When I woke up, I found out that I wasn't the only person in my bed. Stefan had told me that he would be fine, and I should go home. Currently, I had to deal with the issue in front of me. I was a bit surprised that she had snuck into my bed, but I was pretty sure that she hadn't touched me at all. I was still thinking about our kiss a little. I wondered if it was a good time to talk about it.
"I'm sorry." She apologized. She looked sad, so maybe it wasn't the best time to talk about it. "You were already asleep, and I didn't want to wake you."
"What are you doing here?" I asked her. I thought that she wouldn't want to be here with John in the house. It was at that point that I noticed the tears and gave her a hug. Well, it was definitely not a good time to talk about the kiss or the other thing that I had told her.
"My mom…" She started, but she couldn't get out the rest. I was able to fill in the rest even though she hadn't said it.
"It's going to be okay." I assured her. Comfort was also not something that I was good at, but I needed to be there for my friend. I needed to make sure that I didn't say the wrong thing here. "How about you go take a shower and then come back in here? Jenna is gone right now."
I decided to call Stefan to see how he was doing. I wasn't sure if I should tell him what happened. To be fair, I had only kissed her. It wasn't like the two of us had had sex or anything. I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have sex with Anna, but that really wasn't something that I should be thinking about because I was in a relationship with Stefan.
"Stefan's phone." Damon answered. I was a little bit annoyed that he had answered that, but I supposed that was just something that I should expect from him. "He can't talk because he's in the shower. What are you up to today?"
"I'm getting ready because Caroline says that I need to help with the Miss Mystic Falls float." I told him. Why did we have to build the float? Couldn't someone else do that? "Well how is everything going?"
"I'm great. I just had a nice warm breakfast." He explained before I rolled my eyes. I assumed that he wasn't talking about food when he said that.
"I meant about Stefan." I corrected. That was why I called Stefan after all.
"Oh, him, he's terrible." He stated as I felt my concern grow.
"What's wrong?" I asked him. I needed to know immediately.
"You made him all boring again." He replied as I breathed a loud sigh of relief. Okay, that wasn't funny. "Now he has nothing interesting about him."
"You helped." I pointed out. I had done most of the work, but he helped me move him around when he was unconscious.
"I hate myself for it." He responded.
"Now we have something in common." I quipped before I hung up and Anna walked back in the room a towel. Okay, so I didn't hate him. I looked away from Anna because seeing her naked now was not something that I needed. "So, I need to get going soon. You wouldn't want to come with me by any chance, would you?"
"I think I want to stay inside and grieve right now." She explained. That was probably the right call. "Could you not tell anyone that I'm here?"
"Well make yourself at home, but not too at home. If you make a mess, clean it up." I told her. I couldn't help but wonder if she was going to be staying with us now that her mother was dead. "What do you want me to tell Elena if I see her?"
"Tell her you haven't seen me." She instructed. "I can't face her right now. You probably shouldn't tell Stefan either."
"I'm really bad at lying." I pointed out before I went out the door. The good news was Stefan didn't suspect anything so I wouldn't have to lie to him.
I went to school and met up with Stefan but before I could go over to where Caroline was, I was pulled away by Alaric. He took us to his classroom. I had a feeling that it was something important.
"What's going on?" I asked. It was the best way to find out.
"Your mother showed up last night." He explained. Okay that was a little bit shocking. "She wants to see and is threatening to start killing people if she doesn't. Someone call Damon."
It took about fifteen minutes for Damon to get there. We didn't really talk about much before he arrived.
"Sorry I'm late. Dog ate my…" He started before he noticed our serious faces. "What's going on?"
"Isobel's back." Alaric explained.
"You know your mother and his wife, Isobel?" Damon asked. Who else would it be?
"Do you know any others?" I responded in annoyance.
"Did you ask her about Uncle John?" Damon asked.
"No." Alaric replied.
"Are they working together?" Damon questioned.
"No." Ric replied.
"No, they're not, or no, you didn't ask?" Damon responded.
"I didn't ask." He clarified.
"What about the invention?" Damon inquired.
"Didn't ask." Alaric said.
"Does she know about the tomb vampires?" Damon asked.
"I don't know." Alaric replied.
"Did words complete escape you?" Damon questioned in frustration.
"I'm sorry. I was a bit too distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions." Ric told us in annoyance. I supposed not seeing someone in two years would be a bit bizarre.
"Well, what does she want?" Damon replied. That probably would have been the place to start.
"She wants to see me." I answered. I was nervous about it. She didn't sound like a very pleasant person.
"You know you don't have to see her if you don't want to." He stated. It normally would have been sweet, but there was more to it.
"I kind of do." I declared. I meant that I had to see her, not that I wanted to.
"She's threatened to go on a killing spree." Stefan added. Would that really accomplish anything?
"Oh…I'm guessing that's not okay with you guys." Damon stated. Did that mean it was okay with him?
"I want to do this." I announced. I supposed that I was trying to convince myself that. It wasn't like I had a choice anyway, so it was probably best just to get it over with. "I at least want to know why she abandoned me."
"Okay, I'll call her." Alaric stated.
That led to me going to the Grill. I sat at a table alone while Stefan stood nearby. I was also pretty sure that she was not going to buy me anything.
"Can you hear me now?" I asked like I was the Verizon guy in a low voice. He nodded. "Good. I'm really glad that you're here. It makes it easier."
"I love you." He mouthed. I smiled before a woman with short brown hair wearing a black dress appeared in front of me.
"Hello, Mary." She greeted me. She then started to look me over. It made me feel uncomfortable. "You know I feel like I'm looking in a mirror."
"Yes, I am your daughter." I told her bitterly. "The one that you abandoned."
"Is that supposed to make me feel bad?" She asked. Why did I have to be related to someone who didn't care about me?
"Why did you tell that man to kill himself telling me to stop looking?" I replied.
"Drama impact. Wish it had been more effective." She stated. Alaric was the one who kept digging,
"I did stop looking." I answered. I hadn't looked for her at all since then. "I haven't thought about you at all since I heard that you abandoned your husband to become a vampire. Now how about we get to the good stuff? Who is my father?"
"He was a teenage waste of space." She replied. I wanted to let out my frustration. She was more annoying than Damon.
"What's his name?" I questioned.
"Has anyone told you that you ask a lot of questions?" She responded. "You seem to think that I'm going to answer them."
"Why won't you?" I challenged. "Don't you care that your daughter wants to know about her family?"
"I don't care about anything." She explained. "That's the beauty of being what I am. You don't care about stuff."
"No, that's wrong." I refuted. "I know other vampires."
"You mean like your boyfriend over there?" She asked as I noticed Stefan flinch. "Stefan Salvatore. Why do go for Stefan instead of Damon?"
"I'm 15." I reminded her. I wasn't even sure if she knew how old I was. Why did people seem to think it was okay for teenage girls to date older men?
"None of that is going to matter when you're a vampire." She stated. "That's right, I said when. Because one of two things is going to happen. Either you're going to become a vampire, or you're going to die. I'm sure that you've thought about it. What girl doesn't want to be young and beautiful forever?"
"What do you want?" I finally asked her. I still didn't even want to be a girl, much less be one forever.
"I want what your uncle wants." She told me. "Give me Jonathan Gilbert's invention."
"I don't even have it." I declared. "I don't know where it is."
"I know for a fact that it was given to Damon. So, you have to get it from him." She replied. Who had told her that? How did she find that out? "If you don't, well then the blood will be on your hands."
She got up and then Stefan looked at me, but at the moment, I just really wanted to go home. I went up to my room by myself and found that Anna was still there. Once I was inside, I immediately started to punch my pillow repeatedly. It may not have been the best way to let my anger out, but it did make me feel a little bit better.
"Whoa." The vampire remarked. "Do you wanna talk about why you're so angry?"
"My mom's a bitch." I declared. "I thought that maybe by meeting, I would realize that she wasn't as bad as I thought she was, but it turns out that she's even worse. It makes me wish that I had never met her…and I am so sorry. All of this talking about my mother can't be doing anything to console the fact that you don't have one anymore."
"Hey, from what it sounds like, you don't have one either." She told me. "You just have a person that you happen to be related to."
"So can we talk about what happened last night?" I asked.
"Our emotions were obviously running high. I think that being with you might have saved my life." She told me.
"I shouldn't have done it." I declared. "Did you happen to catch everything that I said."
"I did. You know it actually kind of makes sense. I could tell that some of this stuff made you uncomfortable, even you can get pretty girl around me."
"I do not. You know I'm building the float tomorrow. I'd really like it if you came with me." I told her. I was glad that I had at least gotten her to smile.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think that I'm ready for the outside world yet." She declared. I frowned, but she was still doing better with grief than I ever did. I couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with the fact that she had already lost Pearl once. I did really enjoy the warmth of her body when she hugged me. That was definitely one thing that I was glad that Twilight was wrong about. Who would want to cuddle with someone really cold…not that I would cuddle with Anna. I couldn't. I was with Stefan.
In the morning, I got dressed in a white tee shirt and jeans. I was going to have to do manual despite not really having any muscles. I would have to try to start working out.
I headed to the school, ready to work. However, before I could get to any of that, I was pulled away again, this time by Bonnie. Was I going to get to work on this float at all? Also why was Bonnie doing it?
"What do you want?" I asked. "The last time that we talked, you made it pretty clear that you hate me."
"I don't hate you and maybe I was a little harsh, but I had something important that I need to tell you." She stated.
"I don't really want to talk right now." I admitted as I walked out. What could I say? I was in a bad mood. I began to walk around and look for the float, which I think was going to be based on Gone with the Wind, because that was a very Caroline thing. I never saw what was so great about a three-and-a-half-hour movie about a girl who gets dumped. Because of my absence, I couldn't even protest the decision because it was the only idea we had.
However, before I could get to her, Isobel appeared in front of me. I didn't want to talk to her ever again. Couldn't she just leave me alone? I didn't need or want her as my mother. I already had one and she was much better.
"Can't you go and be a bitch somewhere else?" I asked her.
"I told you what I want and you're running out of time to give it to me." She remarked. I hadn't even talked to Damon about it yet. "You know I've been doing some studying lately. It turns out that you have quite a few friends and acquaintances. We've got Bonnie, the witch, I'm staying away from her, but there's also the sad older sister Elena, Caroline, the chatterbox that told me everything even though she had no idea who I was. She just kept yapping. And finally, Matt, the golden boy who is also Yappy's future ex. Did I do good?"
"I still have no idea why you're here." I declared. Why was she interrupting our float-building?
"Well, you see, I have some friends too." She explained. "See that man is the cowboy hat. His name is Frank and he's very handy. He's noticed that that float Golden Boy is working on has a damaged axle. All that you need to do is apply a little bit of pressure and…"
At that point, Frank jumped on the float, and it collapsed on top of Matt's arm. He screamed in pain as I looked over Isobel. Luckily, a group of guys headed by Tyler and Stefan managed to lift it off of him. I couldn't believe that she would attack him like that.
"By the way, if you're interested in seeing your sister again, you'll give me the invention." She added. I looked to where Elena had been, and she was gone. The whole thing with Matt had been nothing but a diversion and I couldn't believe that I had fallen for it. I wished that I had something wooden to kill her with.
I then decided to see Bonnie to see if she could help. Desperate times called for desperate measures after all. I would probably have to listen to what she had to say earlier though.
"Okay, so what I found out was that Jonathan Gilbert never successfully invented anything." Bonnie explained. Well that made more sense, but I didn't see why it was relevant to saving Elena. "Emily had been secretly spelling the items. Here's the compass, ring, and this: the mystery device."
"That's it, well part of it." I confirmed. I didn't know where the rest of it was.
"Are you sure that Isobel wants this?" Bonnie asked as she looked over the picture.
"Yes, why, what does it say?" I questioned. I didn't know why she had to write it in a language that other people couldn't read. Wait, she probably didn't want the white people to read it.
"This is a weapon against vampires." Bonnie remarked. What kind of weapon was it?
"Well, that's going to make it hard to convince Damon to give to us." I declared. I had to think of a good way to convince him.
I knew at that point that I needed to call someone, and it wasn't going to be Damon. She deserved to know what happened and while I wasn't sure if she still wanted to be with Elena or not, she would still be able to help me rescue her. The only problem was that I didn't have any idea where she was the moment. I wondered if Bonnie could do one of those spells like the one that her grandma had used to find us in the hotel room. If we could rescue Elena, we wouldn't have to deal with Isobel.
"I don't want to come out, Mary." Anna replied. Staying inside all day really wasn't healthy regardless of whether or not she was grieving. I also needed her.
"Well, I found a reason that you should." I declared. "Elena's been kidnapped by my crazy birth mother. Meet me at the boarding house in 15 minutes."
She was there and we managed to convince Damon that Bonnie could deactivate the device and Bonnie even did it there. Bonnie also did a spell to summon a book off of Damon's bookshelf. You know I was pretty sure that I didn't know any other books by Jack London other than Call of the Wild.
That led us to the area where Isobel told us to meet which happened to be the very public town square. It really wasn't that public considering that it was nighttime. It was kind of creepy at night to be honest.
"So glad that you could meet me." Isobel stated. Was she really? "Now where is the device?"
"Where is my sister?" I responded. I was not going to give it to her until I knew that Elena was safe.
"This isn't a goddamn negotiation. Where is the device?" She repeated. It seemed like she didn't know me very well. Was it smart to challenge a vampire, probably not but I also couldn't show fear.
"Where the hell is my sister?" I challenged, not showing any fear.
"Do you think I came alone?" She asked as Frank and some slutty girl came out. It seemed like both of them were human.
"Do you think I came alone?" I mimicked as Stefan and Damon appeared. I was pretty sure that we had the upper hand there.
"For god sakes, call home." She replied. I called the house to find out that Elena was there. You know if Elena was safe at home, did I even need to give the device to her? She didn't have any leverage anymore. However, I was pretty sure that if I gave it to her, she would leave me alone.
"Did you ever plan on hurting her?" I asked. It did seem kind of stupid to let her go before making sure that she had the device. I still couldn't figure out why she wanted it.
"Yes, I planned on killing her." Isobel replied. I wasn't entirely sure if I believed it. "I still can, so you better have the invention. Don't look for anyone redeeming qualities, in me Mary, because all you'll find is that I do not have any."
I wasn't looking for any redeeming qualities. I knew that she didn't have any and I knew that since she had already abandoned me at birth and then she went and abandoned her husband to become a vampire. She was a terrible person and I had accepted that. She was probably a bitch when she was in high school as well.
I then put the device into her hands, even though it would actually be a good opportunity to kill her. She was already dead to the world. If only I had something to do it with.
"Here, take it and I really wanted to thank you for this moment." I declared.
"Why is that?" She asked me with a look of confusion on her face.
"Because thanks to you, I'm happy that I had a mother that cared about me." I told her. I wished that I could have spent more time with her. She probably would have made my sudden transformation easier to deal with at the very least. "Thanks for being such a fucking disappointment."
I then went to the boarding house to meet with Anna. It probably would be a good idea for her to stay there because I really didn't want John to find out that she was there. I didn't know if he would try to kill her, but since he had probably killed her mother, I didn't want to take any chances.
"Well, where's Elena?" She asked me.
"Isobel let her go." I explained. "You know, I think it's time that you told her that you're okay. She's been a little worried about you lately and you should really talk to her."
Speaking of love, I decided to head to Stefan's room. I really wanted to make love to him. I knew that the timing wasn't the best, but it really wasn't ever the best and we hadn't had a lot of chances to be alone lately. He was too busy with all of his blood issues. I was hoping that it would help me find some clarity. It still felt great though.
"So it's been so long since we've done this." I said after we were under
the covers. "I love you."
"You know I'm sorry that Isobel turned out to be a colossal bitch." He stated. "I wanted you to be happy."
"I am happy." I declared. I wished he had figured out that I didn't need things to change and never really wanted Isobel in my life in the first place. I liked to remember my real parents as my parents. "I'm with you. So anyway, Caroline is doing this Gone with the Wind thing for Founder's Day. I need your help finding a dress that's era appropriate."
"I can help you with that." He promised.
So Mary met Isobel and as expected, it did not go well. Isobel is played by Rachel Leigh Cook. Also she found out about Pearl. There's only one more chapter? Please don't forget to review.