The Mikaelson home, once filled with laughter and the warmth of family, was now shrouded in silence and dread. The ritual had changed everything. Esther watched her children with haunted eyes, uncertain whether she had saved them or doomed them to something far worse.
Elijah was the first to awaken, his senses sharper than ever. He could hear the heartbeat of every living thing in the forest, smell the iron tang of blood on the wind. The hunger gnawed at him—a need so fierce it drowned out reason. He stumbled from the hut, desperate for relief.
Finn and Kol followed, confusion and fear twisting their faces. Rebekah clung to Esther, tears streaming down her cheeks as she begged for an explanation. But Esther could only whisper, "Forgive me, my child. I wanted to keep you safe."
Niklaus awoke last. The change in him was the most profound. He felt the wolf inside him stir, a power that was both exhilarating and terrifying. Mikael stood over his children, pride and fury warring in his eyes. "You are stronger now. Nothing can harm you."
But the cost was immediate and terrible. The sunlight that once warmed their skin now burned like fire. Kol, stepping outside at dawn, screamed as his flesh blistered. Only the shelter of their home protected them from the sun's wrath. The scent of blood was everywhere—on their lips, their hands, in the memory of the girl they had fed upon to complete their transformation.
The hunger would not be denied. That night, the Mikaelsons hunted. Driven by instinct, they descended upon the village, unable to control the bloodlust that now defined them. When dawn broke, the ground was stained red, and the Mikaelsons stood amidst the ruins of what had once been their home.
The villagers, those who survived, fled in terror. Word spread quickly: monsters walked among them, creatures who could not die, who fed on the living and shunned the sun. The Mikaelsons had become legends overnight—feared, hated, and utterly alone.
Esther wept for what she had done. Mikael, horrified by the monster his son Klaus had become, turned his wrath on him, vowing to hunt him to the ends of the earth. The family fractured, each member struggling to come to terms with their new existence.
But the world itself felt the change. Across distant lands, witches woke from troubled dreams. The ley lines trembled, magic recoiled. In the deep places of the earth, a seal began to weaken, and an ancient power stirred, sensing the unnatural shift.
The age of the Originals had begun, and with it, the first true ripple of chaos. The world would never be the same.