It was without much thought that she agreed to do whatever Klaus needed of her. She felt naive, idiotic, even, for assuming her brother safe halfway across the globe. For he was the only one she'd sacrifice everything for, drop everything for, die for. Though, she hoped it wouldn't come to that. Maybe Stefan and Caroline were still safe, maybe Damon would realize she was gone too long, maybe the three of them would figure out some way to save her. But that was all her life had become recently, a series of uncertainties. Of maybes.
As she gripped the phone with white knuckles, said that one word: yes, it felt as if she'd signed her life away. Like that one word couldn't be taken back, like her fate had been sealed the moment it left her lips.
"There is a carriage waiting outside. Hang up the phone and walk outside. Any misstep along the way will result in the death of your brother. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Elena said, the word losing all power as he threatened her with the only thing that could cause her to crumble so easily.
What was Damon doing upstairs now? Did he still find himself engrossed in whatever short story he'd decided to translate? Or did he pace back and forth or sit with fidgeting hands, trying to determine how long he needed to wait before following her?
Elena hung up the phone, fingers shaking even as she tried to still them, to calm herself. Everything would be fine. Jeremy would be okay as long as she followed Klaus' instructions. She walked, faster than normal, out of the building and toward the carriage that waited on the nearest cobblestone street. Refusing to hesitate, lest it be the death of her or her brother, she pulled open the door handle and stepped inside.
Inside sat two bulky gentlemen with glossy eyes and pale skin. On the other side, seated with hands neatly folded over her lap, sat a woman with curly hair, deep brown skin, and golden eyes.
She smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You must be Elena," she said. The carriage jerked forward and Elena's eyes shifted to the windows, to the door, wondering if anyone would come to rescue her. The woman, with a sort of buzzing energy about her, continued to speak, "Don't worry. The carriage is untraceable. Once you stepped inside we disappeared. No one will be able to find you." She said this in such a reassuring tone that Elena almost didn't think about what that meant for her. Still, she tried not to underestimate her friends and what they were capable of, what they could do. If they could save her, if there was any way, they would find it.
Elena kept her chin lifted, refusing to look weak even though she could have crumbled under the weight of the girl's stare alone. Would she get to see her brother before the end? Would she ever see Caroline or Damon again? At that moment, she even thought about the twins. Was the last time she'd gotten under John's skin truly the last?
"He's going to kill me?" Elena asked though it was more of a statement than a question. She still didn't completely understand what Klaus wanted with her, why she was so important to this ritual he planned to complete. Had her life always been heading toward this moment, like a twisted fate? While she'd been dreaming of education and translation, had Klaus been out there, waiting to snatch her up at just the right moment? Would she ever graduate, get the job she desired? All of those dreams she'd had, had they ever mattered at all? To think that her fate was this, this man's dastardly plan and her untimely death and not what she so desired it to be. Not the warmth of academia, the joy of translating ancient literature, the possibility of love, and finally finding a place where she belonged. That fate whipped away on the breeze, replaced with something far more sinister.
The woman didn't react to Elena's question, only admired her sharp painted nails. Finally, after a long silence, she said, "Klaus will explain everything, I'm certain."
The rest of the ride carried on in dead silence, the hulking men across from her keeping their eyes glued to the doors, while the woman next to her stared into space. Elena's hands fidgeted in her lap, unable to remain still in the face of certain death. She could only think about all of the things she hadn't done, all of her dreams that had been left unfulfilled. They plagued her, made her stomach roil. Sick.
When the carriage came to a halt, the men were the first to move, the carriage rocking as they exited. Elena didn't move, afraid to do anything she was not explicitly told. Of course, she wanted to fight back more than anything, but the fear for her brother's life held her captive.
The woman held out a hand, toward the door. "After you."
Elena didn't speak, only quietly exited the carriage. They'd only been on the road for about an hour, but the place they'd stopped was unrecognizable. A small, modest house stood half-hidden behind a copse of trees, with a long gravel path that connected the front door to the road. The two men led her toward the house, with the woman following close behind.
The inside of the cabin mirrored the outside. There was a small kitchen with a round table circled with four chairs, and a narrow hallway that must have led into a living room. At the kitchen table, Klaus sat with hands folded in front of him, looking both calculated and relaxed.
He motioned for her to take a seat. "Pleased to see that you arrived safely," he said.
She chose the seat furthest from him. Her brown eyes met his blue ones and though she wished to cringe away, she kept her eyes locked on his, determined not to look or feel small in his presence. If this was to be how she died, it would be on her terms.
"Where is my brother?" she asked.
"He's safe," Klaus said, as the woman from the carriage took a seat next to Elena. Both of the men, bodyguards, stayed standing, one next to the door they'd entered through, and the other at the start of the hallway.
This wasn't a satisfactory answer, and he had to know as such. Elena only pushed harder. "He's safe. Where? I want to see him."
"And you will. I'm a man of my word."
She didn't believe that for a second. The woman next to her placed a notebook on the table, open to a spread of pages with diagrams Elena did not recognize.
"Claudia," Klaus said, offhand. The woman, Claudia, grabbed Elena's hand gently and pricked one of her fingers. She twisted Elena's hand, and pressed the pad of her finger, wet with blood, onto a page of an open leather-bound notebook. Once Claudia released her hand, she jerked it back, slipping both hands under the table and out of reach.
From the fingerprint, blood spread out in all directions, crawling forward on its own. With the print in the center, the blood moved to encircle it, then inched slowly inward again, creating interlocking circles and crossed lines. When the blood finally stopped moving, the page seemed to glow a blood tinged golden. Claudia's hands moved in the air around the sigil Elena's blood created. The warm golden glow disappeared and Claudia nodded to Klaus.
Elena, enraptured by the entire process, did not move, did not take her eyes off the blood on the paper and the lines that crept backward into the small puddle in the center. Her inquisitive mind wanted to ask questions, wanted to learn, but she refused to give either of them the satisfaction of her interest.
"Do you know much of your ancestry, Miss Gilbert?" Klaus asked, turning his gaze toward her. He held out one hand and Claudia produced another leather-bound book, this one thick and worn like it had been used for centuries. Klaus flipped through a few of the pages. He settled on a page with a charcoal drawing she couldn't quite see. From the pages, he slid out a photograph and pushed it across the table.
It was a picture of her. A picture that Elena did not remembering having taken, in a dress she'd never worn. But undoubtedly, it was her. Then, Klaus turned the journal around to show her the charcoal drawing. Another version of her, in much older clothing, with braids Elena had never worn. Still, she did not speak.
He pointed at the charcoal drawing. "This woman…" he trailed off, shaking his head as if in annoyance or maybe adoration, she couldn't quite tell. Perhaps an interesting combination of the two. "Her name was Amara."
"I want to see my brother," Elena said, not wanting to give in to whatever informational presentation they had planned, only caring about the safety of her only remaining family member, the only person she'd sacrifice herself to save.
Klaus didn't address her, only continued. "Amara was much like me, she was desperate for immortality. As you very well know, I spent a good deal of my life researching immortality. And this woman, Amara," more disgust on her name this time. "Gained access to the first immortal elixir, over a thousand years ago. A great witch, a Harmon witch, some said, created this elixir for herself, for her children. It was one of a kind. Said to have taken a great magic to create, and great sacrifice."
Claudia tapped her fingers on the table, momentarily capturing Elena's attention. But Klaus continued his speech regardless. "For her crimes, Amara was cursed by this great witch. Despite her curse, her bloodline held great power. Infused by the elixir she stole, some might say."
"What was her curse?" Elena asked, finally.
Klaus' eyes lit up at her participation. "Uncertain. Though, it does not matter. Amara went on to die quite young, during childbirth. A few hundred years ago, her bloodline produced a doppelganger." He placed a finger on the image in front of Elena. A twin to Amara. A twin to Elena. "Katherine Pierce."
"And me?" she asked, feeling sick in a way she couldn't explain, didn't understand.
"Yes," he said simply. "I'm sure you've connected the dots already so I'll just cut to the chase, Elena. I believe your bloodline is the answer to what I've been searching for. I've failed once, but it won't happen again. You're going to help me, with your sacrifice, I'll have what I've always wanted."
Elena shook her head. "You're a monster."
He sighed. "Yes, well, I seek to rectify that little hiccup."
He'd already killed one of her ancestors, Katherine. And he would kill her too, just to achieve his goals. How could anyone rectify that, how could anyone believe human sacrifice to be worth their own personal goals? She chewed on her bottom lip to keep from spitting out the words she wished to say. If only she could refuse him. She wanted so badly to do just that.
"Where is my brother?" she asked again, like a toy with a string, only capable of saying the same three statements. She'd keep uttering these same words until action was taken. She had to keep her mind focused, had to keep Jeremy in her thoughts. She could have spiraled then, about these two women who shared her face, about Klaus' story of sacrifice, about Amara's theft, about all of it. But she only thought of Jeremy, of saving him and no one else, not even herself.
But at the same time, so many lines connected in her head, all the stories she'd heard about Arthur Harmon over the past several months. The disease he'd been trying to cure, vampirism. The Harmons, witches. His wife, Celeste, inflicted. His friends, the Salvatores, Caroline, and her brother too. What he'd done to all of them. And for what? A chance at some great power? A desire to live forever? It seemed wholly selfish in her eyes, even without the sacrifices, without the damage done to his once friends.
Klaus made eye contact with the man standing guard at the hallway. Klaus nodded, and the man disappeared down the hall.
"I know you do not agree with my plan, Elena, but you are a scholar, no?" He asked, raising a brow in a way that made the entire conversation feel simple and plain, as if they might as well have been discussing verb conjugations, or how a specific word was pronounced. "Well, know that your sacrifice will serve the community well. Many have searched for immortality, and here you are—you've had it within you this entire time. Katherine, well, we took some missteps with her. But with you? We will finally achieve what we've been working so hard for."
Elena did not look at him. She let her eyelids fall closed and prayed, trying to will any negative possibilities into existence. If she were to die for this, if she were to be his sacrifice, she prayed that it would fail. That it would have some negative kickback just like before. That he would turn even more monstrous as a result of his wrongdoings.
None of that mattered the moment she heard his voice. "Elena?" Jeremy said, soft and confused. Elena shot out of her chair and crashed into his body, throwing her arms around him tighter than ever before.
She pulled away to look at him, quickly assessing him for any damage. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Klaus and Claudia still sat behind her at the table, but the room might as well have been empty.
Jeremy collected Elena's hands in his, holding them tight between them. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he said hastily, looking her in the eye. "Are you alright? What's going on?"
How much did he know? What had Klaus told him? She paused, letting her eyes fall closed for only a moment while she let out a long breath. Even this was not easy, communicating her feelings with someone she'd once shared everything in her life with. Klaus had turned her entire life into a minefield she didn't know how to navigate.
"Arthur said you were hurt," Jeremy started, and the tightness in Elena's chest dissipated. He put a hand on the side of his sister's face. "But you look alright to me. You're alright, aren't you?"
Compulsion. Klaus had messed with his mind, and the knowledge of that alone made Elena's stomach turn. If only Jeremy could have been back across the globe, safe in his travels. She hated that he'd been pulled into this. But it was wise, on Klaus' part. She had to give that to him, as much as it made her despise him more. He had found the one person that she'd do absolutely anything for.
Elena smiled, placing a hand over Jeremy's. "I'm okay, Jer. I promise. It must have been a mix up. Let's sit down. I want to hear all about your travels and everything you've seen in the past year. You'll indulge your big sister just this once, won't you?" She batted her lashes.
No one moved to stop them. In fact, the man who had collected Jeremy stepped aside so they could walk down the hallway into the living room. For the next several hours, they sat together. Jeremy recounted the stories of his travels across Europe, and Elena told him all about the college experience, leaving out quite a few details regarding her personal life and all she'd learned of the supernatural.
For those few hours, it felt like nothing had ever changed. They fell into their old rhythm, and Elena was able to forget that her life hung in the balance, that it would be over whenever Klaus decided it so. The time ran out sooner than she'd hoped, and when it came time to separate the siblings, Elena clung to her brother tight with tears pricking her eyes. She took a step back, watching as Klaus compelled Jeremy away. Biting her lip to stop the sob from escaping, she clutched her stomach, just as Klaus dismissed her brother and turned to her. "Don't worry," he said, that same cold smile gracing his lips. "I'll keep my promise so long as you keep yours. Now come along, there's much to do."
A/N: SO excited to post this chapter, and even more excited about the next few. Full speed ahead until the end! Thanks for all your endless love. As always, blown away by the support. Also! I just started a silly little DE Christmas story, so I hope to have that posted in the next week or two!