Henrik appreciated that Jeremy was trying to play off his confusion, but even the confused teen could hear it in his voice. âUh, well, my family doesnât just know about the vikings⊠we were part of the culture. Over a thousand years ago.â Henrik began, struggling to keep his accent in check and his words English. âMy family was part of a village that shared the land with a neighboring tribe. We called these men, âbeast menâ for their ability to change into wolves.â
âDuring a full moon, I asked my brother Niklaus to take me to watch the wolves transform. I was only thirteen; and that night was the last time I saw my family. The wolves⊠tore me apartâŠâ Henrik paused, a hand going to his chest as flashes of the memories rushed through his mind. âI wasnât just sent away⊠I died.â
âNext thing I know, Iâm waking up five years ago.. I met some people who helped try to get me adjusted to this time â but thereâs just so much to take in and a thousand years canât be crammed into five. Itâs overwhelmingâŠâ The teen quickly shook his head.âMy family are the worldâs first vampires⊠vampires, werewolves. Itâs all real. And Iââ He held a hand up in front of him, a small paper weight soaring from the desk into his palm. ââam a witch, on my Motherâs sideâŠâÂ
Even in rambling, however, he knew not to bring up the Druids and the Order. They worked best on a need-to-know basis, like the Watchers that looked after the Slayers. He also knew, however, that heâd literally just broken any sort of understanding he had with his brother Kol about their family and their notoriety. It wasnât exactly the best idea to rattle off the Mikaelson life story to some random boy. He had panicked though. Training or no training; Henrik hadnât been ready to be thrust into active duty on his own.
âSo, I havenât just been away for five years⊠I was gone for over a thousandâŠand I was in here missa vitið â losing my mind, at all the people in this crowded place.â He finished with a pant. That was probably the most heâd spoken since coming back from the grave.
he simply listened as henrik divulged his entire history. what else was jeremy supposed to do? this was incredibly valuable information. a lot of it heâd heard, in bits and pieces, or with an air of skepticism, but here he was â getting it all straight from the horseâs mouth. he almost felt bad, because the kid clearly trusted him for some reason, but it wasnât like jeremy had set out to deceive him. right now it was just best if he played along so as not to raise suspicion. Â
âwow,â he finally replied, dumbly. this would all be so much easier to play off if henrik hadnât proven that he was a witch. he couldâve at least acted like he hadnât seen anything out of the ordinary, but that was out the window.  âthatâs all . . . uh . . .  a lot to take in. i mean. witches? and werewolves, and vampires? those are just â fiction, and fairy tales. but i mean . . . wow.â not too far off from his same reaction when his father explained the supernatural to him. deep in the back of his mind, jeremy wondered how grayson would feel about all of this. would he be proud that jeremy was getting intel? disappointed that he had stupidly gotten himself mixed up with the kid brother of the most notorious family of supernatural bad guys to ever exist. guess iâll never know, jeremy thought bitterly.Â
âhonestly, i â i donât really know how to respond to that. just â wow. youâve, uh, really been through a lot, havenât you?â he tried to sound as sympathetic as possible, but truthfully, jeremy was wondering why this boy had gotten a second chance at life and his parents didnât. where the fuck was the fairness in that?