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Chapter 29:

"Don't touch her, Gabrielle," Grandpa warned as my mother reached out to touch me. "She's turned off her emotions. I can see it. She's gone forever."

I burst out laughing maniacally and felt a wave of electricity coursing through my body, activated by my dearest grandfather in an attempt to silence me.

He tugged my mother away from me, however, it was too late for him to cover up his sins.

The guilt and sorrow in her eyes were evident and she gazed at me as if I were a wounded puppy that needed to be nursed back to health.

No amount of apologies or motherly love could bring me back from the state I was in.

"You see what you did to me by telling him the truth, Mother?" I asked, my voice laced with venom. "You see what he's turned me into? What you've turned me into?"

Her eyes brimmed with tears and she turned around, unable to look into my eyes or perhaps she couldn't stand the sight of me anymore.

Regardless of what it was, then I felt no pity towards her.

"She's showing her true colors, Gabrielle. She's too lost for us to save her," Grandpa said, furrowing his brows. "You have to let me take care of this."

"Take care of this? You're torturing my daughter, Dad! How could you? You said you could make her stop loving Kol – not make her loathe us!" she screamed with mascara smudging tears running down her cheeks.

"I did what you should have done the moment she became a vampire. Don't you see what this Original has done to her and our family?"

"Hey, here's a fun fact! Kol didn't make Aida killing her own family. Aida killed them willingly and Vanessa…" I laughed again, but this time my grandfather didn't harm me. "Oh, she was a crazy one. A victim of Aida's darkness and the growing hatred towards vampires."

My grandfather narrowed his eyes on me and wrapped his fingers around my neck, tilting my head backward in a painful position.

"Don't you dare speaking about Vanessa. She was a kind, compassionate and brave hunter. That vampire destroyed her and infested her with sinful thoughts," he retorted.

I couldn't help but smirk smugly and met his hateful eyes. "Oh, did I touch a nerve? Sorry to break it to you, Grandpa, but Vanessa loved Kol with all of her heart. It was the family's hatred and desire to kill our kind that led her to the brink of insanity."

His jaw clenched and murder flashed in his eyes, but my mother pulled him back and hesitantly met my eyes.

"It's true, Dad. It's… all true. I saw the journals Vanessa wrote. She–"

"Silence!" he interrupted stubbornly. "You need to leave, Gabby. Go to your husband and sons, and make sure nothing happens to them."

"What? No! I'm not leaving Beth here to be tortured more!" She started releasing my restraints, enabling me to break free and run for it before they overpowered me.

One hunter, I could possibly take down, but two were too much when I was weak.

I dashed out of the old building in the middle of no-man's-land and thanked the Devil for bringing me shade from the sun with dark, ominous clouds.

I'd return for them later when I'd fed and was strong enough to take them down alone unless… I could lure Kol or Klaus into helping me.

Surely, there must be an Original around, who wished to go on a killing spree.

Running down the vacant roads, I passed a car with a couple inside it and decided to run ahead of them, planting my body on the road as if I'd been run down.

If they stopped to aid me, I would attack them and if not… well, I'd have to attack them anyway, but wreck their car in the process.

Counting quietly to myself until they arrived at the part of the road I was lying on, I heard the car slowing down as expected and started groaning as if I were in pain.

The man stepped out first, rushing to me while his girlfriend pulled out her phone to dial 911, so I swiftly knocked the man unconscious, and then dragged her out.

As a scream escaped her lips, I sunk my fangs deep into her neck and started draining her without showing any mercy.

Mercy was for humans and I was definitely no human anymore.

Dropping her lifeless body to the ground, I turned around to attack the man as well and found him missing from his spot.

"Well… that's unfortunate – for him," I said to myself, grinning as I glanced around for him.

The man was running a few feet ahead towards the nearby town like a coward, so I allowed him to run and use most of his energy while I stole the woman's clothes.

"That's not particularly gentlemanly of you to do." I appeared in front of him as I uttered the words, folding my arms.

"Oh God… please-please don't kill me!" he stuttered nervously.

"God? There is no God. If there were, my own family wouldn't have cast me out and tortured me for becoming a vampire!" I growled, baring my fangs.

His eyes widened in shock and he raised his hands, trying to calm me down. "That's… horrible, but you shouldn't attack people like this. I mean- uh, you'd just be confirming their suspicions."

Laughing, I believed that he was joking, because no human in their right mind would actually attempt reasoning with a vampire.

This man, however, was foolish enough to make an attempt and failed miserably.

"I'm fucking hungry. I'm a vampire – I need to feed, you moron! Do you know how it feels to have your wrist slit and to watch your blood pouring out without being able to do anything? And all the same your dearest grandfather is torturing you for information…"

His heart started beating faster, but it wasn't out of fear nor because he'd been running so fast a few minutes ago.

Someone was here and about to harm me.

"Sounds to me like your grandfather should've killed you when he had the chance," an unfamiliar voice suddenly said.

Swiftly taking cover behind the young man, I barely avoided being shot in the back with an arrow by an unknown vampire hunter.

"And who might you be, random hunter?" I asked indifferently, wrapping an arm around the innocent man's neck.

"The name's Connor Jordan. You should release him before I blow your head off," he replied, aiming a shotgun at me. "You're Bethany Dawson, aren't you? I did hear rumors about you becoming a vampire."

I narrowed my eyes on the new and mysterious hunter I'd seen at the Grill and could tell that he was different from most hunters.

There was a glint of pure hatred towards vampires in his eyes… like he was born to kill.

Attempting to escape before he fired another shot, despite risking wounding an innocent man in the process, I felt a bullet penetrating my side and the bullet burnt my insides like the liquid my grandfather injected into me.

I cried out in agony and was tempted to retaliate, but deemed it foolish and rushed into town to find myself back in Mystic Falls.

Nightfall had fallen over the town and made it difficult for the residents to notice the bleeding wound in my side as I staggered through the town.

Lying low, I made my way towards the alley behind the Grill and rested there in case Connor had followed me back to Mystic Falls.

The bullet was lodged somewhere deep inside my flesh and whenever I attempted pulling it out of my body, I'd burn my fingers painfully.

Of course, I could attempt calling Kol, but I had neither the motivation nor a phone to contact him with anymore.

I didn't need his help anyway.

Now would be a perfect time to accept Marcel's job offer if only I wasn't wounded, exhausted and starving in an alley behind my old workplace.

"What the hell…" Frowning, I turned my gaze to Damon Salvatore as he stepped out through the back exit and gazed at me with a puzzled look on his face. "Oh c'mon! Not you too!"

"Yup, me too… What are we talking about again?" I asked, grinning and ignoring the sharp pain in my side. "Oh right! Elena is a vampire. Must be frustrating for Stefan… or fortunate. What do you think, Damon?"

I rose slowly from the ground and gritted my teeth when the pain kept nagging me.

"I think something happened that made you switch your humanity off… and that you're wounded. Where's Kol?"

I giggled softly. "I don't know. Lost track of him when I got kidnapped, but he's probably still in New Orleans. Great city, you know – got lots of bad vampires."

Damon's brows furrowed into a frown and he approached me slowly. "I know. I've been there. Who kidnapped you?"

"Why do you care? You don't trust me and I don't trust you. Also, I am dating the Original, who's beaten your ass several times."

He rolled his eyes and approached me, helping me standing up without having to lean against the wall.

"You're awfully beginning to become the reckless little sister I never had or wanted," he muttered, shaking his head as he helped me to his car. "Tell me what happened and don't leave out any details."

I snorted and groaned when he pushed me into the backseat of his car, clutching my side. "Dick! I don't get it. Why would you help me? We barely know each other…"

"Well, maybe I was hoping to take advantage of you being in this state… or maybe I feel bad for you, because you remind me a lot of my brother."

I rolled my eyes and blew a lock of my hair out of my face, noticing dried crusts of blood on it that I needed to wash off soon.

"There's nothing to tell. I feel nothing and don't give a shit about anything," I said bluntly and raised a brow. "So Stefan switched his humanity off once, too?"

"Yes. A few times. He had trouble controlling his urges and was on and off the wagon constantly," Damon replied. "The guilt of killing became too much for him. What's your excuse?"

"You know how my family consists entirely of vampire hunters? They weren't overly fond of me running away with Kol or of me being a vampire." I huffed. "Hypo–"

Damon suddenly stopped driving abruptly and I nearly flew out of my seat, shocked but not surprised to see Kol standing in the middle of the dimly lit road.

He swiftly dashed towards the door next to me and opened it, pulling me out so quickly that I barely had time to register what occurred.

Brought back to Kol's apartment and planted on his bed, my bloodstained clothes were torn off my body in an instant to reveal the bleeding wound in my side.

"Don't touch me!" I hissed, kicking him hard in his face.

A look of confusion spread on his face and he examined my facial expression, slowly beginning to understand what Damon figured out earlier.

Was it truly that obvious that I was void of emotions?

"You turned it off…" he stated more than asked. "Why would you do that? What did they do to you?"

"They 'fixed' me," I retorted sarcastically. "I'm no longer broken. Isn't that wonderful? I don't have to care about anything anymore. Not my family, not my friends, not–"

"Not even me…" he finished. "I suppose I suspected it would happen sooner or later."

Kol fetched a kitchen knife and some pliers along with a bottle of bourbon, which he handed to me.

Swallowing a mouthful, I savored the numbing sensation that coursed through my body and watched as he started digging for the bullet with the knife.

"Did your family shoot you as well?"

"No, Connor did – the new hunter in town. There's something strange about him. He- argh!" I gritted my teeth as Kol dug too deep, causing the bullet to move.

"He's one of The Five," Kol explained without taking his eyes off my wound. "The Five is… well, an ancient group of skilled vampire hunters, who more or less live to kill vampires. They got their skills from a witch named Qetsiyah."

I raised a brow and gulped down another mouthful of alcohol. "So… basically, they're the equivalent to Originals. Got it."

"Not quite," Kol twisted the knife painfully, but the bullet popped out of me and landed on the floor, which he then picked up with the pliers. "Yes, this was definitely made by one of them. It bears their mark."

He showed me the engraving on the bullet and placed it in a glass of water to rinse it of my blood, remaining strangely quiet the entire time.

"Where did you go anyway? You left me on my own."

"I thought you were safe. The man was a decoy to lure me away from you. I should've known and killed those men when I had the chance."

I shrugged indifferently and jumped off the bed, taking another swig as I approached him casually.

"Would you kill them for me if I asked you to? My entire family, that is," I said, wondering how cruel he could be. "I want revenge."

"I'll gladly kill your grandfather and the men who took you, but not your parents and brothers," he replied, turning to face me. "But I'll only do it if you switch your humanity back on."

I snorted and shook my head, trying to walk away from him, but he pulled me back and pressed me against the nearest wall.

"Bethany, this is not you. You cannot escape heartache by switching off your humanity," he said, forcing me to look into his somber eyes. "Do it for me. I bloody love you, don't you see?"

In the past, his heartfelt words would've stirred intense emotions inside me, but now… now they meant nothing to me and he was simply an obstacle I needed to pass.

Placing my hands on his cheeks, I caressed them soothingly for a moment and kissed him passionately, hoping to distract him long enough for him to let his guards down.

However, I suddenly heard a clicking sound and Kol broke the kiss, stepping away from me after handcuffing me to a heater.

"I wasn't born yesterday," he commented wryly and gazed at me suspiciously. "You were going to snap my neck and run – maybe even steal my ring too."

"Can't blame a girl from trying," I said and tugged on the handcuffs. "Really? Handcuffs? Kinda kinky, but it's not going to hold me forever."

"Oh, but it will. They're designed to restrain vampires. I was going to use it for a special occasion with you later, but it's not the same without your humanity," Kol replied.

I snorted. "So you're going to leave me to starve? Torture me until I switch my humanity back on? Go ahead. Neither my grandfather nor you can fix me."

Laughter erupted from his lips and he snatched the bottle of bourbon from me to take a swig of it as he got comfortable in a chair.

"You underestimate me greatly, Bethany…"

"Don't call me that. You know I hate that name!" I growled.

"Hate? Hatred is good. Hatred is the first step back to accepting your humanity."

Oh, lovely. I sighed heavily and attempted breaking the handcuffs anyway, using all of my strength to pull it off.

The pole it was attached to started bending and Kol noticed this, so he swiftly handcuffed himself to me instead.

"Oh, great… because that's totally not going to make me want to stab you in the face with a fork!" I screamed agitatedly.

Kol chuckled and poked my exposed stomach in a provoking manner, so I swung my fist at his face in a fit of rage.

"Ah, rage! We're definitely on the right track," Kol said, laughing triumphantly. "Wait, I forget what comes after rage…"

"Contempt, scorn, loathing–"

"Attraction, desire, love…" Kol interrupted, brushing his hand over my hips and tearing my skirt off me.

I laughed haughtily and pushed his hands off my body, but there was something about what he said that remained in my mind.

The whole purpose of turning one's humanity off was to feel nothing and yet it seemed that I was capable of becoming angry.

"I'm hungry and unless you want me to drain you, then I suggest you bring me something to drink,"

I moved towards his fridge and tugged him with me, hearing him whistling appreciatively at something – like my backside.

"Stop looking at my ass, you blithering idiot or I'll make you wish I actually felt something."

"Hmm, a couple of weeks with me and your humanity will be back soon."


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