Hello, my lovely readers. Are you ready to find out the fate of our cast? On with the show…

Tales of the Halloween Babysitter: Part IV

Wind whooshed past Hayley's face as her body hurtled downward. Gravity jerked her toward a painful and merciless death but she did not feel fear. A sense of wonderment passed through her. Her friends' screams were a soundtrack that she could hear a faint echo of as she closed her eyes and waited for release from this mortal coil.

However, something, fate, or the PTB, whatever it is you believe in, interceded and instead of feeling her skull crack and then nothing at all: Hayley felt a pair of arms holding her. Opening one eye, Hayley peeked out and saw Cami. Her friend's eyes were shining with tears but she was smiling. A laugh broke out from Vincent who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Hayley?" Elijah's voice made Hayley look up and into the only eyes she ever wanted to look into again. "You're going home now." He sprinted past dark, grasping shapes which wailed as he passed them on his way to his goal: the gate.

"Open!" Freya screamed and the gate flew open.

"Go! Hayley," Elijah shoved Hayley's body into Vincent's arms.

Scrambling away from her friend, Hayley nearly fell as she moved toward Elijah as the gate closed in her face. "No! No, Elijah, wait! Let me stay! Please! They want me, too! Let me be with you! Don't shut me out!" Her hands went through the gate, reaching for Elijah with a kind of desperation she knew she'd never feel again.

Elijah stopped and went back. He took Hayley's outstretched hand and pressed it to his lips. "I will never love another being as I love you. Good-bye, Hayley Marshall." He turned and ran back to the house.

"Noooo!" Hayley cried, taking hold of the gate. She jerked at it with all her strength. "Let me in! Eli-jah! Don't do this!"

"Help me with her," Cami cried, taking hold of Hayley's left arm and beginning to pry her off the gate. Will took hold of Hayley's waist. Vincent took her right arm. Together Hayley's friends pried her off the gate while she screamed at them and fought back.

Caroline, Davina, Marcel and Josh stood outside the gate, watching in horror as things they had yet to learn the words for came floating outside of the house. Screams tore through the air. Caroline whimpered and pressed her face into Marcel's jacket. He patted her on the back. Davina dried a tear on her cheek before drying Josh's.

None of them would ever forget that night of the things they saw.

Ten years later:

"Are you insane?" Cami demanded. She had her hands on her hips and glowered at Hayley. "You've got your life together. Finally. And now you want to throw it all away? Over what? A fantasy of a boy who you can't be with? I should be charging you for this crap!"

Hayley turned on her heel. "Cam, either you're helping. Or you're in my way. Now, did you call a babysitter, or not?"

Cami rolled her eyes. "Or course. Uncle Kieran's coming by to help out."

"Good," Hayley swung her bag over her shoulder. "Tonight's the night. I know it."

"I swear, if we get killed. I am so blaming you!" Cami groaned. She strode downstairs and then looked at the couch. "Will, baby. It's time to go."

Will started from his sleep and wiped drool from the side of his mouth. "Go?"

"Monster-hunting. The god mother of our babies wants us to get eaten up by some Big Bad Spirits," Cami said with a wry smile.

Cocking an eyebrow, Will nodded. "Must mean it is Halloween. Is Kieran here yet?"

"He'll be here in a couple of minutes," Cami said. She threw her arms around her husband of five years neck and gave him a long kiss.

Hayley rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and smirked. "Okay." she said when a knock on the door sounded.

Cami went to the door and answered. "Vince. I thought you were in Nepal."

Vincent shrugged. "Will called. He told me about Hayley's plan. No way I'm going to miss how this story ends."

Hayley grinned and moved to hug her old friend. "You're looking good, Vincent. Find a new love yet?"

Vincent shrugged. "Sometimes you meet someone and there's no replacing them." He gave Hayley a significant look and Hayley blushed. She knew he was referring to her time with Elijah. "Right. Well, I assume you all called a babysitter?"

"We did," Cami nodded.

And as if on cue, the doorbell rang and Cami answered. "Hi, Uncle Kieran. Thank you for coming. The babies' food is in the cabinets. Toys are in their rooms. Sean loves his snuffy. And Cameron is big on the teddy with the pink sweater, not the green one."

"Got it. You kids have fun," Kieran told them. His smile held something that made Hayley wonder if he knew what they were up to.

"Night." Will tipped his head and opened the door for the other three to go ahead of him.

Into the night they went. They found a chilly, crisp fall breeze whipping through their clothing. Hayley shuddered in her winter coat. She made her way to her new vehicle, a mini-van for the kids she planned on having. Will and Cami climbed in the back and Vince climbed in the front.

"Know where we're going?" Will asked as Hayley pulled out and began to drive. She was not going in the exact direction of the Mikaelson's.

"Yes. I am going to the best party of the night," Hayley told them with a smile.

~0~

Music thumped around them and they could barely hear each other. It felt like a mirage, this sea of children who thrust their bodies into the beat of music that surrounded them. They were oblivious to the dangers of the world, safe in their delusion of safety in their "scary" costumes. Hayley knew what was really frightening, and this was not it.

"Find anything?" Will shouted over the music.

Hayley shook her head and she saw a streak of blonde and bright pink hair. Then a girl in a black witch's costume with a look that should frighten people on her face. A tall man with a grin that Hayley would know anywhere. A boy who nuzzled the neck of the boy who he was with. They were together. Even after all these years.

Pushing her way through the crowd, Hayley cupped her hands to her mouth. "Care. Davina. Marcel. Josh!"

The four turned almost as one to look back at the people who had once babysat for them. None of them needed a babysitter anymore. They were in their late teens and early twenties.

"Hayley?" Davina looked to Josh who ran a hand through his dark locks and grinned. "What are you doing here?"

"I need some assistance with something!" Hayley yelled back.

"Oh, yeah?" Caroline chuckled. "Good luck." She passed further into the crowd.

"Care!" Marcel shouted, pushing through and he caught Caroline by the wrist.

They exchanged words before Caroline came back and glared at them. "Fine," Caroline snapped. "You've got 'til sunrise. Then I have to hang upside down." She flashed a set of fangs which did not look like something you picked up at a store.

Cami took a step back and ran into Will. "She's a vampire." Then she stomped over to Caroline. "Does Aunt Liz know about this?" she demanded, hand on her hips.

Hayley rolled her eyes. "Can we find somewhere quieter to talk?" she called out.

Davina nodded. She led the group to a room in the back of the party. She closed a door behind them and leaned against it. Will did not look too happy to be in a space without an extra exit. "Is this place up to code?" he demanded. His detective senses were firing off but Hayley had limited time to deal with things.

"Do you have a coven?" Hayley asked Davina.

Josh looked shocked and he looked at Davina. "You didn't tell me you were really a witch."

"You didn't tell me you were gay until two years ago. But, hello, obvious!" Davina retorted an eye roll. "Yes. I have a coven."

"Good. Can you call them?" Hayley asked.

Davina nodded. "Sure. Whether they'll help what I figure you're up to…" She shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"Thanks for the crypto answer," Hayley groaned. She looked at the others. "Are you ready for one more holiday from hell?"

Caroline looked at the floor so Marcel answered for them. "Will it help them?" Hayley nodded. "Then we're in."

Caroline let out a sigh and shook her head. But she did not protest.

"Right. Davina, I need you to help me track down the errant family members. They all need to be there. Before the midnight hour," Hayley announced, consulting her watch. That gave them a total of three whole hours to achieve the plan.

Davina nodded. "Right. Okay. Tracking ghosts. No big deal." She took a seat on the floor. "I need someone close to the ones you seek."

"Vince, you're up," Hayley said.

Vincent went over. Davina pulled out a switchblade. She slit Vincent's hand open and then poured his blood onto the floor. "Spirits. Make this my map. Find the one I seek." Eyes closed, Davina began to speak in advanced French and Hayley could not remember enough. Cami seemed to be following along as Davina chanted.

"There," Josh said, pointed as the dust on the floor made a pattern of the city of New Orleans and the blood traveled to one building in particular. "I know that house." He seemed a little excited. His boyfriend seemed less so.

"Josh, I know it's Halloween, but do we really have to do this?" the boy inquired.

Josh nodded. "We're helping my old friends, Aiden. You'll like them. Once you meet them."

"Right." Aiden seemed less than convinced.

~0~

"Knock, knock. Let us in!" Josh called out, knocking on the door of the house where low music played. It felt like an opposite of the party they'd left. And Hayley got goose bumps from the aura of the house. "We brought offerings!"

A young-ish looking man came to the door. He opened it and looked at the others. "I see that. What are you doing here, Joshua? I thought you weren't into our scene?"

"Oh, you know, changed my mind." Josh offered the man a flirty smile and the man smiled back.

Aiden looked even less impressed. A woman in a feather boa and a flapper dress came up to them and kissed Aiden on the cheek. "Find me later, pretty boy." She winked before disappearing, literally.

Great. More ghosts. "Are you sure this is it?" Hayley whispered.

"Yes," Vincent said. His eyes were on a tall blonde woman who laughed at some girl's joke. "Freya!"

Freya turned and her jaw dropped. A smile appeared on her face and she ran to them. Opening her arms, she threw herself into Vincent and laughed. "Oh, Vince! I thought we'd never see you again! Tell me, you're not dead, too, are you?"

"He's fine," Hayley said. "Hey, Freya."

"Hayley?" Freya looked at Hayley. "My. You're all grown up. Pretty." She touched Hayley's cheek. "I'm so sorry that we haven't answered your call. Elijah insists on keeping you away. He couldn't bear it if…"

"Freya!" Finn called out, coming down the stairs with a leggy red-head. "Freya, have you met Sage?" Finn beamed and turned to smile up at Sage. "Isn't she lovely?"

Sage leaned against Finn's shoulder. "Hi, there, sis."

"I'm not your sis," Freya snapped, rolling her eyes. "And I would like it if you had the spell removed so Finn would stop forgetting you."

Laughing, Sage came over to stand by Hayley. "She's such a witch-bitch. I don't know you. Who are you? You look good enough to eat."

"Hey! Hey, she's a friend! And we don't eat friends, do we?" Finn called out, moving between his girlfriend who seemed to forget yearly and the girl who used to babysit his un-dead siblings.

Frowning, Freya shook her head. "No. Finn, we don't. Why don't we talk, outside?" She ushered everyone toward the door. She paused as Sage moved to follow them. "Why don't you find a snack, if you're feeling peckish?"

Sage shook her head. "I'm good."

"Not really," Cami muttered, folding her arms over her chest. Will nodded, placing an around his wife's waist.

Hayley turned back to Freya. "We need you to come back to the compound. Now! Well, after we track down your parents."

Grimacing, Freya shook her head. "I'd rather not."

"Freya, this is important!" Hayley snapped, losing her temper for the first time that night, but not the last. "I'll explain once we're at the compound. But you need to trust me. You want to go home."

"What are you people planning?" Sage demanded, hands on her hips. "I can sense a witch." Her eyes moved to Davina. "And magic. Not hers," she wrinkled her nose at Freya who glowered back. "I want to know what you're doing."

"We're going to release the ghosts," Caroline blurted in a bored tone. "Probably not. Because that last plan almost ended with a dead human. Hello, clean up, Aisle Five!"

"Shut up, Caroline!" Cami snapped, giving her cousin a bitter look.

Caroline shrugged and pulled out a flask. She took a long sip until Marcel jerked it away from her. She snarled and then took off in a quick walk.

"Damn it!" Marcel grumbled, following the angry vamp.

Rolling her eyes at the teen drama, Hayley turned back to Freya and Finn. "Please, let me try this one more time!" She pressed her palms together.

Freya looked uncertain. Sage jumped in. "What will happen to them if they're released? Will they find peace? Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Her expression held so many warring emotions that Hayley worried the vamp might try to stop Hayley's plans.

"I don't know what will happen," Hayley admitted. "But we can't just leave them to their nightmare, can we?"

Nodding, Sage looked to the others. "I'll help. Freya, let's go get the Parents from Hell."

"They're not from hell," Freya snapped, narrowing her eyes.

"Rather hell adjacent," Finn replied with a shrug.

Freya sighed. "If only Sage would stop placing that stupid spell on him," she groaned. "Finn, where is your sword?"

Finn glanced around. "It's upstairs." He ran in and took another fifteen minutes of their precious time before he came back with the sword. "Time to find Mother and Father."

~0~

Esther and Mikael were walking down the streets of the French Quarter. Esther seemed bemused by a tiny bumblebee who flitted into the ghost's legs before the mother apologized and picked the child up. Mikael looked bored and restless.

"Mother? Father?" Freya called out.

"Freya, darling!" Esther came over to join the group. "Oh, Hayley! You left us! Elijah refused to allow us a new babysitter. And the children were beside themselves with your absence. Have you come to care for them, again?" She seemed hopeful. And remarkably sane after the last time Hayley encountered her.

"Are you feeling alright?" Finn asked.

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?" Esther inquired, looking amused. Then her head turned. "Oh, Mikael. We'll miss the band! We must hurry!" She took hold of her husband's hand and moved toward the end of the street.

Oddly, everyone else seemed to be avoiding the place Esther wanted to go to. Hayley began to have a gut feeling. "You know, Mrs. Mikaelson. There's music on my iPod…"

But Esther did not seem to hear anything or anyone else. Her feet kept moving down the street. "I can hear the trumpet. The old sax. Oh, Mikael. We danced that night like we did before the children ended all of our carefree time. Trouble. Children. All they do is give you heartache. They ruin the body and break your soul with their behavior. Finn and Freya, always going to their party, and you know what will happen. Freya's becoming a tramp."

"Mother!" Freya cried out in shock.

"She can't hear you," Hayley said, watching Esther continuing to walk down the street. "Caroline, stop her!"

"How?" Caroline demanded, sneering. "She's a freakin' ghost!"

"Then… I don't know! Snap her out of her it!" Hayley felt annoyed.

Rolling her eyes, Caroline did something unexpected. She took Finn's sword! "Hey!" Finn shouted. "Give it back!"

"Make me!" Caroline shouted. "Last one back to the compound gets to die screaming!" She took off in a run.

"Give me my sword!" Finn began shouting.

Esther paused and turned. "Finn, stop with the blasted sword." She shook her head.

"Mrs. Mikaelson, if you could help me with this. Then you and Mikael can go to the music," Hayley offered.

Esther shook her head, again, but moved back and toward the compound. "This is such a disappointing night." She led the way back to the compound though.

Opening the gate with a key, Mikael waited for everyone else to go inside. "Usually I don't allow males inside on this night. However, you are friends of Hayley's…"

"Thanks," Will said, nodding and forcing a smile.

"Hayley!" Klaus appeared and then he saw Caroline. "Who are you?"

"Caroline," she told him, holding out the sword. "I brought you this. Thought you might need it."

"Thank you," Klaus took the sword. "Elijah, Hayley's here!"

Elijah appeared on one of the balconies. His eyes widened and he leapt off the balcony and came running toward her. Hayley felt her heart stop for a moment. Time stopped. All the feelings she'd buried came to the surface. "What are you doing here? I refused you entrance for a decade… Are you mad?"

"I got married. I have a baby on the way," Hayley admitted. "A little girl. But there's one thing I have to do before she'd born. I have to help you."

"You're risking her life!" Elijah cried, holding onto Hayley and shaking his head.

"I love you," Hayley replied. She pressed her lips to Elijah's. "Now, just trust me. One, last time."

Elijah nodded. "Right. Okay. What do we do?"

~0~

"They're here!" Rebekah said, holding a wand in her hand.

"Get ready!" Hayley cried. She held onto the candle in her hand. It had burned the longest and brightest the night she and Elijah had sex. She could feel their love burning when she lit it with her lighter.

Cami held up a copy of Freud's nonsense. Will aimed something that would take down any human. Vincent was armed with some kind of doll. Freya held a broom. "Yes. I know it's a cliché," Freya grumbled.

Klaus held up Finn's sword and Finn held up the sword that Hayley once gave him. Sage and Caroline came packing their own weapons, claws and teeth.

Henrik stood behind them, holding a rattle like he knew how to use it. Marcel had ahold of a Snickers bar because he'd decided that the god of bad teeth would get the poltergeists. Josh and Aiden were back-up, in case they needed to get the heck out of there quickly; the two would man the gate.

Each of them was armed with items that they imbued with the magical power. Weapons forged with belief.

"Let's party," Sage breathed as the darkness began to unfold.

"Are you feeling okay?" Freya asked Esther.

Esther nodded. "We didn't hear our music tonight, and I feel…better for it." She held a rolling pin, point at one of these things.

"Incoming!" Hayley shouted as one of the baddies tried to dive-bomb her. Mikael took a baseball bat that Kol handed him and smashed the thing across the courtyard.

"Take that!" Klaus shouted gleefully.

Soon there were polter-thingies all over them. Hayley burned as many as she could while Esther swung her pin like they were cookies trying to get away from the Christmas tray. "Get back, you fiends. You'll not have my children tonight!"

"Go, Mrs. M!" Will cheered as he shot a baddie coming for Cami. She smacked the thing for good measure.

Unfortunately, there just seemed to be more and more and more.

Davina and her coven arrived just as Hayley's candle began to dribble on her fingers, and Hayley had to pick it up and run into the center of the group, allowing the others to guard them.

"Time to go back to hell," one of Davina's coven members called out. She smirked and then turned to Davina. "Come on, D, let's give these things an invite back to a nice roasty seat."

Davina and her coven members linked hands and began to chant. "Return to whence you came from! Return. Return! Return! You are trespassing! Haunt this human domain no more! Return. Return! Re-turnnnnnnn!"

A howl ripped out from the largest and most annoying of the poltergeists. It shivered and seemed to draw in the others. The darkness swelled, seeming to fight with itself. A scream, that made Hayley's ears bleed, came out. She slapped her hands over her ears as the moon was cast into darkness by the cloud of pitch black.

And then the darkness disappeared. Hands coming down, Hayley placed her hands on Henrik's shoulders. "You okay?" she asked him.

Henrick nodded, burying his head in her shoulder.

"It is time," Davina intoned. She looked at the Mikaelsons. "Your time of suffering has ended. You may find the peace that has fled from your life. Go and be one with the everlasting. Do not haunt these halls. Your souls are free." The girls chanted, over and over and over again.

Hayley got to her feet, Henrik on her hip. She moved to place her palm to Elijah's. He had a smile on his face as Davina continued to chant. "Good-bye, Hayley."

"Good-bye, Elijah," Hayley choked on her words as he became more human than he'd ever been before. For a moment, his skin felt warm on her flesh and she had a crazy hope for a miracle.

"Call her Hope," Elijah said softly, kissing Hayley on the cheek.

And then he was gone.

There was no longer a little boy on Hayley's hip. Her knees dropped and she began to cry.

"They're gone," Sage announced. "Finn's free." She began to cry, too.

Even Caroline's snotty demeanor broke and she pressed her face into Marcel's shoulder, shaking.

Cami came to rest beside Hayley. "You'll be okay," she whispered.

"I know," Hayley nodded. She felt a smile beginning to come. "I have Hope."

Eighty Years Later:

Hayley Jane Marshall walked with a great effort into the compound. Spider webs hung from the gate which whistled on uneven hinges. No one ever bought the old compound. No one wanted to. Although it was no longer haunted, people just didn't want to be here. But Hayley did. She always came here on Halloween.

She had lived for over a hundred years. She'd buried her husband. And a son. She had three children. Two gave her eight grandbabies. Hope and her husband, Landon, and their six kids visited often. Her oldest grandbaby was a mother herself. Over all, Hayley had a good life.

Sitting down at the fountain, Hayley looked into the bottom. No water tonight. No shadow of who she used to be. She almost heard the hint of children's laughter. Smiling, she closed her eyes, and slunk to the ground, her body no longer willing to function.

~0~

"Hayley?" Elijah came forward and Hayley looked down at her hands. She felt like Rose in a Titanic moment coming on because she was the same age as she'd been when she met him. "Hi."

"Hi," Hayley let out a laugh and moved to throw herself into his arms.

"I've missed you!" Elijah said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "What is today?"

"Halloween," Hayley said with a smile.

"Of course it is," Elijah nodded. "Come. The children have missed you." He led her over to Klaus, Rebekah, Kol and Henrick.

"Hayley!" the children cried. "Is it Halloween?" Rebekah and Kol inquired.

"Yes, it is!" Hayley replied. "And from now on it's always Halloween!" Turning to Elijah, she smiled. "What do you want to be this year?" He didn't answer, he just kissed her, and she knew exactly who she wanted to be, forever.

The End

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Guest: How the Mikaelsons were trapped is kind of a mystery for another time. I hope you enjoyed the story.

Peace,

-J