Chapter Three: "Welcome Back to Mystic Falls, Sucker"
A/N: What? Two chapters in a week? And Caroline is finally here? What is even life, you guys? I hope you don't mind that this story is going to loooong. Like seriously, seriously long. Let me live my mermaid fantasy, people.
Also, song for this chapter is: "Paths" by Sea Oleena
-O-
Her favorite classic rock station flipped onto the daily 12 o'clock news report when she turned onto the Weinburg's street.
'And to all you listeners in the local county, a body has just been found,' Sabrina's head jerked to the car display before flitting back to the street as a cat crossed the road. She slammed on the brakes, lurching forward so hard her water bottles went crashing to the floor. The announcer continued gleefully. 'Outside a gas station halfway between Rosedale, Clarksville, and Mystic Falls. The police have not made an official statement, but…"
Her hand shot out, turning off the radio. She sat in silence until a car horn behind her startled her into realizing she was still in the middle of the road. The car behind her turned onto the street before she reached the Weinburg's house. Sabrina's silver sedan rolled up the driveway of 307 Oak Drive and parked. For a few long moments, Sabrina sat in her car, white-knuckling the steering wheel.
Her breath lodged in her throat when she caught her own gaze in the rearview mirror. Tears welled in her eyes. She blew out a harsh breath, shaking her head, calming herself.
'What the hell is happening to me?' She asked herself.
She died last night. She had felt herself die, terrified of the two men who had pushed her into the water. She wondered if the terror translated into the call in the water if she had called something to her, awakening an entity she couldn't control.
She released the steering wheel, examining her hands. She lifted and turned them. Her skin didn't appear as badly dried out as it had before. Shoving up her sweatshirt sleeves, the clear skin extended up to her forearms. She swallowed every chaotic emotion warring for control of her expression, leaving only bone-deep tiredness in its place. She rubbed her eyes, smacking some color into her cheeks. She opened the car door, heaving herself to her feet. She didn't grab any of her bags. The scent of the Weinburg's saltwater pool in the backyard assaulted her senses, sending a shiver down her spine.
She tilted her head toward their front door. She locked her car door, hearing faint voices and the thrumming of Mama Weinburg's Kitchen-Aid mixer. She didn't remember ever being able to hear that outside the door. Reyna's youngest brother, Tim, spoke up, probably not even looking up from his latest video game.
"Hey, mom! Somebody just pulled into the driveway,"
The mixer stopped whirring as Sabrina walked up the driveway, onto the sidewalk to the door.
She heard Miriam's voice next. "Check to see who it is before you open the door,"
She lifted her hand to knock as footsteps pounded toward the front door.
Tim flung open the door before she could knock once. Her senses were heavy. She struggled to push the hood back from her head, revealing a tangled, knotted mess stringing down her back. Tim stared back, his mouth hanging open. A lanky, 14-year-old kid with a mass of curly black hair, Tim was an old soul with an unhealthy infatuation with two things— coffee and Caroline.
"Sabrina?" He said before she attempted to stumble through the door. Knobbly hands grasped her shoulders before she fell. Her face landed against his jutting collarbone painfully. Her voice came out in a garbled wheeze,
"Hey, Timmy,"
She knew he was only able to bear her weight because of the burgeoning golden creature still burrowing its way into his bones. She felt his head twist from side to side, checking for threats like his family's training dictated before helping her inside the house and closing the door. He jammed the lock in place, setting her down on the entryway bench. He yelled for his mother, his voice ebbing higher in his franticness. He demanded she tell him what was wrong.
"What makes you think something's wrong?"
"You only call me 'Timmy' when something's wrong. Like you and Reyna catching my carpet on fire and making me tell mom,"
Sabrina snorted. She looked up when Miriam Weinburg rounded the corner from the kitchen. She saw the colorful silk scarf tying up Miriam's dark curls before she saw her face. Sabrina nearly sighed in relief when she saw Weinburg hadn't changed since she last visited. The same dark eyes lined with the years of worrying about her kids and perfect olive skin matched with her leave-over style from her time as a hippie in the 60s.
Miriam spotted Sabrina on the bench. Her expression fell, and her grip on the mixing bowl loosened. She dropped the metal bowl, sending muffin batter across the floor. She stepped over the mess, arms already outstretched to wrap around Sabrina. She fell onto the bench beside the young woman, hugging her. Sabrina blinked back relieved tears as she felt the warm hum of the matriarch's magic sink into her chest, chasing away her anxieties.
"Sabrina," she gasped, pulling back to look at her before embracing her more tightly than before. "Where have you been? Reyna has been calling." Her eyes narrowed into a glare. "I've been calling."
Sabrina winced, "I lost my phone last night,"
Another question rested on Miriam's lips, Sabrina clearly saw, but she didn't ask.
Tim's next exclamation startled her. "Sabrina, your skin!"
Sabrina lifted trembling hands, "What.." Her skin began shriveling, peeling in the sunlight from the door's window. "No, no, no," she murmured. She turned and twisted her hands, ignoring Tim's questions and Miriam's raising concerns. That voice that had been silent since the gas station spoke up again. Sabrina's head jerked up, searching for a face to match the voice. She knew she would find none.
'You have left what sustains you,' it taunted.
"Water," Sabrina bit out hoarsely. "I need water,"
Miriam cast Tim a sharp glance. Tim nearly fell over himself, running to the refrigerator. Miriam grabbed her hands, closely examining them, further pushing up her sleeves, scrutinizing the deteriorating skin. Sabrina's roughened fingers wrapped around Miriam's dark forearms.
"Something happened to me last night. I — I don't know what," Sabrina whispered. "There's something wrong with me." Sabrina released Miriam when Tim reappeared with a glass of ice water. Her hands shot out, ripping it from his hands. She caught the look shared between mother and son while she downed the contents greedily. She consumed it in seconds. Her hands stopped trembling as she felt the coolness spread down her limbs, alleviating the burning in her skin.
Tim watched the dryness recede back underneath the surface. His brows shot into his hairline. "Whoa..." His eyes darted to his mom whose eyes remained locked on Sabrina. "Umm… I'll go get some more water." He took the glass, retreating again.
Sabrina's foot tapped an incessant tattoo against the tile floor. She refused to meet Miriam's eye until the older woman caught her knee, rubbing soothing circles. Sabrina stopped moving. Miriam raised her weathered hand and stroked her cheek, forcing her to look up. Her fingers moved through her hair while her many silver rings never caught in Sabrina's tangles. She wondered blearily if that was a specially casted charm or just the matriarch's luck.
She didn't delve into the questions Sabrina knew she wanted to ask. Instead, her tone took on that special intonation, like that of an ancient storyteller, of a wisened woman speaking by the fire, soothing the fears of young children.
"You know, I remember the first time you fell during a dance recital," she hummed, her fingers still running through her hair, long nails scraping along her scalp. "You ran off the stage, and I got to you before your grandma could. She had just had that surgery on her knee, remember that?"
Sabrina stopped fidgeting. She nodded, her voice still soft but clearer than before. "Yeah." She sniffed. "Yeah, I remember. I thought Mrs. Dubinsky would be so mad,"
Miriam laughed. "Oh, I would loved to have seen her try with me and your grandmother there,"
Sabrina's lips quirked.
Miriam continued, "I thought your little foot in your pointe shoes would tap a hole through the floor. Or that your teeth would pierce your lip permanently from you chewing it so much. Like you're doing now. Do you remember what I told you?" She asked. Sabrina shook her head. "Hmph. Figures. Tell an eight-year-old about future ice cream and suddenly everything else is non-essential." She pushed Sabrina's hair behind her ear. "I told you that nothing is ever so bad that it can't be fixed, especially when you have other people who can help." Miriam's soft-edged smile bled with such sincerity Sabrina wanted to tell her everything. Then, Miriam asked the question Sabrina had been dreading, "What happened?"
Tim brought back another glass of water, handing it to her. When Sabrina took the glass, she faced Miriam's concern and Tim's curiosity.
"Someone pushed me into the ocean. He meant— He was going to…" her grip on the glass flexed. The voice remained silent, and Sabrina thought that telling Miriam that she had a new companion in her head wasn't her best option at the moment. "He tried to kill me. I think." Sabrina's dark brows furrowed. "I think the water did something to me. I think I.." The memory of being dragged underneath the waves, powerless against the current, charged to the front of her memory.
Glass shattering stopped her story. Miriam gasped, bringing her hands up, covering her mouth, whispering,
"Oh my God,"
Tim stepped back, pointing, "Sabrina. Your hands,"
Cool wetness gushed over her fingers. Jagged claws extended from her nails while her hands webbed in between her fingers.
She had crushed the glass.
Sabrina shot to her feet, familiar adrenaline flooding her chest, thrumming down her arms, spinning her head into a dizzying panic. Miriam stood slowly as Sabrina demanded.
"What's wrong with me!"
Miriam wrapped an arm around her shoulders, leading her further into the house, out of the foyer lined with family pictures. Sabrina was in some of them, and Reyna never smiled in any photo if she could help it. Tim had gotten taller too, she realized with fuzzy clarity…. He would be a freshman now, wouldn't he? Had she been gone that long? What else had she missed?
She heard Miriam tell Tim to mop up the foyer. "Watch out for the glass,"
Sabrina let Miriam lead her into the kitchen. She winced at the sunlight before realizing Miriam was taking her to the old farmhouse sink on the opposite wall. Miriam flipped the warm water, casting wary glances toward her as she pulled her hands underneath the water, washing away blood— and she was doing that a lot, wasn't she? Washing away blood— caused by jagged glass.
She shut off the water, patting Sabrina's hands dry before she examined them. No cuts or scars remained. Miriam quirked a brow, frowning,
"Hmm,"
She added nothing else. Sabrina was grateful when she didn't flinch away from her. Sabrina struggled to remain upright.
Sabrina remembered the first time she traveled to a big city. Before they died, her parents had taken her to New York City. Something for her dad's work, she couldn't remember exactly. She did remember how the city overwhelmed her— the flashing lights, the screaming people, cars honking, people brushing past. She hated it.
She had slowly sunk into herself. The only thing able to pull her back had been her mom's hand. Her fingers flexed, recalling the coarseness of her mother's bright pink winter coat.
That's how she felt in the Weinburg's house. She heard Tim moving the mop back and forth, every little noise and creak of the wooden floor caving under weight, the dripping from the faucet. Everything magnified by ten, she thought the sunlight pouring from the many windows would burn her eyes out. She felt every rough press of her sweater grazing against her skin. Her tongue rested dry and swollen in her mouth. This was too much— too much for anyone to deal with. She needed to go. She needed to…
Miriam grabbed Sabrina's hand, squeezing gently. Sabrina blinked once. Twice. And Miriam was suddenly standing in front of her. Miriam met her eyes, snapping her fingers in front of Sabrina's face. She realized through the ringing in her ears that Miriam had asked,
"Hey? Hey, honey? Are you ok?"
The ringing stopped.
Sabrina cleared her throat. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She glanced around the kitchen, still keeping Miriam's hand tightly in hers. Miriam looked unconvinced. Tim threw away the remnants of glass into the trashcan near the breakfast table.
"Where's Caroline?"
Two female voices screaming filtered through the open door in the living room that Sabrina knew led to the basement. Looking back at Sabrina, Miriam propped a hand on her hip, quirking a brow, "I'll give you one guess,"
One side of her chapped mouth tilted upward. She released Miriam's hand, turning too quickly. Her hand latched onto the counter. Miriam was quick to suggest.
"Tim, take Sabrina downstairs. Breakfast will be ready in a minute. I just need to mix up some more pancake batter,"
With all the awkwardness of a fourteen-year-old boy, he somehow maneuvered himself underneath Sabrina's arm, threading a gangly arm around her waist. Sabrina tried to keep up with the pace he set. Feeling merciful, she didn't mention the red flushing down his face and neck. Tim bore most of Sabrina's weight, using the hidden strength of a Shedim. Sabrina was sure he would grow into those bony shoulders he wore so awkwardly now.
Turning the corner, Sabrina had never been so grateful that there were no windows in the basement. The screams become coherent while pounding footsteps against the basement concrete echoed. She hobbled around the final stairway corner as Caroline snarled,
"Don't you tell me to sit down. I will pace a hole through the floor if I feel like it! With the night that I have had,"
Reyna's low drawl came as a warning, "Caroline,"
"Seriously, ugh!" Caroline snapped. "She was supposed to be here hours ago." The pacing stopped. Caroline's back was turned when Sabrina came down the last stair. Reyna sat between Caroline and the basement door, straddling a wooden chair. "You know what, I'm gonna call her again," she said flipping open her cell phone.
"Right. Because one more phone call is what's really going to…"
Sabrina or Tim made a noise because both Reyna and Caroline spun around. Sabrina first noticed that Reyna had changed her hair since the summer break. Instead of boxer braids, her dark curls were chopped into a bob while the left side of her head was closely shaved. It was different, but she liked it.
It's funny, she thought blearily, the things you notice when you're so stressed you can hardly breathe.
"Sabrina!"
Caroline scrambled, her feet sliding over the floor and jumping over the old leather couch. She moved faster than anything Sabrina had ever seen. Sabrina managed to disentangle herself from Tim before Caroline accosted her. She saw the blur of blonde curls before Caroline's frame wrapped itself around her, knocking the wind from Sabrina's lungs. Sabrina embraced her just as fiercely.
Sabrina let out a shaky sigh. Caroline pulled back slightly, her fingers fisting in Sabrina's sweatshirt. Sabrina offered a tight smile, holding back tears.
"Told you I was coming, didn't I?"
Caroline's face dropped into a scowl, but Reyna beat her in what would have been a loud tirade.
"The hell, Sabrina!" Reyna rose from her straddled position on the chair roughly. Sabrina noticed a pink spray bottle in her hand. "I have been stuck down here for hours! Keeping little Miss Prissy Pants from committing mass murder just because you wouldn't answer your damn phone!" Reyna stepped toward Sabrina with each forceful punch of words. She slammed down the spray bottle on the table next to the doorway.
Sabrina never flinched. Instead, she smiled gratefully at her friend. Sabrina released Caroline, who stepped back reluctantly. She said smugly, "C'mon. Bring it in." She embraced a less-than-enthusiastic Reyna tightly.
Reyna awkwardly lowered herself, patting Sabrina on the back, huffing, "Whatever. Just don't try to make a moment out of this, ok?"
Sabrina tilted her head upward. "You know, it is ok to say that you were worried,"
Reyna crossed her arms, scoffing, "More like irritated you made me miss my date to Caroline-sit,"
Tim spoke up, his voice breaking slightly, "I don't see what's so bad about it," before he realized what he said. He leaned back on his heels, his neck flushing even further.
Caroline quirked a brow, cocking a hip, "And you're still here because…"
"Finally, a reasonable question," Reyna leaned back against the wall.
The next moment, Caroline regarded her. Her nostrils flared as she breathed deeply. Her head jerked toward Sabrina so quickly her blonde hair flipped to her opposite shoulder. Her eyes closed before opening slowly.
"You smell…" her blue eyes darkened, "different,"
"Whoa." Reyna stepped in between Sabrina and Caroline, brandishing the spray bottle. "Whoa." She chastised Caroline like a small cat. "No. Bad baby vampire. We've talked about this. I'll spray. You know I will,"
Caroline frowned, her bottom lip poking out. "I wasn't even doing anything." Her eyes bulged suddenly. She pointed an accusing finger. "Wait— you thought that I was going to… I'm not going to eat anyone. God!"
"What is even in that?"
Caroline and Reyna shared a look at the hoarseness of Sabrina's voice.
Reyna shook the bottle. "What? This? Just a little vervain oil mixed in with some watery goo… stuff. I don't know. I found it in mom's bathroom for her hair or whatever. It seemed like a good idea at the time." She shrugged, staring at Sabrina expectantly. "I assume our bargain is complete,"
Reyna held out her hand, palm facing upward. Sabrina lifted her hand, letting it shakily hover over Reyna's. Concern finally flashed across Reyna's expression as she met Sabrina's eyes for the first time.
"Yeah, we're good, babe," Sabrina said.
Golden tendrils unwound from Sabrina's hand and arm, returning to Reyna, coiling around her and seeping back into her chest. Caroline blanched, opening and closing her mouth several times before she said,
"Seriously, I'm not even gonna ask because this isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to me this week,"
Caroline sat on the stair beneath the one where Tim stood. She propped her arms on top of her knees. Tim shifted awkwardly at her proximity.
"You know, in all technicality," Tim tried filling the silence with endless chatter. "It is more likely that some people are more predisposed to be exposed or introduced to the supernatural than others. It all depends." He cleared his throat. "Location, family background, even genetics can.."
Groaning, Caroline let her fall into her palms. "Please, tell me my undead punishment isn't an eternity of listening to nerd central,"
Tim bristled.
Sabrina's warning of 'Be nice, Caroline' died on her lips when a searing pain sliced over either side of her ribs. Agony left her yelling from deep in her throat. She wrapped her arms around her waist, fingers digging into her ribs. Bending at the waist, her knees buckled, and Reyna couldn't reach in time. Over Caroline's scream of her name and Reyna's order for Time to 'get Mom!', that voice howled and circled in Sabrina's mind.
'You cannot keep me here forever!'