Josie Forbes had come to the conclusion that emotions suck. The anger, the fear, the sadness she felt whenever she left somewhere sucked, but it never went away until she locked it in a little box and put it back, back, back into her mind.
But then it would come back. Every time they left.
Over.
And Over.
And Over again.
Always.
They all had different ways of using their emotions. Caroline keeps moving and uses them to her advantage. Josie wishes she could be like that.
Lizzie's fueled her. Fueled her to do whatever the hell she wanted. Usually, that answer went to partying.
They were all broken in some way or another, but survival was more important than feeling.
Which is why Josie, Lizzie, and Caroline Forbes were currently standing at a place known as a "party city" and not in front of a therapist if they were even still around anymore.
"When we were four," Josie said, looking at Caroline, "you made a list of the five places we were never allowed to go to until we began immortals – if we chose to – then lived for a thousand years. Those were your conditions. Why exactly are we in one of those places?"
"This isn't a party city," said Caroline, "It's a free community."
A free community, also known as a place, where artists went to express themselves.
Glow in the dark painting could be seen everywhere around the room. Taking forms of every animal imaginable. Some of them even came off the walls.
A chandelier hung in the middle of the room made of crystal. With rainbow neon paint splattered over it. Shining bright pink light across Josie's body.
Josie glanced over to her sister. She looked happy, almost. Like this was her place or something. Which Josie noted as strange considering Lizzie was the world's biggest control freak next to her mom, and this place . . . this place was anything but controlled.
"Are we staying here?" Lizzie asked, sounding like she was trying to keep her excitement out of her voice.
"No, but we need someone here," Caroline said.
"Who?" wondered Josie.
"Bonnie."
"Bonnie?" Lizzie asked, shocked, "As in Aunt Bonnie, Aunt Bonnie. Bonnie is like the most badass witch ever and is like always saving the world. Why would she be at a free community?"
"Because I thought she should go have some fun, and you know live life," Caroline said, "But I didn't actually think she would listen to me," Caroline stopped, "Wait a minute. Is that Bonnie?"
Josie's jaw dropped. Bonnie freaking Bennet, had bright blue hair and was singing, and she was killing it.
The last time Josie had seen her, Bonnie always had her nose in her grimoire, trying to stop the next big bad from destroying the world, and she definitely did not have blue hair.
Bonnie Bennet stood on top of a small circular stage in the middle of the room, wowing the crowd. Her black curly hair had small stipes of glowing blue in it, and she was smiling without a care in the world.
Caroline moved to rush towards Bonnie, but not before she called to the twins, "Stay near the doors. Stay together. Don't—"
The twins missed the last part because Caroline was already lost in the crowd.
xxxxx
Josie knocked the cup out of Lizzie's hands. Beer spilled across the floor.
"You can't drink that," Josie said.
"Last time I check, Jo, you weren't Mom."
"Caroline wouldn't want us to drink," she paused, trying to rack her brain for another reason, "and we're underage."
Lizzie scoffed, "Yeah, ten years ago. I don't know if you noticed, but the world where someone could only drink when they were twenty-one and older is gone. Having to be at least eighteen, which I am, is just a general guideline, so we don't completely ruin the next generation with alcohol poisoning."
"Caroline told us—"
"Mom told us, 'stay together and—"
"Stay near the doors," Josie finished, "She will be super pissed if we get drunk."
"Which is a good thing only one of us is," Lizzie smirked, "Come on. Let's have some fun. I, for one, am tired of always living in fear and never actually living. So, I going to go have some fun over there," Lizzie said, pointing to where a group of people was starting their artwork, "And you can go have some fun mingling with the muggles."
"Lizzie!" Josie shouted as her sister started moving away.
"Bye! Have some fun!"
Then Lizzie was lost in the crowd, and Josie swore in her head.
xxxxx
Josie had decided not to go and find her sister in the crowds. If Lizzie wanted to get herself grounded for the rest of her life, then so be it. Lizzie had dug her own grave, and Josie had no intention of making her own.
"You know if you're planning on murdering someone, I won't tell."
Josie whipped around the noise. A girl around Josie's age sat atop the counter; Josie was currently leading on, swing her legs back and forth. She wore a leather jacket with dark makeup all around her face.
The girl smirked, hopping down from the counter, "In fact, I might just help you."
"I'm not planning on murdering anyone," Josie bit back. Still pissed at her sister.
"Your face says a different story, but," she says, putting her hands up in defense, "I'm not one to pry."
"Well, I'm not one to talk," Josie snapped back.
A couple beeps of silence, "So where are you from?" asked the girl.
"So much for not wanting to pry."
"Hey, I'm just a lonely girl trying to make conversation," Josie raised her eyebrows, "what the worst that could happen?"
"Well, I dunno you could murder me or kidnap me or drug me, or should I go on?"
"You clearly don't trust people."
"Who does? The world ended, remember?"
"Listen, I know that you obviously don't trust me but take my advice. Stop running."
Josie stopped breathing, "What?" she choked out.
"Hey, I'm just trying to have an honest conversation. I'm not going to tell anyone. I don't know you or who you are running from, but what I do know is that you look exactly like I used to and most people in this room."
"I have to go," Josie rushed out, turning away.
"Wait!" the girl shouted, "Just wait a second."
Maybe she had a death wish, but Josie stopped.
"I know that you don't know me, but I'm going to tell you something that I wish someone told me. When I was younger, something bad happened to my family, my brother, so I ran, and for a very long time, I did not come back. I just kept running because I was scared. But it hurt me every day. It felt like a part of me was dying the more I was running, so one day, when I couldn't take it anymore, I stopped. I went back to my family, and it wasn't perfect, and I'm not sure it will ever be back to what it once was but . . . I know what it's like to run, and I can promise you that whatever you are running from, you can't keep running from it forever."
Josie tried to swallow the lump in her throat and keep her eyes from watering as the girl walked a bit closer to the witch but didn't touch her, "If you ever need any help, I can give it to you. You don't need to take it, but for future reference, my name's Maya, Maya Machado."
xxxxx
Josie was currently in the process of carefully placing Maya words into a box and then shoving that box to the deepest, darkest depths of her brain and forgetting about it forever when she heard a loud, splat!
She whirled around to find her sister and a group of artists standing in the middle of the room, throwing paint onto a massive white sheet in the ground.
While talking with Maya, Lizzie had apparently changed into all-white clothes – which she didn't even own.
Lizzie took a large swing of her beer and moved into the middle of the canvas. The rest of the artists got their paint buckets ready before throwing them on to her.
Josie let out a gasp of shock and ran over to Lizzie but stopped when she saw that Lizzie was smiling.
For a person that was covered in paint, she looked abnormally happy.
Josie swore in her head. This was bad. This was like really bad. If she was drunk enough to look that happy after getting paint thrown on her, then—
Josie couldn't even complete that thought before her sister fell onto the group and started making a snow angel.
And it was at that moment, Josie knew Caroline was going to murder them.
"What the hell is happening?" Caroline shouted from the crowd running over to the girls.
Yep, Caroline was definitely going to murder them.
xxxxx
The warm water pounded on Josie's back as she tried to forget the person that was currently waiting for her to finish.
Caroline had been furious. Livid actually. She hadn't said a word to Josie the whole way to their new room – Bonnie had gotten them one – Josie wasn't sure how long they were staying, but she hadn't dared to ask.
When they had reached the room, Caroline only told Josie one thing: take a shower. Josie guessed that Caroline was using this time to try and common herself down.
That was something Josie always respected about the vampire; Caroline always tried to think rationally.
When she exited the bathroom, she found Caroline taping up the curtains on the windows—making it so no one could see inside their room.
Even though Caroline was facing the opposite direction, she pointed behind her towards the bed and said, "Sit."
Josie quickly sat on the bed, not wanting to make this worse than it had to be.
It looked like Lizzie was passed out on her side, sleeping on the other bed. Josie continued to stare at Lizzie even when Caroline walked over and pulled up a chair.
"Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning."
Josie told her everything but Maya. Only said she talked to some girl. Caroline's faces remained blank for the entirety of it.
Caroline took a deep breath before saying, "I'm not mad."
"What?" Josie croaked out.
"I'm not mad," she repeated, "I might be a bit angry with Lizzie, but not you. You didn't get drunk. Plus, you tried to stop your sister and," she paused before sighing, "You girls have been so strong moving constantly from place to place. Never being able to settle being able to be normal—"
"The world ended. There is nothing really normal."
"Still, you shouldn't have to be dealing with this, but that is beside the point. You both have been so great through this whole thing. If I were your guys' age and went through all of this . . . let's just say I wouldn't be acting the way you are."
"So, you aren't mad?" Josie asks suspiciously.
Caroline tucks a piece of hair behind Josie's ear and says softly, "I remember what it was like being a teenager in a world that was completely out of their control," she kisses Josie on the head and moves to turn off the light, "Goodnight baby."
xxxxx
Josie didn't go to sleep after that. In fact, she didn't sleep at all that night. The words that she kept trying to ignore kept popping back into her head. Again and again.
I know what it's like to run, and I can promise you that whatever you are running from, you can't keep running from it forever.
You can't keep running forever.
Forever.
Forever.
You can't keep running.
I know nothing super interesting happened in this chapter, but next chapter things will get a bit crazy.