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Elena couldn't believe her ears. Why did this keep happening, why did the people around think it was okay if they kept dropping like like flies?! She'd only just found her sister and already…
This was wrong!
"You can't mean that," The whisper barely left her mouth when she got tossed a funny look from Eileen.
She was just so different from anything she'd expected. She'd seen the Lane twins in school, how in sync they were, they even completed each other's sentences. Elena was pretty certain Eileen wasn't going to be completing anyone's sentences for them.
"What do you want in return?" Stefan asked and Elena whirled on him, angry.
"What do you mean-"
"This vampire blood healing of yours, would it work on anything?" Eileen said, her voice flat, as if she was trying not to get her hopes up.
"Pretty much." Damon answered. "You've got something specific in mind?"
"My sister's been in a coma for the last three months. Would your blood wake her?" Her tongue swiped under teeth and her mouth twisted. Her hands were in her lap, restlessly shifting, tugging at the folds of fabric that made up her skirt. She was nervous.
And it surprised Elena. But why? She didn't know anything about her, why would it seem such a shock that her twin was a nervy type?
"It depends upon her diagnosis, comas aren't the same as any other physical injury, our blood can't fix mental traumas, I'll need to look at her medical files." Damon said and everyone turned to look at him in disbelief. "I studied medicine in the eighties."
"Have you been keeping with it though?" Eileen asked, "The field is constantly changing, if your knowledge is outdated…"
"Fell off the wagon in the nineties but since wifi became more common it's been easy enough to keep up." Damon shrugged.
"I'm sorry, are we not going to talk about the fact that she wants to sacrifice herself?!" Elena couldn't help but yell. How could they talk so easily about someone choosing to barter away their life like this, let alone the fact that this was her twin sister talking about taking her place in some stupid ritual?!
Eileen just let out a little bitter sounding laugh, "Come on, man, it sounds like it was going to come down to you dying vs. your whole town dying and then you dying anyway. You were going to 'sacrifice' yourself at some point anyway. This way, everyone wins."
"But you don't!"
"Yes I do, I get my sister to wake up from her coma."
"That's assuming that her diagnosis allows for it." Damon said, "What if it doesn't?"
"If she doesn't wake up, I don't have much to live for anyway." She said carelessly, as if she wasn't talking about dying. "Not to mention this Klaus person will probably know who and what I am by now and come for me since I'm the easier target."
Elena felt dread climbing up her spine. They knew Klaus had his ears and eyes everywhere but surely he wouldn't know about this, he wouldn't know about Eileen. "How would he know? You don't think his witches might have used a locator spell?"
Eileen shot her a blank look. "Elena, you do realise you have your location turned on on Facebook, right? I knew the minute you reached New York and your profile isn't private either. Everyone knows where you are."
Oh God, what had she done?!
Klaus stilled for a brief moment when Eileen said that he would probably know who and where she was. Had he given himself away somehow in Alaric Saltzman's body? But even if he had, a chit who'd never met him before wouldn't know it, would she? Especially when Alaric's 'friends' most certainly did not.
Her explanation blew him away for its sheer simplicity and logic. But then, perhaps that was where she was going wrong. Logic had no place in the world they lived in.
Still, she was an interesting thing, this other doppelgänger. The one who willingly walked to her death, volunteering as she called it. It was obvious enough for anyone to see that she did not care one whit for the Gilbert doppelgänger, her twin seemed to get on her nerves.
It was strange though, how different the girl was. The Petrova doppelgängers, Tatia, Katerina and Elena were very much in love with being alive. Elena made all the noises to indicate that she didn't like Vampirism, as something not meant for her but she wasn't nearly as convincing as her sister. Nothing said 'I don't want to be a Vampire' like planning your own, very final death.
But her determination, that belied her a Petrova. Petrovas were always willing to pay incredibly high prices in moments of desperation.
"Do you guys have a place to stay?" She asked, and the non-Ripper Salvatore smirked and leaned in.
"You offering?"
"Yes, if I don't know where to meet you to show you the reports then we might as well set up camp in my house." The sheer blankness in the way she talked gave him pause. As if someone had compelled her to be so, but Klaus could tell well enough this was no compulsion. This was a very young girl on verge of a breakdown and trying to hide it.
"You're no fun." Damon pouted and Stefan apologised on his brother's behalf and politely asked for the address. Rebekah would have dropped this annoyingly soft version of her former lover in a second.
They retreated to a loft in Brooklyn. It was a larger home, clearly not meant to be lived in by a single person. Photographs hung on the wall, there wasn't dust but too many things seemed to be unused for too long a while, and there were too many cheerful things in the place that obviously did not belong to the grave faced girl in front of him. She herded the others, telling them where they could sleep, a guest room, a man's room that had been emptier for even longer than the living room in its disuse and her own room which she would share with her twin. Elena seemed overwhelmingly touched by the gesture, not recognising it for the practical move it was.
Because there was yet another room that she had adamantly steered them away from and Klaus was certain it was the room of the sister she was trying so desperately to save.
Klaus admired that. Family was important.
He only wondered if she realised what she would be putting her sister through when she died while the other woke up.
Eileen Henri let herself into her bathroom and stared at her reflection. On the other side of the door her twin was busy acclimating to the room. Probably running her fingers over things, looking at all the photographs, fiddling with Eileen's music box, preparing questions to ask.
And all Eileen could think was 'I wish Marlene were here.'
Her sister would know what to do, she'd know what to say. If Marlene was there she'd believe the whole Vampire thing easily while Eileen would be the one to remain skeptical and wonder if it was some high tech mask they used for tv shows or something.
Because if Vampires didn't mean a way to save her sister, then she had no reason to believe in them.
But maybe they could. And that 'maybe' was the only thing keeping her going. Oh sure, 'maybe' Marlene would walk up on her own anyway but did she really want to take the chance? Now, when the insurers were pressuring her to take Marlene off the life support so that a bed could be emptied, now, when her dad said he couldn't come home just yet because if there were going to be the kind of medical bills they expected, then leaving a job midway was only going to be more problematic. And she still had her showcase in a week and had practice every day.
She liked to think she could handle pressure. The nerves and anxiety of fighting for the lead roles was something she had dealt with, after all. The madness of trying to graduate early with extra credits, she could deal with it all.
But not alone.
She was drowning in it all. Sometimes she woke from nightmares and wondered if she was really breathing. It seemed impossible around the weight on her chest pushing her down. She looked in the mirror when she danced and wondered if her jumps were high enough. It felt like lead was wrapped around her ankles.
"Eileen, you okay in there?" Her twin asked, knocking on the door. The noise startled her out of her daze and she came back to herself, remembering that she had hostess responsibilities right now.
"Yes, I'll be out in a bit." Eileen said and splashed her face with some water. She stepped out to find her twin smiling warmly at her. "I'm just going to get started on dinner, do you have any food allergies or intolerances I should know about?"
Elena laughed and said no. Eileen took the chance and escaped, unable to stand it anymore. It was unnerving to have eyes on her when she wasn't on stage or in rehearsals. Painstakingly pulling herself together, she knocked on the door to her father's room where two vampires and one history teacher who moonlighted as a vampire hunter, were staying. She asked them the same question, handing over Marlene's medical files to the Vampire who'd said he was a doctor once.
"I'll help," The history teacher said.
"Oh, that's fine."
"I insist, love. You shouldn't have to do this on your own with actual adults in the house."
In the face of such polite persistence she couldn't help but agree. The teacher, Alaric Saltzman if she remembered correctly, followed her directions to chop the onions while she got the pans hot. As she prepped the rest she was also mesmerised by the rhythmic motions of the knife and how perfect a dice he cut them into.
"So," He started, not looking up from the onions and she cringed, knowing he'd want to talk about it all. "Offering yourself up as a sacrifice in return for your sister's continued health. It's rather brave of you to go to your death like that."
And Eileen laughed. She laughed and laughed until she was clutching her sides in pain, tears streaking down her face, hating herself for how the sound betrayed what she tried so hard to hide. The hysteria, the way she was slowly breaking down, all laid out bare for this stranger to see. But...but it was funny in its own sort of way.
Brave!
"There's nothing brave about it Mr Saltzman. Dying is easy," She wiped the tears of laughter off her face and found he was looking at her with a curious expression. "Dying is easy. Living is the hard part."
Whether it was the laughter that did it or something else, she found that she wasn't just looking at Mr Saltzman anymore but the Vampires and her twin as well. The smile on her face, a remnant of her laughter, dropped quickly as she noticed the file that the dark haired one was holding.
"Can you do. it? Would it work? Could you wake her up?" She couldn't help but ask, her voice coming out as a bare whisper. She pushed down the stirrings of hope welling up in her and prepared herself for the worst.
"We can." He said and for what felt like the first time in months, Eileen breathed easy.
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