So, I've been going through a strange creative block, I think is because I've been so stressed out in the last few months. Honestly, this is far from my favorite chapters in terms of quality. So please, leave your comments telling me what you think, and be kind. Love you all.
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Sad sad sad
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The loud sound of side conversations inside the Grill was more annoying than usual. It was four in the afternoon, and Damon was already on his third glass of whiskey. Sometimes he wondered what the residents of that quiet town thought about it. Did they think he was a bon vivant? A man who didn't need to work, who made the best of life while taking care of his younger brother, who was still in high school?
Stefan was, by the way, by his side. Damon had released him from the vervain chains as soon as he realized that his brother's humanity would not return. There was no point in keeping him chained and alone, since his soul was completely hollow. Stefan was an empty shell of what he had once been.
Damon placed a free hand on his chest and let out a low grunt. Stefan stared at him, totally inexpressive.
"Gosh, it still hurts", the older man complained. "That fucking Papa-Klaus".
Oh, yeah. Mikael was awake. Actually, he had been awake for a few days, but Damon had not had the displeasure of meeting the original until that moment. Until then, only Katherine had dealt with him. Damon didn't want to admit it, but with each passing minute, he wondered if they shouldn't have listened to Emma. Waking Mikael seemed like a bad idea; the vampire was much worse than Klaus. After all, they knew what Klaus' weakness was, but Mikael's... The man was literally and figuratively dead inside.
"Hope this plan of yours works", Damon said. Stefan rolled his eyes and took a sip from his own glass.
"I'm not very confident about that either" Stefan replied. "Klaus knows something, he suspects".
Stefan had called Klaus, telling him that Mikael was dead with a dagger stuck through his heart. He knew that the original would want to see the body with his own eyes and return to Mystic Falls. If anyone asked, Damon would deny it, but he caught himself thinking more often than he would like that they should just leave Klaus where he was. So what if he needed Elena's blood to create more hybrids? That meant he wouldn't hurt her, that meant that he needed her.
Elena was saying that Klaus was in control of her life, which was true. The girl was also angry with the Original for forcing Stefan to turn off his humanity, so there was probably a sense of revenge somewhere inside her. But on the other hand, Klaus was quiet. The mere mention of Mikael had been enough for him to disappear, and things were relatively well before he decided, with Katherine's help, to wake up the original father.
Damon didn't like the direction of his thoughts because they left him in doubt. He hated to agree with Emma and have one foot behind the plan. The very fact that they had a plan bothered him if he was honest. He always acted impulsively, and so far everything had worked out quite well for him that way, apart from a few collateral damages.
Emma was largely responsible for this change in him. She was analytical, calculating, and, above all, very committed to self-preservation. The last trait made him occasionally twitch his nose, for there was one vampire in particular with that exact trait, but he reminded himself that Emma was nothing like said vampire.
Damon stared at his brother, sitting beside him with his fifth glass of bourbon in his hand. He wanted the old Stefan back, but at the same time he didn't. The selfish part of him was beginning to like the new arrangement of things. Stefan wasn't leaving him out, unlike he had always done, and Elena had become attached to him as if Damon was the only one capable of keeping her sane. For the first time, Damon was the center. Damon was the glue that held all the pieces in place, and that was good.
He missed Emma, though. With every step Elena took toward Damon, it was as if Emma moved away at the same rate. The two of them kept sleeping together sometimes, exchanging caresses, sharing thoughts. But as Damon grew to feel more and more important in the strange group they had formed in Mystic Falls, Emma seemed more and more in doubt. She had disagreed with him more often, sought him out less often, and he felt like he was slowly being pushed out of her life.
The vampire huffed and, tired of the mental roller coaster he had been on for a few days, took a last sip of his drink and left the Grill, alone. He unlocked his car and climbed into the vehicle, speeding away to cool off.
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Later that day, when meeting everyone at the Boarding House, Elena wisely reminded him that Klaus would want to see the body to believe the story. Everyone was gathered there, including the original patriarch. The millennial vampire sent shivers down Emma's spine, who did not like having him there.
Mikael set out to actually get stabbed in order to go into a state of numbness and make the story seem more believable. He knew he would not be betrayed, after all, the dagger would not kill him, and he was the only one to actually possess the weapon capable of killing an Original. Everyone there was terrified at the prospect of having Mikael on his trail should he wake up after a betrayal. So no, Mikael knew he would not be betrayed. The Original was so reassured that he was in control that he didn't even participate in the entire conversation, leaving the room with a mocking smile on his lips.
Rebekah was silent in a corner, which was unusual. The vampire looked the most terrified of all, and not for nothing. She knew what her father was capable of. Emma watched her with empathy, while Damon ran his eyes from one to the other, suspicious of Rebekah's participation in the plan. She couldn't be trusted. Even if Emma could.
The short meeting ended, and Elena announced that she would meet Caroline and Bonnie to adjust the dresses. Emma saw that Rebekah's eyes sparkled for a few seconds before the vampire managed to regain her impassive gaze and left the room. Stefan also left, as if he no longer felt very comfortable in that environment. Only Damon and Emma were left. The vampire approached Emma and held a strand of her escaping ponytail in his fingertips. The gesture took the young woman by surprise, and she stared at him.
Damon felt a wall rising between him and Emma, and he didn't like it. The arguments between the two of them were becoming more and more recurrent, and he felt that she was pushing him away. Which, if he stopped to think rationally, was not true. They didn't hang out that much anymore, that was a fact. And it was also a fact that the reason was Elena. Ever since Stefan had turned off humanity, the young Gilbert had grown closer to him, and that had consequently turned him away from Emma. John's return to town had also consumed much of Sommers' time, who spent a lot of time with the man and Alaric. Either way, the estrangement of the two left a bitter taste in the mouth of the vampire's stomach.
"A penny for your thoughts", he joked, smirking.
"You wouldn't like my thoughts", she replied.
"Probably not, but still..." he shrugged.
"Are you one hundred percent sure about this plan?", Emma asked him, turning to him and removing a strand of her hair that had stuck to his jacket. She was losing quite a bit of hair, probably from the stress. "Honestly".
"No" Damon confessed, "But it's the best we got. And I... I want my brother back. I'm sick of Klaus controlling all of us".
Emma's gaze showed solidarity, she knew how much Damon cared about Stefan, even if sometimes his attitudes masked that fact.
"But what about Mikael? Even if it works, Mikael kills vampires, and you're a vampire" she whispered.
"Is that why you're so against this plan?", Damon smirked. He always felt something weird in his gut when Emma showed concern for him. His blood would run warmer, and he would be struck by the feeling of sitting in front of a fireplace, covered with a thick blanket, sipping his favorite drink. It was good, it was comfortable.
"Partly, yes" she answered, still in a whisper, "I don't want you to get hurt just because you want revenge. You're impulsive and gets worse when you're angry".
Her answer pleased him more than he would like to admit.
"And the other part?" he asked curiously.
She was quiet. She didn't want to say it was because she was tired of them running in circles to get Elena out of danger. Blaming her cousin for everything that was going on in town didn't sit well with her. Emma felt unfair, and she knew that part of her annoyance was because she felt inferior. No one had ever made her a priority, so the fact that Elena was the priority of everyone around her sparked a little bit of hurt and jealousy in Emma. So she just shrugged. Damon caught her hand and pulled her closer, forcing her to look him in the eye again.
"We're all gonna be okay, Dolly" he promised. "I won't let you get hurt, and I won't get hurt myself either".
"You better" she replied, sighing. "If you were a human, I would know where to find you, but you're not. So I don't really know how to get you from the other side if you die".
Damon smirked.
"Where would you find me if I was a human?" he asked.
"In hell, of course" she replied, arching her eyebrows, as if it were obvious. Damon laughed and wrapped her around her waist, pulled her close and collided her body against his.
"I promise I will stay alive then" he said and, smiling, sought her lips with his. Emma returned the kiss, buried her fingers in his black hair, and felt him invading her mouth with his tongue. She would never tire of his kisses. However, he broke the kiss sooner than she would have liked. "Let's go, babe. You have a dress to choose, and I have a hybrid to kill".
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Whenever any event occurred in Mystic Falls, Emma paid herself back by laughing in front of the mirror while getting dressed. It was tragically comical that in a town so plagued by supernatural problems, people still made a point of living a typical small town life. Murders? Let's have a movie night in the town square. Werewolves? How about afternoon tea? Hybrids and millennial vampires? Great time for a high school dance.
For that evening, Emma chose a plain petroleum blue dress, a little below the knees. If not for the loose hair and the more flowing skirt, she could easily pass for a secretary. She definitely looked like a teacher, but that is what she is anyway. Nevertheless, the reflection in the mirror pleased her. Emma heard three knocks on the door.
"Come in!" she called out and turned toward the door. Elena entered and smiled affectionately at her older cousin.
"You're beautiful" the younger one complimented, and Emma thanked her with a smile.
"Aren't you gonna dress for the dance?"
"I'll dress at Boarding House" Elena explained, and Emma nodded, turning to the mirror again to finish getting ready. She adjusted her gold reliquary with vervain, tucking it into the collar of her dress.
"Look, can we talk?", Elena asked.
"Sure. What's wrong?", Emma asked and walked over to the bed, gesturing for Elena to make herself comfortable beside her. The girl sat down next to her cousin.
"I just... I think there's this weird vibe between us. For a while now" Elena began. Emma opened her mouth to reply, but Elena waved her hand for her to listen. "I know I've been keeping you away from Damon and that you don't agree with our plans about Klaus and... I'm sorry, Em. I'm so lost, everything is upside down and he's been a good friend lately and..."
Emma felt ridiculous. There she was, only a few years of her 30's, so jealous of her 18-year-old cousin that it was evident to everyone in that town. The older girl's cheeks felt hot, feeling completely embarrassed.
"It's okay and I'm glad he was there for you" Emma tried to lie. "I know I suck at this parenting thing. I'm not good like Jenna..."
"You're doing great!"
"Stop, I know I'm not" Emma interrupted her. "I'm sorry for being so... difficult, I guess. This weird vibe you're saying is all on me, I just... honestly I just want to get you and Jer in a car and get the hell out of here. Away from this town, this craziness. I just don't understand why we're still at it".
"He will come after me no matter where I am. And I need to protect everyone" Elena said. Emma snorted.
"You're not protecting anyone, everyone is protecting you" Emma muttered. "You always get out without a scratch, but the others..."
"Don't you think I know that?" replied Elena, irritated. "That's exactly why I need to stop Klaus".
"Please listen to yourself, Elena!", Emma ordered, trying hard to keep her tone of voice low. "You want to keep everyone safe? Stay safe. Don't go plotting to kill the Originals".
"You don't understand" Elena complained, getting up from the bed.
"Oh, I understand! Just call this off. Go live your life like a teenager. We can leave here; we can go anywhere. Klaus won't look for you for years, and he does, just give a little blood in a syringe".
"I can't believe you are telling me this. You want me to just give my life for him? I'm not like you, Emma. You left this town, you made your life. All you think about is yourself, so of course you can't understand why I do what I do", Elena replied angrily.
"You think you're Mother Teresa, don't you? You can't keep putting yourself in danger, because every time you do, someone gets hurt. So, how about it?"
"Is everything okay in here?", John asked, poking his head into the room. The man had as eyebrows drawn together.
"Yes, everything is fine. I'm on my way to the boarding house" Elena announced, before storming out of the room like a hurricane, bumping into John's shoulder on the way. Emma huffed and turned to the mirror. With her fingertips, she tidied her lipstick.
"What was that about?" the man asked, genuinely curious. The relationship between him and Emma had grown much closer, and she no longer considered him unwanted company in the house. In fact, he had been quite helpful, especially with Jeremy. It was as if the man and Alaric were jointly taking over the gap that Grayson had left.
"Your daughter is planning on killing Klaus, and it involves Mikael" Emma replied.
John didn't seem surprised by the information, which left Emma, in turn, surprised.
"You already knew, didn't you?", Emma asked, turning to the man, "And you're not doing anything to stop her, why?"
"We both know I only screwed things up everytime I tried" he shrugged. "Besides, Damon and Stefan are in this too, she'll be safe".
"So now you trust them?", Emma asked, arching an eyebrow.
"For better or worse, they care for her. Too much, I must add" the man replied, and Emma bit her lower lip, holding back a rude response that wanted at all costs to come out, "I'm more worried about you".
"Me? Why?" she asked, picking up her purse from the armchair and punching her cell phone in there rather violently. John approached her and held her gently by the wrist.
"Emma... I know you have feelings for him, but..."
"Nop" Emma cut him off, popping the "p" with her lips. "Not gonna talk about it". John threw his hands up in surrender and let her out of the room. He stood there, hands resting on his waist, gazing up at the ceiling, until he heard the roar of Emma's car engine leaving.
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Less than an hour later, Emma found Rebekah lying on the floor, wearing a beautiful red dress. She had gone to the Boarding House after discovering that the school had mysteriously been closed due to an accident and the party had switched to the Lockwood Mansion. From what Emma could tell, the vampire was ready for the ball, until Elena drove a stake through her chest from behind.
"I can't believe you stabbed her by her back" Emma simply said, staring at Elena completely disappointed.
God was proof that Emma would probably flatter any Original if it meant her life would be safe, but she couldn't see herself using someone else's frailty for that, even if that person was, in fact, a thousand-year-old vampire. Emma couldn't pretend to care about someone only to stab them in the back. Literally.
So there it was. Elena acting out of self-interest. Emma, in general, didn't necessarily consider this trait a flaw. She, better than anyone, knew how important self-preservation was, however, Elena seemed to cross boundaries that not even she dared cross, and for reasons Emma couldn't see honesty.
"We're not doing this again, Emma" Damon replied before Elena could open her mouth, "Rebekah was a liability, you know that. She would go to Klaus and screw our plan".
Emma took her eyes off her cousin to face the vampire, and he suddenly didn't feel so sure of all the decisions he had made up to that point. The young woman looked at him as if he had let her down too, and it hurt. Damon was used to not acting on expectations, Emma had always known that. However, the world seemed off-axis. Since when did Elena approve of his attitudes, act as he would like her to act, while Emma stared at him as if he were a stranger? Something didn't seem right, but Damon decided to ignore that feeling.
Emma's eyebrows were slightly arched downward and she looked tired, as if she had given up arguing. Which was probably true. The young woman sighed and nodded positively, and then crossed the distance between her and the bedroom door, passing between Damon and Elena.
"I don't feel okay about what I just did, but..." Elena justified herself, hugging her own arms. "Emma makes it sound like it was the worst thing ever... Sometimes it's like she's against us".
"She's not" Damon replied quickly, frowning. Emma might not agree with their attitudes at many times, but she wasn't against them. In fact, he couldn't think of anyone more trustworthy than Emma.
He heard, in the distance, Emma's car starting up, and he felt the need to go after her. But at the same time, he knew they had a plan to follow.
"Here's what we're going to do. I'll grab Vamp-Barbie and drop her in the basement, and then we'll work on the plan".
And so it was done. Damon easily grabbed Rebekah and threw her into the basement while Elena and Stefan waited for him in the living room to hatch the plan.
The problem with the plan was that Damon, Elena and Katherine decided to go it alone. The vampire wouldn't have felt guilty if it hadn't been for the latter's presence. But the vampire doppelganger was the best weapon they had at that moment, especially after the party had moved from the school to the Lockwood's house thanks to Klaus' shrewdness, who packed the place with hybrids. Everything would have worked out perfectly, if not for Stefan. Damon had foreseen that Mikael would try to use Elena as bait, so he decided to get ahead of it. The plan was perfect: Mikael would threaten Elena's life and make Klaus unstable, and while the little chat between father and son was going on, Damon would shoot the hybrid in the back. Klaus would be dead. Elena would be safe. And they would deal with Mikael another time with Katherine's help.
But everything went off the rails when Stefan stopped Damon from killing Klaus by pulling him off the hybrid and causing the stake - the only weapon they had that was capable of killing Klaus - to fly away.
Damon knew that for some reason, despite having his humanity turned off, the younger man had acted with the purpose of keeping him from dying. After all, Damon was a vampire, and only a human could kill an Original without dying in the process. So Damon was pissed, and he couldn't decide if he was more pissed that Klaus was alive or that Stefan had saved the day once again. Even compelled by the Original, Stefan remained the good guy, and Damon was still the same old impulsive jerk.
And to make matters worse, there was Emma. He was pissed at Emma. Maybe more than he was with Stefan. The fact is that the stake flew to the woman's feet, who, stunned, seemed to think too quickly and threw the stake to Klaus, who drove it through Mikael's heart. So yes, Damon was pissed at Emma. They were back to square one. Klaus was alive, Elena was a slave to the wills of the Original, Mikael was dead, and worse, Emma was walking all over Damon.
Damon saw, his vision clouded by rage, Klaus release Stefan from the compulsion as a thank you. He also saw the Original walk slowly over to Emma, help the girl up off the floor, and swear to her that he owed her a favor.
As soon as Klaus left with his hybrids from the party, Emma looked around for Damon with widened eyes and looked relieved when she found him. She pulled up her petroleum blue dress and walked quickly over to him, slamming her thick, black heels against the uneven floor of the balcony of Tyler's mansion. The vampire stared at her with a frown.
"Hope you're happy" he spat. Emma arched her eyebrows.
"You were going to die" she justified. She knew he was pissed that she had handed Klaus the stake on a platter.
"You didn't do it for me, you could've killed him. You had the stake" Damon insisted, irritated, even though he knew, deep down, that Emma couldn't kill Klaus. He was faster and she would never get close to him in time, especially with the hybrid as aware of his surroundings as he was at that moment. "You did it because you didn't like the plan from the start".
"The plan you didn't tell anyone about?" she crossed her arms, incredulous at the direction of the conversation. "You saw what Mikael did".
"Yes, I saw it. He was going to kill Klaus!", Damon vociferated.
"He was going to kill Elena!", Emma raised her voice a little, losing her patience. "He stabbed her without a second thought!"
"It was Katherine, Jesus!", Damon replied in a lower tone than hers, huffing.
"But he didn't know it! I fucking didn't know it, because you plot a plan without any of us!"
"Elena knew about the plan, dolly, why'd you think she wasn't here?" he replied in a debauched tone, and Emma felt betrayed. Suddenly, it seemed that she was the only one who was unaware of the direction the evening would take. Which was probably true.
Emma looked to the side and found Caroline and Bonnie staring at them intently. John and Alaric were nearby, the former with his eyes focused on Emma, and his expression denoted that he knew that all of this would happen exactly as it did. The woman then turned her eyes to Damon, feeling discarded.
"So I was the only one in the dark about this plan?", Emma asked, lowering her tone. She pulled the air into her lungs hard, feeling her shoulders stiffen.
"You don't inspire trust very much when it comes to planning on killing Originals" Damon simply replied. The vampire noticed the woman's entire body stiffen and her thick, brown eyebrows arch upward in surprise.
"What?"
"First you sympathize with Barbie-Klaus, then with Klaus himself. How can we trust you?" he questioned, stepping forward and staring at her with a frown. He was angry again. He was angry at Emma for always doubting his plans, angry that she always took the side of anyone who stood against him. Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah, anyone. Damon felt at that moment, completely overcome by anger, that Emma was always the first to point the finger at him, even if the reality was the complete opposite. Even though he, in his innermost being, knew it was the opposite.
"I've never had plot at your back! I've never had plot against you, or without you, for that matter!", Emma defended herself, looking offended. "You're accusing me of betraying you because I don't see things in black and white?"
"Klaus killed Jenna, for fuck sakes" he spat in between.
"I fucking know this! I was there!" she replied exasperated. "You killed a lot of people's aunts as well, so did Stefan".
"Don't you fucking dare compare me to him" Damon grunted, and his eyes turned red. Black veins danced under his eyes, but Emma didn't look scared. She was angry, too. She was tired of Mystic Falls being separated into good guys and bad guys, even though the two sides acted exactly the same. Elena had stabbed Rebekah, Damon had been responsible for the deaths of dozens of people there, Stefan had activated ripper mode. How were they better than the others? What was the motivation that made them so noble and the others so cruel?
"I fucking killed someone! How am I better?" she questioned, in a fruitless attempt to try to show him that she wasn't against him, but that she couldn't just embark on whatever crazy plan he decided on. None of them, no one in that town, was completely good. Just as the Originals weren't completely evil.
But Damon couldn't see that. All he saw was another person he trusted turning his back on him, doubting his plans, putting his type in check. And he had had enough.
"You're not! You were dying to hear this, huh?", Damon spat. He was breathing heavily through his nose and his face was almost glued to hers. "So that's it: you're not better, and Stefan's not better. Another thing you two have in common: always thinking you're better than me, and always choosing someone else over me!"
"What?" Emma, surprised and frowning, asked.
"I am fucking tired of you all putting me aside. For weeks, Elena has been the only one who's at my side" Damon huffed, and Emma stared at him with a scarlet face.
"Am I not at you side? Since always? What have I been doing for the year? I am the only one that is always at your fucking side!" she protested. How could he not see it? She has always been at his side! If it was the world against him, she would still be at his side.
Damon laughed debauched and irritated, rolling his eyes.
"Ooosh, that was very Katherine of you," he teased, and Emma stared at him with widened eyes. Damon realized on the spot that he had gone too far. Of everything that had come out of his mouth that night, nothing had really hurt her until that moment. It only took one sentence for him to realize that he had hurt her. Again.
Yet he was angry, he was livid, and he was tired. And, above all, he was proud. And that was why he drove angrily back to Boarding House, driving at high speed, and when he arrived, he grabbed a bottle of vodka from Stefan and threw it into the fireplace.
The vampire threw himself onto the couch, irritated, and stared at the ceiling. Stefan had disappeared to God knows where with Katherine after he had saved him. That angered him, because yes, he knew that Stefan had done what he did to protect him, and so had Emma. The young woman had not thrown the stake to Klaus because she had taken the Original's side, but because she knew that the stake would kill him, or Klaus would kill him if he failed to kill Mikael. And that pissed him off, because she had always been on his side, he fucking knew that, and yet he compared her to Katherine, even though he knew that he himself was the one who actually looked like Katherine.
Something caught his eye, and the vampire reached out and reached for the book. One of Emma's books, which she had forgotten there God knows when. Taking a deep breath and controlling the urge to tear the object into a thousand pieces, he opened it, realizing that it was full of scribbles. One of her habits when reading anything. There were scratches, underlines, markings, and small notes. Leafing through the thick book, Damon's fingers stopped on a page that called out to him. Emma usually used a yellow highlighter, and this was observed on all marked pages. However, that marker was in blue.
"I have as much soul as you and full as much heart. And if God had blessed me with beauty and wealth, I could make it as hard for you to leave me as it is for I to leave you. I'm not speaking to you through mortal flesh, it is my spirit who addresses your spirit, as if we'd passed through the grave and stood at God's feet, equal, as we are".
Damon had always found this passage particularly overly dramatic, because yes, he had read Jane Eyre a few times. However, at that moment, the passage struck him, and he forced himself to ignore why. Because he knew the reason. He fucking knew the reason.