Wow, I am so incredibly sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I've basically been deliberating about the baby and what to do there but I've finally made a decision and I hope it's one that you all will agree with. That said, here is the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it! This was a really hard one to write because it deals with one of the saddest moments of the show for me. Tell me what you think! I own nothing but Vivian.
I gasped and took in a huge breath of air. Coughing began to take over and I turned onto my side. I was on the living room floor, my dark curly hair splayed out around me. Wow, no one had the decency to at least lay me on the couch? Then the memories began flooding back.
"Jeremy!" I screamed. "Jeremy, are you okay?" I began pushing myself up off the floor.
"He's not here, love." I paused before standing. Am I hallucinating? Is the ring turning me into Alaric? I turned around and realized that I was unfortunately not hallucinating. Klaus was in my living room.
"What are you doing here?" My head was pounding. "Where is everyone?"
"Oh, they're off looking for the cure. They just decided that we aren't worthy enough to join them." I still didn't feel like I was keeping up with what he was saying. Wasn't getting the cure almost entirely Klaus's idea?
"How could they be looking for the cure? Jeremy hasn't-" My eyes grew wide. "No, no, no. Please don't tell me he got Kol." Klaus's face only got darker and I had my answer.
I stepped down into the living room amidst Klaus's protests and took him in my arms. I still had no idea why Jeremy had invited him in but it didn't seem to matter. I couldn't even imagine what Klaus was going through. On the legs of losing Finn, as well as his murderous mother and father, Kol was a huge blow that Klaus may never fully recover from.
"Vivian, you shouldn't have-" Klaus began but I cut him off.
"Have you told Rebekah and Elijah yet?"
"Oh, Elijah knows, I'm sure. He's still got some eyes in town whether he's here or not. As for Rebekah, she knows full well and yet is still pursuing the cure with Stefan."
"What?" I asked. "I thought Rebekah and Kol were close."
"Once they were, since they both seem to have a penchant for being annoyingly cruel, but Kol overstepped his boundaries the other night when he threatened Rebekah with the white oak stake." I knew deep down that I didn't like Kol for a good reason. "He was hellbent on making sure that no one got the cure."
"Wait a minute. I'm sorry because I know that you must be grieving and all but why are you here? Elena would never have let me or Jeremy invite you in. Besides, I thought you were leading the charge for the cure." Klaus backed away from me slowly before giving me an absolutely pitiful look.
"I know that we have had our differences, Vivian, and that you don't wish to think of your friends in a bad light but I will tell you the truth. Jeremy invited me in after I watched him murder my brother all for Bonnie to enact a spell that keeps me bound in your living room until the full moon in three days. I cannot go out of it and now I fear that you may not be able to either." Oh, so that's why he was protesting me coming into the room. "They've left me here because they want to find the cure and use it on me to finally kill me once and for all."
"I wish I could say that doesn't sound plausible but that plan has Damon and Elena written all over it." This was bad. In fact, this was much worse than anything I would've expected.
"I'm hoping the spell has passed you over since you're human."
"Well, if it doesn't, I'm sure that was always part of their plan. I'm a thorn in Elena's side now because I didn't want her to make Jeremy kill Kol." Klaus looked at me as though I had said something revolutionary. "I warned Kol to get out of town before it was too late but I guess he really was scared of this Silas guy."
"Kol was always rather superstitious but I have to wonder whether he was actually onto something this time. I can't imagine he would've threatened Rebekah lightly." I didn't want to bring up the fact that Klaus regularly daggered each of his siblings when they threatened to ruin his plans or even just marginally disagreed with him. But he had an incredibly messed up family so I decided not to judge.
"I think he knew something about whatever they're dealing with that we don't."
I moved to the edge of the living room and extended my arm over the boundary. I couldn't hold back my sigh of utter relief. I looked back at Klaus who seemed simultaneously happy and disappointed that I could leave. I was not going to read anything into it. Right now was not the time to think about romantic feelings for anyone. It was the time to take out my anger on Elena and Damon.
"Well, since I can leave, I'll go get you whatever you want. If you need some blood bags or something, just let me know. But in the meantime, I am going to call Elena and cuss her out." Klaus only laughed in response.
I was disappointed when no one picked up their phone. I figured they were either out of range or they were simply ignoring me. Neither option would've been surprising under the circumstances. When Elena was mad at me, she was incredibly good at giving me the silent treatment. Damon was probably just scared that I would have Klaus on the line with me.
After a few hours of me getting increasingly frustrated and Klaus getting increasingly depressed, I heard the front door open. I was on red alert but when I saw it was Caroline and Tyler, I relaxed a little.
"What are you two doing here?" I asked.
"Well, we came to keep you company," said Caroline.
"And clean up the scorched, dead body of an Original," said Tyler.
"Well, thank you so much but I've got it covered," I replied. I saw Klaus trying to watch the showdown from the living room.
"With all due respect, Vivian, I think you need some friends right now," Caroline responded. I should've figured that Stefan would have put Caroline on damage control with me. While Damon could stand me being angry with him, Stefan and Elena couldn't.
"If you think for a minute that I don't know that you're here to gloat, you are sadly mistaken. I appreciate the concern, Caroline, really I do, but I think you need to leave."
"I don't think so," said Tyler.
"I'd listen to her," said Klaus. "This is her house after all."
"Well, we tried to be nice about it but we're actually here for another reason. Damon and Elena seem to think that if they're late, you will let Klaus escape."
"I didn't think Elena could insult me more but it seems like she has," I responded. "Do you think I don't know what Klaus has done to everyone in this room? I won't let him leave." My fake show of bravado wasn't fooling either of them because I saw Caroline roll her eyes and Tyler raise his eyebrows. "Fine. Just stay out of my way and don't talk down to Klaus. His brother is dead so I think he deserves some space."
"He killed your aunt and my mother. Did he give either of us space?"
"Two wrongs don't make a right, Tyler. He's not long for this world anyway. His brother was killed. I think we're all on equal footing now."
"Well, I'm gonna revel in every minute of his suffering, Vivian, because he deserves this. No amount of expensive gifts or puppy dog eyes will make me feel sorry for him."
I narrowed my eyes at Caroline. "I have a really big mouth. I'm sorry," she said. I just groaned and nodded at her.
"I guess I don't have to tell you to steer clear of the living room," I told them before stepping down into it. I could just see them now; Tyler dead on the floor or Caroline bitten with no hope of receiving the good will she'd gotten the last time.
"You're not gonna help us? Come on, Viv," said Caroline. The look on her face told me that she thought I was changing and she didn't like it.
"You made your bed," I replied, trying my best to sound cold. "Now sleep in it." Klaus moved beside me with something of a smirk on his face. Caroline only appeared to be disappointed in me.
I sat on the couch and watched Tyler and Caroline move Kol's body. I tried to feel distant from it but that was hard to do with Klaus leaning as close to the kitchen as he could get with a despairing expression on his face. I felt all of my resolve to be angry at the world leave me.
"Klaus," I said, "don't look." It seemed like he didn't hear me.
Before Tyler sealed Kol's body up in a tarp, I watched Caroline slowly remove Kol's daylight ring and set it on my kitchen counter. It was a small gesture, and I would bet Klaus didn't notice it, but it made me feel guilty for shutting Caroline down when all she wanted to do was help. Tyler was angry, I understood that, but Caroline was here on good faith, to clear the air between me and Elena and the Salvatores. I wanted my mean resolve to come back. I wanted them to leave so I could go back to reveling in my fury at my twin sister. But life has never been and will never be that easy for me.
When the two of them took Kol's corpse out of the house, I followed them.
"Why aren't ya'll looking for the cure?" I asked. Tyler gave me a shrug while struggling with the body bag.
"Too many cooks in the kitchen," Caroline replied. "And that Shane guy really creeps me out." I can't recall ever having met Shane, a supposedly hot occult professor from Whitmore, but I had no doubt he was creepy.
"Is he the guy saying he can resurrect people with Silas?"
"You don't really buy all that Silas stuff, do you, Vivian?" asked Tyler.
"I don't know. Kol believed in it enough to want to cut off Jeremy's arm. Hasn't enough happened that we know not to count out even the craziest theories?"
"Kol was nuts and like you said, he wanted to cut Jeremy's arms off."
"Have you heard from him? No one has answered my calls all day." Tyler and Caroline exchanged a look. Caroline wanted to say something but was clearly struggling for the right words.
"Look," said Tyler, "the fact of the matter is, after all this with Kol, we don't know whether we can trust you anymore. Rebekah's up there with them but you've always been closer with Klaus anyway." I can't say it surprised me but I also can't say it didn't sting. Everyone else I understood but Jeremy didn't trust me? Jeremy had always accepted me. He might have been the only one but he had accepted me. He had understood why I felt the way I did about the Originals. He'd never judged me for it. "He killed my mother, Vivian, and you're worried about hurting his feelings. He used you to make hybrids that he ended up murdering later when they showed dissent and yet, you'd still tap a vein for him. You've betrayed your own family for his. It's nothing personal… but you've switched sides and it's our fault for not thinking you'd go through with it. We saw it coming from a mile away."
I opened my mouth to say something when I realized I couldn't deny it. "I'm sorry," was all I said.
"You've made your bed," he told me mockingly. "Now sleep in it."
Caroline briefly touched me on the arm and told me to call her if I needed anything then the two of them left me standing on my porch. They'd be coming back, I knew, but I went inside my house and locked the door. I closed my eyes and took a long, deep breath. Klaus, for his part, didn't say anything to me, even though I knew he'd heard the entire conversation.
I walked down the hall into the kitchen and found myself looking at Kol's daylight ring. Now I wasn't sure whether Caroline had removed it for me or for Klaus. I picked it up, looking at its small lapis lazuli stone. For a brief moment, I imagined putting it on and looking at it on my finger. Instead, I headed into the living room and pressed it into Klaus's hand. He looked downward, again lost in some sort of desperation. It was an emotion that I was positive he rarely showed. Maybe it meant he was comfortable with me.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. He shook his head before stuffing Kol's ring in his pocket. "Are we friends?" I said before thinking about the consequences. Klaus nodded in response. I sunk down onto the sofa and Klaus did too, sitting closer to me than a "friend" would. "Then do you think I'm making the right decision?" I questioned.
"In regards to what?" I twisted Jeremy's ring on my finger and took a deep breath.
"You… and your family. Should I trust you? Should I be defending you?"
"Probably not," he replied and I laughed a little. "But that doesn't mean I think you should trust Elena and her group of friends either."
"Then I'm in a pretty sticky situation, aren't I? Because I've already chosen you and Elijah and Rebekah." Klaus looked at me genuinely.
"I don't think you've made the wrong decision," he responded and I realized that I didn't think I had either. Say what you will about the Originals, they've been brutal and mean to everyone but me. They've never outright lied. All they've done recently is reinforce the idea that I've been on the wrong side this entire time. The doubt was always there but now I was positive.
We talked a little more as the night wore on and eventually, we both went to sleep. Day One of Klaus being confined to my living room was over. The next day promised to be just as unassuming until Caroline gave me a call. I answered it in the kitchen while I was trying to slap together a sandwich.
"Vivian, Tyler and I were wondering how well you know Aramaic?" she said. I sort of sighed.
"Not very well, I'm afraid," I responded. I'd actually only come across something written in Aramaic (not just translated), once before. It was a rare thing to stumble upon anything like that in Mystic Falls, even when reading for pleasure or researching. "I'm far better with Latin. What are you doing with something written in Aramaic?" Klaus glanced over at me, curiosity peaked.
"Well… we're at Klaus's to find the sword to read Jeremy's tattoo. The inscription on the handle, which is a cryptex by the way, is all in Aramaic. Thank you, Google." I briefly considered hanging up on her because I could not believe that she had the gall to ask me for advice on something like this when she and Tyler had made it perfectly clear yesterday that they did not trust me. Why would I want to help the others find the cure?
"If you're still planning on coming over to babysit us, I'll take a look at it. I'm not gonna make you any promises though." That was enough for Caroline to breathe a sigh of relief. She openly thanked me, over and over.
"I can read Aramaic," Klaus said nonchalantly after I hung up.
"So you can translate what's on the sword and what's on Jeremy's tattoo?" I asked.
"Yes, I can. The question is, why would I want to?" I laughed.
"That is a pretty good question. I can't imagine that you would benefit from having the cure stuffed down your throat so that you could finally be killed."
"No," he replied, "but there's probably more to it than that."
After Caroline and Tyler came over, Klaus's assertion that there was more to it was proven correct. I helped them translate some symbols online before Klaus finally broke down and asked me to bring the sword over to him. I twirled the cryptex different ways and he translated each one of them. The last slide said that there was only one dose of the cure and Klaus was supremely happy about it.
They left, not quite sure of how to tell Elena and company. Tyler also made it clear that he was going to leave town to keep away from Klaus. It was most likely a brilliant idea on his part.
Once night fell, I was back in the kitchen to fix myself something else to eat. My cooking skills have always been abysmal and I usually only had luck when I made sandwiches so I was eating my second one that day. I turned toward the cabinets for something and when I turned back around, Klaus was in front of me, clearly not confined to the living room anymore.
"What's going on?" I questioned. "It hasn't been three days."
"Then I fear something has happened to Bonnie," he replied. Immediately, I felt sick. This was exactly the thing I was afraid of.
"Is she dead?" But that wasn't really the question I wanted to ask. Something else was severely wrong. I wanted to throw up.
"Perhaps not but she is close enough to it for her magic to break hold here." I leaned forward and gripped the counter for a moment.
"She would be with Jeremy, wouldn't she? They have to be together for the ritual. And Damon never trusted Shane. He hated him." Klaus shook his head before rounding the island to grab my hands.
"Don't jump to conclusions. He's fine, Vivian. Jeremy is one of the Five. He can take care of himself. All this means is that Bonnie might have taken a fall or doing the spell on Jeremy took too much out of her. They'll both be all right." I tightened my grip on his hands before letting them go. I knew that he was right. Jeremy had been through worse and recovered as had Bonnie.
"Well, would you stay with me until they come back?" I wasn't sure why I'd asked it. Maybe I was still concerned about him losing Kol, which we talked about. Maybe I already knew something was severely wrong with Jeremy. All I understood at the time was that I didn't want to be by myself and clearly, Klaus didn't want to be either. I have to admit that he was abnormally kind to me, insisting that I lay around and he do everything for me. I guess I should have realized something was wrong then. But no one called me or called him.
The next day, the front door finally opened and Elena walked in. She didn't even spare me a glance before heading upstairs. From outside, I heard Stefan say something that I couldn't make out. Klaus immediately took me by the arm and made me look at him.
"What are you doing?" I asked. "Let go of me."
"Vivian," was all Klaus said in response, his voice practically breaking in undisguised pity. I turned, even though I was still in his grip to see Stefan stride into the house, carrying something. It was a body.
"What is that?" I demanded.
"We have to get him upstairs, Vivian," Elena called. "He's wearing Ric's old ring, luckily."
"What the hell are you talking about? Is that Jeremy?!" I felt something crack inside my chest.
"Klaus," Stefan said and I felt Klaus try to make me look at him again but I shook him off.
"What's going on?!"
"Let me get him upstairs and I'll come down and explain everything to you," Stefan replied. Reluctantly, I nodded. Klaus still hadn't let go of my arm.
By the time Stefan had returned to talk to us, I think I went into shock. I barely comprehended what he was saying; that Katherine had followed them and ended up with the cure because she had fed my brother to Silas, that Silas was now out and about, that Jeremy was dead and had been dead much longer than the norm with the ring, that Jeremy was really and truly gone this time because the Five was a supernatural occurrence, and that Elena was in denial of that fact.
"She just keeps saying she's going to wait for him to wake up," Stefan said. "I think she might be in shock. I don't want us to alert her to it until she figures it out for herself."
"Is she crazy?" I said. "I'm not sparing her feelings."
"Vivian, I know this is a lot to take in-"
"Where's Damon?" I demanded.
"He's still on the island with Rebekah, trying to find Bonnie. He promised he'd be here as soon as he can." I nodded and flexed my fingers. I needed to do something or I was going to seriously lose it.
"Is this really happening?" I muttered, my hands starting to shake.
"Yes," said Klaus from beside me. I felt him brush a hand against my shoulder and then I knew it was all true. "Please sit down, Vivian. We're not going anywhere but I think you need to sit down."
"Don't tell me what to do," I said before turning to Stefan. My entire body began to feel like it was shaking. "You wake her up to this and you keep her away from me." I realized suddenly that I was crying.
"Vivian," Stefan responded with a shake of his head. I could tell he felt sorry for me. That was always the look on his face, that was always the look people gave me, especially after my parents' deaths. Poor Vivian. She's so sweet, she's so innocent, she's always second best, she doesn't deserve this. They're right. I don't deserve this. "You're grieving. You're hurt. You want to lash out and I understand why you want to pin this on Elena. But you're all she has left now. Do not let this turn you against each other." It already has.
"You're wrong, Stefan. The only person either of us had left was Jeremy. He was the only thing keeping us together. I warned her," I muttered. "I warned her what would happen but she didn't take me seriously because no one ever does."
"Don't let grief consume you, Vivian. You're better than that." This time I let Klaus take hold of my hand and lead me away from Stefan, who was calling Caroline and Matt.
Klaus looked down at me solemnly before asking, "Do you want to see his body?" I shook my head. "Do you want to be alone?" I contemplated it but I shook my head again. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," I responded. "Can we just go to my room?" Klaus nodded at me without appearing to pity me, which I greatly appreciated.
The two of us laid on top of my bed for a long time without saying anything. I finally asked Klaus to talk to me about Kol, to remind me that someone else was going through something just as terrible as I was. But Klaus is a quiet, closed-off griever, more concerned with moving on than dwelling on the past. He also made it clear that Kol was a second-tier sibling to him, one that had missed out on joining the threesome team of Klaus, Rebekah, and Elijah. Kol hadn't been to him what Jeremy was to me. And I was not a quiet griever. I was an angry one.
Hours passed and night fell before Damon was finally back in town with Bonnie. Klaus had been good to me and so, so kind but Damon was my best friend and he was who I wanted.
I rushed outside and Bonnie hugged me before going in to talk to Elena, Caroline, and Matt. I let Damon sweep me into his arms and I felt myself start crying again.
"Wipe those tears, love," said Klaus. "Doesn't Bonnie have a plan?" Damon let me go, shaking his head.
"Shane has brainwashed her," he responded. "She's willing to commit another of the sacrifices to bring Jeremy and whoever else back but in the process, help Silas."
"What?" I said. "She can't kill more people for Jeremy. He wouldn't want that."
"I think she's past the point of help. Somebody needs to talk her down. I hope that Elena can see through it or at least, Caroline could say something."
"How does Silas intend on bringing people back from the dead?" asked Klaus.
"Supposedly, Bonnie can drop the veil between our world and the other side."
"But that would-" started Stefan.
"Bring back every supernatural creature? Oh yeah. It would."
"Something needs to be done about that," said Klaus. I heard the suspicion in his voice, even his fear. His thoughts were on Mikael and Esther and Finn and I suppose, now Kol. I could only see Jeremy. I wanted to have him back but at the expense of twelve innocent people? At the expense of having everyone who had ever tried to kill us back in the land of the living? Was it worth it for just him and Alaric? I couldn't say it was.
"Viv, I'm sorry I told you all this right now but you didn't need to get up that hope," Damon told me. I nodded. I understood. He also didn't complain about Klaus's presence and that gave me quite a bit of relief.
Suddenly, I was back to being numb. I wanted to go to bed. I wanted to sleep it off. I wanted to pretend that none of this was happening. I wanted to be in just as much denial as Elena was.
When the four of us entered the house, I realized Elena had finally broken past the denial. She came to me, placed her arms around my shoulders, and gave a crying heave. I wish I could say I was a good enough person to hug her back, that I walked with her upstairs and showed her Jeremy, that I let her cry with me. But I didn't. My arms hung slack to my sides and Elena let me go, walking to see his body herself. Damon gave me a look like he couldn't quite believe I had been so mean before following her upstairs.
All I felt was numb.
Bonnie and Matt left, still in the throes of some argument about dropping the veil. I stood with Klaus waiting for something else to happen, though I wasn't sure what. Elena came down, tears on her face, with Damon trailing her. Jeremy was in his arms.
I moved slowly, as though I was in a trance, as I saw Damon lay my baby brother's body on the couch. I felt like I couldn't breathe. Looking at him, I could remember everything we'd ever done together. Most glaringly, I remembered running out of the house and pushing him out of the way of a moving car. I let my shaking hand brush against the hair on his forehead and took a heaving breath. I hadn't wanted to see him. I shouldn't have.
"I guess we're gonna do this the old-fashioned way," said Elena.
"What are you talking about?" asked Caroline. I turned away from Jeremy to see Elena start rummaging through our cabinets and finally pulling out some kerosene.
"We need a cover story. What are we gonna say this time? An animal attack? No. We're going to burn the house down with him inside." She poured it everywhere, all over the floors, through the living room, onto her journals.
"That's my call to make," I said. Elena stopped, staring at me like she couldn't believe I'd go against her. "The house is mine."
"Well, I don't wanna live here anymore and I can't understand why you would want to. Think of all the people that we've loved and we've lost who lived in this house, Vivian. What do you see every time you turn around? Alaric? Jenna? Our parents? Jeremy?" I flinched and felt Klaus at my side. I was glad of it.
"You don't want to do this, Elena," said Stefan.
"Why not?" she screeched. "I don't want his things. I don't want his sketches or his clothes or Xbox!" I watched in horror as she pulled out bourbon, saying, "Alaric's not here to drink it!" and poured it on top of Jeremy's body.
"Elena, please," I begged. "You're scaring me."
"What are we going to do with the body, Vivian?! What is left for us here?"
"I don't know," I whispered. "Please. I don't know."
"All this house is is memories of people that we loved that have died. Let me burn it, Vivian." I felt myself start shaking again. Klaus looked vaguely horrified at her.
"Elena, I'm gonna need you to calm down," Damon said. "Vivian can't do this on her own." She shook her head.
"I need to do this. It hurts," she muttered. "I really need to do this. I can't look at this stuff of his. I can't be reminded of him." Something in me snapped.
"Then maybe you should've listened to me, Elena!" I said. "Jeremy is dead because you were so damn selfish that you wanted that cure more than his safety. I'm not letting you wallow in this pity party anymore. It's your fault!"
"Vivian!" Caroline, Damon, and Stefan said all at once. Elena sunk to the floor, clutching a box of matches. I scarcely heard her say, "She's right."
Klaus turned my face toward him ever so gently. "Don't say something you're going to regret," he whispered to me. "She's your only family."
"Are you telling me to be kind to her?" I responded, barely masking my rage. "You're the one who told me, 'I understand you feel slighted, I understand what it's like to be treated as second best.' You don't know how much I am done with people babying her." And never giving me a second glance.
"You can't possibly think that we're babying her," said Caroline.
"Oh yes, I can. It's all any of you ever do. Elena is apparently the only abnormal vampire who can't adjust and hates herself. Let's find her a cure. She deserves it so much more than other vampires, like Rebekah, who have been cursed for a thousand years. She's in denial that she's the one who caused her brother's death. Let's let her go about pretending he's going to wake up."
"She didn't cause Jeremy's death, Vivian. Katherine did," said Damon.
"Don't patronize me, Damon. You know as well as I do that it's her fault because she wouldn't listen to me about Kol. And it's just righteous that you're always Elena's great defender. You call me your best friend, you tell me you love me, but when I am near death on the floor of the Lockwood mansion with someone who had threatened to kill us all, you leave me there to be kidnapped or bleed out."
"Vivian, please. I care about you so much," said Damon, "and just because I've been in love with Elena doesn't mean that I don't also care about you. You're one of maybe three people who I can say I honestly would die for. I know you're hurting. I know you're scared. Now I want to help you both. Why don't you let me try and help you?" I felt tears on my face and I couldn't even make myself wipe them away.
"Well, what's your idea of trying?" I saw Damon drop to his knees by Elena, who was crying hysterically. I wanted to too. I wanted to throw things. I wanted to light the matches in her hand.
"Elena, I can make this pain stop. You've gotta turn it off."
"What?!" Stefan, Klaus, and I exclaimed. Damon held out a hand to make us be quiet. I felt the anger in me boil over.
"You're kidding!" I said. "What were you gonna do to me? Compel me to forget all of the horrid stuff we've been through like you did to Jeremy?" I could tell by the expression on his face that I had uncovered his plan. "That's not fair. You can't just take away her agency and make her into a monster because you can't stand to see her in pain. And I'm not going to let you take away my free will so that I don't experience and mourn my brother's death the way a normal person would."
"I don't want you to be hurt, Vivian," Damon responded, putting on his best puppy-dog face. "I just want you to be okay."
"Well, I'm not okay and I'm not going to be okay until I deal with this normally. Let me grieve, Damon. Let me cry. And just leave me alone. Humans don't have the option to turn it off and even if we did, I would never do it. It's disrespectful to Jeremy to pretend that this didn't happen or that this didn't mean anything."
"Nobody's trying to pretend it didn't happen," said Stefan. I shook my head.
"It's okay," I told Damon. "Do what you think is best. But don't compel me."
He turned back to Elena, who had been beholding my fury with remarkable poise. He made her look him in the eyes. "Turn it off," he whispered. "It's what I want you to do." He was invoking the sire bond… and Elena's expression automatically changed.
Damon and Stefan had an argument about whether telling Elena to turn it off had been the right thing to do. I barely heard it. I let Klaus take me into his arms and for a moment, I felt a blissful silence. I wanted to cry but I just wasn't ready yet.
Elena tapped me once, her entire demeanor changed, and said, "Burning the house is still the best cover story. You know it."
"Where will we go?" I muttered. Klaus linked his fingers through mine.
"You can come with me," he said.
"Vivian, you don't have to do this," said Stefan.
"And you're more than welcome to come home with us," said Damon. I shook my head.
"I think I'm going to go where I belong," I stated before turning to Elena. "Just let me get some things together then you can light it up."
"You know where you belong, Viv, and it's with us," Damon pleaded. "Don't do this to us and don't do this to yourself."
"She's made her decision, mate," said Klaus.
"I can't do it… with her… anymore," I told them. Damon was going to say something but Stefan put a hand against his chest and shook his head.
Klaus followed me into my room and quickly helped me pack things up. I ran my fingers along my bedspread and my dresser, eyes finding the acceptance letter to Tulane I'd received so long ago. Without thinking, I picked it up and put it my bag. I'd been doubting whether I'd respond to it. Why would I want to leave my friends and family behind? But now it seemed like the only option I had, the next step I should take.
Klaus made me go into Jeremy's to have a last look around, saying I'd regret it if I didn't. I believed him. I took some of Jeremy's clothes and a few of his drawings too. Then I followed Klaus downstairs. Damon put a lit match in my hand. Elena dropped one on the living room floor. I let mine hit the couch Jeremy was laying on after briefly touching his hair again.
I walked out of the door, sobbing, and didn't spare a backward glance.
I hope you all liked Vivian finally breaking down about Elena. I'm looking at this chapter as a breaking point for Vivian, where she has finally and officially chosen her side in all of this. So do you like it? Into her moving in with Klaus? Because I am ;). And RIP Kol and Jeremy. At least we got Jeremy back. I hope we get Kol back in The Originals next year.