The Return.
Samantha - This is my first venture into the world of the ' Vampire Diaries ' world, but I have an idea I just couldn't hold in. I promised myself I wouldn't write anymore stories but this is an exception. I really just needed to post this. So please read and leave a review. That would be lovely. x
Chapter One - Dreams are Nightmares.
Mystic Falls was buzzing with excitement, even in the early morning light. People scurried from street to street carrying over-sized boxes full of colourful party decorations. Balloons trailed behind large families, young children hitting them playfully as they flew about in the light breeze. Elena watched the summer festival attractions being pieced together from her bedroom window, her body perfectly settled to avoid back-pain. In her hands sat her diary its pages rippled with time, it was nearing the end. The book only had enough to fit in another day at most, provided she didn't write excessively.
The summer festival had become a tradition in the early days of Mystic Falls. When Elena had been younger, she and Jeremy used to enjoy running around in the warm sun with balloons and candy-floss. They equally enjoyed the rides. The street were aunt Jenna's house sat was always one of the earliest to put up there decorations. They had won best decorated street every year. There Mom and Dad would sit on the patio with aunt Jenna and watch them run around like crazy people... Jeremy was the craziest one, armed with a water gun.
Elena put down her diary and reluctantly pulled herself away from the window and over to her dresser. She needed to get dressed, after-all aunt Jenna would no doubt need help, Jeremy would just sit back and let everyone else work.
After a quick brush of the hair and the all important lip gloss application, she quickly shifted through her drawers and pulled out a baggy pair of black jog pants and a simple plain red t-shirt with slit sleeves.
" Elena ! " Came aunt Jenna's voice sounding happier than ever. It had a high pitched ring to it.
" Yeah ? " Elena yelled back slipping her head out of the door so she could hear better.
" Stefan's here. He looks ready to knock down a building. " Jenna laughed.
Elena slipped out of the crack in her door and nearly collided straight the very man she was heading downstairs to meet. Stefan's hands gripped protectively on her shoulders and his face shone with happiness. Elena gazed up and laughed off the incident. It was the morning after all....
" Hay Stefan, I see what aunt Jenna was talking about... "
Stefan wasn't looking like his normal self at all. He had a short sleeved black sports shirt with white strips going up the sides and baggy looking jog pants. On his feet were a pair of perfectly white track shoes. They almost matched.
" Well, I thought we were doing street decorating today ? " He said and ran a hand through her hair. Elena leaned into in and smiled, momentarily forgetting that she had to answer Stefan's question.
" I was on street decoration duty today. I never roped you in too.... "
The previous day, Elena had been with Stefan at the boarding house having their usual head butting with Damon. He had wanted to go to the Summer festival and Elena and Stefan couldn't stop him from going, after-all it was for everyone. But Damon also wanted to pick up a few unsuspecting girls to, in his words, Have a taste. That didn't go down at all well. The towns people were all ready getting suspicious with all the disappearances going on, and Damon accidentally getting carried away would just draw even more attention. Since going into the old churcg to find Katherine and coming up empty, Damon's behaviour had steadily gotten worse, he didn't seem to care about much anymore but he slipped in and out of clarity. Sometimes he would be rational and the rest other time he would be irrational. He also had gotten pretty connected to the drink. He would get himself well in truelly drunk and from what Elena had learned, that was pretty hard for a vampire. The council already suspected vampires, if Damon decided got caught, that wasn't even worth contemplating. The argument had lasted a while into the night, Elena had simply left saying she had to be up early the next morning to help with the decorations. That's how Stefan knew!
" Stefan, you don't have to... " She finally said feeling like she had hinted at his help the night before, when that was really not what she had intended.
" It's ok, Elena. I want to. " He smiled and took her hand leading her downstairs and into the small crowd that had gathered in the hall, she hadn't even heard there voices, but now that she was down amongst them they were talking pretty loud.
Aunt Jenna was in the middle of the bunch handing out glasses of lemonade she had taken over making from Jeremy the other morning. They accepted gratefully and went back to their conversations. It looked as if the whole street was in there hall, each couple had idea's for what they wanted the street to look like. But to try and incorporate individual idea's into one big idea was going to be hard. The had to choose a single theme.
" I say that Mrs. Hudson's Hawaii theme is the strongest. " Stood a small graying man, taking domination over the crowd by standing on the stairs and raising his voice. The theme for the whole festvival was tropical climate, a slightly confusing theme but it gave each street a wide selection to choose from.
" That's too predictable !! " Screamed another women from the back of the crowd. " Everyone will think about that one ! ".
Elena had to agree that was true, the idea's that the street was screaming were all to predictable, most of the other streets would be thinking the same thing.
" Well, what about Frank's idea ? Florida is a good one. Its a subtropic but water coming from the gulf of Mexico pushes it into the ranks of tropical climate. That's not predictable, that's pretty solid. No one will think of that ! " The same small women in the back yelled, she did have a point. It was a very good idea.
" That is a wonderful idea. " Replied the graying man on the stairs, she now realized was old Mr. Bailey from across the street, " We could make a giant welcome to Florida sign and leave the rest of the street bare. " Sarcasm dripping off his words, he was a very cynical person.
" Well we could cut the street in half. Have one half the classic Florida, with a kind of Disney theme and then the other half could be something like the Everglades ? With tree's and fake animals and stuff. " Elena piped in making everyone like at her with appraising faces.
" That's very good idea, Elena. Well done. " Said aunt Jenna before she turned to Mr. Bailey and took over the step. " I think that's a pretty solid idea. Don't you think ? " She turned her attention to Mr. Bailey, he looked slightly embaressed and stepped down slowly disappearing onto the crowd again. " Let's take a vote, who is for a combination of Elena and Frank's idea ? ".
Most hands shot in the air including Stefan's. When the rest of the crowd voted against, they were well and truly beat. Everyone got to work immediately, some going out into town to but the decorations they didn't have. Others began to blow up more balloons and cutting out decorations. Elena, Stefan, Jeremy and Aunt Jenna decided to get to work on the ' Welcome To Florida' and ' Everglades' sign. It was going to be a combination of cardboard, newspaper and glue, with paint on top.
The day passed rather quickly, the signs going up mid afternoon along with the balloons on the lamp posts and blue film on the grass on the everglade side of the street, that had been Stefan's idea. It was supposed to be a water effect and it worked really well. When the day was up, the street looked amazing. Fake tree's littered the Everglade side of the street, paper vines covered the houses and plastic crocodiles, snakes and birds scattered the blue lawns. The other side of the street was Mickey Mouse to the max, combined with colourful banners for fake rides and balloons with rainbow tails. It was quite a sight.
Stefan and Elena sat on Aunt Jenna's lawn beside a banner for the ' Haunted Mansion ' ride, Jeremy had suggested they transform the house into the Haunted Mansion and it looked really good. They would even do walk-through's for the judging.
The heat from the day was steadily declining, leaving a cooling breeze to sooth Elena's warm muscles, she had worked all day in a heat that could match the Sahara... Or so said. Stefan was cool against her skin, she was drowsy and her eyes bobbed up and down fighting the darkness that was threatening to consume her at any second. It was a loosing battle, her eyelids slid shut and didn't reopen again.
The room was full of mirrors, there was no way out. She was trapped like a rat in a cage. Everywhere she turned her reflexsion looked back, every one looking at her with a terrified expression.
She ran at one of the mirrors frantically pulling at its sides, hoping that it would open and let her out. When that didn't work she tried the next one.... then the next.... and the next....
Not one of them opened. How did she get in here anyway ? If there were no doors to get out, how did she get in ?
" Help ! " She screamed sliding down a mirror that wouldn't open and onto her knee's. She had tears streaming down her cheeks, making them a rosy pink, Mascara ran down with the salty tears making her face look dirty. She was terrified and didn't care about her appearance, there was no one to see it anyway.
" Elena ... " A voice came eerily. It echoed and rumbled around the room sending shivers up her spin.
Elena's breathed hitched and her eyes widened as she lifted her head up and looked around the room. There was no one in sight.
" I'm here Elena. " The voice came from behind her. She slowly turned towards the mirror and was shocked to see herself looking back at her, but... she looked different. The reflection wore a delicate smile, her curly hair lying perfectly around her face but pulled back on top into a yellow antique looking clasp. There was no make-up streams running down her face, everything was perfect. But clothes were all wrong, she had a long old looking dress on, it was a combination of different greens. The dress was tight around the waste and puffed out as it got lower, the dress fell short of her shoulders but covered her arms. She wore a cameo necklace complimented with pearls on the chain. Heavy looking earrings with intricate details hung low from her ears. She looked like a figure straight from the history books.
" Hello Elena... " The relfection spoke smoothly, her smile only widening. Elena looked startled but remained quite.
" I've been waiting along time for this... " The reflection continued. " I've been trapped here a long time. "
Elena found her voice, though it was croaky. " Where is here ? "
" Your mind. " She confirmed with yet another smile. " Elena you need to let me in... " She said cryptically. Her hand pressing against the other side like a she was on the other side of a window and not a mirror.
" How can you be in my mind ? You were supposed to be in the church. We looked for you. Bonnie and Sheila opened it up, Damon and Stefan looked for you. " She was beginning to get frantic now, her voice raising in octaves.
" But I wasn't there was I ? " Elena shook her head. " That's because I died. But thanks to Isobel, I get to live again. "
Elena got to her feet and so did Katherine, there movements in perfect sync. Katherine placed her hand back on the glass and smiled. She looked more exited than before.
" Please Elena, let me in... "
" What happens if I do ? " She whispered desperately.
" You live forever. You would never be alone again, Elena. I promise you that. "
She didn't know why this was happening and why it was happening now, but she still had another option. "And if I don't ? What happens then ? "
" You never leave here. " Her voice had darkened considerably, she was deadly serious. That left her with no other way to combat the situation. She wished Stefan could just wake her up and get her out of this nightmare.
Elena slowly moved forward, her hand extended toward Katherine. Katherine was no longer looking at her, but instead her attention was focused on her hand. The moment they touched, Katherine glowed with happiness and stepped through the mirror. They stood face to face for a moment each surveying the other in silence before Katherine rushed forward and seemed to disappear into her.
Elena woke with a start, she wasn't outside anymore but back in her bedroom... Alone. Stefan must have put her back into her room when she hadn't woken up. She still had her clothes on. He was a very decent boy, as Aunt Judith put it.
Elena quietly slipped off her bed and walked over to her dresser picking up a fresh pair of pj's and put them on. She felt strangely awake even though by the look outside, it was very late, the moon shone into her window casting a ghostly light over the entire room. As she sat and brushed her her, Elena stole a quick glance in the mirror and gasped. Her usually bone straight her was curled into perfect ringlets. She hadn't curled her hair and she knew no one had done it as she slept. It was then she remembered her dream. Maybe it hadn't been a dream at all....