For a moment, she slept.
She regained consciousness minutes later, gasping loudly and having to snap her hand backwards to be able to reach the stake. As soon as she yanked it out, she was able to breathe properly.
She could hear a struggle in the hallway, punches being thrown. She sped out of the classroom just in time to see Alaric breaking Stefan's back and snapping Damon's neck. Klaus surged forward from around the corner, slamming his hand into Alaric's chest. Rosalind went to help him, yanking Alaric's arms behind his back.
Alaric threw himself backwards, his head crashing into Rosalind's face and using her body to kick Klaus away from him. He threw Rosalind into the lockers beside Elena, and slammed Klaus into the ground, about to stab the white oak stake into his heart. Klaus pushed him away with both hands, but Alaric pressed down, the tip about to poke into his chest.
"Get off of him!" said Rosalind, climbing onto Alaric's back and reaching around to pull the stake away from her sire's heart.
Alaric only pushed down harder. "I kill him, and you both die. You're not going to stop me, little girl."
"STOP!"
They heard Elena's voice behind them. "Let them go or I'll kill myself," said Elena, holding a small knife to her throat.
Rosalind shot her a look, as if to say, 'What the hell are you doing?'
"Put it down, Elena," said Alaric slowly.
"Why?" inquired Elena. "Because you still need me alive? There's a reason why Esther used me to make you, isn't there? She didn't want you to be immortal, so she tied your life to a human one. Mine. That way you have only one life span to kill all vampires and then you'll be gone. So, when I die, you die too. That's it, it has to be!"
"You're wrong," sneered Alaric.
"Am I?" She started to slice open her neck.
Alaric immediately tossed Rosalind off of him and let go of Klaus. "Stop— STOP, STOP, STOP!"
Klaus shot up, tossing Alaric away from them. In a blur, he grabbed Rosalind and Elena, not stopping until they reached the mansion.
"Holy shit," said Rosalind when they landed, pulling Elena into a hug. "Why the hell would you go and do that, huh? What if you'd been wrong?"
"I knew I wasn't," said Elena, pressing onto her neck to stop the bleeding. "He could have killed me but he didn't. I knew there had to be a reason."
"So what about it happening the other way around?" asked Rosalind as Klaus paced around, holding his phone as if awaiting a call from one of his siblings. "You know more about magic. If Alaric dies, does she die, too? Is it like some witchy thing where even if he is defeated, the doppelgänger will die to end the Petrova bloodline and lead to no more doppelgängers so you can't make hybrids—?"
"I don't know," said Klaus, very stressed. "Bonnie was going to desiccate him. It's why we needed to make contact with his bloodstream. It did not work. He does not have a daylight ring, he will be in the school until nightfall."
Rosalind realized the house was empty aside from them. "Wait, where are the hybrids?"
"I did what I thought you'd want me to do!" said Klaus, frustrated. "I told them that if they wanted to leave, they could! And they did!"
"Thank you," she replied. "That was kind of you. We're going to figure this out, Klaus, we're going to stop Alaric and we're going to make sure he doesn't hurt you or any of your siblings. Come on, there's gotta be a way for Bonnie to remove that link or maybe switch it to another person, right? Maybe she could switch it to the other doppelgänger even if she's a vampire now? I don't think anyone would miss Katherine."
"What we need to do is leave," said Klaus. "The only way to get rid of Alaric is to kill Elena. If Rebekah were to learn that, she would not hesitate to end her life. And if I harmed her, you would never forgive me for it and I'd have to kill you, too." He put his hands on his head, trying to figure it all out. "We ought to leave. We will run, the hybrids will run with us. We will consult every witch who can aid us in changing the link or removing it and we will kill him, but not today."
"But—"
"But nothing," he said in an aggravated tone. "Tell her to grab her brother and we are leaving. Unless you'd rather I leave you both behind to fend for yourselves!"
"Where are we going to go? How are we going to do this? I've never had to be on the run from anyone, Klaus, I just want to be aware of how this is going to happen—"
He grabbed her face a bit too roughly, squeezing her cheeks to silence her. "Stop talking," he insisted. "Stop questioning me and just do what I say, I am trying to save both of you! If you cannot figure out whether you will stay or go, I will drag you kicking and screaming, but not with your little girlfriend. If you want to save her and yourself, you'll go to her home, fetch her brother, and meet me back here."
"Okay," said Rosalind, motioning for Elena to follow her. "We'll be back." As soon as they were out of earshot, she said to Elena, "This is your chance. Do you want to take it and leave, or will you stay?"
"Leave," said Elena. "Let's just get Jeremy. He's been wanting us to leave this town. The others will be safe. Alaric wants Klaus and the other Originals. There's no reason to go after them. They'll be okay."
Rosalind sped them back to the school and quickly got them into her car, then drove to Elena's house. No one was home. The doppelgänger started to pack a few things into a bag, figuring they could purchase clothes and other items elsewhere. What was really essential to her was some family heirlooms she wanted to keep, in case they weren't able to return for a long time.
"I'll tell Jeremy to meet us at the mansion," said Elena, holding her phone up as she typed while Rosalind drove them back. "He hasn't been answering, I don't know where he is..."
"Damon's car is here," said Rosalind as she pulled into the driveway of the house. "Maybe he already brought him? You'd messaged him before about the plan..."
They exited the car and rushed inside. Rosalind was stunned to see Klaus, on the ground, completely desiccated while Damon, Stefan, and Tyler stood over him.
"What the hell did you do?!" she cried. "Why— why are you even here?!"
"Alaric said Klaus was going to kill Elena," said Damon, apparently confused that Elena was perfectly fine. "So we desiccated him instead. It'll be better for us, we can drop him in the ocean and Alaric will never find him. It ensures we'll stay alive."
Rosalind was at a loss for words. "But I thought the desiccation spell was supposed to be used on Alaric? What did Bonnie have to say about this? Tyler— why are you here?"
"They needed my help to hold down Klaus," said Tyler. "Rosie, I don't want him anywhere near you. At least now we can toss him in the Atlantic and we'll all be safe."
"Be safe?" she snapped, dialing Bonnie's number. As soon as the Bennett witch answered, she asked, "Did you know they were going to desiccate Klaus?"
"Klaus?" said Bonnie. "Uh, no, the spell is supposed to be for Alaric!"
Rosalind put her on speaker. "Well, Damon, Stefan, and Tyler just used it on Klaus."
"Are you kidding me?" said Bonnie angrily. "I told you we had only one shot at this! I already stopped Jeremy's heart once, I can't do it again! You should have told me you were going to change the plan!"
"It works out better this way," said Damon dismissively. "We'll let Alaric go in circles trying to find Klaus while we use that time to find a way for you to unlink Elena from him."
"Klaus was going to help us!" said Rosalind. "He was going to find witches who could help so the burden wouldn't fall on Bonnie! He was going to help keep Elena safe! He could have killed her, but he offered for me, her, and Jeremy to go with him on the run. The hybrids would have kept us all safe and Klaus would have run through all his witch contacts and figured this out!"
"And you were going to trust Klaus?" said Tyler. "Rosie, you sound ridiculous."
"He was being genuine, he was trying to be kind! This does nothing to solve the problem. Alaric might still find Klaus no matter where you put him!"
"He just found out I broke the sire bond," Tyler cut in. "Still trust things would have gone well with him walking around?"
Rosalind pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to lose her temper. "You know what? Do whatever the hell you want. It's what you always do. All of you, you don't give anyone choices for anything. I would think, since the three of you got turned into vampires against your consent and know all about being forced into situations you don't want, you might understand that maybe communication is key and you have to talk to the people who are helping you before you go and do something like this."
"Where are you going?" demanded Tyler as she started to walk out.
"Anywhere but here!" she snapped. "Alaric tried to kill Caroline today, he tried to kill me, he hurt Elena, and he almost killed Klaus, which would have taken all of us down with him. He is so much more of a threat than Klaus is, and I need to take a moment and get drunk and come to terms with the fact I'm probably going to die soon with the way things are going. Alaric will still kill me, and he will still kill all of us. We die no matter what. Because he's out there, linked to Elena, and nothing is being done to fix that. You assumed the worst of Klaus when he was trying to keep Elena safe. I thought you all cared about that but I think you're just putting her in more danger. Did any of you ever think to ask her how she might want to proceed with this?"
They all went silent. "Exactly," said Rosalind, storming back out of the house.
Elena ran after her. "Rosalind, come with me," she pleaded. "Let's go to my house and we'll brainstorm. Please. I don't want you to be alone. We'll make a plan! We'll make a plan of our own and show it to them."
Rosalind's hand stopped before she grabbed onto the handle of her car door. "Fine," she murmured. "Fine..."
She drove them back to the Gilbert House, where they sat down at the kitchen table with Jeremy and Bonnie (who had arrived moments before them), the four writing down different ideas for how they might be able to deal with Alaric.
It did help Rosalind feel better than drinking would have. But it didn't erase the frustrated feeling, especially not when the Salvatores came by to pick up Bonnie. They planned to have her cloak him, then toss him into the ocean for 'safety.'
"I'm going to head home now," said Rosalind before sunset. "I just need to sleep in my own bed for one night."
"Of course," said Elena, walking her to her car. "I'm sorry about Klaus. As much as I dislike him, he was offering a good deal. He even included Jeremy in it, which surprised me."
"He can be good when he wants to be," said Rosalind softly. "Try and get some rest. Alaric won't be able to accomplish anything tonight, hard as he might try. With Klaus gone, there's nothing for him to do. We'll go back to brainstorming in the morning."
"I'll try," said Elena. "Goodnight, Rosalind."
"Goodnight, Elena."
When she arrived at the mansion, she found her aunt wasn't home yet. She went upstairs, and got into the shower, cleaning off all the blood that was still staining her skin, and scrubbing herself nearly raw from the anger that lingered inside her. At least as she was finishing up, she felt very clean.
She was about to turn the water off when she sensed someone was standing outside the door of her room. She made sure to keep the water on as she slipped out very quietly, wrapping a towel around herself and tiptoeing to the bathroom door to listen.
She couldn't heart a heartbeat. It was just a presence. A dark presence. A familiar presence.
She knew it was Alaric. Probably waiting for her to emerge so he could kill her. If he was inside, it meant her aunt had invited him in. What if her aunt was hurt?
Rosalind knew that if her aunt was wounded, there was little she could do for her if she had to get past Alaric to save her. Her best shot at keeping the most people alive was to run, warn Elena and the others, and get Tyler and her to safety.
Her bathroom window was way too small for her to crawl out of. She would need to exit through her bedroom window, but going into the bedroom meant only one wall would separate her from Alaric. He didn't care about anything, much less if he caught her wearing nothing but a towel. He'd kill her all the same.
The one thing Alaric didn't know was her shower routine. She usually played music while showering, and even after she got out and got dressed. Thus, she turned off the water, making a big show of moving things around as she cleaned up, then turning on her phone to play some music. She went into her room, heart hammering in her chest as she got dressed. Alaric was still standing on the other side of the door, she knew it.
He was being respectful enough to let her get dressed, likely because he thought she had no idea he was there. "Fuck," she said to herself as she tripped when trying to put on her shoes. It slipped out unintentionally, but she decided to run with it, because it really wasn't uncommon for her to take her anger out on inanimate objects. The longer Alaric believed she was unaware of his presence, the more time she had to be ready to jump out the window.
"Stupid fucking laces," she sneered down at her shoes (poor shoes, they'd done nothing to her). She made sure to rub the laces together as she tied them. She sensed some slight movement outside, perhaps Alaric's hand clenching around the weapon he planned to use on her. Her music was still playing, which prevented her from hearing what might be happening downstairs. But it also ensured Alaric couldn't hear much of what she was doing as she carefully started to slide the window open.
It was all ruined when her phone started to ring. She immediately let go of the window while it was still not raised high enough for her to fit. She tried to answer casually. "Hey, Jeremy," she said, wondering how the hell she could subtly alert him to not discuss anything important with her when someone could overhear. "What's up?"
"It's Elena," said Jeremy. "She just— she collapsed. She was painting and I found her laying on the ground with blood leaking out of her nose. I called an ambulance and we're at the hospital now."
Crap.
Alaric had heard, but he hadn't left the spot where he was perched outside her door. If she was supposed to pretend she didn't know he was there, she'd have to walk right out the door. Right into him. If she made any other move, he'd know instantly that she was aware of her presence.
She tried to be sneaky about it, "I'll go in a bit," she told Jeremy. "I just showered and I need to see if I can sneak out so my aunt doesn't worry about where I'm going at this hour. She'll just freak out if she hears Elena's in the hospital. What um— what have the doctors told you?" She spoke as she kept pushing the window up, inch by inch.
She paused her movements as Jeremy replied, "Meredith is taking care of her, they're still examining her but they claim that she's stable."
"That's good." She got back to pushing the window up. "Is anyone with you, or are you alone in the waiting room?"
"Alone outside her room, more like it. Waiting room is too far away, I want to be here in case anything happens. I already called Matt, he'll be here soon. Meredith says we can take her home tomorrow night. She wants to keep her for observation while they rule out anything that might be really alarming."
"That's smart," she said, dragging it on. The window was almost open—
"I have to go," said Jeremy suddenly. "Meredith is done examining her. I'll text you the results."
She almost cursed as Jeremy hung up on her. "Right," she muttered to herself. "Okay..." she talked to herself as she kept trying to open the window slowly. "Probably should spend the night there, which means blankets, pajamas, and—"
She let out a scream as the window was suddenly slammed down onto her fingers. She sensed Alaric behind her, having swept into the room very abruptly. She yanked her hands out, glad her fingers hadn't been severed, and whirled around to punch him in the face. At least in her room she had the advantage. She grabbed her hair dryer off of the night stand and whacked him across the face with it, managing to cut his cheek.
She ducked before he could barrel into her, and grabbed a can of hairspray, pressing the button to launch it into his eyes, effectively burning him.
"Let me guess!" she panted as she went to find something else to incapacitate him with. She broke the leg off of the armchair by her window. "You want me as a bargaining chip. Me for Klaus."
"That wouldn't be effective," snarled Alaric, dodging before she could stake him in the heart and neutralize him long enough to get away. "When I kill Klaus, you'll all die anyway. I'm going to use you to get his location."
"Compel me to get it out of them?" she said, kicking his legs and stabbing the piece of wood into his abdomen, pushing upward and slicing through his stomach. "It'd take too long to bleed me of vervain, and Klaus has been teaching me how to work with minds. I will resist it, as long as I have to—" she yanked the wood out and cut across his neck, jumping onto her bed and using the headboard to leap onto his shoulders, tightening her legs around his neck and slamming the wood down onto his head repeatedly while he tried to shake her off. "You will not use me to betray them."
He sprinted into the bathroom and tossed himself sideways, causing her face to break the bathroom mirror. The hold of her legs loosened, and he was able to shove her into the shower, slamming the door shut and then kicking it, breaking all the glass onto her body when she remained trapped inside.
"Maybe you are right about one thing," sneered Alaric as he stood over her. "It will take too long to bleed you of vervain. I already told the Council about you, your cousin, and Caroline. They'll be here soon enough. So instead... I'm going to get Jeremy to help me. He'll do anything to save his sister. Klaus will be dead soon. And you'll die along with him."
He exited the bathroom, shutting the door. She tried to crawl toward it weakly, hearing that he was moving all sorts of things in front of it, trapping her inside, knowing she couldn't hope to fit out of the window to escape.
"No!" she yelled, banging on the door. Her phone was on the other side, and it left her no hopes of calling for help. "NO! DON'T DO THIS!"
Her phone was ringing in her room, over and over again while she tried with all her might to break down the door. She kept getting splinters into her fingers, and they ached so bad she continually had to halt her process to get them out.
At last, she resorted to breaking off the showerhead, and using it to cut through the door, opening a hole wide enough for her to reach out and shove the furniture out of the way. She got as far away as she could, then ran with all her might and burst through, shielding her face to keep the splinters from getting in her eyes.
Rosalind scrambled toward her phone, noting all the missed calls from Elena, and messages from Jeremy, who'd first been updating her about Elena's condition, and how she had a concussion but was able to go home. Then, it had switched to him telling her about how Elijah and Rebekah showed up to help enact a plan to get Klaus's body, then leave Mystic Falls so Alaric would chase after them and leave the others alone. Currently, Matt was driving Elena out of town and away from all the madness. According to Jeremy, she was safe.
She opted not to reply, checking the texts Tyler had sent, asking her to meet him and Caroline at the Lockwood cellar, because their mothers had asked them to run away before the council could get to them.
As she walked quickly to the cellar, she called Elena to ensure she was alright. "Rosalind!" cried the doppelgänger. "Oh my god— I thought you were dead!"
"I'm alive," she said. "Alaric trapped me in my own bathroom and kept me out of the way. I'm going to go find Tyler and Caroline. Are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine. Rosalind, we're making our way back to Mystic Falls."
"What? Why? Jeremy said you were leaving for safety!"
"We were, until Damon called to say the plan didn't... didn't work. Alaric staked Klaus."
Rosalind stopped in her tracks. "I'm gonna die," she said softly.
"I-I know," whimpered Elena. "We're coming back to say goodbye—"
"Don't," interrupted Rosalind. "You aren't safe here. You're not going to make it in time. Elena... I'd love nothing more than to see you again, but if we're all going to die, I need to be with Tyler right now. I'm already on my way there."
Elena sniffled. "Are you sure? We could drive there, we could get there quickly..."
"It's too late for us, Elena," said Rosalind weakly. "This is the end. Thank you for helping me feel something these past days. I need to go find my cousin. Goodbye, Elena."
"Rosalind, no," pleaded Elena. "I can't do this again, I can't, I don't want to lose all of you! I don't want to live without being able to talk to you, to see you..."
"It's okay," whispered Rosalind. "I'll be on the Other Side. I'll be watching over you. You just... you live your life to the fullest, marry someone you truly love, have a whole bunch of kids and... be happy. Name one of the kiddos after me, will you? Goodbye. We have to say goodbye because if we don't, if we drag this out, I'm not going to make it to Tyler."
She could tell Elena was sobbing. "Goodbye, Rosalind."
"Goodbye, Elena." She forced herself to hang up, shutting her eyes for a moment, then speeding the rest of the way to the Lockwood cellar.
She didn't feel sick. Didn't feel any pain. Which is why she was confused when she found Tyler writhing on the floor, alone.
"Rosie, go," he moaned, his bones cracking involuntarily. "I don't want you to see this! I already told Caroline to go—"
"I'm not leaving you here by yourself," she said, having him sit up. She murmured to herself, "Why don't I feel anything? Why isn't anything happening?"
Tyler groaned, and she pulled him into a hug, caressing the top of his head soothingly. "Shh, shh," she said, starting to panic. "It's okay. I'm right here. If it hurts, it's okay to let go... it's okay..."
He went still in her hold. Tears sprung into her eyes, and she began to breathe more heavily. "Why am I not dead?" she whispered. "Why am I not dead? Why am I still alive?"
A phone began to ring, but it wasn't Rosalind's. She reached for Tyler's phone, and answered, "Caroline," she said softly. "He's gone. But I-I don't feel anything. I'm not sick."
"Neither am I," sobbed Caroline. "Why isn't anything happening? Oh—" she cursed, "Stefan's calling me. I'm going to patch him in... hello? Stefan? Rosalind is on call, too. Tyler, he... he's gone."
"Rebekah is going to kill Elena."
And for the second time in the past twenty-four hours, Rosalind was too late.