Again I haven't written for a long time, and this time I have no better excuse than that I just want to choose words thoroughly so that they will be like tailor-made for this chapter.
Tomorrow we will finally see Klaus in the episode named after him. Yay!
(By the way: there are Vampire Diaries – inspired books called Stefan's Diaries, they're not written by L.J Smith, instead they take place in the TV show-world of Vampire Diaries. So it's like Stefan's point of view of what happens. Be sure to check it out – it's awesome!)
Thank you all who follow and review – you've given me four golden months of writing!
I present you, ladies and gentlemen:
QUEEN OF HEARTS
(I own none of the characters)
The world was spinning out of control.
It was how it felt like: colors melted into each other, his sight blurred and focused, first it was light, then it was dark.
Jeremy didn't even know how he was able to rise from the bed and stumble towards the kitchen. Every inch of his body hurt but what hurt the most were his eyes. It felt like someone had poured petrol into them and then lit them on fire.
A stray ray of sun fell through the grimy window and touched his face. Groaning, he ran away from it. It was as if he was allergic to sun.
And his throat burned savagely, he needed to drink. He reached the kitchen counter and fumbled along it with his hands until he found the jug of water. He drank directly from the jug, let the water rush down and moisten his skin.
For a while it felt good, soothing kind of. Then the fire started again. Even worse – he was monstrously hungry. He found a loaf of bread and ate it whole. But it didn't help. It didn't matter how much he ate, how much he drank – his new system needed something else. And he was well aware of what that was.
Suddenly weary, he sank to the floor and leant his back against the counter.
Everything had suddenly gone mad. Instead of the escape from the demons that haunted him, he had been thrust into a world that was burning and twisting around him.
Hell.
And it was only the beginning.
Elena didn't know how much more days of darkness she could withstand. Even after this last day of December there'd be January and February. Spring and all its warmth seemed so far away.
She went home in the dusk, felt that she couldn't stay in the theatre anymore. Though she knew that Damon didn't know that Katherine was Elena, it had still made her heartbroken to see them together. Don't you know me, Damon, she thought, or am I not worth looking into? She wasn't really angry on him, just confused and tired of all this drama. Home and Jeremy was what she need now.
The apartment was strangely quiet as she unlocked the door. She inhaled the soft smell of dust and sun. "Jeremy?"
No reply.
And all that former angst and anxiety started to come back. She twisted the keys in her fingers, tried not to panic, felt her body go cold. She hated the fear. It made her feel sick. It made her feel as if there would be no more fidelity, no more peace.
Then she saw him. He was lying on his back in the middle of the living room, staring up into the ceiling. His chest heaved only with long spaces in-between and his shirt was red. Covered in blood.
"Jeremy?" she asked again. The fear didn't go away. Something was definitely wrong.
Then she saw the red sheets, the empty vial, the knife.
Jeremy turned to look at her. His eyes were dark.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't you want it back?"
Damon looked at the ring on his finger. It belonged, but it didn't really feel like his either. And the thought of Stefan not being able to go in the sun was strangely sad.
Over the past few days, Stefan had felt like a brother again. Like someone Damon could trust and talk to and confide in. And he had realized, during the fire in the cave, that losing Stefan would hurt. That it would mean loosing his whole family.
"You should have it," Stefan said calmly. He looked at Damon over his desk.
"You're more worth to bear it than I am."
Damon stared at him. Then slowly, slowly – he smiled. It felt as if someone had tied a thousand balloons to the weight inside him and let it rise and disappear. It wasn't all the weight but it was a part and enough to make him feel lighter than he had done for a long, long time.
Stefan folded his hands. "Klaus is still out there, Damon, and Katherine."
"No, not Katherine." He didn't explain but Stefan looked as if he understood.
"Anyway, Klaus is and I think it'll be best for you and Elena to leave."
Damon reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and brought out the two pieces of paper. "These are tickets to South America – Rio de Janeiro - from Le Havre. The cruise ship leaves in a week."
Stefan smiled as if he liked the thought. "South America, huh? Sunny and warm. That's a perfect reason for you to have the ring. And I guess Klaus won't be seen on palm-lined beaches any time soon."
Damon looked down on the tickets. "I can buy one for you too," he mumbled, suddenly painfully aware of that he hadn't thought of Stefan as he had ordered the tickets. And wasn't Stefan the first person Klaus would interrogate when noticing Damon's and Elena's absence?
"Don't!" Stefan cried out with urgency in his voice. He stared intensely at Damon. "Please, don't. I'm fine where I am, thank you."
Damon frowned. There was something hidden behind Stefan's words, but he couldn't decipher it. And besides, he was in a hurry – he needed to tell Elena about the trip. And propose. The little box was still in his pocket, ready for use.
"Take care… brother," Damon said fondly, then left the office to search for Elena.
He found her sitting in the empty auditorium, staring emptily into space. Her eyes were red and as he sat down next to her, her hands were shaking.
"Elena," he said softly, waiting for a reaction.
Elena just winced. Very slowly did she turn his head and look at him. The pain in her eyes was so wide he wondered if it had an end.
"He made himself…," she whispered, her voice barely carrying. "A vampire."
He had no idea of whom she was talking about, but for some reason her words made him shudder, even though he was a vampire too.
"Jeremy…"
Oh. Her brother. He squirmed. Suddenly the air in the auditorium felt too thick, too warm in his lungs. Even though he couldn't possibly have had to do with Elena's brother turning into a vampire, he still felt guilty, as if he could have in some way altered Jeremy's fate.
But all he could do now was put his arms around her and let her cry. It was all he wanted to do.
"I can't do this," Elena said at last, her voice thick. "It's too much. All the fear and pain.. I'm suffocating from it." And it really seemed as if she had a shortage of breath.
He showed her the tickets to South America. "This is literally our ticket of here. I promise no more fear or pain or vampires except me of course. We'll have our idyll, we'll have our dream white beaches with palms and azure water. And you don't have to feel scared ever more again."
Even though she knew that he couldn't promise anything because it was fate who made the decision whether they should feel happy or not, her eyes lit up and she looked as if a weight had been taken off her, too.
"You think it's possible? This serenity…"
"I just know that I'm going to do everything I can for you to feel happy."
First, she looked at him with doubt and even a little mistrust. Then, it was as if something melted away.
"Thanks," she said and now there was only warmth in her heart.
She forgave him. What else could she do? Because she couldn't possibly blame him for mistaking Katherine for Elena when it was so clear that he loved her.
He was even ready to go to South America which probably wasn't the most ideal place for a vampire, for her. For them both. And though it wouldn't solve all their problems, possibly even give them new ones, it felt good to travel away. It felt like a much-needed new start. It would break Jeremy's heart if Elena left so abruptly, but on the other hand he had broken her heart by voluntarily turning himself into a vampire.
They could never make life perfect, she knew that. But they could do the best they could.
After a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream the audience began to rise from their seats, take their clothes and leave for home.
But Klaus sat where he was, and waited.
He had all the time in the world.
And once again I leave you hanging on the edge of a cliff.
Now I've finally found the answer to the long time it's taking me to write a chapter: I'm not very good at letting go and unfortunately there are only a few chapters of Let Me Sing A Song For You. Please believe me when I tell you that this is the first long story that I've written to the end, and makes me so terribly melancholy for some reason to end it.
I'll write new stories, I've already have another Vampire Diaries fanfic planned, but still… never has something given me so much joy in writing as Lmsasfy has. And never would it have happened without the support of you!
Music of the day: Fidelity (Regina Spektor)
Goodbye and good luck,
CheeseSwiss
P.S Factual error: Theatre de Monroe was supposed to close for New Year's Eve, but I guess they didn't if Klaus watched A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm sorry. It was simply a too long break between the last chapter and this so I got confused. Right now - in the story - it's the 31st of December, not 1st January yet.
