I am a lonely hero, trying to fight my battles
Life likes to blow the cold wind, sometimes it freezes my shadow
In the midst of all this darkness, I sacrifice my ego
There ain't no room for selfish, we do it for the people
And the night is takin' over, and the moonlight gets exposure
And the players have been chosen
And it seems like fate has spoken
When it seems your faith has broken, by the second, losin' focus
Ain't no way to get off, get off, get off, get off
Unless you move forward
— "It's On Again", Alicia Keys ft. Kendrick Lamar
.:.
"Our sired hybrid-friend Tyler—"
"Invite only, vampire."
"Here's my RSVP, hybrid."
"The big bad wolf—"
"Go ahead. Kill her."
She couldn't get it out of her head, those string of sentences playing on a constant loop. Hours had gone by since she left her supposed Homecoming dance at the Lockwood mansion, the bottoms of her feet still tingling from the rough sensations against her bare skin after the excruciatingly long walk back to the Gilbert residence—God she hated having such sensitivities. Her dress was crumpled into a ball at the foot of the bed on the floor, trading it in for the comfort of her favorite pair of sweatpants and a tank top before flopping face-down into the mattress, tugging the blankets over head to slowly roll herself into a burrito. And the more she thought about those Homecoming exchanges, the more she obsessed over the night of her car accident—she couldn't stop mulling over the murky details, still had a hard time believing that a fucking deer could cause so much damage. She remembered the skepticism on the mechanic's face when Elena had brought her to the auto garage her car had been towed to, and how badly she wanted to explain it was the truth because all in all she was a terrible liar. Because that's what memory served. Except . . . did it really? If Damon was a vampire, then that changed everything. From what she knew about vampires, it was entirely possible that somebody (Damon?) had altered her memory of the accident. But if Damon was a vampire that had to mean Stefan was, too. It wasn't uncommon for siblings to be turned, Rosalie and Jasper Hale being a prime example, as well as the whole Cullen family. A knot of uncertainty formed in Bella's chest as she wondered just how many more vampires were roaming around in Mystic Falls . . . her skin feeling uncomfortably hot when she factored hybrids into the equation. Whatever those were. It made her want to call Jake, maybe he'd have an idea on what that meant. Her fingers itched to grab her phone from where she'd flung the purse in her haste. The need for answers at this point was all consuming, it had her kicking herself free from the blankets, throwing half of her body off the bed to inch her way around the perimeter on her hands in search of the purse. A small 'gotcha!' left her lips as she undid the clasp and pulled her phone free, slowly weaseling her way back to lying on the bed. Surprisingly she had no new notifications, or maybe it wasn't all that surprising at all.
Before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, fueled by her racing thoughts, she dialed Jake's number and put the phone to her hear.
"Hello?" that familiar deep, husky voice breathed into the receiver. She had never been more grateful for time zones than right now.
"Jake!" She whispered back happily, clutching the phone closer to her ear. "I know it's a little late but I wanted to ask you something."
"No worries," he insisted. "What's up?"
Suddenly Bella didn't know what exactly to say, but decided to propel forward as best as she could. "Um, have you... have you heard of this thing... So, I overheard this girl Caroline talk about their friend, and she called him a hybrid... and then I heard it again from this guy—" she made sure to leave out the vampire part, "—so I was wondering if maybe this is something you might be familiar with? Do you know what a hybrid is?"
It was silent for a moment.
And then—
"Are you... are you laughing at me? Seriously?" Bella screeched.
More laughter: louder, more uncontrollable.
"Stop laughing!"
Finally, Jake calmed down enough to slip some words in. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I wasn't laughing at you," he promised, "But that's... My dad always used to tell me about the Big Bad Wolf as a kid and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world because how can there be—"
A lightbulb went off in Bella's head, she immediately cut him off. "Wait, say that again."
"Uh... I thought it was—"
"No, no, no. Sorry. What did Billy call it?" She shot up to sitting on her bed, her legs curling in towards her chest.
"The Big Bad Wolf?" Jake sounded confused.
Bella's mouth tasted funny, a sort of metallic sensation filling it. She forced herself to swallow several times in case she might vomit. "Did... I... Did he ever say an actual name?" Her voice was scratchy, and she winced.
"I don't know... But it's just a scary bedtime story, Bella." He sounded so sure, and Bella wanted to believe him. But just to be safe—
"Can you ask your dad if he's ever heard about a guy named Klaus?" She said tentatively. There wasn't a response, but she heard the rustling of fabric which meant Jake had been in bed when she called, and he must have left his phone in his room as he went to go hunt down his dad to find out. Then she heard somebody's panting, the heavy footsteps as Jake raced back into his bedroom.
Scrambling of hands as the phone was picked up. "My dad said there's this story about a really old vampire named Niklaus and, apparently, he comes from a whole family of bloodsuckers, and they call themselves the 'Originals' because my dad they were the first vampires ever created. But Niklaus wasn't like the others. My dad said that's why they call him—"
"The Big Bad Wolf." Bella finished quietly.
There was a small huff of laughter, and she could practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Yes and no, I guess. He's also the Original Hybrid."
Bella choked on her own breath. The Original Hybrid. But what does that mean? Clearly there is wolves involved, based on that flippant comment from Homecoming and what Jake had said about the bedtime story, but combined with what? If vampires and werewolves were real, she would bet whatever's left of her bank account that it also meant any other kind of supernatural creatures can be more than just fictional characters in books and movies. Which left an endless list of possibilities.
"But relax, like I said it's just a story." He insisted.
A quiet whine escaped her. More than anything she wanted to debunk that, but this niggling fear of something she couldn't quite explain told her that it was best for Jake to be kept in the dark. He didn't need to know how real it could be. She wanted to keep him safe, and he would continue to be because he was all the way in Washington on the other side of the country. "You're right, it's just a story," she finally managed to squeak out. "Sorry if I kept you up or anything."
"You didn't," Jake reassured. "I'm glad you called though. Anything else going on? Catch me up on all things Mystic Falls." Instead, she told him about Edward's phone call, him randomly showing up at her Homecoming, and Jake was practically choking. "He did what?"
"Yeah." was all she groaned—her ex-boyfriend was now entering psychotic territory.
Or maybe he'd always been there, it was just something she never noticed because of how blindly she loved him.
.:.
The next twenty-four hours+ consisted of a symphony of knuckles rapping against her bedroom door, calling her name and asking if she was alright, if she needed anything. Food had been left outside for her if she was hungry since she ignored when they told her meals were ready.
Before long, Monday was rolling around and Bella had no choice but to get out of bed.
.:.
"I was beginning to think you were abducted," Elena joked when she spotted Bella coming down the stairs so they could ride to school.
"I wasn't feeling good after Homecoming," she struggled to keep her face neutral with great effort, throwing the bait to get her to talk about why she lied about not going to Homecoming, or explain simply why she hadn't bothered telling her that she changed her mind. But Elena just blinked at her. Smiled. Either Elena had a really good poker face (knew not to fall for the set up) or Bella was losing her mind and never actually saw Elena at Homecoming with Matt. Bella inwardly groaned, walking out the door behind Elena. They'd just made it to Elena's Ford Escape when her phone pinged in her pocket; she was half-way anticipating it (full of dread) to be from Edward, who hadn't contacted her since Saturday, which was definitely a win in her book, but she still remained cautious. Relief flooded through her when she saw it was an auto-text from the rental company. She looked up, hand hovering over the door handle. Truthfully, she was desperate enough to go straight there so she could stop relying on Elena to get around, but she still had her academics to focus on. "Can you bring me to the rental agency after school? They finally got a new car for me."
"Sure thing."
The ride to school was a little on the quiet side, save for the music playing from the radio. Bella continuously went over in her head what she wanted to say to Elena, but how does somebody broach the topic of vampires to someone who may not even have the slightest clue as to what she's really dealing with? Not to mention she was still curious about Elena attending Homecoming with Matt Donovan; not that there was anything wrong with the guy—he even reminded her a little bit of her friend Mike Newton from back in Forks, just not as dopey. In fact, he seemed hyperaware compared to a lot of people she knew. Wait. Caroline had been talking about hybrids to Elena and Matt. Did that mean . . .? She bit her lip, unsure. Things still didn't make sense. She was no closer to knowing what a hybrid even was after her conversation with Jake on Saturday. Could Elena know what Damon and Stefan were? She doubted Stefan would have been able to keep something like that from her for the duration of their relationship. If not him, then Damon definitely seemed like the type to relish in vampirism and would have probably had to have slipped up at some point to make Elena aware of vampires' existence. Especially if she knows what a hybrid is. And what about Caroline? She obviously knows about hybrids, so she has to be aware of vampires, too, right?
Agh, this was just getting more and more complicated.
Unfortunately, Bella had no choice but to continue stewing in her thoughts by herself, because they were pulling into the student-only parking lot before she had the chance to think of an appropriate way to bring it up to Elena. She hooked her schoolbag over her shoulder as she climbed out of the car, and slammed the door closed with a little more force than necessary, earning her a raised eyebrow over the hood as they met at the front end to walk together into school.
Throughout the day Bella was constantly on the lookout for Tyler, her mind reeling, torn between wanting to confront him as soon as she would spot him and wanting to spring in the opposite direction because she had no idea what a hybrid was even capable of. She'd even broken down to googling hybrid but that just gave her generic definitions (the offspring of two plants or animals, eye roll) and links to hybrid cars. This gave her flashbacks of when she was finding out more information on vampires two years ago, her extensive searches in books and scouring the internet because she knew something was off about Edward and his circle. The only difference being it wasn't this damn hard to read about vampires, and honestly, she couldn't help feeling annoyed—maybe even pissed off.
The only thing that actually got her through the next seven hours was the fact that she would finally be getting a new rental car, but it only served as a minor distraction from her racing thoughts of vampires and hybrids (and bears, oh my!)
.:.
"I can practically see the smoke coming out of your ears," Elena said; they'd been driving for at least twenty minutes in utter silence—school had ended, they were now on their way to Richmond to get Bella's new rental car, and she'd been staring (no, glaring) out the window for the whole duration thus far. "What's going on?"
Bella would be stupid not to take that as an opening to have this conversation.
"Maybe you can tell me, Elena..." She started off tentatively, "We can talk about how you went to Homecoming on Saturday with Matt Donovan," her words were sweet, innocent, but she pushed forward before Elena could interrupt her, "or we can talk about your friend Tyler and you can tell me what the hell a hybrid is. . . oh, there's also the fact that apparently Damon's a vampire and I watched him rip some guy's heart out. And what about Klaus? Who is he? I talked to my friend Jacob, and he said that guy's just some scary bedtime story. . ." she didn't realize she hadn't taken a breath until her head started to feel a little lighter, and a deep gasp escaped her, letting the fresh air circulate as she inhaled again.
"How do you—"
"Know about any of this?" She interrupted. "Because Edward is a vampire, like Damon and Stefan."
Just mentioning his name created a wave of repulsion and maybe even a little sadness, more than anything that is what Bella wanted to talk to Elena about: his unexpected arrival at Homecoming and the events that followed. She wanted to just have some sort of normalcy, to have a girl friend to talk about her scumbag ex-boyfriend, but that could wait until she got the answers she was looking for.
"I..." Elena cleared her throat. "Yes, Damon and Stefan are vampires." there really was no use in lying about it, not when Bella could possibly even be an asset. Bella turned away from the window to look over at her friend. "I'll tell you the full story about Klaus another time because there are a lot of things to go over, but he is a vampire and a werewolf. He used to be the only one until he discovered that my blood helps create more hybrids. My friend Tyler unwillingly became one of them." She bit down on her lower lip harder than necessary; Bella could see the welling of blood as it pooled a little around her teeth before she licked it away. "Stefan is... gone. He turned off his humanity and was basically Klaus's little bitch until he earned his freedom at Homecoming."
"Who died?" She blurted out, thinking back to the showdown on the Lockwood's front porch. Go ahead. Kill her.
"Klaus's father, Mikael."
"What?"
"We lured Mikael to town because he was supposed to be our way to kill Klaus, but Stefan interfered, and it was Mikael who died instead." Elena's voice cracked. "Klaus repaid him by giving Stefan his freedom and he fled town the first chance he got, not that anyone blames him for leaving—it's just... it's really hard, because we had him. We could've finally been free of Klaus and now I'm constantly looking over my shoulder because Klaus will retaliate."
"Wow... I'm so sorry, Elena." Bella frowned, and then she turned something over in her head, thinking of what Elena said. Her eyes widened, then narrowed, her lips pressing firmly together for a moment before she spoke again, "Wait a minute, what do you mean your blood is the key to making more hybrids?"
"Right..." She let out a small, humorless laugh. "So, uh... turns out I was supposed to die in a ritual that helped Klaus break the curse binding his werewolf side so that Klaus couldn't make more hybrids. I'm a doppelgänger, which is... basically I'm an exact carbon copy of the very person whose blood was used to create Klaus's hybrid curse, and because I lived, something he didn't know until recently, he went through trial and error, and put Tyler's life on the clock," Bella could tell there was no metaphor here, "and Bonnie was the one who discovered my blood would keep the wolves from dying during transition."
"I'm sorry, did you just say Bonnie did?" Bella stared at her expectantly.
"Bonnie's... a witch."
"Oh, what the fuck," Bella slid down in her seat, her hands immediately covering her face. Vampires, werewolves, witches, hybrids, and doppelgängers. This small little town seemed to be harboring a few secrets of its own, huh? "Is there anything else I should know about?"
"Caroline's a vampire, too." Elena mumbled, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
"Am I the only one who is still human?!" She exclaimed into her hands, remembering how she'd felt when she learned that not only was Edward a vampire, but Jacob had accidentally triggered his werewolf gene last year.
"No..."
The one thing she really wanted to ask, though, she just couldn't bring herself to say aloud: did a vampire cause my accident? Because once she knew that answer then it would lead into a catastrophe of other problems, starting with who fucked with her memory so she was programmed to think a deer had leaped out into the middle of the road and making her look ridiculous in front of the mechanic. And she figured she'd already gotten enough out of Elena right now, who seriously looked like she wanted to be taken out either to get some fresh air or by a rifle, she didn't seem too picky.
.::.
"Here you go, Miss Swan." The kind, elderly concierge at the rental agency said a half hour later as he handed the keys over to her new car.
"Thank you," she said, accepting them graciously, wrapping her fist around them so hard that the grooves dug into her palm she might've drawn blood. She couldn't get out of there fast enough, another worker coming from the back to bring her to the rental (a silver 2010 Chevy Impala), and suffering through mindless simple chatter because she was raised to be polite, not to mention she spent a majority of her life with an irrational fear of cutting conversations short because her dad was a cop and he ingrained into her brain that not everyone has pure intentions; it didn't help watching the news from time to time either to hear about all the horrific things that could happen to her, that's happened to people in their own mundane everyday lives.
.:.
Later that night, Bella was sitting at the kitchen island, swirling a celery stick around in a little dish of ranch dressing. They'd gotten take-out for dinner, Jeremy had been in the mood for extra hot Buffalo wings and absolutely refused to let them order from the Mystic Grill, insisting they get it from a new wing spot that just opened up instead, so they got a little of everything that they liked. Elena played it safe with the garlic-parmesan wings, while Bella was a sucker for the dry-rub lemon pepper, and this new joint proved to come with an excellent recommendation, so now she was left with her celery sticks after polishing off six wings. She hadn't realized she'd been so hungry until the food arrived. Jeremy had left shortly after they were all done eating, mumbling something about getting called in to work and was out the door before they could question him.
"Don't you look lost in thought," a male's insufferable voice beckoned. "Daydreaming about me? If you wanted to see me naked, all you have to do is ask."
Bella looked up from the counter, swiveling around in her seat, to see Damon leaning against the archway that led into the kitchen. Her eyes immediately narrowed; the corners of her mouth turned down into an angry slash. "What do you want, Damon?"
"Elena told me you saw what happened on Saturday." He replied, losing all trace of humor.
"Of course, she did," she muttered and shook her head. "I only saw you ripping some guy's heart out, I left before that guy Mikael died."
"I'm sure it was a lot to process." Damon said, and it took her a moment to realize that he was no longer being supported by the archway, rather he was slowly closing the distance between them. Itty-bitty baby steps. As if testing the waters, expecting her to tell him to not come any closer. Did he think she was afraid of him? She wasn't too sure, but her expression remained impassive.
"Yeah, it was," she finally answered. All in all, this was the first time she'd ever witnessed somebody's heart being extracted from their chest. At the start of her relationship with Edward (a good six months in) she had the unfortunate experience of being hunted down by a malicious vampire named James, whom the Cullen's had bad blood with for close to ninety years, but it had been Jasper Hale who'd staked him in heart, Edward told her. She'd lost a lot of blood, and was barely conscious for James's demise, which she honestly preferred. So yes, combined with the overwhelming information of Mystic Falls being a supernatural melting pot, having watched Damon tear that guy's heart out could have potentially sent her over the edge. But it didn't. "How long have you and your brother been vampires?"
Damon raised an eyebrow; this clearly wasn't something he expected her to ask. He cleared his throat. "We were turned in 1864."
"Wow, and you guys lived in Mystic Falls when you were human?" She tilted her head, curious.
"Yes..."
For reasons she couldn't quite figure out, this sparked the slightest memory inside of her brain, and she straightened up in her seat even more. "You fought in the Civil War," she stated matter-of-factly, "Did you know a guy named Jasper Hale, by any chance?"
Damon half-smiled, it offered the smallest hint of a smirk, and Bella was now uncomfortably aware of how close Damon now stood. "Yeah, I know him. He was a good buddy of mine. I actually talked to his girlfriend not that long ago, glad to know he's doing good for himself and found somebody who can keep up with the likes of him."
"Her name's Alice, she's one of my best friends, and sh—" Bella cut herself off, absorbing exactly what Damon had just said. Her eyes widened in recognition. "Holy shit, you're the person she called last week? To try to set me up with a place to stay?" She thought of the text she'd sent about the change of plans, but they'd never responded, or if they did it had to have been after her old phone was broken beyond repair during the car accident. She hadn't changed her phone number—though at this point with everything going on with Edward she might as well—but none of her information had transferred over onto her new phone, so she wouldn't have had the chance to see if they did answer her.
His head cocked to the side, his expression solemn for a moment, and then, he, too, seemed to have a light go off. He responded with a low chuckle, "It appears so."
"But how... that's so... Alice," she groaned, shaking her head. Despite the fact that Bella hadn't made the decision to drive down to Mystic Falls until well after she'd talked with Alice, could there have been a chance that it had planted itself in her mind subconsciously and that's how Alice knew to make the call to Damon? Or was it purely by chance that she still ended up in Mystic Falls, crossing paths with the Salvatore's?
"I take it that's why you didn't freak out on Saturday and come storming over," Damon observed, guessing that she already knew of the existence of vampires. It seems Elena hadn't told him about Edward's vampirism, just about things pertaining to what happened on Saturday; it occurred to her that she'd never actually gotten around to telling Elena that Edward showed up to Homecoming.
"My ex-boyfriend is a vampire, so is his entire family." Bella stated. "In case you didn't already know."
"I've never met them," he pointed out. "But I know of Alice and her brother."
She swallowed a grunt of disgust and nodded. "Edward could pass off as your brother's twin." She said as an afterthought. "Could you maybe step back or something? I really don't want you standing this close to me."
"Sure," he obliged by moving to leaning against the other side of the kitchen island, helping himself to a piece of celery and chomping down on it, chewing slowly before swallowing. "So is there an—"
"What's the deal with you and Elena?" She blurted out, cutting him off.
His eyes darkened ever so slightly, but the rest of his face remained neutral. "We're friends, and I'm helping her get through a tough time. We spent the entire summer tracking down my brother and Klaus, only for it to blow up in our faces. My brother's flipped his humanity switch, he's never coming back, at least not in her lifetime."
"I don't trust you," Bella warned, her tone sharp around the edges.
"You are a deeply mistrusting person and I respect that." Damon said.
"Yeah, well, I walked in on my boyfriend of two years having sex with Jasper's twin sister, so, that does things to a person." She snapped, sliding off the bar stool and collecting her plate and little dish of dressing to put it in the sink after throwing out the scraps.
"That's gotta be hard," Damon said apologetically. "Not that I don't—I mean, I'm sorry that happened to you." He quickly changed his words around when she shot him an icy glare, and turned away from her, moving around the counter this time to walk out of the kitchen. But before he disappeared, he glanced over his shoulder. "For what it's worth, your boyfriend's an idiot. All men are. You're good to get away from him, and if he gives you any more trouble, I'll handle him."
"Ex," she corrected quietly.
Damon was already gone by the time she realized what he'd said, implying that maybe Elena had said something to him in regards at least to Edward's phone calls, and she stomped her foot childishly. If Edward showed his face again she wanted to be ready, and this time she'd hopefully have Damon as back-up if Edward tried anything funny.
note: peep my little reference to Spiderman: No way Home despite the fact that it doesn't exist yet in this timeline! anyway, sorry if this chapter is a little all over the place. i still have no clue what i'm doing but i'm trying the best i can to make sense of it all. obviously, the werewolves from twilight aren't a thing just like sparkling vampires. it's all a part of the same universe for the sake of this story; meaning vampires burn in the sun and werewolves trigger their curse by taking a human life, either by accident or with full intention. if there are any questions i will happily try to answer them to the best of my ability.