And here is the newest chapter^^ Enjoy!
o.O.o
Chapter Thirteen, The accident
I was sitting, curled up in the window seat of my bedroom on the first floor, staring out over Maple street. Dressed in an oversized red flannel shirt over a pair of black leggings, I twitched my toes. I'd let Elena paint them last night when she'd strolled into my room, shaking and pale-faced. I knew Katherine had killed Luca's dad and although I'd felt sick about it, even I'd understood there were little other choices.
I didn't know why but Katherine still considered me her ally. Not only had she not outed me, which she so easily could, but she'd also managed to convey what happened with one long stare before leaving that evening. Elena had stalked in minutes after she'd left, wearing a different shirt and without the missed dried-blood on her chin. She'd looked fine. Jeremy had looked fine too when he'd entered, Anna the vampire girlfriend traipsing in behind him, but when I'd settled in the window seat, sketchbook in my lap, Elena had stalked in, declaring that Jenna hated her now.
Which was ridiculous, of course. Jenna hated no one. Especially not her favourite niece. I had no dreams of being the favourite, even though I knew Jenna loved me. I was more the misbehaving friend who she could discuss male problems with while Elena was the doting, responsible girl who she could build on. No, I was quite sure Jenna could never hate Elena. However, it must have been bad if that was how Elena felt. And all of that in the span of an hour? Honestly, what the fuck happened?
I'd only just shaken off Caroline, dodged Bonnie's well-meaning back pats (I couldn't let her touch me—I was quite sure that was how she'd learn I was a witch) and had flirted with the idea drawing some cartoon character when my sister barged in without knocking. She'd done the big-sister-act, pointed at the heap of clothes moved to the other side of the room to stand out less and almost strangled me in her haste to climb on the windowsill with me, hugging me so tight, I got little air.
As I'd let her paint my toenails a dark blue, I'd listen to her. She was close to telling me about vampires. I'd known and part of me felt bad. While Elena had selfless reasons for not telling me about vampires, witches and werewolves mine were not. I'd been angry when I'd decided to not share with my older sister and when she'd left, saying she didn't know why she burdened me with her problems, I'd actually felt horrible.
I'd made a deal with Katherine. Spied on my sister for uncle John (who wanted to kill her vampire boyfriends — I might not want to kill them anymore, I still wasn't trying very hard to change his mind) and had been perfectly happy with helping Elijah as long as he'd promised to keep my siblings, my aunt and my friends save. How was I any better—
Squeezing my eyes closed, I let my head drop back against the wall and thought about what I should do. I still agreed with Uncle John— Still thought Damon, at least, to be a dangerous company and more importantly I considered Damon to be abusive. I opened my eyes again, watching the rain creating small perfect rivulets running down the other side of the glass.
After reading, Elena's diary it had only really been Damon with whom I had a problem. Not man-addict Katherine, or animal-diet Stefan, no my problem was with Damon, who'd mind-controlled Caroline. Who'd used and abused her— because that's what I'd call forcing her in a relationship with him— for his own gain. I'd never been a saint. I'd had my fair share of nasty schemes and I'd tricked and possibly hurt people before, but I'd never bullied and plainly used them.
And even if I didn't like Caroline— I could and would never condone what was done to her. Raking my fingers through my hair, I pulled it up in a messy bun (it was finally long enough for me to put it in messy buns again) and pressed my fingers against my aching temples. I really could do with some Tylenol— or a bottle and finally, pushed my pencil into my hair and dropped my sketchpad on my bed.
The half-finished nightingale, gleaming in its half-coloured glory and I quickly steered out of my room. The light on the landing was still on and I hesitated at Elena and Jeremy's adjoined bathroom. Elena always kept several bottles of painkillers at her bathroom. She was responsible like that, but I'd also learned that was where Luca's dad had died.
Still—
And that was when a floorboard creaked downstairs. I frowned, crossed my arms over my chest and carefully peered over the balustrade. My brother — God, I'm stupid, it was just my brother — stood at the foot of the stairs, tugging a t-shirt down over his head while Anna was doing up the last few buttons of her blouse. The both of them tousled, as if from sleep and I felt a smile creep up on my face.
Jeremy was leading his girlfriend up the stairs and sooner than later, they would see me. Would it be really juvenile to make a lewd comment?
I didn't think it was and grinned.
"I hope you two were safe?" I asked, my headache slightly forgotten and they both jumped. Not even Anna's vampire hearing could protect her and my brother against my big-sister-witchy-senses and I waggled my fingers at them. Perhaps, I owed it to both of my siblings to let them do what they wanted and not get involved with their supernatural invested lives. Jeremy, eyes averting and avoiding contact, and Elena both deserved to be happy. That didn't mean I couldn't lord this over him (he certainly would have done so with me, when roles were reserved). "Or— is that a precaution you don't have to worry about?"
"Right," Jeremy mumbled, "bye Sam!"
They hurried past me towards Jeremy's bedroom and I took great delight at the dark, a red flush creeping up the back of my brother's neck. It meant I still could get to him and I prowled down the stairs.
The living room was a bit of a mess and I concluded hazily that they must have gone and done the dirty on the wooden floor, or even worse, the sofa and I shook my head, more disgusted now than amused. Closing the door with a thud I had to catch myself on the stairs' balustrade and was painfully reminded of the migraine starting behind my eyes. Perhaps it was a backlash from the magic I'd done the day before, perhaps it was due to the stress, whatever it was due to, I needed it to go and reached blindly for the kitchen-door.
I sneaked in — and I had to sneak — because both Aunt Jenna and Uncle John had plunged headlong into alcoholism and where deeply engulfed by their glasses of gin and tonic and I silently opened the cabinet above the sink.
"I hate you, you know," Aunt Jenna slurred, fingering a paper umbrella she found God knew wherein one of their kitchen cabinets and Uncle John plucked ungracefully at a loose thread in his pyjama bottoms. He looked rather ridiculous with one slipper on and the other nowhere in sight, leaving his left foot pale white in the half-dark of the kitchen.
"Yeah, I know Jenna, I'm a dickhead."
"Yes!" Jenna moaned, turning her head to peer at her brother-in-law and I felt like I was intruding on some ill-wrought sort of play. "You're really a dick!"
"I'm sorry Jenna," my uncle greeted and I breathed out gratefully when I finally found the bottle of Tylenol I was stupid enough to look downstairs for.
"No, you're not," Jenna retorted, slurring slightly less over her words when angry and I dared another short look at my strawberry blonde aunt. She really was far too young to shoulder the responsibilities of raising three teenagers and I inched to the door. She should be at the campus, getting high or drunk or both— partying with Mason (who had gone off without another word), not sitting in my parents' kitchen with my uncle— who was leaning into her and—
I managed only just to clasp my hand over my mouth and not to choke on the Tylenol pill when Aunt Jenna met Uncle John in the middle and kissed him rather soundly. Aunt Jenna might have mentioned her relationship with Alaric (mentioned having a healthy relationship in the bedroom) that didn't mean I needed to see her and my Uncle to get at it and cast a longing look in the direction of the stairs before slipping away from the kitchen.
"Don't think that just because I'm less pissed at you than I am at Ric, means this will mean anything!" Aunt Jenna groaned and I wished I could tell her that that made little sense.
"Very eloquent, Aunt Jenna," I mumbled and raced up the stairs, Jeremy was just crossing the landing to get into his shared bathroom and I moaned.
"Whatever you need to do, abort the mission." I hissed, using the kind of red flag words that would instantly convey our parents were up and about to do something none of us wanted to be part of and he paled.
"I can't believe I'm getting drunk in my kitchen. With you!" Aunt Jenna lightly remarked, followed by a crash as a chair tumbled over and we both craned our necks to see the kitchen door opening just a tiny bit more, light spilling into the entrance hall.
"Are they—" Jeremy started carefully and I nodded, the headache now only a distant thud behind my right temple. I was quite sure the migraine was dodged by the mere thought of seeing my Aunt and Uncle— I shuddered.
"Yes!"
"Ew!" He whispered and we both retreated to our bedrooms so fast, it made my vision spin and I collapsed onto my bed and curled up beneath the proverbial mountain of quilts and blankets I always kept around the disaster that was my bedroom. Perhaps tomorrow I would actually make an effort to clean up the mess I made, and I fell asleep soon after.
When I woke up again, it was still dark, a blue-black stillness dunking my room in the twilight, but I was ready awake. I took a quick shower, dressed in the same oversized red flannel shirt but chose a different pair of denim pants to go with them. Allowing my wealth of brown curly hair more free rein, I held it out of my face with a red bandana. I spent a good two hours strolling through my room, picking up clothes and sorting the dirty laundry from the clean ones. It took forty minutes before I got all the clothes off the floor and another before I'd sorted through them, having half of it neatly folded into my cabinets and the rest dropped into my laundry basket.
"Thank God," I muttered when finally morning light filtered in through the windows and my stomach started to grumble. I tied my jacket around my waist and left my bedroom, almost running straight into my sister.
She looked even worse than she had last evening, angry and rather afraid and I stopped mid-track. We were never really close, not like I'd been with Jeremy, but our relationship used to be good. When I was a toddler, I used to follow Elena everywhere and when I was a child, when my mother still managed to put braids in my hair, there was a time we would hang out together. But then the voices started—
I never really wanted to think about that, but I remembered the sunburnt grass beneath my white-leather sandals and the way I jumped in and out of my sister's shadow as she led me and Jeremy around the lake near our parents' lake-house. But then Elena befriended Bonnie and Caroline and decided to play with her younger siblings wasn't done. Especially not when high-school started. You didn't hang with younger people when High school started, but she remained doing that even when she was held back a grade and said younger sibling started attending classes in the same year. I think I was partly to blame for that too. I was kinda lost back then. Puberty, hormones, they'd made me— disagreeable. Angry. And anger made things stir, move, explode— It was difficult…
However, even then, the two of us were on good terms. On fine terms, until mum and dad died. After we both survived while our parents had not and I couldn't cope. Part of me thought she blamed me for running. Another part blamed her for calling our parents when we should have gotten a ride home from Matt. Of course, it wasn't her fault no more than it was mine. Blaming her didn't bring our parents back, nor did it make any of us feel better.
Again I felt bad, my fingers spasming around my upper-arms and I peered up at her red-rimmed eyes. "Are you feeling better?" I asked and squeezed her right shoulder. It was about time I told her that I knew. Told her what I was. She accepted Bonnie. She accepted Stefan and Damon. I thought she would understand. "Did you talk to Aunt Jenna?"
"No," she almost managed to smile watery: "but I'm fine…"
"No, Elena, are you feeling a bit better?"
"Yes," she finally agreed and I nodded, even though I didn't believe her "I feel better. I'm not feeling great but—"
"I get it," I whispered, and I did. More than she knew. I knew, just as she did, that she was the Doppelgänger and it was the blood of the Doppelgänger this Klaus-figure needed to break his curse. I felt my throat close up when the understanding of Katherine's words truly hit me. The oldest vampire in the world was coming after my and try to murder my sister and there was only so much I could do. Katherine had told me what Klaus had done to her family. How he'd slaughtered her father and ripped her mother's throat out, spraying the walls with arterial blood and whatnot. I shivered. I understood who would pay the price; I understood it would be Jeremy and Jenna and even Tyler and other people we knew, but—
"You're going to be fine."
Elena smiled tightly, before moving on. I realised although I might have been in the loop before, I wasn't now and I glared at Jeremy's door. When I returned my gaze to Elena again I faltered slightly. She was fiddling with the hem of her shirt.
"Elena?"
"Fine, yes. Jenna— She's angry at me." She whispered and I frowned.
"Yes, so you said?"
"I screwed up, Sam. Isobel— she came— And now she knows Rick and me—" She whispered before stalking along the landing and slammed her bedroom door behind her. I stared after her for several seconds, stunned and not understanding what she was on about. I could still hear her busy herself in her bedroom before I breathed out loudly and while descending the stairs I messaged my brother. What's going on? Did something happen with Elena and Isobel again? You are supposed to keep me updated, not keeping secrets like the rest of them!
He didn't answer. Then again, he probably was already at school. I, on the other hand, was able to sleep in, having the first two hours off. However, I would have to be on my way, anyway. Our class was in charge of preparing the 1960s Decade Dance (we could blame that on Caroline) and there was still a lot that had to be done before it could start in a few days. I fetched my rucksack, strolled into the kitchen and packed a large array of granola bars and a bottle of water.
Often, I'd be horribly shocked by the supernatural world I'd been plunged into headfirst.
My sister the Doppelgänger was willing to be sacrificed for the greater good, my best friend was a Werewolf, incapable of picking up the phone and talking to me and my sister's friends were a witch and a vampire respectively. And then there was me, the often blunderer of a witch. And there was Aunt Jenna, who was fiddling with the coffeemaker. Who, apparently was angry with Elena over Isobel. And who was sporting a deep blue-black hickey on her throat, even though she'd tried hiding it with a summer shawl.
I blinked profusely. I'd surely hoped she would not bring Uncle John up with me. "Morning Aunt Jenna," I greeted softly and placed my favourite coffee mug on the counter next to her, subtly trying to stare at her face. The sky outside the windows was stormy and dreary. Rain poured down and thunder boomed in the distance. It was an ominous-looking day.
I accepted a container of coffee from Jenna. She looked sour: "Something wrong, Aunt Jenna?"
"You would know." She grumbled and I rose my eyebrows.
"What?"
"Isobel, why didn't you tell me she was still alive?"
"I'm not following…" I answered and for a moment Jenna didn't say anything. For a moment there was nothing but the sound of the rain lashing against the windows.
"Elena's mom."
"Right, yes," I retorted dumbly, before flushing. I wasn't sure if I was even supposed to know who Elena's mom was. Then again her issue with Isobel seemed more to do with her being alive than with me knowing who Elena's mom was. "That Isobel— I'd thought you'd known Elena was adopted. You know I was too? Because if that was news to you, then uh— how did mom and dad manage to fool a nine-month pregnancy?"
"Don't sass me!" She cried and I reeled back as if slapped. And here I was thinking of getting laid made you easier going. "How could you keep her from me. How could you side with Elena and 'Rick?"
"Aunt Jenna," I tried, hoping to placate her only then noticing there was a weekend bag on the floor in front of the fridge. "I have no idea what you're on about!"
"Isobel is Alaric's late wife," she stressed slowly, hazel eyes practically glued to my face.
"I— what?" I asked dumbly.
"You didn't know—"
I whipped around and pressed both hands against the bookcase, trying to piece together how that worked. I knew Isobel Flemming was Elena's mom. I also knew she was a vampire but other than that, Elena didn't deign much more space for her disappointment of a mother in her diary. "How was I supposed to know?"
"They lied to me!" She whispered brokenly and I turned to her again, pressing my back against the shelves, books digging into my upper back.
"Well, they lied to me too." I echoed dumbly and she nodded. But I'd lied to her too and I closed my eyes. "There is something else though—"
"So you did know!"
"No, no, I didn't— Please Jenna—"
"No, I have enough of these lies. Tell Elena I'm staying on campus." She told me furiously and she threw her bag over her shoulder, stomping out of the kitchen. The front door was wrenched open and I heard her squeak as if she ran straight into someone. My heart started to race immediately and I stormed out of the kitchen, bumped my shoulder into the stairs' bannister and froze. Tyler, face flushed and shoulders hunched stood on our porch. He was not looking happy.
"Well, Sam, your friend is here," Jenna stated seriously and shouldered her way past him. I watched her stomp away into the rain and slowly looked at Tyler's face again. I hadn't seen him in weeks, heard he'd left town, but there he was, on my porch, completely drenched.
"Tyler?"
"How could you?" He snapped and I stared at him with wide eyes. The wind fluttered and tousled my hair.
"What is it this morning with the accusations?" I snapped and hurried outside as well, closing the door swiftly behind me.
The rain was harsh. The streets gleamed while the water ran down the asphalt. Tyler looked like a drowned puppy, his hair wet and plastered to his scalp. He stepped up to me, his hand coming to my shoulder and slammed me back against the door.
"Did you know my Uncle Mason is dead?"
I didn't and my mouth fell open in shock: "What?"
"Yes," he agreed, "Damon and Stefan killed him. How could you keep this from me!?"
"Keep this from you?" I echoed, "How was I supposed to know?"
"Doesn't your witchy—"
"God Tyler!" I snapped. No matter how horrible the passing of his uncle was for him, I was not going to take the blame. "If I knew I would have told you. No matter that you've been ignoring and evading me, I would have let you know. So don't you dare using that voice on me."
"What do you expect—"
"We've been best friends since we were ten! I would never do that to you."
He deflated at that if only just a little and his shoulders drooped. He looked so much like a child then and no matter how much he had hurt me with his evasive behaviour over the past few weeks, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms tightly around his shoulders, hiding my nose in the crook of his neck.
He didn't push me away, the way he would do when he was upset with me or thought I'd done something without consulting him and after several seconds, he returned the hug. His arms tightened around me until I could hardly breathe, and I awkwardly started to trail my fingers over the back of his neck.
"Honestly, I always tell you anything!" I whispered and took one step back. "Where have you been?"
He slumped down on the squeaky porch swing and I flopped down beside him, curling my left leg beneath me. "I've been away. I needed to figure some things out."
"Figured them out?" I asked.
"No," he retorted, "but I'm not sure what I should do!"
"Perhaps, going back to school? Pick up your life?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "We could find out a way around the Werewolf-thing, you and me, together. Like we always used to."
He snorted: "Sam, there is only one way around the Werewolf-thing. And apparently that's sacrificing your sister—"
"You're a bit behind on the facts, Lockwood." I retorted. "Sacrificing my sister won't break the curse of the moon, it will break the curse placed on some centuries-old vampire who wants to be both. Both vampire and werewolf."
"That's possible?"
"Apparently," I admitted and I shifted in my seat until if I faced him fully, "Come on, Ty! I take you to school. We can be the A-team again. I quite miss you."
He smiled a tight smile and he shook his head: "I need some time."
My face fell and I bit my lip: "Right."
"No, I need some time." He said again. "Not in the way you think. I— I did something bad. I hurt my friends and— quite simply, that's why I need to be away. I just— I just had to know—"
"If I betrayed you?" I asked and he let out a sharp breath.
"I had to know for sure." And with that he jerked to his feet and descended the porch stairs, starting up the sidewalk.
"Wait!" Cold rain dripped through my hair and saturated my jacket even before I'd reached my friend and I grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Wait, for God sake!"
"What, Sam?"
"Promise me, you'll be back!"
His dark eyes softened, the rain still pattering onto us and finally, he turned fully towards me, his hands cupping my cheeks. "I promise."
My eyes bore into his, searching for any, even the tiniest, evidence of deceit. When I didn't find it, I nodded: "Good."
And with that I let him go and after some wistful staring, returned to my house, fetched my bag and dropped the backseat of the car. My hand slipped on the door handle when I moved to the front seat and I sighed gratefully when I was inside the mini cooper, the rain pattering loudly on the roof. The SUV usually drove was no longer in the driveway and I realised a bit belatedly that in childish anger, Aunt Jenna must have taken it.
For a moment I stared blankly across the road, shining from the onslaught of the water. I couldn't really believe my collected Aunt would take Elena's car just to spite her and I started the engine. The drive helped me think, moving through the roads of Mystic Falls. I thought about Tyler— who I'd kinda made up with, and of Elena who was so scared and—
It was sudden.
The old chevy truck before me suddenly swerved to the right and the next moment I yelled because a blond woman had stepped in the middle of the road. My mind supplied for a second that I should remember her, but the car was slipping.
My headlights were coldly reflected at me from the wet asphalt and something beneath my car jerked and suddenly I went flailing. Memories flashed across my eyes like images in a movie; me and Elena learning cycling from dad when we were six-years-old, me and Jeremy jumping from the scaffold near the boathouse. Tyler smiling at me before setting his sleeve on fire during Chemistry in eight grade. Matt Donovan, turning on his heel and running away from me when he accidentally threw a bucket of water over me instead of Elena—
The car sailed through the air, toppled over and slammed harshly on its roof and pain exploded at my right temple. The seatbelt burned across my ribs, lancing my chest from the shock concussion. My breath was stolen away and the car slid down the road, scraping across loose gravel loudly. I moaned and then something slammed at me from the side, sending the car into the concrete wall of a grocery store. My head snapped to the side and I felt blood pooling in my mouth. There was an aching in my ribs and even more, blood was darkening my hair.
I sucked in the air desperately, my lungs feeling cramped and tried to free myself from my seat belt. The windshield was broken and a piece of glass had lodged itself in my left leg. My hands slipped once more on my seatbelt and slowly I felt my consciousness wane and the darkness closed in on me until it was all I saw.
To be continued...
A/N: to me Jenna seemed like the kind of girl who would make the same mistake again. Would, in a drunken moment, get together with a hated ex again. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you all think. I'm quite curious about your ideas and theories regarding this story. Every so often, I hear one I really like and I change the direction of a story to fit it.
As for the accident; you know you're in the deep end when you're dealing with supernatural shenanigans. As for Tyler and Sam, don't forget that Tyler is in a bad situation right now. Of course, he would think the worse. Everyone around them, everyone he thought he could trust so far, has turned out to be a lying beep.
Next chapter upcoming week!
Let me know what you think? Comments and constructive feedback is much appreciated.
