Morrigan Brooks
"MORNING," I say to Damon, Andie and Alaric who were all sitting at a table. Eliza was already there, sitting next to Damon so I sat next to Alaric.
"Good, you're both here. You remember Andie, don't you, Ror?" Damon starts and I shake my head.
"You never introduced us, D," I say and he rolls his eyes.
"Andie, this is Rory, Ror, this is Andie, my girlfriend," Damon says, and then turns back to Alaric. "Anyway, back on topic. Other than your lecture on the history of Mystic Falls, did you get anything out of Elijah?"
"No, it was boring," Alaric says, sighing. "Of course, Jenna thinks he's charming."
"You sound jealous. He sound jealous?" Damon asks turning to Andie but aiming the question at all of us.
"Kinda do," Andie says and I nod in agreement.
"I'd be happy to move his attention to me instead of her," I say and Andie laughs. I like her.
"Well, maybe we shouldn't talk about this here." He says, subtly jerking his head in Andie's direction.
"Andie? She's compelled not to divulge my secrets." Damon says putting an arm around his girlfriend.
"All class, man," Eliza says, trying her best to move away from the overly mushy couple moment they were having. Damon started muttering to himself about an opportune moment when he looks over my shoulder and smiled.
"See you, Rory," Brandon says, coming out of nowhere.
"See you later, Brandon," I reply, giving him a little wave. Both Damon and Eliza look between us multiple times like we were a tennis match.
"You had sex with the bartender?" Damon says and I go red.
"Shut up, Salvatore." I say and Eliza holds up her hand, so I hi-five it, still looking down in an attempt to hide my blush.
"There's Jenna and her new boyfriend," Damon says, waving to them. I turn around and smile at them, thankful for the change in subject. "Hi." He says to them,
"Hey guys," Jenna says.
"So I hear you two had quite a meeting of historical minds?" Damon says.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Jenna says, looking at Elijah and back, and I saw what Alaric caught that too.
"Well, as much as I'd like to continue this, I, uh, I've got papers to grade," Alaric says, I get out of the booth so he can get out and accidentally bump into one Englishman.
"Sorry, Elijah."
"No problem." He says with a smile.
"You know what? We should continue this." Andie says, and while I had no proof, I had a sneaking suspicion this was staged. "Let's have a dinner party."
"Oh, my girl. Full of good ideas. I'll be happy to host." Damon says. I look over to Elijah and I can tell he knows this is staged. "Let's say tonight? Maybe?"
"It's good for me, Jenna?" Andie says, keeping the conversation going.
"No, I don't know if tonight will-"
"Yeah, I'm free."
Alaric and Jenna say simultaneously, and I knew Alaric would end up coming anyway.
"It would be a pleasure," Elijah says with a shrug. They all look at me and Eliza and I nod first.
"We would love to," I answer for both of us.
"Great," Damon says. "It's a date."
"WHAT do we even wear to a dinner party?" I ask, rummaging through my closet. "I swear to god, I haven't been to one since 1890."
"Where were we in 1890?"
"Paris, remember? That guy who initially thought we were prostitutes?" I say, holding up a dress to my body.
"No, that was in Milan. We had a dinner party in Milan."
"Oh. Well, either way, it's been a while." I hold up two options. "White top with green pants or black top with black pants."
"Black top with black pants. It's classy but you won't be overdressed." I nod, putting the first outfit away. It was cute. The top was a sort of corset-type top, and while I was glad to see corsets go out of fashion a while ago, this top was worth it. The pants were just plain. I paired it with heels and a purse, both also black, and some silver Dior earrings.
"So what was up with you and Elijah today? And Brandon? Do you think Elijah heard what Damon said? He was eye fucking you all this morning. Oh my god, was Brandon good?" I look down, trying not to let her see my blush and start putting my outfit on.
"That is a lot of questions, and to answer all of them in order: I don't know, we just had sex, I hope not, no he wasn't and yes."
"Nice," she says with a smirk on her face. "Can I borrow these?" She says, holding up a pair of white heels, and I nod, even though she had started putting them on before I did.
"It's funny. We're in Mystic Falls, a town in bum fuck nowhere, for a week or so and we're already in crazy drama. A month anywhere else and we would hardly have a friend."
"You know what they say about small towns," I say and she looks at me.
"What?"
"I don't know, something about everyone in everyone's business." She chuckles at that.
"WE are so late!" I say. "Damon texted me six-thirty and it's quarter to."
"He informed me that it was to start at seven." I hear from behind me. I turn and Elijah was there, walking at a leisurely pace.
"Damon's a little weasel. Nice to see you again, Elijah." I say, putting a hand on his bicep, and to my surprise (or not, I didn't really know at this point) this guy was ripped. I thought a hug might be too much, so I settled for that and Eliza settled for a little wave.
I knock on the door since I was getting cold and when Damon opens it, I hand him the bottle of wine.
"This is for 1900." He looks at me with a questioning look. "You know exactly what for." I walk past him, waiting for Eliza and Elijah to follow.
"I will be in a moment, I just have to have a word with Damon." He says when he sees me waiting for him. I nod and go with Eliza into the dining room.
"Jenna, right?" I say to the woman and she nods.
"Yeah, you're Rory?"
"Yeah, this is Eliza. Elijah's just outside with Damon."
"Alright, I'm gonna go... say hi." Jesus christ that was an awkward conversation.
Literally, two seconds later, both Jenna and Elijah come through the entry with Damon behind them, looking like a wounded puppy.
"Let's eat," Andie said.
We all sit down and Jenna starts the conversation.
"I hate to break it to you Damon, but according to Elijah your family is so not a founder of this town."
"Hmm, do tell." He says as Jenna pours me a glass of wine.
"Well, as I mentioned to Jenna earlier, a faction of settlers migrated from Salem after the witch trials in the 1690s. Over the next hundred years, they developed this community where they could feel safe from persecution."
"Because they were witches," Jenna whispers loudly.
"Well, there's no tangible proof that there were witches in Salem," Andie said.
"Andie's a journalist." Damon pointed out. "Big on facts."
"Well the lore says there was this wave of anti-witch hysteria," Elijah says. "Broke out in the neighbouring settlements. So these witches were rounded up and tied to stakes in a field together and, uh, burned. Some say you could hear the screams from miles around as they were consumed by the fire, could you pass the uh." He nods in the direction of the salt and Alaric complies.
"I'd just like to know, was there no anti-fire spell these witches could do?" Eliza said.
"But there's no actual witches. Just these men wanting to have ultimate power." Jenna said.
"Amen," I said, sipping from my wine.
"I also wouldn't repeat this to the historical society," Jenna says with a chuckle and Andie joins in.
"It's starting to sound like a ghost story to me." John Gilbert said. I didn't even realise he was in the room and I wondered why he was here in the first place since I was under the impression that no one in the room was particularly fond of him. No one answered him.
"So why do you want to know the location of these alleged massacres?" Damon asks innocently.
"Oh, you know. Healthy historians curiosity of course." Elijah replies after a second of thought. Moving on from that conversation topic, Jenna turns to me.
"So, Rory. Damon mentioned you guys were old friends. How did you meet?"
"Uh," fuck I needed an excuse other than I knew him in bloody 1863/4. "Well, both Damon and I had military dads, and we just happened to be posted near each other a lot."
"Yeah, she was like the sister I never had."
"Growing up with him and Stefan, who I haven't seen in a few days, was a blast, and when I heard they were both in town I just decided to come back."
"Oh, yeah. He's with Elena at the lakehouse."
"I did hear that, I hope they're having fun."
The conversation continues, moving on from the topic of Damon's and my history, and I don't contribute much. What I do catch, though, is Elijah staring at me. Not just at me, but also at my necklace. The ring seemed to intrigue him ever since I met. When I catch him, he pretends to look either behind me or at Andie or Eliza who is on either side of me. I did catch him once and he smiled and looked away, but both he and I knew that excuse would only be viable once.
I wondered about Maddigan. He was obviously still hung up on her since he had a wounded puppy look when he thought I was her, and I just overall wondered what happened to her. He mentioned it was a few centuries ago, so I could only imagine she was either super hot or Elijah was and still is whipped for her.
I wasn't particularly proud to say that I had put excessive thought into this, but I did have an image of what she would have looked like. In all honesty, I would be hung up on her as well.
This is just off what vibes the name Maddigan gave off, but you know, I'm sure loads of people do this.
Right?
Maddigan. It's a very pretty name for (what I'm assuming is) a very pretty woman. It made sense that Elijah would be hung up.
Fuck! I'm jealous that a man- who I barely even knew, mind you- likes, no, loves the love of his life.
This is pathetic.
"Would anyone care for some cognac? I have a bottle I've been saving for ages." Damon says, snapping me out of being a needy bitch.
"None for me. Nine bottles of wine is my limit." Alaric says and Damon hums in recognition.
"The, uh, gentlemen should take their drinks in the study." Andie pipes up. What?
"I have to say, the food was almost as good as the company," Elijah says. Damn that charming bastard. Jenna stacks some plates and hands them to John Gilbert.
"You're not a gentleman. Make yourself useful," she says and that makes me snort a laugh. When John was out of the room I turn to her.
"I don't know what you have against him, but that was funny." She smiles at me, finally a genuine smile.
I was making friends. And those bitches said I couldn't. We make various small talk for a bit. "Uh, Rory. Could you check on dessert?" Jenna asks and I nod with a smile.
"Of course," I say. Finally, I could do something.
I walk into the kitchen and see that it's still mostly uncooked, and I relay that information to Jenna.
My phone starts ringing so I excuse myself and go outside to answer.
"Hello?"
"Do you want them back?" A male voice said on the other line.
"Excuse me?" I say, coming to the conclusion that he had the wrong number or this was a prank call.
"Do you want them back? I know you feel strongly for him, there were things that just can't be removed, but these I could."
"Mate, I think you have the wrong number," I say and go to hang up.
"This is Morrigan Brooks, is it not?"
"Who are you?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"You answered your own question a second before you asked it."
"Don't act smug when I have the one thing you want."
"I have everything I could ever want," I say. This guy was extra weird. "Thanks for the call." I press the hang-up button, but a second before I do, I hear his last word.
"1759."
For some reason, it sent chills down my back, I just couldn't work out why. I walk back into the house, expecting a hot slice of whatever was in the oven, but instead, I walked into a room of two, Andie and John looking shocked. Eliza walked in, dragging me outside.
"What the fuck happened while I was outside for two minutes?"
"They killed him. Alaric staked- or daggered- Elijah and he's dead now."
"Why the fuck would he-"
"I don't know but this is too much drama for me. Let's go home."
"Yeah okay." We walk to my car and drive off into the night. "I liked him. He was funny without intentionally making a joke."
"And he's hot." She says after a second and I weakly laugh. We were pretty much already home since the old owners of the house chose a pretty secluded spot that was thankfully super close to the Salvatore house.
"No, that's not why-"
"Just admit it, Rory." She said as we walked into the house.
"Ok, so, he's a little pretty, but I don't like him. I met the guy like a week ago."
"And again, I call bullshit. He has that romance novel stare." She shifts into a lower voice tone. "Elijah looked deep into her eyes, almost like he knew her back to front, better than herself."
"Alright, crazy. I'm going to bed."
"Yeah alright. I'll probably follow really soon." I nod, waving as I walked up the stairs. I took my heels off as I walked and couldn't form another thought other than going to bed.
"I apologise for my absence from the rest of the party, though from what I gather, you left soon after I did." I hear to the right of me. When I turn, there was Elijah, holding my eyelash curler. "What is this?"
I honestly couldn't help myself, I flung myself at him and hugged him. After a second's hesitation, he hugs me back. It was more comforting than I expected.
"I'm sorry, I... I'm just glad you're not dead."
"I assure you, it's not an easy task killing me." He says with his lips curling up into a hint of a smile. I also notice that his hand was still on the small of my back. "Though I must reiterate, what is this? It looks like a prototype torture device." I laugh at the pure male-ness in that sentence.
"It's an eyelash curler, look," I say, taking it off him and showing it how it works on myself. He nods though through a grimace. "I got the weirdest phone call this evening. Some guy on the other line said he had what I most wanted and then right before I hung up he said 1759." At that, Elijah stiffens. "I hung up on him though. It was probably some stupid prank call." He quickly snaps out of it.
"1759? He specifically said 1759?" He says, grabbing my shoulders. I nod, prying his hands off me lightly. He was weird again.
"Yes Elijah, what's the significance of it?" He looks around my room and sighs.
"It's a long explanation, but an explanation I will give. I will be back within the hour." He says and speeds off, out my window.
I roll my eyes. I think I could give myself an hour of sleep before Elijah comes back and gives me the 'long explanation'.
I think I deserve at least that.
A/N: lol sorry for the super short chapter but double update bitches 😽