A/N: Hey guys, Duda here! God, I'm so, so, soooo sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. What can I say, college is a bitch. But to make it up for you I'll try to post the next chapter whitin two weeks tops. Please, forgive all the mistakes (I have a feeling that this chapter will have plenty) because I wrote it in a rush (I just couldn't go withou posting for more time). I think this chap, mainly (only?) Melissa's parts, will be a little more depressive than the other. I suggest you to read listening to the music that inspired a good amount of it. My Immortal, from Evanescence.
Ok, I'll let you guys to it.
Good readings.
XOXO
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
This wounds won''t seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
Rebekah went out of the grill to look for the original queen. The youngest Mikaelson looked out of herself. It was not like she cared about Melissa… Oh for the gods, who was she fooling? She cared about Melissa, even though the brunette didn't seem to give a crap about her.
She knew Melissa for little more than some weeks, and yet she already saw the girl as family.
Nik would kill me if he found out, she thought.
She took her car and drove to the Mikaelson mansion, but Melissa was not there. She didn't knew of any place her sister might be interested in besides the grill. She drove around town in hope to find the brunette, but there was no sign of Melissa. She was starting to get worried, and she hated it.
Where is she?
But then she saw it, a flicker of light reflecting on a mess of loose curls.
Melissa was passed out near the falls. Rebekah got out of the car and went there in vamp speed. She took the girl in her arms and put her in the car, taking her to the Salvatore boarding house. She wouldn't leave Melissa like this in their mansion, alone. She left Melissa in the nearest room she found in the boarding house, not caring to whom it belong, and went to the Mikaelson mansion to take a couple of clothes for the brunette. When she got back she had to insist to the Salvatores (that were freaking out because there was yet another original in their house) that Melissa would stay (she told them they had no choice).
After some time of complaining, Stefan actually seemed quite happy with Melissa spending the night at the boarding house, which made Rebekah quite angry at him.
The original queen was out cold, she didn't even stir when Rebekah changed her clothes for the pj's she brought from their mansion. As she took care of her sister Rebekah couldn't stop her thoughts to wander towards her brothers. Niklaus took care of her so many times, as did Elijah, and even though Kol was a brat he still cared about her too. How were they? Where were they?
When Melissa was in her pj's and had her hair brushed (Rebekah couldn't help it), the blond left for her own room and slept like a rock. When the sun rose the next day the first thing Rebekah did was silently tiptoe into the room she brought Melissa to, but the girl was still asleep. Still, Rebekah could notice there was something wrong, there were tears in Melissa's cheeks.
Rebekah wanted to stay, but she knew Melissa wouldn't like for people to see her in this weak moment. She also knew she wouldn't want to be here to see when Melissa realized she was in the Salvatore boarding house. She wanted her sister to trust her, to tell her what could have possibly happened to make the brunette hate the Salvatores so much, but she knew Melissa wouldn't open up. Not to her. Not now, at least.
The blond shook those depressing thought out of her mind as she took a bath and put on a white shirt and black leggings. She was almost out of the house when she heard Stefan's voice. Before she would bee happy to hear it, eager even, but now she just wanted some peace.
"Even though I would love to be here and enjoy the lovely company of your lovely sister, you won't get rid of me"
"I'm not trying to get rid of you" she said in a tone that was at the same time annoyed and defeated, her mind going back to the girl passed out on a bed in this same house.
"Good, 'cause otherwise you'd been doing a pretty poor job"
"Shut up, Stefan. Why don't you stay, really? It would be actually good to be rid of you for a while" she wasn't teasing like she usualy did, she actually wanted to be alone a little.
"I need to stay with you. I need to protect you"
"Oh, really?" she snapped, angered mostly by fact that he was doing this to oppose Niklaus and not to actually help her. "You think that if Mikael shows up you'll be able to protect me? I'm an original vampire, Stefan, I'm a thousand years old and there's nothing you can do that I can't"
He didn't seem to listen to her, because when she was out of the door, he was following her.
She tried to have a normal day, she went to school, acted as a cheerleader, flirted with the soccer players and even tried to pay attention in the classes, but the constant presence of Stefan unnerved her and her traitor of a mind kept going back to her little sister and her big brothers.
Afets a long, tyring day she was ready to go back to the boarding house, but someone came to her.
"Oh, it's you" Rebekah said with her voice full of disgust.
"I wanted to talk to you" said Elena, eyeing Stefan warily.
"About what? Him?" she said, pointing to the vampire near them.
Elena shook her head, clearly trying not to feel bad about Stefan following Rebekah all around.
"No" she showed Rebekah a photo of a cave where she had wrote her name when she was younger. It also had Niklaus' Kol's and Elijah's. "I'm curious. Why would you run from your father for a thousand years? You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I may just ask Mikael himself"
"You're bluffing"
"Oh I'm not, we awoke him, he was in Charlotte, in a…"
"Are you insane?! We're all dead! You, me, your vampire puppies, all of us are gonna die! The only one that may survive is Melissa. "
Elena's eyes almost widened at the mention of the brunette's name.
"What? Who is Melissa?" Her voice was full of fear and concern. Rebekah's brows furrowed.
"Haven't your dogs told you about my sister?"
"Your… what?"
TVDTVDTVD
She woke up in a strange place. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was… God, Tatia. Her heart sank and her eyes started to burn with tears that wanted to be freed. She saw Tatia, she saw her sister's ghost, the ghost of sweet loving girl that was dead because of her. Remembering her sister Melissa got out of bed, her eyes watering a little more, a lump forming in her throat. Her hand went to her head, why was it throbbing? She felt so dizzy. She felt so tired. It felt like she weighted two, three times her weight; she could feel how slow she was moving, wheighted down by the memories that so much loved to haunt her.
She walked groggy to the door, not really wanting to be awake but seeing no other opttion since she would definetly not be able to go back to sleep with all the nightmares haunting her dreams. When she opened the door she saw the one person she didn't want to see in that moment.
"May I have my room back?" his voice was like a bucket of cold water. She looked back at the room and then down to her body, only then registring her pajamas, a large t-shirt with long sleeves that covered her knuckles, just long enought to cover her butt. Her emotions were already a mess, so it was really no surprise that her anger got the better of her when she saw him looking at nowhere but her bare tights.
She went in vamp speed for Damon's neck, pressing him to the wall.
"What did you do to me? Why am I here? Who the bloody hell changed my clothes? One wrong answer and you'll be dead for real, Salvatore, Elijah's promise be damned!" she hissed, her throat was so dry yet her eyes were so wet. She just wanted a little relief, was that asking too much?
"You crazy psychopath, it was your sister!"
She just wanted the pain to be gone.
"My sister is dead!"
Dead because of me.
"Yeah, as dead as you and me, now release me!"
His throat was bleeding, she was squeezing tightly trying to release her own tension. When she finally let him go she entered in the room again, ignoring his protests. She closed the door with such force she thought it may even leave some cracks on the wall, but sha was way past caringn. She changed into a white laced low cut tank top, a black leather jacket, black shorts and knee-length leather boots, the clothes she assumed Rebekah brought her from the mansion.
Her family's mansion.
God, seeing Tatia messed with her head so much, she was so confused because in what little time she got with her sister she was able to feel all over again the true meaning of family. In her thousand years Melissa had almost no one she cared, let alone call family. She had to admit that she didn't hated Rebekah or Niklaus and much less Elijah, but they weren't her family. Her family was dead. Tatia was dead. He was dead. She was dead. And now... Now Brooke was missing.
She tried so hard to tell herself that they were gone, but they were still with her to some point.
Melissa wiped away the tears she barely realized were falling, then she opened the door without looking at Damon and got out of the room, ignoring completely the way the Salvatore looked at her as she went downstairs.
Damon entered his room in anger. He was tired. He had woken up early to help Ric and Elena to find a cave near the town. Being with Elena had made far more relaxed than he should be, he wasn't able to sleep properly at night since the original bitch was in his house, but just the thought of Elena made him feel better. Tony would kill him if he knew what Damon was thinking.
When he closed his room's door he threw himself on the bed, ready for a good sleep, but then the scent of strawberry and roses filled his nose. He groaned and got up again. He would have to wash the pillow.
When he lifted the damn thing he saw a small necklace. He opened it and saw two small portraits, one of a little redhead and the other of… Elena?
He felt hot anger rise within him and in the blink of an eye he was out of the room. Why does the original bitch have a photo of Elena?!
Luckily she was in the house, on the couch with a glass of whisky in her hands, probably waiting for Rebekah. Damon went to her in vamp speed, pinning her to the couch a throwing her glass in the fireplace. She laid beneath him with her hands gripping the couch tightly.
"What's your plan?" he asked harshly.
"If you don't get off me in five seconds I'm gonna rip your heart out, that's my plan" she said between gritted teeth.
"What game are you playing?! Why do you have a necklace with Elena's photograph?"
"What are you talking about?! Why would I have a necklace with a photo of your little…" she trailed of, gripping his collar slowly and pushing him for them to be seat in front of each other, then she pulled him closer again, their noses almost touching.
"Damon… Is Elena… Is she a doppelganger?"
He was shocked to say the least, she was so close and the way she said his name… He suddenly couldn't speak, so he just nodded.
Then her eyes seemed blank, so much it scared him a little.
"What…" he started saying, but she cut him off.
"Don't. Come. Near. Me"
He gritted his teeth and got up, throwing the necklace at her. "As you wish"
Melissa couldn't think. The only thing in her mind was the word 'doppelganger'. She never saw one before. Of course she had heard of them, but to be so near one was a different story altogether. It looks like the fates had brought her two biggest traumas into the same city. Elena and Damon would drive her crazy. She couldn't remember Tatia without feeling bad and she couldn't remember him without breaking down.
They were gone, yes, but the pain that lingered was real.
When Rebekah entered the boarding house, she was clueless of her sister's internal struggle.
"So, do you want to kill me for bringing…"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Melissa's voice was cold. Dead. Emotionless.
"Told you what?"
"About the doppelganger girl. You know what it means?"
"I thought you…"
"I did knew about them. I've always heard of one Katherine Pierce. But you knew of this one, and you didn't tell me"
"Melissa, I b…"
"Don't. I don't want to see you right now"
"But I brought her!"
"You did what?"
"I brought the doppelganger. She wanted to meet you"
"You shouldn't have done that" Melissa said as she got up and walked to the door in hopes to be out before she could see the doppelganger, but things were never easy to her.
Melissa bumped into someone when she was almost out of the door. Her heart sank.
"Tatia" was all she could say, even though she knew this girl was not Tatia.
"You…" Elena's eyes were wide, full of fear, confusion and, weirdly, love. "It's really you, Melissa"
Melly didn't register the girl's words, she was too lost in her looks. Why? She thought full of melancholy, why does it have to happen to me?
In the blink of an eye Damon was down stairs again and between them. He was face to face with Melissa, his arms open in a protective gesture as to tell her that to get to Elena she would have to kill him. Elena, on the other hand, touched him lightly, pulling him arms slowly down and taking a step towards Melissa
"I'm Elena" she said, and when Melissa opened her mouth to retort, she kept going. "I know who you are, Melissa. I know you"
"Do you, now?" Melissa's voice was dripping with sarcasm, her tone bordering on hateful.
"Ever since I was younger I've dreamed about you"
"Dreamed?" Melissa's tone was now skeptical, she didn't knew what to feel, she was tired of being supressed by her fears, tired of the way they weighted her down, of the constant presence in her mind of people she loved so dearly and that somehow broke her heart.
"Yes, you and me, younger versions of ourselves. Playing in flower fields, going to the waterfalls and things like this"
Elena suddenly took Melissa's hand and tugged the vampire closer. Melissa was caught by surprise and pushed Elena. The human girl landed far, full of scratches on her skin. Damon was beside her in a heartbeat, he looked at Melissa with anger in his eyes and something that looked suspiciously like hurt. At that sight Melissa couldn't hold her tears back anymore. They weren't Damon and Elena. It was Tatia on the floor, bleeding because of her, and Gianni at her side, looking extremely disappointed.
She couldn't do it, she couldn't face them like this. The memories were still fresh in her mind. It was just too much, too much to handle and so, so much more than time was capable of erasing.
She broke down.
The last thing she heard was Rebekah's sweet yet threatening voice.
"Don't you dare messing with my sister ever again."
