chapter ten, what if the real world is just a dream?
HER BODY FELT LIKE FIRE, CONSTANTLY. It was itching, burning—she wanted to rip the skin off herself. It was too hot, but at the same time, she was shivering. All of them knew the side effects of coming back to life. None of them knew what hers would be, since she wasn't a vampire. She was something.
She'd wince in her sleep. Even the softest, silk sheets would not ease her pain. It would not bring her into the security of sleep, of well-deserved rest. She'd wail, tears staining her pillowcase. Her brothers would drop everything they had been doing and run to her. They wished to ease her pain, but they didn't know what to do. They didn't know how to help her.
The Salvatore brothers tried to hold onto this month with hope. They had their sister back. Wasn't this everything they had wished for? Silently, all of these years. But instead, this first week of freedom turned into a melody of sorrows. They didn't know if all of these side effects were because she was a hybrid in her veins, or because she was brought back from death after more than a century.
But she took the pain as best as she could. And she could handle a lot of it. Even if she would wake up with stained cheeks from her tears, even if she would put on clothes that made her skin burn as if she stood on fire. She found her only solace in water and the ointments her brothers had provided her.
"I don't want to be the one saying this... But we need Elijah," Stefan started, sitting in the kitchen, watching his twin brew tea.
"What?" Damon's voice raised instantly. "The last thing we need is an Original."
"Look at her skin, Damon. She's in pain," Stefan looked at Ophelia and she froze in her spot.
They were constantly fighting this week. Over her. They were helpless and it was driving them crazy. But she tried to keep as silent as she could even if she couldn't breathe properly from the constant pain. She didn't want them to worry. She tried to go on with her days as if the pain was manageable. But she didn't know how she wailed in the middle of the night.
Ophelia looked at the glimpse of her exposed forearm which was completely red. It was almost as burned, the skin was peeling off, leaving burnt edges around the skin. She couldn't look at herself. The burn has spread all over her body—on the top of her head, at the nape of her neck, behind her ears and a huge burnt spot at the right side of her face. She felt hideous. But it was the least of her problems.
Pushing the sleeve over her burnt skin, she hissed in pain and shook her head: "I am well. The ointments..."
"Are not doing enough," Stefan finished the sentence. "It's the ointment Bonnie has made. We have nowhere to turn."
They didn't understand why this was happening, as if she was cursed. As always, Bonnie didn't feel a glimpse of magic inside of her, any hexes. But that burn started to happen gradually, worsening with days. They even made her a daylight ring, but it didn't protect her as if she were a mere human. But she wasn't and something or someone was killing her. And they didn't know why.
Ophelia didn't want to alert anyone, since she didn't want her month to finish quicker. She was just starting to learn about this new world. She was proudly using the electric kettle on her own, waiting for the water to boil. She finally understood the lights around her, a few gadgets in the kitchen and the running water. She was just getting started.
Damon was conflicted. It hurt to see his sister in so much pain, slipping away once again. "They don't even know what she is. They can't help us."
"They know more than we do," Stefan disagreed.
"They know nothing about her!"
Ophelia flinched slightly as Damon's voice was rising and the kettle automatically turned off with a loud click. "Please, do not argue... I am well. I can get through this."
"I'm calling Elijah," Stefan stood up and Damon immediately stood in his way.
"I'm not losing her," Damon stood to his ground. "He will get here and sniff everything out to Klaus and before we know it – she's gone."
"I called Elijah," Elena appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, the familiar Original behind her. "While you two are busy arguing, Bonnie agreed that calling for help would be the wisest choice." Elena stepped inside the kitchen, looking at Ophelia apologetically.
Elijah looked at the Salvatore brothers: "I'm sure you know I wouldn't hurt Ophelia."
Damon turned around to face him: "I'm sure you know I don't trust you."
The Original wanted to answer something, but he looked at Ophelia and he suddenly forgot to put the Salvatore brothers in their places. His body froze as he looked at her, as he inspected her and immediately, he walked closer.
"How long has this been going on?" He asked, his voice not loud, but rushed. His eyes were pointed at the horrible burn on the right side of her face, at the same time noting that she was wearing a daylight ring.
"Ever since I made the deal with Klaus. After a day, my skin started to itch and on the other, it started to peel as if burnt. Then, it only got worse," Ophelia explained on her own, not feeling threatened by his presence.
Elijah surprisingly brought a piece of serenity with him. She didn't like to be surrounded by men, she didn't trust them. But his eyes didn't hold anything wicked beneath them – they were caring. They didn't have forbidden intentions, they didn't see her for her body, for the possibilities. No, he looked at her as if she was a human.
"And the ointments?" Elijah already knew most of it from Elena.
"They help, for a brief moment. They ease the skin for a few minutes, but then it is all over again," she gently rolled her sleeves back, showing him her skin. There wasn't a bit of skin on her arms they weren't burnt. Her fingers surprisingly were just red and inflamed, but not burnt.
"Do you know what this might be?" Elena asked Elijah.
Elijah restrained himself from touching Ophelia's skin even if he wanted to inspect the burns, but she was already in pain. "At first I thought she might be going through the transition, but the daylight ring would've solved this." He turned to the others. "I'm afraid we don't know the extent of the connection between Ophelia and Niklaus. If she possesses the power of creation that my brother does not have, he possesses something as well—healing, for example."
"But she didn't get burnt. She just—it just started to happen," Stefan explained.
Elijah looked back at Ophelia, who already hid her arms under the sleeves: "She's not an ordinary vampire or werewolf as we know. The consequences of her existence are unknown. Since she is not aware of her powers, holding her distance from Klaus might be harming her."
"So what..." Damon extended his hands to the side, opening them dramatically. "You're saying that Ophelia has to be glued to Klaus that she wouldn't experience any pain?"
Elijah almost rolled his eyes, looking at Damon. Those young vampires, always so arrogant. "I'm saying Ophelia needs to learn how to unleash her powers, so her body could fight this pain on its own."
"We don't exactly have a trainer for her since we don't even know what she is!" Damon deadpanned.
"We do not," the Original agreed. "But we have to try if you don't want your sister to be—glued to Niklaus," he repeated Damon's words.
Stefan stepped closer: "Do you know a way to ease her pain? Just for this moment?"
"For a brief moment – I do."
Elijah turned to her brothers: "Fill the bathtub with ice water, make it freezing. Put the ingredients of the ointment inside of the bathtub."
They quickly started moving, the brothers leaving the kitchen for the herbs and Elena grabbing bags of ice from the freezer and going upstairs. As Elijah and Ophelia were left alone, he finally turned to her: "The biggest part will fall on your shoulders, Ophelia. It will hurt, terribly."
The woman uneasily nodded, afraid to hug herself even if she wished to do so. "Thank you for your help."
"I wish I could do something more. But I know as much as you do."
Ophelia slightly turned her face so that the right side would be covered from his eyes, trying to hold her perfect stance and not roll her shoulder forward from the pain of her ripping back. Her eyes were glossy, tears getting ready to fall, lips gently quivering. She didn't want to break down in front of this man and drop her worries on him. She was holding on.
Elijah could sense her pain as if it was his own. The way her hands slightly shook, the way her lips quivered, the way she didn't allow herself to cry. "Don't hide your face, Ophelia. Pain doesn't take your beauty away."
Ophelia exhaled a gentle smile, feeling thankful for his gentleness. Not many men knew how to compliment women and even if they did, they never gave their compliments to her. Not when her brothers were constantly looming over her, ready to escort the visitors away.
"Let's go," he told her and they both went upstairs.
The water was filled almost to the brim of the bathtub, with many ice cubes floating on the top. Damon and Stefan were finishing putting all of the herbs they had in the bathtub before they stopped and turned to Elena. The woman broke the stems of vervain, dropping it in the water. As Bonnie said before, vervain, harmful to vampires, was the perfect tool against inflammation. They believed for a few days that the vervain was worsening everything, but a simple experiment of putting vervain against her face, showed that it wasn't harmful to her.
Ophelia stood there, uneasy. She knew it was going to be horribly freezing and she didn't want to get in the water. Ever since her brothers showed her what a shower was, she never stepped a foot in the bathtub. She was afraid. It reminded her too much of the flowing river, of the way the water surrounded her, of the way she couldn't get away...
"You don't need to undress," Elijah assured her.
Ophelia slowly walked to the tub, gulping even if her throat was dry from the fear. Damon and Stefan stood at the different sides of the tub, waiting to help her get in. She pushed her feet out of the slippers, slowly raised her leg and pushed it into the freezing water. The ice against her skin and freezing pain made her gasp and lunge forward, making her brothers grab her hands and hold her in place.
"We got you, Ophelia, it's okay," Stefan reassured her.
She couldn't answer anymore as her teeth were starting to clash against each other, her tongue numbing from the coldness. She hesitantly pushed her other feet inside, submerging herself under the coldness up to her knees. She winced, her breaths too rushed, but she moved down, kneeling down.
The sight was awful. The woman started to wail as the water was cleaning her burning spots. It was hurting her, maybe even more than the pain she was walking with itself, her body was shivering, and her pale skin started to turn slightly blue.
"We're going to lay you down, but we will support you, okay?" Stefan told her, but she didn't even hear him properly. The fear was overtaking her – the water of the river was just as cold, just as uninviting and just as deadly.
The Salvatore brothers started to slowly pull her body towards the water, wanting to submerge it completely. As the water started to wash her body, getting closer and closer to her chin, her teeth stopped clashing as a loud wail left her lips—she couldn't anymore. As the water surrounded her, the Salvatore brothers quickly lost their grip on her as their hands touched the water, the vervain burning it. Ophelia gasped, not feeling the security and her eyes got blurred with the nightmare of hers, gasping for air before her death.
Elijah quickly appeared beside the tub, grasping the back of her neck and pushing her out, not letting her fully submerge. Her eyes were open, her mouth gasping for air, but they all knew she wasn't present with them. The wails left her mouth, mixed with pleading as the water was filled with salt from her tears.
"Oh my God," Elena whispered, pushing her hand over her mouth and turning away – it was a dreadful sight to see.
The Salvatore brothers stood struck as if with lightning, not comprehending what was happening. They almost let their sister drown just because they couldn't handle the pain. They pushed her into the nightmare of her death and now, she was pleading for help, reliving it.
"Ophelia," Elijah called out to her, holding her steady as the vervain was slowly burning into his skin, but he knew the pain. He knew how to handle it. He could handle it. "Ophelia!" He pushed her upper body a bit up, the water leaving her upper body and only then she started to blink faster, looking around.
"I—," her lips quivered, "I cannot."
"I am holding you, Ophelia. I will not let you drown," Elijah assured her, making her look at him as she finally could see him and not the memory of her death. "Just a few seconds more, Ophelia. A few more seconds."
Ophelia nodded as best as she could and let him push her down to the water until it reached her chin. Elijah, taking the moment, instructed the others: "Get the towels ready and something to change into." As soon as they started to do as they were told, he took his free hand and bit into his forearm, letting a few drops of blood drop into the water, staining it red, before the water washed it out. "My blood can't heal you, but it will keep you from freezing," he explained.
Elijah was holding such fragility in his hand. The woman was fighting her demons, fighting the pain, fighting death as best as she could. He didn't understand the meaning of her suffering, the meaning of her. What was she made for? Why was she made for such torture?
"I will put the water over the burnt side of your face," he informed her, before he pushed the other hand into the water, feeling the sizzling of his own hand, but he didn't mind it. He took a handful of water and gently pushed it over the right side of her face. The woman moved in his grip, closing her eyes, grunting out of pain.
"One more time," he whispered. He repeated the action, feeling the way her body was becoming more and more numb. Then he quickly stood up, pushing her out of the water with his movement. The water dropped down from her, on the floor, on him, but he did not care. Her shivering body didn't have the strength to move, leaning to him as he pushed her out of the tub, getting her to the bed, and placing her on it.
The brothers immediately wrapped her in big towels, trying to warm up her freezing body. Elena was standing in the doorway with another dress, watching everything with eyes full of terror.
"It numbed her pain. This should last a day, maybe a few days," he announced, watching the way the poor woman was nuzzling into the warmth. "The permanent solution, however, might fall on my brother's shoulders. Mixing his blood into the ointment might be the start."
"Yeah, as if he will offer his blood on the platter," Damon sarcastically said, pushing another towel over his sister's wet hair.
Elijah dried his hands, the burnt spots from the vervain already healed: "You underestimate the importance of her. She holds the only thing he yearns for. In all of his life, Niklaus has never made deals like these - letting her live."
"So he will bring his blood?" Elena asked.
Elijah nodded, "But he will want to see her himself."
"Why are you so sure of it?" Elena furrowed her eyebrows. She knew how much Klaus loved for others to do his bidding.
Elijah slightly chuckled. He has never seen his brother worked up like that. He knew why Niklaus gave Ophelia this month. Because he didn't know the answers himself. He didn't know what the next move had to be. He didn't know how to steal her power or how to even ignite it. He needed that time for himself.
"He'll be here," the Original assured them, stopping for a second. "For a matter of fact, he's at the front door."
"What?" Stefan moved away from Ophelia. "How did he..." He quickly vamped downstairs, getting to the front door. Elena, moved closer to Ophelia, unwrapping her from the towels, and helping her wipe the icy water away. Damon and Elijah followed Stefan, leaving the women alone.
"How are you feeling?" Elena asked.
Ophelia breathed out, feeling the warmth coming back to her body as she slightly tried to push the dress off. "Cold, but it does not hurt anymore. It is just cold."
Elena helped her undress and change into a new dress, wrapping a blanket over her body.
"You remind me of Katherine," Ophelia whispered as Elena pushed the wet clothes on the floor. "Not by the way you look, but she also knew how to take care of someone, before she went on and played with my brothers."
The doppelganger chuckled, "I can't imagine her caring for someone. She only cares for herself."
"Have you met her?"
"Oh, yes. I wish I hadn't."
Suddenly, the door slammed open and the familiar hybrid was the first one to show. Elena took a step further, crossing her hands in confusion: "How did you—I didn't invite you in!" The house was still on her name, meaning that no vampire could come in uninvited.
"You can do incredible things when you are in someone else's body," he explained, smug, but it didn't last for long as he wasn't here to boast. He was here for Ophelia.
Watching her shivering state of body, he looked at her, almost terrified. No one told him what was going on with her. But just a few moments back, he got this freezing feeling all over his body and the image, just at the back of his head, of her death. He saw her drowning. He saw her dying.
Seeing her sitting here, breathing, was relieving. Only now, did he realise how much he didn't need her death. Not now. Not yet, at least. Looking at the Salvatore brothers who did their best not to let him in, he expressed his anger: "Didn't think about telling me that she is suffering?"
"You're not exactly the Prince Charming that would come to help," Damon sneered.
"I saw her die," Klaus explained, turning his head to the side where the bathtub stood, "In that bathtub. And I saw you two letting her go."
"How did you see all of that? You can't be a witch," Elena was the first one to express confusion.
"I am not," he agreed, taking a step closer to the shivering woman. He gently pushed his fingers underneath her chin, making her raise it as he inspected the burn. "Meaning, that whatever danger is related to her – I can sense it."
"But she didn't die," Elijah pointed out the obvious. "I kept her afloat. There was vervain in the water."
"What a noble hero, my brother you are. It's good that you were here just in time, now, isn't it?" Klaus moved down, squatting in front of her, to look at her properly. "Your death doesn't benefit me. We made a deal, didn't we?"
Ophelia nodded.
"Even your idiot brothers are somehow able to keep their end of the deal as well," Klaus acknowledged. "I believe you need my blood."
Elena quickly reacted to that, taking an empty glass from the table and bringing it closer. Klaus took the glass, biting his wrist and letting the blood fill more than half of the glass. He offered the glass to Ophelia and she took it as firm as she could with her shaking fingers.
"I had a dream about you, the other night," she admitted, not feeling well about sharing this with so many people in the room. "I saw you sitting beside me like you were the man we both saw at the campfire. You said the same words to me just like the man said it. Only..." She raised her chin, fixing her posture slightly, meeting her eyes with the hybrid. "Only you said something different to me in the end. You told me to find your mother's journal. The one she kept underneath her pillow."
Klaus inhaled deeply, holding his breath for a few seconds, he turned to look at Elijah, who looked as if he was thinking intensely. Suddenly Elijah's face lightened up and he gently extended his hand, in an explaining manner: "The enchanted journal. That's the one."
"Wait, there is a journal from her dreams?" Damon made sure that what he heard wasn't a bunch of bullshit.
"It was just a dream," Ophelia implied.
Klaus chuckled, meeting her eyes: "I think it is time for you to understand that our dreams are not far away from the world we live in."
"So what does this mean? What is this journal?" Stefan asked.
"We don't know. It's enchanted for us not to be able to read it. We need a witch to open it. A special witch," Elijah explained.
"I'll call Bonnie," Elena said and got out of the room.
Klaus looked at Ophelia, who sat unmoving like a statue, holding a glass of his blood. He didn't know the extent of her power, but he intended to. If she was the key to making more hybrids, so be it. One way or another, he will get what he was always seeking for. However, his whole body changed ever since she showed up in his life, ruining the ritual. He was searching for her. In the nights, in his dreams, but he couldn't find her. She was as an illusion from his past life, which he never had. His whole body was reaching out for her, telling him to protect her.
She was the cure to his disease. She was the answer he was looking for. Now, Klaus Mikaelson had many names and most of them were not very pretty. But he was no fool. He saw an opportunity and he grasped it. She was his opportunity. To be reborn. To have a family, he so longed. To have a new kind of power. For this, she had to be alive. For this, he will keep her alive. And everyone knew that he would stop at nothing to make sure he got what he wanted.
a quick explanation about what is going on with ophelia: her body is reacting to the sudden power, she was a human, but now she is not. She is going as if through a transition, waiting for her powers to be unleashed properly. More about that will be told in the next chapter!!
please tell me what you thought about this chapter! and lord, elijah and ophelia... not me shipping them...
happy new year!