The Man Who Sold the World
Charlotte, North Carolina June 2020
People from all walks mill about the bus station, making it the perfect place to rest while they run from Silas. Tyler finds Liv in the crowd and hands her a bottle of water and snacks from various vending machines. They rush through the bus station to make it on the next leg of their route. He has a hand at her back and she has hers free, ready to handle any threat that might approach them.
When they settle into the scratchy, grey seats of the bus and hear the driver announce they only have fifteen minutes until they depart for upstate New York, Tyler finally relaxes into his seat and closes his eyes. Liv leans forward, digging around in her bag for chips. They've been on the move since Elena called and now that they feel safe, Liv's stomach churns, reminding her last meal.
"Do you think they'll be alright?" Tyler asks hopefully.
Liv looks up at him and Tyler leans his face into her open hands. She opens her mouth, but the words die on her lips. She tries to move her jaw, but it is stuck in place. Tyler's eyes rove around the bus wildly, but he can't see Silas. Everyone seems to be acting normal, but Tyler has felt the horror of Silas's power. Being helpless while watching people ignore his cries for them. He cups Liv's face is in his hands, willing her to come back to him. He has endless faith in her power and her abilities if only he can snap her out it.
It's too late. His hands stick to her face in a trap. It was too late for them the moment they stopped moving and got on the bus.
Silas turns around, grinning at his own cleverness in letting Tyler and Liv think they were finally safe from him. "Look at you two. You think you almost made it. Hiding in a cabin in the woods? You really thought you could trick me with a plan so simple?" He waits for them, their eyes white with fear and panic. "Oh right," he laughs and shakes his head. Their voices are released though their bodies remain paralyzed.
"You're sick," Liv spits out.
"I'm goal-oriented," Silas counters. "Take down the cloaking spell, witch. Take it down and I'll consider letting you both live."
"Yeah, go fuck yourself, dude."
"Liv, please. They have enough time. You've done enough," Tyler pleads with her. He was the one who had convinced her to run when she'd wanted to stay and fight. But Liv wasn't a woman who liked being cornered and she took it about as well as any wild cat might – spitting and clawing until the end.
"Oh, Ty. I haven't done enough." Liv shut her eyes tight, concentrating, and the seats around them light up in flames. Taking Silas back for a moment, he hisses and withdraws his hand from the back of his seat.
"I tried to be kind," he winces through his teeth and the flames die down leaving charred fabric behind. "But there's always an easy way to get around these kinds of things." He leans over his seat and as he draws closer to Liv, her panic rises in her throat in quick, rapid breathes. "Poor thing," he coos and glances to Tyler. "Sounds like her heart is breaking."
Liv shudders as her heart clenches and bursts in her chest. In an unforgiving instant, she slumps lifelessly against Tyler's hand, pining it against the seat as he's frozen still, holding her up. He can't move, but he can close his eyes and focus on the feel of her hair kissing his fingertips one last time.
"I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. I have to let the driver know about our change in plans." Tyler ignores Silas when he stands up to walk to the front of the bus. Ignores the familiar road that was their escape from Mystic Falls. He ignores it all except the feel of Liv's hair in his hands and the smell of her perfume.
When they arrive in Mystic Falls and Silas leaves them carelessly, arrogantly on the bus, Tyler takes a moment to sob into her blonde curls. He takes that time for himself and for Liv. He deems her sacrifice more than enough to afford him a chance to break down before calling Elena to warn her.
When he calls, Elena hears the ache in his voice and it rubs against that box she's locked and hidden away full of everyone she's kept buried: John, Jenna, and Jeremy. It threatens to open the box, but she hangs up before it can with a promise to herself to remember Tyler if they make it through today alive.
Mystic Falls, Virginia June 2020
Fingers press into the delicate bones of her hands, a mix of pain and pressure that help her focus instead of slipping under the surface of her own pain and grief. Elena doesn't know if Amara has the grace not to comment on her nerves or if her social skills had atrophied in the centuries of only interacting with passing souls for flashing seconds.
"I need you to kill Silas. Feed him the cure and kill him." An internal eye roll and short scoff under her breathe. She'd been quick to judge Amara's tack and here she was talking about murder.
"You trust me." It should have worried her more that it was a statement, not a question.
"We have one cure. It's either him or you. Do you really want him to win?"
"What does it mean to win?" Amara trailed off, not interested in an actual answer. "Of course I will. I'll help you." She holds out her hand and Elena rolls the cure between her fingers reverently, hesitantly.
She reaches out to Amara, handing off the little capsule like the first time she allowed Finn to take a pawn. She has a hard time with letting go of any of her pieces. Especially the vulnerable pawns. "One more thing. Bonnie needs our blood. She needs to draw on the combined power to build a barrier spell strong enough for Silas." When Amara finally tears her gaze from the cure, Elena shrugs. "Eventually he will get through, but it will be nice to buy some time." She holds out a small pocket knife. "You first?"
Finn waits an extra beat after Elena leaves Amara alone. He's not trying to go behind her back, but he longs to talk to Amara in a way that nothing to do with physical attraction, but a kind of kinship and fascination he yearns to find in the only person who could possibly relate to his unique torture. When he reaches her door though, he hesitates, unsure in how to approach her.
They stare for much longer than is socially acceptable, not that either would feel that ingrained discomfort. Two ancient statues come to life in this modern era, working to blend in yet cosmically out of place.
"Are you prepared to execute Elena's plan?"
"To force the only creature like me on this planet to become human? To kill the only man I've ever been with?" She watches him with Elena's eyes, though none of her warmth.
"Killing your past in a way."
"Is that what it is?"
"If you choose to see at such. You are on the precipice of a moment. Vanquish your past and take charge of your future. What I would give to see such an opportunity for myself."
"How am I supposed to have a future when many lives over have been stolen from me? I don't belong in this world. Neither do you." Finn has to counsel himself silently not to take her words to heart, that this woman speaking is not the woman who had removed the dagger and brought him to life.
"At first, I felt the same."
"No longer?"
"No, I see a life ahead of me. I see family and friendships. Perhaps even, should luck and boldness bless me, love. Why should you be so set apart from the rest of us to not deserve those treasures?" Finn wanders further into the room, but stops when she fixes her eyes on him like hot fire tempering his steel.
"For you, maybe. I have no family or friends. They are all dead."
"You have Elena."
"She is not my family."
"No? Then a friend."
"I have no future. I have only the past. How can I live for now or dream of a future when each death that passes through my reeks of a stranger's past. Their pain? Their lost hopes? Their longing? All my burden to hold. I am a record keeper of death. I can only exist in the past." Even Amara's bleak nihilism overpowers Finn dour leanings and he flees the room without any of his typical politeness or grace. He'd hoped to repay Elena's kindness with Amara, but his efforts fall flat.
The moment Silas crosses the threshold of the property, Bonnie's detection spell rings bells in her head. It's still bright outside, but the inside of the mansion is shrouded in unnatural darkness save the dozens of candles that Bonnie lights up as a sign to the others that the fight has begun. She hunches over and keeps her eyes shut, concentrating to keep the signatures of everyone's auras in her head like 3D chess pieces.
Finn stands just outside the salt circle Bonnie has drawn on the ground. The air in the basement is thick with her power and it moves his hair like the wind on hot day. He wishes for his longsword or something similar to protect her should she need him, but he'll resort to his teeth and hands if needed.
Stefan's hand at Caroline's back guides her to the front door when the flames ignite on the wick. He pushes her hair back and leans down to kiss her before they separate, walking back into the rooms at either side of the front door. She smiles at him and he chooses to believe in her bright future. The one where they live and love and travel the world. The one where they helped to kill Silas.
Elena watches Amara pull up her hood and tuck the purple fabric over her face. The outfits aren't perfect, but in this lighting they are decent attempts of what she wore thousands of years ago.
Her own hood moves over her head, mussing her hair. Elena resists the urge to fix it, but Elijah's unseen hands are on either side of her face. She can feel his thumb rubbing her cheek even though she can't see him. He shrouds half her face like Amara has done and she smiles from beneath it hoping he can see it in her eyes.
Footsteps echo down the hallway and she looks back, but Amara has already disappeared down the hallway. Rebekah and Elijah are both cloaked and Elena can only guess that Rebekah has followed Amara down the hallway. Elena lingers between the staircases, careful to keep her back to the door but stealing glances anticipating a dramatic entrance.
She's not sure what she expects. Maybe for Silas to blow a hole through the door or incinerate it and walk through the ashes. Instead, it begins simply with three quick knocks. Silas tries the doorknob and it twists easily, opening the door. Elena peeks behind her and catches a glimpse of Silas testing the barrier like he's dipping his foot in an icy lake.
Satisfied, he walks into her home. The darkness, almost like a fog, swirls around and away from Elena, revealing her to Silas. He breathes in Amara's name, letting it fill his lungs, and Elena bolts into the house, into the physical manifestation of a shadow.
Silas stops just past the door as Caroline and Stefan attempt to tackle him. Caroline manages to get a hand on his wrist, but he's quick to drop her. Elena can hear her shrieks of pain cut short when she passes out from the dizzying sensation. Stefan stands frozen in front of Silas, struggling to get closer and only managing sporadic finger twitches.
Curious, Silas turns until he's inches away from Stefan's face. Diving deep into his memories, he flies through all of Stefan's intimate moments with Elena. "I wonder," he muses, "how could you have let her go?"
Silas's power creeps over Stefan's skin, goosebumps rising up his arms to his shoulders. "Don't worry," Silas assures him. "I have plans for you beyond tonight." With that ambiguous threat, Stefan's neck snaps and his body crumbles to the floor just feet away from Caroline's.
"Now, what sort of trickery is this?" Silas wonders aloud, walking down the hallway after Elena. Bonnie can sense him better now that he's stepped into her shadows. The touch is subtle enough that he can't feel her presence on him. His face lights up and dims each time he passes a candle as he seeks out Amara.
The flames are dampened with Bonnie's magic and Elena's eyes adjust to the sparse lighting. Her pace slows to a walk when she hears Caroline scream out and now she moves carefully, intentionally to the back of the house. His footsteps are heavy and louder as he gets closer, Elena swallowing back her fear. Silas reaches out for her, his fingertips brushing her shoulder and she side-steps into a room, Bonnie's magic enveloping her body and obscuring her entirely.
Right on time, like a dimmer, the candlelight brightens and Amara glides out of a different room on the balls of her feet. Silas glances at her and only briefly back to the room Elena hides in. He changes direction and follows Amara until they make another switch. Downstairs, Bonnie watches them all through closed eyes. Her hands occasionally push the air in front of her chest when she needs to cover either Amara or Elena.
Like ghosts moving through the house, they play this game of cat and mouse with Silas to draw him in and unravel his concentration into unstable frustration. Amara appearing just as Elena disappears, distracting and unsettling his sense of reality for what feels like an hours.
Finally, he yells out for the games to cease. He likes to think himself a patient, counseled man, but Elena has seen how his temper flares when he hadn't gotten his way. She had leaned on that impression and Amara's description when crafting this plan with Bonnie.
"Enough! Amara! I've had enough of these games."
"And what of me, Silas? What if I've not had enough? After everything I've endured, do I not deserve to be chased?" Elena has practiced the slow, elevated cadence with Amara all afternoon and her work seems to be rewarded now with his grin.
"Is that what this is? Has the time erased your faith in my desire for you?"
"Can you blame a woman for wanting to be chased? To be wanted?" Elena is careful not to face him full on, to only give Silas only hints at her face. She leads him back to the front of the house, trailing her hand behind her like an invitation that Silas readily accepts. It's jarring how much his hands feel like Stefan's as his fingers intertwine with hers.
She almost has him to the library before his senses return and his hand falters out of hers. Her chin touches her shoulder when she looks back to him, doing her best to seem demure. "Why do you hesitate?"
"Two vampires at the door and a half-hearted chase? This was too easy. They didn't put up any kind of fight. You should have seen your copy, so determined to keep us apart. What happened?"
"I told her the truth, Silas. Of our love and how you made me your destiny. She left with the others when she saw there was no convincing me to leave you." Elena swallows hard, praying that Silas hadn't heard the rising accusation in her voice.
You made me yours.
She can't keep the heat of her outrage out of that phrase. Silas reaches out for her hand, this time yanking her around to face him. She manages to resist the urge to slap his hand away when he reaches for her face covering, pulling it aside gently. He doesn't remark on her smile lines or the faint promise of wrinkles around her eyes like she thought he might. Instead, he cradles her face in his hand and leans in.
She holds her composure until the last second, turning away from him and his haughty scoff. "For a moment there, I thought you were actually going to let me kiss you. I'd wondered about that. Would it feel the same as Amara or do you kiss differently? Pity. I was curious to find out."
He lets her go and she stumbles back, watching carefully when he steps back from her. "You shouldn't have gotten in the way. This is your fault." He almost looks sad and she's about to question him when he back hands her. His knuckles connect to her jawbone and the force sends her flying back. She waits for a second impact that never comes. Elijah is there, waiting to catch her. If Silas had ever bothered looking back, he'd have seen the strange way she seemed to stand on the tiniest point of her toes, leaning back at an impossible angle in Elijah's invisible hold.
If he had, then maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised later.
"Silas?" Amara calls for him from the library. He approaches her more cautiously now, but the pull of her always overrode his other senses.
"This one. This one is really you?"
She nods, reaching a closed fist up to remove her hood. "I'm disappointed that you didn't know immediately she wasn't me."
"A shallow illusion." He dismisses Elena like he hadn't been fooled by her.
"One that tricked you," she whispers and he ignores her. She clenches the cure tightly, her hands sweating around it.
"Come. It's time for us to return home. I want to feel the sea breeze on my skin and finally share the sun with you. We no longer need to hide."
"Is that what you want? After all this time? To just…be?" Amara sounds hopeful, like if he said yes she'd gladly abandon this plan and run away with him.
"And waste my talents? Don't be foolish, Amara. I deserve to be worshipped. I plan to build our coven back up again, only this time I have no plans to share."
"It was never mine." Amara keeps her eyes to the ground even when Silas tilts her face up to his own. "I'm not a witch. I have no magic. I'm just a girl."
"You are special because I will it, Amara." She nods, licking her lips. Earlier, she'd told Elena that she could do it. She should be able to force the cure down Silas's throat, but she shrinks in his presence. His hands are on her and he presses her to his chest and it's as if thousands of years hadn't passed at all. The pain and loneliness are gone. The ache and wear of two millennia seep out of her soul until she's just a trembling, shy young girl again.
Elena senses her flinching and tries to force her way into the library, but Bonnie's barrier spell went up the moment Silas stepped foot into the room. Feebly, she stares at Amara trying to imbue her with the strength to follow through with the plan by eyesight alone.
"After all this time, Silas. We could take the cure together?"
"Only one of us can take that cure. Do you want to let Qetsiyah win? After all this time, we need to destroy that abominable thing. Do you have it, Amara?" His hands find hers, peeling her fingers back one at a time until she drops the capsule to the ground. "Now is our time to be together forever."
Amara betrays Elena with a simple nod. "I'll go with you. I'll go back home with you."
"Right after I destroy our falsities. I can't bear to let our copies taint my image." He doesn't wait for her response because he doesn't need it. He kisses her, claiming and too forced to feel good.
Without grandstanding, Rebekah seizes her chance to rip Silas off Amara. The cure seemingly floating in the air shoots straight into his mouth. She forces his head to tilt to the ceiling with her hand covering his mouth and he chokes on Qetsiyah's revenge when it inches roughly down his throat.
Enraged and sputtering, he finally recognizes the danger he's walked into and he finds respect for Elena and her friends that he's lacked during his time in Mystic Falls. His power pushes through the house seeking Bonnie. The shadowy fog dissipates and the flames extinguish.
Downstairs, Bonnie falls back, breaking her salt circle. Finn rushes to her side to help her up though she waves him off.
The barrier to the library falls and Elena stumbles past it. Rebekah is revealed to Silas, triumphant in her success against him. Her face falls only when he turns his attention to her.
"You? The blonde with the obvious abandonment issues. You think you won. You think this means you've accomplished something great. You've done nothing of any true value!" His screams rise to a crescendo and Rebekah flies through the window, her body landing limply on the front lawn.
Amara, scared and timid, hides herself in a corner when Silas turns to face Elena and Elijah in the doorway.
Elena feels Elijah crumple, his shoulder slides into hers and she steadies herself against the weight of him. She helps him slide to the ground to her feet, but Elena resists the urge to check on him. If he's dead, there isn't anything she can do and if he's alive, kneeling will put her at a disadvantage against Silas.
"You should have let me have Amara and run like the lie you made her tell."
"I should have been in those caves with my brother to make sure you died there instead of now."
"There certainly is a fire to you I wasn't expecting. So unlike Amara. What was it that corrupted you? Who?" he asks, gesturing to her belly.
"Just me." Elena steps back, shuffling her feet along the floor and keeping her eyes trained on Silas.
"It's a shame. You share in a great lineage, that you managed to be birthed from our coven means something, Elena. And yet, you've debased yourself with a beast. Not that my shadow self is a much better option, I admit, given what he's become – a parasite, a leech."
She keeps him talking as she inches her way to the basement door. "What did you mean when you said my baby was a danger to me? In what way?"
"A wolf with magic? Access to Traveler magic and a mother with potent blood. As your child grows in you so does their power, drawing on the inherent strength of your blood."
"How is any of that a danger to me?"
"Power is a beacon for those who covet it and you don't have the strength to protect one that strong." Silas's eyes open, suddenly understanding. Elena shivers under the realization that he'd been able to hold a conversation and probe her mind at the same time. "The father is unique too. But he isn't here. How strange that he shouldn't believe. You know, I could protect your child."
He laughs deep in his chest when her lips curl at the corners, a mix of confusion and disgust. "Being mortal hasn't made me any less powerful. I could protect you and your child if you come with us."
"You, me, Amara and the baby?"
"Yes, it isn't so weird when you think about it. You are only an extension of Amara. In a sense, that child is as much hers as it is yours."
She can see the twisted logic flowing through his head and filtering out of his mouth. If her child belonged in some part through Amara and he considered Amara his, then so would her baby. "No, not in a sense. Not in any way. Not Amara's or yours or anyone's." She looks around for something to launch at him, but the hallway is bare and the door to the basement is still closed.
Elena dashes for the door, running like a child seeking out the protection of her parents. She only makes three or four strides down the hallway when her knees lock, buckled together under Silas's power.
His hands gather the fabric around her waist, using it to pull her closer to him. All that she can manage is shallow, panicked breathes as his forearm presses against her throat. "You should have accepted my offer. I didn't need to include you in order to take the child," he whispers his threat into her ear like a lover.
She closes her eyes to the present to shut out a bleak future and feels warmth spilling across her neck and down her chest. When she opens her eyes again, she expects to see blood but all the deep purple obscures it too well. Timidly, Elena reaches her hands up to her throat anticipating the ragged feel of slashed skin. Silas's grasp isn't as tight as it was before and she turns just as his body awkwardly collapses against her back.
Amara stands behind Silas, a shattered piece of glass in her hands from Rebekah flying through the window. His blood drips down the edge of it mixing with Amara's from the growing wound on her hand. Elena steps carefully around Silas's prone body. He is still doing his best to stop the flow from his neck, but even she can see that he doesn't have much time left.
"Nothing was ever enough for him. Not power or influence. Least of all me. He was never going to stop." Elena nods quietly even though Amara seems lost in her own world. She coaxes the glass shard out of Amara's hand and slides it on the ground, away from Silas. "I didn't mean to ruin your plan."
"It's fine. It worked out, didn't it?" Amara peeks past Elena's shoulder to meet Silas's wild eyes accusing her of a betrayal she won't accept.
"What of him?" she asks.
Finally, the basement door swings open and Bonnie emerges holding on to Finn's shoulder as he helps her up with his hand at her waist. Her hairline is wet with sweat and blood though no clear wound must mean that Finn had given her some of his blood to heal before they'd started up the stairs.
"Put me down next to the body, Finn."
"Are you certain, Ms. Bennett? You've exhausted yourself so much. Perhaps some time to rest?"
"I can rest when I'm finished." Finn vacates his argument and sets Bonnie on her knees next to Silas, who still clings to life so fiercely despite death's veil settling into his bones. Bonnie pulls the vials of blood she'd collected earlier from Elena and Amara from her pockets. She pulls open the stoppers and lets the blood drip out, mingling with Silas's pooling blood on the ground.
Amara questions the process, growing more frantic when no one explains to her what is happening. Elena holds onto her, expecting her to struggle but Amara quiets in her embrace.
The room seems to swell and expand when Bonnie begins her chants. The candles roar to life after Silas snuffed them out when he tore down Bonnie's spells. All the doors around them slam open and shutter loudly against the walls. Amara pulls Elena down with her when she falls to the ground, covering her ears. Despite her moment of weakness, Elena huddles over her to protect her from the noise. Slowly, the wind touches the fallen vampires and they begin to stir, responding to magic in a way that their bodies always will. Waking up to a piece of the power that created them.
When she's finished her chants, the clamoring noise stops with her and the room returns to normal. Bonnie slumps into Finn's chest and he tries to hold her but the gesture still looks uncomfortable from him. He only lacks practice, but makes up for the years of isolation with an overwhelming desire to comfort her. She closes her eyes and settles into him.
Amara finally peels her face away from Elena's chest and looks to Bonnie and Finn holding each other just past Silas's corpse. "What is it you did? What did you use my blood for?"
"I bound him to the Other Side. Not as the anchor from our world. That is still, unfortunately, your duty. I just bound him so that he could never find Peace or cross back over into our world."
"You lied to me." Amara tries for indignation and outrage, but she's too tired to put a full effort behind her words. "You lied about using it for the barrier spell."
"You're right. I lied, but I don't really care." Bonnie's eyes challenge Amara and she backs down.
"Do you intend to turn me to stone again? Trap me in my own body and misery again?"
"No, not unless that's what you want."
"I'd rather not."
Bonnie lets Finn help her to her feet even though she can manage on her own. Between losing Damon and all the fighting she's done today, she relishes in letting someone else take care of her. Elena, surprised, notes the tender way Finn regards Bonnie like he'd unexpectedly been given a Christmas gift.
Amara disappears upstairs to mourn Silas and her old life or hide from her uncertain future. Either way, Elena leaves her to it alone. She'd placed so much trust in Amara and though she is relieved that she came through at the last minute, she still blames her a little for faltering in the first place. It's easier than admitting to the guilt that she trusted Amara too much, too quickly.
Stefan scrambles to his knees and inches to Caroline, cradling her head in his lap and stroking his fingers down her cheek. He tells her how proud he is of her and how brave she was to face Silas that way. He doesn't mention what Silas said to him about Elena because it isn't important anymore. Elena, him, the doppelganger prophecy. They've killed and buried it together. He smiles at Caroline, unburdened and ready to live with her and his future away from Mystic Falls.
Elijah frenetically looks for Rebekah, finding her only after Elena points to the broken window in the library. He bounds outside, narrowly avoiding Stefan on the ground. He returns seconds later, carrying a squirming Rebekah in his arms. Elena stifles her grin when Rebekah insists she's fine and can walk inside under her own will.
"While that may be true," Elijah assures her, "I'm afraid it is my duty as big brother to dote over my younger, more foolish sister." He playfully chides her for risking her life to force the cure on Silas though that was always their back-up plan. Rebekah had been the one to insist on following Amara in case she balked. She wanted the chance to get her revenge on the immortal for bringing up trauma that she now holds closer to her heart than she has in years.
"Finn, I could take a look at that coffin for you if you'd like."
"You would do that for me, Ms. Bennett?"
"Sure, I like puzzles as much as the next girl, but please just call me Bonnie."
"I could never." She laughs at him and they return again to the basement. Bonnie's contributed her fair share. She figures one of the others can dispose of Silas's body while she works on the mystery downstairs with Finn.
With Elijah and Rebekah upstairs and Bonnie and Finn down, Elena is on the first floor with Caroline and Stefan, though they are so wrapped up in each other that they barely notice her. Her triumph deflates when she's left alone with no one to share it with.
Through the open front door, she spots Tyler trudging across the expansive lawn. Elena meets him outside the door, wanting to protect him from the joy of victory inside. He keeps her close and doesn't hold his tears back. She squeezes him and carries the weight of his grief for Liv on top of the mountain of her own. In all of this, Elena and Tyler are the only ones who count real, permanent loses and because of that she feels less alone with him.
After the sun sets on another day that she's survived, Elena invites Tyler to stay to talk into the night. She brings him a simple drink, a brown liquor Klaus left behind and holds her mug close, letting the tea warm her lap while she waits for it to cool off.
Outside, a great grey wolf paces in the yard. His yellow eyes flicking to the broken window and the people framed by the jagged glass. Klaus waits in the yard for Tyler to go home, but they keep talking and Elena keeps bringing him drinks well into the pre-dawn hours. He's thankful he left Kol at some bar a town over so he can stalk the outskirts of his own house waiting for a simple wolf to leave Elena so he can face her without an audience. He is in no mood for his brother's judgement or gloating when runs off into the woods on his own without talking to Elena or letting her know that he's back home.
A/N: It feels like it's been awhile even though I know it hasn't been that long. I went back to work in person this last week and it's been exhausting. With Silas taken care of, this fic can get back to Klaus's journey back to Elena, though I feel like I have to warn that it won't be easy and there will be at least one bump in the path. After everything, it is going to take some work. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy!