𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑 || 𝐊𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐒

forty-five.

It seemed like a good plan at the time.

~~~~~

Over the next week, Elliot had been on a little road trip of her own.

She had left the North part of the United States. Everybody she cared about was either in Virginia or Ohio or New York—at least she was pretty sure that her brother was back in that city. She wasn't exactly sure given the time between the present and when she had talked to him last.

Everything felt like a blur.

She had been to state after state. City after city. Town after town. In each one, she would spend time to herself, trying to find a solution to her issue. Then when her efforts ultimately failed, she made her way to a bar to drink away her sorrows.

And each time, she ended up picking the shiftiest of bars.

She would spend a few hours drinking away her problems. Elliot would down beer after beer before switching to something stronger. Then, just like clockwork, her control would slowly slip from her and she would end up making the occupants of the bars confess their sins before she would kill them, slowly and painfully, only letting those who were innocent walk free.

Elliot got a rush from the kills she would make.

But then the guilt would set in.

She would quickly cover up her tracks before moving onto her next destination, which always led to the same cycle happening with her upping her kill count.

Nearing the seventh day of the week, Elliot had landed herself in New Orleans.

It was one of the cities that the woman had always wanted to visit but never got a chance to. She heard that it was beautiful and frankly, she needed a bit of beauty in the darkness that her life was at the moment.

But she would soon learn that New Orleans was just about the worst city she could've gone to.

~~~~~

As soon as Elliot had sped into the city, the urges she had felt elsewhere increased drastically.

Everything that Esther had done was amplified, making her have to resist killing the first human, at least what she thought was a human. Instead of submitting to her urges, she continued on her way through the city.

After Elliot had parked her bike on the side of the street, making sure it was out of the way, she began walking through the French Quarter, which was quite possibly the worst place for her to be.

While she walked, her hand was tightly clenched into a fist and she bit the inside of her cheek, hoping that it would help her from picking any unnecessary fights and causing more bloodshed.

Because that was the last thing she needed to do.

Elliot had taken notice of the way people carried themselves in town.

She noticed a similarity between many people she walked past—a lapis lazuli ring on their finger. One that looked exactly like the ones she had seen in Mystic Falls. She had then quickly put the dots together, figuring that she had just landed herself in a city infested with vampires.

Her luck was abysmal.

She also noticed how the word 'magic' was flaunted around like it meant nothing or everything, depending on the way that someone was to view it. The tourists seemed to eat it up, so did the locals. It screamed cover up to anyone who actually paid attention...and Elliot did.