AN: I absolutely loved your reviews. I am just so happy that my story is earning more readers everyday. I wish everyone reading this story would review. And I am hoping that would happen before the story ends. Anyways, here is another chapter. Hope you enjoy it...
Chapter 14: Isobel's arrival
Knocking wasn't necessary when you want to enter the boarding house owned by the Salvatores. Reason number one they never keep their door locked and reason number two being a vampire they would know that someone is coming towards their house from miles away. When I entered the house, I found Elena in the living room reading a journal, Stefan's journal to be specific. Elena was definitely not expecting me there as she looked quite surprised.
"Jacq, what are you doing here?" asked Elena with a frown of confusion and wonderment on her face. I entered the living room slowly. Thinking of the best way to answer her the question.
"I just came here to see how Stefan is doing." Elena scooted over so that I could sit down on the couch beside her. She sighed heavily as I told her my purpose of being there.
"He is not doing good. He is not feeding or talking to anyone. I tried to make him talk to me but he wouldn't even look at me." Elena said with sadness dipping out of her voice. I understood that it was worse than how it was in the show.
"That's bad." I said already starting to think of a way out of it.
"Yeah, but I can't think of anything that will help him. He is feeling so guilty for hurting you. I know he should feel guilty. I was mad at him too but this is too much." Elena herself was torn between her feelings. She couldn't forgive Stefan completely for hurting me but she couldn't be mad at him either because she loves him so much. And it pained her to see Stefan suffer like that.
"He doesn't need to feel guilty anymore. I already forgave him. Actually I was never holding any grudge against him in the first place." As I said that Elena spoke up my mind.
"He knows that but it's not enough for him to stop feeling guilty. Maybe you should talk to him in person. He is in the cellar, he can't hurt you. But your talking to him could really help." Elena suggested what I thought about doing. That's the reason I was here for. To talk with Stefan and make him understand. But considering the situation I knew that that won't be enough either. I needed to do something else.
"I don't think it will work Elena." Her face become so sad after I said that that I felt kind of bad for her. She looked very helpless and hopeless.
"I wish I could do something other than sitting around here and wait for him to give up." Elena was loosing her hope for sure but a name clicked in my mind right then which gave me some hope.
"Maybe we don't know what to do but there is one person who could help us in this situation." Elena frowned at me with confusion and wondered who I was talking about.
"Who?" She asked sounding desperate.
"Lexi. Stefan's best friend. You must remember her." I knew that Elena must vividly remember the blonde vampire she met on Stefan's birthday.
"How do you know about Lexi?" She asked curiously. I rolled my eyes inwardly and skipped giving her a proper answer for that.
"Not important. Lexi knows Stefan better than any of us. She helped him before. She would know what to do now." As I said that Elena started thinking about it and her face lit up with hope all on a sudden.
"You are right. She could help Stefan. But how do we find her?" asked Elena and I was thinking the same thing too.
"Where is Stefan's cell phone?" I asked Elena knowing she would know about it.
"I will get it." Elena ran upstairs to get it. I hoped there will be a contact number or something in Stefan's phone. If not then we will have to take help from a witch, well in this case Bonnie obviously. As she is our only witch friend who could be persuaded to help. Elena returned with the phone and she already found a number.
"There is only one number in it with Lexi's name." Elena informed me and I nodded to that.
"Let's hope she is still using it." Elena called on that number and I had my fingers crossed. It was ringing and someone picked it up. I mouthed Elena to turn on the speaker so that we could both hear it.
"Stefan, how come you are calling me?" came a voice that sounded very cheerful. It was definitely Lexi.
"It's actually me Lexi." Elena spoke up hoping Lexi would recognize her.
"Elena? Something is wrong, isn't it?" Her voice turned serious immediately.
"Yeah, we are in a mess with Stefan. And you are the only person that can help him right now" explained Elena in short version.
"What happened to him?" Lexy asked. Worry was evident in her voice. Elena explained the whole situation to her in detail this time.
"Oh boy, that's really bad" said Lexi after listening to the whole narration of the story and leaned what actually happened.
"You are the only person who could help him right now." Elena's voice dripped off desperation once again.
"Stefan needs immediate help and it will take me at least three days to get to Mystic Falls even if I start right now." Well that was another bad news, I thought to myself.
"Then tell us what to do. We will do it." I spoke up for the first time.
"Who are you?" Lexi asked with wondering tone of voice.
"Lexi that's my sister Jacq." Elena introduced me to Lexi.
"So, Stefan tried to kill her." Elena said yes to her question.
"She seems to already forgive him" said Lexi softly more to herself than to us.
"I did forgive him Lexi. Please tell us what we can do to save Stefan. He is really suffering badly." This time I sounded more desperate than Elena. Lexi sighed out heavily from the other side of the line.
"You have to force him to give in." Elena and I looked at each other mirroring our expression.
"Force him how?" asked Elena eager to know.
"Threat him to do it. Leave him no choice. Blackmail him if you have to. To a level that he would have to give in and drink the blood. Now how you do it, is up to you. The crueler you will be with him the faster he will break and submit to you." Elena sighed out once again. She looked exhausted as well. It was not unknown that she was going through a lot of mental stress lately.
"Okay Lexi, we will think of something to do. But stay near your phone. We might need to talk to you again" said Elena while I formed a plan in my mind.
"Sure, I will be on alert" said Lexi and Elena hung up the call and put down the phone. She looked at me for ideas. Elena couldn't think straight at that moment to produce any idea that will actually work. And she knew that I knew what she was going through.
"Elena I have a plan and I am sure it will work." She looked hopeful as she heard that.
"What plan?" She asked with serious eagerness. But I didn't answer her the question instead I just got up and went to the boarding house kitchen. I grabbed a small knife from there and put it inside my jeans pocket. Elena was right behind me. I turned around and looked at her.
"Elena just trust me okay and don't do anything until I am done with him." Elena obviously got worried as I said that. She was also wondering what I was up to.
"What are you gonna do?" She kept asking as both me and Elena got down to the cellar. I turned to face her for the last time before entering the cellar.
"Stay here." I sort of commanded her and before she could stop me I opened the door of the cellar and got inside. Then I closed the door behind me so that Elena couldn't enter the room. Though I couldn't lock the door from inside but Elena didn't dare to enter however, she stayed right outside. Stefan must have felt my presence because he visibly stiffed. He was already looking color less and turning grey slowly.
"What are you doing here?" He asked without looking at me and kept his head down as if scared to face me.
"You owe me an apology." I said firmly to him.
"Would that be enough after what I did to you?" He asked trying to sound strong enough. It was evident in his voice that he was feeling not only guilty but ashamed of himself as well.
"Yes, that would be enough for me." His muscles were itching in pain, I could realize that very well.
"Go away Jacq, you can't change my mind" said Stefan like a stubborn child. I narrowed my eyes at him. He was only making me more determined.
"I am not here to change your mind Stefan. You tried to kill me. I want you to apologize for that." I said with cold tone of voice and didn't show any emotion while speaking. Stefan sighed out in frustration and finally looked at me.
"My apologizing to you and your forgiving me won't rid me of the guilt that I have been possessing for over a century now." He said firmly but also with pain in his voice.
"I am not here to help you with that either. I told you I am here to receive my apology from you, that's it." My voice became more demanding and cold towards the suffering vampire. Stefan sighed out finally and seemed that he gave up being stubborn already. But I knew he was far from being submissive.
"I am sorry Jacq, for everything I did to you. You don't know how I felt when I realized what I did to you. I don't know of words that could express that." When Stefan finished talking, I approached him with the bottle of blood that Damon left for him and held it in front of him.
"If you meant what you just said then drink it." Stefan looked up at me this time and glared heatedly.
"I will not drink it Jacq. Get out of here right now." He literary growled at me but I stood there calmly and firmly.
"You either drink from this or I will bleed myself in this very room and this time I will make sure you finish what you had started that evening. Then, you will really have something to feel guilty about. The choice is yours." I said every word carefully and really meant it. However, Stefan snorted in a mocking away.
"You wouldn't do that." I irked an eye brow at him as Stefan denied to believe my threat.
"I wouldn't doubt me if I were you" saying that I pulled the knife out of my pocket and pressed it against my wrist. The edge of the knife touched my skin and a drop of blood came out instantly. Stefan immediately shot up and snatched the knife away from me. He actually looked scared that time.
"I could hurt myself in so many ways in this room Stefan. If you really want to avoid an accidental murder, I suggest you to drink blood from this bottle right now." I said in a very pleasant tone of voice and held the blood bottle in front of him once again.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Stefan growled at me with rage. I should feel scared of him but I wasn't going to give up either.
"Because torturing you like this is fun. Way better than the way you chose to punish yourself. Now where were we?" I looked around and found a piece of broken glass on the floor. I picked it up and closed my fist around it, making my hand bleed immediately. Stefan's face changed in a blink of an eye and he quickly snatched the bottle out of my other hand and started drinking from it. He paused a little.
"Get out of here right now. I am drinking it." I smiled at my success and walked out of the cellar with a huge grin plastered on my face. Elena was right outside and probably heard everything that happened. She was gaping at me with wide eyes.
"He is all yours now." I said to Elena and walked away from there. On my way upstairs, I looked at my bleeding hand. I needed to clean it up and take care of it before I lose too much blood. I found the bathroom easily and started to clean up my hand. The cuts were small but quite bothering. I was almost finished when a furious looking Damon barged through the doors. He gripped on my arms and turned me around forcefully to face him.
"Are you fucking insane?" He shouted at my face. His anger was quite visible at the moment. But I ignored that and raised my eye brows at him trying to look cute and adorable. That look always works in situations like this.
"Absolutely not. Why would you think that?" I spoke up as if I had absolutely no clue about what he was talking about. However, instead of melting by my cute looks and innocent behavior, Damon hissed at me with anger and rage. He pulled me closer to him. Only a little gap remained between our faces. I felt my stomach doing somersault inside my body.
"From now on you will be the one locked up in the cellar downstairs instead of Stefan." My face was still composed in a perfect calm manner. And I just smiled at him.
"Would that make you happy Damon? Keeping me as a prisoner in your personal little cell." His eyes were boring into mine and neither knew how to blink at that moment.
"Yes, if that means it will stop you from pulling stunts like this and keep you safe." Damon spoke up after a while after pulling himself out of the trance that we were magically in.
"Then what's stopping you from dong it?" I asked in a low tone of voice because his closeness was making my breathing heavy as well. He couldn't answer that because Elena came there to interrupt him.
"Damon let her go." She said angrily thinking Damon was hurting me. Damon let go of me without being difficult but clearly he didn't want to. I looked at Elena.
"Did you inform Lexi that it worked?" She nodded in response and announced. "Come on we are going home now."
"Aren't you gonna stay here tonight? You should be talking to Stefan right now." I said but Elena shook her head to that.
"He wants to be alone right now. And I think he needs it after your... well torture session." Both of us laughed out at that as Damon gaped at us.
"I can't believe you two. Elena how could you let her do it?" Elena didn't hesitate to roll her eyes at him when I just smirked at Damon.
"Don't ask me anything. Come on lets go." She said to me and I followed her out of the room.
"I will come back tomorrow morning. Don't start bothering Stefan once we leave." Elena warned Damon with seriousness to which Damon rolled his eyes.
The next day was the time for another new episode. 'Isobel' from season one. I was waiting for this time for a while now. From today things are going to get very interesting in Mystic Falls. I woke up in the morning and found that no one was home except for me and Jeremy. As it was weekend so we had no where to go and nothing to do. Which led us to decide to bake a cake to pass our time. It was fun at first as we worked together on it. Then we got into an argument about how to decorate it. I wanted to use liquid chocolate on it when Jeremy wanted to use cream on it. Argument slowly led us into a small fight. And at one point I smashed some cream on his face. The sight was so hilarious that I started laughing out loud. He glared dangerously at me as I was howling with laughter by then. Soon he started chasing me inside the room with cream in his hand to smash it on my face. I ran and he chased me for quite sometime. I wasn't easy to catch. But he got to me when I was cornered into the kitchen. I was trying hard to get away from him and save my face. I was screaming as if I was being attacked by a vampire. Jeremy successfully ruined my face with the cream and grinned broadly for his achievement.
"Asshole!" I said and poured the glass of water on his head that was on the kitchen counter and luckily within my reach.
"You are dead." Jeremy said in a deadly tone of voice. I shoved him away and ran for upstairs but he got to me before I could reach the staircase. Within moments the whole area was ruined due to our throwing things at each other. Jeremy had me pinned on the floor and he was tickling me all over. I was screaming and laughing and trying to shove him away. Right then the front door opened and Damon, Elena and Jenna entered the house. They stopped dead at the sight in front of them.
"What the hell is going on?" asked Jenna with eyes wide like plates. I pushed Jeremy off of me and we both stood up. They looked around the place and was more shocked.
"Jeremy. Jacq what the hell is this?" asked Elena completely pissed off at our immaturity. "What are you two, five?" She downright started scolding us.
Both Jeremy and I were looking everywhere else other then them. I was mostly staring at the floor board. Damon however, was smirking at me as I was covered in cream and god knows what. Jenna sighed out and stopped Elena from scolding us more. Not that it was affecting any of us in the first place anyway.
"Just go get yourselves cleaned up first then you two better fix it all up" ordered Jenna as she went to her bedroom. Jeremy ran upstairs to get to the bathroom first. I glared at his way heatedly. I really didn't want Damon staring at me when I was in that kind of state. Looking down at my feet so that I wouldn't meet his eyes and see him smirking at me, I started to walk towards the stairs to get to my room. However Damon was in front of me in a blink of an eye and blocked my way to my room. Elena was in the kitchen and Jenna was still in her room. So there was no one he should be concerned about at that moment. Damon leaned in and licked my cheek that was full of cream and said-
"You taste good." I pushed him away with a silent shriek but it didn't stop him from smirking.
"Gross!" I said with disgust in my voice when I really wanted to say 'pervert' but it made him smirk more anyway. But truthfully I had butterflies running in my stomach at what just happened. I know he was just being flirty Damon but that was way too much for me to handle. I cleaned myself up quickly after Jeremy got out of the bathroom. Later Jeremy and I had to clean up all the mess that we created and Damon spend the entire time bossing us around. I seriously wanted to choke him to death the whole time. Jeremy didn't like it much that I was talking to Damon so freely. He was giving me this look that said 'what the hell!'. That Damon noticed too but it only made him more happy because I was still talking to him and not bothering about what Jeremy was thinking of it. He was enjoying Jeremy's glares actually and it made him flirt with me more. Every time Jeremy would scowl at him angrily, Damon would say something romantic or complementary to me. I had to roll my eyes at both of them in my mind several times but pretend to be oblivion of their little game on outside.
The following day was the day when everyone was preparing for the parade of the founder's day. Everyone was getting ready for an occasion to celebrate. It also meant that Isobel should be in town by now or has already arrived. No one but me knew that all hell are about to break loose for everyone in town especially for the gang. I didn't want to get involved or interfere in Isobel's business as we both had mutual interest and wanted the same thing. It was for my own advantage that I let happen all the things that happened in the show. I would rather stay with Caroline and Bonnie and help them with their parade decoration then butt in whatever Isobel would do to Elena and the Salvatore brothers. On the other hand, Alaric was around the school campus. He was helping the students with their work but his face was dark and tensed up. It confirmed me that he has already encountered Isobel. But I diverted my attention from him and focused on Bonnie. Caroline was not here yet as she went to get some stuffs from the supply room. It was a good time to talk to Bonnie about certain things.
"Hey Bon, how long have you planned on ignoring Elena?" I asked her as casually as possible as if asking her about the weather which kind of startled Bonnie.
"What?" She asked looking confused which made me roll my eyes at her.
"I am asking you, how long are you going to avoid Elena? Just give me some time line. I really hate to see you two like this. So I want to know how long I have to wait until everything is back to normal again between you guys. I mean how long is it gonna take for your friendship to get back to normal again." I wasn't gonna take silence as the answer neither I was going to spare Bonnie from answering the question. The young witch stared hard at me for a few moments.
"You do know why this is happening, right?" She asked me and I nodded vehemently.
"But this is about you, Elena and your friendship. Think of nothing else. Do you really think you are gonna be happy knowing that your best friend is in trouble and you can help her but you won't because she is with someone who you blame for your grandma's death. If you want to punish someone punish Stefan and Damon. But the only one is suffering here is Elena and soon it would make you feel bad too." As I explained that Bonnie's expression soften a bit.
"I know I am in no position to say anything to you. You are older than me, wiser and of course powerful. But I do hope you get back with Elena and be there for her right now. She is going through a lot." Just as I finished saying that Caroline returned back to the table with hands full of stuffs. We helped her settling them on the table. She sighed out heavily as she was tired from carrying all those things. Caroline took the chair beside me and across from Bonnie. When she looked at Bonnie's face she realized that something was wrong.
"Did I miss something?" Caroline asked eyeing both of us curiously and suspiciously.
"You are missing a lot of things Care but don't worry you will catch up with everything soon." Bonnie narrowed her eyes at me in confusion when I said that. But I just shrugged my shoulders at her and got up from there.
"I need to go somewhere. See you guys later" saying that I walked away from there. However, on my way out of the building I saw Ric walking down the same corridor and we came face to face with each other. He was looking very upset for obvious reasons. He was threatened by his wife not so long ago.
"Good morning Ric." I wished him with a small smile. He smiled back at me forcefully.
"How are you?" He asked trying to look normal like every other day.
"I am fine but I think you are not." I said straight away. Alaric frowned at me for that.
"No I am fine. Why would you think that?" His voice gave away that he was lying to me.
"Maybe because I know that Isobel is in town. And you would be anything else but fine after meeting her." To say that Alaric was shocked to hear that would be a huge understatement.
"How did you know? Did Damon tell you? But I told Damon myself just a while ago. He couldn't have told you so fast." Ric was getting really confused and tensed, not to mention worried as well. I sighed out heavily at that.
"Relax Ric, it was just a guess but now that you have confirmed it, what the hell is she doing here? When did she get in town?" I asked showing complete curiosity as if I knew nothing about anything at all. Ric sighed out in relief without hesitation. Maybe he was thinking that I worked for Isobel or something. Or I was involved with Isobel somehow and my life was in danger.
"She came in town yesterday. We had a wonderful encounter at the Grill. She beat me up and threatened me that if I don't deliver a massage for her she will make blood rain in Mystic Falls." Alaric looked so sad and I really felt bad for him.
"What's the massage?" I asked more curiously. Ric wasn't sure if he should tell me that but I insisted on.
"She wants to meet Elena. She asked me to arrange a meeting for her." Alaric said bitterly. No wonder he hated Isobel after everything that happened between them.
"Why? Did she finally realize that Elena is her daughter? She abandoned her, didn't she?" Ric could only sighed out and shook his head.
"I don't think it has anything to do with mother daughter relation. She is here for some other purpose. I wish I knew what?" said Ric more to himself than to me.
"I am sorry. You must be going through hell right now." I said really feeling sorry for him. The sad face returned with full force this time. Alaric was trying hard to hold himself together and not fall apart in front of me. I felt the need to say something to make him feel better at that moment. Even if a little.
"You don't deserve this Ric. It's time for you to move on. You have wasted enough time on her." Alaric nodded to that lightly but I wasn't sure if he really accepted that he isn't getting Isobel back ever.
"I was thinking of the same thing for a few days now" confessed Ric with hesitation. It certainly made me smirk to myself.
"Jenna is a very nice person, you know. If knowing this helps you in anyway, she really likes you. Actually she has a huge crush on you." Ric looked at me, totally surprised then smiled shyly to himself.
"You kids are fast these days." I nodded to that in a proud way.
"Think about it. I know you already like her. It may turn into something good for both of you" saying that I left a smiling Ric behind me. Hopefully that will lessen his suffering a bit. But now it's time for real action.
AN: Next update when I get total fifty reviews or more. I like to be mean sometimes. lol.