Hello, my lovely readers. This is Liv's story and there are minor spoilers for TVD 8x03 and 8x04. On with the show…
Chapter 10: Life Sentence
Rubbing her unruly locks, Liv Parker sat up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. "Where in hell am I?" she questioned the room. The room, of course, did not speak back. Given most rooms' tendency to not speak, Liv felt better that the walls did not reply. so, maybe, she wasn't crazy. But waking up in a stranger's bed did not bode well for her.
Liv got up and decided to check out the place to see what kind of trouble she'd gotten herself into this time. Entering the hallway, it dawned on Liv that she knew exactly where she was. "Damon?" she shouted, peering around her, up and down the empty halls.
"Stefan? Anybody?" Liv shouted. The silence filled the house and she felt scared for the first time in a very long time. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be trapped in the Salvatore house by herself. No, this would be more like something that would happen to Kai. Right? What could she have done to deserve to be stuck here, all alone?
Her feet made their way down the hallway, down the stairs and into the great room. "Well, at least there's booze," Liv noted. She picked up the decanter and poured herself some of Damon's bourbon. "Hey, Damon, I'm drinking you're liquor!" she shouted, looking around for the sarcastic vampire who she did not entirely hate, just mildly loathed. "And I'm going to raid your closet!"
No one answered and Liv felt her neck stiffen. This is what it must have been like for Kai, being trapped, having no one to talk to—for decades—but himself. She never felt sorry for him. He'd brought it on himself. Kai had never been her family, just the boogey man who gave her nightmares and who tried to kill what remained of her family. Jo. And Luke…
Liv swallowed what remained in the glass, draining it dry and hissing as it burned down her throat. She picked up the decanter and poured out more. She would need to be good and drunk to deal with this, whatever this turned out to be. "Damon," she tried again, "I'm going to drink all of your alcohol. Then I'm going to put on a fashion show in your clothes, stretching them all out with my awesome physique. After that, I'm going to go upstairs and clog up your bathtub drain with my hair. Maybe I'll even start trashing the house. How would you like that?" she shouted, going over to the fireplace and picking up the poker, brandishing it like a weapon. "Come on, Damon! Come out here! I'm tired of this, whatever stupid game this is. You want my help with a spell, you got it, just stop hiding!"
For a moment, Liv thought that maybe Damon would appear out of nowhere but the silence echoed through the house and Liv felt her eyes pool with tears. How did Kai take being here, all alone, for so long? It was just one day and Liv could feel herself cracking up. She missed Tyler even though he's broken up with her. She missed Jo although all they did was talk on the phone. She missed the stupid Mystic Falls Gang who really got on her nerves with their do-gooder outlook on life.
"Come on, somebody?" Liv shouted before flinging the fire poker, aiming it at the opposite wall, knowing it would fall before it made its mark because she wasn't a vamp or a wolf or a javelinist or whatever those people were called who threw the javelin at the Olympics.
When the poker stopped in mid-air, Liv sucked in a deep breath and then glared at the last person she would ever want to be stuck in a prison world with. "Kai!" she choked out, flinging her glass toward her older brother. He didn't catch it, simply smashed it with the fire poker, sending shards of glass flying.
"Sis," Kai greeted her. "Seems you're feeling a wee bit lonely. Join the club. Sorry it took me so long to greet you, but I was a bit busy at the Grill. Someone's got to collect the lost souls that have been popping up here and it looks like that task has fallen to me." Kai grinned at her and Liv let out a disgusted groan.
"So there are other people here," Liv snapped. She strode around a couch and moved to leave the room when Kai moved to stop her, blocking her path and waving the fire poker like people shake a finger at a naughty child.
"Nope. It's just us," Kai said and Liv deflated, folding her arms over her chest.
"So, what, are you planning on torturing me? Huh? Is that the grand plan since it's just you and me, Kai?" Liv demanded, searching her demented older brother's eyes, waiting for him to spit out his evil plan.
"Nu-uh." Kai shook his head vigorously. "Nope. Not the plan at all, little sis. I want to talk. That's it." He continued to wave the fire poker around as he spoke.
"Yeah. Because your waving that thing around is inspiring so much confidence at the moment." Liv scoffed and Kai's eyes widened, darting down the possible weapon in his hands.
"Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Bye-bye, instrument of torture," Kai tossed the fire poker and it landed three feet from the fireplace. He walked over to one of the couches, plopped down, throwing his arms out to either side of him, his feet falling atop the coffee table. "Where were we? Oh, yes, talking," Kai pointed a finger at Liv with a smile that might put someone else at ease, if they didn't know he was a raving lunatic.
"What do you want to talk about?" Liv inquired, rolling her eyes and running her hand through her hair. She refused to sit down, choosing to lean over the back of the couch opposite the guy who would happily murder her in her sleep.
"You. Me. But right now, I want to ask you a question, Livie. You don't mind if I call you that, do you?" Kai sat forward, long arms dangling over his knees as he watched her, his expression intent.
"Since we're stuck together—for now—shoot." Liv waited. She just wanted to distract him before killing him and making a run for it. He'd catch her since they might have forever here with only each other for company, but she wouldn't just sit here with him, if she could help it.
"Right," Kai grinned and it made her skin crawl.
"What is the worst thing that you ever did, Livie?" Kai asked her, his grin widening. "I asked Damon that once and it was pretty bad, so tell me, confession is good for a soul, although I'm not sure I believe in souls, but we have to have them, after all, we're here, aren't we?"
Liv scowled before looking at her hands. "I killed a guy to save Tyler's life," she confessed.
Kai shook his head. "Come on, Livie, I thought we could be honest with each other. We're family. It's time to bond. Okay, I'll tell you the worst thing I ever did. And then, you can try again."
Rolling her eyes, Liv shook her head. "You killed our entire family. I think on a grand scale, that would be the worst thing that you ever did!" Liv snapped.
"Nope. That would be where you're wrong," Kai replied, shaking a finger at Liv with another wicked grin.
"Okay. Fine. Not the worst thing you ever did. So, tell me, Kai, what's the worst thing you ever did?" Liv snapped. She had grown tired of this game and it had only been ten minutes. Could he not just spit it out already?
Kai laughed. "Okay. I'll give. They're not really dead!" Grinning, Kai looked back at Liv who shook her head. "Well, they weren't. They looked dead since they had no pulse and weren't breathing and some of them might have looked like they were bleeding to death…but here's the secret—and, man, it is a doozy—I put a protection spell on all of you so you couldn't die. How great is it to be the leader of the Gemini coven and be able to pull something like that off? Huh. I know, I'm awesome! You can thank me later."
Liv could only stare at Kai. "You're insane," she snapped. "And I'm not going to stand here for one more minute to listen to this bullshit. Good-bye!" Liv started to walk away when Kai began to chant and she couldn't lift her feet from the floor. "Cut it out, Kai!" she yelled, turning her head to glare at him.
Staring at Kai as he got closer and closer, Liv felt her stomach twist in disgust and grief. He looked like Luke. Not exactly. But with the beard and something about the eyes. A softening. Not much. You could still see the crazy underneath. Totally, batshit crazy. But Luke was in there, somewhere, buried under the crazy, malice and contained rage. Luke was still alive. Inside the man she hated more than anyone on the planet.
"The worst thing I ever did to anyone else is to put them in their prison worlds. Each of our family members has their own little prison world that I can visit, if I want to. And I get to taunt Jossette with the piece of info I picked up from a book back at home: that our coven kept her kids alive. But she'll never know them. I guess that counts as the worst thing I'm doing, present, not past. You know what, enough about me, let's get back to you, Little Livie, what is the worst thing you ever did? You know and I know, I just want you to say it."
Liv felt tears burn her eyelids. "I knew that Luke would go to you. I knew him better than anyone. I didn't want to die so I kept saying that I would die and I drove him to merge with you, knowing you'd win and I would lose my best friend…" Sobbing, Liv sunk to her knees, tears pouring down her cheeks.
Kai patted her on the shoulder. "See, I told you you'd feel better once you came out with it. Now, I've got a special treat for you."
Narrowing her eye, Liv glared up at Kai. "Go to hell," she snarled.
"Now that's not very nice. Oh, well, I guess beggars can't be choosers. Who even came up with that phrase anyway? I mean think about it, you can still choose even if you're a beggar. Say someone tried to give you this moldy piece of bread and you're like, man, that's gross but someone else came along and offered you a fresh baked loaf. Now the second person might be psycho and put poison or something in the second loaf. But you still have a choice. You just don't know what you're getting."
Liv's head hurt as she watched Kai tilt his head to the side. "See, Livie, life's a bitch. You can either choose door number one or door number two and you don't really know if either one holds what you want, but you do get to choose. So, what it'll be, door number one," he held out a hand, waving in the direction on the Salvatore's front door. "Or is it door number two?" he waved at the middle of the room.
"Do I really have a choice?" Liv snapped. "Or is this just another one of your sick games where you act like I can leave and then torture me?"
Kai shrugged. "Livie, you need to learn to trust someone. And if you stay here, you might get moldy bread, but at least it's not poison. Or you can go outside and take your chances. It's up to you."
Her eyes darted from the middle of the room to the direction of the front door. The decision was simple. She couldn't stay here. She refused to stay here. She couldn't deal with Kai. Not every day. Waking up to the same day, over and over again. Making up her mind, Liv walked out of the room and toward the front door. Her fingers closed around the metal knob. She twisted and started to open it when she shook her head. What if Kai wanted her to leave? What if leaving was a trap? What if this was exactly what he wanted all along?
Slowly, Liv turned on her heel before marching back into the living room and placing her hands on her hips. "I'm staying here." She waited for Kai to react. He sat with his feet on the table, reading a newspaper and then looked up at her with a smile.
"You're absolutely sure you're staying? No take backs?" Kai folded the paper and waited for her to respond.
"Yes, I'm staying," Liv nodded.
"Great. Then it'll just be the three of us. For now. Like a little family. Makes me miss Damon and Bon Bon but I'm sure they'll be here soon." Kai clapped his hands and then whispered in Latin. "Found him just wandering around the Town's Square. Man, was he confused. First, he wanted to fight me, even when I told him you were here, waiting for him, then I knocked his ass out. Hope he can't shift here. That could get pretty messy and I really don't feel like having to send us to one of the other worlds."
Liv had stopped listening to Kai's verbal diarrhea the moment that he made Tyler visible. "Tyler!" she cried, her eyes filling with tears. She ran toward the wolf and knelt beside him. "What did you do?" she yelled at Kai, checking Tyler for signs of life.
"I knocked him out. God, can't anyone keep up." Kai rolled his eyes at Liv who cradled Tyler's head in her lap.
"Liv?" Tyler said, his eyelids opening and then he smiled. "I missed you, so much," he whispered, reaching up and stroking her cheek.
"What are you doing here?" Liv demanded, stroking Tyler's hair. "If you're here, then that means…"
"He's dead. Duh," Kai rolled his eyes. "Got the whole story from popping inside his head while he was out. Looks like you can take the boy out of Mystic Hell but you can't take the death wish out of the boy. Good old Damon flipped his switch again and killed off our favorite anger-filled puppy. But, hey, on the bright side, you've got the rest of eternity to talk about what you could have done differently to not end up here, with me."
"What is he talking about, Liv?" Tyler rubbed the back of his head.
Kai chuckled. "We can call it a spin-off, it you want. Whatever. Doesn't matter. I mean, seriously, we all know that if there was a spin-off about the Gemini Coven, I'd be the star and you'd be my supporting cast. Who would want to watch the two of you sad sops go around moaning about your bad luck. Now, me, I make it all that more interesting with my insights and my devious plans and my… Hey, where are you going? You can't just leave, I'm not done talking!" Kai shouted as Liv pulled Tyler to his feet and they walked out of the room.
They could still hear Kai rambling on about how this was his show now and if anyone had a problem with that then he'd just stalk them and torture them into agreeing. Liv thought for some creepy reason that she could still hear Kai even when they entered the Mystic Grill.
"At least Klaus isn't here. That would be the worst," Tyler muttered as he took a seat on the bar stool and then a shot came flying his way.
"Hello, Tyler," a man with a British accent said and Tyler jumped up, turning to glare at the man. "How is Caroline? I haven't been able to keep track of her since being locked away from my family."
"Klaus!" Tyler snarled.
Liv shook her head. "I guess Kai lied again. No surprise there."
"Is that my shirt?" Damon Salvatore's voice demanded, appearing behind the bar with a bottle of bourbon in one hand and a glass in the other. He poured a shot and shoved it down the bar where Stefan Salvatore appeared.
"Thanks, brother," Stefan said, nodding at Damon.
"Any time, little brother," Damon replied before glaring at the shirt Liv had woken up in. "I've been dead for like two minutes and already people are raiding my closet."
"When did you die?" Liv asked.
"We're technically not dead, yet. This is what's called a spoiler for the series finale. Our EP promised the fans a happy ending so you know that means the exact opposite."
"Does this mean that Caroline is available once more?" Klaus asked Stefan.
Damon chuckled. "You know Caroline, she's probably got the next guy lined up as we speak. Guess, you'll just have to wait to see if she finally joins your cast, I mean ventures down to New Orleans in 2018, you know, if they don't kill you off, too."
Liv shook her head when Kai appeared beside her. "Oh, look, it's the rest of my supporting cast. I'm sure with our range of talent that I'll be nominated for a Golden Globe next season. If they would give one to that chick from Crazy-Ex-Girlfriend, then I know I'm a shoo-in."
Shaking her head, Liv leaned her head against Tyler's shoulder. "I'm angry at you for wasting the life I tried to give you," she told him, eying him, trying to be angry.
"I couldn't live without you," Tyler told her.
"How touching," Klaus said sarcastically.
"I would die for love," Stefan told them.
"No one cares about you anymore, except some crazy people on the internet," Kai pointed out.
"You're welcome for reuniting you with Goldilocks, Lockwolf." Damon held up his glass. "To the happy couple."
"This isn't about them," Kai snapped.
Liv rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Kai."
"Never going to happen," Damon said.
"Thanks," Tyler called to Damon. "For killing me so I could be with Liv."
"It's a nice way of spinning it, isn't it?" Damon smirked and Liv decided to ignore him. She felt happy that she and Tyler were back together.
Waking up, Liv sat up in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed. "What the hell? Where the hell am I?" she asked.
"You're at home," Tyler said, rolling over and pulling her back under the covers.
"With me!" Kai added, popping up from under the bed and making Liv and Tyler scream. "Until next time! Thanks for tuning in." Kai laughed as Liv and Tyler ran away from him and he chased through the halls of the Salvatore Boarding House because that's where everyone ends up living at some point…
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Answer to guest review:
Redbudrose: I try to make them funny. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too.
Peace,
Jessica