I woke up feeling the cold surface of a terribly familiar surgical table underneath me. I wasn't surprised or scared anymore, I was just... empty... numb. I gave up struggling. The pain would come soon, but I didn't care anymore... which didn't go unnoticed.
They didn't like that. I knew that they would try to come up with something else soon, but I didn't care. Everything they've tried so far has stopped affecting me long ago.
I heard them entering the room silently, but there was this strange unfamiliar noise that managed to break me from my apathy. Someone was whimpering, and it wasn't me. Usually I was the only one making such noises in this room.
My eyes shot open when I felt someone touching my face. They didn't say anything, just forcefully turned my head to the side, making me look at what they've probably prepared for me this time.
It took me a few long moments to realize what I was seeing, but when I did...
"That's more like it "2.23"!" They said, satisfied when I started shaking in horror and anger. "I knew that it would get under your skin."
I didn't pay any attention to them, struggling fiercely to get free, my eyes never leaving the broken form of my little sister.
"She's not supposed to be here!" I heard my own voice which sounded really strange in this place, but I didn't care. I just couldn't stop myself, this wasn't supposed to be happening. "No no no, not her! She can't be here! She can't... she can't be here. SHE CAN'T BE HERE!"
I woke up with a silent scream on my lips. For a moment I was desperately trying to catch my breath, but started making progress only when I noticed my sister's sleeping figure beside me.
I gently stroked her cheek, pulling a few strands of hair away from her face and exposing the place where a little wound used to be on the top of her forehead. I lay down beside her again and hugged her to my chest remembering the moment I saw her lying lifelessly in Damon's hands.
"Elena!" I screamed, but it came out as a choke. I rushed to the vampire and grabbed my sister's hand, trying to feel her. She was alive. "What happened?! Damon, what happened to my sister?"
"I've found her like this." I rushed him inside and watched as he lay her down on a couch. "She wrecked her car. I helped her out and soon after she blacked out. But I did notice something before I got there, there was someone approaching her car, a vampire. But he disappeared as soon as he sensed me."
I was barely listening to him, busy running a diagnostic spell on my sister, but I heard everything he said. Some vampire tried to kill my sister.
I sighed with relief when I learned that aside from a minor concussion and a little bump on her head she was completely fine. I was about to ask Damon if he saw how the vampire looked like, when we heard someone coming down the stairs.
"What's with the noise?" Jenna grumbled sleepily. She then noticed our serious faces and tensed. She came closer and opened her mouth to say something when she finally spotted Elena. "What?! What's wrong with her? What happened?" she asked frantically, hurrying to her side.
"She's fine," I quickly said, and could almost see as a little bit of tension left her body. "She wrecked her car. Damon found her. She's okay though, just a bump on her forehead. I checked."
"How did that even happen?" Jenna asked helplessly, stroking Elena's hair with a shaking hand. Car accidents were still a sensible topic for us.
"Damon thinks it was a vampire. We'll find out the details when she wakes up."
"Are you sure that she's okay? She doesn't look okay," Jenna started crying silently.
"I swear she's okay." But it looked like she didn't hear me, so I decided to make a little demonstration to calm her down. I put my hand on Elena's head and started chanting a healing spell, willing some of my magic to slip into her wound. I finished after a few seconds under their confused looks and took away my hand, revealing a completely healed skin. "See. Now she's completely fine. She just needs to rest."
Jenna gave me a grateful smile and relaxed completely.
"Can you take her to my room, please?" I asked Damon and he nodded, silently picking her up. He put her on my bed and we both went back downstairs, leaving Aunt Jenna to take care of her.
"Thank you, Damon. I can't even express how grateful I am." I took his hand, taking him by surprise, and gently squeezed it.
He looked a little lost for a second, as if he wasn't used to someone thanking him, but composed himself quite quickly and put on his usual smirk.
"Well, it was the least I could do after you promised to help me return the love of my life, witchy."
"Still, thank you. I owe you one." I gave his hand one final squeeze before letting him go. He quickly exited through our still open front door and stopped on the porch, waiting until I joined him. "What about her car?" I asked, suddenly recalling that little piece of information.
"I pulled it off to the side of the road. I don't think anyone would bother it," he simply said and I nodded, making a mental note to myself to take care of the car later. "You killed Logan, didn't you?"
His question took me by surprise, as I long forgot about that useless waste of space. Then I realized that it happened only a few hours ago, my sister's broken image must've really shaken me up.
"Yeah, I did. He was about to make a run for it. Couldn't let him go now, could I? Why you asked?"
"I almost killed him but he said something that caught my attention." He looked at me and I could see that he wasn't happy with what he was about to say. I just raised my eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue. "He said that I wasn't the only one who wanted to get into the tomb. That there's another way to break the spell and asked me to meet him at the old Fell's church."
"Huh, to my shame, I never considered that there would be others who would want to get into that tomb. It complicates things," I sighed and rubbed my face tiredly. "I trust you Damon. That's why I didn't hesitate while making a decision to help you rescue your girl."
He looked at me strangely for the second time in last five minutes. As if he wasn't used to hear such words.
"Why?" he asked. "I'm a monster. Unpredictable, murderous psychopath."
"You know, you are the second vampire that I'm having this conversation with," I snorted, then smiled gently remembering the similar conversation I had with Niklaus.
"And who's the first one?"
"My boyfriend." He looked thoughtful, probably trying to visualize me with someone. "My point is, I'm a good judge of character. I knew that we could potentially become friends the moment I met you. I think that the fact that you've been waiting for that girl, Kathrine, if I remember correctly, for so long, deserves some respect. That's why I decided to help you."
"Thank you," he quietly said, his piercing blue eyes filled with honest gratitude.
"But the fact that there are others may complicate things," I sighed. "I wanted to wait for a little longer until the seal is weak enough for me to easily break it, but if they just keep popping up like that... I will be forced to open that tomb sooner than I wanted."
"We need to find out, who this new vampire is. If he attacked Elena, that means that it's someone who knew Katherine," he frowned.
"What do you mean? How is that even related?" He wasn't making any sense, why someone who knew his vampire girlfriend would attack my sister?
He looked at me hesitatingly and slowly said, "Because Elena looks exactly like Kathrine."
"What? What do you mean exactly like her? Like she's her relative or something?"
"No. I mean, exactly like her. Like they are identical twins." He watched my reaction closely as if waiting for something.
I was at a loss of words. It didn't make any sense to me. How could she resemble some few centuries old vampire?
Unless Katherine was Elena's ancestor... Well that did actually make sense, there were known times of lookalikes in my family. My grandma was almost identical copy of her great great grandmother, so that was totally possible.
Some thought kept nagging me in the back of my mind, but I couldn't quite grasp it so I decided to think about it later. Then I realized something else that made me a little angry.
"You told Elena, that you and Stefan were both in love with Katherine, didn't you?" By the look on his face it was exactly the conclusion he was waiting for me to make, so he simply nodded. "I'm gonna kill Stefan."
While I was reminiscing, I noticed that the room became much lighter. I looked out of the window and realized that the sun was already up. It was my usual time when I would get up and go for a jog, but I didn't move, just hugged Elena's sleeping form closer to my chest.
My thoughts returned back to my nightmare and I winced. One look at my sister's unconscious form was enough to upgrade my nightmares to a whole another level of torture. It wasn't even that bad when our parents died, back then my nightmares consisted only of my torturers and myself. Maybe because their death was an accident, it was unfortunate and unfair, but it was life. But this... someone was trying to kill my sister. And the nightmare it triggered today, it was terrifying to see Elena in that place. I was hoping that it would never happen again. That just was a whole new level of messed up.
Elena stirred in my embrace and let out a quiet groan, showing signs of waking up. My body relaxed, a wave of relief washing over me, even though I knew that she was technically okay, I felt better when she started waking up.
She suddenly flinched, her body tensed in panic, she then jolted up, her eyes moving frantically around the room, looking for danger. I rushed to calm her down.
"Hey, Ellie, it's okay. It's okay, you are safe."
The sound of my voice made her freeze, then her eyes lay on me and she immediately relaxed, I could see her going limp for a moment as if all the air left her body.
"Thalia! My car... there was a man..." then her eyes went huge. "I hit a man! But then he got up... who was that?" She started hyperventilating and I hugged her back to my chest, caressing her hair in soothing manner.
"Shh, it's okay. You are safe now." I kept repeating those words over and over again, until her breathing became normal again.
"How did I get here?" she choked out, tears clear in her voice.
"Damon found you on the road and brought you here. He said your car was wrecked and there was another vampire there. You probably hit him with your car and that's what happened."
"He... he appeared out of nowhere. I hit him and it was so terrible. Then he started getting up. Thalia, all his bones healed right in front of my eyes and he was walking towards me to... to kill me." She sniffed and snuggled in my chest.
"Did you see how he looked like?" I needed to know who to kill.
"No. He was in a hoodie. All I saw was some black boots heading in my direction."
"It's okay. Don't you worry, the bastard has just signed his own death sentence." I sighed and remembered her ignoring my messages. "I've been waiting for you for hours after I got home. Why weren't you answering my texts?"
She looked at me sheepishly, red tinting her cheeks.
"I was with Stefan," she whispered and looked away. I raised my eyebrows at her strange reaction, then it hit me.
"Oh, so you finally decided to check how comfy his bed is?" I wiggled my eyebrows at her making her blush even more.
"Yeah. But then," she frowned suddenly looking on the verge of tears again. "Then I saw this picture in his room. The picture of Kathrine, his ex. Thalia, I look just like her." Her voice broke at the end and she stopped holding back her tears letting them fall freely down her face.
"Oh, honey. I'm sorry. I don't even know what to say. Damon told me about it yesterday, and I wanted to go and kill Stefan for doing that to you... I still can if you want," I suggested and she smiled for a moment, then her smile vanished again.
"Why, Thal? Why do I look like her? I don't understand."
"I don't know. Maybe you are her descendant, it's not that uncommon, you know? When someone looks like a carbon copy of their ancestor."
"What if he started dating me because I look just like her?" That last question almost broke my heart. I didn't know what to do or say to make her feel better. That was just so messed up.
"I think you should just talk to him, honey. Let him explain himself, you know?"
I caressed her hair, putting a few strands behind her ear and she sighed.
"Maybe I'll do just that, but not now. I don't want to see him just yet. I'm tired."
"It's okay. Take your time and rest, okay?" She nodded and lay back, covering herself with a blanket. "Do you need something? Tea, coffee, hot cocoa?"
"No, thanks. I just want to sleep," she mumbled tiredly and snuggled into a pillow.
"I'm so glad that you are okay. You scared me and Jenna to death." I snorted when I noticed that she didn't hear a word I just said, she was out like a light. I kissed her on the forehead and silently left the room.
I found Jenna and Jeremy in the kitchen, Jenna immediately put a cup of coffee in my hands which I accepted gratefully and sat beside my brother at the table.
"Hey. Aunt Jenna told me what happened. How is she?" Jeremy asked quietly. He looked pale, it looked like he didn't take the news about Elena being in a car accident well.
"She was pretty shaken, but she's okay now. She's sleeping."
"Did she tell you what happened?" Jenna asked.
"She said that someone appeared right in the middle of the road and she hit him, wrecking her car in the process. He was definitely a vampire."
"I don't like it. Every time when we think that it's the last one, another one appears," Jeremy grumbled and I totally could understand his annoyance. I felt the same. "Do we even know if Logan's gone for good?"
"He's not a problem anymore," I said glancing at Jenna from the corner of my eye. She flinched when she heard that, but didn't look upset and that was a plus.
"Damon and Stefan killed him?" Jeremy asked, even though I hoped that he would drop the topic.
"No. He told Damon that there were other vampires who wanted to get into the tomb and Damon let him go. Logan promised him answers and asked to meet him at the old Fell's church. But he wasn't going to show up there."
"So that means that he's still out there?" Jenna asked with huge eyes, while Jeremy tensed beside me.
"I saw in my vision where his hideout was, so I went there and caught him before he could escape after what he did."
The room went silent after my words and I winced internally waiting for their reaction. I wasn't worried about Jeremy, but Jenna on the other side... She was in love with Logan for a long time. I didn't know how she would take the news that her niece killed her ex.
"You killed him," Jeremy stated and relaxed in his seat, a small smile on his face. "Well, one less problem."
"Thank God. He was completely insane," Jenna murmured, but I could feel that she felt uneasy.
"I'm sorry Aunt Jenna, but there was no other way. It wasn't just because of what he wanted to do to Caroline, but because of you too. He was obsessed with you when he was still a human, but after he became a vampire... it would've never ended well." I looked at her apologetically but she shook her head and gave me a weak smile.
"No, I understand. It's just... it will take a while to adjust."
I nodded and decided to change the subject, I couldn't take talking about Logan any longer.
"I won't be going to school. Need to take care of the car. So, Jer, you are walking today."
"Awesome," he rolled his eyes in annoyance and got up.
We watched as he grabbed his bag and left the house, grumbling all the way out. I snorted at the little shit's behavior and turned to my aunt.
"You have a day off, right?"
"Yeah, I'm just gonna stay home, work on my thesis and look after your sister. Thank you for dealing with the car." She gave me a sad but grateful smile, which I returned immediately, and started cleaning the table. I grabbed my keys, my purse and headed out, feeling already tired with all the formalities that were awaiting me in the near future.
And I was totally right to be worried. I had to spend almost all day talking to police officers and the insurers, trying to explain everything the way it didn't look suspicious. Of course I had to use a few little spells to make my story look believable, but it was such a drag. The police squeezed the life out of me and I'm not even talking about the insurers.
So, when I finally got into my car (it was dark outside already, by the way) I was pissed. Tired, but still pissed.
I started my car and was about to drive off when I was hit with a short vision of Bonnie falling into a huge hole in the ground at the old Fell's church. I had no idea what she was doing there alone, but instantly changed my next destination and drove off like all hell broke loose. I felt that she was there for some time now and was probably freaking out from being so close to starving vampires. I mean they weren't dangerous or anything, in the state they were in at the moment, but the very thought that she was alone down there must've been killing her.
I left my car when it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to drive any further and ran. I wasn't afraid to trip and fall, I was just running as fast as I could, hoping that she was okay.
I heard her panicked voice as soon as I got there, she was talking to herself, probably trying to calm herself down. I approached the huge hole in the ground cautiously and looked down.
"Bonnie?" I called loudly and received a frightened shriek in return. "Bonnie, it's me, Thalia. Are you okay down there?"
"Thalia!" she exclaimed, her voice shaking from tears. "Thank God. I'm down here. Please tell me you can get me out of here."
"Hang on for a second, okay? I'm coming down."
I looked around the ruins, trying to remember where the entrance was. I've been down there once a few years ago, but it was hard to navigate among the ruins when it was dark. I wandered around observing every corner until I finally found it. It was just a hole in the ground with ancient looking stairs descending into darkness. I created a little ball of light and sent it down the stairs to light my way.
I had to be really careful on the stairs and watch my every step since there was a lot of debris, but aside from that I reached Bonnie pretty quickly. I had to use a spell to clear an opening in the wall from the roots and large blocks of earth that filled it completely and blocked the entrance, before entering the antechamber to the tomb, my little "flashlight" right after me, and was instantly hugged by Bonnie.
"Thank God, you are here! I tried to call someone but there's no signal and then it started getting dark and..." she kept rumbling, looking like she was about to have a panic attack.
"It's okay Bonnie. You are safe now. Take a deep breath, okay?" I waited till she did exactly that and continued. "Let's get you out of here, shall we?" I showed her the way and we quickly left the dreaded place.
As soon as we reached the ground, I started checking Bonnie for any injuries.
"Are you hurt? What happened?"
"I'm fine, just a few scratches that's all," she reassured me, then looked at the giant hole in the ground and shivered. "The ground gave way and I fell. It happened so fast."
"What were you even doing here? If I didn't see you falling down there in a vision, you would've spent the night here until anyone even noticed that you were gone." I took her hand and guided her away from the dreaded place.
"Thank you, for saving me again," she smiled, squeezing my hand gently. "I started having problems with my magic. Even though I was complaining about being a witch before, the moment I realized that I couldn't do even what little my grams taught me so far, I freaked out. I went to grams and she told me that I needed to clear out whatever got me scared and... that's how I ended up here." She fell silent and I decided to let her gather her thoughts together. She was on a way of accepting her powers, that little was clear. "I heard them... down there... behind the door. Are they in pain?"
I was silent for a few seconds, before giving her an honest answer, "In the beginning... yes. But now, I don't think so. They've starved to the point of desiccation."
"I felt malice... and hatred," she whispered. "If they get out..."
"That's not going to happen, Bonnie. And even if it does, by some unfortunate miracle, I will be there to take care of them. You'll be safe, I promise."
The rest of the way to my car went in silence. I filled her in about what happened to Elena and she promised to visit tomorrow after I ensured her that she was okay. I left after safely delivering her to her grams. She invited me in for a tea, but I declined, not really ready to face Sheila Bennett's inquisitive gaze.
Elena was still asleep when I came home. I checked up on her, then hesitated if I should wake her up or not, sleeping for so long would mess up her internal clock, but eventually decided to leave her be. She deserved to sleep for however long she wanted after what happened.
Jeremy wasn't home and Jenna was in her room, so without nothing else to do, I went to the kitchen in hopes of finding something to eat, but it was all futile. Alas, the fridge was empty, as was my stomach. I thought about cooking something but I was so tired after such a long day, so I ended up ordering a takeout.
I've spent the next two hours eating Chinese food and watching Supernatural on TV. It always amused me that they portrayed witches in this show as some evil immortal creatures. Well, almost all the supernatural creatures were portrayed as evil there, so it was okay. I loved the show because it was about family. It was hard to find a story where the plot revolved around family these days, everything else was just a teen drama.
I was a Dean girl, by the way, fucking loved that man. He was so adorable and goofy, but a powerful and ruthless hunter at the same time. I loved how he always took care of his brother, that was something I could relate to. If he was real he would've probably tried to hunt me down and kill me because I was a witch, but I didn't care.
Thinking about family, I couldn't help but think about Elena and the whole situation with Kathrine. Something wasn't adding up. I was missing something very important, but for the life of me I couldn't put my finger on it. I just hoped it wouldn't come back to bite me in the future.
With all those thoughts running through my head I stopped paying attention to the show completely, feeling the sound of the tv becoming indistinct. My eyes absentmindedly wandered around the room until something on the coffee table caught my interest. It was Jeremy's sketchbook, with few crayons lying nearby, making my fingers start twitching in a sudden desire to draw.
I picked up the sketchbook and skipped through it, smiling gently at my brother's sketches, which consisted mainly of supernatural creatures, until I found a blank page. I looked at the crayons, deciding which one to choose and stopped on the black one. Black was my favorite color after all (I know, I know), it had so much depth. Black was an eternal classic.
I wasn't thinking about anything in particular when I started drawing. Frankly speaking, my mind was almost completely blank, no worrying thoughts or anything, only the sound of the tv bothering the silence every now and then. But even that started fading away as my hand with a crayon firmly in its grasp started creating almost illogical patterns on the paper. I wasn't having a vision or something, it was just one of those moments when subconscious suddenly takes the lead, creating curious yet wonderful things in the process.
I continued drawing absentmindedly for a few minutes, and started noticing very familiar facial features appearing on the page. I didn't stop even for a second until the drawing was complete, only then allowing myself to fully take in what I've just created. I took in the image of the love of my life and gently touched beloved features with just the tips of my fingers, careful not to smudge the drawing.
He was smiling there, not with his usual confident smile, but with that one special smile that I knew only belonged to me. He used to smile that way when he thought that I wasn't looking at him, but after we confessed our feelings to each other he stopped trying to hide it from me. That gentle smile and the look in his eyes, the one of complete awe and adoration, created a perfection. He was my perfection.
I then imagined that same face with fangs and dark veins under his bloodshot eyes, and thought of the scene that took place on the day we first met, when he destroyed his enemies ruthlessly and violently. I remembered all that and tried to understand what I felt about it, only to surmise that I wasn't scared or disgusted. I felt turned on.
Maybe that's what loving someone means.
Then I thought about what I would've done if I was in his place, if I was attacked like that and the picture that appeared in my mind was almost the same. I wasn't a violent person, but I was ruthless to my enemies. Even though I didn't have a vampire strength to rip people's hearts out, I had magic which I could use to achieve the same result.
I caressed his features again, snorting internally at the direction my thoughts took, and suddenly felt an almost painful desire to kiss him.
"Hey," I heard Elena's voice right beside me and returned to there and then.
She was standing there, completely dressed, looking nervous but determined. I instantly figured what she was up to.
"Hey," I greeted back. "So you've decided to go and confront him?"
"Yes. I know I will regret it if I don't."
"How are you feeling? You are not going anywhere if you are feeling weak or sick."
"I'm fine," she smiled, amused by my overprotective attitude. "Will you give me a ride? I really need to talk to him and I don't want to do that alone."
"And you don't have a car," I added with a small smirk.
"And I don't have a car," she rolled her eyes at me. "So what?"
"Okay, fine. I'll go grab my jacket. I'll be right back." I didn't forget to rip out the page with my drawing from Jeremy's sketchbook and left it in my room on a bedside table, so I could pine over my man when I get home.
It took us ten minutes to get to the Boarding House, it could've been quicker but after what happened yesterday I couldn't risk speeding up. Elena knocked on a door, only for it to flung open almost instantly revealing a worried looking Stefan. He gave her a once over, checking if she was alright and I could almost feel how much it costed him not to hug her to his chest in relief. At that moment I realized that whatever he was feeling towards my sister, it was real.
"Hi," Elena greeted him in a small voice.
"Hi." He sounded as cautious, as he nodded at me in greeting. "Come in."
He led us to the parlor, where me and Elena sat on the couch while he took the chair. I felt like a third wheel, to be honest, especially when it was obvious that the two had much to discuss and didn't pay me any attention whatsoever. I would've not even been there if Elena hadn't asked me to come for moral support (and as a free ride, of course).
"You could have told me," Elena blurted out, not beating around the bush even for a second.
"I wanted to tell you," Stefan said, looking really sorry and for some reason I felt for him. If he really fell in love with my sister it would've probably been one of the hardest things for him to tell her that she looked like his ex.
"You said no more lies. Only the truth. I can handle the truth, Stefan. As crazy as it is, I can handle the fact that you are a vampire. And that you have a vampire brother. And that my sister and my best friend are witches. I can accept the fact that the world is a much more mysterious place than I ever thought possible. But this... this lie, I cannot take. What am I to you? Who am I to you?" My sister's voice broke at the end of that speech, and I stood up silently, giving them some space, and headed to a bar to pour myself a much needed drink. I would've done that straight away, but Elena was clutching my hand like a lifeline.
"You are not Kathrine. You are the opposite of everything that she was." There was something in his voice that made me believe him. Huh, that girl must've been a bitch.
"And when did you figure that out? Before you kissed me? Before we slept together?" I flinched uncomfortably and took a big gulp of my drink, regretting for the first time ever that I couldn't get drunk.
Elena wasn't sad anymore, now she was getting angry. And Stefan could feel that too.
"Before I met you," Stefan said and I frowned. Was he about to tell her that he stalked her for the whole summer? Cause that wasn't the smartest thing to do at that moment. She would just become angrier.
"What?" Yep, by the tone of her voice, she was confused but still angry.
"The first day of school. When we met. It wasn't for the first time, Elena."
"Then when was it?" Elena asked angrily.
"May 23, 2009," came Stefan's answer and my world froze. It was like everything faded away but at the same time their voices became more clear.
"But that was..." Elena started confusedly and looked at me.
"That was the day your parents' car went off the bridge." I was aware that Stefan threw me a cautious look, but I was looking at my sister.
"You were there?" As soon as she asked that question, something clicked in my head, as if a long lost piece of a puzzle suddenly fell into its place. He was the one who...
"Every couple of years I came back here, to see Zack and see my home. Last spring I was out in the woods, by old Wickery Bridge. And I heard the accident. All of it." At that point I felt the glass in my still raised hand starting to shake slightly and squinted my eyes shut. "I was fast getting there, but not fast enough. The car was already submerged. Your dad was still... he was still conscious. I was able to get him, but he wouldn't let me help him, until I helped you."
I never noticed the tears slipping through my shut eyelids, imagining the scene he's just described as if I was there. It was totally the thing that daddy would've done, making sure that his children were safe.
"Oh my God," Elena said, choking on her tears and I immediately snapped out of my grief and went to her side, giving her my hand which she grasped immediately. "When I woke up in the hospital, nobody could figure out how I got out of the car. They said it was a miracle." It was. My own little miracle.
"I went back for them. But it was too late," Stefan continued, looking at us sympathetically. "I couldn't... I couldn't save them. When I pulled you out I looked at your face. You looked like Kathrine. I couldn't believe the resemblance. After that, I spent months making sure that you weren't her. I learned everything that I could about you. And I saw that you were nothing like Kathrine. And I wanted to leave town, but, Elena, I couldn't. I couldn't leave without knowing you. I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you. I wanted to. But you were so sad." His voice was desperate as if he was begging her to believe him. I did. I didn't feel that he lied, not even once. The part about that day though...
"Thank you," I spoke for the first time since we came here. "Thank you for saving my sister, Stefan. I don't know what I would've done if I'd lost her too." I felt a sense of deja vu, as only this morning I said those same words to his brother, but I didn't care. He saved my sister. They both did.
"It was the right thing to do," Stefan simply said, accepting my words.
"Why do I look like her?" Elena asked suddenly, drawing our attention back to herself.
"Elena, you've been through so much." It was obvious that Stefan was trying to avoid answering that question and I felt that he had a reason to do so. But Elena was determined to get her answer.
"Why do I look like her, Stefan? What are you not telling me?"
"It didn't make any sense to me," he started slowly. "You were a Gilbert. She was a Pierce. But the resemblance was too similar. And then I learned the truth." He paused, looking sad at what he was about to say. "You were adopted, Elena."
I felt Elena's body going completely still from the shock and I wasn't any better. I hugged her to my chest on autopilot, but my mind was elsewhere. Elena was adopted. I never really saw that coming. It was just so surreal. But I had a pretty good idea as to why no one would've thought of that. I mean I was adopted at four almost five years old and people usually forgot that I was actually adopted in the first place. Our parents had never really treated me any different from my siblings. I was their daughter the moment they decided to adopt me and they never let the founding community treat me any different either. That's why even if it was a known fact in this town, no one, not even the most bigoted founding families members, ever treated me as if I wasn't a Gilbert.
I tried to understand what I felt at the moment, knowing that my sister was adopted too (which was still under a question, until it was confirmed by Jenna, Stefan could be wrong too) and realized that nothing's really changed for me. I would love her even if she was an alien or something. As Dean Winchester once said, "family don't end in blood, but it doesn't start there either." With that conclusion I felt my soul becoming at peace. I glanced at Elena, who looked like her whole life had just crumbled before her own eyes. I tightened my embrace around her, snapping her out of the state she was in.
She looked at me, shock mixed with sadness in her eyes, and asked: "Is that true? Am I really adopted?"
"I don't know, Ellie. It's the first time I'm hearing about this. But we can't be sure until we ask aunt Jenna about it. I mean that Kathrine girl must've had a child before she became a vampire or something, but that doesn't mean you were adopted." I tried my best to calm her down and felt her relaxing a little bit, accepting my point, but we both saw Stefan sadly shaking his head and turned to him, feeling that there was more bad news coming.
"Elena's birth certificate from the city records says Elena Gilbert, Mystic Falls General. But there was no record of your mother ever being admitted. There's no record of her ever being pregnant," he said and I closed my eyes accepting my defeat.
Elena's fingers tightened around my hand. It must've been really hard for her and I didn't really know what to say to make her feel better.
I gathered my thoughts, trying to find some better words to sooth her pain and only then spoke: "It doesn't change anything, you know? There are a lot of possibilities out there, it could've been that the people that gave you up didn't have other choice, that they could've potentially been good parents to you or that your life would've been completely different from what you have now. But do you really think that it could've been better than what you had? I mean, I'm not saying that you had a perfect life, nothing is perfect, but you had the best parents in the world, Elena. You have me and Jeremy and I know that we can be a pain in your ass sometimes but we love you and would do anything for you. Anything. And then there's the best aunt in the world, let's not forget about her too." She was smiling now, her eyes shining from tears and I knew that I was doing a good job. "My point is, it doesn't matter if you are adopted or not. We are family. You will be my sister no matter what, because family doesn't end in blood, but it doesn't start there either."
She hugged me tightly, burying her face in my neck and wetting my shirt with her tears, but this time I knew those were happy tears. She knew that everything I said was true, because those same words could be applied to me as well.
"You forgot about uncle John," she mumbled into my neck and broke the hug, her eyes shining from amusement, making me snort.
"Yeah, we can't forget about him too now, can we?" I rolled my eyes and she giggled in solidarity. I loved the man, I really did. Actually I was the only one who could tolerate him when he came to visit. He was the one who accepted me into family right from the moment we met for the first time, and helped me countless times with my mental issues. But he was a dick and strangely enough, he was content with it.
"What else do you know?" she asked Stefan quietly, preparing herself for more bad news to come.
"For me to go any further, I would've had to look into the Pierce family and I couldn't do that. It's too much of a risk. If someone found out I was asking about Kathrine..." he went silent, letting us finish the thought for ourselves and stood up to sit beside Elena, taking her other hand in support. "Listen to me. It doesn't matter. You are the woman that I love. I love you."
I watched with a gentle smile on my face as Elena kissed him, and couldn't help but be happy for them. I could see that they just passed a point after which their relationship would become even stronger. It looked like there were no secrets left and even if there were I didn't think that they would be anything like the one that was revealed today.
That made me think if Niklaus was keeping a secret from me too. He's been suspiciously trying to avoid coming to meet me here in Mystic Falls, but I was too scared to bring up that subject with him. Maybe it was because everything was so perfect between us, I loved him so much and now I knew that he felt the same and I didn't want to lose that. It was just, something was telling me that I wouldn't like whatever it was that he was keeping from me and it terrified me.
I let two lovebirds go all lovey dovey with each other and returned back to the mini bar. A few glasses of scotch later, Elena finally (reluctantly) said goodbye to Stefan and we left home. I asked her if she wanted to stay with him tonight, but she was determined to get some answers from Jenna, so I didn't insist. I was curious too actually, I mean, mom and dad could've told Elena earlier considering that they already had one adopted child. They must've had some serious reason.
We found Jenna in the kitchen having a late dinner with Jeremy and Elena strolled right in her direction, like a girl on a mission. She wasn't sad anymore, in fact she was pissed and she wanted some answers.
"Okay... question. Am I adopted?" Elena asked furiously not beating around the bush and by how Jenna's face fell we all kinda figured the answer right away. Poor Jeremy choked on his food in the background but everyone ignored him. "How could you not tell me?"
"Elena... I didn't... they asked me not to," Jenna mumbled, her eyes huge from panic, it was clear that she's been dreading that conversation. I felt sorry for her, if mom and dad told her not to tell anyone, there wasn't much she could've done.
"I don't want to hear it!" Elena got her answer and stormed off immediately. I watched her go and sighed, before turning to our flabbergasted aunt and patting her on the shoulder sympathetically. I then went to the fridge and poured myself some orange juice only to immediately gulp it down and pour the next one.
"What... the hell?!" Jeremy choked out, finally finding his voice. He was a little red after almost choking to death, but it was quickly fading away.
Jenna was still frozen in place, looking in the hallway as if waiting for Elena to come storming back, but something told me it wasn't going to happen. She needed to calm down and prepare herself for the conversation without trying to bite Jenna's head off.
I observed two frozen figures for a few seconds before telling them everything that happened, about Kathrine being Elena's lookalike, about Stefan saving Elena and realizing that she looked like Kathrine and starting his own investigation and finally about how he found out that she was adopted.
I didn't wait for their questions and quickly left to my room. I was tired. I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep yet, but I was mentally exhausted. Maybe I should've stayed behind and have a proper conversation with them, but I didn't want to. I took a long relaxing shower, changed into my fluffy pajamas and was thinking about reading a book, but decided to check my phone for any missed calls form Nik before that. And, typically, I've found two and a text message which I instantly opened.
"Hello, gorgeous.
You weren't answering your phone, so I assumed that you were still busy dealing with your sister's car and decided not to bother you. I just wanted to hear your voice and tell you how much I missed you before I disappeared in the woods again. I'll be counting days before we meet again.
Love you. Your Nik."
I fell on my back with a a heavy sigh on my lips and hugged my phone to my chest.
What are you doing to me, Niklaus Mikaelson?
My worries from before got mixed with my unconditional love to him and something in my chest tightened. Why couldn't I just shrug it all off and just assume that he was nervous about meeting my family like any normal guy would?
Well, because he wasn't just any guy and he sure as hell wasn't normal.
I turned my head to the side and my eyes fell on a drawing of him that I did earlier. I didn't feel like standing up, so I just summoned it right into my hand with a little bit of magic and gently caressed his lips, wishing that they were real for me to kiss. I missed him so much but at the same time I had this feeling in my stomach that he was hiding something from me, something important.
Needless to say I fell asleep with a heavy heart that night.
Me and Jeremy just returned home from our morning jog and he was finishing telling me about this girl he met in the library.
"You are telling me that you've decided to write a paper about vampires in Mystic Falls just for shits and giggles, and that's why you went to the library to find some extra material. Then you met a girl, who you believe is a vampire and who was trying to... what? Earn your trust? She looked suspicious so you decided to play a Van Helsing and invited her to the Grill, to find out what she wanted from you. Am I right so far?" I asked him, and he should've been deaf not to hear sarcasm in my voice. Honestly though, that little shit would be a death of me one day.
"Look. I know how it sounds like. But some vampire tried to kill Elena and now another one appeared and gave me a folder filled with "proof" about vampires. They want something and I wanted to know what exactly," he retorted heatedly and I just looked at him unimpressed.
"Look, Jeremy. I don't want you to get it the wrong way, but you are not ready yet, okay? We've been training for, how long? A month. It's not enough. She could've snapped your neck in a millisecond," I snapped my fingers at him dramatically to show him my point, "just like that. I know that you want to help, but please do not take unnecessary risks, okay? I will fucking die if something happens to you, do you understand me?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, okay? But, Thalia, if she wanted to kill me, I would've been dead, which means she wants something. We need to find out what exactly."
"Okay, Sherlock, do you have any idea what is it exactly that she wants from you?" I asked tiredly and went straight to the fridge to, guess what? Yes to pour myself a glass of orange juice, because first of all, you should always stay hydrated and second of all, well, come on, orange juice is the best, what other reasons do you need?
"Well, she told me about her ancestor's journal when I told her that I was working on a paper and I told her that my ancestor kept a journal too and she looked like she was already aware of that fact, but aside from that nothing," he finished rumbling and accepted a glass of juice from me.
I wanted to say something, but suddenly froze, my mouth slightly open.
"Motherfucker!" I breathed out, making Jeremy almost choke on his drink. "She's looking for Emily's Grimoire."
"What? Why? And what does Jonathan Gilbert's journal have to do with all that?" Jeremy asked confused, trying to keep up with me.
"Because he wrote about it, dumbass. The founding fathers took possession of Emily's Grimoire after they burned her alive and decided to hide it. It was decided that Giuseppe Salvatore would take it, but he never told anyone what he did with it. She probably wants to get into the tomb and is looking for the Grimoire to find another way to get inside." I finished my glass and put it on a counter with a bang, losing control of my frustration for a split second. The situation was becoming only worse and worse.
"Well then it's a good thing that Jonathan didn't know where that Giuseppe guy hid the Grimoire, right?" Jeremy sat down at the table and grabbed an apple from the basket to munch on.
"Well, there are two problems with that. First, that vampire girl and her friends don't know that and will do everything to get the journal, including hurting our family. And second, I need the Grimoire too," I finished with a sigh and rubbed my face tiredly. I needed to talk to Damon.
My previous plan to wait until the seal became weak enough to break safely failed. With all the hostile vampires popping up in every few days, I needed to open the tomb as fast as possible, which meant that I needed Emily's Grimoire to break the seal. I mean I could do that using just a sheer force of my magic, but I wasn't in right condition for that. So the only way for me to break the seal as soon as possible, would be to examine the original seal and to do that I needed Emily's Grimoire.
"Hey, how's Elena doing? Is she still mad at Jenna?" Jeremy asked hesitantly breaking me from my thoughts.
He told me earlier that he was completely okay with the fact that Elena wasn't his sister by blood and I told him to tell her that in person, she would appreciate that.
"She's fine. In fact, I'm sure that she's more than fine, considering that she's making out with Stefan in her room at the moment." I snorted when Jeremy made a disgusted face and continued. "About your second question, the answer is, probably. They need to sit down and talk, but Elena is still pissed at her so..."
He nodded, understanding my point and we both went to our separate rooms to take a shower and prepare for school.
On our way to school I texted Damon, asking him to find out if his father had a journal or something where he wrote what he did to Emily's Grimoire.
School was boring, not much happened except for the fact that everyone was preparing to 50's dance, which I was going to skip as always (don't tell Caroline).
When I finished my MMA training that day it was dark outside already, damn winter and it's shorter days. Me and Elena agreed to go shopping as she wanted to pick a few accessories to her outfit for tomorrow's dance, so I drove to the Grill where she was having a dinner with Bonnie to pick her up. I parked my car and texted her that I was waiting outside, too lazy to go there just to call her out. While I was waiting for her reply, I was startled by a loud knock on my car window. I turned to look at the soon to be a dead man, only to see Damon's smug looking face.
I rolled my eyes at him and exited the car, not waiting for him to knock again (and knowing the asshole he would definitely do that just to annoy me). He stood there leaning against my car and I had to fight an urge to slap him. He was being really rude to my baby.
"What?" I asked annoyed.
"Hello to you too, Sabrina," he smirked, enjoying the fact that he was able to piss me off.
"Well?"
"You are no fun," the clown pouted. "Anyways, I was passing by and saw you sitting here all alone and decided to give you an update about that little thing that you ordered me to do."
"You found it?" My mood instantly changed, and I gave him a look full of hope.
"Nope," he stated proudly, enjoying again that I was on a verge of biting his head off. "I've looked almost everywhere, searched all of daddy's journals, but alas, found nothing. Yet."
"Then why the fuck you told me that you wanted to give me an update? In what universe is that an update?" I growled through my teeth to his endless amusement and started internally counting to 10 to calm myself down. I'm not gonna kill him. I'm not gonna kill him. I'm not gonna...
"The lack of news is still news, or something like that. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. See you around, witchy." And with that he was gone.
I'm so gonna kill him.
I almost convinced myself that it would be okay to go and snap his neck a few times (well, at least I would enjoy it), when Elena finally came out of the Grill. She started walking in my direction, when her phone rang and she slightly slowed down to answer it.
I knew that something was wrong as soon as her eyes went huge and she started looking around in fear. I immediately cast a locating spell and began searching the area for anything or anyone suspicious. I found him almost at the same time as Elena did, the dark figure in a hoody was standing just near the corner of a nearby building with his hand to his ear, obviously talking on the phone.
"Elena, get in the car," I said loudly, snapping her out of her fear, not taking my eyes from the dark figure. As soon as she got into the car I started walking in the vampire's direction, fully intending to rip his heart out, but he was gone in a matter of seconds.
That incident really freaked my sister out, I managed to calm her down only when we reached our home (she refused point blank to go for a shopping after what happened). She called Stefan and a few minutes later all three of us were in Elena's room, Stefan hugging her to his chest and soothingly rubbing her neck while she was telling him what happened.
"Why me? What does he want with me? And if he's trying to kill me, why call first?" she mumbled with her face buried in her boyfriend's neck.
"That's because we are predators, Elena. We hunt. We stalk. It's often as exciting as the kill," he sighed, before shifting slightly and breaking the hug only to take something from his pocket and put it in Ellie's hands. "I want you to take this."
We both looked confusedly at the item that he gave her and realized what it was almost at the same time.
"This is Jeremy's pocket watch. How did you get it?" Elena asked confusedly.
"I'd like to know that too. I certainly remember giving it to Jeremy," I added.
"I took it from Damon, who took it from Logan, who must've taken it from you," Stefan said and I frowned.
"Sneaky little..." I whispered to myself rubbing my temple in annoyance. Here's the answer as to why aunt Jenna thought that he was behaving weirdly when she invited him for dinner. He was sneaking around the house, looking for the watch.
"What happened to it?" Elena asked, seeing that the watch wasn't a watch anymore.
"Well, it's not just a watch. It's a... it's sort of a compass, but it points to vampires." He took Elena's hands in his, showing her how the compass worked.
"That's how you two found Caroline, when Logan took her," I wasn't asking, just stating the obvious and he nodded.
"Why did our dad have it?" Elena asked, looking at me.
"It's believed to be created by Jonathan Gilbert and was used in 1864 by founding fathers to find all the vampires in Mystic Falls. It's been passed down to first born sons in our family for a reason."
"Keep this," Stefan said, returning our attention back to himself. "That way you'll know if you're in danger."
It proved to be useful a few hours later, when me Elena and Jeremy were watching a movie in the living room and the compass that was lying on the coffee table in front of us started making strange noises. I told Jeremy to mute the tv and opened the compass only to see it's needle whirling around frantically, until stopping drop dead, pointing at our front door.
Jeremy immediately went to our fireplace where we kept some wooden stakes, while I went to open the door with a spell ready to be cast on the tips of my fingers. But when I finally opened the door there was no one out there and my locating spell showed me that there were no vampires in the area.
I was about to return back inside, cursing the stalker vamp internally, when I noticed a sheet of paper lying innocently on the ground. I picked it up and read whatever was written there, only to crumple it in my hand in a fit of rage.
"You were smart not to invite me in, Kathrine. But it won't save you from me. Be a good girl and save me a dance. See you tomorrow.
Your Noah."
It looked like I was going to that stupid dance after all.