Author's Note: Written for a challenge on LJ. Take the first line of any book/short story and use it as a prompt. This story's prompt is: Dear Lord, prayed Mercy Carter, do not let us be murdered in our beds tonight. - The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney.
When Elijah puts his plan to draw Klaus out into action, Elena immediately starts feeling frightened and paranoid. There's no time frame on how long this plan of his is going to take to work, there's no telling how long she'll have to live in fear of her life and all those around her. It's a game of wait and see, and each night Elena goes to sleep, she prays. Dear Lord, she thinks, do not let us be murdered in our beds tonight.
Stefan or Damon often come over at night to watch over her. She's told them it's stupid; if Klaus is going to come for her, he's going to get her and they won't be able to stop it. The whole town put together wouldn't be enough to stop Klaus, and that may be the scariest thought of all.
Being powerless has never been Elena's strong suit. She gets jumpy and the fear of the unknown starts to eat away at her.
Strangely, it's Elijah who seems to calm her. He comes over before Stefan and Damon. He doesn't stay long, sometimes doesn't even speak, but his presence seems to ease some of the fear from her system and she finds it easier to sleep on the nights he visits.
Maybe it's because she knows where she stands with him. She knows he's going to kill her, but she knows the death of Klaus will come first. She'll have time to prepare. With Klaus, there's no time to prepare. There's waiting, lots of waiting, but it is impossible to prepare for something you know nothing of.
Elijah tells her stories of when he knew Klaus, describes him to her, but she's not foolish enough to think nothing's changed since Elijah was close with him. He hasn't told her how long ago that was, but she can imagine it was a long time ago.
She wonders what it'll be like after, once Klaus is dead. She's not scared of her eventual death; she accepted that back when she tried to sacrifice herself. She's scared of the bloodshed she's sure is going to happen in the fight to kill Klaus. She's scared of the future without her, how everyone will be after she's gone. She's scared to leave Stefan and Damon. But she is not scared of death.
"What's it like?" she wonders one night as she's writing in her diary.
Elijah looks over at her, tilts his head, and thinks. He doesn't speak at first, but he's looking at her in a way that says he knows what she's talking about.
"I've never fully died it in the way you will," he starts, "but from my experience, it's almost pleasant. There's some pain, of course, but it's almost freeing."
"You'll try to make it as painless as possible?" she asks.
"If you wish," he says with a nod.
After a few minuets of pencil scratching on paper, she looks up again. "I think I'll like it; being free."
