This was the first chapter I wrote of this story, the general idea for the fic started from here. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to fit this chapter into the story, because I have a great appreciation for it, so I made a few changes and I believe that I have managed with some success to fit it into the story. I hope with all my heart that you enjoy it.
Please let me know in the comments what you think.
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xrysatsan: Thank you so much for your review! It makes me really happy that you're enoying Emma and her personality! Elijah and Klaus will be very important to this story s2
wordship: Thank you! I was tired of Elena's twin sister fics, so I decided for a brand new character with no relation to the supernatural or Elena's shenanigans hahahaa. Thank you so much for your review s2
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Deal with God
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Emma awoke with a startled gasp at the sound of breaking glass and sat up in bed. Looking to the side, she realized that the room was dark, only the moonlight over the antique armchair that stood by the open window. The young woman's satin robe was resting on the armchair. The wind blew into the room and made the thin white curtains dance, and the scene, for some reason, had something ethereal about it. She felt chilled by the draft and hugged her own arms. She felt the soft velvet texture under her fingers and looked down, frowning. She uncovered herself and realized that she was wearing a long velvet dress. She didn't remember wearing it. In fact, she didn't even remember keeping that specific piece of clothing. She heard a second crack of something being smashed hard against a wall or the floor. She ran to the door and locked it. Emma glued her back against the solid wood and heard stumbling footsteps approaching.
A loud knock on the other side of the door caused Emma to close her eyes and grip the door tighter. A second knock was followed by a third, and something was thrown against the door. Emma started breathing fast, and the air failed with each inhale as it reached her throat, causing little oxygen to actually reach her lungs.
"Kitten, open up", the embattled male voice echoed from the other side of the door. Another knock. Emma felt the first tear running down her cheek and held her breath, hoping to pretend she wasn't there, that the room was empty. Another knock. "Open this door!"
Emma, who had bare feet, felt something wet under her toes, and opened her eyes, staring at the floor. Water was leaking from under the door, soaking her feet and the hem of her thick dress. Another knock, this time louder.
"EMMA, OPEN THIS DOOR!" the man shouted and began pounding on the door violently. The girl felt her chest shaking with the sobs that she tried to hold hostage inside her, but the air ended up escaping in a weird noise, like a hanging scream. "You know what happens when you don't do as I say".
Another thud. Water was rushing violently under the door, flooding the entire room and reaching Emma's heels. The girl opened her lips just enough to pull the air in with force. The knocking on the other side of the door kept getting louder and louder.
"OPEN THIS DOOR! OPEN THIS DOOR!".
Emma, with her back still pressed tightly against the door in order to keep it securely closed, looked forward with watery eyes and stared at the window. The moon was full, round and white. It was too beautiful, as if to mock the girl. Two more knocks. The water was already on Emma's knees. Something bright caught the girl's attention, and she turned her face in that direction. Her breathing failed. In the middle of the room, sinking into the water that was already up to her waist, were two headlights.
Another knock and something being thrown against the door, and Emma closed her eyes again. Forcing air in and out of her lungs, the girl started counting. 'One, two, three. Breathe in. Four, five, six, exhale.' She repeated for a number of times she couldn't count. When she opened her eyes, it was with a gasp. And she seated on the bed, looking around. She was at her apartment. There was no wind coming from the closed window. She looked down. She was wearing her sleeping dress. So she got up, walked to the door. It was locked. She repeated with the window, also locked.
Emma got back to bed, covered herself with the sheets. She took her phone and looked at the time. 3:04. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real. She was safe.
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When morning came, Emma took a shower, made a generous breakfast and called Jenna. Her aunt had been staying at the Boarding House since she found out about vampires, just to be safe. The girl didn't want to have to go back to the house since the night before, so she invited Jenna to have lunch together.
Mystic Falls was in need of more restaurants. Emma was already starting to get sick of the Grill's food, but the other few options were not very attractive. She waited patiently, until she heard the door chime and watched Jenna give her a shy smile and walk over to her. Emma stood up from the table and greeted her aunt with a hug.
"I'm so glad you're fine", Emma said, separating from the hug. "I think we need to talk".
"We definitely do", Jenna replied, and sat down opposite her niece. Emma had chosen a table further away and had already placed her orders in advance, since she knew her aunt's tastes.
"First I want to apologize to you for not telling about... well, all this crazyness about the supernatural".
"I understand", Jenna interrupted her. "I mean, I wish you would have told me, but I understand that the whole story with Isobel was about Ric and you couldn't say anything".
"Yeah", Emma agreed, but for some reason she still felt embarrassed. "So you know everything now?"
"Does everything involve a ritual, Elena and some bad old vampire?", Jenna asked, laughing through her nose. It all still seemed too absurd to the woman.
"I see you already know", Emma sighed and leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table. "And what do you think?"
"I think we should move from Mystic Falls", Jenna replied and Emma laughed.
"That's the best idea someone has had since all this shit started", the girl agreed, and the waiter arrived with their orders. The two waited for the boy to move away before continuing the subject.
"And how are you, Emma?", Jenna asked, and the girl raised an eyebrow. "I know all this involves Elena and everyone is focused on this ritual thing, but... Ric told me the truth about your leg. How is it possible that a vampire looks exactly like Elena?"
"Nothing makes sense here", Emma replied. "Wait... You saw Alaric? Jenna, he's..."
"He's not Klaus, or whatever his name is. It was Ric", Jenna assured her and shoved a fork of food into her mouth. The girl repeated the gesture and watched as her aunt stared at her with interest. "How did your leg heal so fast?"
Emma choked on her food, remembering when she drank Damon's blood and narrowly missed grabbing him in the kitchen and doing things to him that she shouldn't have thought of doing to the vampire. She took a sip of water and reminded herself that no one saw them in the kitchen and no one knew about the little side effect his blood had on her.
"Damon gave me his blood", the girl replied, taking a second sip of water. "Vampire blood can heal wounds".
"Damon, he is..." Jenna seemed to hesitate. "He's quite a guy, huh?"
"He's... complicated", Emma replied, and took another bite of her food. "Or whatever word we women use to justify men being assholes".
"You like him", Auntie said, sounding surprised at her own statement. "God, you're falling for him, aren't you?"
"What?", Emma asked, arching an eyebrow. "Don't be ridiculous, Jenna. Of course I like him. If I didn't, why would I spend so much time with him? But falling for him? Honestly..."
Jenna stared at her niece for a few seconds, trying to find any indication that the girl was hiding something, but found nothing. Jenna knew Emma very well, just as the opposite also applied. The two were only two years apart, and they had gone through the phase of becoming interested in boys practically together. Jenna remembered as if it were yesterday when Emma fell in love for the first time, and how she simply could not hide her feelings whenever the boy's name was mentioned. Of course Emma was an adult now, and wouldn't react like a teenager, but realizing that her niece didn't show any reaction that betrayed what she had just said put Jenna's mind at ease.
There was something about Damon that didn't convince Jenna, something that told her that he wasn't all good. Emma knew how to take care of herself, had a great instinct for self-preservation that had been evident since she was a child, but still, Jenna feared that her niece would end up getting hurt. After all, it wasn't just physical wounds that took time to heal. In truth, emotional wounds sometimes could not be healed even with vampire blood.
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Damon, for his part, woke up in the middle of the afternoon in as bad a mood as he had been in when he went to sleep. He threw the sheets that were on the floor into a laundry basket and made up the bed with new, clean sheets. He lit the vanilla candle again, letting the smell take over the room. He picked up his cell phone from the bedside table and saw that Emma had not answered his messages. However, to his misfortune, there were half a dozen messages from Andy, and Damon replied briefly that he was very busy and that the journalist should stay away for a few days.
He threw his cell phone on the made up bed and walked to the bathroom. He took a quick shower, put on some jeans, a black shirt, and a pair of shoes. He didn't bother to button the first two buttons of his shirt and put a leather jacket over it. He walked down the stairs to the storage room, picked up a blood bag, sucked it dry, and walked to the living room. The voices that echoed through the halls made the vampire feel his shoulders stiffen.
Damon crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. How could Stefan and Elena be sitting comfortably in the room with Elijah? The vampire who should still be dead with a stake through his heart. How could they trust him? Damon pulled his cell phone from his pocket and looked at the display. Nothing. Snorting, he typed in a message.
'Talk to me', the vampire typed and pressed send to Emma.
"You need to tell us everything that Klaus can use against us", Stefan's voice reached Damon's ears, and he locked his cell phone and put it away inside his pocket again. "We were caught by surprise with the Alaric situation, so we need to know what he is capable of".
"My brother loves to use witches for his own benefit", Elijah explained. "He likes mind games, and possession, and control. He has used every trick you can imagine during the years we have been alive. Klaus has actively participated in battles, wars, and conflicts simply because he could. Many methods used by humans were actually the creation of my dear brother".
"Like what?", Damon asked, rolling his eyes. He had already understood that Klaus was big, bad and dangerous, could they change the record now?
"Are you familiar with hijack?" the original stared at Damon. The Salvatore rolled his eyes.
"That's not even a real thing".
"Yes, it is", Elijah continued. "Human's mind is an easy material to...mess with. You can condition a person to do what you want, to act the way you want, if you use the right ingredients and stir the pot at the right temperature. Klaus loved to do that".
"But he could use compulsion", Elena pointed out, blinking her eyes several times, as if she didn't understand.
"Compulsion has its limits", Elijah explained. "It eventually wores off if you're not very specific, or if the person is under vervain. But if you hijack... The person will think they're acting because it's their own will. Of course, there are those more difficult people. But, here is something curious about humans: you love to cause pain to one another. You love to cause trauma to one another. And trauma is a very extraordinary element for the hijack recipe".
The Original walked over to the bookshelf, running the spines with the tip of his index finger. His other hand was inside the pocket of the tailoring pants he wore.
"If you push the trauma hard enough, you break the mind. If you break the mind in tiny little pieces, you rebuild it as you like. A permanent damage. Pretty easy, especially if the person is already in doubt".
Damon stiffened his shoulders and frowned. The vampire disentangled himself from the door frame and stood erect, staring at Elijah.
"What did you just say?", Damon asked.
"It's easier if the person is not entirely sure of their goals. Klaus likes to use people's unsureness against themself. A person in doubt is easier to hijack permanently".
Damon's eyes widened and he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, typed in Emma's number and dialed. The number called, called, called, and no one answered.
"She's not picking up", Damon complained, putting the cell phone down hard on the counter and looking at Elena. "Try to call Emma, now".
"Why? What's going on?" the girl asked, and Damon stiffened his jaw.
"NOW!" the vampire yelled, and Elena nervously picked up her cell phone, typed in her cousin's number, and called. No one answered.
"Nothing", Elena whispered. Damon then, without further ado, ran out of the house at vampire speed. He didn't take his cell phone, didn't take his car keys, didn't take anything. All he knew was that he needed to get to Emma's apartment as quickly as possible.
When he arrived at the brick building, he didn't bother to ring the intercom. He looked around and when he saw that no one was looking, he quickly climbed the walls until he reached her window. If anyone saw him, which was quite possible since the night was young and the sky rather clear, he would compel the person to forget. As soon as he reached Emma's window, he saw that the girl was standing by the kitchen sink, her back to him. He tapped the glass three times in order to get her attention, but the girl kept doing whatever she was doing.
Damon snorted and hit the glass harder, but the girl remained motionless. Forcing his eyes open, the vampire realized that she wasn't moving. Emma was standing like a statue in front of the sink. There was no movement to indicate that she was performing any activity. Damon nervously broke the glass and opened the window. He ran over to the girl and held her by the shoulders, turning her so that she was facing him.
Emma had her eyes closed, her arms stretched out at her sides, and her orbs were moving rapidly behind her eyelids. Damon shook her, and nothing.
"Emma? Emma, are you hearing me?" the vampire asked, but the girl followed with her body completely stiff and erect, and her eyes moving abnormally fast behind her eyelids, as if she were in a deep, restless sleep. It was as if Emma was trapped inside her own body.
The door to Emma's apartment was kicked open and Damon turned his face only to see Elena running up to them. Stefan and Elijah were standing by the door, unable to enter. The former was in shock, while the latter looked quite worried, after all, he knew that Klaus would go to the ultimate consequences.
Emma began to babble something that Damon couldn't understand, and he felt desperate. A tear trickled down the girl's cheek and her heart was racing too fast, so fast that Damon feared she would end up having a cardiac arrest.
"What's going on?", Elena asked, worried and desperate to see her cousin completely inert, standing up.
"Klaus" Elijah simply replied.
"Emma, please, wake the fuck up!", Damon shouted shaking her shoulders, but the girl followed stiffly, her eyes moving rapidly within her eyelids. The vampire didn't have the heart to take his eyes off her for even a second, not even to yell for them to call Bonnie to do something. In truth, Damon doubted that the witch could do anything after her fight with Klaus, she was probably too weak and needed to regain her strength before she could even bend a spoon. Thinking quickly, Damon made a decision and reached for the clasp of Emma's necklace behind her neck, opening it and throwing the jewel on the kitchen counter. "I'm so sorry Emma, but I have to".
"What are you doing?", Stefan asked from the doorway, trying in vain to enter the apartment.
"I'm going in", Damon replied, before closing his own eyes.
"That's not gonna work", Elijah warned, and Damon opened his eyes and stared at the Original.
"I will fucking kill you and Klaus with my bare hands if it doesn't work", Damon vociferated to Elijah and turned to Emma again. Salvatore held her tightly by the arms, feeling her temperature beneath his fingers, and closed his eyes. Taking one last deep breath and relaxing his own body, he crossed the barriers and plunged into Emma's mind.
Elena turned away toward the door. She had no way to invite Stefan and Elijah in, since it wasn't her apartment, so the girl simply wrapped her arm around her boyfriend's. The three of them remained standing by the doorframe, staring at Damon, who was standing a step away from Emma, facing the girl. The vampire held her elbows firmly, and was breathing as heavily as she was. Damon was frowning, as if he was straining, while Emma remained inert, her expression impassive and her eyes rolling behind closed eyelids, while thick tears streamed down her cheeks.
Elena was in complete shock, and Elijah was worried. He had already witnessed Klaus hijack a number of people, turning them into his private slaves. He had vividly in his memory the first time he saw his brother carry out that attack. Klaus was sitting in a comfortable chair. Beside him, inside a clay pot, was a mixture of scented herbs being burned together with an object of the victim. The witch performing the ritual was mumbling words unknown to Elijah and the candle flames in the room were agitated.
Elijah remembered that he had been disbelieving that it would work. The first victim was, strangely enough, quite similar to Klaus himself. A sweet, shy boy who had his own father as his personal villain. The ritual took less than an hour, and over time Elijah learned that time depended on the condition of the victim's mind. He believed it would not work. However, the next day, the sweet, shy boy murdered his own father. Elijah knew this because he was standing next to Klaus when the boy arrived, covered in blood, at the mansion hall, and dropped his father's head at the hybrid's feet. Looking at Emma, he wondered what Klaus had collected from her to perform the ritual.
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Emma was standing in the middle of Tom's father's mansion, and from the decorations she could tell it was Christmas. The music was loud, the hall was full, and the waiters were carrying trays of sparkling wine. Emma looked down and recognized the dress she was wearing, a long dark blue velvet dress with long sleeves. It was as if she had gone back in time, because this was exactly the dress she had worn last Christmas when she was still in England. She looked to the side and spotted Tom's grandmother, the only person in the man's family she really liked, and walked over to the lady, who was chatting with two other women while sipping from her sparkling wine.
"Excuse me, can you..." Emma's voice died in her throat as she realized that the old lady didn't even seem to see her. She kept talking about something Emma couldn't understand, it was as if she was underwater and the sound was muffled. She tried to nudge one of the women who was talking to Tom's grandmother, but she didn't show any reaction.
Turning to the side, Emma looked around for a second group of people and also tried to get their attention, but to no avail. Nobody could see her. Emma ran from one group to another, pulling and shaking people, but nobody reacted. No one was moving. Nobody could see her. No one could hear her. She screamed for help, but it was as if she wasn't there.
Emma ran through the hall feeling tears streaming down her face. The girl desperately tried to get the attention of anyone, anyone who could tell her what was happening. Guests, waiters, family members... No one could see her. Tired and feeling the breath locked in her own throat, Emma stopped in front of the huge flight of stairs in the mansion. She felt a chill run down her spine, and a creepy feeling that she was being watched. Turning her face quickly, she found Tom in the middle of a group of people.
The man's green eyes were glued to hers. His light brown hair was impeccably combed, and he was wearing the expensive suit that she recognized as the outfit he had worn that Christmas. What startled Emma the most was not seeing the man, but seeing that he saw her. Unlike everyone else there, he was looking directly at her and had a frightening smile stamped on his face.
Emma watched as the man dropped the cup he was holding on top of the fireplace, next to a large number of empty cups. At Tom's feet were shards of glass. Broken bottles and glasses. The man walked slowly towards her, never taking his eyes off her. His face was red, hot from drinking, and Emma felt like she was going to vomit. The air couldn't reach her lungs. Her hands were numb and her feet were sticking to the floor. She couldn't move. Everything was in slow motion. The muffled sound in the background, the people moving slowly, completely oblivious to her and the man walking towards her with intentions she knew all too well. Emma forced the air into her lungs and plucked up the courage to take her eyes off Tom. The girl ran up the stairs, forcing her feet, which were bare and seemed too heavy.
Emma ran to her room and locked the door, gluing her back against the object. She heard a knock on the other side of the door, and her heart leapt against her chest.
"Kitten, kitten, kitten...", Tom's voice was heard from the other side. The sound of his voice was muffled, and she knew it was related to the number of bowls she had seen on the mantelpiece. "Open this door, kitten. You know what happens when you don't do as I say".
Emma closed her eyes tightly, and felt the sticky sensation of wet mud under her toes. A sequence of violent knocks on the door caused the girl to strangle a scream and open her eyes, looking around and searching for a way out.
"OPEN THIS DOOR!", Tom yelled, punching and kicking the door. "OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR!"
The girl looked down at her feet, and saw them buried in the water up to her heels. She turned her face forward and saw the armchair, still with her robe. The curtain danced with the wind coming in through the window. 'This is a nightmare, just a nightmare' she muttered to herself. She closed her eyes tightly, repeating the count she used to do to stabilize her breathing. However, when she opened her eyes, she was not in her bed in the apartment in Mystic Falls. She was at the edge of a lake.
In the center of the lake, only the front end of a car was seen before it sank, the light of the headlight pointing into the very dark starless sky with the full moon, round and white and with the light so strong that it almost blinded her. Emma heard, louder than was possible to her human ears, the sound of her wristwatch moving. She lifted her wrist and pulled up the hem of the sleeve of her dress, revealing a small gold watch. The larger hand pointed to zero, while the smaller one pointed to three. The thinner hand, which counted the seconds, turned very fast. First clockwise, then counterclockwise, as if it were confused. The water was already reaching Emma's calf, and she then shook her right foot, pulling it out of the water and freeing her toes from the sticky slime, but was prevented from moving when a white, cadaverous hand emerged from the water and grabbed her ankle.
Emma screamed, but her voice didn't come out, and she felt herself being pulled into the lake. Desperate, she tried to scream and extricate herself from whoever was holding her, but she was getting deeper and deeper into the lake, and soon she would submerge and never return, she knew that. Shaking her legs hard, she looked at whoever was holding her and screamed soundlessly as she saw Tom completely pale and emaciated, with a large cut oozing blood on his forehead. Emma took a breath of air before she submerged and kept flapping her legs, trying to get rid of Tom. She moved her arms hard and fast, and made it to the surface. She pulled in more air and tried to scream, but no sound came out. The girl kicked Tom away and swam with her arms toward the edge of the lake, and she could see that all the people who had been at the Christmas party before, were lined up around the lake.
Emma felt the mud under her feet again and managed to kick Tom away and ran towards the sand, feeling her feet sinking and her movements too slow. The girl screamed for help, looking at everyone present, but no one was looking at her. Everyone was sipping their drinks, talking, laughing, without even realizing she was there. Emma cried, and as soon as she could crawl to the edge of the lake and feel the wet sand between her fingers, Tom again grabbed her ankle and pulled her into the water.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!", Emma shouted, but the sound didn't come out. The girl shook her legs and tried to propel herself forward clutching, in vain, the sand between her fingers. Tom pulled her harder and opened a smile, revealing dirt and seaweed between his teeth.
"No one can hear you. No one can see you. It's only me, kitten", Tom said, and Emma started to cry profusely, feeling the air getting lost in her sobs. Something told her that there was no point in fighting, that she would die right there. But a small part of her, deep in her chest, told her that she must fight, that she must fight to survive. And then Emma shook her legs harder, disengaging one ankle from Tom's grip. With great force, she pushed her free leg back and kicked Tom in the face, managing to free herself from the man's grip. He let go of her other leg and the girl crawled quickly to the edge of the lake.
Before she could lift her face, the girl saw a hand reaching out to her, as if offering help. Looking up, she found Damon standing there, his hand outstretched toward her and shouting something that she couldn't hear because everything was mute. The girl felt Tom grab both her heels again and grabbed Damon's hand with both of hers, anchoring herself to him. The vampire pulled her hard, and Emma finally managed to get out of the water and collided against Damon's body. He held her face between his hands, and she stared at him with her eyes blurred by tears. The girl began to cry harder.
"No one could see me, no one could see me", her voice finally came out of her throat.
"I see you, I see you", the vampire whispered, stroking her cheeks. Damon had a frown, and his very clear eyes looked moist. Emma pulled the air tightly into her lungs and closed her eyes. Damon glued his forehead to hers. "Wake up", she heard him say.
Emma finally opened her eyes and met Damon's startled blue eyes. The two of them were standing in the middle of her apartment and he was holding her face between his hands. The girl was breathing heavily and thick tears were streaming down her red cheeks. Confused and, more importantly, relieved, Emma threw herself forward and clung to him, burying her face in the vampire's chest. Damon wrapped her tightly around him, keeping her there with him, and buried his nose in her hair. The girl cried loudly, clutching his shirt between her fingers, beneath the jacket he was wearing.
"You're safe, you're safe", Damon whispered against her honey-colored strands. The vampire didn't even remember that Elena, Stefan, and Elijah were standing there in the doorway. At that moment, he just wanted to stand there hugging Emma, keeping her safe.
Damon felt a pressure leave his chest, and knew it was the relief that he had managed to get her away from whatever Klaus intended to do to her. His head was working non-stop, trying to take in everything he had seen. He wasn't sure he understood what had happened. The vampire pressed her closer to him and kissed her hair, feeling her tears soaking his chest.
Elena tried to step forward, but Stefan held her by the wrist. The younger Salvatore stared at the scene with concern and curiosity, and shifted his eyes to his girlfriend, nodding and indicating that they should leave Damon and Emma alone there. The girl didn't look happy, wanting to see how her cousin was doing, but silently agreed.
Elijah still stood for another half second watching the way Damon kept Emma safe within his embrace. The vampire's arms were possessively crossed around the girl, as if he was using his body to protect her from the world. It confused the Original, who until that morning thought that the two brothers had feelings for the same girl. There, watching the two of them standing in the middle of the small kitchen in the apartment, it was clear that Damon didn't have the same feelings for Elena as Stefan did. Elijah was surprised to find himself hoping that the older Salvatore would come to the same conclusion before it was too late. Carefully, the Original closed the door behind him and walked down the stairs, leaving the building.
Damon waited for Emma to calm down before he took her in his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her down in the middle of the covers and took his place beside her. The girl turned to him and dried her face with her fingertips, and the vampire reached out and tucked a damp lock of hair behind her ear.
"I don't want to sleep", she whispered. She had been trapped inside her own head for hours. She didn't want to sleep and have another nightmare. "I don't know why this happened".
"It was Klaus", Damon replied, stroking her hair. He was lying facing her, only a few inches separated the two of them. "Klaus hijacked you, he got into your head to try to break you. Elijah said that if the mind is broken, Klaus can rebuild it as he liked. To control people".
Emma brought her hand up to her chest, searching for the little chain that belonged to her mother, but couldn't find it. Damon, noticing the movement, got out of bed, picked up the necklace, and returned to bed, all too quickly.
"It wasn't a compulsion. There was nothing the vervain could do to stop it", Damon explained. He handed the necklace to the girl. He had gotten inside her head, even though he promised he never would, and he felt guilty, even though he knew it was the only alternative, and one that ultimately proved effective. Or maybe he was just guilty for having scared her the night before. "I had to take it off to try to get you out of there". Emma caught the necklace and closed it inside her palm, bringing her hand up to her chest and holding the object tightly against herself.
"It's okay", she replied in a whisper.
The vampire remained watching her. Emma stared somewhere between Damon's chin and his chest, thinking of many things at once. It was clear that she was thinking about everything that had happened, and he waited patiently for her to say something. But for long minutes, she remained silent.
"Who was that man?", Damon asked, hesitantly. Emma swallowed hard.
"Tom", she answered in a whisper. "My..." she took a deep breath. "... my ex-husband".
The vampire was grateful that Emma wasn't looking him in the eye, because he couldn't disguise his surprise at the girl's declaration. He would never have imagined that Emma had once been married. Damon then began to go over everything he had seen inside Emma's head. He remembered the way she had tried to shake off a cadaverous version of what had once been this Tom, the way she had cried that no one could see her. He remembered the nightmares she had, how she would wake up in the middle of the night and check the doors and windows. Damon knew, without Emma having to tell him, that Tom had hurt her. Emma was afraid of Tom.
The vampire felt his shoulders stiffen and his jaw lock. All he needed was an address, or a last name. A single piece of information and he would cross the ocean to rip both his arms and Tom's heart out. He would make sure that the man never laid a finger on Emma again. It would ensure that she could rest assured, that she could live without fear, because Tom would be dead.
"Where is he now?", Damon asked, feeling his jaw painfully lock. Emma finally faced him, and the vampire noticed new tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
"Dead", she replied. The girl sniffled, rubbing her nose with her fist, and took a deep breath. "There was an accident. A car accident, but..." she seemed to gather the courage to continue speaking, and Damon frowned. "I know why Klaus tried to break my mind".
The vampire didn't say anything, just stared at her, waiting for her to say whatever she wanted to say, if she wanted to say anything at all. He wouldn't push her.
"He didn't die from the crash", Emma whispered. "He died because he drowned. I killed him...", the girl dried the tears with her fingers, but to no avail, because new ones kept forming. Damon tried to remain impassive, even though he was taken by surprise again by her statement. "... I chose to let him drown. I've waited so long to seek help. Back then, I thought I was in shock, but deep down I've always knew that I just didn't want him to live. I just waited for him to die to seek for help. And you know how I felt?", Emma stared at Damon, and he saw himself in the mirror. Her amber eyes, wet from tears, showed guilt. "I felt fucking relieved", she confessed, and began to cry harder. "I was so fucking relieved that I would never see him again. I made the choice to let him die". Emma hid her face in her hands.
"Emma..." Damon whispered, bringing his hands to hers, taking them lovingly from the girl's face, making her look him in the eyes.
"You say you're the bad guy because you're a vampire, but you keep saving her. You are willing to sacrifice yourself for her. You all are. And the truth is that I wouldn't", Emma confessed, feeling Damon's ice eyes burn into her brown ones. "I wouldn't and that's why Klaus tried to break me. He knows I'm the weak one. He knows I'm the weak link. He fucking knows. You're not the bad guy. I am".
Emma threw up the words and waited for Damon to answer something. Anything. She waited for him to say that he agreed with her, that she was bad. That she would always try to save herself before she saved others. That she wasn't like them, that she was selfish. After all, she had a choice in the palm of her hands. She could choose between saving Tom or letting him drown. And she chose to let him die. She chose to let him die because she was sick of it.
She was sick of being afraid, she was sick of locking her bedroom door and spending the night listening to Tom's screams and punches. She was sick of hiding whenever he drank. She was sick of living alone, hostage to him. She was so sick of being a victim in his hands that she grabbed the first opportunity that came her way. Emma let him drown. She waited until the car was completely under water to call for help. She waited because she wanted to make sure that he had no way to be saved. She waited until he disappeared at the bottom of that lake to run to the road and look for a phone booth. The two of them left at one o'clock in the morning from Tom's parents' house. It was a short drive, and Tom had had too much to drink. And she waited until three in the morning to call and ask for help.
Emma couldn't decipher the look in Damon's eyes. She had thrown up everything, there was nothing else now that the vampire didn't know. Emma opened herself up like a surgeon opens a torso to remove a cancer. Damon saw her fully, saw her insides, and she knew the sight was not pretty. The girl sniffled one last time and turned her back to the vampire, shrugging her legs until her knees were almost touching her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for Damon to leave. She kept her ears peeled for any noise from the window or the door that might indicate that he had left her there alone.
He had conflicting feelings. A small part of him was angry and worried that Emma was not as invested in the plans to save Elena as they were, but most of him was relieved to know that Emma would not put herself at risk, that she would be safe. He wanted her safe, because he didn't want to lose her. So he stretched an arm over her waist and flattened his hand against Emma's belly, and pulled her close. Damon glued his entire body to her, fitting himself between her curves. His knees met the backs of her knees, and his fingers felt the heat emanating from her bare belly, as the shirt she wore had risen a few inches. The top of Emma's head was tucked under Damon's chin, and he slid his nose through the full length of her hair until his lips managed to deposit a simple kiss on her still-covered shoulder.
"You're not a bad person", Damon whispered. "And you're not weak". The girl turned to face him, causing her blouse to ride up a little higher and Damon's warm palm to slide from her belly to her back. He lowered his face just enough to meet her eyes, and, God, his heart stopped beating for half a second. Even in the dim lighting, her whiskey eyes emanated warmth, and the tears had made the orbs brighter, as if she had his favorite drink in her irises.
Unconsciously, Damon began to caress her back, sliding his palm across a large patch of skin. Emma's warm fingers carefully touched his exposed skin a little below his neck, where a couple of shirt buttons were open. It felt good to feel her thin fingers caressing that area. Damon couldn't tell if it was her eyes or Emma's warm fingers, but the girl radiated warmth and drew him close. The vampire slid his hand to her waist and squeezed the flesh between his fingers. His whole body was quite aware of hers there, and only in the back of his mind did he wonder if this was a good time to be having that kind of reaction.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Emma looked away from his and lowered her face. The tip of her nose slid from his lower lip, traversed his chin, and reached up to the vampire's neck. She danced her fingers from Damon's chest to his waist, and pulled herself closer, fitting herself there. When she deposited a kiss with her still tear-damp lips just below his neck, on the exposed skin where her fingers had previously played, Damon pressed her even tighter against himself and suppressed a gasp. He kissed the top of her head hard and tried to regain the rhythm of his own breathing and get his blood to stop pumping into places it shouldn't.