Fourteenth.
The next few days I just concentrated on getting my strength back. I was able to talk and had started walking around with help, my legs still a bit shaky. They all took shifts with me during the day, there were always at least two people in the house. No one asked me why I was in the woods and I didn't ask how I got back here. I needed a few days to just focus on getting better before tackling those subjects. I did, however, want to talk to Elena about it.
It was hard to get her alone with the constant rotation of people in and out of the house. I heard that Damon was in the house, but he never came to my room. I was a little disappointed, but not really surprised. I had heard that I'd broken his jaw and the orbit around his eye. Of course they healed up quickly, but he wasn't anxious to come back and relive that. When I finally got a chance to talk to Elena I was well enough to get down the stairs and sit by the fire. The cool air had descended on the region and the warmth from the fire was heavenly.
We settled in on one of the couches face-to-face. "Okay, I can't take this anymore. No one wants to talk to me about what happened and it's driving me crazy." I told her.
"I think everyone wanted to give you some space. You were in pretty rough shape when you got back here." She explained. "You fought them so hard in the woods, even after they gave you the shot. They were exhausted when they came back."
"Wait, when who came back?" I asked her.
"Stefan, Damon and Caroline," she told me, "They only brought that syringe in the off chance that they needed it, but they said you kept screaming for Lexi and thrashing around so hard. They were all bruised up when they got back, Stefan had a broken rib, Caroline had two broken fingers. You are a hell of a lot stronger than any of them thought."
"Those three were the ones that got me out of the woods?"
"Yeah, you didn't know that?" She seemed surprised.
"No, I was knocked to my knees, blindfolded and had my ears and mouth covered. I was terrified, of course I fought back!"
"Norrah, I'm so sorry, I thought you knew. They said they all talked to you, tried to calm you down but you kept screaming for help and for Lexi. They had no other choice. We had all thought Katherine had taken you and they were afraid that you're screaming and fighting would draw attention to them."
"What was in the syringe?" I asked her.
"Bonnie figured out that if they mixed witch hazel with the vervain that it wouldn't burn you, just knock you out. We had no idea how much it would take, so they filled the syringe and were planning to give it to you little by little to see how you reacted. Caroline tried to just give a little, but the guys couldn't keep you still and she couldn't control it. She gave you the whole syringe."
I stopped for a minute to take it all in. So they figured out how to use vervain on me without hurting me. Not exactly a comforting thought. "If you are worried about Katherine finding out about it, you don't have to. It was while she had you at the cabin."
"That's not really what I'm worried about. If Katherine wants to vervain me, she isn't going to take the time to dilute it. She enjoyed seeing me in pain," I told her. "What worries me is why you all felt like you needed to figure that out at all."
"We just wanted to help, no one wanted to see you in that kind of pain again. She has just taken you and we had no idea where you were. We just thought that if we found you and you were in that kind of pain again we might have come up with something to help."
I stood up and walked over right next to where Elena sat. "Well if you want to help, answer one more question for me. What happened to Lexi? She was there when I woke up and then she was gone, where did she go when you all rushed into the room?"
Elena looked genuinely confused. "Lexi?" she asked, "Norrah, Lexi hasn't been here at all."
"She was here, I saw her, when I opened my eyes I saw her. She whispered in my ear to encourage me and she held my hand. Lexi is the only one who knows how to comfort me like that."
She looked up at me, sadness in her eyes. "Norrah, that wasn't Lexi, it was Caroline. Caroline was with you when you opened your eyes." I could read it in her eyes. She didn't really believe that Lexi was here at all, she thought I was crazy just like the rest of them. I couldn't believe it.
"Elena," I said to her quietly, calmly, "I think you can take the rest of the afternoon off." I looked over towards the study "And tell Damon he's free to go as well, I no longer need a babysitter." I ran out of the living room and up the stairs. I heard Elena calling but I didn't care. I double locked the door, standing there for a moment, listening to Elena and Damon downstairs and then walked away.
I pulled the dark curtains over the windows closed, turned off all but one light and sat down on the bed hugging my knees. I knew I wasn't crazy, it was all real. It didn't matter if they believed me, I knew it was Lexi that was with me in the woods. I glanced over at the bedside table, the small drawer at the top was cracked open. I unfolded my arms and pulled it open revealing all of my prints of Lexi and I, starting way back in the late 1800's. I flipped through one by one. Flappers in the twenties, Rosie the Riveter, nurses again in the forties, paper hats and all; in the fifties we hung out at diners, wore poodle skirts into the early sixties; we both made very convincing hippies in the seventies. The eighties and nineties were a bit of a hot mess, but at least we looked ridiculous together. I put them down on the mattress next to me and smiled.
Hold on! Pictures! Yes! We had taken pictures in the woods. They would have to believe me. I jumped off the bed scattering the prints on the floor and grabbed my bag that had obviously been recovered with me but had gotten pretty banged up in the process. I dove in desperate to find that camera. My hand hit the cold metal at the bottom and I yanked it out. There it was my proof! My hands were shaking as I turned the screen on and I fumbled with the buttons. I had to scroll through a few of the older pictures before I found them, but finally I got to the pictures in the woods…
But wait a minute, this wasn't right. The first few pictures were just of trees and leaves. I scrolled further and saw a few of a deer standing in the woods, then a few pictures of me. Something was wrong, I saw these pictures that night; I knew that she was in them. I scrolled faster only to find myself hanging my arm out in mid-air where Lexi's shoulder should have been, pretending to bite the air where her neck had been. No, No, NO!
I lifted the camera above my head and slammed it to the floor watching it shatter. I grabbed my head in my hands and squeezed. For five hundred years I'd had a level head on my shoulders, but ever since I came here I've lost control. I couldn't keep doing this. I needed a break; A break from my friends, a break from this house, and a break from Mystic Falls.