a s t

o p h e l i a   s a l v a t o r e
the exousia

(portrayed by Anya-Taylor Joy)

"If I'd ask you to stay, would you?"

n i k l a u s    m i k a e l s o n
the hybrid

(portrayed by Joseph Morgan)

"You wouldn't even need to ask."

and the respectful cast of TVD and TO
━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gonna hold you,
gonna kiss you in my arms

DISCLAIMER! — This is a re-written version of THE MUSE. The main plot will remain the same! I do not own anything except the plot and Ophelia Salvatore. Everything else belongs to Julie Plec.

AUTHOR'S RIGHTS! — You are not allowed to use, republish or translate this book without my permission.

WARNINGS! — This book will include: strong language, violence, graphic topics, mental issues, death, sexual content, slow-burn.

ADDITIONAL INFO! — English is not my first language, so mistakes are going to appear.

DEDICATIONS! — crudelove devillishion -rogersonlyfans Jackieshalom nazyalenskii mikaelswhxre farierots -luvsydney rawhorror MysticPsyche_ andromqda humaneity dorlenelvrr Yo_bbygirl bloodyrippah bIoodforbIood -ripperstxfan arimorxn
And to all of you who have read this book before and to all of you who are new here! Your support and love means the world to me <3

graphics are made by me
cover is made by the lovely hyvnology
spanish translation wipesout
credits to the owners of the gifs and other pictures
©2020-2023 (republish)