the dichotomy of a life
"ARE YOU–"
"If you ask me if I'm okay one more time, I'm going to snap my own neck," Athena glares at Damon, who rolls his eyes. "Seriously, how am I supposed to tell if I have the urge to kill anyone if you don't stop bothering me."
"Sorry that I'm a little worried you're going to spend five decades hallucinating," Damon clenches his jaw. "That might put a bit of a damper on wedding planning, you know."
Athena reaches forward, punching him in the arm. "Shut up, asshole,"
Damon holds his hands up in surrender, but he's glaring unhappily as Athena paces. "How do we know this Nick kid isn't a threat? How do we know he hasn't known about us the whole time and has been waiting for us to slip up?"
"He's not a threat," Athena shakes her head. "He's just some kid. He can't even make eye contact with me when I speak to him, Damon."
"Jesus,"
"He has no idea what's happening to him right now, and we do, so it's up to us to help him through it. Which means my potential curse isn't the priority right now, and I need you to shut up about it!"
Damon grits his teeth, looking at her with wild eyes. "How do you expect me to shut up about anything? I'm me!"
"I think that's the most honest thing I've ever heard you say," Stefan's voice suddenly echoes from down the hall, the man walking towards them with Nick and Caroline in tow. "What are you not shutting up about, anyway?"
Damon clenches his jaw and glances at Athena, who subtly shakes her head, her dark eyes pleading silently. Sighing, he looks back at his brother and shrugs, feigning nonchalance before he looks to the terrified-looking teenager standing amongst them. "Oh, nothing, Athena was just telling me that I shouldn't scare the fresh meat. Definitely shouldn't say anything about vampires or werewolves or witches, it could fracture his fragile mind,"
Nick's eyes widened and Stefan shot his brother a scolding glare.
"Damon,"
"Told you," Damon held his hands out, bowing slightly as he stepped around them, heading for the door. "I can't shut up!"
The front door shuts firmly behind him and Athena sighs, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling before she drops them onto Nick, making the boy flinch slightly. "You're smart, right?"
He shrugged, glancing between her, Stefan, and Caroline. "I– I guess?"
"Okay, then your crash course starts now," Athena grabs him by the shoulders and drags him over to the couch, pushing him down until he's seated. "I hope your hunter's brain doesn't explode."
"Wait– what?"
"Nick, that mark that's on your hand is there because you belong to something called The Brotherhood of the Five. Centuries ago, witches spelled a group of humans with special powers designed to hunt and kill vampires to extinction, because they are seen as an abomination of life and all humanity. Obviously, those original hunters didn't finish the job, otherwise you wouldn't exist."
Nick's eyes shift between where Athena is sitting before him on the edge of the coffee table, with Stefan and Caroline standing behind her like they're her bodyguards. "Is this... is this like a senior prank or something?"
Athena's patience was already thin with so many things hanging in the air, but she couldn't snap at Nick, she knew that. It wasn't his fault. So, she took a deep breath and fixed him with an imploring look, letting a shred of genuine vulnerability creep into her dark irises, hoping that it conveyed just how serious she was.
It seemed to work if the shaky breath Nick let out was anything to go by.
"So, I– okay," He held his hands out, and Athena noticed they were trembling. "Witches are real? Vampires are real?"
The three nodded.
"And– and Damon said werewolves, too?"
"And hybrids of the two," Athena said. "Every vampire descends from one of the Originals. They were the first vampires ever made, and their blood has been responsible for every vampire made since. They are the reason The Brotherhood of the Five was created in the first place. Witches decided that their power had grown too strong, and they wanted to eliminate any possible threat to them, so they tried to kill the Original family."
Nick swallowed roughly. "But it... it didn't work, did it?"
"No," Stefan said from behind Athena, voice that familiar tone of sympathetic comfort. "The Originals can't be killed. They survived the attack and Klaus wiped out the hunters for trying to kill them."
"So," Nick's eyes drift between the trio. "Are you guys vampires or werewolves?"
"Caroline and I are vampires," Stefan nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. "My brother, Damon. Rebekah, Kol, and Elijah are Original vampires. Klaus, he's a hybrid, he's the original hybrid. Half vampire, half werewolf. He's got an entire line of his own sires."
The younger boy nods, bottom lip tucked into his mouth as he thinks. "And– and you? What are you?"
"I'm... me," She shrugs slightly, wincing at her inarticulateness. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and warfare. Don't, uh, don't believe all of the stories you've read about me. My dad's a total liar."
Nick is silent for a moment that lingers too long, and Athena finds herself leaning forward, snapping her fingers in front of his face.
"Hey! No blacking out right now, this is serious shit!"
Nick swipes his hands out, clenching his jaw. "No, I was reluctantly with you until you tried to tell me that you're a Greek god. I can do vampires and werewolves and– and literally anything else, but I can't do gods! I'm an atheist!"
"How do you think I feel?!" Athena gestured to herself, and their frantic back and forth made Stefan take a step forward, laying a hand on Athena's shoulder to calm her.
"We're getting off track," Stefan said pointedly, looking between them. "Nick, I know this is a lot and you didn't sign up for any of it, but you play a huge part in something going on right now. We're not going to sit here and guilt trip you into helping us– if you want out, you tell me right now, and I'll compel you to forget any of this ever happened."
The boy looks down at the ground, his eyes falling to the back of his hand where the dark tattoo has taken up space on his pale skin. The odd, dual-ended symbols cradled by the near-circle, not quite connecting where it twists and tapers off. It's intricate, if not a little messy, and he figures if a bunch of witches from the Stone Ages drew it up, it makes sense.
"What... what role do I play? What's so important about this mark?"
"The mark is a map," Athena informs him, glancing at where the tattoo should be visible on his hand. She wonders if she has to touch him again for it to show up. Perhaps it doesn't show up normally for her until it realizes what she is, and then the glamor disappears. "It leads to The Brotherhood's entire purpose."
"What, a vampire-killing plague or something?"
"No, a cure. A cure for vampirism."
Nick's brows raise and he looks at Stefan, and then at Caroline. "A cure?"
The trio nods.
"You're going to take a cure for vampirism?"
Stefan shakes his head quickly. "No, no it's not for us. It's– we're helping someone out. But we only had one part of the puzzle until now."
"So, is the tattoo that other part?"
"Sort of," Stefan stifles a grimace. "You're what's called a Potential. Your mark only showed up because the last hunter died, and the mark has to transfer to someone else until someone finally finishes it and finds the cure."
Nick's eyes narrow slightly. "How did the other hunter die?"
Athena purses her lips. "Don't worry about that right now, Nick. I don't want to tell you too much and make you feel like you have to help us. If you say no, it's done. I promise we're plenty capable of finding the cure with or without your help."
"It... it doesn't seem like it, though," He tilts his head, shrugging. "I mean, I'm not agreeing. But if this little symbol is all you guys need, I can just give it to you and be done, right?"
"Not... exactly,"
"What does that mean?"
"It's not just the one on the back of your hand," Athena gestures, face twisting as she pushes out a stressed-sounding breath. "The mark grows. It'll get big enough to show the entire map that leads us to the cure, but the problem is that the mark doesn't grow on its own. You have to prove that you're capable of being the next hunter, that you can get to the cure in the first place, and in order to do that, you have to kill vampires. A lot of them."
Nick clamps his mouth shut if only to be able to say he didn't let it drop to the floor. He isn't able to stop the slight whimper that spills from his throat, though, but he thinks he's due at least a handful of them right now. Waking up with mystery tattoos and being told every weird B-movie and YA novel he's ever avidly avoided in his life is real.
His weird, older, maybe-friends are a ragtag group of monsters that Nick has never thought twice about in his life outside of fiction. He's never believed in ghost stories and he's never looked at someone and thought, maybe, they weren't completely human. He wishes he could say otherwise, even just to pretend, but he's pretty sure that the room (and house) full of enhanced beings would notice.
Trying to suspend his disbelief, he shakes his head and gives Athena an incredulous look. "So, what, this group of vampires is going to kill a whole bunch of other vampires to find the cure for vampirism?"
"That's one way to say it, yeah," Athena nods.
"That's– I can't kill anyone. I don't care what they are,"
"And that's fine, Nick," Stefan stresses, his green eyes maintaining contact with Nick's blue-gray ones. "No one is asking you to do that. My offer stands as is. You can go home right now and chalk it all up to your first hangover, and we'll keep you away from all of this like we've been doing."
The boy nods and clasps his hands together in his lap, intermittently squeezing his fingers together until his knuckles are white before letting go again. The repetitive motion was slowing his pulse down little by little, and he could feel his tense muscles begin to relax out of principle.
Snapping his gaze upwards, he meets Athena's eyes, steeling himself and lifting his chin in a coaxing manner. "How did the hunter before me die? Be honest."
Athena ran her tongue along her teeth before answering. "I killed him. I tortured him in my basement until I found out I didn't need him anymore, and then I snapped his neck because he almost killed Caroline and Rebekah. Even if he had agreed to help us find the cure, he was going to pay for that."
"Athena," Stefan and Caroline look at her hesitantly, and Nick thinks he was right to compare them to bodyguards with the way they're suddenly looking at him like he could ever be a threat to them, magical vampire hunting aside.
"It's fine," The goddess is quick to wave them off, not taking her eyes off of Nick. "He wants the truth, he can get it until I think he can't handle it anymore. If he's asking more questions, it means he's thinking about helping. Helping means getting his hands dirty. He'd better get used to it fast."
Nodding in attestation to her somewhat damning words, Nick speaks again, ignoring the anxious swirl of nausea in his stomach. "How many people have you killed?"
"I don't know."
He swallows, trying to ignore the grimace pulling at his lips. "Was it all for this cure?"
"No," She says quickly. "But it was all for a reason."
"A good or bad one?"
"That's not up for me to decide," She shrugs her shoulders. "In my head, they're all good reasons. I kill to protect the people I care about, and nothing will make me feel guilty about that."
Nick slowly nods, like he understands where she's coming from. He thinks his general air of calm is because of the shock his body is experiencing. "One more,"
Athena silently urges him on.
"Did you kill Elena Gilbert? Is that why she's been missing for seven months?"
An air of discomfort settles over the room, and Nick can sense he's touched a sensitive topic, but he doesn't retract his question like he normally would. He feels emboldened by Athena's honesty, and he thinks maybe that was her plan all along.
"Yes, I did," Her hands tighten where they rest on her legs for a moment, manicured nails digging into the meat of her thighs. "Elena made an enemy out of everyone. She lost her mind to grief and jealousy, and that never bodes well for vampires. She'd crossed one too many lines, so I ripped her heart out and burned her body. Sheriff Forbes has been compelled to keep the case open for a few more months, but once it hits the one-year mark, she'll be presumed dead. Damon compelled her Aunt Jenna and her brother to move out of state and never come back, for their own good."
"That's..."
"I don't like loose ends, and Elena Gilbert was the biggest loose end of them all. When it came down to it, I wasn't going to leave any room for error. I promise, Nick, out of every life I've taken, Elena's is one I'd do over and over again. There isn't a world where I don't. Not just for myself, but for everyone else. If she were still alive, this town would be a much different place. I did everyone a favor, trust me."
He bites out a dry noise, and can't quite make himself laugh. "I do. Despite everything in me screaming not to, I think I do," He sits forward slightly, leaning his elbows onto his knees. "What happens if I become a loose end?"
Athena's eyes drift past his head for a moment, and Nick wonders if there's someone behind him, or if she's just thinking. Before he can follow her gaze, she quickly looks back at him, and he's too focused on his inner turmoil to see the sudden panic in her eyes.
"We'll cross that bridge if we get there, Nick. But I can promise you that I'll protect you every step of the way, up until you cross me," She slaps her thighs, standing up so abruptly that he has to crane his neck to look up at her. "I don't want an answer right now, I won't believe it's real. Go home and think about it, and come back in a few days if you're serious about it. By then we'll have worked out enough of a plan to make sure you're as far from everything as possible, but still able to help. And, you know, if you say no, just ask for Stefan or Damon. They'll help you out."
Nick stands up and nods, feeling more like his usual quiet self as he wraps his arms around his midsection and follows Athena to the front door.
Stepping just outside of the door into the fresh, early afternoon air, he looks at the girl over his shoulder. "If nothing else," He shrugs. "I'm glad we're friends."
She smiles, and it rivals the sun. "Me, too, Nick."
As soon as Nick is clear from the front door, Athena shuts it and spins on her heel, bypassing the living room where Stefan and Caroline linger in favor of running up the steps, taking them two at a time.
She swings herself around the sharp turn of the stairs, practically flinging herself down the hallway to the room that was once probably a study but could be considered more of an archive at this point. Books were stacked everywhere, and Stefan and Damon had desks placed mindlessly amongst the chaos, but they, too, were overrun with books. Athena rarely went in here, because even though they'd never admit it, the boys liked that their things went unbothered in this lone room. It was something of a time capsule for them, she thinks.
But she goes in there now and shuts the door behind her because someone's standing there with their back to her and she's holding her breath, waiting for them to turn around and confirm her rapidly running thoughts.
"I killed you."
"Yes, you did," Connor turns around, and Athena's lip curls in slight disgust at the sight of his head hanging at an odd angle, his dark eyes still finding hers despite it. "That doesn't mean I'm gone."
She lets out a harsh breath, thunking her head back against the door. "The curse."
Connor's dry, cracked lips pull into a dark smirk. "Nothing is without consequence in this world, Athena. You should know that by now,"
"You don't know shit about me," She spits out, earning a low chuckle from the hunter.
"On the contrary, I am you, Athena. I'm a figment of your imagination, so whatever I say isn't anything you've never thought before," He shakes his head, looking like he's just won a prize. "Face it, Athena. I've already won."
Summoning a knife, Athena lunges forward and plunges it into his chest, earning a strangled gasp from the hunter. "I don't lose, asshole. Your curse doesn't mean shit."
Connor laughs despite the blood spilling from his mouth. He laughs until he disappears into nothing before Athena's eyes, and the knife she'd sunk into his body clatters to the floor at her feet.
She looks down at the glinting metal and the lack of blood on it and squeezes her eyes shut.
"Fuck."
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author's note; from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.
https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/UsmanaliF
edited and published; 2.20.24.
- liz