"in this story, your mother isn't the villain.
in this story, you find a way to pick the lock, to wake up,
to climb out of the tower yourself.
in this story, you're angry.
in this story, you meet a dragon and
it is afraid of you.
in this story, you don't need to be saved.
in this story, your mother raised you
to recognize a prison from a home.
in this story, they don't fall in love with you before they know you.
in this story, they aren't better than you.
in this story, you have claws.
in this story, happily ever after has bite marks in it.
in this story, you are free and terrifying.
in this story, you get away.
in this story, you bleed.
in this story, you survive."

– Caitlyn Siehl, in this story

There were only four rules she followed since waking up from that crypt.

First rule, always look out for herself. She woke up in a goddamn tomb with no explanation on how she got there in the first place.

Second rule, never let anyone in who isn't family. If they weren't her pack, they could go rot in hell.

Third rule was no man touched her unless it was her man or Collin. Her boyfriend and pseudo-brother were all that mattered to her.

Fourth rule, she hasn't really come up with much. It was more of a reminder. Don't get where you came from and who you've become. That one, she was still piecing together. She came from a crypt, after punching and scratching to open it until her knuckles and fingers bleed. She had fought to get out for days-out of that coffin and out of that prison. She was happy she had finally been able to get out. Getting out that place and into the sunlight had been refreshing.

The first few breathes of air she took she had come to realize she was thirsty. She didn't know where she was. All she knew was that her name was Elena. She didn't know her last name or anything else. Well nothing else but this faint female voice in her head and soft emerald eyes that she wanted to remember. Three days after getting out of the woods, getting a ride to the nearest dive bar, she met them.

Her family.

"You've got a dip in your forehead sis," she heard Vivi call as she plopped down next to her. Elena had been sitting on the windowsill and she looked at her sister. Vivi was pretty much her sister, since she and Alec were together. They hadnt mated yet, but Vivi was joking about how it would be close.

"I'm thinking."

"About what?" asked Vivi. "Don't tell me you're thinking about your lame-o past. Whatever it was, it's old news. You're sitting right here, in this hotel room with me, and five other people who are just as awesome. The seven of us is all we need. We're family."

Elena smiled. "Thanks Vivi."

"Anytime."

Elena turned her head back towards the window, letting her thoughts wonder once more.

:::

Bonnie awoke with a start. She had been dreaming the same dream for the last seven months.

Dreaming of being in a blonde man's arms, hearing him read to her as she drifted off to sleep. She remembered the last words she fell into slumber before jolting away in her sleep.

"Always look out for yourself."

It sounded like Elena was saying those words.

But Elena was gone, trapped in a slumber until Bonnie's life ended. Damon had been avoiding her like the plague ever since then. He hasn't shown his disdain for the with, he didn't even really blame her-that was all Kai's doing. But she knew her friend couldn't bother to look at her right now.

That was what hurt more than anything. She had already lost one friend and for Damon, her other best friend, to just abandon her like that hurt even more. She had since buried herself in trying to find a way to keep the town as safe as possible from the Heretics. Lily and her band of hybrids had been quiet for some time now since their first attack two months ago.

Enzo was currently chained up in the Salvatore's basement because of that attack.

There were days when Bonnie wished she was sixteen years old again, and instead of Elena's parents dying, they had survived, along with Elena. Would it have been different? Would they have been normal? Would her grandmother still be alive?

Probably not.

Bonnie had long since given up the idea of if/maybe-then possibilities.

They had come a long way from being children. Now they were soldiers in a never ending war.

Only death would be their salvation.

Or their downfall...

Her phone buzzed with life and she looked to see it was Damon calling. It had to be an emergency. She answered after the second ring. "Hello?"

"You're alive," he breathed a sigh of relief. "While that's good, we have a problem."

Like they didn't have one every day. "What is it?"

"Elena's not in her coffin." Damon said. "She's gone."

Bonnie felt the phone slip from her hand and suddenly it all made since. The voice in her head hasn't been from a dream. It was her.

Elena was alive and some way or another, she and Bonnie were still linked. Just in a different way.