( 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓, the beauty of attraction. )
━━━━━━━━━━ amelia.
I LIKE TO THINK
that the concept of family is like a spiderweb. There's so many connections all over the place but as soon as one of them is cut, you're isolated from so many people. That's how I like to think who I am regarding the McCall family, the cut web. Because of Mellisa sending me off to basically the other side of the country, I didn't get to 'have a family'. When everyone had planned to go home for the holiday's, I was one of the only students who'd stay behind with teachers.
"Phasmatos incedia," I say. The room sits in silence while nothing happens. Suddenly the plant on the other side of the room, burst into orange flames. The rest of the room flick their heads over to that side of the loft. Slowly the next plant, and then the next and the next until all the plants were basically orange and black. I should've thought this a little more through. I weakly laugh and do this cool closing hand gesture thing to stop the flames. "Yeah, I'm a witch, well... yeah basically I'm a witch," I roll my eyes, and make myself at home on the couch.
"See!" Stiles exclaims. Literally pointing to me, and acting like I'm a showcase at a museum.
"Stiles, I think they can see me," I enunciate. "You can stop now," I say, slapping away his hand. From the corner of my eye I see Derek telling Stella to go back to her room. She pouts but otherwise obliges, and with a strut, she slams her door shut.
"She can help us with the Alpha Pack," Stiles exclaims excitedly, and I laugh.
"I like you keep saying that 'I'm going to help you' without even, you know, asking about my life, what I'm doing. You know just, whatever happened to hello, how are you, how's your day been?" I fake a smile and cross my legs facing the pale boy. By now brunette and the ginger were scrutinising me and the blond was snacking on my half finished chip packet. Scott was just staring at me.
"Let's see," Scott starts, "you're a 23 year old girl, with no job, dropped out of school, never actually got a high school degree, and ran away from the family because she was sent to boarding school for being a horrible person. You don't really deserve respect from any of us," he says with so much confidence it's humorous.
"Is that what Melissa said about why I left?" I say with a sympathetic smile.
"No, that's what my mother told me," he rebuts, his uneven jaw clenched at the word 'Melissa'.
"Same thing-" I try to say but Isaac interrupts.
"Ok save the family reunion for later," he starts and then turns to face me. "How are you going to help us?"
"Well, I'm assuming I can just set them on fire or snap their necks and then they'll die so-" I say waving my hand around.
"We aren't going to kill anybody," Scott affirms.
"Excuse me," I say. I did not just hear him say that he wasn't going to kill them. They're an Alpha Pack, I'm guessing they want power. Probably more than they already have, and they won't stop until they get what they want here.
"No one is dying, at least not by our hands," he nods as if he was agreeing with his own statement. The rest of the room looks as if they're unsure but they hadn't said anything.
"That's why I'm the one doing it," I say in an obvious tone. If I had to do this, I would just snap their necks, and then go on with my life, pretend that these few hours of coming here and meeting with all of these people were just a blur in my everlasting lifespan.
"Do you even have a guilty conscience?" Scott exclaims in disgust. "Do you not feel bad even just talking about killing them?" he asks, more shocked compared to curiousness.
"No, not really," I deadpan. Being friends with Damon and Kai will do that to you. The first time Damon had killed someone in front of me, even if they were a vampire and they assured me that they would come back in a few minutes, I cried for an hour. I counted the minutes. But I realised that if you kill a supernatural person with a true purpose, it doesn't really count as a 'bad thing'. And anyways aren't we all going to find 'peace' anyway so it doesn't really matter. "Then what do you suggest we do instead, throw a chew toy and hope that they'll go away?"
"Well whatever we do, we don't need you so you can just run along now. Go back to the depths of hell or whatever hole you crawled out from," he snaps and a fake smile makes it's way onto my lips.
"Gladly," I try to leave but Stiles's hand grips my forearm. "Excuse me," I say looking down at him.
"Can't you just do a spell that'll just transport them to another place or something?" he asks.
"This isn't Harry Potter, magic doesn't work that way, I can't just send people anywhere I want," Scott tries to say something. "And on top of that, I'm not really the most magical version of myself, so really I'm no help," I try explaining. Ever since the prison world, doing magic hasn't exactly been on the top of my list.
"Did you use up all your voodoo potions," Lydia says in a babyish voice, pouting her lip and cocking her head to the side.
"Something like that," I trail off. "So what are we going to have a sleepover, going to do face masks or are you going to let me get the hell out of here," I say standing up and folding my arms.
"Please do, please leave," Derek finally speaks. "And not just you, all of you," he says to everyone.
"Hope I never have to hear from any of you ever again," I smile, basically skipping to get of here.
"Wait," Stiles stops me again. "What if we offer you something?" he asks. "What?" he says looking wearily at everyone else's glares. "She's a witch, that's what witches do, they take offerings," he mumbles.
"First of all, pretty hurtful stereotype, not all of us are that bad." Scott scoffs and rolls his eyes. "And second of all, I genuinely do have a wedding to get to, if I didn't I might've considered staying, but you know, I have places to be, I'm on 'make sure nobody dies' duty."
"Well, what if you come after?" Allison suggests, Scott giving her a death stare, and Derek rolls his eyes dramatically, leaving the room.
"After the wedding?" Stiles adds on.
"Would you still need me? I mean a lot can happen in two days," I say leaning against the closed door.
"If we do we'll call you," Allison replies.
"I mean, if no one dies back home then sure," I shrug.
"Wait a second can we talk about this-" Scott starts but just to piss him off, I decide to do something that would effect me for the rest of my life.
"Then it's a deal," I smirk shaking hands with Stiles.
"Great so then this should be easy, I don't know why we were all so worried," Stiles visibly relaxes a smile on his face until he looks at Scott, which he then looked down at the floor for the rest of the time.
"And what makes you think you can trust her," Scott says suddenly, his cold hardened expression not changing from earlier.
"Trust me?" I exclaimed. "I came all this way to a town I want nothing to do with because a random boy I met once, years ago, tells me that my brother, someone else I haven't seen for years, was in trouble and you don't trust me? In what world does that make sense!?" I say sarcastically.
"You weren't here for my entire life. My supposed 'big sister', not only was a horrible person who had to be shipped away to another state to be controlled, but also a murderous witch, so no, I'm not feeling very trusting when it comes to you."
"Well don't worry I won't burn the town down, and I'll try not to kill anybody. But you have to understand, if anyone tries to hurt me, I'm not someone who shows mercy very easily. Well I guess it's best for me to go now, if you need me, I'm a phone call away." And with a flash of sarcasm I find my way back inside my car, just like I was a few hours ago. What had I gotten myself into?
THE DECORATIONS WERE
set, the flowery decor Caroline had organised perfectly, completely enamoured the beautiful essence of the barn, where the lucky couple had apparently wanted their wedding to be, in a barn. It was still day time when I came back from Beacon Hills. The 12 o'clock sun was shining down on the wedding venue, and like the sun the was at its highest and brightest point, I was at my tiredest and hangriest point.
After driving for another few hours plus a two hour tow truck break when my cars battery went kapoosh. Instead of pulling up straight to the barn I had to take a quick change at my room at Damon's house. Surprisingly enough Kai was in the living room drinking something colourful out of a martini glass. "I didn't expect you to be here," I say trying be annoying. He turns from his spinning chair at the little bar in the corner of the house Damon had installed a few days ago.
"My younger sister is getting married today and I'm still all alone. I'm starting to think I was more attractive in the prison world," he says as his eyes get a little wider and then he bangs his head on table. "I need a little liquid courage today," I was able to make out as he makes out with the table.
"You know you're half vampire, it's not going to effect you at all right?" I chuckle as I head for the wooden staircase.
"Amelia," he pauses dramatically. "You need to believe," he over enunciates, his hands moving about.
"Ugh you're so annoying," I say, absentmindedly scrunching up my nose, as I lean on the handrail.
"And I take much pride in it," he says with a cocky look. He spins around on his chair to face me again. Since he hadn't cut his hair or his slight facial, mostly on my request, from the once 16/17 year old boy type of look alike he had turned into a mature man, yet his boyish features hadn't much changed.
"Yeah yeah whatever," I roll my eyes. "Shouldn't you be with Alaric right now?" I question. Since Kai had become a heretic, and his... murderous fantasies had subsided, he had tried to live as normal of life as us all supernatural creatures can. On of these tasks of his was fixing his relation with his sister and therefore forming a relationship with Alaric. They had quickly created a friendship much like Alaric and Damon's.
"He's with my father," his grin moulding into a tight smile, looking up at me while sipping his drink.
"Oh, I'm sorry. How are you handling?" I was put on Kai duty so you know, no bloody corpses randomly show up in the middle of the ceremony.
"Well no ones died yet," he jokes, making me glare at his stupid face. "Sorry," he says like a little boy in trouble.
"Just know that I'm here for you, okay," I say softly. He doesn't say anything back, just staring at the floor next to my feet. "Okayyyyyyyyyyy," I insist for longer.
"Okayyyyyyy," he mimicks. "Now go change, you stink!"
"I hate you," I deadpan. I twirl around and start to head up the stairs but a sudden thought enters my clouded mind making me turn around. "But seriously you're done with your revenge plans right?" I question with suspicious eyes.
"Well I merged and dad's living a life where all of his children either hate him or are dead, and anyway I don't think I can give you up so soon," he says the last part slowly, almost reluctantly, like he was a admitting something.
"What do you mean give me up?" I ask now at the top of the staircase, leaning down from the railing, looking down at Kai.
"You don't deserve me going from a human with minimal to no feelings to full blown sociopath in one night, not after what I put you all through. I just got over my guilt I don't want to go through all of that again," he says with a smile.
"Awww, I think that's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me," I say, wiping away some fake tears, clutching onto the left side of my chest dramatically.
"Sweet things deserve to be said to pretty people," he smirks making me blush slightly.
"Wait stop I'm blushing!" I say dramatically.
"Just remember I'm the only one who can make you feel like this princess!" his arrogance shinning through.
"Dream on psycho," I wink before turning around to leave my room, and change into my olive green dress. I admit was a little odd choice for a colour in general but it was a miracle that I had found it where I did, in the sale rack. The entirety of it was made out of silk. The top of the long flowing dress was an extra amount of silk wrapping around the top half of my body. Two silky pieces of string draped across my shoulders. Wrapped around my waist, all the way down to the floor, was the same coloured silk but there was a cutout so you could see my left leg. Truthfully it wasn't at all how looked like at the shops, but Caroline was convinced that she just had to fix it so now it turned out like this.
A few minutes after I got changed Kai was still in the spot I had left him in but he was his suit. "Well finally..." he starts turning around on his heels. "You look beautiful," he says nonchalantly and opening the front door.
"You don't look so bad yourself," I smirk as he drives the both of us to the wedding venue. As we step out of the car, my heels hitting the gravel under our feet. Kai was immediately called by Damon to do groomsmen stuff I guess, so I went to Caroline and Elena who seemed to be in a laughing mood.
"So how was it?" Caroline says in a teasing tone, referring to my trip to Beacon Hills, wiggling her eyebrows, tucking her clipboard between her arms and the side of her body.
"Literally the worst," I say truthfully, as I sigh and brush the brunette hair out of my face.
"What happened?" Elena says sympathetically in true Elena fashion.
"Well I think 7 people know that I'm a witch now, my brother has a severe hatred for me, and I think I inadvertently gave a little girl even more mommy issues than she already had," I say sarcastically, with a sad chuckle to add 'emphasis' on how sad my life is.
"What?" Caroline smiles in amusement.
"I knocked on the door and this little girl basically made best friends with me," I shrug.
"Wow! Amelia making friends who would've thought," Damon says coming up with Kai to the three of us, clapping his hands under his chin with an overemphasised look.
"We shared the best red velvet cake," I say staring into the abyss think about the true love my life; cake. I turn to Damon and say, "We need to buy red velvet cake but in other news her dad was so fucking hot."
"Of course that's what you got out of that visit," Damon slightly nods with a smirk on his face.
"But it's true though, you should've seen him," I say sighing.
"Stop fangirling, you don't even know him," Kai smiles.
"A girl can dream Kai," I retort against the smug man.
"You didn't tell them about the vampire bit," Elena questions cocking her head to the side, with a sympathetic smile.
"They only had werewolves and hunters I don't want to scare them that much," I roll my eyes.
"Just werewolves? Sounds like a lame town," Damon says judgmentaly, making Elena slap him on his shoulder.
"You have no idea," I exaggerate. "Maybe, hopefully," I start to say with my hand clasped together, "I won't have to go there again but let's be honest with our luck-" Alaric starts to come over to us, with a happy smile on his face, a slight skip to his step.
"Our luck?" he says with a teasing smile. "I'm the one getting married," he smiles making us all groan. Ever since he's been with Jo, he's been too lovey dovey. I hate happy people.
"Do we need to remind you of all of your ex girlfriends and previous psychopath wife," Elena chimes in with a teasing look.
"No you don't." he said with a stern face. "Now come inside, it's getting cold," he says ushering us into the decorated barn.
"You know that all of us are supernatural creatures and you're warning us about the weather?" I remark as he rolls his eyes at me and fixes up his suit.
"Just come inside already," he say already walking away from the rest of. We all walk hand in hand, mostly going over to Caroline to see if anything else needs fixing or getting or something else. Otherwise we just welcomed most of the early guests inside.
THE SUN HAD SET
and the moon was shining ever so brightly. The bride was at her happiest, and not at all freaking out. Nope not one bit. She is cool, calm and collected. The epitome of grace and you could see the loving eyes that she held for her new life partner, the person she was going to marry, the man that she held most dear to her, the man that she would soon share a family with...
"Where the hell is my shoe!?" Jo shouts. Her eyes were those of someone high on weed, red, crazy and most of all, scary. She looked like an absolute angel until we reached for her shoes, or rather one shoe that was in the closet and the other, no where to be found.
"Jo just calm down," Bonnie says in a calm manner but you could see the pain that she was trying to hide. Jo on a regular day was okay to handle, passionate and friendly was two words that could describe her. Jo on a stressful day is a whole other story or rather, she was a whole other person. She goes from being a 'Jo' to a 'Joe'. Not fun.
"I don't care about calm, I care about my shoe! Where is my shoe!" she shouts. "I'm not starting this miserable existence with love of my life with only! One! shoe!" I wouldn't be surprised if the whole wedding hall was turning towards to face the screeching sounds coming from all four of us women.
"I found it!" Elena shouts as the runs into the small room we were all situated in. She was panting hard as she threw the shoe over to me and I threw it over to Bonnie, who then kneeled down in front of Jo, and slipped it onto her foot.
"Hurry up! The music is going to start soon," Caroline scolds, fixing a loose strand of hair on Jo's head while simultaneously fixing her own.
"D-do I tell them to start now or," I stammer as I put my hand on the doorknob just waiting to get a breath of fresh air.
"Yes hurry up and go!" Caroline shouts. I run over to the band who were all waiting with a bored look on their faces, and the main little... thing turns over to me with a fed up look on her face.
"You can start now," I pant tiredly, seeing Kai trying to hold in his laughter from the other side of the barn.
"I still get paid extra right?" the snaky little bitch says before she gets everyone else into place.
"Play your stupid violin before I bash your head with it," I glare before running back, with my heels still on might I add, to the Jo's dressing room. The rest of the girls were getting into place, standing right outside the huge doors, as Jo head to the back with her dad. The guys, Damon, Stefan and Kai joined with the rest of the bridesmaids. Damon with Elena, Stefan with Caroline and Kai with me.
As the two couples before us walk down the petal filled aisle, Kai's grip was unusually... tense, he had always been a possessive man but this was different. I place my hand over his and squeeze it a little, his subtly turns over to me and I send him a small smile. Hopefully it'll calm him down a little bit.
We stand on separate sides of the barn and set our gaze upon Jo and Joshua. Alaric and Jo proceed to say their vows to each other, and the marriage officiant said the usual marriage stuff. "You may kiss the bride," he says with a smile. We all watch as Alaric finally got his happy ending with woman of his dreams.
Alaric and Jo dance to a slow song before they tell us all to join them on the dance floor. Damon and Elena immediately start slow dancing with each other and I can't help noticing a certain type of happiness in their eyes. Caroline and Stefan danced for a bit but then they, rather abruptly, left the barn holding each other's hands. Suddenly a hand tugs me backward and I spin until my back hits a chest.
Kai's presence was always calming for me. I felt like I had someone to rely on just as much as he could really on me. Like family, he was like family, he's what I imagine for a family to feel like. "You good? No murderous thoughts in that pretty little head of yours," I say with grin stretched onto my face.
"You think I'm pretty," he says dragging his hand down to rest on my lower back, and manoeuvring me to the dance floor.
"Kai," I say sternly as we join hands and start to dance.
"Well I'm not going to lie," he sighs. "I had very... specific vision of how my father would kill me but so far so good," he says playfully.
"Maybe he's changed," I shrug.
"Yeah... maybe," he says quietly.
"You don't sound so sure," I assume.
"Everything's changing," he sighs after a pause. "These feelings aren't very nice, I miss when I was a sociopath," he pouts cutely.
"Well," I starts to say, a cheesy smile coming onto my face, "that's-"
"Don't you dare say life," he glares.
"Life," I say trying not to cringe myself out. "It changes with every step we take," I say dramatically as if I'm in a 50's movie.
"Now look who's being cheesy," he smiles.
"What can I say, you just make me feel like I'm a moldy old piece of cheese," I say way too enthusiastically.
"I'm just going to take that as a compliment," he says rolling his eyes, pulling me closer to him.
"Let's just agree to disagree," I sigh, placing my head on his shoulder as we sway to the random slow song the band was playing.
"So just between us girls, who was the guy you were obsessing over," he says, making the pitch of his voice astoundingly higher.
"I am not obsessing over any guy," I say too stand-offishly.
"Weren't you just talking about a hot dad?" he trails off.
"He's the father of 4 year old," I say trying to change the picture in his head from a 60 year old man to a 35ish year old. "And I might've said he was hot but I'm not obsessing over him," I say picking my head up to look at him.
"So you love him?" he questions genuinely.
"No! I am physically attracted to the man," I correct.
"So what are you not physically attracted to me," he says offended.
"Kai!" I scold. I feel like I've done a lot of that just today. I feel like a, ugh, a mother.
"What? It's a genuine question. Am I not physically attractive to women now?" he worries with the most raw expression I have ever seen on his face.
"Oh my God," I whine. "You are a physically attractive member of the male species. Happy?" I snap.
"Very," he smirks. "So is that not called obsessing over guy or am I getting emotions mixed up again?"
"That's called attraction, dumbass."
( authors note. )
so surprise i'm alive! i think this
is the longest chapter i have ever
written for any one of my books
but this is more than 4000 words
and also as you could probably
tell kai is going to be a major
character in this book