Redamancy | Elena Gilbert

Chapter 50

Jesse was a good student.

He let Rosalind explain her plan for his training course, then got to warming up while she set up equipment for him to test his abilities. They spent about an hour practicing punches and kicks on a punching bag before Rosalind had him try and knock her down.

"It'll take some time to get to the point where you can get me on my ass," said Rosalind when she swiped her leg out and tossed him to the floor. "I was trained by two Originals and it was not easy to get the upper hand on them. It takes time, learning someone's fighting style. You have that benefit here, but in a real fight, you won't get that advantage. So you really just need to learn to keep up with someone as fast and strong as me, then we can move on to have you spar with Damon, who's a bit more experienced than me. If Klaus ever comes to visit, I can see if he'll let you join us in a sparring session."

Jesse strained to sit up. "That sounds like it'll be rough. But I want to learn. Not because I want to get into fights but because I want to be prepared in case a fight comes to me."

Rosalind grinned. "Good reasoning. Come on. Let's go again."

They finished at nine o'clock, and parted ways to shower. Rosalind walked to Elena's dorm, finding the three girls were talking.

"Hey," she said, noticing the grim expressions on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"I had a dream," said Bonnie. "A bad one. My Grams appeared, and she told me something is very wrong with the Other Side. Something escaped last night when the Travelers all killed themselves. It's unstable, and the witches are scared. So... in light of that... Liv is going to help me find the anchor so I can try to stabilize it."

Rosalind blinked. "We're trusting Liv now?"

"Well, she doesn't want me to do it, but she did think it would at least be good for us to know who the anchor is. Because right now, it's some poor soul who probably didn't choose this. I need to head out right now. The person is nearby. I think it might be another Bennett witch, possibly even my distant cousin Lucy."

"Do you need us to go with you?"

"No, Jeremy is taking me. It'll be okay, I'll be back soon. In the meantime, I need you guys to try and find out what escaped from the Other Side. Or... who."

"Will do," promised Caroline as Bonnie left.

Rosalind went to sit beside Elena, who'd been zoned-out the entire time. "Hey," said Rosalind, tickling her side. "You okay?"

Elena flinched. "I'm fine."

"You're jumpy," noticed Rosalind. "What were you thinking of?" She wiggled her eyebrows and winked, figuring Elena was looking back at memories of the night they spent together.

Her cheeks reddened. "This is going to sound really weird, but I just had a vision of Stefan."

Rosalind's expression dropped. "Oh. Um, what about?"

"It was so weird. It was like a dream but it felt so real. It was a different life. My parents were alive and we were together."

Caroline looked between them, eyes wide as saucers. "Together, together?" She gestured toward Rosalind as if to say, 'Hello! You realize your girlfriend is literally right here?!'

"Yeah," murmured Elena. "I was writing in my journal at a cafe and we met. And then it seemed we went on a date and he brought me back home and my dad was waiting up for me."

"That's random," said Rosalind, trying to pretend she wasn't jealous. "What brought that on?"

"I don't know," said Elena honestly. "I haven't had dreams like this in a long, long time. And like I said, they're so real... like I'm seeing another universe, another reality where Stefan and I met without my parents being dead."