I woke up feeling completely drained and helpless like a newborn kitten. The bright light was shining upon my face so I tried to lift the blanket to cover my eyes, but surprisingly discovered that my hand refused to move. My limbs felt extremely heavy as did my head and I had the feeling that I wouldn't be able to lift it anytime soon.
"Is she still asleep?" I heard someone asking in a hushed voice and only then realized that I wasn't alone in the room. I felt that someone was holding my hand and heard that person letting out a tired sigh before they spoke.
"Yes. She never moved, not even once," Elena whispered and I realized that she must've been the one holding my hand. "I mean, I know that she rarely moves around when she sleeps, but... she's in the same exact position from since Stefan put her after he carried her here. And it's 10 a.m. already, she'd never slept for so long in her life. I'm officially worried."
What my sister said confused me. I didn't know what was going on, I mean I just fell asleep in my bed... didn't I? But why then I felt so tired? And she said something about Stefan carrying me here, I would have known if he did, right?
Elena sounded almost on the verge of tears and I wanted to squeeze her hand, to show her that I was fine, but realized that I couldn't. For the life of me, I couldn't move my damn fingers. Usually it would've frightened me to death, being weak and helpless was my worst nightmare, but I didn't seem to find it in myself to care. Not only my body was numb, but my mind too.
"She will be alright, honey. She is strong. The strongest person I've ever known in my life," Jenna said quietly and I felt her (I assumed it was her) caressing my cheek, then planting a soft kiss on my forehead. "Do we even know what happened?" she asked again, but her voice sounded as if from afar, I felt myself sinking into darkness again. I tried to fight it, I needed to know what was going on, but it was all in vain.
"We found her... on the floor... and... all those paintings..." Elena's voice started breaking up, as if I was talking to her on the phone and the connection was being interrupted due to a loss of signal. I did my best to stay awake but to no avail, the darkness consumed me yet again.
Next time I woke up feeling being hugged across my torso by someone's huge and warm arm. I breathed in a familiar scent and relaxed knowing who that was even before I opened my eyes. I moved slightly and turned my head to see my peacefully sleeping brother. I observed him quietly and frowned seeing dark circles under his eyes, he looked exhausted.
I tried to remember how I ended up cuddling with my little brother and the memories from last night came rushing back, giving me a mild headache.
I slowly stood up, gently freeing myself from Jeremy's protective hands, trying not to wake him up and looked at the clock on my bedside table. I rubbed my eyes thinking that I was seeing things, then looked again, but to my endless confusion the sight in front of me didn't change, it was still 4 in the evening. Never, not even once in my whole life had I slept for so long, not even after the night I discovered that grandma messed with my magic, and believe me I was pretty exhausted back then.
I stood up groggily and left my room, determined to find out what the hell happened yesterday. Once in the hallway I heard a faint murmur of voices from downstairs and considered going there for a second, but instead headed straight to my studio. I needed to see for myself what I'd painted yesterday.
As soon as I entered the attic I froze on the spot, taking in the sight in front of me. I clearly remembered working on one painting but, to my surprise, there were two more. But that wasn't what shook me. Everything was in chaos, my tidy table was almost empty, everything that was on it was now scattered around the area where my zombie ass was working on the paintings. Spilled paint, scattered brushes, some of my paintings carelessly lying on the floor, which I assumed was the result of me freeing some extra easels for two other paintings.
I sighed and made an attempt to rub some sleep from my eyes, but froze again looking at my hands that were covered in dried paint almost to my elbows. I looked down at my body and, yes, not only my hands were dirty. It looked like at some point I started using my own hands to paint, and it wasn't like I'd never done it before, but it turned out that it was a hundred times messier when doing in a trance. Why haven't I noticed it earlier? I knew that my hands felt a little dry on my face when I rubbed my eyes earlier, but never noticed the paint. I guess that says something about how exhausted I really was.
After finally pulling myself together, I came closer to the area of disaster and looked at what I had created this time. First, I observed the painting I remembered starting working on before everything went blank. The painting was really dark, so dark that the only things that I could make out were some indistinct shapes and silhouettes, but I could clearly see that my zombie ass had tried to portray some kind of a dungeon, there were places on the walls that looked like they were meant to hold torches, but what really caught my attention were the dark silhouettes lying on the ground like broken puppets. It took me a few moments to realize what I was looking at. The tomb vampires.
I slowly touched the painting, trying not to smear the still slightly wet paint, in attempt to figure out what was the message behind it. To my surprise I didn't get any premonitions from it... just knowledge. I will definitely open that tomb... tomorrow. That was for sure. But there was something else... a feeling. Despair, heartbreak... pain. Those feelings definitely weren't coming from the tomb vampires, though. Something else was going to happen.
After a few seconds of processing that piece of information I turned to the next painting on the left and took it in. This one was not as dark as the previous one, but concerning nonetheless. Two women were standing right where I found Bonnie not so long ago, in front of the entrance to the tomb. They were holding hands and what it looked like, performing a ritual. I couldn't say who they were, but I felt like I knew both of them. But the most concerning part was that behind one of the women was a dark figure with one of its hands on the woman's shoulder. I reluctantly touched the painting and the message I got was more clear this time. When I opened my eyes I swore to myself that I would never let that happen.
The last painting was the most confusing one. It was the brightest of the three so far, painted in light blue, pink and purple, with some slight touches of light green, red and white here and there. It looked majestic, like something from a fairytale, but what concerned and confused me was the fact that it was my grandma's portrait. My heart skipped a bit when I realized that it was the first time I looked at her face since that dreadful night, as I even managed to avoid all the photographs in her house in Atlanta. She was looking at me with such a gentle smile on her face, her eyes full of love and... sadness.
I forced myself to look away, it was almost painful to see that look on her face. It made no sense. I could understand why I painted the first two, but this one... How was it even connected to others?
I stood there for a while, my mind working non stop trying to put all the pieces together, my eyes wandering from one painting to another. The first two were more or less obvious, but the last one... I felt like I was missing a huge piece of a puzzle.
The door to the attic swung open and someone entered the room. I didn't turn to see who that was, too deep in my thoughts. Several footsteps echoed in silence, sounding closer and closer to where I was standing, someone's hand fell on my shoulder making me flinch from being shaken out of my thoughts.
"Hey," my sister asked quietly. "Are you alright?"
I slowly turned my head in the direction of her voice and noticed that she didn't come alone. The Salvatore brothers stood awkwardly behind her back, their eyes darting around the room, stopping at me from time to time, obviously concerned about my well-being, but if Stefan was politely trying to give me some space but still showing genuine concern with all his posture, Damon was doing his best to hide the fact that he gave a damn.
"I'm okay," I shrugged. I didn't know what else to say.
"What... what happened yesterday?" she asked hesitatingly. "You really scared us, Thal." After her words Damon and Stefan immediately stopped looking around and turned to me, giving me their full attention.
"It's... it's hard to explain," I sighed and turned back to the paintings, feeling them doing the same. "It happened once before, but it wasn't this bad." I had a theory that the previous time was easier because of Nik's blood that I consumed that day.
"You mean it's not the first time when you painted until you... lost consciousness?" Stefan asked cautiously.
"Kind of," I shrugged. "Last time it happened I was magically drained as well, just like yesterday... But my visions are also magically draining, if there's no magic left in me... they start feeding on my life force. The Universe wanted to show me something but because it would've been too damaging for my health to have a full blown vision it found another way. I never had this problem before because my visions never were this frequent. But I had more visions in last four months than I would usually have in a year."
"Can't... the universe or whatever, wait until you restore your juju?" Damon asked after a short pause.
"That's the thing, what it wanted to show me was apparently really important. So now I'm trying to figure out what it is."
We all observed the paintings in complete silence for a few long moments before Damon spoke again.
"So the one in the middle is pretty much obvious. It's the tomb, isn't it? So that means that you will definitely open it. Anything else is irrelevant in my opinion." He tries to sound confident, but we all could hear a hint of hope in his voice.
"Yeah, I kinda figured that one out too." I simply answered.
"What about the one on the left? Do you know who those women are? I don't like the dark figure though," Elena muttered.
"This one is a warning." I wasn't going to elaborate, the less they knew the better.
"What about the dark figure?" Stefan inquired.
"It's Death."
I felt them freeze in shock after my words, but I didn't spare them a glance, I was too concentrated on my grandma's portrait.
"You... you mean someone's gonna die?" Elena whispered and took Stefan's hand as if to comfort herself.
"Not anymore."
I didn't say anything else, even though I could feel their curios gazes on me, feel them trying to understand the meaning of my words. It was better for them to let that one go, that way the possibility of it actually happening would disappear completely.
"So... uh, what about the last one?" Stefan asked, finally breaking the heavy silence and focusing their attention on something less deadly.
"Isn't that..." Elena asked quietly, throwing a sorrowful look in my direction.
"Yes, that's my grandma. And I have no idea what that one means," I sighed answering Elena's question.
"Why? What's wrong with that?" Stefan inquired confusedly, completely missing Elena's warning look.
"She's dead." I bluntly said and continued before Stefan started apologizing, which he was obviously about to do considering a guilty look on his face. "She died right after my parents, passed away in her sleep as I was told. So I have no idea what this has to do with everything that's going on at the moment, with the tomb and everything."
"You see that's why I hate witchy stuff," Damon huffed in annoyance. "Why can't "the universe" use some actual words to send you a message? No it's always some bizarre crap."
I sent him an annoyed glare. "Maybe because it's a conscious of our fucking planet if not more, genius. It communicates with witches through visions, images and emotions. You don't really expect a planet to say something like "hi there, you will open the tomb, but something will happen to cause you an unimaginable pain, so uh, see yah".
Elena and Stefan turned away to hide their smiles, even Damon himself looked amused by my retort.
"Okay, so what pain are we talking about here? Will someone get hurt?" Stefan asked after composing himself.
I sighed and made an attempt to rub the bridge of my nose, but stopped myself remembering about dried paint on my hands. I seriously started considering getting rid of that habit. "I have no idea, to be honest. It could be anything. I can't even say if it's physical pain or emotional one... maybe it's both. The only thing I know is that everything's gonna change tomorrow."
"Well, it probably doesn't matter," Damon stated, rolling his eyes. "The only thing that matters is that now we know that you'll definitely open that tomb, Glinda, and I'll get my girl out."
"Yeah..." I muttered quietly.
"Come on. The dinner is almost ready and I still want to check on the journal." It was obvious that Damon felt a little uncomfortable and didn't want to hear that something could go wrong, so he didn't waste any time and headed out, leaving the three of us alone.
"It's almost 5 p.m, what in the world was he doing all day instead of going through the journal as he wanted to?" I asked no one in particular.
"Well, Jeremy's the only one that knows where the journal is and he was a bit preoccupied." I turned to look at Elena but she avoided looking into my eyes which made me a little suspicious.
"What are you not telling me?"
"He, uh, he kinda freaked out when we found you here yesterday," she mumbled. "He never left your side since. So he couldn't tell us about the journal."
The guilt filled my heart when I heard that. Jeremy was sensitive about our family's wellbeing after what happened to mom and dad. I remembered how he clung to Elena's side after her miraculous survival, refusing point blank to let her out of his sight, scared that he would lose her too. I made a mental note to talk to him later.
"So, uh, this is your studio?" Stefan asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject. "You are really talented."
"Thanks."
He looked around the room, taking in one painting after another. He wandered around for some time until he noticed a few paintings in the corner, covered with a piece of cloth.
"What about those," he asked curiously.
"Failures. I forgot to dispose of them," I quickly said before he could remove the cloth and take a look, trying hard not to blush. Those weren't meant for anyone to see. I painted Nik every now and then, when my longing for him became unbearable, and those portraits were sacred for me, no one was allowed to see them. So I headed towards the exit as nonchalantly as I could and said, "Come on, let's get the journal from Jeremy, we don't have much time to waste."
Luckily they didn't notice anything suspicious about my behavior and followed me downstairs to my room.
Jeremy was still soundly asleep on my bed when I returned, hugging my pillow tightly to his chest. I sat down on the bed beside him and hesitated for a second, not wanting to disturb his peaceful sleep, but it looked like I didn't have other choice.
"Hey, Jere-Bear," I whispered, gently caressing his back. "It's time to wake up, sleepy head." He mumbled something incoherent and squeezed my pillow tighter to his chest, making my heart swell with fondness. I gently removed a few strands of hair from his face, noticing absentmindedly how long it had grown and tried again. "Come on little brother, wake up before Damon loses his patience. To tell you a secret, I'm too tired right now to be able to stop him from dragging your butt out of bed." I whispered the last part dramatically, ignoring two synchronized snorts behind my back and I almost felt eavesdropping Damon smirking smugly downstairs.
Jeremy mumbled something inaudible once again, but didn't react otherwise. If they found me yesterday and it was already almost 5 in the evening, he probably was awake for a whole night and a good part of this day, so I assumed that he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon.
I looked helplessly at my sister and her boyfriend who were standing in the entrance to my room and shrugged.
"It's okay. He's probably too tired to wake up now. Let's go downstairs, Damon is making dinner," Elena suggested, then saw a look of utter shock on my face and giggled. "Relax, he swore he wouldn't poison it."
Stefan rolled his eyes at her words, and I suddenly realized that something had changed in his behavior. He looked more at ease somehow, while before he was constantly on guard around his brother, now it seemed that he was allowing himself to trust him again. He probably saw something in Damon, that told him that his brother was changing. And I also realized that I'd had no right to judge him before, as it was clear now that they had a lot of history together, consisting of pain and betrayal, and something told me that Stefan was on the receiving end more times than he wasn't. So now I understood why he was so unwilling to believe Damon, to help him. And again, they had a lot of issues that they needed to sit down and discuss, but it was a problem for another time.
"Okay, you guys go ahead. I'll join you in a bit after a quick shower."
They nodded and quietly left the room while I took some clean clothes and headed to my bathroom.
When I returned to my room after a quick shower, feeling refreshed but still somehow exhausted, Jeremy was still soundly asleep. I sighed lovingly, seeing how he was hugging my pillow like a baby koala and covered him with a blanket, then quietly left the room after planting a gentle kiss on his forehead.
Delicious aroma of garlic and basil greeted me as soon as I descended the stairs, but what really made me stop in my tracks was the sight of my aunt leisurely sipping from a glass of wine while conversing with Damon, who looked oddly domestic while chopping some vegetables with a kitchen towel hanging from his shoulder.
Damon looked so not like his usual smug and cocky self that I had to literally rub my eyes then take a second look to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things.
"Yeah I know, trust me. It feels like we are in some kind of a parallel dimension," Stefan whispered, breezing past me with a bottle of wine from Jenna's stash and joining Elena on the couch.
Jenna must've heard him cause she turned in my direction and instantly jolted up noticing me standing in the doorway.
"Thalia! Are you alright? How are you feeling?" She attacked me with what felt like hundreds of questions then hugged me tightly to her chest.
I froze for a second, taken by surprise by her sudden movement, but then leaned into a hug, burying my face in the crook of her neck and inhaling a familiar scent of her perfume. Poor Jenna, last few months were really hard on her, with all the supernatural stuff and little accidents she was constantly worried about us getting hurt. I wish I could reassure that everything would be okay, but I knew better than anyone else that life wasn't that easy.
I tightened my arms around her and gently stroked her hair.
"Sorry for making you worry aunty J," I whispered in her neck, smiling at the nickname that Elena gave her when we were in middle school, when she was in her "cool kid" era. "I wish I could say that it won't happen again but you know me, trouble is my middle name."
She giggled quietly and I felt some tension leaving her body, and realized that she must've been more worried than she was showing. We broke the hug and shared a smile before heading to a still chopping Damon and taking a seat at the table.
"So... I take it baby Gilbert is not available at the moment?" Damon asked as I was pouring myself some wine under Jenna's "disapproving" gaze.
"Sorry." I shrugged, knowing full well that he heard all my pathetic attempts to wake Jeremy up so there was no need to add anything else.
"Oh don't be," he flashed a smirk at me. "Once my patience reaches its limits I will show little Gilbert my patented technique of waking little brothers up, which, by the way, was successfully tested on Stefan, and trust me it doesn't involve gentle back rubs and forehead kisses." With that he threw a cherry tomato into his mouth and winked at me.
The eye roll was pretty much inevitable, I wouldn't be able to stop myself even if I tried to, which I didn't. He's such a dick, I thought with a small smile and took a sip of my wine before speaking.
"As if. Better tell me what in a world are you doing in my kitchen, Salvatore?" I raised my eyebrow still having a hard time believing that the scene in front of me wasn't some kind of hallucination.
"What?" he exclaimed, becoming all defensive. "I got hungry while waiting for you to wake up from your beauty sleep, but no one looked eager to offer me their vein, so I peaked into your fridge, which was empty by the way, but the last straw was Jenna's extremely pathetic attempt to make a toast. You can take a look at that piece of modern art if you want, it's still in the trash."
His reasons were valid so I just shrugged and decided to drop the topic for now, ignoring Jenna's annoyed huff, I was too tired to tease him anyway. I silently watched him move around the kitchen for a while, noting absentmindedly Elena leaving the room to take a call and Stefan joining us at the table.
"Whatever floats your boat, Lestat. But you better be careful and not break anything around here or you will find yourself in a very painful situation."
"Oh she's deadly serious about that," Jenna added seeing that Damon shrugged me off, not taking me seriously. "There are three things in this world that my niece will protect with everything that she has. It's her family, her car and this kitchen. And in that exact order."
I nodded and held my hand up for her to high five me which she did right away. That's my girl!
"Well family is understandable, car is a bit weird, but whatever," he shrugged mixing all the ingredients in a huge bowl. "But kitchen? Really?"
"Passion for cooking was the one thing that we shared with my mom, so yes, really." An awkward silence fell after my words so I added. "And besides, this kitchen was ruined so many times by my sister and aunt that I feel almost overwhelming need to protect it."
We all snickered at Jenna's scandalized expression, me barely avoiding being poked by her sharp elbow. The room fell into a comfortable silence only filled with clinking of kitchenware, just to be broken by Stefan's quiet chuckle.
"What's so funny?" I looked at him questioningly.
"Nothing. I just find it a bit amusing that Damon finds you being protective of your car weird." He threw a look at his brother and even if he wasn't smiling or anything, his eyes were filled with mirth. "I saw him the other day in the driveway, and I got curious as to why he was just sitting in his parked car not driving away or getting out for that matter and saw him..."
"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Damon growled suddenly, pointing a kitchen knife at Stefan which I found hilarious.
"What? What was he doing?" Jenna asked leaning towards Stefan in anticipation, completely ignoring Damon's murderous expression.
"He was pretending to be driving, spinning the wheel in every which way and making car noises with his mouth like a three year old." He never took his eyes off his brother while speaking so he was able to catch the knife that a very pissed off Damon threw at him pretty easily then thew it right back with a satisfied smirk.
A small part of my mind caught that while I was busy laughing my ass off and trying not to fall off the stool. Jenna leaned her head against my shoulder and was shaking from laughter, holding onto her glass of wine for dear life.
"That was golden," I managed to breathe out after a few moments. "Thank you so much for the image that I will play in my mind every time Damon pisses me off. I really needed that."
Stefan inclined his head a bit as if accepting my gratitude with a small yet somehow satisfied smile on his face.
"Yeah thank you Stefan, that was really funny," Damon thanked him through greeted teeth. "But do remember that making jokes is my thing. I'm the funny brother here not you, so you should return back to being your broody moody self."
Stefan didn't show any reaction to Damon's words aside from his smile getting a little bigger.
Damon was saved from our teasing comments when Elena returned to the kitchen with a happy smile plastered on her face. I wondered who she was talking to but didn't even have to ask anything as the first thing she did was hop on a stool beside me with mischievous glint in her eyes. She looked like she was about to burst with excitement and I couldn't help but smile gently at her childish behavior.
"Bonny just called. She's on a date with the hot bartender from the Grill." She didn't say anything else just held her hand up and I didn't waste any time to give her a high five right away.
"Right about damn time!" I exclaimed and we both started giggling like little girls. And we weren't even exaggerating, it was about time for Bonnie to start dating again. She was single for a long time after breaking up with her ex. Let's just say he was a world class jerk that one. He's lucky he moved to another town with his parents, else we would've turned his life into living hell.
We as in Caroline, Elena and me. Even though we didn't show it much, the three of us held a certain amount of power in our society, mostly among our peers and at school, but it was only the beginning. None of us really liked it but it wasn't something we could change, all three of us were from founding families and it was a given that we all were to become the part of a town council in a few years, taking places of/ or beside our parents. And Bonnie herself too, wasn't someone you could scoff at, even though she wasn't from a founding family, everyone knew that Bennetts resided here in Mystic Falls just as long as Gilberts, Forbes, Fells, Lockwoods and other founding families did. Her father also was a very respected persona and a part of town council (the non supernaturally involved part of it of course) even though he rarely showed up due to his busy schedule.
"Oh and here, I think you should call him," Elena suddenly said, pulling me out of my thoughts and handed me my phone. "He's been calling all day. I considered picking up but decided to wait until tomorrow."
I took the phone with a confused frown, wondering what she was talking about until I turned it on and saw 18 missed calls and 12 messages from Niklaus.
"Crap," I cursed under my breath and stood up. "I'll be right back, I'm just gonna..."
The phone in my hand suddenly started ringing interrupting me mid sentence, I smiled looking at the name of the caller and headed to the living room ignoring all glances that followed my leaving figure. I thought about going upstairs but my body was still weak, so I decided not to torture myself and sat down on a sofa.
"Thalia! Finally! Is everything alright? Are you hurt?" Nik's worried voice came out of the speaker as soon as I put the phone to my ear.
"Hey," I whispered, my breath suddenly hitching in my throat, the desire for him to be right beside me becoming almost unbearable. "Sorry, I just..."
"Please tell me you just broke your phone and only for that reason were ignoring my calls," his voice begged me, even though it was obvious that he didn't believe in that scenario even for a second.
"I wish," I sighed getting comfier on a couch. "Remember when I went bonkers and started painting in the middle of the night until I exhausted myself almost to death?"
"So it happened again. How are you feeling? Was it worse than before?" His voice became dark, he was clearly remembering the last time it happened.
"Yeah, pretty much." I shivered, suddenly feeling really cold without his warm, protective arms around me. My eyes fell on a blanket that lay on the back of the sofa and I didn't wait to wrap it around me. "I made three paintings this time and sadly you weren't here to catch me when I fell. So it hadn't been even an hour since I finally woke up. P.S. I feel like shit and really could use some hugs and kisses from you."
My voice at the end broke a little, surprising even myself. I finally was ready to admit that this whole situation with us being apart was messing with me. His absence in my life was hurting me more than I let myself think. I needed him by my side. This situation that we found ourselves in felt so wrong, and the more I thought about it the more it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I felt so vulnerable and exposed, my breathing becoming more shallow with each breath I took but I knew that I couldn't allow myself to fall apart because I was not alone.
Words threatened to leave my mouth but I swallowed them down, almost choking on them. I wanted to tell him how hard it was to pretend to be strong and in control when I was so damaged inside, tell him that I was doubting my own powers, my ability to protect my family, that I was so scared that one time it wouldn't be enough and my magic would fail me and my loved ones would get hurt. Tell him that I wasn't sure that I would be able to open the tomb without some dire consequences, that what I had left of my magic would be enough to even do it in a first place. But I couldn't allow myself to say any of that with my sister and aunt sitting in the same room. They still were unaware of my problems and I wanted it to stay that way. I wanted to be someone they could rely on, their safe haven in this new dangerous world. But I never had the same problem with Nik, he always understood me better than anyone else, no matter how many times I cried or ended up being vulnerable in front of him, he knew what I was capable of.
Still I could've put a silencing spell around myself and tell him all that but for some reason I couldn't force myself to do so. He was hiding something from me and despite my best efforts it was starting to mess with our relationship.
"Please love, don't cry," his desperate voice broke through my thoughts and I realized that I indeed was crying. "It breaks my heart that I'm not there to comfort you. I'm truly sorry."
When I realized that he was apologizing not only for not being with me at the moment but for his absence in general, I almost broke down on the spot and was able to compose myself only by sheer force of will.
"It's okay, I just miss you so much." I need you. Please. I need you so much. Those words burned in my chest but I swallowed them down yet again. I wasn't about to beg him to come to me when it was obvious that there was something holding him back. I just hoped that whatever it was, he would deal with it until it was too late.
"I know, sweetheart. Trust me, I know," he whispered hoarsely and it sounded like he was referring to my unspoken words.
The connection between us was so strong it was almost painful. We understood each other on so many levels and I silently prayed that it would be enough.
"I um, I'm not alone at the moment, so I'll call you back later okay?" I asked wiping away my tears and taking a deep breath. I knew that if I continued this conversation I would inevitably break down and that was the last thing I wanted at the moment.
"Of course, love, take your time. I'll be waiting for your call," he murmured quietly, but it sounded like those were not the words he wanted to say and I realized that he was hurting just like me. That knowledge managed to melt some tension from my body and I relaxed letting out a tired sigh. "I just need you to know that I love you. You do know that, right, my little witch?"
"I do. I love you too."
A gentle yet sad smile tugged my lips as I ended the call. Despite all mixed emotions that our conversation left behind I felt a little more at ease than I felt before it started. Then I remembered that with my mind being clogged by heavy thoughts I forgot to tell him that I was about to open the tomb the next day but decided to do it later.
My eyes closed for a brief second and I clutched my phone to my chest finally calming down completely, but my little meditation was interrupted by Damon's voice.
"Hey Glinda, you better hurry and bring your cute little butt here if you want to eat," he called for me from the kitchen and when I turned around I saw that they all indeed were about to dig in. "Your sister is eating like a horse and if you wait any longer you will be left starving."
A quiet laugh escaped my lips as I stood up and headed in their direction under my sister's grumbling from being compared to a horse.
The dinner went in pleasant conversations and small talk, everyone (shockingly even Damon) tactfully ignoring my red eyes, which I really appreciated. An Italian pasta that Damon made was surprisingly delicious. Only after a first bite did I realize how starving I really was so I didn't waste any time and started stuffing my face with food.
Always curious Jenna kept asking Damon and Stefan various questions about being a vampire and they did their best to answer them even though begrudgingly on Damon's part.
"That mind control thing is scary though," Jenna grumbled after Damon finished telling us a story about making some unfortunate burglar that dared to attack him in a dark alley smack his own face into a wall until he lost consciousness.
"It probably is, but it also can be quite useful," Damon shrugged unbothered.
"Why didn't you... I don't know... suck his blood or something? Wouldn't it have been more... practical... for a vampire I mean?" Elena inquired.
"Do you really think that I drink from anyone and everyone?" Damon scoffed. "The nitwit was homeless, which equals to no shower. He stunk! A guy needs to have some standards Elena. For God's sake!"
"Do you guys do that often? Compel people, I mean?" Jenna asked again ignoring his outburst. "Knowing Damon he probably does it like million times a day without worrying much, which really disturbs me by the way, but what about you Stefan?"
Stefan put his fork down and wiped his mouth with a napkin looking quite uncomfortable.
"I um... I don't use compulsion much, only when it's completely necessary," he finally answered and Damon snorted.
"That's because you can't," he cut in. "I told you millions of times already to break that stupid diet of yours and start feeding like a real vampire. You're missing out on so much."
"What does that mean?" Elena asked her boyfriend, who looked a lot more uncomfortable than he did a few seconds ago.
"Well you know already about my diet. I chose to feed on animal blood to sustain myself instead of human one, that means that I'm... uh... weaker than an average vampire, which also means that some of those vampire tricks work weaker as well." He sighed rubbing the back of his neck.
"Or don't work at all," Damon added. "Like that time with Vicki. You told her to forget that a vampire attacked her that night in the woods, but the memories kept coming back and she almost threw off your compulsion."
An awkward silence fell upon us with the mention of Vicki. Elena shifted in her sit uncomfortably and took a sip of her water before speaking again to light up the mood.
"How are you even doing that?" she asked brothers. "Eating, I mean. How can you eat regular food? Aren't you supposed to only drink blood?"
Jenna perked up at her question, it looked like she was wondering the same thing.
"We can eat regular food just fine," Stefan answered, relieved by the change of subject. "It won't sustain us, but still."
"It's also good for conspiracy of course," Damon added. "It's funny when some newbie vampire hunters search for us assuming that we can't eat human food while we are sitting right in front of them enjoying our burger."
I snorted picturing him doing just that in front of a council member, it totally looked like he was speaking from experience.
"So you use those myths about vampires to your own advantage then?" Jenna inquired curiously.
"I'm pretty sure that vampires were the ones who came up with most of them," Stefan smiled. "Like holy water, crucifixes, mirrors and garlic. All of it is just that, a myth."
He gave Elena a look full of mirth and I saw her blushing slightly. It looked like those were exact same myths that she believed in before.
"What about the sun?" Jenna asked again, looking really into the subject. "I take it it doesn't burn you either?"
All those questions made me think that I should've included her in my lessons about vampires that I teach Elena and Jeremy. I didn't like her being totally clueless.
"Oh it burns us alright. Quite literally. If a vamp is unfortunate enough to be exposed to a direct sunlight it's a total endgame. Finita la comedia," Damon answered carelessly, merrily shoving a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth as if he wasn't talking about a gruesome death from being burnt alive. And it didn't surprise me when the girls shivered.
"But how then you two are able to walk around in the day?"
"Thanks to these," Stefan cut in and showed her his ring while Damon waved his hand doing the same. "These rings are enchanted by a witch and enable us to walk freely during the day."
"So the sunlight is not even a disadvantage for you then?" Jenna huffed at the unfairness.
"Quite on a contrary actually. Witches hate vampires and it's a rare thing when one enchants a lapis lazuli ring for our kind," Stefan said. "Emily enchanted ours and did that only because Kathrine asked her to. Emily owed her for something so she did everything Kathrine asked her to. Also my vampire friend Lexi is friends with a witch, but she still refused to enchant a daylight ring for her."
"But Thalia doesn't hate vampires and she is a witch," Jenna threw me a confused glance. "She's even dating one. I don't understand."
"Black witches always maintained neutrality," I spoke for the first time and they all turned their attention to me. "Throughout centuries we remained the only loyal servants of our Mother and did the only thing she wanted us to. Kept the balance. Vampires are her creations just as witches are, so unlike our unfaithful sisters and brothers we never hated them, nor we supported them. We just watch from the distance and interfere only when the natural balance is threatened, no matter who's at fault, witches or vampires."
The silence fell around the table while everyone was trying to comprehend my words.
"Wait, did you just say that vampires are creations of the nature?" Stefan asked shocked.
Something flickered in Damon's eyes as he understood the meaning of his brother's question and he turned his intense look at me waiting for my answer.
"Where did you think your kind came from?" I snorted taking a sip of my wine.
Jenna and Elena looked at each other confusedly, then back at us, until Aunt Jenna spoke up.
"Actually that was one of the questions on the list I made of things that I wanted to ask you firsthand," she told me, then turned to the brothers. "Why do the two of you look like you have no idea where the vampires came from? I mean, isn't it your history?"
"Well, our sire wasn't exactly around to give us a history lesson, you know," Damon grit out, then looked at me. "I wondered the same thing for the first 50 years or so of my non living existence, but the only other vampires that I asked that question didn't know much themselves, the only thing they said they were positive about was that our existence was unnatural and we were abominations, that's why witches hate us so much."
"There comes that word again," I huffed. "Can you stop using the word abomination, please? I hate it."
"I don't understand. I thought that was the case, else why would witches hate us so much?" Stefan looked incredibly confused exchanging glances with his brother.
"You didn't think that vampires came out of nowhere, did you? Who do you think created them?" I asked.
"I heard this myth about a witch who turned her children into first vampires, who then turned the first humans through a bite and so on and so forth," Damon shrugged at his brother's confused glance.
"Who told you that? And why haven't you told me that before?" he asked tensely.
"Her name was Sage, and she was my vampire Yoda," Damon snorted at his own joke. "She was also the oldest vampire that I've ever known. And I didn't tell you any of this because we never exactly got along, little brother."
Stefan looked like he regretted even asking that question as he looked away escaping his brother's heated gaze. Even Damon's sarcastic smile was tight on his face.
"Wait, I don't understand," Elena butted in. "Witches created vampires, but they also hate your very existence, claiming it to be unnatural. How does this even work?"
"Well long story short, the existence of vampires was Mother Nature's way of balancing things out with humanity which kept growing and evolving exponentially, threatening to populate our planet to the brim and drain its natural resources leading it to a slow death from pollution, global warming and etc. So the witch who created the very first vampires was "inspired" by Nature."
My last words died out and silence fell around the table but not even a second later we were all startled by a sudden loud noise. The hallway was easily seen from where I was sitting so unlike Elena and Jenna I didn't have to stand up to see what happened. I leaned backward on my stool and peaked into the hallway only to see my disheveled looking brother groggily getting up from the floor and trying helplessly to pick up a vase that he knocked down by his fall.
"That was one of mom's favorites, brother. She would've whooped your ass if she was here," I snorted seeing him almost managing to pick it up only to drop it again this time even louder.
"Shit," he cursed, finally putting it in its rightful position, then stiffened when it finally registered in his sleep deprived brain whose voice he just heard. "Thalia!"
He ran to me and fell on his knees beside where I was sitting and hugged my waist tightly pressing his head into my stomach.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm okay." I assured him leaning down and planting a kiss on his head while hugging him to myself.
"You weren't there when I woke up and I panicked." He confessed after he managed to calm down a little bit. "You scared me, sis. If you are such a mighty witch why does those visions affect you so?"
He was just rumbling, letting out his frustration of being helpless in my situation, but my body went completely still. That phrase hit home and I couldn't suppress the sense of dread that filled my soul, the same feeling that kept slipping inside me little by little since I saw those paintings. The only thing that was obvious was the fact that the ritual was about to turn out to be a huge challenge for me and my magic. The challenge that I wasn't sure I was ready to handle.
"Everything comes with a price Jer," I finally said. "The ability to look into the future is a great gift but also could be a curse. The clearer my visions are the more they affect me. The most powerful Seers were known to even go blind with time, the visions take a toll on our actual sight."
His body tensed in my arms and jerked his head up looking at me in shock. I could feel concern rolling off of my sister and aunt as well, the sensation was enough to give me goosebumps.
"You mean you can go blind?" Jeremy cried out. "Then you should stop doing that! You should stop..."
He helplessly waved his hands at me trying to find a better word and I sighed.
"I can't. It's not like I'm doing it on purpose, I was born with this gift. I will continue seeing into the future until my very last breath. That's how it works." He clenched his fists in despair and the look in his eyes almost broke my heart. Such a combination of anguish, anger and pain was almost too much to handle. "Don't look at me like that, everything will be fine. The fact that I can go blind someday in the future doesn't mean that I'm an invalid or a hopelessly sick person. I've come to terms with that ghost of a possibility a long time ago and let's leave it at that."
I turned back to my empty plate, letting everyone know that I didn't want to talk about it anymore and met Damon's calculating gaze. He'd noticed my reaction to Jeremy's words and figured that I was hiding something. It wasn't hard to deduce that he probably understood that I was exaggerating my confidence in my own powers but I knew that he wouldn't do anything that can sabotage the ritual tomorrow.
I met his gaze and raised a brow, challenging him to say anything, knowing full well that he wouldn't and wasn't surprised when he broke our staring contest and lowered his gaze to his food, but what did surprise me was a glimpse of an internal battle that I was able to catch right before he broke the eye contact. That sliver of hesitation told me that Stefan's belief that his brother's humanity was off wasn't quite accurate after all.
Damon cared.
We knew each other for a few months now and I only ever went violent with him when the well-being of my loved ones was concerned, but most of the time I never hid the fact that I saw him for himself. I never judged him for being a vampire or killing all those people when he just arrived in town, always telling him that if he stopped pretending to be such a dick and stopped messing with my family we could even become good friends. And I always meant that. Now I realized that he probably knew that as well. He knew that I accepted him the way he was, and now I'd come to realize that it probably meant something for him if he was considering sabotaging the return of the love of his life even for half of a second when he realized that I could end up getting hurt.
"We are just concerned about you, darling." Jenna sighed taking her seat once again while Jeremy moved to sit beside me on Elena's empty place, leaving her with nowhere else to sit. Elena observed our brother for a second and went to sit on her boyfriend's lap, drawing a gentle smile from him.
"I know, okay? But you don't need to, I'll be fine."
"Have you ever shown any... symptoms?" Elena frowned.
"No," I sighed. "I told you, it's just a possibility and only happens when Seers become of old age."
I felt Jeremy shift in his seat but didn't turn to look at him, I didn't have it in me to look him in the eyes at the moment.
"You know, you always say that you know when I'm lying? Well it goes both ways, sis. I know when you are lying too and you are doing it right now."
Jeremy's words made me tense. I guess I wasn't as good of an actress as I believed myself to be.
"Is it true? What are you not telling us, Thalia?" Jenna asked, her voice holding that hint of authority that she so rarely used with us.
"Thalia, please, you can tell us," Elena's gentle, caring voice laid a final blow to my defenses and I finally cracked.
"It happened only once, okay? I had three strong visions in a row and went blind for a minute, but Nik's blood fixed me just fine. I was completely okay the next morning."
"Thalia! Why didn't you tell us?" Jenna exclaimed.
"Because there was no point, okay? It's not like any of us can do anything about it."
"What do you mean his blood fixed you?" Jeremy inquired but it was Stefan who answered him.
"Our blood has healing properties. When consumed by a human it can heal almost any wound."
That piece of information came as a surprise to everyone. I probably should have mentioned that as well, but I was too busy with teaching them how to defend themselves and didn't get to that part yet.
"Wait, couldn't you heal yourself?" Jenna frowned. "I know you can do that, I remember you healing Elena's wound when Damon brought her home after the car crash."
"Healers cannot heal themselves. It's the price we pay for the ability to heal others." I sighed. "As I said, everything comes with a price."
"So, basically, if you consume vampire blood after every vision you'll be fine?" Elena asked hopefully leaning forward to squeeze my hand.
"Probably... I'm not sure," I shook my head. "I mean Nature is full of loopholes, so maybe it will indeed work out. It's what I've been doing since that accident anyway. Nik keeps providing me with his blood for situations like this."
"Then what are you waiting for? Go drink it right now! You look like hell!" Jeremy exclaimed.
"Well thank you brother," I rolled my eyes at him. "But I've done it already while you were having your beauty sleep. So you don't need to worry."
Everyone relaxed a little bit after that and the table went silent for a few moments until Damon spoke up.
"Talking about beauty sleeps. Where's the journal, brat?"
I shook my head at him, but looked expectantly at Jeremy along with everyone else at the table.
"What?" He frowned. "What journal?"
"Did the sleep completely melt your brains?" Damon gritted out. "The Gilbert Journal of course. I went through all of my dad's stuff and found no mention of Emily's Grimoire, so I need the Gilbert Journal to see if your almighty sister missed something. So where is it?"
"I don't have it anymore," Jeremy shrugged, stealing a cherry tomato from my plate. "I gave it to Mr. Saltzman. He wanted to see it."
"Wait, Saltzman? That suspicious history teacher?" Damon frowned.
"Suspicious? What do you mean?" Stefan asked and Jenna added.
"Yeah, what do you mean by that? He's completely fine."
"I met him at the dance and he kept asking me weird questions. So yeah, suspicious." He said and stood up heading to a couch where he left his jacket.
"Wait, where are you going?" Elena asked sharing a confused look with Stefan.
"To get the journal of course," he shrugged putting on his jacket. "Can't afford to waste any more time than we already did."
"Wait for me," Stefan sighed, stood up picking Elena up bridal style and sat her down on his empty seat before planting a kiss on her forehead. "I need to make sure he won't kill Jenna's new boyfriend."
"Yes, please, do that," Jenna rolled her eyes at Stefan's cheekiness and stood up to serve Jeremy some pasta.
"Don't do anything stupid, Damon!" I shouted after them and the only answer I got was the sound of a door being closed.
A shudder ran through me from a sudden chill and I rubbed my upper arms to warm up a little bit.
"Hey, you look cold," Elena said getting up and started cleaning the table. "Why don't you go wrap yourself in a blanket. Jenna and I will clean up and join you in a bit."
Half an hour later we all were gathered in front of a tv, me and Jeremy playing yet another racing game while Elena and Jenna were having a silent conversation while Elena was going through some of our parents' old stuff. It was a good way of letting out some tension that kept building up in all of us in anticipation of the following day and the ritual that was about to take place. All of us felt that it wouldn't end the way we wanted it to.
"What are you doing with all this stuff?" Jenna asked Elena after watching her rummaging through a box for a few minutes.
"I thought there might be something about my birth parents," she sighed in frustration and started throwing everything back into the box after coming up empty handed. "But it looks like there's nothing of importance in here. It was predictable, but still."
"You know there's someone who could give you some answers, right?" I asked absentmindedly.
"What? Who?"
"Why, our very own Uncle John, of course." They all huffed and I added. "Don't be so adamant. He lived here at the time and could have seen or heard something. You should really consider asking him."
"Well, knowing Uncle John, he will probably play dumb and pretend as if it's the first time he's even hearing about it," Elena retorted, making it known that there was no way she was going to ask him and I couldn't help but shake my head at her behavior.
"What about you, Thalia?" Jenna asked me. "You already know who your birth mother was and everything about the lineage of her side of a family, but what about your father?"
"I have no idea who the guy is," I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.
"Well, don't you want to find out who he is?" Elena frowned.
"Nah. I already had a father. The best one any child could ask for. Whoever the guy is or was, he's definitely not my father, just a sperm donor."
The door suddenly opened and the Salvatore brothers marched in all covered in dirt.
"What happened to you two? I thought you went to retrieve the Gilbert Journal," I heard Elena ask and stopped paying attention to the game completely when something was dropped on the table in front of me. The car that I was driving crashed into a border but I didn't care, I was busy staring at the Grimoire laying right in front of me.
"You've found it! How?" I asked them ignoring Jeremy's annoyed exclamation.
"Is that it? Is that the Grimoire?" Elena inquired as well taking a closer look at the book.
"Well long story short, when we arrived to the school someone stole the Journal right in front of us and while Damon ran off to pursue the culprit, I went to talk to Mr Saltzman and managed to get the copy he made of it," Stefan said.
"Then we read the journal and found out where daddy dearest hid the Grimoire, turns out he literally took it to his grave," Damon said giving me a pointed look and I remembered the part where Giuseppe wrote about taking the secret of the Grimoire's whereabouts to his grave. "So me and Stef here, went and dug out our father's grave and ta-da! Here it is."
Elena, who was about to pick up the Grimoire, recoiled after his words when she realized where the Grimoire had been all this time and Damon snickered at her reaction.
"Ew," Jenna made a gagging noise but I ignored them and picked it up opening it on a first page.
"So what now, Glinda?" Damon asked dropping into the chair and putting his dirty feet on a coffee table under our annoyed looks.
"Now, I'm going to study it in order to find the original spell that Emily used to seal the vampires inside of the tomb and figure out a safe and quick way to reverse it. It will take some time but I've slept enough already so I have a whole night to figure it out."
"What about the vampire that stole the journal?" Elena asked him. "Did you manage to catch whoever that was?"
"No, I didn't," he grumbled and stood up. "But I bet that was that Anna girl, which means you should be careful around her, baby Gilbert."
"What, why?" Jeremy frowned.
"Because if she managed to run away from me that means she's as old as me, if not older, and you all should already know that the older the vampire - the stronger." He said the last part while already heading to the door. "My job here is done. Make sure to prepare for the ritual tomorrow, Glinda. I don't want you to screw it up." The front door closed behind him with a click and he was gone.
Stefan took a vacant seat beside Elena and even without seeing his face I could feel some tension rolling off of his body.
"Spit it out, Stefan. What is it?"
Everyone gave me confused looks and turned to Stefan wondering what I was talking about and he sighed.
"Alaric Saltzman knows about vampires," he stated solemnly and we all looked at him in shock.
"What? How did that happen?" Jenna exclaimed.
"Because the second I appeared he shot me with a wooden stake."
We all shared concerned looks.
"He already knew. When I asked him how he found out, he said that a vampire killed his wife, he saw him draining her from blood."
"Well, shit," Jeremy sighed, putting a joystick that he was squeezing absentmindedly back on the coffee table.
"It doesn't matter," I tried to comfort my aunt. "There are a lot of people out there who encountered supernatural creatures, even more than you think. I think it's good that he knows already. I mean if everything becomes serious between you two, you won't have to keep secrets from him."
"I don't know," she sighed. "I think I need to sleep on it, everything is happening so fast sometimes I fear that I won't be able to keep up." She stood up and headed to the stairs followed by our pitying looks. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up for too long."
"Night, Aunt Jenna," we all murmured and shared awkward glances not knowing what to do.
"That's not all," Stefan sighed after we all heard the click of Jenna's bedroom door. "Mr Saltzman thinks that the vampire that killed his wife is here in Mystic Falls. He managed to see him before he vanished with his wife's body."
"What?" Elena hissed, her eyes going huge from that revelation, while I did my best not to groan in annoyance feeling where he was leading with all that.
"Please, don't tell me..."
"Yes," he nodded. "He is positive that it was Damon who killed his wife and I believe him. He has no reason to lie."
"Well, shit," Jeremy groaned again.
"Oh my God," Elena murmured. "Damon can never know about this."
"He'll kill him without blinking," Stefan agreed.
"Not if I have any say in it," I snorted. "Mr Saltzman is with Jenna, well... potentially, which means he's under my protection. And Damon knows full well that people on my "to protect at all costs" list are off limits for him."
I was talking to them but all my attention was on the Grimoire, I couldn't wait to peak inside Emily's sacred book and learn her motives in creating such a flawed ritual. I wished goodnight to everyone and went up to my room, my eyes not leaving the pages of the book even for a second.
Everyone watched in concerned silence as Thalia's figure disappeared on the second floor, but no one uttered a word until the soft click of her door interrupted the silence.
Elena exchanged a worried look with her brother, which didn't go unnoticed from her boyfriend.
"You've noticed that too, haven't you?" She asked Jeremy who nodded in agreement before ruffling his hair in frustration.
"What are you guys talking about?" Stefan frowned.
"She's hiding something," Jeremy sighed. "And I'm not talking about the possibility of her going blind one day, which horrifies me to no end. There's something else."
The siblings went silent once again, trying to come up with anything that could hint them about what their sister was keeping from them.
"Does she do that often? Keep secrets, I mean?" Stefan asked moving to hug Elena closer to him.
"Only when she thinks she's protecting us," Elena sighed snuggling deeper into Stefan's chest. "When she's not, she's actually very honest with us."
"I think we are missing something," Jeremy frowned thoughtfully. "Before our parents died she would sometimes disappear into the night and return only after a few hours or even in the morning and mom and dad always allowed it, not only because her therapist said that it was good for her to have some alone time, but also because they trusted her completely. The first few weeks after the funeral went in a blur and I didn't notice that something was wrong because, well... you know... but then I started to notice that she stopped leaving at nights. At first I thought it was because of us, she didn't want to leave us alone even for a second and she was grieving too and then her grandma passed away and... I don't know..."
"You remember the night it happened?" Elena asked thoughtfully. "When Thalia woke up the whole neighborhood with her screams. We thought that she just had a nightmare as she often did when we were younger. The next day she received a call telling her that her grandma died but she... I don't know." Elena paused. "I mean I was with her when that happened and she didn't look surprised as if she already knew that. Now we know that she could've just seen it happening, but I think there was something else..."
"You are right," Jeremy perked up. "She looked really sick then, I mean she was very pale and weak and really exhausted. She couldn't even hold a glass of water her hands were shaking so badly. I thought that she was crushed by the news but what if something else happened? Something really bad?"
He looked at his sister, her eyes full of worry mirroring his. Stefan just sat there silently letting two siblings talk, it was obvious even to him that there was something else going on with his girlfriend's sister.
"I remember when she started disappearing again," Elena continued. "It happened right after she returned from her trip to LA, where she met Nik. I think everything is connected somehow, but I can't figure out how."
She looked so miserable that Stefan couldn't keep silence any longer and intercepted, gently lifting her face up so he could look right into her eyes.
"Hey, it's okay," he whispered planting a soft kiss on her forehead. "Everything will be fine. Whatever it is that's happening to her she could handle it."
Elena's eyes filled with gratitude, she leaned in and kissed him, showing him how much his support meant to her.
When their kiss started to turn into a full blown make out session Jeremy finally got enough and stood up.
"I uh, I'm going to bed, you guys..." Then he noticed that they weren't giving him any attention and huffed in annoyance. "Whatever. I'm so happy that Thalia's boy toy isn't around," he mumbled heading upstairs. "I don't think my innocent eyes could handle the double assault. Gross..."
Stefan caught the last part but was too busy to react, when Elena straddled his hips and deepened their kiss. His hands went to her hips, then up to her ass and squeezed it bringing her hips down a little more to create some friction. They both groaned from the contact but then Elena broke the kiss and rested her forehead against his, their breathing shallow.
"Come with me," Stefan whispered tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You can spend the night at my place, no one will say anything."
He leaned in for another kiss but was stopped by Elena's gentle fingers on his lips.
"I can't," she sighed. "I can't leave her like that, not when she's still recovering after what happened, especially considering what we are planning to do tomorrow night."
She looked at him apologetically but he shook his head with a gentle smile.
"It's okay. I understand. Your sister needs you."
He gave her one last kiss and she walked him to the door, then watched him disappear into the night with a smile on her face. She was about to close the door when her phone blinked signaling her about a new message.
She smiled seeing that it was from Bonnie and opened it.
"I'm right outside your house. Want to talk."
The message was vague, not like Bonnie at all, so she frowned and looked outside in concern. Something must've happened, maybe the date went wrong, she assumed and made a few steps outside.
That happened to be a huge mistake, as the second she left the safety of her house a strong hand covered her mouth preventing her from making any noise and she was instantly whisked away.