Imagination is the key (stefan, Damon love triangle)

Chapter Fifty-Nine

After John and Isobel finally left, I was too wound up to just stay at home and do nothing. Elena had to go out to do a favor for Aunt Jenna and go and accept a check. She offered for me to come with her but I just laughed at her offer and went back up to my room. It was a mess. I had clothes everywhere and my bed wasn't even made from when ever I had last slept in it. I wasn't in the mood to sort that out. I hated tidying. So I just got and hurried out of the house before Elena decided she was going to force me to come along.
So instead I made my way to Hollee's house. I hadn't seen her in a while... Or really heard from her and not that I'd tell anyone but I was worried. Especially with it being Mystic falls. Usually when you lose contact with someone it's not long before they turn up dead somewhere.
As I walked up her driveway, I still couldn't get over just how big her house was. It was huge and it was exactly what I would picture Hollee living in. I didn't hesitate as I approached the door and knocked loudly.
It only took a moment before Hollee pulled the door open and her head poked out. Surprise fluttered across her face.
"Hey, Lillie." She greeted with a small smile. She looked fine. No visible injuries so she must be fine.
"Hey," I said and then just got straight to the point. "Where've you been?"
"Sorry, Lils. I've been really busy recently."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Doing what exactly? You've not been about for a week now."
"Sorry," She apologised. "I really have been busy."
I watched her for a few minutes. She looked painfully aware of everything. She kept shifted her weight from one leg to the other and her fingers twitched where they held the door open, like she was forcing herself to keep it open.
"Liar." I teased. I moved to step inside but just as quickly as I had moved Hollee was standing in my way, blocking me. I analysed her, confused on what she was up to that she didn't want me knowing about. Hollee stood there still and for just a second she looked distracted, so I took advantage of that and ducked underneath her arm. She was focused again now as she rounded on me and glared.
"Can you-" She started to say but I wasn't focused on her but more on the fact that draped over one of her kitchen chairs was a large black shirt that without a doubt did not belong to Hollee.
A grin fell onto my face and I squealed. "You've got a guy here?!"
Panic seemed to flash across Hollee's face for a moment before she shook her head. "What? No," She denied. "Of course I haven't."
This was exciting and I couldn't seem to wipe the grin off of my face. "You're lying," I said. "You don't wear shirts like that. Hollee!"
"I'm not," She insisted. "My style can change, Lillie, you know that."
"Is he hot?" I asked eagerly.
"W-what?" She stuttered, taken aback.
"Is. He. Hot?" I said again. "Come on, Hollee! There's got to be something!"
Hollee didn't reply just stared at me. Thinking. For a moment I wasn't sure whether she was going to answer me or not. Maybe she was going to change the subject but before she could even try a floorboard creaked upstairs and I felt my eyes widen along with my grin.
"Oh my god! He's here!" I whispered excitedly. No wonder she didn't want me to come inside.
"What? No, that was the house." She tried but it was obviously horseshit. She couldn't hide it now. "It's really old and creaks all the time." But she's going to try anyway.
"Is he that ugly then?"
"No! No, he's not," Hollee said instinctively. And then realising that she's just admitted to the mystery man still being here, her eyes widened.
"So you do have a guy here!"
Hollee sighed. "Alright, Lils, it's time to go."
I pouted. "But I just want to meet him."
She sighed. "Look, Lils, if I let you have three questions, will you leave?"
"Okay, fine." I agreed reluctantly. Hollee followed me as I wandered into the living room and took a seat on the sofa.
Hmm, what to ask first. I only have three questions and I didn't want to waste them. "How hot is he?" I asked. That was the easiest question to ask and one I really did need to know the answer too.
Hollee frowned. "Can't you ask me another question?"
"No," I said. "You promised me three questions and that's one of them."
She pursed her lips for a moment, contemplating what exactly to say. "...Dylan O'Brien."
No way!! A nine! "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"I really want to meet him now. Can we trade the two questions for a meeting?"
She shook her head. "Take it or leave it, Lils. No meeting."
"Fine," I sighed. "Do I know him?"
"Um, yes?"
"You're not sounding so sure about that."
"I am." She nodded.
"Alright, then. " Last question. Something good, hmm. . . Got it! I smiled widely. Hollee's going to hate me again.
"Last question." Hollee said uneasily at my grin.
"Have you two had sex?"
Hollee was instantly glaring at me. She stood up and shook her head. "Alright, Lillie, it's time for you to leave."
"Aw," I whined. "come on, you're meant to share this stuff with me."
"You need to leave." She walked me to the door, still not answering my question. She opened the door and help it open for me. I sighed.
"Fine. But you owe me." I said. And then another floorboard creaked upstairs. Hollee exhaled loudly and lent against the door frame. Her eyes closed and she pinched the top of her nose. Her eyes opened again and she looked at me. I wanted to say something and it was really had not to. She lifted a brow, challenging me to comment. I raised my hands in surrender.
"I'm going." I said, backing away from her.
But just before Hollee closed her door, I shot her cheeky wink, only to have her close her door on me. I still couldn't help the grin. This was great. I was happy for her, annoyed that she wasn't trusting me enough with a name or information about her 'lover'.
As I walked down the road, I dug around in my bag, grabbed my phone and dialed the number. It rang several times before I was greeted with a, "Leave me alone, Lils, you've done enough interrogating for one night."
I laughed. "Sorry Miss-I-have-a-secret-boyfriend. So have you had sex with him?"
"Goodbye, Lillie." And then I was met with the familiar dial tone.
I had several missed calls from Damon when I pulled my phone away and finally checked. I quickly rang him back and he answered on the second ring.
"Are you alright? Where are you?"
"I'm fine, Damon. I've just left Hollee's place, why?"
He let out a breath. "You sure you're okay?"
"What's happened, Damon?"
"Your mother kidnapped your sister."
I froze. "What? Is she okay? Where is she? Have you gotten her back?"
"Lillie, calm down. She's fine. She's here at the boarding house now. Isobel let her go. Apparently she was feeling sentimental and took Elena to her grave stone, Freaky if you ask me."
"Isobel just let her go?" I asked.
"Yeah -well, kind off."
"What do you mean 'kind off?' What aren't you telling me?"
I turned down the next road, heading to the Salvatore's.
". . . Isobel's dead." He answered.
My first reaction to hearing that was to feel thankful and a wave of relief, because now it's over with her. We don't need to watch our backs, we don't need to worry about her anymore. But then deep sadness set it quickly. She was dead. She wasn't coming back. It was worse than knowing she was alive and didn't want me because this was so permanent. There was nothing in the world that could change this. She was dead and would be forever.
"How?" I asked softly.
"The details aren't really important." He replied vaguely.
"Damon," I said sternly. "How did she die?"
The other end of the line was silent for a moment before I could make out hushed whispering.
"Lillie," Elena said gently through the phone.
"Elena, how did Isobel die?"
Elena took a deep breath. "She killed herself, Lils. Took her necklace off in the sun; she burned to death. But-"
"Are you about to defend her, Elena?" I questioned.
"I don't think it was done willingly on her behalf. I think she was compelled."
"She was a vampire," I pointed out. "They can't be compelled."
"Actually," Stefan piped up.
"Wait. Am I on speaker phone?"
"Yes."Damon answered.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Great." I muttered.
"Lillie, you need to remember now that vampires can be compelled. You witnessed Elijah compel Katherine remember?"
The memory of that night down in the church flashed through my mind. "So what are you saying? That Elijah's somehow compelling people? In case you've all forgotten; he's out of commission, rotting in your basement."
"I'm not saying it's Elijah." Stefan replied.
Realisation dawned on me. "Klaus."
"We're thinking maybe Isobel managed to find Klaus after all." Damon said.
I came to the beginning of the Salvatore's drive. "So what? He compelled her to play concerned mother for a day and then have her kill herself? What does that achieve?" I asked.
"We don't know," said Elena."
I walked in the house and hung up the phone. "Well we don't know a lot then," I said as I entered the parlor. "How exactly are we meant to kill this guy, if we know jack shit. We don't even know what he looks like."
They all turned to face me from where they sat on the couches. Katherine stood beside me, a empty blood bag in her hand.
"I've pointed that out, don't you worry," She said before leaving the room.
Elena was slouched in the corner of the couch, frowning. Stefan was occupying the seat beside her. He was leaning forward with his elbows balanced on his knees. Damon was sitting in the armchair opposite the two.
I moved around the sofa to Damon and sat down on his lap. "Hi," I mumbled, kissing him quickly.
He smirked when I pulled away. "Hi."
"Seriously? Now is really not the time you two." Elena said."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, we've got nothing here. You can't tell me anymore about Klaus than what we already knew before, so what more do we have to discuss?"
Elena's eyes narrowed. "Maybe the fact that our birth mother's dead."
"Technically, she's been dead for years." I commented.
Her jaw clenched. "Don't you care?"
My face fell blank. "No." I said and turned away from her. A foot caught my attention out the corner of my eyes and when I looked a found a pair of legs. Glancing curiously at Damon, I swiveled around on his lap so that I was straddling him. His hands instinctively fell to my thighs, I ignored the feeling of his hands on me and pushed up onto my knees to peer over Damon's head to the floor behind the chair. I could feel Elena and Stefan's eyes on Damon and I and I could literally feel Damon smirking. The position I had put Damon and I in was extremely uncomfortable with all prying eyes,but I pushed that to the back on my mind. I leaned in closer to the back of the chair, but twisted slightly so that I wasn't pressing my breasts against Damon's face. And when I found what I was looking for, my eyes closed and I sighed. Letting my body slump down against Damon. He grunted under my weight.
"Really?" I asked. "Why is John passed out on your floor?"
"Not passed out." Damon grinned. "Very much dead."
"Dead?" I repeated.
"Oh, don't worry, Lillie." Elena quickly said. "He'll come back to life."
"A vampire?"
"No," Damon sighed. "He has a horribly inconvenient ring that brings him back to life if killed by the supernatural."
I looked at Damon pointedly. "What did he do that forced you to kill him?"
Damon's brows raised and he shook his head. "Wasn't me."
"Hmm," I hummed. Not believing him for one moment. I should probably feel a little bad that John was dead at the moment, and if he was to stay that way, I would be sad -even though I don't like him very much, he was still family. But perhaps it's because I know that he's not really dead that i don't feel anything. . .
"It was Isobel. Before she took me, she killed him." Elena explained.
"And you still want to feel bad that she's dead?"
"Whether we like it or not, she was our mother. She get to live like she wanted to. Her life got taken away today, Lillie."
I looked over my shoulder and glared at her. "She had a choice, Elena. She chose to become a vampire. Her eventual death was inevitable. I'm not going to mourn and be sad over a woman who couldn't give two shits about us. She chose to give us up. She chose to end her human life, to give up her humanity. In my eyes, she got what was coming. You're too forgiving Elena. And that's gonna kick you in that ass one day."
Spluttering and jagged breathing quickly grabbed at our attention. In a second I was on my feet and Damon had John pinned to the wall, hands wrapped around his throat.
"I swear I had no idea what she was gonna do. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." John wheezed, tears shining in his eyes as he looked past Damon to Elena.