infatuation ✓

10.

Tell All

"BRAVO," Alaska praised Elena as they sat on her bed. The older one of the two was lying against her headboard, filing her nails. "Your acting skills were like magic. I'm completely serious, Gilbert, you were great. I won't lie and say I expected better because damn that was beyond expectations."

"I feel bad for betraying my friends," Elena admitted.

"Am I not your friend?" she teased.

"No, you're my friend-I-I just meant-they think you're a villain-"

She rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "I'm kidding, Elena. I know what you mean. You don't wanna be labeled a snake for befriending the big, bad hybrid. Let me just tell you this, I am not the villain and neither is Klaus. From where I'm standing, your friends are the only villains in this little game."

"Wh-"

"Let me finish," she said. "I understand why you fear Niklaus; but you dagger Elijah, then Rebekah, and you undagger the man that used to beat his child senseless so that he can finally kill his hastard son. no matter how far you try to run from it, Elena, you and your friends are and will always be the villains."

The human flinched when she heard her voice crack. She knew she struck a nerve in the girl and she'd do anything to take it back. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Yeah, well, you and your friends just assume the worst in people who don't deal with things the same way as you do."

"I didn't come here to argue," she said softly. "I came here because I trust you, Alaska. My friends may think you're a villain, but I don't. That's what I was trying to say. You're a good person; they just don't see that. And I know you trust me, too. That's why I wanted to ask-can you tell me some more about your past? But only if that's okay with you, though."

"Of course," she muttered feeling a bit embarrassed at her quick judgment. "Well, I'm sorry for questioning your motives, Elena. As for my past. . ."

Foolishly, Alondra was just fourteen when she had fallen in love with a man two years older than her. She knew he had the same feelings for her, and so she gave him her virtue. It was the thing dearest to her, and she'd given it to someone she'd just met. Their love story continued for another year up until she had started to feel sick in the mornings and began to crave the foods she'd never liked.

Her pregnancy was first suspected by a witch who lived close by. She was wandering the forest when she spotted the girl kneeled near a log, throwing up into the river. There she approached the girl and comforted her as she vomited the remainder of her breakfast.

The older witch could sense the powerful magic from the girl and automatically knew she was a witch. Feeling the strong need to protect the girl, she questioned her, "Girl, have you physically been with a man in the past month? I fear you are with child."

She nodded her head with tears in her eyes. She'd thought of the possibility of being pregnant but never actually begun to imagine the reality of it. "I am a disgrace to my family. I cannot have a child out of wedlock; my father will disown me. No tendré familia."

"Don't think that way, dear," she said sympathetically. "If you are so afraid of the outcomes of this child, I will help you."

"Who are you?"

"Dahlia, dear," she said with a smile. "My name is Dahlia."

"She took you in," Elena gathered from the information given her. "That was nice of her."

"Yeah, I suppose it was," she said as she looked down at her lap. "Dahlia was Esther's sister. A powerful witch she was. She took care of me for the next nine months and helped me control my powers. But, when the baby was born, she convinced me to go back to my family."

"But, why, Dahlia?" the sixteen year old said with a frown. She held her baby in her arms, soothing it as it cried. "When my family sees me with a child, the first they will do is take the baby from my hands. I cannot let them ruin what can be my only chance of happiness."

"You have to, dearest Alondra," she said, "for your child's sake."

"Of course, I went back to my family. But when I got there, I was anything but welcomed. You'd expect at least a mother to defend her child. She just let me whimper in pain as my father beat me to get the child from my arms."

Alondra couldn't stop the sobs that tore from her throat as she lay in her silk sheets. Her father had never hit her. When he did, she could feel her heart break in two. For the next hour, she thought of what her father was doing with the child. She hoped he was treating it with love and respect, the love and respect he'd lost for his daughter.

Her thoughts were proven wrong when her mother came barging in, the child in her hands. She handing the child to her bruised daughter who was more than happy to hold her firstborn. Her mother looked at her sympathetically. "Rápido, nena, debes irte. Your father is thinking of giving the poor baby away to the village next to ours. Buena Suerte, mi amor."

"What you did was admirable." Elena felt glad the girl trusted her with this information but guilty because she knew she had to go back to her friends. "I can't imagine what it's like to lose a child."

"It's the worst pain anyone can ever feel," she said solemnly. "I would wish it on no one. Although I have killed people with families, there is the lingering guilt that is always hanging there in the back of my head reminding me of everyone I've lost. Use that to get Stefan back." She gained a surprised look from the doppelganger. "I've never turned my emotions off, but I know how to turn someone else's on. Just make sure he feels something, anything, even if it's anger or hate. Save him before he falls in too deep."