May 15th.
It had been a rough time, the two weeks that had passed.
Or at least it seemed so to Cherith.
Apart from the foolish idea she'd had which ended with her announcing her very presence to the Chaos god, she learnt that her brother got shot and died but ended up being brought back to life by Bonnie.
Cherith decided (after almost dying from a heart attack) that she loved Bonnie for life because of that.
Apparently Damon had been bitten by Tyler and had almost died too but Stefan made some sort of deal with that blonde bastard which in turn gave him access to a cure.
But then, he left with said blonde bastard.
The two weeks that had gone by had been absolutely quiet yet tense.
Elena stuck in heartbreak mode, or was it Jeremy who had been acting weird.
Honestly, if Cherith didn't k ow better she'd believe her brother was being hunted, seeing as how he had this crazy eyed look to himself life Mad Eye from Harry Potter. It was like he was expecting something to jump out and attack it spook him.
Maybe he saw something when he died?
Anyways, Cherith wasn't going to complain. Her brother was okay… what if he'd died??
Because she sure knew she didn't know how to bring back dead oe, no matter what Jonas Martin had claimed. And she didn't have the advice of over a dozen ancestors like Bonnie had.
Then there was the sheriff.
Oh how Cherith had wanted to wring the lady's neck for shooting Jeremy, even though it was an accident.
That woman finally found out the person she trusted in this damnable town was an actual enemy… still didn't mean she felt bad for her.
She was only thankful Liz had put up with her and her siblings after their parents died, but that was the limit to her patience.
The number of family members she had had dwindled over the years… it was better to covet the little you have regardless of the stupidity they exhibited occasionally.
But now though… she had other things on her mind.
As Cherith packed her little luggage with the items she needed for her senior trip, she idly played with the idea of finally telling her siblings about what she really was.
She had planned to do it earlier, but with everything that had been happening, and the siblings seemingly dealing with their own problems… well, it's safe to say things had been hectic.
Poor Alaric.
In order to warm his way back into Jenna's good graces once more, he'd taken to spending nights with the siblings, seeing as she was also getting ready to graduate.
Her sweet aunt who had always planned a huge graduation bash like she'd always dreamt had decided to downplay it, saying there was no need, what with the whole madness that had plagued the family for months now.
Her trip was in a couple of days and she planned to tell her siblings the whole truth before she left, if only to give them time to wrap the fact that Cherith was a nexus being around their head.
She would have preferred Caroline and Bonnie being part of the meeting too but it was just better if her siblings were the ones piling questions on her head alone.
They could tell them after… and she knew they'd find out, along with the asshole Damon.
Not that she'd really seen him around anyways… after the whole Stefan fiasco he'd carried this melancholic air around him even though he acted like nothing was wrong.
As Cherith mused to herself, she heard a knock on her door and Jeremy popped his head in.
"Hey Cherry, you busy?"
Cherith raised an eyebrow as she sat on her floor with a couple of folded outfits and shoes scattered around and Jeremy rolled his eyes.
"Oh right. Your trip. Forgot about it."
Cherith huffed.
"Only you would forget I'm leaving for a week… then again, with everything happening, it's not exactly surprising."
Jeremy snorted.
"Anyways, wanna watch a movie with me?"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"If it isn't a gory mess, I'm not interested Jemmie."
Jeremy rolled his eyes.
"Don't call me that. And don't worry, I know your… disgusting preferences."
Cherith put out her tongue at him before a shiver ran down her spine and she sat upright, serious.
"What's up with you?"
She looked straight at Jeremy who frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Cherith watched Jeremy for a moment.
She hadn't had the time to be around him lately, or even more than a couple of minutes in a day and so this feeling…
"There's something… off… are you okay?"
Jeremy swallowed a bit nervous as his eyes moved to his side as if looking at something and Cherith's eyes narrowed as she followed his movement but saw nothing…
Still… She couldn't quite fight the feeling away…
"Nothing! Just come down when you're ready okay?"
He turned to walk off.
"And stop being such a busy body."
Cherith watched him leave, a suspicious look on her face.
He was acting suspicious.
He was hiding something.
And he wasn't good at it.
If there was one thing Cherith was good at in her family, it was being a great liar and obstructer of justice.
And she was very proud of it.
But it wasn't like he was going to tell her anyways… brothers were just like that… or better yet older siblings.
With a small grunt, she stood up, abandoning her packing and walking out, stumbling a bit over a clothing item as she closed her door and jogged down the stairs.
Jeremy was seated a slightly large bowl of caramel popcorn in a bowl and two cans of root beer.
He looked up and rolled his eyes.
"Took you long enough."
"Shut up."
She grunted as she flopped down on the sofa beside Jeremy.
"What are we watching anyways?"
"Night of the living dead."
"The classic?"
"No. The one made in 1990."
Cherith frowned.
"Put the 1968 one."
Jeremy gave her a look as the film began.
"Oh, I'm sorry, who's the older one between us?"
Cherith rolled her eyes, grabbing a fistful of popcorn and ignoring him.
The two lounged that was for about 30 minutes, laughing and occasionally making fun of the victims and pointing out ways to survive when the front door was unlocked and Elena walked in, looking slightly drained and her shoulders dropped as usual.
Jeremy and Cherith turned to her.
"Hey!"
Elena turned at the sound of her brother's voice and a small smile appeared on her face.
"Hey you two… what's going on?"
Jeremy shrugged as Cherith went back to watching the movie.
"Just satisfying Cherry's horror vice. You?"
Elena shrugged, peeping to see what they were watching.
"Want to join?"
He asked and for a second, Elena wanted to choose going into her room and moping the loss of Stefan and the million other problems she had but… looking at her siblings again… she decided why not?
"Are you going to keep standing there or are you going to come join us? B-T-W, your dark bags make you look a bit like gollum."
"Ha. Ha. Great deduction, Gandalf."
Cherith blinked for a second before turning to Jeremy who exchanged a look with her two and he turned to his older sister.
"Did Elena Gilbert just make a joke?"
He asked in a slightly exaggerated manner as she sat down, Cherith ending up in the middle and Elena rolled her eyes.
"I make jokes."
Cherith snorts.
"More like you made jokes… a long, long time ago… I think it's been almost 3 years?"
She playfully thought and Elena huffed, though a small smile grew across her face.
For the three, it had definitely been a while since they'd hung out with each other, without any other person around.
Even though they weren't discussing anything deep and just watching a movie, it was nice and calm… and when the movie began nearing it's end… Cherith began to play with the idea of telling her siblings the truth.
Now that Elena's doppleganger issue didn't seem to be a problem anymore, perhaps telling them the truth before anyone tried to would be better for her.
Watching both from the corners of her eyes, she quickly grabbed the remote and turned the TV off.
"Hey!"
"Cherry, we were almost done!"
Jeremy glared at her as she stood up, turning to face them, hands behind her back and trying to look as professional as she could in sweats.
It didn't work.
"So! I bet you're both wondering… why did Cherith Gilbert just turn off the TV?? Why did she commit such a sacrilege… such a taboo…"
Jeremy and Elena looked at her unimpressed but she continued.
"Now you two… I bet you've k own for a while that my powers aren't as ordinary as I describe them to be…"
Elena nods slowly, a frown growing on her face.
"Cherry… what's going on?"
Cherith holds a hand to stop her.
"Hush for a minute there, sis… now… what I'm about to tell you should not be uttered to undeserving ears… and by undeserving ears I mean Damon. I'm looking at you Elena."
Elena shook her head.
"Now, you both might have heard about this in passing or something but… the reason my magic is so different from other witches and warlocks… why it is so powerful and destructive… is because I was… born, different. The Scarlet Witch, if you will."
Jeremy frowned.
"Scarlet Witch?"
Cherith nods.
"It's an old tale… a myth, or rather it used to be a myth. And it's me."
It was quiet for a minute, both siblings not sure what to say.
Elena then looked up.
"Cherith… what… what exactly, is that?... Klaus… I know he said something like that in passing, but what is that?"
Cherith sighed, nodding a bit.
Okay… so it was going as good as it could.
"Well, I don't really know how to explain it but from what I learned from Sheila Bennett, Jonas Martin, some old guy in Amherst and my mum—"
Jeremy's eyes bulged out.
"Your mum??"
"Not the point. The point is that it's been foretold for thousands of years that I'd be born, and that I'd be capable of wielding chaos magic… that I'm a being capable of spontaneous creation. And that I'm dangerous… very dangerous…"
She finished softly, a look in her eyes as she watched her siblings.
Elena slowly stood up, pacing a bit while Jeremy stared at his sister with a contemplative look on his face.
"Are you in trouble?"
Elena suddenly stopped, a careful look on her face.
"Wait, what??"
"Cherry, are you in trouble? Is something wrong? Are you okay?"
Cherith opened her mouth for a moment to deny that she was in any trouble and rant about how that was of course the first thing out of Elena's mouth when she paused, looking at the brunette.
Her pale face, dark eye bags, the droop of her shoulders and the slightly wild look on her face.
Elena was not dealing with everything that had happened this past few weeks well.
That much was through.
She was the kind of girl that preferred order. That preferred everything to be okay and if it wasn't, she saw it a sort of duty to make it better…
And things weren't at the moment.
It was more of a regression to the mean at the present… and Elena didn't know what to do with herself.
"Cherry??... Is something wrong?"
She asked again and Cherith gulped softly, before shaking her head.
"No. Everything's fine sis. Geez, try to live a little bit why don't you?"
She forced a wry grin on her face and Elena let out a sigh of relief, nodding to herself.
"Oh. Good. That's good. So you're the Scarlet Witch… some sort of goddess, right?"
Cherith nods.
"Yup. I know it'll take a while for you both to get around the fact that your sister is obviously greater than you and will amount to greatness in the future but… that is not your faults."
She joked in a rather patronizing tone and Elena rolled her eyes before stepping forward and hugging the redhead.
"Thanks for telling me Cherry… I know we haven't had the greatest of relationships in a long while but… I'm glad we're okay… the tree of us…"
She turned to Jeremy who gave her a smile from where she sat.
"Why don't you get some rest, you look like you need it."
He suggested and Elena stretched a bit.
"Yeah… trying to find Stefan has been proving difficult… I'm really exhausted right now. Hey, can I tell Bonnie and Caroline about this?"
Cherith shrugged.
"Sure. Was hoping you'd pass it along anyways… can't repeat this."
Elena nods with a smile and slowly walks up the stairs, Cherith watching her go with a million things on her mind.
It was probably for the best she didn't know that Cherith had quite a number of people after her for who knew what.
There was the Harkness family that she still didn't know much about… the brotherhood of cloaks or whatever their names were, then there was that Chthon dimensional god who knew of her existence and had called her his herald or something.
Now… why did it feel like someone was watching her—
'You're hiding something."
Cherith jumped, startled as Jeremy's voice pierced through the quiet and he stood up, crossing his arms.
"What the fuck were you doing there just quiet?? And what do you mean I'm hiding something?? I'm not hiding something… I mean anything."
She glared at him and he returned it back tenfold.
"Please Cherith… I grew up around you and I know when you're hiding something. You didn't tell Elena the whole truth, fine with me. But there's something else you're keeping a secret. What is it?"
Cherith gritted her teeth.
"Look Jeremy… I'm fine, okay? Everything's fine. We're all good. No threats after us again… don't try to create something that isn't there."
"Then why were you acting all jittery earlier??"
Cherith huffed.
"Oh, so just like you were also acting jittery earlier and didn't tell me."
Jeremy sighed.
"Ch—"
"Jeremy. I'm fine. Like, 100% cool. Nothing's wrong. Stop acting like you see something out of the ordinary."
She patted him, walking off, leaving Jeremy staring as she walked up the stairs.
Something out of the ordinary…
A small huff escaped his lips.
More like something out of the extraordinary.
"You do know she's lying, right?"
A feminine voice next to Jeremy spoke up and he nodded.
"Oh definitely. I grew up with her after all. Now…"
He turned to stare at the ghost of Anna Zhu who had a big grin on her face and he couldn't stop the smile that grew on his too.
"Do you think you can—"
"Help you find out meaningful information on what The Scarlet Witch is all about?... Gee, I thought you'd never ask."
She winked playfully and seemingly vanished.
May 21st.
'The Scarlet Witch was created for only one purpose. To serve HIM. What else can you do after all… but obey!'
"—ry. Hey Cherry! We're here!"
Cherith sat up as the excited voice of Leslie broke through and she blinked a bit, looking around.
Oh yeah. She was in a plane.
A plane that was apparently landing in New York.
She sighed and Leslie huffed, a big grin on her face.
"Oh, come now Cherry! It's out senior trip! We're in New York for a freaking week! What's the worst that could happen??"
Cherith groan.
"No. Please, don't say that. I have bad karma when things like that are said. I think I got it from Elena."
Leslie gave her a look and shook her head.
"Nothing's going to happen. They'll have to get through me first. Now come on, let's get off and see what this city has to offer!"
Another sigh escaped Cherith's lips.
Really though… what was the worst that could happen?
So that's it guys!!
It's definitely been a while!!
A lot has been happening this November and a lot is still happening!
My mum got sick and had to be admitted in the hospital for a while and I had to stay with her as well. And one thing I wasn't a fan of at the hospital was the way it jumbled up my internet access!!
Also, today(November 21st) is my birthday!!!!!
So yeah, happy birthday to me.
I truly wasn't expecting to update this November and maybe some parts of December too because of the things going on but today's my birthday so why not!!
I made this chapter short mainly because I wanted to put the whole seniors trip in at least 2 full chapters, and let me tell you, she will have fun with her friends but (spoiler alert!) she will have a run-in with a certain Harkness. Muhahahaha!!!
But that Harkness won't be the only person she meets here. I think it's time I start introducing some characters I've created that she'd need later on.
I wonder what Leslie is going to do though...
And lucky or unluckily for her... she attracts a group to herself as well and let's just say... it really is sort of a good/bad week for her.
What could go wrong indeed...
Have a nice day!!!!
