Enjoy! Review at the end if you can. Still grateful to everyone who is reading and reviewing.
Note: This chapter has been revised. Nothing's new, it's just better writing.
Disclaimer: Chapter 1 please :)
500 Years of Solitude
No matter how desperate I was or how hard I tried, I just couldn't stop grinning like a love-struck idiot.
"Does this make us horrible people?" I asked Damon over the phone as I paced back and forth in front of the dining hall where Bonnie and Caroline were inside arranging a breakup breakfast for Elena. I, however, could care less about her pain. For starters, she didn't deserve my sympathy what with sleeping with my boyfriend and having no guilt at all about it. Secondly, it had brought my own happiness to the table. Sure, that technically made me a terrible person. But I deserved a little selfishness once in a while...right?
"Depends on how you look at it." I could practically hear his smile. "Let me ask you this, do you regret kissing me?"
"Absolutely not," I answered almost right after he finished the question, needing no time to think it over. "Of course I don't. But...I mean, shouldn't we feel guilty or something?"
"We didn't do anything wrong." I rolled my eyes. Of course we didn't. Because in order to do something wrong—at least, in Damon's terms—we would've had to do something a little more intimate to feel guilty. Everything we did the previous night was completely innocent, though he wanted it to go so much further. I, however, wanted to at least keep some dignity within myself. Also, it would be reckless of me to do something that could potentially jeopardize my "Pure Blood" status.
"We came close, Damon."
"Mmhmm. And I expect that to change the next time I see you."
I wanted to be offended and yell at him for over-sexualizing a sentence, but for some reason, I'm almost positive I blushed. "And what if the next time I see you, I'm with Elena?"
"Then we'll put her in a room with Stefan and continue our plans as usual. Don't worry about her. She can handle herself. Besides, I made sure to spare her feelings and I didn't tell her why I wanted to break up. Although, I'm sure she'll find out soon enough."
I frowned. "Do we have to?"
He laughed, causing me to sigh. "Eventually, yes. But you shouldn't feel guilty, Madeline. It's always been you and me. We've spent the entire summer apart and...well, I don't want to spend any more time apart than what I have to already. You know, with you being at college and all. But we can make this work."
I paused for a moment, giving him an approving and curious look even though he couldn't see it. "Damon Salvatore, did you just get romantic on me?" I gasped.
I could virtually hear another ear-to-ear grin. "When have I ever not been romantic with you?"
I shrugged and tried my hand at a very bad, very ironic statement. "I'm sure there's a time that I'm forgetting."
"That's not even funny," he scolded, to which I smiled at. Eventually, he spoke again, this time more firm. "Don't feel guilty about this. We finally have everything we deserve. Silas is gone and I meant what I said. I don't want to spend any more time apart from you. I love you."
I exhaled. "I know. But, like you said,, I am at college so..."
"Oh, why don't you just give it up already? You can quit and come back to Mystic Falls. It'll be worthwhile, I promise," he said sweetly, implying an obvious innuendo at the end of his suggestion. I laughed and began to formulate retorts in my mind when someone spoke behind me.
"What are you doing?"
Practically jumping out of my skin, I panicked and hit the end button on my phone. When I turned around, I saw Caroline narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously wondering who I had been chatting on the phone with since she was obviously suggesting with her narrowed slits that I had been talking to someone I shouldn't be talking to—namely, Damon.
"H-Hey, Caroline..." I stuttered with a weak grin. "Did you—"
"Who were you talking to?" Caroline pressed. I swallowed and tried to give a nice, nonchalant, genuine laugh, but I realized quickly that this was one of the times I was a terrible liar.
"What...?"
"Madeline, who were you talking to?" Caroline repeated. Panicking again, I thought of the first name that popped up into my mind and blurted it out.
"Stefan!" I shouted, unaware that my voice was so loud. She eyed me carefully, but was still disbelieving. I cleared my throat and, realizing that I hadn't been convincing enough, spoke again. "Uh, yeah. I was talking to Stefan. He said hi."
"Really?"
"Mmhmm."
Caroline crossed her arms. "Who were you really talking to?"
All right, I was done fighting. I threw my hands up in the air and sighed. "Fine! Fine, you win. I was talking to Damon. Happy?"
I hadn't realized it, but while I caved to the urging blonde vampire, Bonnie approached beside us carrying a tray of breakfast goods for my sister. "Damon?" the Bennett repeated. "Were you two talking about what I told you the night of the dorm party?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Caroline took my words for herself. "What were you two talking about the night of the party?"
I spoke fast to try and avoid the question before Bonnie could ruin it for me.
"Nothi—"
Bonnie seemed to think lying was pointless. She interrupted me as soon as she realized that I was going to lie. "Damon was going to choose Madeline the night of graduation but he chose Elena instead because I had a vision that Silas would kill Madeline in Mystic Falls." Caroline's eyes practically popped out of her head and I sighed to myself. Crap. "So the only reason he was ever with Elena in the first place was because he had to force himself to be happy and drive Madeline away from Mystic Falls."
"He did what?!" Caroline shouted.
I turned my head and hissed at Bonnie, "Seriously?"
Bonnie shrugged. "I've been keeping that secret since I died. I couldn't hold it in anymore. It's time everyone knew the truth."
Caroline was holding herself together by covering her mouth with her hand, leaving only her freakish 3-D eyes for me to look at. I wrinkled my nose and whispered, "Caroline, what the hell are you—"
"Have you lost your goddamn mind?" Caroline cut me off, removing her hand from her mouth. I jerked back at Caroline's sudden intrusion, but listened to her. "Getting back together with Damon? He cheated on you, Madeline! With Elena! And you're just ready to forgive all of that?"
"Caroline, I know you're not Damon's biggest fan," I began. "To be honest, I wasn't either when I first...uh, met him, I guess. When I woke up here without my memory. But...well, you were okay with us dating before he slept with her. Right?" I was grasping at straws now because I had no idea what to say to make this sound any better. The way Caroline was wording it made it sound so black-and-white.
"Exactly," she pointed out. "Before he slept with Elena. Look, he may have only chosen her because of this...vision Bonnie had, but if I'm not mistaken, you didn't tell him to sleep with Elena, did you?" she asked Bonnie.
Bonnie grimaced. "What kind of friend do you think I am, Caroline?"
"See!"
"Did I ever tell you why Damon and Elena slept together?" I asked my friends, trying to piece it all together, myself. She groaned.
"Why does that even matter? He slept with her—end of story! And I know for a fact that he didn't 'accidentally' keep doing it over the summer, am I right?" I exhaled frustratedly, and seeing my irritation, Caroline tried to explain it better in a way that I would not get agitated with her. "Look. I'm sorry for being so harsh, but just because he broke up with her and decided that he wants you back doesn't mean that—"
"Caroline!" I stopped her, for the life of all three of us. This was being blown way out of proportion. "Nothing has happened between me and Damon and nothing is going to happen between me and Damon. I can take care of myself. Stop worrying." Okay...so I was a good liar when it came to some things. That was handy, at least.
After settling the dispute about Damon, the three of us headed back to the dorm room to wake Elena up from her comatose state of being terribly heartbroken over a breakup. I wanted to have sympathy, but I didn't. Not one slight inkling of it. Like I've said, maybe that makes me a horrible person but...there was nothing I could do if I didn't have sympathy for the girl who slept with my boyfriend—my sister who slept with my boyfriend. That was the lowest of the lows.
"Okay!" Caroline shouted at Elena as she slammed the door to wake her up. "Time to wake up, sleepyhead!"
"No," Elena grumbled. "I'm not leaving this bed."
"Which is why we brought breakfast to you." Bonnie smiled down at Elena and Caroline reached forward to pull the covers off the brunette vampire, who just reluctantly rolled up out of bed and saw the breakfast plate Bonnie was carrying. I idly stood behind Bonnie and Caroline, not willing to make the situation worse by saying something.
"What's all of this?" Elena smiled.
"This," started the cheerful Caroline, "is your breakup breakfast."
Her smile dropped. "My what?"
"Breakup breakfast!" And then, Caroline started to ramble—I actually think it was about me—but as she moved to pour the champagne that she had brought for the breakup breakfast, I ended up sitting down on the chair by the desk and managed to stop listening to my friends and my sister. I tuned them out, deciding that thinking of happy things could potentially salvage whatever was left of my good mood.
Unfortunately, my mind didn't have such plans for me.
One blink was all it took for the scene around me to change, turning from the luxurious dorm room to an outside setting. The sun beat down on me and blinded anyone who dared to look it in the eye, but it warmed the ground and my skin. A sea of people moved across a patio, all of them dressed nicely as if they were at some sort of eventful gathering. Where was I? Or, perhaps, the better question was when was I?
I looked around, but sure enough, my questions were confirmed to not be absolutely ridiculous when I saw another carbon copy of myself angrily storm away from that crowd on the patio. She was also cleaned up nicely, suited in a formal dress with her hair in spiral-like curls with a few strands pinned back elegantly. It wasn't a gown like the other memory I'd had, but rather this was a cocktail dress—something that a guest would wear. She was also clutching her wrist, holding a white towel against it. I could see something on her arm, but I couldn't make out what it was in the bright sun.
"Madeline!" a voice called. I looked behind her to see Damon chasing after the other Madeline, but she picked up the pace to get away from him. She passed right by me without noticing, as did Damon, so I did the best I could and followed them.
Damn, I cursed. Madeline was walking fast.
"Leave me alone, Damon!" she half-shouted, half-growled at him. Eventually, Damon stopped her in her tracks and I finally jogged up to them as he placed his hands on her shoulders and refrained her from moving anywhere else. Regardless of this restriction, she struggled against him. "Let go! I said...I said, let go of me!"
"Not until you tell me what happened," he told her smoothly as he moved forward and slid his hands down her arms in an attempt to sooth her. This somehow seemed to work, and the next thing I knew, Madeline was safely secured in his grip and she didn't fight him.
"Jeremy attacked Elena," Madeline blurted out suddenly, shaking her head as if to get something dirty off of her. She swallowed thickly. "He...tried to kill her, Damon! It's that...it's that stupid mark! It's doing this to him! How in the...how in the hell are we supposed to—"
"Hey...hey." Damon pulled her towards him trying to comfort her. I sighed and realized that this was most likely—most definitely—before Damon slept with Elena. "Shh. It's going to be okay."
"How can you say that?" she asked him in a whispered tone. Damon stared into her eyes with a look of empathy on his face. "Damon, our family is falling apart! Elena's a vampire, Jeremy's a Hunter now and...and I'm the only human left, I'm alone in this. And I should know how to fix this, but I just...I just don't! I can't fix this!"
"Stop." Damon moved one of his hands to brush a stray piece of hair out of her face that had gotten loose due to her frustration. "Stop it, Madeline. You can't fix everything yourself. We'll just have to figure this out together, okay?" She didn't respond, she only turned her head from him. "You aren't alone. You'll never be alone. I will always be here for you. Okay?"
Hesitantly, she ended up nodding and he leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. It seemed to relax the both of them, but when they pulled away, Damon released her from his hold and looked down at her covered arm. I stood between them, waiting to see what was underneath the towel. But I had a pretty good idea from the red liquid that seeped through the fabric of the towel.
"How bad is it?" Damon asked.
"Bad," Madeline whispered. "Real bad. Damon, you really shouldn't—"
But he didn't listen to her. Instead of complying with her suggestion, Damon took his hands and removed the towel from her arm to reveal the wound. I almost got sick again—she wasn't lying, it was bad. Shards of glass were embedded in the wound, blood dripped from every different direction, and the wound was around three to five inches in length all the way down her arm. It was a nasty sight for a human, but I'm sure it was a tasty one for a vampire.
However, I did not see what was coming next. I had always seen Damon as so controlled and so self-sufficient that I didn't expect him to really be bothered by the sight of the wound at all. But I turned out to be wrong, as his eyes turned bloodshot and disgusting vampire veins slithered underneath his lids. Just when I noticed it, the other Madeline seemed to as well.
"Damon?" Madeline whispered at him, shocked. Breaking himself out of the trance he was in, Damon shoved her arm back to her and looked up to find her eyes. She stared into the demonic orbs with a disbelieving stare and gasped. Furious, she brushed past his shoulder, never minding the pain in her arm, and started to walk off. Damon's eyes widened as he realized exactly what had happened and he spun around on his heel with his normal face.
"Madeline!" he shouted and flashed over to her.
I watched from a distance as she screamed at him, "Stay away from me!"
Leaving Damon hurt and alone, she kicked off her shoes, took them in her hand, and sprinted off in the other direction.
"Madeline?"
I shot up straight in the chair that I'd been stationed at, only to see Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline staring at me with confused eyes. Seeing their concern, I cleared my throat and looked around the dorm room to get familiar with my bearings. Finally, I looked at the three.
"Hmm?"
"Are you kidding me?" Elena looked over at me with angered eyes. "You fell asleep?"
Asleep? I wanted to ask, but I looked back at the chair and realized—I probably fell asleep while I was tuning them out, resulting in the weird middle-of-the-day memory dream. But I didn't want to say anything to them, so I turned back and gave a faltering smile.
"Oh, did I?" I laughed nervously. "Oops. Sorry, I just...with everything going on, I didn't really get a lot of sleep last night."
Elena looked like she wanted to point a very serious accusation at me, but I was saved by the bell when Elena's phone rang. Caroline turned around and grabbed it, even though it was my sister's phone. Seeing the Caller ID, she looked at Elena.
"It's Stefan," she announced. Elena rolled her eyes. Rude.
"Tell him I don't feel like talking," Elena mumbled. Double rude.
"She doesn't feel like talking," Bonnie whispered teasingly to Caroline. I bit back a laugh, but Caroline answered the phone, unnecessarily rude to the baby Salvatore.
"She doesn't feel like talking!" Caroline relayed, putting her hand on her hip with an extreme amount of sass. Instead of holding said form, she relaxed when Stefan responded and whispered, "Oh, my God."
Hearing the words, I immediately realized something was wrong. Worriedly, I pulled out my own phone to find two texts from Damon. One was obviously asking why I hung up the phone, but then, there was a different text.
Good news! You have an excuse to come back to Mystic Falls now.
"Seriously?"
It came from an extremely disapproving Elena as the four of us—Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and I—walked into the Salvatore study to find Matt, Damon, and our little brother in the room with a bottle of bourbon and countless shot glasses. I saw Damn once I got a little further inside of the room, but upon seeing me, he smiled lightly. I took the liberty to return it, but I dropped my small smile the second I realized that, at any moment, Caroline, Elena, Bonnie, Matt, or even Jeremy could spot us. That wouldn't be good.
"Elena!" Matt exclaimed, caught red-handed. "We're just...um..."
"I know what you're doing." She pointed to Jeremy with an accusing finger and walked over to him. "You're cut off."
"What...?" Jeremy trailed off as Elena took the shot glass from him. Desperate to make an excuse, he scrambled and looked over at me. "Madeline's the eldest! She should be the one making that decision, not you."
And, suddenly, everyone in the room was looking at me as I stood quietly and idly behind the couch, surprised at the recent shift of authority. I didn't know what to do, but then, I figured that I had to do something. So, I walked forward and poured another shot of bourbon into a glass.
"You know," I started slowly, not really sure what to say about the person we were...err, celebrating? "I don't...I don't really remember anything that Katherine's done to me or to anyone else, but judging on this game, she must not have been a very nice person." As I held my own shot glass in my hand, I grabbed the shot glass from Elena's hand and moved it over to Jeremy with a smile. He did the same; however, Elena did not. "So...bottoms up, little bro."
I tapped his shot glass and the two of us downed the shots together. I winced at the burn but reveled in the warmth that came after it. I knew Elena was staring at me, probably judging me based on my so-called awful parenting skills. Regardless, I ignored her and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand so that there was no access alcohol on my lips. After grabbing the bourbon bottle on the table, I walked over to Damon on the couch and sat down next to him. I looked up at my friends.
"So...who wants one?"
"Give me that!" Elena snapped, snatching the bottle out of my hands quickly. I held my hands up in surrender, not bothering to argue with her. I would invoke my elder authority if she tried to shut the game down because, to be honest, I could use a drink. "If anyone should be drinking to Katherine's last day, it should be me."
With that selfish statement, she took the glass from Jeremy again and poured herself a shot. "She impersonated me...repeatedly." She knocked it back. "She made Aunt Jenna stab herself in the stomach and cut off Uncle John's fingers."
Jeremy chuckled. "He might've deserved that."
And, after that, Damon poured more shots for everyone and the fun continued. Bonnie started, "My Grams died trying to close the tomb she wasn't in."
"Tyler's werewolf curse was triggered because of her," Caroline replied.
"Klaus followed her to Mystic Falls, which is why we lost Jenna," said Elena.
"And Alaric," Damon added as he knocked back another shot. I wanted to ask who Alaric and Klaus were, but I felt like it would ruin the moment so I kept quiet while they kept drinking. And drinking, and drinking, and drinking. I, however, didn't really have anything to drink to. I didn't remember anything about my friends, let alone Katherine Pierce. Anything I did remember, it wasn't bad.
"We're gonna need more boos," Matt decided, getting up from the couch to get more alcohol.
"She tried to kill me...at least twice!" Elena scoffed.
"She did kill me!" Caroline upstaged. Then, she reconsidered and admitted, "Though, I'm weirdly better off."
I looked over at Elena as something struck me. This was her fault. "Wait...you were the one who turned her human in the first place."
Elena shrugged. "And she deserved it. Because she was trying to kill me."
That was the point where I shut up, deciding not to dig my grave any deeper than it already was with my so-called sister. But upon my silence came another voice—Bonnie's.
"What did Katherine ever to do Mads?" she asked from her seat beside Jeremy on the armchair. Everyone looked at me again, but I shook my head and raised my hands defensively.
"Don't look at me. If she ever did anything bad to me at all, the memories haven't come back yet."
"I...actually think Madeline was the only one she liked," Damon confessed, his eyes moving over to capture mine. I shrugged at him.
"Well, I'm a very likable person." I smiled at him while he chuckled under his breath and poured more bourbon for himself. I looked over at the other people in the room. "Okay, what else?"
"Rumor has it she burnt down the entire city of Atlanta." Damon didn't strike me as the gossiping type, but here he was. At this statement, Jeremy snickered.
"That might win!"
"All right!" It was Stefan's voice that boomed the words. We all looked back to see Stefan and Audrey enter the room and stand behind the couch by the bar. "Knock it off or take it somewhere else. You guys are being insensitive."
"Whose stupid idea was it to start a drinking game, anyway?" Audrey asked, slightly disgusted.
"Come on, you two!" Damon groaned, turning around at the two Debby Downers in the room. His eyes glanced over to his brother. "Stefan, don't let the sight of a frail, human Elena look-alike cloud your memories of the manipulative psycho that she is."
Politely, Damon extended his glass to Stefan so that he could join our drinking game. Reluctantly, Stefan took it. I had to admit, the drinking game was cruel and unusual punishment, but...what about all the things that she'd done? After what I'd heard, she sort of...deserved it. I mean, I didn't hate Katherine, but I could acknowledge a sinister person when I saw one.
Stefan took in a sharp inhale. "In 1864, Katherine moved into my home, she compelled me to love her, seduced my brother, fed us full of vampire blood, and then started a war with the town that got us killed."
"Exactly!" Damon shouted in approval as he reached forward to grab a shot of his own. He cheered, "Bottoms up!" and handed me a shot glass while knocking me own glass with his. I shrugged and drank.
But Stefan didn't stop where his brother would've liked him to. "But, centuries before that, she was just an innocent girl who was shunned by her family. So, for 500 years, she lied and manipulated and did whatever she had to do to survive, and she did. She's a survivor, right? So that's the girl that I will drink to today. Cheers."
I sighed and mumbled, "Way to ruin the game, Stefan."
"Please!" Damon scoffed. "One night of hot sex with her and you're brainwashed?"
Oh, shit. I widened my eyes and set my shot glass down on the coffee table by the couch. Now he's done it.
When I looked back at Stefan, Damon, and Audrey, I could see my friend wince as if she knew about what happened, but wasn't at all happy with it. I looked at her to ask her if that was the case, but my sister decided to speak instead.
"What?" Elena demanded.
"What?" Bonnie repeated, also confused. I expected one from Caroline, too, but instead, she widened her eyes just like I had.
"Oh, my..." Caroline trailed off. Throwing her hands up in the air. "I forgot to tell you! You were kidnapped...and hostaged—"
"You knew, too?" I asked Caroline, surprised. She looked at me with the same amount of shock, but it wasn't her who spoke the same words.
"Wait a minute, Mads, you knew?" Elena interrogated. I looked at her and nodded.
"Oh...yeah. Damon and I ran into her leaving on our way to get Stefan when Wes kidnapped you."
"And you didn't think to tell me?!"
I shrugged. "Well, I probably would've...eventually..."
Stefan interrupted me with a quip of his own. "Bottle's empty. I should—"
"That's why you should never send a busboy to do a man's job." Damon rose from his seat and turned around, but I watched as his expression changed from a bitter smile to a hard line in a mere instant. I looked back to find the woman that had chased Elena back at that bar we went when we were looking for Stefan entering the study, earning everyone's attention. "Nadia. Devil's spawn. Hey, Caroline, did you remember to tell Elena that?"
Katherine had a daughter? Since when? Caroline slapped her forehead.
"I think my mind just exploded. Okay." Elena got up from the floor and downed a shot of alcohol. "Katherine's upstairs."
"Actually, I'm here to see all of you," Nadia confessed as she walked further into the study. "I found a way to save my mother. And I need some help."
"Uh, uh," Damon disapproved. "No way. Even my biased brother knows I will kick his ass from here to Kentucky if he helps Katherine Pierce live one more day on this Earth." He looked around the room. "No volunteers."
"I figured as much," said Nadia. "Which is why I found that old safe your brother spent the summer drowning in and...buried it on this property with your friend Matt inside of it. Oh, without this." Nadia held up a ring—a ring that I was told brings people back to life. The Gilbert ring.
"What?" Elena gasped.
Nadia smiled maliciously. "Now do I have any volunteers?"
"Fine." Stefan nodded. "Fine, Nadia. We'll help you. I'll help you." He turned around and looked at Elena, where their eyes connected across the room until the doppelgänger finally sighed.
"Fine. I'll volunteer."
Damon groaned and warned, "No. One. Else."
I could tell the restriction was meant for me, but I have no idea what came over me. Suddenly, I rose from my seat and turned to Nadia with an open mouth. "So will I."
Nadia nodded. "Okay, then. Let's get going."
I expected Damon to do the notorious "No, she won't" routine, but instead, he reached forward and gripped my arm gently but also roughly. As Nadia, Stefan, and Elena started to leave the room, Damon choked out, hissing, "You call me the minute there's trouble. Got it?"
I nodded. "Got it."
Now there was a shocking turn of events. Being with Damon was more relaxing than being without Damon. Who would've thought?
So, with his warning, I walked outside with Stefan, Elena, and Nadia, falling behind because Damon held me back. I heard Nadia say something to Stefan and Elena, and as they continued walking to the car at the edge of the Salvatore property, Nadia spun around to face me. I stared at her for a moment with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh...shouldn't we be heading to the car?"
She shook her head. "I apologize, Madeline. But you can't come with us."
I frowned. "What? Why not? I volunteered. You can't refuse a volunteer."
"They don't need you in person," she whispered simply. But the minute I opened my mouth to argue with her, I hit the ground with yet another unconscious thump.
Wonderful.
"I'm late! I'm late!" I rushed out as I hurried down the stairs, pulling my hair out of its late-night bun and ruffling it so that it looked halfway decent. Audrey was in the kitchen, eating her breakfast. Unlike I was, she was not late for school. I asked her to stay over at the house because of the fact that I was hardly in the condition to spend time with anyone else except another human. I couldn't face my brother, the high-strung vampire hunter, or my sister, the actual bloodthirsty vampire, because I was losing my mind. Slowly. It was like a slow decline into madness.
So Jeremy told me he was staying with Matt. And Elena said she was going to Caroline's.
I hadn't talked to Damon, either, since I left the Miss Mystic competition. I didn't plan on talking to him for a while, too, because I had nothing to say to him. I needed time...I needed space from him. Vampires were taking over my life slowly but surely and I felt like I was drowning in them. Drowning in the bloodshed, rather.
But who was I really fooling, here? I could try to convince myself that I was normal, but I wasn't. I fell in love with a vampire. Most of my family members died. My life was far from normal.
"Yeah, you are." Audrey scoffed as she put her bowl in the dishwasher. "Why are you so late, anyway?"
"Couldn't sleep. Had a lot on my mind."
"Oh...Damon-related things?"
I sighed. "More or less."
Audrey watched me as I hurriedly ate my granola bar and packed my things into my backpack at a highly rushed pace. She didn't make anything better, either, with her next statement.
"You do know that first period started twelve minutes ago, right?"
"Yes, I know!" I snapped at her. "Which is why we need to get a move on! Why are you still standing there, Audrey? Let's go!"
She whined, "Come on, Mads. Let's just take the day off. We're already late..."
I spun around at her with an exhausted expression. "Audrey, we have missed over fifty days of school this year alone. Is death knocking on our door? Is the apocalypse outside? No! So get your backpack and let's move."
Audrey rolled her eyes at me and grabbed her backpack like I said to do, then she grabbed her jacket, and we both rushed out the door. However, when I opened it, the person standing there, bracing to knock, was not someone I really wanted to see.
"Damon." I stiffened. He looked at me, his eyes full of regret.
"Hey," he responded softly. I cleared my throat and shifted uncomfortably. Audrey looked between us and sighed.
"Okay. I'll leave you two to it, then. I'll be in the car, Mads." She slipped past Damon and walked down the porch to get inside the car so I could take us to school. When she was gone, I sighed at Damon and shook my head.
"Damon, I can't be doing this right now. I'm late for school."
"I know." He nodded, desperate. "I just...I really needed to see you, Madeline. I need to apologize for what happened."
"Damon—"
"No," Damon cut me off instantly. "No. You need to listen to me, okay? I'm so sorry that I lost control yesterday. I...I don't know what happened to me. But, I promise you...it will never happen again." But how could I believe him? I loved him, yes, but I knew what he was capable of. I've always known. I just never thought he would ever imagine inflicting such pain on me. "And about you saying you're alone...Madeline, you're never gonna be alone. Even if you don't forgive me, I'll still be here. I meant that."
I was silent for a while, choosing my words carefully, but at last, I spoke to him with all the right words I could possibly come up with.
"Damon, it's not just that you lost control. You know, it's not even your fault, I just..." I trailed off frustratedly. "My life has been...centered around vampires, Damon. And, now, my brother hunts them. Now, my sister is one. And even my boyfriend—the only person I've ever loved—is a vampire, and he used to murder people left and right in this town! I'm just...I'm tired of being around vampires, okay? I'm sick of it. I've always been sick of it. I need some space."
Damon shook his head. "No. No, you don't, Madeline. You're just pushing me away. You're doing it—again!"
I moved out of the house and closed the door behind me, brushing past him. "I'm not doing anything, Damon."
"Madeline! Stop!" Damon reached forward and pulled my arm back so that I was in his grasp, but I didn't pull away from him. Instead, I tried not to get captured in his eyes, but I found it impossible. "Look at me. Look at me!" I had to. I had to look at him. And when I did, he sighed heavily, breathing out a heavenly scent I was forced to breathe in. "I love you."
I felt a lump in my throat, but I couldn't swallow it down. He looked at me with eccentric eyes, almost begging me to forgive him. But, underneath the surface, I knew that this couldn't have been just over guilt for being tempted around me. I swallowed and raised my eyebrows at him.
"Damon...are you okay?"
He hesitated, but then released my arm and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He straightened. "You should...probably get to school now."
I didn't say anything else to him, but rather I slowly agreed and walked off in the other direction to the car, worried about what the hell was going on with him.
"Oh, come on, love..." I heard an accented voice keen to me. There was a light touch on my cheek, like the back of a hand was brushing across it. "She couldn't have drained you all that well. Wake up, sweetheart..."
What the hell? Who the hell did I know that was British? Nadia was Czech, not British. I knew the accent difference. Plus, she wasn't a man. I forced my eyes to open up so I could face the violator myself, and when my vision finally sharpened, I found myself staring into a pair of sparkling bright green orbs. I saw a smile tug at the man's lips, but the alarms in my head immediately sounded off. I jolted upright, feeling a pain in my arm and hearing the crunch of the leaves beneath me. The man straightened out of my way.
"What the hell?" I mumbled to myself, temporarily putting my plans to confront the British man on hold as I looked down at the area my pain was in to see a piece of gauze taped to the skin. I ripped it off and hissed at the needle wound.
"Someone took some blood from you, love." I looked up at the man to see him smirking down at me teasingly. "I heard about your little adventure to another dimension this summer. Something about a new kick your bloodstream? Maybe I should get a taste..."
"Who are you?" I asked, confused. The man extended a hand to me, and I stared at it hesitantly before taking it and allowing him to pull me up from the ground. He frowned.
"You don't remember me?"
I scoffed. "I don't remember anyone."
He smiled wider. "Well, then, I guess I'll just have to make you remember."
I arched an eyebrow. "And how do you plan on doing that?"
The British man shrugged. "Well, by kissing you, of course."
He reached forward and started to brush my hair out of my face, and I was so confused I even froze for a moment. He managed to get closer, but once I realized how short away he was from my lips, I ripped my hand out of his and pushed him away.
"Okay...seriously, dude? What the hell?"
The British man chuckled. "Wow! You almost kissed me! You really don't remember, do you?"
"Whatever sick, twisted game you're playing, end it. Who are you?" I swallowed thickly as he rolled his eyes.
"The name's Niklaus. But you can call me Klaus." Klaus? What kind of a name was that? "We're old friends."
"Friends?" I found that hard to believe.
Klaus shrugged. "More or less. You tried to kill me, I tried to kill you...I did manage to kill your sister, though."
I racked my brain for any sort of reference to this Klaus character, but then I remembered—Klaus! The evil person that Damon was so opposed to handing me over to for that sacrifice thing. We were friends? Since when?
"Why did you just try and kiss me?"
"Because it's fun to mess with you, dear ol' Madeline." He grinned widely, looking me up and down. I crossed my arms.
"Is there a point to this?"
"No, not particularly," he confessed. "Though I wish you'd join me in New Orleans so I could have some fun down there. It's all politics. All anyone cares about. Absolutely no fun at all."
I ignored him completely, finding it too tiring to ask any more questions about him. My head was hurting and I wanted to know what the hell happened to me. "Nadia took my blood, didn't she?"
"Technically, I wouldn't know, love—"
"It's Madeline," I snapped.
He snickered. "Technically, Madeline, I wouldn't know. But I'd say it's a good guess. I found you here, all patched up, lying just so helpless and fragile..." I frowned at his description, which only caused the corners of his lips to turn up. Finally, he got to his point. "Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me where Caroline is."
"Why?"
"Because I'd like to speak with her."
I scoffed. "Are you old friends, too?"
Klaus gave a boyish grin. "Something like that. But, nonetheless, can you tell me where she is?"
I shrugged. "Like you said, Klaus, I was lying here all...helpless and fragile. I don't really know where she is. The last I saw her, she was in the house."
Klaus opened his mouth to respond to me, but instead of getting a reply, I got a goodbye as he found who he was looking for. "Never mind. I'll handle it from here." He leaned forward and kissed my cheek, making me uncomfortable but only for a moment. "Goodbye, Madeline."
Then he disappeared into thin air, taking off like the rest of the vampires did when they decided to cheat the system and use their speed powers. I sighed and shook out my arm, ignoring the pain, and stumbled my way back to the house. When I got inside, I found Audrey sitting in the parlor drinking some liquid out of a glass. I hoped it was alcohol, but it turned out to just be water. Tiredly, I sat down beside her.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
She sighed. "Well, Caroline told me to come back in here while she looks for Matt, Bonnie and Jeremy are out there, too, Damon and Sheriff Forbes are upstairs with Katherine, and Stefan and Elena are still out with Nadia." She turned to me with a confused expression. "Wait...weren't you supposed to be with Nadia, too?"
I growled, "Bitch blood-jacked me. God knows why."
"Hey..." Audrey straightened and moved to permanently look at me, making me turn to her upon her sincerity. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that. Stefan asked me to do some research on Pure Bloods when he got his memory back. He was worried about you," she explained. I straightened, invested.
"Well, what'd you find?"
"Not much," she admitted with a sigh. "It's...practically a myth. But I did find some information that's reliable. So...we obviously know that a Pure Blood has to be a virgin, right? Which you are, so that's crossed off the list. And, we know that the candidate has to be sent to an alternate dimension for her blood to be changed...which you were. We also know that Silas was planning to use you as a backup Cure, but here's the thing: the reason Stefan could feed off you without turning into a human was because your blood needs to be activated correctly for it to be useful. Tessa obviously activated your blood to serve as a bonding link between him and Silas, but if she wanted, she could've activated it to turn Stefan human, too."
"Activated?" I repeated. "So...I'm like some instant witch's brew?"
She frowned. "That's a really weird way to look at it, but sure. I guess so."
I sighed, thinking the information over, but then I asked a question that struck me immediately. "But...you went to that alternate dimension with me, too, Audrey. You were the only one I knew when I came here. So why do you have all your memories? Are you a Pure Blood too?"
Audrey scoffed. "No, no. No, Madeline. I am definitely not a Pure Blood. But I...I was never in the alternate dimension in the first place."
Now this—this shocked me. "What?"
She nodded. "I know, it's weird. I remember all of it, but I...I wasn't there." Audrey could see that I wasn't fully comprehending it, so she clarified, "Look, when a candidate is sent to an alternate universe, they take someone with them. A friend, a boyfriend, a parent, a sister...someone that they care about. And your subconscious chose me."
As she smiled proudly, I frowned. "So...I basically pulled you into an alternate dimension with me?"
Audrey shrugged. "Well...technically, you pulled my essence with you. Look, I know it sounds complicated, but it does make sense. Silas didn't grab me with you on graduation night. I was here the entire summer, but I just didn't remember it when you came back because you were blocking me from remembering. The second you came back and had your first memory, I got all of mine back."
I blinked. "I...seriously have no idea what this is supposed to mean."
"It's not really supposed to mean anything, Mads. It's just giving us an explanation as to what's going on with you. But I'm sure there's more...somewhere. I just need to find the right book."
I sighed and laid back on the couch. "Well, then, go find a library card."
Audrey rolled her eyes and sat back on the couch as well. "Whatever. At least your subconscious didn't choose to bring Damon with you. Boy, would that have been awkward." Instead of listening to her, however, I was more focused on trying to get the throbbing feeling out of my elbow. God damn it, Nadia took a lot of blood. "By the way, Mads, how are you doing with all that?"
I opened my eyes and looked at her. "With what?"
"With Damon."
I shook my head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Well...he broke up with Elena."
"So?"
"So...don't you think that was a little more than a coincidence?" she suggested, sitting forward, engaged in the conversation. But I was not in the mood to talk about Damon at the moment, so I leaned forward and looked at her with a laugh.
"You know, I'd much rather be talking about you and the other brother." Audrey avoided my eyes. "What happened, Audrey? You knew he slept with Katherine?"
She nodded. "She told me. Out of spite, I guess. And I'm feeling pretty stupid, actually. It's always been the doppelgängers...fated to be with each other and all. Why do I even try?"
"Because you love him," I reminded her. She scoffed and closed her eyes, trying to relax, but this time, I was the one berating her for answers. "Audrey, seriously. You can't sit here and let fate determine what you do. Fate's a bitch sometimes. If you want him, go get him. If you don't, don't. It's as simple as that."
She rolled her head at me and smiled. "You know, I could give you the same advice."
I looked at her for a moment, trying to think of a witty response, but I knew I was going to be transparent about it. So, instead, I cleared my throat and got up from the couch. "I'm gonna go upstairs. See if I can help Damon and Sheriff Forbes with Katherine."
And when I turned, I desperately prayed that Audrey would leave me be to myself. Thankfully, she did, and I walked up the stairs at my own pace and went to Stefan's room where Katherine was being held. Damon was inside, but Sheriff Forbes was nowhere to be seen. Katherine was lying in bed, immensely annoyed at him. I waited at the threshold, regretfully eavesdropping.
"Just go away," Katherine pleaded angrily. "Don't you think you've made your point?" Damon stared at Katherine for a long time without saying anything until she spoke with surprise. "Jenna?"
But I looked around the room—there was no Jenna. I knew who she was from pictures, and she wasn't around anywhere. Suddenly, Katherine started to scream. "No! No, no, no!"
"Poor Aunt Jena," Damon antagonized. "I had to compel her to think that she walked into that knife. She was so confused." He reached for something, and I looked inside with disgust. Damon was too preoccupied torturing the poor sick woman in his brother's bed that he didn't even notice me. Katherine tossed and turned.
"No, no! No more drugs!" She fell silent at the end of the sentence and Damon relaxed on the bed and stared at her, nothing but malicious intent on his face. Katherine gasped randomly and Damon turned his head to where Katherine was looking. She breathed out a single word. "Elijah..."
Katherine raised her hand to touch Damon's face. She smiled widely and whispered, relieved, "You're here."
But...what? I was so confused, but it was clear as day what Damon was doing to her—he was tormenting her. Out of the blue, Katherine gasped again and moved back, away from Damon's malicious smile.
"I'm so sorry," he said unapologetically. "Did you think that that was real? No one's coming to say goodbye, Katherine, because no one cares!"
Now this pushed me over the line. How dare he? Who cares what Katherine had done to him, he was torturing her. It was cruel.
"Stop!" I shouted as I stormed angrily into the room, my good mood entirely out the window as of now. Hearing my voice, Damon immediately looked back and me and jumped off the bed. His expression changed from malicious to regretful, but I wasn't buying it. "Leave her alone, Damon."
"Madeline, you don't understand—"
"I don't care if I don't understand!" I yelled at him. "You have no right—"
But just as I was reprimanding him for his cruelty, Damon was suddenly on the floor with his neck snapped. Nadia stood above his temporarily dead body and looked at me.
"Come on." I realized then that she wasn't talking to me, but she was talking to someone behind me. Someone else. I turned around to find some creepy goth chick standing in the room. Realizing that I had no more business in the room, I just shook my head and left, disappointed in Damon for what he was doing to Katherine. I was tired, drained, and angry. Not a good combination.
Eventually, however, Stefan and Elena came back, but the second after he finished talking to me about how the Travelers took buckets of Elena and Stefan's blood, he went straight upstairs to Katherine. Elena went to cool off and Audrey and I stayed downstairs until she left me alone when she went to use the restroom. I wondered if I could take a quick nap, because that's what sounded like heaven to me. I was a little weak from whatever blood Nadia took, so I needed rest.
Instead, Damon came downstairs, rubbing the back of his neck since it'd been snapped earlier. I barely noticed it since I was half asleep, but I disregarded my urge to close my eyes and leaned forward to drink some of the water I had poured earlier. I sat up straight and cupped the water glass in my hands, deciding not to say anything first. I didn't feel guilty for yelling at him, not one bit.
"We need to talk," Damon said to me as he walked closer. I sighed heavily.
"I'm not apologizing, Damon. Katherine didn't deserve that."
"And I'm not apologizing for doing it," Damon retorted. I stayed silent and waited for him to continue. "Katherine turned me into a vampire. She taught me how to kill. Sh was the reason there were so many issues in our relationship."
I laughed bitterly. "Oh? Did she force you to sleep with Elena, then?"
Damon grimaced. "Is that what this is about?" he asked incredulously, but I didn't reply. He asked again, "Is that what this is about, Madeline? Is that what this will always come back to? Elena?"
I shrugged. "Well, do you blame me?"
"I can't keep doing this with you!" he shouted angrily. "I can't keep going in circles! Not anymore. We need to move past this."
"Fine." I stood up. "Fine, you want to move past this? Then tell me. Why'd you sleep with her?" He didn't say anything, so I moved around the coffee table and walked up in front of him. "Today...today I remembered what happened. Or, at least, I think I did. We were at the Miss Mystic competition—not the one I entered—and I was upset because...I think Jeremy was trying to kill Elena. So you tried to comfort me and—"
"You were wounded and I nearly lost control." Damon nodded sadly. "Yeah. I'm not the one with the memory wipe, Madeline. I remember it. Clear as day."
I looked up and caught his gaze. "And the day after, you came to apologize to me for it. But I could see it in your eyes, Damon. Knowing what I know now, I think I know why you were so desperate for my forgiveness that day. Why you were so filled with regret."
I didn't have to say anything else for him to understand. He nodded—the truth, for once. Damon answered seriously, no jokes now. "Yeah. The night of the Miss Mystic pageant, that's when we slept together. Because I knew then just as I know now what a bad person I am, Madeline. How bad I am for you."
I shook my head, confused. "Huh?"
He sighed. "Madeline, i don't know what to tell you. Because there is nothing I can possibly say to make up for the fact that everything I have done and everything that I will ever do is bad. For you. And as long as we're together, something's always going to get in the way because you and I...we won't ever work."
"Stop." Now this was going too far. Now he was taking this to a place where I didn't intend upon going. "Damon, that's not what this is about. This isn't about you being bad for me, this is about you doing something wrong and I want to know why. Just because we've started arguing doesn't mean we're going down the rabbit hole, Damon—"
"That's exactly what it means," he countered. "I'm sorry, Madeline."
"Damon, stop—"
"I can't do this. You deserve to do human things, Madeline. You deserve to be human. And you can't ever be human without me so...I'm making the decision for you."
"No!" I stopped him immediately. "No! You don't get to make that decision! I...I love you, Damon."
There. I said it. And, I had to admit, it felt good. But Damon didn't feel the same way. He swallowed thickly.
"I know."
And then he left, leaving me confused, alone, and wondering where the hell it went wrong.
Damon and Stefan sat outside the Salvatore house in the cool night air, looking up at the stars together with glasses of bourbon in their hands. Elena and Madeline were both inside, Elena upstairs with Katherine and Madeline where Damon last left her.
"You know, I was in a dark place, Damon," Stefan explained, referring to the time he spent with Katherine recently. Damon sighed.
"And Katherine pulled you out of it. Irony abounds," he deadpanned and drank from the glass in his hand.
Stefan hesitated, looking at his brother for a split second before finally speaking his mind. "You know, whatever's going on with you and Mads, you need to fix it. I don't know how, but you've managed to make her fall in love with you all over again. Even after what you did." Stefan took a sip of his alcohol. "And she's the best thing that ever happened to you."
Damon threw his hands up. "You think I don't know that? I can't live without her. Trust me, I...I tried. But she's human. One of the only ones left, and she deserves better than...this. Madeline will be much happier without me." He turned to his younger brother, only to find that Stefan was giving him a weird look. "What? I'm being selfless. Don't give me that look."
"I'm not giving you a look."
"Katherine freaking Pierce gets to have a selfless moment and I'm not allowed to?" Damon demanded angrily. Stefan just tried to hide a smile. "Look, Stefan, the damage is done. I don't want to see her get hurt again."
"Damon, how many times have you and Madeline made mistakes over the years?" Stefan asked. Damon didn't respond. "I mean, should I name all of them? Almost having sex with Katherine the night she returned...killing her brother...betraying her trust...having sex with Rebekah. And that's only the things you've done. She's kissed Matt and even Klaus—"
"All right, spare me the trip down memory lane, brother," Damon said irately. Stefan exhaled.
"Do you know how many times I thought leaving Elena or leaving Audrey would make our lives so much easier? But, at the end of the day, when you love someone, you can't stop. And I know for a fact that she still loves you, even if she doesn't remember every little detail that you two have been through. After everything, don't you think it's time to stop making excuses and finally just be together?"
Damon fell silent for what seemed like hours before he finally found the will to spoke. He groaned. "Fine! You know what, fine!" He took a sip out of his bourbon glass. "But when I get Madeline back and somehow, someway, she gets hurt again...just remember that it's on you."
Stefan snickered. "I'll keep that in mind."
Damon snuck a glance at his baby brother. "Do that."
And the brothers resumed looking up at the stars, awaiting Katherine's final minutes.
I could hardly sit still. After my chat with Damon that had ended in the way I certainly did not want it to end, Bonnie had come into the study and asked if I wanted to join the rest of the gang in the parlor to await Katherine's final moments. Instead, I turned her down because I needed some solitude for myself. So, while the rest of my friends gathered in the parlor to celebrate the death of a hated one, I thought to myself in the study about all the things that I had remembered.
Eventually, I realized that if I didn't stop sitting around and moping, I would become just like Elena. And thinking about Elena made me realize that I probably should talk to Katherine before she died out of respect. After all, I was the only one she hadn't wronged in some terrible way so...she deserved at least a little gratitude.
So, I walked up to Stefan's room and found Elena and Katherine sitting in his bed talking quietly. But as I slowly entered, Katherine saw me and—I swear—smiled.
"Look." Her voice was weak and tired and she looked miserable. Grey hair inched at her scalp and her skin sagged from the decay of old age. "It's Little Miss Sunshine. Come to say your goodbyes?"
I cleared my throat and walked further into the room. "Yeah, well, I couldn't let you drift off into the sunset without saying them, now could I?"
When I finally reached the bed, Elena got up off of it and stood by the nightstand so that I could sit by Katherine and say what I wanted to. Although, I didn't really know where to start, so I was grateful that she spoke first.
"You were always my favorite," she confessed.
I smiled. "I think I got that. Apparently, you've never done anything bad to me."
She paused. "I stabbed your aunt, if that counts."
"I was told that was to get back at Elena for being with Stefan."
Katherine's eyes flickered up to her doppelgänger and she debated for a moment before turning her attention back to me with a croak, "What about Uncle John?"
"I was also told that he deserved it."
"Huh." The sick woman shrugged. "I guess you're right, then. I didn't really do anything bad to you. Well, as I said before, you were always my favorite." She swallowed. "You've always...reminded me of my own sister."
"You had a sister?" Elena intervened. Katherine nodded.
"I did. I guess it runs in the Petrova line." The three of us were silent upon this comment, but at last, Katherine spoke again with a new request. But instead of looking at me, she looked up at Elena. "Now maybe you can help a girl out. Give me one last syringe. Might as well be you...symmetry and all that."
Elena nodded slightly and stepped forward to grab a syringe full of sedatives from the nightstand while sitting down on the bed when I relinquished my spot. Suddenly, before my very eyes and too quick for me to stop it, Katherine had Elena's head in her hands and she murmured something in a foreign language, causing Elena's body to drop to the floor. I gasped loudly and tried to help, but I was too human for my own good. Too slow. Katherine's eyes rolled back into her head and Elena landed with a thump.
"No!" I dropped to Elena's level and shook her shoulders. "Elena! Elena! Elena, wake up! Come on!"
And, to my command, she did. But as her eyes opened slowly, there was a sharp cell phone ringer baring aloud.
"Madeline..." Elena groaned. I helped her up from the ground, but the phone ringing in the background wouldn't stop. With extreme annoyance, I grabbed the phone to answer it, but my sister took it out of my hand to answer it herself. She turned away from me and snapped into the phone, "Hello?"
And then she went silent. As the person on the other line said indistinct words, Elena seemed to freeze up. I sensed the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
"Elena?" I asked slowly and carefully. My sister turned her head at me, confused for just a moment until she spoke to the caller on the phone.
"I'm here," she assured but ran her eyes over me. I arched an eyebrow at her. "Hold on."
"Elena, what's going on? Who is that?"
Very slowly, Elena let a small, sadistic smirk spread across her full lips, and she seemed to stare at me with eyes that burned with corruption. I gulped down the bad feeling in my throat, but it only came back up as she said two words that instantly alerted me that something was off.
"Hello, Sunshine."
Hope you all didn't mind the POV shifts so much in this chapter. Next chapter will have more of them because they're pretty necessary with all this going on. Anyways, thanks for reading! Review, please!
Love,
BellaSalvatore1918
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