Elijah's Apartment
Elijah's apartment looked out over the town square. It was modern, spacious, and dare I say...wildly grown-up. The closets were filled with tailored suits and pressed linens; the shelves were lined with an interesting collection of novella I'd chipped into; a classic drinks cart took pride of place in the open-plan living area. The wine bottles were mature and spoke French, and the landscapes in two of the beautiful paintings on the walls were very familiar to me; I'd walked through that garden, and the tall grass of that river bank, both times in a shared dream. Though I awoke every morning in that apartment alone, Elijah was distinctly all around me, and for some strange, undoubtedly silly reason, I drew comfort from that fact, and spent more and more nights there.
My cellphone started to jingle, but I didn't recognize the number.
"Rosanna? It's Hayley. Don't hang up!" She rattled out.
I didn't say anything. Call me curious, but I wanted to know how the hell she was faring.
"I have to be quick, I'm calling from a janky truck stop, and I'm down to my last quarters, and I really do need to keep moving." She informed me.
She sounded skittish, and exhausted, a far cry from the sass-pot I'd gotten to know.
"Oh. How's that? Made friends with all the wrong people?" I asked, sarcastically, "And royally screwed over all the best ones?"
"I am really sorry to hear about your brother, um, but I have some information that might help you."
"Do you know what information would have really helped us out back there? Hi. I'm Hayley, I'm about to stab you all in the back, get your loved ones killed, and side with the biggest ass-holes I can find!" I ranted into the phone.
She wasn't deterred, she took it, and then said, "Look, I am really sorry. I can explain everything to you, if you'll just meet up with me-"
"I don't owe you anything!" I barked back, "We both slept with hideously inappropriate men once upon a time, that doesn't make us kindred spirits!"
"I have made a deal with Klaus. I've traded my protection for Katherine Pierce's whereabouts!" Hayley shouted back, "And I'm stalling. I figured that information might be more valuable to you, considering what she's done to you."
"How the hell do you know where Katherine is?" I scorned "No. Wait. How the hell do you know Katherine at all?"
"I met her in New Orleans. I was looking for my real parents." Hayley said, "Katherine said that she could help me."
Had she? Did she know about the island that they were all going to? She knew Shane. Was she the missing link?
I scoffed, my hands shook with rage as I told her, "You're an idiot. Klaus will snap your neck the second he gets what he wants."
I hung up the phone and threw it on the bed.
Salvatore Boarding House
I pulled up to the Salvatore House to what looked like a massive kegger. The grounds were full of drunken party-goers, spilling out of the open doors. I parked the car by the entrance, wanting to avoid anyone spewing on it. I walked up to the house, through a couple of jubilant welcomes, and had a red cup shoved in my hands. Inside was even more crowded, a massive party was in full swing, with dance music blaring throughout; the floor was vibrating from the towering speaker stacks. Elena was dancing on top of a table, pouring alcohol into someone's mouth below her...she was having a blast. Stefan and Caroline were dancing together, laughing and talking, until they saw my bemused face and made a beeline for me.
"Where have you been?" Caroline asked.
"I-I have a lead on Katherine." I told her, my eyes fixated on my sister.
Elena jumped down from the table, elegantly, and swaggered her way towards us, shoving party-goers out of her path as she did.
"Look who finally joined the party." She declared, sarcastically.
"The party." I huffed out.
"Sorry, for not inviting you, little sis." Elena said, nonchalantly, "You've been kind of a downer lately."
Stefan took a sharp intake of breath and braced himself. Caroline squeezed her eyes shut for a beat.
I scoffed and said, with a shaking voice, "No. My bad. Sorry for not dealing with the death of my twin brother quite as well as you are."
"Ugh." Elena sighed out, and rolled her eyes, looking to Caroline and Stefan for back up, "Again, with the waterworks."
"We can't all turn off the pain, Elena." I scorned back at her.
"I would feel bad for you, I'm sure, if I could." Elena informed me, "But, that would imply emotions, and we've already established those are useless."
"Come on, Elena." Caroline implored, "That's enough."
"You're right. It is. You should really leave, Ro, you are a total buzzkill." Elena determined, and then turned to Caroline and Stefan. With a wild smile, she said, "And you guys should get back on the floor, you look so good together. By all means, Care, just take him out for a spin. He could use it!"
Elena sauntered away, dancing her way back through the crowd. Whilst Caroline and Stefan exchanged awkward looks with each other, unable to address anything that Elena had said, I watched Sheriff Forbes walk inside the house. She had a conversation with Elena which quickly escalated into an altercation. Elena had her hands on the Sheriff. Liz reached for her gun, and Elena pinned her harshly against the wall. Caroline flashed over to them and pushed Elena away, hard.
"I'm fine." Liz assured her daughter, rubbing the back of her head.
Caroline growled and went for Elena but Stefan held her back
"Caroline, calm down." Stefan implored.
Caroline struggled against his hold, and whined, "Calm down? I'm gonna wring her skinny little neck!"
Elena took that as her cue, and she flashed out of the house with such speed that she knocked over a stack of cups, and sent them scattering across the ground.
I took a swig of whatever the hell was inside my red cup, and threw it over my shoulder. I turned to them both, and said, "You two got this, right?"
"Ro. Wait!" Caroline implored.
"What about the lead?" Stefan asked.
"Just call me when you get a minute." I said, and left them to it.
I got back inside my car and drove a little down the road, further away from the booming party, but I could still hear the bass faintly pounding away. I parked up and took out my phone. I texted Damon with the information that Hayley had sent after I unceremoniously hung up on her: Vampire after Hayley? Guy named Will. She'd met him before, got a fake ID for her. Klaus bit him. Better find him fast.
I've always had my brother or my sister to lean on, and they've always had me; we are always in the background of each other's tough emotional memories.
When I was told that my parents had died, I fell down to the ground; and for that single, isolating, solitary moment, time froze around me. I didn't scream, or wail; I just fell down and then it all hit me, like stepping out in front of a speeding tanker truck. I slapped the ground and I shook my head and kept repeating 'no, no, no!' into Elena's arms as she held on to me. I was there, and I remembered being there; I remembered my father's frantic struggle against my mother's seat belt; I couldn't push that aside; it was real; it hurt like hell, but the story added up.
There was a social worker, or something, whose face I can't conjure up to this day stood behind them, stood in the blurred background, she diagnosed me with shock, and worried about the long term effects of not emoting properly; I screamed back at her to leave me alone. I screamed expletives at her. Elena snapped back to the woman; was that enough emoting for her? HUH?
When Jenna died, I stole a couple of bottles of bourbon from the Mystic Grill and I drank myself into a 'shouting at grave-stones' stupor, however short lived said stupor may have been. Jeremy was there. I eventually caved and told Matt what I'd done, and he let me off with some kind words for Aunt Jenna.
When Alaric died, we were all there, with him, and then I sought comfort in a thousand year old original vampire, and well, he was no longer an option...at my own hand.
When I was told that Elena had died, I punched Jeremy, a lot, in the chest. I didn't spiral too far before Damon called and told us the...semi-good news.
And when Jeremy died...a large part of me died with him; it burned up, that night, along with the reconstructed memory of our childhood home. Stefan stood beside me, and we watched the crumbling darkening frame, until the fire trucks descended, and he urged me to leave with him. Jeremy wasn't there. Elena wasn't there. I was the last one standing, replaying Jeremy's voice, trying desperately to remember the last thing I'd said to him, but everything else was filtering through at once.
Don't be mad at her. And don't be such a bummer. Look, I'd wig out if anything happened to you, too. Big time.
I figured it was your turn to fall apart, and my turn to try and hold it together, for the both of us.
I was worried about you, worried about you waking up and...finding out. Figured you'd totally go off the deep end.
It was time to to leave this dark abandoned road, but...where to? I didn't have the option of running off to a summer camp right now. It was February. Circle back and drink myself stupid with Elena 2.0? Find another inappropriate bed partner? Can't punch Jeremy...Damon would be a good substitute. I must have been numb now. I was...half, from here on out. I didn't have the energy to run away this time.
Just as I was about to start up the car again, my phone jingled. It was Damon.
"Yeah?" I huffed out.
"You are about five minutes too late with that revelation, Rapunzel, as per." Damon informed me, "I know the guy. We go way back."
"Will you be able to get something out of him?" I asked him, fighting to hold back the tears that were still brewing.
"In a roundabout way." Damon said, and then asked, "What's with the tone? You holding in a sneeze or something?"
I scoffed and bit my cheek. I took a deep breath and said, "You should call Stefan. Elena's AWOL."
"Are you okay?" Damon asked.
"Yeah. I'm just going home." I said, and then a little depressed chuckle came out of me, "Well, no, actually I'm not doing that-that-that is gone, again. And your house is packed with drunken teenagers and vomit, and broken stuff, and I'm driving away from that, so I guess...just call Stefan, Damon. Go get my sister."
Elijah's Apartment - 23:40
I peered through the peephole, and opened the door, with what little energy remained in my bones.
"I'm really not in the mood." I told her.
"Nice crib." Hayley declared, as she sauntered past me, into Elijah's apartment.
"What do you want?" I asked her, "You said your piece, whatever, you got your little nugget of redemption, now leave me the hell alone."
"I am going back to New Orleans with fresh intel." Hayley informed me, "The pack that my parents were from, it's there, somewhere, out in the Bayou."
"And?" I asked.
"Look. I know I messed up. I'm a completely selfish jerk. And-" Hayley said.
"-And you led Katherine to that island, the island she murdered my brother on." I scorned back.
"I didn't know that would happen." Hayley insisted.
"I could get that Katherine is manipulative, and evil and all, and maybe that bit is true...but you sent 12 of your friends to the slaughter, and somehow Tyler ended up paying the price, so your sudden guilty conscience over my brother's death is noted, but holds absolutely no weight." I scorned.
"Shane said they would all come back. Silas would bring them back!" Hayley explained, "I have had a lifetime of searching and yearning for a family. So, I...I can imagine how horrible it is to lose them."
"No." I scoffed, "You can't."
"I was going to ask if you wanted to get away from all of this. If you wanted to come with me. It could be just like old times. We can Thelma and Louise our way all across the south." Hayley suggested.
"Even if I didn't completely hate your guts...I can't leave Elena." I replied.
Hayley scoffed and said, "That's not Elena. Elena's checked out for the foreseeable future. Elena turned off her humanity and left you to deal with this all alone."
"Don't!" I barked over her, "I am well aware. And I don't blame her one bit. If I could have done the same thing, if I could turn off this constant ache, I would!"
Hayley shook her head, emphatically, and she said, "No, you wouldn't. You would stick around and take care of everyone else before yourself, and I can rattle off a whole list of times that you've done that, with me alone." She reached into her pocket and handed over a scrunched up piece of paper, and said, "Here is my new cell number, if you change your mind, at any time, you call me."
