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Chapter 14 - Dance the Night Away
~X~
"I'm so sorry" Carolina said and hugged Harper. The blonde was sniffling and was genuinely sad about what she had done to Harper.
"It's okay" Harper sighed, not really knowing what to do. She felt too awkward to hug her back, but she also felt bad not doing it.
"No no, I'm horrible.. I'm a horrible friend because I stole Matt and Matt doesn't even like me and he might like you or he might and most possible is still in love with my best friend Elena-" Caroline pulled away to look into Harper's eyes and rambled so fast Harper only caught half of it.
"Caroline!" Harper said and took a hold of the blonde's shoulders, as to snap her out of it. "It's fine, I'm fine.. You deserve to be with him, he is an amazing guy"
"Who doesn't really like me" Caroline sniffled and slumped together in Harper's arms.
"But he doesn't like me either" Harper stated truthfully and finally hugged Caroline.
"Harper-" Caroline pulled away again to look at the black haired girl.
"Let's… Let's just start over, okay? A fresh start" Harper suggested and tried to smile the best she could.
"Right! A fresh start" Caroline smiled and stretched out her hand to Harper. "Hi! My name is Caroline Forbes" She said and giggled.
"Hi, my name is Harper Bellrose"
~X~
That conversation happened a few weeks ago. Harper and Caroline since then become friends in a very odd way. They still didn't have the same social circles, Harper hadn't risen in status in any way, shape or form. But the girls still texted and hung out. To comfort each other when everything else in life seemed really shitty.
To Harper's surprise, Caroline was a totally different person than what she had originally believed. The blonde girl wa way more complex, and harbored some real anxieties inside of her heart that shocked Harper to the core.
They were two odd puzzle pieces, fitting together in a perfect way.
Tonight was the decade dance, which Harper had no original plan of going to. But Carol had bought her a dress to guilt trip her, and also to get her out of the house. Richard had never been the same after that night towards Harper, he had gone from acting normal to raging to ignoring her. But Carol was still scared of what he would do in a room alone.
She had accepted the fact that she didn't know her husband anymore, but had no idea as to solve the problem. She was the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect face in his campaign for public office, but it wasn't enough. And she wasn't dumb enough to not notice the floral perfume reeking off his clothing.
Harper had woken up screaming that morning, she was screaming so loud that Tyler rushed into her room as to help her. She was starting to have panic attacks because of her dreams, every single one had been worse and more horrific than the other. She had been given medicine by her psychiatrist, which Tyler often had to force her to swallow after each attack.
"What was it this time?" Tyler asked a moment after she had calmed down, he held her close in his arms. Stroking her back gently to make her acknowledge that she wasn't alone anymore.
"Vampire.. school" Harper rasped out, which made Tyler reach over to her night stand and hand her the bottle of water standing there. She took some careful sips, but not enough to fix the problem.
Tyler had no idea how to help her, he wasn't experiencing these things with her. All he could to was to comfort her.
"It will be alright gorgeous, nothing will happen" Tyler stated in the most convincing voice he had. But he didn't believe himself.
"Will you go to the dance with me?" Harper asked.
"Harper-"
"Please! Just this one dance, for me" Harper pleaded and gripped the collar of his shirt tightly. Tyler locked eyes with his foster sister and sighed. She was terrified to go alone, and he knew she needed him for protection.
"Fine, fine… I will come with you" Tyler said, which immediately made Harper relax. But only just a little, as she knew exactly what would happen in a few hours time.
~X~
"You don't look like you are having a good time" Tyler sighed as he stood next to Harper, who was frantically looking around for something, or rather, someone.
"I just wanna be here for an hour, as Carol said I needed to be. Then we go to the grill" Harper said and scanned the room once again.
"Are we here because of your nightmares?" Tyler asked and looked at Harper. She was nervous and her body language erratic. The slightest change of movement around them seemed to scare her.
"No.. I'm telling you I'm only here because of Carol" It was the truth, she didn't want to be there. She knew what would happen to Elena Gilbert, and as selfish as it made her sound, she didn't want to get in the way of that event playing out.
"Look, I see Bonnie and Caroline by the drinks table. I will be right back" Tyler stated and pointed at the two girls not too far away from them.
"Okay" Harper said and watched him walk away. Which was a big mistake. Because as soon as Tyler left her side a chilling feeling crept up her spine. Freezing her in place.
A cold hand gripped her arm, turning to her side to look at the guy, she realised exactly whom he was. It was the vampire that was supposed to attack Elena Gilbert, and now he was holding onto her.
"Don't worry, this will all be over soon" He looked into her eyes, and Harper realised that he tried to compel her, just like Damon Salvatore had tried. Mutley, she nodded. He smirked and took out a phone from his jeans pocket and dialed a number quickly.
"Hello Elena" The guy's smooth voice made Harper want to cry. But held herself back as best she could to not alert him about her act. "Here's what you are going to do, there's an exit door behind you. You have five seconds-"
"No!" Harper could hear Elena's voice through the phone and closed her eyes. She was terrified, and her gut felt like it had a thousand rocks inside of it.
"Or this girl dies" The guy stated and looked down at Harper. Her eyes widened, but she also remembered that she was under compulsion and had to act like she was fine. Elena then turned towards them and the girls eyes met.
"I can snap her neck so fast that no one would notice a thing. Now start walking"
"Don't you dare-"
"Keep walking, or I will kill your brother too. He is around here somewhere.. or better yet, why not kill everyone in this room huh?" By the end of the sentence Elena was running out of the gym. Harper was as white as a sheet of paper, ready to scream out of the sheer amount of fear in her body.
"Come on babe, let's go" The guy gripped her bicep and dragged her out into the hallway. He was walking slow, enjoying seeing Elena run in fear, and with each turn she did he gripped Harper's bicep tighter. Silent tears were falling down her cheeks, and the guy chuckled when he looked over at her.
"Oh how I will enjoy you.. later"
They suddenly ended up in the cafeteria, were he threw Harper hard into the wall. Her eyes started to blur and darken, but she could faintly hear Elena's scream and commotion, like a fight was happening.
"Hey! Dickhead" A male voice said, but Harper was too out of it to recognise it. "Nobody wants to kill you, we just want to talk"
More commotion was heard, and Harper tried to get back up. But her body was fighting against it. She could no longer hear distinct differences in voices, only a blur of conversation echoes throughout the room.
"Now you wanna talk?" A different male voice snapped.
"Screw you"
"Wrong answer... why are you doing this?"
"Because it is fun"
A pause, and Harper tried to focus her breathing. She knew she had hit her head hard against the brick wall. She most likely had a concussion, maybe she had a wound. But her arms were too tired to respond.
"What do you want with Elena?"
"She looks like Katherine"
"You knew Katherine?"
"You thought you were the only ones?" "You don't even remember me"
"Tell me how to get into the tomb"
"No"
"No…" Harper rasped. But no one seemed to focus on her.
"The grimoire"
"Where is it?"
"Ah!" A guy groaned out "Check the journal.. use Jonathan Gilbert's journal"
At which point, Harper passed out.
~X~
"Hey.. Hey!" Someone was shaking Harper awake. Blinking carefully, she noticed that she was still in the cafeteria of the school. Next to her, was Alaric Saltzman, her new history teacher.
"Mr. Saltzman?" Harper groaned out, flipping herself to the side away from him.
"Harper, hey! Harper you need to stay awake for me okay? You have a concussion" The man stated and gently helped her into a sitting position. The girl had been lying down on the floor, a small blood stain was seen on the wall above her. The new teacher couldn't really believe the night he had had. As Damon Salvatore had tried to compel him, he circled around the school to still get the chance to see the cafeteria. Which was messy from a fight, and had an unconscious girl on the floor.
He also couldn't believe that they had just left her there. He looked for bite marks but found none, which also made him cautious about how much to ask her about the nights events.
"Where is Tyler?" Harper mumbled.
"Tyler? Oh right! Tyler, yes.. let's go and look for him" Alaric said frantically and helped her stand. In no way could she support herself. So he helped her back into the gym, now mostly empty except for those on cleaning duty.
"Harper!" As expected, Tyler Lockwood came running from the other side of the gym, where he had been talking to some other teachers about her disappearing.
"Be careful! She has a concussion" Alaric said and handed her over to the teenager.
"What?!"
"I found her by the bathrooms, it was wet on the floor and she must've slipped. I came back with her as soon as I found her there" Alaric said, with such conviction that Tyler almost believed him for a second. He wasn't stupid and Harper wasn't wet from slipping on a wet floor.
"Okay, thanks for helping her up. I will take her to the hospital" Tyler said and looked at Harper, who seemed to be going between loopy and alert state of consciousness.
"Should I call your parents?" Alaric asked.
"Nah, we will manage on our own" Tyler stated, and walked away from him. Harper was leaning heavily on him, but he didn't care. All he wanted was to get out of the damn school and away from this place.
"Tyler?" Harper mumbled as she was hit with the cool night air. They were almost by their car.
"Yeah?"
"I love you" Harper rasped, and Tyler smiled. He knew that it wasn't a romantic love confession, by no means did they have a romance between them. But it was a bond they couldn't explain, like siblings or family.. they knew that somehow they belonged together, by each other's side.
"Love you too gorgeous" He said and kissed her temple.
