Part 2 - The Witch
Elena looks at the silvery-white man. He is very beautiful; a more lovely countenance she cannot fancy to herself. In her eyes he is perfect, she does not fear him at all.
The flakes of snow grow larger as the carriage climbs higher and higher. Elena looks upwards in awe at the vast empty space above them, and on he flies with her; high over the black clouds, while the storm moans and whistles as though it's singing some old familiar tune.
Onward they fly over woods and lakes, overseas, and many lands. Beneath them the chilling storm rushes fast, the wolves howl, the snow crackles; above them flies large screaming crows, but higher up appears the moon, quite large and bright; and it is on it that Elena gazes during the long winter's nights; while by day she sleeps at the feet of the Snow King.
Too shocked and confused about what went down with Elena, Damon wakes feeling sluggish, having had very little sleep. He's sick with worry when he steps in the shower to get ready for the day.
The tempest blast of snow blew through almost as quickly as it stirred up and then he'd come home and crawled into bed. He stuck his phone under his pillow as he attempted to sleep all the while hoping he'd hear her familiar theme with a text or a call informing him that this was all a bad dream.
Neither had come, and he'd finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
Last night was so out there, he still isn't sure if it really happened or if it's simply some spell, he's under. Elena stepping into a white carriage with a ghost-like man and literally disappearing before his eyes...
He goes through the motions, showers, dresses and goes to work but the office has no life without her contagious laugh and brilliant smile. Every time his door would crack open, he'd look up hoping to see her then she'd throw herself in his arms, and kiss him fiercely.
But Elena never showed up.
The next few days pass in the same way, Damon hoping Elena will appear, calling her repeatedly, texts remaining unanswered.
"You okay, brother?" Stefan slides into the passenger seat, concerned about his brother's melancholy.
"It's Elena, she's disappeared."
"What!? Have you contacted the authorities?"
"I know it's sounds crazy but I swear on mom's grave I saw it. Something happened to her, I don't know how to explain it. It's like her personality, everything that I love about her was sucked out, leaving only a shell behind. Then this ghost-like apparition of a man appeared. She got into a carriage and they simply disappeared," his eyes drift to his brother's face. His mouth is hanging wide open in disbelief.
"You think I don't know how insane it sounds? I thought it was a dream too but I woke up and she was still gone. I don't know how to find her."
"Okay, brother. Let's go get a nice drink and talk about it." Stefan pats Damon's leg with his palm.
"Fine," he drives to a bar and with Stefan buying, Damon drinks till he passes out...
Damon wakes up gasping with Elena's name on his lips as the image he'd been dreaming fades slowly. Something about her, and weather so cold he can almost feel it burning into his skin... He tries to latch onto it but it turns into a wisp and vanishes like a long-forgotten memory.
The tight ball of tension he's carrying doesn't ease as he showers, dresses, foregoes shaving and quickly jumps into his car with the heater on full blast. And then he drives aimlessly, hoping for an answer that may never come. When he stops the car, he's not surprised to find himself in the park. Damon gets out and wanders around arbitrarily, stopping when he reaches a little stone bench. After their first date, they ended up here - on this very spot and just talked. Before either realized it, the dawn was breaking in the eastern sky.
He sits down, the cold from the stone seeping through his jeans like osmosis. Damon drops his face into his palms and closes his eyes. It feels like he's in a cyclone as time passes...
When he raises his head, the sun is shining causing some of the icicles suspended from a nearby swing set to drip.
The sound of snow dropping off the tree branches echoes to him through the woods just across from the park. Birds chirp as they play and fly from bough to bough. A loud coo startles him out of his reverie. Damon looks around to find a large pigeon perched on a water fountain that sits close to the bench. The bird seems to study him for a long moment, before hopping along the bench, closer and closer, until his beak is level with his eyes.
"What do you want?" Damon asks, curious that it hasn't flown off.
An uneasy feeling settles in his belly like lead. He needs help and then his thoughts drift to Esther. His mom told him about her once. At some point in time, she had a job, a family, and was in love with a man who eventually fell out of love with her. As a result, she refused to love again and stopped trusting others.
Over the years, she's become known as the crazy bird woman. She tends to the pigeons, crows and the other birds in the park.
She's a loner but has always been kind when Elena would say hi to her. Esther claims to be a witch and most people just play along to placate her. But if she is actually a witch - and who is he to question it after the things he's seen - she's exactly who he needs right now.
Then his head snaps back to the pigeon who's still watching him.
"Thank you, bird," Damon watches it spread its wings and hover above him for a moment before it soars off and disappears somewhere in the trees.
Damon jumps to his feet and runs towards his car as if Satan himself is chasing him.
Damon drives to Esther's shack. From what his mother told him, she's actually quite wealthy as a result of her divorce. He has no idea why she lives an impecunious lifestyle when she doesn't have to.
He lets out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when he sees her old Buick in the garage. Damon parks behind it, jogs up the steps and onto her porch. Blowing out a breath, he raises his hand, raps on the door then turns around to get his breathing under control.
Hearing the old door creak, he turns around and before she can say anything, Damon blurts out, "I need your help."
"What makes you think I can help you?" she shoots him a skeptical look.
"Well... you claim to be a witch and I don't know where else to turn."
Esther scrutinizes him carefully. Looking into his eyes, she sees the truth of his words, stands back and lets him inside.
"Have a seat. I'm going to make some tea then you can tell me why you're here."
"Thank you," Damon says sincerely and takes a seat in the parlor. He feels as if he's stepped back in time to the turn of the century. There are old hurricane lights, pitcher and bowl to wash hands, lace doilies on the end and coffee tables. Not that he's ever made an effort to drive past her house but he'd never noticed the stained-glass window till now.
Soon Esther returns with a teapot, china cups and spoons on a platter. She sets it down on the coffee table and pours some for herself. "Do you want a cup?"
"No, thank you but I appreciate your kindness," he replies, rubbing his palms up and down his jeans-clad thighs.
She drops a couple of sugar cubes in her glass along with a dollop of half and half. After stirring it up, she takes a swallow then sets it down and turns to Damon. "Now why don't you tell me what's troubling you?"
"My girlfriend's been kidnapped," he blurts out.
"Shouldn't you go to the authorities?"
"They can't help me," he tries to explain in a way that won't make him sound like he took the giant leap over the cuckoo's nest. "She went missing a few days ago," a sinking sense of dread within him causes the dam to break. He feels helpless under the onslaught.
"What exactly happened?" the woman watches as Damon takes a deep breath and allows the stiff set of his posture to relax.
"The other night, I dropped her off after a date. The next day it was like all the light, her life force I don't know - it was just gone...," he goes onto tell her about the ghost-like man, the carriage and how Elena disappeared with him. "I know it's impossible to believe, Ms. Mikaelson, but I swear I'm telling the truth." Damon looks at the woman earnestly, desperate for someone to believe him.
"My grandmother used to tell me stories when I was a little girl about the other side, a world that lays adjacent to ours. She would often say that Mystic Falls is a magical place, one of the few on Earth where the veil between it and us is very thin which is why strange things happen here sometimes. Your story sounds a lot like one of her tales."
"So, you'll help me? Do you know how?"
"You look to be about the same size as my former husband," she sizes him up then walks off, returning a short time later with a parka and a pair of boots. "Tonight, is a lunar eclipse, I can harness its power which should allow you to cross over."
"Thank you," Damon grabs her hand and shakes it vigorously...
"Qui affecto protego, mixtisque iubas serpentibus et posteris meis stirpiqu," she chants under the light of the moon as it moves into the Earth's shadow commencing the eclipse.
"How do I find her?" Damon asks, his eyes staring up at the sky.
"Poe will lead you there," Esther points to a large raven that's sitting on one of her fence posts.
Damon pulls his keys out of his pocket. He takes a deep breath, having no idea what he's about to walk into but he can't not go. If there's even the slightest chance of getting Elena back, he has to trust her.
"Go now," she says sharply then continues her chanting.
Damon walks to his car, and before he slides in, he looks back at the raven. It caws once then takes flight, flying in a northwesterly direction down the dark street. He casts one last look at the woman then slides in and follows the bird.
It's pitch dark with the eclipse in full cover now. He loses sight of Poe but as if the raven knows, he caws loudly letting Damon know he's going in the right direction.
He's concentrating so hard on the bird that he doesn't realize till he's there that this is the same spot of road where Elena disappeared all those nights ago.
Rolling down the window, he's surprised when thick snowflakes suddenly whirl in front and all around him. It's almost as though it's been snowing for hours. Everything in front of him is white and pristine.
The snow is deep and treacherous. He has a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel as the car slips and slides down an embankment. "You're okay," he mumbles to himself when the car stops rolling. Trembling slightly, Damon struggles to kick the door open but finally it gives. He gets out, grateful for the knee-high pair of snow boots that Esther had given him.
Hearing the caw, he looks around and finds the raven perched on a branch a few yards ahead of him. When he takes a step forward, the bird takes flight, disappearing into the dark night with a single squawk.
Keep heading north.
The words echo in Damon's mind. After locking the car, he slips on a pair of leather gloves and looks around, not sure if he'll need to wait till the sun rises to determine which is north. Does the sun even shine here? A small sound of crunching snow tells Damon that there's something behind him, maybe a bear or a wolf?
He tries not to panic but he has nothing with which to defend himself. Something grips at his shoulder and wrenches him backwards, his head hitting a rock hard enough to make him black out. A drop of saliva hits his forehead. Damon's vision blurs and spots dance in front of his eyes. A panting sound is the last thing he hears before succumbing to the darkness.
Disembodied voices float to him through the darkness, and Damon rubs his face when something wet and cold nudges his cheek. He blinks hard, trying to bring his hands up to wipe his face. A sharp ache runs across his shoulder and when he opens his eyes, he gasps and tries to skitter away from the large brown bear.
He saunters around Damon in a curious way. In the early light of the day, his fur is the color of seasoned acorns and his eyes are both black and bright.
"Koda, who do you have there?" comes a voice from behind him.
Damon looks up to see a beautiful blonde woman approaching. "Is he yours?" he shields his eyes from the sun.
The woman bends down to get a closer look at him. "You're human! How did you get here?"
"I came to get my girlfriend. She was brought here by...," his voice croaks, he's thirsty.
"Brought here by?" she hands him her water flask.
Damon takes a long pull. "Thank you," he wipes his mouth. "It's crazy, an ice man."
"Niklaus," Rebekah exclaims.
"You know him?"
"Yes, I do. He's my brother," she looks away for a moment but catches a glimpse of blood on his shoulder. "Koda, what did you do?" she points her finger at him.
Damon stares at the bear, almost afraid to look away for fear he'll take another swipe at him.
"Come you need help," she offers her hand to help him stand up. As he wobbles a little, she takes her scarf and makes a sling for his arm. Then leads him through the woods to a log home hidden deep in the forest. Smoke is curling out of the chimney and Damon can smell the aroma of something good.
Having seen her approach through the window, Elijah opens the door and grabs Damon when he stumbles. He picks him up as if he weighs nothing more than a feather and hauls him into the house, laying him on a fur rug in front of the fireplace.
"He's hurt, Koda must've gotten a claw into him," Rebekah explains as she pulls back his shirt to reveal the wound.
"I'm sorry, he's just very protective of us. He's not used to seeing humans."
"You don't need to apologize," Damon shakes his head, grimacing when Elijah coats the wound with a smelly ointment. "I'm Damon," he introduces himself.
"My name's Rebekah and that's my older brother Elijah," she says from the stove where she's brewing up some medicinal tea for him.
"How did you pass through the veil between the worlds?" Elijah places a dressing on the wound and tapes it down.
Damon draws in a deep breath. "There's a woman in my home town, she's a witch. She did a spell. I'm... I'm looking for someone. I came to find her, bring her home."
"I don't know if that was such a wise move. It's very strange. We always thought that only the White King has the power to pass through the barrier. He doesn't do it very often, it drains his magic or so I've heard," Elijah looks at Rebekah who hands Damon a glass of tea.
Rebekah drapes her braid over her shoulder and look at Damon shrewdly. "Perhaps with your witch's help, you might not have to be stuck here for all eternity?"
"It smells good," Damon takes a swallow. "I hope you're right. I need to find her..."
"We'll do all we can," Elijah looks away when Koda purrs contentedly.
"You said he's your brother?" Damon hands the cup to Rebekah while Elijah helps him to his feet. Koda saunters over and lays himself down in front of the warm fire. Damon watches the flames dance and leap in the air, reaching hungrily for anything that they can consume to fuel their wrath. With a whispered "thanks" he takes the cup back from the blonde.
"Niklaus was a rebellious child. Our father warned us to stay away from the bewitched well. Niklaus did not. I don't know exactly how he became the White Warlock but our father said he must've leaped or fallen in. He ceased being our brother at that point, there's no warmth left in him, only bitter cold and ice...," he casts his eyes at his younger sister for a moment before getting up to pour himself a glass of spirits. "Who is this girl you're looking for?"
"Maybe you've seen her?" Damon starts, "She's tall with olive skin, dark brown hair and eyes." He feels a momentary thrill as Rebekah suddenly stops moving, freezing in place as her eyes drift to his.
"What?" he asks at the concern in her blue eyes.
"I've seen her," she whispers. "She's... gone now."
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Damon stares at her, fear threatening to overtake him.
"She was in the White Warlock's carriage. Niklaus chooses people like her for play things." A stoic look crosses her face. "He quickly loses interest and never keeps them for very long."
"I don't understand," Damon's sitting on the edge of the chair. "I know she's here somewhere; I can't explain why... I just...I feel her."
Rebekah looks at Elijah, taking Damon's cup when he finishes his tea. "What do you think, Elijah?" her words are cut off by Koda's low grumble.
"If we're going to help, we'll go first thing in the morning," Elijah nods at his sister.
"Do you know where he would keep her?" Damon's eyes dart back and forth between the siblings.
"Tell me Damon, how exactly did you get in here?" Elijah shifts on the couch to face him.
"There's a woman, rumored to be a witch. She's alone, keeps to herself. She told me to follow the raven. When I reached the spot where I saw him take Elena, the snow rose up almost like a tornado, blinding me and then I was here."
"And did the raven "say" anything?" Rebekah kneels on the floor and leans towards Damon, anxiously waiting to hear the rest of the story.
"He didn't talk, it's like the wind did. I must be losing my mind," Damon drops his forehead into his hands in frustration.
"Tell us what it said," Rebekah lays her palm on his knee.
He raises his head to meet her eyes. "North...it told me to go north."
You're all amazing. Thank you.
I imagined Esther as the 'bird woman' from Home Alone 2.
I have no idea what that phrase means, I searched for incantations to the moon and that's what came up.
Have a wonderful day.