A/N: I found some mistakes with this chapter so I reposted it. Hopefully its better than before. Just FYI Erin my OC won't really be participation much in season 1. I'm still covering season 1 to help set up Erin's point of view and her relationships but she avoids most of the action until Elijah shows up. I will probably be skipping around a lot and alluding to things happening in the main plot, it'll basically be like watching the show from Jenna point of view… sorta.
Any way! Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!
-Wicked
Eerika stared at the stars through the dark tree tops. She was so cold. The wet leaves of the forest floor had soaked through her woolen dress but she had long lost the energy to move. The forest was quiet, only the pained wet rasps of the dying girl pervaded the air. Eerika had not foreseen this when she naively followed a weeping Tatia into the woods.
She should have known better. Tatia had always been conniving but she hadn't expected her to be murderous.
Was her secret worth murdering for? Apparently so.
Eerika didn't want to die, no one ever did, but she didn't want to hurt her family this way. They had only lost Henrik a few weeks ago, and now they would lose their youngest yet again. It wasn't fair, not to them and not to her.
Eerika's legs had gone numb by the time someone came across her. She heard the crunching of leaves as they approached, but her throbbing head felt too heavy to even turn towards the noise.
She expected a wolf or some forest beast lured by the scent of blood and the promise of a meal to be looming over her. Not the saddened face of Ayanna, her mother's closest friend and mentor.
"Poor child, I cannot save you. Death will come soon." Ayanna said mournfully as she brushed the golden curls from Eerika's face. " Tis a blessing you should go now. Your mother knows not what she does. Her magic will corrupt those she wishes to save and nature will turn on her."
Eerika furrowed her brow in confusion, Ayanna wasn't making any sense. What was she talking about?
Ayanna had foreseen this; the spirits had warned her of what was to come. Esther would make her children into monsters and from them more monsters would arise. Without something to anchor them they lose their humanity in the years to pass and grow more savage than the very wolves Ester wished to save them from. A safeguard would be needed should they grow to monstrous. Nature demanded a balance and so Ayanna would give it one.
" Your death need not be in vain, child. Rest easy knowing you shall serve a higher purpose." Eerika could only wheeze in confusion at Ayanna's words.
The spell Ayanna had found was ancient and it was dark. Her own ancestor Qetsiyah had performed the very same spell with no success.
A blood sacrifice to Nature.
The very idea was nearly unthinkable and was not to be taken lightly. Ayana was taking a huge risk. If nature rejected Eerika then nothing would happen and her soul would simple pass one. However, if the sacrifice offended Nature, Ayanna's whole bloodline could be stripped of its magic. It was not a risk many witches would dare take. She could not and would not save Eerika, but she could use her death to make her something more.
A conduit for Nature itself.
If Nature accepted Eerika as a sacrifice she would be reborn with a rare unimaginable power the likes of which not even Qetsiyah had seen in her life time.
As Ayanna started her ritual, Eerika turned her eyes back to the star filled night sky. Her whole body throbbed to the rhythm of her failing heart and her eye sight grew dim. The pain had gone numb and her mind foggy. It was almost peaceful, the sounds of Ayanna's chanting lulling her gently to sleep.
Ayanna grab the dagger protruding from Eerika's chest and yanked, quickening her death. Ayanna had completed the spell and could only hope to the Gods it had worked.
Erin jerk awake to the sounds of a frantic aunt banging on her sibling's doors upstairs.
"Wake Up! You're going to be late for school!" screeched Jenna. Erin could hear her aunt tripping over herself and cussing in her rush to get dressed.
For a sickening moment, Erin couldn't remember where or even when she was. She often had moments of disorientation, especially after such vivid dreams, where she could not remember who she was.
She rolled off the living room couch, rubbing the phantom pain in her chest. Sometimes she swore she could still feel the sting of old wounds. Erin yawned as she searched for a pen and pad.
Her most recent father, Grayson, had sent her to a therapist when he had first noticed her lapses in memory as a child. They thought she had the signs of early on set dementia but in reality, she just had to many memories to keep them straight all the time. Grayson had taught her a few grounding exercises to help and they did, though many wondered why she always doodled clocks in class.
"Shit!" She heard a loud bang and winced as Aunt Jenna slip in the hall as she tried to get her heels on. Jenna started angrily banging on Jeremys door. "Get UP! Are you awake yet?" Jenna yelled.
The only response were her siblings two teenage groans as Erin spotted a note book in the kitchen, she quickly drew a clock with one hand and started the coffee machine with the other.
"My name is Erin Gilbert, it 7:45 am in Mystic Falls, Virginia 2007." She mumbled.
The exercise was simple but in moments when she couldn't remember which name she was on, it helped. She paused by the oven and warily checked her batch of blueberry muffins, she hadn't meant to fall asleep on the couch for so long. She was just going to rest her eyes for a moment while the muffins baked but her body had other ideas. Luckily nothing had burned. She would never hear the end of it if she set the kitchen on fire the first day of school.
Jenna stumbled down the stairs trying to throw her auburn hair into a messy bun. She had woken late yet again and always panicked. Erin felt for Jenna, she was only in college and now she had to juggle three kids who weren't even hers.
Their parents had passed only a few months ago, in a tragic car accident on Wickery Bridge, one that almost claimed their sister, Elena's life. It was a miracle she survived, to this day no one knows how she got out of the sinking car and onto shore unharmed.
"Oh, thank god your awake Erin, did you make breakfast? I could smell the carbs from upstairs." Erin gave the frazzled Jenna an apologetic smile and nodded.
"Yep. Blueberry muffins. I meant to wake you but I fell asleep on the couch. "
Jenna merely waved her hand, her eyes locking onto the freshly brewed pot of coffee.
"It's alright. I'm the adult, I should be waking you not the other way around".
Erin couldn't help the snort that escaped her, Jenna may have been an adult compared to her current body but Erin was far older than anyone knew. Jenna sent her a playful glare at the noise, sipping on her mug.
"Are you going to the school today?" asked Jenna between desperate sips of caffeine.
Erin had technically already graduated from high school. She had had the ability to graduate for almost two years but Elena had made such a fuss about her twin graduating without her that her parents had agreed for her to graduate with her classmates. Though Erin knew it probably had more to do with her father's worry over her mental issues worsening.
So now Erin only attended a few classes a week and occasionally helping the teachers run errands or grade papers. She spent most of her days working on her hobbies and taking care of the house work. A good thing too seeing as Jenna was almost a full-time student and her two siblings were not inclined to get groceries or do the laundry.
She heard Elena coming down the stairs before she saw her, grabbing an oven mitt Erin quickly moved to pull the muffins out of the oven for her most likely ravenous siblings.
"No, I've got art tomorrow though. I figured I'd do a little shopping today. Do we need anything specific? "
Jenna who had a muffin cramped into her mouth nodded and reached for the notebook Erin had used earlier, to write a list.
"Morning Aunt Jenna, Morning Erin!" Chirped Elena as she walked into the kitchen.
Erin glanced at her twin and repressed her instinctive grimace. It wasn't Elena's fault she was born with the same a cursed face as those she'd rather forget but it still unsettled her to see it. Erin smiled at her sister offering her a warm muffin.
"Want one? It's blueberry?"
Elena shook her head making a beeline for the coffee pot like Jenna had.
"It's all about the coffee, Erin."
Jenna dropped the pencil she was using to jot down a shopping list and reached for her purse.
"It's your first day of school and I'm totally unprepared" She riffled around until she unearthed a wad of money with a triumphant smile. "Ah ha! Lunch money?" Jenna offered, waving the clump of cash at Elena who was blowing on her steaming coffee.
"No thanks, I'm good Aunt Jenna" replied Elena with an amused smile.
Jeremy finally stumbled into the kitchen half asleep as Erin started to sack up a few of the muffins, his hand instantly reaching out to rudely snatch money from Jenna without thanks.
"Is that coffee?" He asked Elena as he yanked the mug out of her hand. Elena yelped, giving Jeremy one of her adorable angry kitten pouts.
"Jeremy!" she cried in outrage as Erin snickered. Jenna started shoving the contents of her purse around looking for her car keys.
"Alright do you guys need anything else? Number 2 pencil? Jenna asked as she gathered her things to leave. "What am I missing?".
Erin frowned as she glanced at the clock, how could she have forgotten!? "Jenna! Your presentation?"
Jenna eyes widened in horror and her head snapped towards the nearest clock.
"Crap! I'm supposed to be meeting with my Advisor right now!"
Erin handed Jenna one of the muffin sacks as she scrambled for the door, her mind in a thousand places.
"Go Aunt Jenna, Jeremy and I can get to school. We'll be fine." Reassured Elena as she poured herself another mug of coffee. Jenna merely gave Elena a strained smile before she darted out the door leaving the three siblings in an awkward silence that eventually Elena broke.
"Jeremy... are you ok?" she hesitantly asked. Jeremy, being Jeremy, simply scoffed and dumped his coffee in the sink.
"Don't start Elena" He sneered as he slunk out of the kitchen. Erin handed her brother his own sack of muffins before he slammed out the front door and the girls heard Bonnie honking her horn.
"Elena, Bonnies here. Do you want some muffins? "Erin asked. Elena gave her twin a strained smile, feeling hurt by another one of Jeremys harsh rejections.
"Thanks, I'll share with Bonnie and Care. You sure you don't want to come, it's the first day?"
Erin walked Elena towards Bonnie's car and waved at their swarthy friend with a laugh.
"I'm very sure Elena, you get to enjoy the wondrous prison that is school all on your own, I will be home watching The Nanny and eating muffins. It'll be hard but I'm sure I can struggle through such hardships without you."
Elena laughed, glad that her twin didn't treat her differently after the accident. She had been afraid that, like Jeremy, she would blame her on some level for their parent's death or baby her like everyone else. But when she returned from the hospital Erin had treated her like nothing ever happened, Elena sometimes worried at times if Erin even remembered their parents. She knew Erin had memory trouble, her parents had explained everything to them when they were still children and she knew that stress could worsen Erin's condition.
Erin didn't even act like their parent's deaths affected her, she had cried when it happened, of course, but she was back to normal only a few days later helping Jenna plan the funeral and make arrangements to move in. Too Elena, Erin's ability to cope so easily seemed almost cold.
Erin smiled at Bonnie as Elena threw her bag into the front seat, she had always liked the Bennett's. They were descendants of her old family friend and had always been close comrades.
At least until that unfortunate incident with Bonnie's Grandma, Sheila.
"Morning Bon Bon, Are you ready for another thrilling day at school?" teased Erin.
Bonnie huffed at Erin with pleading eyes." You're so lucky you don't have to go. Why won't you just do my homework and then we could spend all day at home together?" whined Bonnie.
Elena chuckled as Erin let out a loud laugh.
" No can do Bon Bon, I enjoy my Me time. You'll just have to stick with my twin here and suffer. "
Bonnie could help but think how different her friends were standing side by side. Elena and Bonnie had always been the "exotic" beauties of Mystic Falls High school while Erin and Caroline were the "Golden Girls". In truth Elena and Erin looked nothing alike. Elena had Carmel toned skin and dark doe eyes to match her long straight brown hair. Erin was more suited to be Caroline's twin, with her golden blonde curls, pale skin and honey brown eyes.
Erin was one of the sweetest smartest girl Bonnie knew which made her mental illness all the more tragic in Bonnie's eyes.
She had only seen Erin get "confused" once when they were children. Dr. Gilbert had taken them to the zoo when they were only six or seven. Everything had been great until Erin had seen the wolf exhibit and started to cry hysterically. Bonnie couldn't understand half the things she had been sobbing, but she could've sworn it was in another language. The only things she understood were "Henrik" and "Wolves". Erin hadn't stopped crying until her dad bought her a stuffed wolf to show her they were harmless and then it was like she suddenly snapped out of whatever fit she was in. It had honestly frightened Bonnie to see her friend so distraught and unlike herself.
"You wound me Erin. See if I read your fortune again. Grams says I'm a witch you know? So I could've predicted the winning lotter ticket or something. Now you'll never know." Replied bonnie with a wink.
Laughing, Erin shooed Elena into the car with a smile.
"Go on, Get. I've got muffins waiting and you guys are going to be late."
Bonnie and Elena grumbled and waved as they drove away, leaving Erin to let out a long weary sigh when they disappeared down the street.
Sometimes pretending she was a normal teenage was exhausting. She always found dealing with her siblings in each life to be hard. She just couldn't bond with them, not in the way she had with her original siblings.
The pain of losing her first family still stung as fresh as when it happened and in every life after she kept a certain amount of distance between her and those she knew. To her, becoming attached would only make it hurt worse when she transitioned into the next life.
She always made for a melancholy baby, she genuinely felt bad for each set of parents she was born too. They must have worried themselves sick over a babe who'd only cry and refused to be held. In her defense, her rebirths were always traumatic and she spent most of her formative years in a dream like state of grief. You try being crammed into a new born baby knowing everyone you loved was gone, you'd cry too.
Erin meandered inside, putting in another batch of muffins while she ruminated on her life.
Lives technically.
She had been quite surprised after her first death to wake buried in dirt and forced to claw her way out of her own grave. To this day, she hates the smell of graveyard soil, sometimes she thinks she can still taste it in the back of her throat suffocating her. When she had crawled her way out of her grave, she found herself by her favorite waterfall, the first thing she had done was go home. She thought maybe her mother had performed some spell or the gods had taken mercy on her. She had been so confused and frightened. All she had remembered was the pain of death and then awaking to the suffocation of dirt and worms. All she had wanted was to go home to her family. But her family wasn't there. No one was there. The entire village was gone and the great white oak tree burned to the ground. She had checked every home and found nothing but blood stains.
Had the wolves finally destroyed the village? Had there been a battle of some sort? Where was her family? When she had searched her family's home it had been empty and lifeless in a way it had never been before. Her home had always been warm and noisy, filled to the brim with bickering children. All alone and with no will to live without her loved ones, Erin had thrown herself off the rocky cliffs of the waterfall shed been buried by. Only to awake again in haze of pain and confusion. It had taken her years to come out of her infantile haze and understand what had happened.
Erin had been reborn into a new life with a new name and a new family, But the same memories and the same pain. In all her lives, the only thing that remained the same was her face and her mind. For some reason the Gods had cursed her, punishing her for some crime she couldn't fathom. She had spent so many lives in a cloud of depression and isolation until she learned nothing would change. No matter the way she died or what she did, she would live again and again and again.
It had been the birth of her first child in her fourth or fifth life that had given her back her will to live. Her first tiny son Elliot, who she named in honor of her brother made her realize, she was cursed yes but she didn't have to treat it as a curse. There was so much she had not done or seen. So, she swore on her children to live each life to the fullest she could. And she had but with that came pain. Every life she buried more lovers, lost more friends and left more children behind. You can never rid yourself of that kind of pain, oh you can dull it, but it's still there waiting for something small to reopen the wound.
Erin spent most of her days at home working on one of her many hobbies. She had so many hobbies she could put Martha Stewart to shame. Though most of what she calls hobbies today were essential for everyday life hundreds of years ago.
Kids these days have no idea of the luxury they have. Back in her day if you wanted a new dress you had to make it yourself. If you wanted food, you had to grow it. She's still amazed when she goes into the grocery store and sees strawberries year-round. She can remember waiting all winter to search the forest with her older sister for the first wild strawberries of the season. She still loves strawberries, though they are a bit different these days than the ones she remembers.
Erin seemed to work on auto pilot as she removed the muffins from the oven and started tidying up the house. She wasn't really paying attention, lost in her thought of the past like always. By the time she heard Elena coming through the front door she found herself in a pastel pink and gold accented room holding a dusting rag. She had zoned out so completely she hadn't even realized she had started to clean her own room. Erin sighed glancing at the clock, school had ended almost an hour ago and she still hadn't gone to the store for Jenna or started dinner.
Dropping the rag in the laundry bin, Erin grabbed her keys to head out but stopped when she heard her sister cursing up a storm in her bathroom.
"Lena? You okay?" she asked.
Elena, who was trying to get a band aid on her bleeding leg, wobbled on one foot as she yelled back to her sister.
"Yeah! I just cut my leg. I'm fine. Do you wanna come meet Bonnie and Care at the Grill?"
Erin moved to the joint bathroom Elena and Jeremy shared, leaning against the door as she watched her sister attempt to be flexible.
"No thanks. I've got errands to run."
Elena sighed and turned her big sad doe eyes on her older sister. "Erin, it's been so long since you've come out with us. You're becoming a recluse, it's not health."
Erin couldn't help but chuckle at her sister's pouty face, she was so sweet sometimes.
"Lena! I'm not a recluse, you just never noticed how much time I spent at home before, and you were always out with Mattie. "Erin teased.
Erin grinned when her sister blushed at the mention of her late-night escapades with Matt Donavan, a football player and childhood friend of theirs. They had been a cute couple, all puppy love and fumbling hands but it didn't last, much to Matt's disappointment.
Elena tried to swat at her sister and missed, nearly losing her one footed balance in the process.
"Shut up. Cares going to call you soon, you know? We got this new student at school and he's a major "hottie" apparently." Snarked Elena as she rolled her eyes.
Erin raised her eyebrow at her sisters grumbling, normally she laughed at Caroline's flirtatious antics.
"Apparently?" Erin questioned dryly" You don't agree?"
Elena flushed a deep shade of red and nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stuttered
" I-I didn't say that. Its just – Uhg! okay he's super-hot. Like Abercrombie model hot but he's so - so- "
Erin raised her eyebrow in amusement at her sisters fumbling.
"He's so what?"
"Odd!" exploded Elena "I saw him while I was visiting mom and dad and he ran away from me!"
Erin choked on a laugh staring at Elena in shock.
"He ran away!? What did you do to the poor guy?"
Elena huffed at Erin indignantly.
"Nothing! One minute we were talking and the next he's practically running away from the sight of my gross bloody leg."
Erin felt a pang of suspicion go through her, surely there couldn't be a vampire stupid enough to settle in Mystic Falls, as a student no less. Mystic Falls was a rather infamous place among vampires, the town council knew of, and actively hunted, vampires. One would have to be stupid or suicidal to come here.
"Maybe he's afraid of blood" soothed Erin "or pukes at the sight of it and ran away to spare your shoes."
Elena chuckled slightly, her anxiety about scaring off the new town hunk only slightly lessened.
"I guess... I mean it couldn't have been me, right? We barely spoke." Pondered Elena worriedly.
Erin nudged her sister with a reassuring smile.
"Course not, who wouldn't love you? You're awesome"
Elena gave her sister a grateful smile and nodded to herself in the bathroom mirror.
"Your right. I am awesome. Who cares if I scared off the most attractive guy in town? Not me."
Erin laughed at her sister and left her to get changed to meet Care and Bonnie. She had Groceries to buy.