The countdown to the Masquerade Ball was ticking by and Abigail hadn't mentioned the gown delivery to Damon because she wasn't planning on taking advantage of it. Every spare moment he had, he spent with her, but they were growing fewer as the time ticked away. And if Damon wasn't with her, wrapped around her as she slept, the dreams came back in full force.
Once upon a time, it was the hovering darkness warning her of what was coming - hovering until it descended, then once the visage of what terror lurked and grew near emerged - the exhaustion would take over and she'd rest. Now that her powers were unlocked and coming to her, slow and steadily growing daily, that hovering darkness was replaced by dreams. It was a toss up to Abigail which version she preferred.
The night before the Masquerade she was alone in her bed, Damon and his group were finalizing plans she still wanted nothing to do with, and so wrapped in her covers she fitfully slept. Her mother taunted her about Damon's place in her life, reminding her to keep him close, that he was the answer, but never telling her what the question was - then after pushing Abi to banish her from her sight, the scenery would change to the garden of the old Salvatore lands. The same bench and willow tree, the same bright sunlight, but the clothing was changed. The air had a different scent. And Elijah appeared. Wearing a perfectly tailored dark suit, his hair cut short, he'd sit next to her and turn to face her profile. Where he once asked before touching her, now he took it as his due, his hand reaching out, the back of it sliding along her cheek, warmth against warmth.
"The color of the gown," his words were clipped, the tone like music. "It'll highlight your eyes." Abi turned to face him, and his hand turned to cup her cheek. "You are far too beautiful to stay away, Abigail. Go, show them all." She stared into his dark eyes, wondering what spell he was weaving on her. "Never let anyone tell you where to go or what to do, you are royalty." He was lowering his head, coming closer, Abi thought she could count each one of his eyelashes, but then -
Her cell phone began to ring, loudly and obnoxiously, pulling her out of her dream with a gasp and leaving her feeling empty. Her fingers moved to her mouth, tracing her lips as her other hand reached for her phone, wondering who was calling so early - who had pulled her away from such a wonderful dream?
"Hello?" She managed to answer the phone, blinking awake even though the sun was still low. "Ric?" Abi struggled to focus, forcing herself to sit up and pay attention. "What was that?"
Somehow in staying clear of the plans for the Ball Abigail had managed to miss a great deal of a mess caused by Damon and the others - which had led to Jenna winding up in the hospital with a knife wound to the gut. Compelled by her least favorite vampire in residence, shaking herself to full wakefulness, Abigail asked Ric what she could do to help.
"Mason is -" she heard rustling that told her he was moving to a more private place and then he came back on the line. "He's dead, Abi." She closed her eyes, while the werewolf was a danger to them all, hearing that he was dead wasn't great news. "And Damon taunted Katherine which led to -"
"To her playing God with a mortal," Abigail sighed. "Is Jenna going to be alright?"
"She's coming home later today," he assured her. "She's stubborn and thinks it was an accident." He told her that Katherine had convinced her to stop wearing the perfume Elena gave her that was laced with vervain and to stop drinking the vervain tea, all by the grace of wearing her niece's face, then she'd compelled her to impale herself on a large kitchen knife. "The problem is," he sighed, and Abi filled in the blanks for him.
"If she figured out how to infiltrate Elena's house, to plot against her and Stefan's little game of relationship issues, then where else has she slithered into?" Abigail thought of the gown hanging in her guest room. "Damon doesn't want me to go, Ric."
"You're more powerful than Bonnie, Abi," he argued. "And Katherine, I would lay odds, is betting that you won't show."
Abigail felt a sigh growing. Was this what her dream was telling her, what Elijah's vision was prompting her to do? "If I go, he can't know -" she wasn't agreeing, but Damon couldn't expect her, Katherine could read Damon and Stefan like a book cover. "She's almost clairvoyant when it comes to those two."
Ric agreed, telling her that it was entirely up to her, but that he felt that IF she did go, it would more than even the odds. By the end of the call he was thanking her, but she warned him against that. "Don't thank me, Alaric, I haven't made up my mind and even if I have we have no way of knowing which way things will go -" Abigail was thinking of Gloria's warning about her future, how nothing was set in stone. "For all we know, my attendance could turn everything entirely to bad."
"I highly doubt that," Ric argued, but then he must have been called back to Jenna's side, because he was saying goodbye and didn't wait for her to repeat it.
"And goodbye to you," Abi muttered, biting her lip as she thought about what she learned. Katherine Pierce was dangerous - a demon of hell with the visage of an angel. And she'd seen what havoc she could wreak on Mystic Falls first hand. Could she put a stop to it this time, or would she see a repeat performance?
Abigail didn't want to know the plan, so she still didn't try to get in the loop. She kept her word to Alaric, she didn't tell ANYONE that she was going to the Masquerade. When Damon called as he was getting ready, she was winding her own hair into a style that was shocking her with its intricacy, wanting it up and out of the way of the cut of the gown.
"What are you going to do tonight?" He asked, pouring himself a glassful of liquid preparation.
"The usual," she lied, shutting her eyes and praying for forgiveness. "Studying the grimoire then I think I'll try some mindless television." God help me, I'd love that for an evening, she thought. Her gown was taunting her, almost glowing in the overhead light.
"What I wouldn't give to join you," he groaned, taking a drink. "Raincheck?"
"Definitely," she agreed, checking her makeup in the vanity mirror. The mask was black beaded, with the greenish blue of the gown showing up as the light struck the beads depending on which way her head would turn. The ribbon would lace through her hair perfectly. "I'll let you go so you can prepare for it." And so I can, she finished in her head.
"Yeah, I'll talk to you later, Abi," Damon promised, and they said their goodbyes.
Abigail's reflection stared back at her with a high blush on her cheeks. "Oh stuff it, you." She muttered. "It's all for a good cause, to keep Katherine in her place." She sighed, hoping she was right, and it wasn't going to be a repeat of another ball that ended with her locked in a crypt.
Abigail waited until the Masquerade was in full swing, thinking it would cut down on the chances of her being spotted by Damon or Stefan - it did, however, help her catch Elena. "Aren't you supposed to be at Jenna's bedside?" She asked, shocked as Elena gasped and seemed to be taking on damage from an unseen foe. "Elena?" Abi managed to grab her body before she hit the ground, but was completely baffled for a moment, before shutting her eyes and focusing.
"What's -" Elena was gasping, pain ripping through her as she took on more damage.
"Shh," Abigail hushed her, trying to pinpoint the source of the spell, and muttering when she realized it. Bonnie Bennett found them moments later, and she turned Elena's care over to her. "Keep her still and work to find a spell to help with the pain."
"She's linked them," Bonnie was telling her, but Abigail already knew.
"Yes, I'm off to find the witch," Abigail nodded, squinting as she focused on finding the source of the power. "I should be able to sense it, that kind of power leaves a trace -" And it did, she saw a sort of trail and started moving. "Stay here."
The witch's name was Lucy, a Bennett, and Abigail told her exactly what Katherine was doing and to whom. "She's putting you against your own," Abi offered, eyes narrowing as the witch stared her down. "Don't think it, young one."
"Young one?" Lucy smirked, looking over Abigail, still in her mask. "You can't be much older than me."
Abigail's lips curled. "Looks can always be deceiving, can't they?" Stepping forward, she held out her hand, palm up. "If you don't believe me, touch."
Lucy's smirk twitched, but she wasn't ready to falter completely. She moved forward half a step. "Don't try anything -" Abigail raised her other hand in a show of surrender, or promise of nothing to fear. When Lucy touched her palm, her eyes went wide, the power she felt, the age of it, then looking down she saw what Damon had seen, the golden edge of it. "What are you?"
"A witch, of course," Abi offered, pulling her hand back. "Now remove the linking spell, before I lose my patience."
Lucy nodded, telling Abigail it was done, and then promising that she was leaving Mystic Falls and was happy to see the back of Katherine Pierce.
Abigail backtracked to where she'd left Bonnie and Elena, both were gone and she was exhausted, so she got in her car and left for home, happy that Damon was none the wiser of her visit to the ball.
Home again, she took off the gown, brushed out her hair, and washed off the makeup. Tucking the mask into the drawer it had lived in since she'd gotten the delivery, she shook off the entire night, thinking playing hero wasn't really her idea of a good time, and grabbed her grimoire. Smiling at how easily she'd found the source of the magic, she turned to the next thing she could master, thinking that perhaps she could learn from the book after all.
Cat was napping in the window, the street lamp keeping the porch from being in complete darkness, but also letting anyone outside be able to see Abigail curled up in her chair engrossed in her book. And she had an audience. Tucked in the shadows, out of the halo of light, watching intently as she studied her family's magic. Watching and waiting.