the demons we hide
The world around Elena comes into focus as her eyes slowly flutter open. A blur of greens and dark browns shift pass her vision and she sits up suddenly in a flash, breathing hard. Elena instantly looks over to Klaus, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, dimpled and all, his eyes on the road.
A dull ache resides in her head and when she lifts a hand to gingerly rub her forehead she winces. Elena recognizes that warm, fuzzy, blurry feeling. She has a hangover. A terrible one.
She instantly groans and Klaus gives a low chuckle.
"What?" Elena snaps, her head throbbing.
"After you started ripping open people's throats, I nearly had to drag you from the bar last night. Didn't want you to cause a scene." He pauses momentarily, amusing himself with his thoughts. "You put up quite a struggle."
She ignores him, facing the road, trying to force the headache away. It doesn't work.
"I-I drank too much last night. My actions were...influenced by the alcohol."
"Actions like throwing yourself at me, for instance?"
Elena flushes red, turning to look away outside the window. Her eyes don't entirely focus on the landscape but instead at her reflection. Elena looks flustered and speechless. She instantly composes herself and finds her words again. "Definitely the alcohol."
"That's what I thought," he says smugly, so arrogantly that Elena turns to him in a sudden rage.
"Don't flatter yourself, Klaus. I was drunk and let myself out of control. You were just there to witness it. End of story," she hisses curtly and falls silent, realizing her mistake: she has just snapped at the Original Hybrid. But apparently he's in a rather flexible mood, and not so easily enraged for once. So he smirks up at her, infuriating her even more.
"Rest up, sweetheart," he drawls. "You'll be making a little donation soon enough."
Her stomach turns to acid but inside she hopes Klaus will keep his word. He'd said, back at the warehouse, that only her blood was needed, right? Not a full-blown sacrifice. She hopes he was telling the truth. Confused, her mind whirling and throbbing, she leans her aching head against her arm, seeking a comfortable position.
In the end she gives up, finding none.
A car door slamming pulls her from her dreams, and Elena is startled awake. Warily, she looks to find Klaus waiting for her, having pulled open her door for her. Wordlessly, she exits the car and takes in her surroundings quickly.
They're in the city, with the bustling crowds and fast-moving pace of life. Signs blare with colour and the constant hum of every day life fills her ears. She discovers they've stopped at a hotel. And not just any hotel.
This hotel is painted pure white, lush gardens encircling it and walls lined with gold. Her mouth is dry in awe and she realizes she's staring with her mouth wide open. She has a right to. The only other times she's been out of town is with Damon, in Atlanta and in New York. But this is different. "You had to go overboard with this, didn't you?" she says hoarsely.
"What else do you expect?" he says matter-of-factly, and leads her inside.
"Did you find your witch?" she questions simply as they walk past the many doors in the hallway.
"No, but she'll find me," he answers.
They have separate rooms, and before he enters his he flicks an object in her direction. She catches it nimbly and looks down. A credit card? "Run, and you'll be running straight-"
"-into my imminent death, I know," she finishes for him. He nods, face expressionless and guarded, and heads inside his room.
She stares down again, realizing the credit card's purpose. Her heart sinks with the discovery. It's going to be a long journey, so she needs to buy clothes. It's going to be a long journey.
A long time before she can return to Mystic Falls.
She ends up going with casual apparel, the kind she used to wear when she was human. When she was the average girl-next-door. When she turned, she found herself exploring her fashion sense a little more thoroughly. Now she felt herself leaning back to her old style. Elena sensed there was going to be a lot of fighting in the next few days. She couldn't be able to move freely if she had a dress or skirt. She needed to be ready. No one was taking her life, and she was prepared to fight for it. Even fight Klaus, even though she would die. Well, at least die trying.
With a pair of dark jeans, sneakers, and a shirt, she heads back to the hotel.
It's dark outside now, and she barely has time to admire her room as she stumbles into the shower, washing the dirt and grime and blood from her body.
She falls into bed, fatigued from last week's stressful events. First being kidnapped by Klaus, on the day of Graduation, Graduation of all days, torn from her friends and happiness.
Then having to feed from a witch in order to save Bonnie's life from being endangered. Then, Klaus with the massacre of the witches, killing them just to spite her. He needed to find a new, powerful witch.
They found themselves at a bar. Klaus threatened the witch and Elena went off to have a drink. Or a drink too many. Before she know it, she's dancing up a storm, in a haze of bloodlust and adrenaline and the music pumping loudly, thrumming in her ears. Then almost killing someone.
Just thinking about everything makes her head hurt.
"Go to sleep, Elena," Klaus says in a sigh, out loud from the other room and she flinches, not entirely used to her vampire hearing yet and how she can hear through walls. Tuning her ears, she can hear that he's drinking. She can imagine him now: legs stretched out, bed still made, shoes still on, leaning back against the headboard and drinking to his heart's content.
She sighs, too, and before she know it she dissolves into tears.
Everything is pressing an overbearing weight on her and she can no longer handle it anymore. She misses Damon and Stefan. And Caroline and Bonnie and-oh God she misses all of them so much, it makes her heart ache longingly.
It's all because of him. Again. He caused everything to happen. Because of him, Kol will be awakened. And he'll want to kill her for playing a part in his murder. What will she do then? Will Klaus stop him, to protect her, or more accurately, her precious blood from being spilled? He needs her blood to make more hybrids, when she's human again. A doppelgänger is no use to him dead.
But Elena isn't sure. What if something changes? What if Klaus doesn't stop him?
Klaus doesn't come to comfort her, and Elena doesn't expect him to. She pulls the covers around her tightly, and sobs to herself, waiting for morning. Even though they've agreed to be allies, somewhat, she still feels alone.
A/N:: hope you guys enjoyed this chapter ;) more coming soon, i promise!