Updated: August 4th, 2015
Things to know::
I don't own TVD :-(
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Sunlight was hardly fluttering through her window when Maddie blinked open her eyes. She groaned softly and turned over, closing her eyes again in hopes of falling back to sleep. It was the first time in a week or so when her dreams hadn't been haunted by those visions. She wasn't sure what they were, actually. Visions tended to repeat themselves, but these were different. They always had the same people in them, and she had been in the same places but it was something different each time. Plus, they seemed to be taking the prospective of a child, which was another thing that confused her..
She let out another sigh as her thoughts became more and more tangled up in her dreams and sat up, coming to the realization that she would never be calm enough to go back to sleep now. She reached over to her bedside table and grabbed her cell, checking the time. As the screen lit up she saw that it was only six fifteen.
"You've got to be kidding me..." She muttered grouchily, running a hand through her hair. With obvious reluctance, she tossed the covers away from her and slipped out of bed, wiggling her toes into the soft carpet spread across the floor. If there was one thing she hated, it was a chilly floor right after you woke up- or a chilly anything after you woke up.
The blonde witch walked over to her full length mirror and looked at herself, noting the messy make up on her face and bed head. Again she sighed as she remembered that she hadn't bothered to wash her face last night. She was too tired to haul herself over to the bathroom and wash up after everything, plus her head was still killing her. After the adrenaline from her encounter with Katherine had worn off she had become increasingly aware of the throbbing in her head- but she noted that now she felt fine. Other then the fact that she was awake at six something in the morning that is.
Having nothing better to do, and clearly needing to clean herself up, Maddie headed towards the bathroom. She turned on the shower to let the water heat up and then grabbed a brush so she could start to tackle her hair.
A little more than twenty minutes later she was laying on her bed again. Her hair up in a high ponytail, wearing a nice brown tank top, dark wash jeans, knee-high boots and a black jacket. She hadn't bothered throwing on any make up yet, but she was satisfied with her appearance for now.
She layed in bed for several minutes until her mind circled back to the dreams she had once more. She get out a sigh and considered what she knew. So far she had seen a total of five people, a teen named Kol, a boy called Henrik, a human Rebekah, a human Klaus whom the child she had been more or less become called Nik, and a man named Elijah. She had also remembered talking about a woman named Esther, someone named Finn and a woman named Ayanna. She knew that these were all names related to the Original's story, so she would have thought it was a vision except the part where Rebekah and Klaus were human. That just didn't make sense to her. Visions were sent to help guide a witch, lead them towards something in the future, so a dream about the Originals when they were human just wouldn't make sense.
After that the most logical thing would be compulsion, but after Klaus had snatched her vervain ring, Maddie had started taking the herb in her morning coffee. So it must be just dreams, except for the fact that she had been assaulted by one in the middle of the party yesterday. So all in all she was back to square one.
Deciding she needed to get her mind off of it, Maddie found herself wondering over to her desk. She bent down and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out her sketch pad. In all honestly she loved art, it was her second favorite activity, magic being the first. Smiling at the idea; Maddie pulled out a charcoal pencil and walked back towards her bed. She plopped down on the bed, laying on her tummy, and opened the notepad. She skimmed through most of the sketches, this was actually a fairly new notebook. She had gotten it at the airport before her plane ride back from Europe so she would have something to do on the trip seeing as she had shipped back her other notebooks. Already the pages were littered with pictures, some with colors, some without, some of a single subject some holding many subjects, but with the exception of the first ten or so pages, all of them about the same thing. Her dreams. During the restless nights when she had been waking from odd dreams of people in old clothing or wolves running rapidly through forests as many as three times a night sometimes, she had become accustomed to taking out her sketch pad and drawing what she had seen. It was kind of like a stress reliever is she was honest. It let her get out her thoughts. Each of her friends had some way of getting everything out when it came to the supernatural, Elena wrote, Bonnie had read but now used her magic, Caroline either ranted or shopped, and Maddie drew.
As she was looking for a clean page, she kept seeing more and more of these pictures, first of the five blurred faces that she had seen, than of the houses she somehow seemed to know but couldn't finish, the forest and caves that she depicted that seemed to be missing something in her mind but looked perfectly fine on paper... But she started to notice that the further she went into the pages, the more things came together. The people got expressions, and hair colors as she started to recall more things about them from her dreams, and remembered the settings in better details. Soon she could draw backgrounds to match the picture of Rebekah smiling with flowers braided into her long blonde hair, or add color to a previously half done image of Kol... Though other things still didn't fit, like the way that Klaus seemed younger in some pictures then others, and every now and then a modern object would appear to fill gaps and holes where Maddie couldn't quite place what clothing someone had been wearing or how some houses appeared in various places. It was like her mind was trying to put together this weird jigsaw puzzle that infected her every unconscious thought, but the pieces just didn't go together right.
Then there were the pages about something she understood all too well. There were pages filled with dark fur, bright eyes, teeth and claws. Wolves. Her nightmares. It was these pages that sent shivers up Maddie's spine and made her tummy clench with worry. Every time she came across one she would quickly turn the page to keep her mind from wandering back to the day.
Now though, she started a new project. Since her mind had wandered back to her dreams, she decided to try once again to piece things together, but this time, she would use her sketch book. Maddie had always been more of a visual learner. The first thing she had to do was lay out what she knew, and since everything seemed to be circling the Originals she figured their family tree wouldn't hurt.
An hour or so later, Maddie had somehow moved on from the tree and started another project. She wasn't sure what- or who rather, this was supposed to be yet, but she still just let her fingers work their magic. Not in the literal sense, of course. Eventually she had gotten done all of the major features- the nose, mouth, eyes, hair, head shape and neck, and realized that she knew this woman who was coming together in black and white. "Elena." She muttered under her breath as she forced her hand to still so she could look more carefully at the picture. That didn't make sense, everything else was Original related, so why on earth was she drawing Elena.
All of a sudden she was filled with an overwhelming urge to finish the picture, so she did just that letting the charcoals pencil glide back over the paper and after a while she got another feeling. As she looked at the more completed sketch, taking in the braided hair and mischievous expression, she frowned. The girl looked like Elena, but for some reason she didn't believe it was. She raked her brain for a solution but came up empty-handed until a name came to her. It was almost as if it had been whispered to her, gently placed in her mind. "Tatia." She said allowed. "Tatia Petrova."
All of a sudden her phone rang, and she was quick to answer it as soon as she jarred out of her thoughts. "Hello?" She asked, smiling proudly at her success. She had finally figured something out even if it was something as minuscule as this.
"What are you doing up?" Two voices chorused from the other line, both sounding equally surprised.
"Well good morning to you too." Maddie said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes and smiled. "Now who am I talking too? I can't hear over all the chatter." She asked as she shifted so she was laying horizontally across the side of the bed With her bead dangling over the side.
She heard a chuckle through the line as what she now realized was Elena's voice reply, "It's Elena and Bonnie, Mads."
"Nope." Maddie immediately rebuffed the idea, jokingly retorting that, "Elena and Bonnie would know better than to try and call me before nine." She heard two sets of laughs through the phone and over the noise in the background making her smile grow just a bit.
"Well you're in a good mood, and it's before noon." Bonnie joked, happy to have some light conversation after everything that had been happening. Plus she would admit that she had been a bit more than relieved when Maddie answered. She had known that Katherine had been called in yesterday to pretend to be Elena, and had been worried about leaving Maddie alone with her. As evil as Klaus was, when it came to Maddie she at least knew that Klaus wouldn't hurt her because he needed her for his hybrids. Katherine was another situation entirely. She hated Klaus, and had no reason to want Maddie safe, to her the witch was just another pawn in her game. "Are you sure we're the impostures?"
Maddie couldn't help the grin that creeped onto her face as she rolled her eyes ever so slightly. "Ha-ha." She deadpanned before explaining. "Actually I'm already up, showered and dressed for your information."
Elena smiled, Maddie always seemed to lighten her spirits, it was one of the things she had missed most when she went overseas. "Wow, I'm impressed." She praised with a teasing edge to her voice before asking. "What, did you do? Con Matt out of the car for a day?"
Maddie faked an overdramatic gasp and declared. "Why Miss Gilbert would I do something like that?" After knowing the two for so long, Mads didn't need to see them to know the two were probably rolling their eyes.
"Seriously, what's up with you? You seem..." Bonnie trailed off for a moment before Elena swooped in with the word she was looking for.
"Happy. You seem really happy." She had known Maddie for a very long time, and could tell when something was up. Ever since she had become so deep-rooted in all this extra supernatural drama, Maddie had been... comfortable, pleasant, helpful, even cheery, but not happy. There had been moments, but overall she hadn't been happy. Thinking about it now, she realized that none of them had been lately, but that wasn't the point. The point was she recognized this from personal experience. It reminded her of that faithful day at the beginning of last year when for the first time since her parents died, she had been happy.
Maddie paused for a moment, considering this before nodding even though the girls couldn't see her. "Yeah, I guess I am happy." She agreed. "I just feel good, ya know?" Elena smiled to herself, recalling saying something similar to Aunt Jenna once upon a time.
"Yeah." She muttered, "I get it."
Bonnie smiled with understanding at the exchange before pointing out, "Hey, I never got an answer. Happy or not, I think this is the first time since middle school that you've managed to get up this early and not whine about it."
Maddie smiled to herself, knowing Bonnie was probably right about that. "Hmm..." She thought for a moment before confessing the reason behind her good mood. "I slept well, which is weird as of lately, and then I got a chance to draw this morning, so..." She shrugged even though they couldn't see it. "I've had a pretty good morning."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Elena asked, sounding almost worried as she looked over at Bonnie. That sounded vaguely familiar as she thought back to a few minutes ago when the older witch was telling her about the dreams she had about those four coffins.
Maddie frowned a bit at the odd question but answered anyway, "You know, I got my sketch pad out and-"
"No, before that." Bonnie interrupted as she caught on to what Elena was hinting at. "You said you haven't been sleeping well... Is it dreams?"
"Um... Yeah actually, But it's become pretty normal lately so I wouldn't worry about it." The blonde replied as she sat up again, figuring that the conversation was about to get a bit more serious. Knowing the girls, they would do one of two things. A) drop it and move on to whatever it is they called her about or B) Continue to question her about this.
Sure enough the next thing Bonnie said was, "Are you sure, Mads?" And before the witch had a chance to reply Elena jumped into the conversation once more.
"Yeah, is it a dream dream or a witch dream?" Maddie knew that they were just looking out for her and she loved them for it, but in this case she wished they would let it go. She wasn't looking forward to telling them that she was having dreams about the suddenly human original family every night and not to mention now she was apparently getting waking visions too.
With a sigh she replied. "Honestly? Not sure. It feels more like a dream than a vision, but if it is just a dream, then I think I'm getting a little concerned about my subconscious." Just the thought of her just making that stuff up was mildly worrying for Maddie, after all dreaming that you lived with and cared for the members of a family of murder happy vampires wasn't exactly normal. At the thought of murderous vampires, Maddie remembered her little encounter with Katherine for the first time that morning. "Oh! And who's bright idea was it to leave me out of the whole 'kill Klaus' plan?" She asked, deciding now was as good a time as ever to mention it. She would admit to being a little upset about the whole thing. "I mean really, don't you think that I should probably know about something like that?"
Bonnie and Elena both let out matching sighs. They had figured this would come up eventually, but were both secretly hoping that eventually wouldn't be here so soon. "We were trying to protect you, Mads." Bonnie inserted gently, "Keep you out of the whole thing. We only told who we needed to, Caroline didn't know either."
Maddie would admit that the fact that Caroline was in the dark too made her feel a little better. At least she wasn't the only one. Elena then chimed in, saying "Yeah, we've been dealing with this longer then you have, and-"
Maddie cut her off, sounding amused. "No you haven't." She mentioned. "I've been involved with the supernatural problems here longer then you've known about them, Lena." At this the other two girls fell silent. It had been easy for Elena and Bonnie to forget that Maddie hadn't learned of the supernatural when she returned, she had been a part of this world for years. "Actually, now that I think about it, I guess know more supernaturals than I do mortals." She sounded kind of excited about the revelation.
After a moment, Elena had composed herself again. "Maddie, we're just trying to keep you safe." She said, urging her friend to understand. "You and Matt have a hard enough time already." Bonnie nodded and added.
"Your like a little sister to us and Caroline, and we want you to have to worry about normal stuff without all of the supernatural drama thrown in." Maddie smiled at their words, and felt her heart swell at the sincerity of it all. "We're worried. I don't want you to end up overexerting yourself after what happened." Instantly Maddie knew she was talking about Grams.
"I know that." She assured, her own voice taking on a gentle tone. "I do, and I love you guys for it, but I'm going to be 17 in a few weeks, I can handle everything. If I feel like it's getting to be too much, Bon-Bon, I promise I'll let you know. I know the risks too." Maddie paused to let them soak that in before going on with her little impromptu speech. "I worry about you guys just as much as you like to worry about me... Besides, I think we're past the point where innocence makes everything better. If I had known about everything last night, Katherine wouldn't have literally thrown me up against a wall. I get it if you don't want me involved, but at least tell me what's going on."
The two of them both nodded and muttered their agreements. Maddie had a point, and they both understood that much. She needed to know about what's going on if she was going to get out of there scar-free. A moment later though, Elena realized something. "Whoa, wait a minute." She said. "You got into a fight with Katherine? Are you alright!"
Maddie closed her eyes for minute, silently cursing herself for bringing it up. "It was more of a skirmish then a fight really." She admitted. "By the way, she plays you really well. It's kinda creepy." The girl got to her feet and put the phone on speaker setting it on her bed as she moved towards her mirror. She lifted up both her arms and started to check to make sure everything was alright. So far so good.
Bonnie still worried about the younger witch asked. "But your ok?" Trying to be sure.
Maddie made a weary noise as a response and then admitted. "Still checking." She thought about what else she could have hurt. Her arms had taken the blunt of the fall when she hit the wall, and Katherine hadn't really touched her, except- My shoulders. She turned around so her back was facing the mirror and pulled down the top of her shirt so she could see and sure enough a darkening bruise was appearing in a straight line across the back of her shoulder blades. "Ouch..." She muttered under her breath as she gazed at the rather large bruise Katherine's arm had made across her skin when she was holding her against the wall.
Hearing the surprised tone in Maddie's the older girls exchanged a concerned glance. "Maddie? You alright?" Bonnie asked slowly.
"Yeah, cheer practice is gonna be a pain though..." the blonde replied before going on to explain what she was talking about. "After we went upstairs I realized she wasn't Elena, and them we got into our little scuffle. Seems I got a souvenir." Then the girls simultaneously asked what had happened and Maddie replied. "I magically threw her into a conveniently placed towel hook in Tyler's bathroom and made a run for it, almost made it too, but she caught up to me and slammed me into a wall. Then we had a nice chat."
"About what?" Bonnie asked, relieved that that was all that had happened, and mildly pleased at the idea of Katherine with a hook in her back.
Maddie let out a sigh and then admitted. "She was trying to convince me to leave before you guys started the attack on Klaus. That way I wouldn't get caught in the crossfire."
"What?" Elena asked, confused. "Don't take this the wrong way Mads, but why does she care?" It was a decent question, one that Maddie had been asking herself too.
"I don't know." The blonde witch admitted. "She said I didn't know my own worth... Something about Petrova fire maybe? I wasn't really listening. It was all very cryptic, but she did say she wanted me on her side, and that she would explain it to me tomorrow."
That certainly caught their attention because not even a second later both girls were practically yelling into the phone.
"Your meeting with her?!"
"Stay away from Katherine!"
The blonde-haired girl pulled the phone away from her ear with a shout, wondering how long it would be until she went deaf. This was the second time this week! She waited a moment before hesitantly placing the phone back by her ear. "Guys, you're going to kill my ear drums!" She exclaimed after making sure they had fallen silent.
Bonnie was the first to talk. "Wait, you mean yesterday's tomorrow or today's tomorrow?" She asked, recalling that her friend had run into the vampiric doppelgänger at the party yesterday.
Maddie bit her lip. This was it. She knew she had already told them more than Katherine wanted, but so far her meeting could still go down without a hitch. If she told them when it was though, they would never let her out of their sight never the less go to the meeting! But... If she told them it was tomorrow, then they would not only let her be, but they wouldn't be on the lookout. After a moment, she made up her mind. "Tomorrow." She muttered into the phone feeling a stab of guilt hit her as the lie left her lips. "Today's tomorrow."
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Bonnie slowly opened the door to the old witch house. Several hours ago, the witch had thought that her dreams were just the stress of everything Klaus catching up with her, but this morning when she talked to Elena about it she began to think that maybe it was more than that. Her friend had suggested that maybe it was a vision, and as much as she wanted to deny it, it made a lot of sense. She hadn't been convinced though, not until Maddie had mentioned having some weird dreams of her own. What was the likely hood of two powerful witches having strange dreams in the same town at the same time? Slim to none.
That was why she found herself here. In the one place she had thought she'd never go to again and yet it was the place she found herself going to more and more often lately. Her dream had always happened in the witch house so this was where she had thought to start. She glanced around ever so slowly before taking her first hesitant steps over the threshold. She paused in her movements, keeping her ears open as she tried to sense any signs or sounds of the witches as she had in the dream. For a moment there was nothing... And then she heard it. Whispers, just loud enough for her to hear but not make out the words.
For a moment she stood frozen, thinking out her options. A part of her just wanted o turn around and leave, get out of this added drama, it's not like she wasn't busy enough as it was! Then again, the other part knew that would be wrong of her. After all, it wasn't just her life that was on the line. She had seen Klaus in her dreams, and that meant that everyone, Caroline, Elena, Maddie, and countless more could be in danger as well.
Gathering her courage, Bonnie let out an almost silent sigh before starting to retrace her steps. If I just do what I did in the dream, maybe I'll figure out what the witches want me to know...The chocolate haired witch thought as she turned the corner and started down the old steps. Out of instinct she grabbed hold of the old railing that clung to the wall. The idea of walking down the creeky old steps without something to hold onto was just frightening for Bonnie. The whole house was in sad condition and while she could handle evil hybrids, vampires and Orignals, she couldn't magically stop herself from falling through a step.
Suddenly she felt a wave of surprise wash over her when, unlike in her dream, the whispers of the long dead were silenced as soon as she stepped foot into the basement room. She tried to push the growing worry aside in her mind and instead focus on the task at hand. Bonnie knew this was the room from her visions, but there was nothing in it but empty air. She walked a little farther into the room and looked around as if the four coffins would just miraculously appear in front of her. Well, I was led here by a hundred dead witch spirits, who am I to say it won't happen. She thought, furling her brow.
She was launched out of her pondering when an unexpected voice came from behind her. "Hello Bonnie." With a look of shock the witch took in the sight before her. Standing casually near the open door frame was none other than Stefan Salvatore, the man who ruined everything. He looked the same, which in some way surprised Bonnie. As childish as the thought as, she had expected him to have changed his hair, or clothing style, or do something- anything in at least an attempt to hide. Elena had told her that Stefan had left after saving Klaus' life, at the thought her surprise turned to anger.
"Stefan?" She demanded, still sizing his up, making sure that it was really him standing in front of her. "You followed me?"
The vampire was not at all surprised by the young Bennett witch's reaction. On the contrary in some strange way it amused him so he went along with it. "Yeah." He said simply, a small smirk on his lips before he wiped it away again, replacing it with the emotionless mask he had been wearing for the past few weeks- or was it months? Bonnie wasn't quite sue an neither was Stefan, everything had happened so fast, but so low at the same time. "It wasn't too hard." He added as he slid his hands into the cool leather pockets of his jacket and walked into the light. "Wasn't hard either... You should probably be more careful."
As he walked forward Bonnie resisted the urge to take two steps back, settling for just shifting uneasily on her feet. In that moment, the reality of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks. She was more or less trapped in a room with a dangerous emotionless vampire and t make it worse, no one knew she was there. "What do you want with me?" She muttered, her voice significantly softer then it had been before. Seeing her grow nervous, Stefan rolled his eyes.
"Relax." He instructed with a rather careless tone. "I just need your help."
Bonnie frowned in confusion and then despite her better judgment spat. "Why would I help you? Elena said you saved Klaus' life."
Internally Stefan cursed that Elena had to go and spill the beans to the witch before he could get to her. Never the less he could still get her to see things his way, one way or another. "Let me fill you in on a little secret about Klaus." He started, waiting until a small spark of confusion, or ideally, curiosity appeared in her deep brown eyes before continuing. "He kept his family with him at all times." He saw the unsaid question of how written in Bonnie's eyes and explained it with one word. "Daggered. Stored in coffins."
Bonnie's frowned shifted into one of understanding. Coffins like in my dreams. She realized immediately. Maybe she was supposed to help Stefan, after all why else would she have been sent here? The idea was confirmed a second later when the broody vampire claimed,
"And now, I have them, and I need you to keep them hidden."
Bonnie's frown returned without fail and she stated what seemed like the obvious to her, "Are you out of your mind? You're just going to make him angrier!" Stefan had expected the response and quickly fired back in a monotone.
"His family is his one weakness and as long as I have that I can ruin him." He supplied. Why couldn't she see that this was a good thing? This gave them the upper hand against the man who had always been one step ahead. It was Klaus's Achilles heel, the way they could stop the villain who had ruined all of their lives and taken to much to be repaid from him. This was his revenge.
"I don't have enough power to hide four Originals!" Bonnie tried to get him to see reason if not in the pure ridiculousness of his plan, then in the fact that she couldn't do what he wanted.
Stefan though didn't seem phased to her utmost dismay. "You're a witch." He stated. "You hate Klaus, and if you can't do it alone, I happen to know that there's another one just in town."
It didn't take long for Bonnie to put the pieces together and when she did he expression turned to one of worry. "Maddie." She muttered the realization.
With a smirk of victory, Stefan nodded and claimed. "If you don't help, I'll just get her to do it on her own. After all, she and her brother Matt seem pretty close, and I'm willing to bet she won't be willing to risk him." Slowly, Bonnie turned around and sighed in frustration and sadness, which Stefan took as agreement to his cause. "Alright, well, you get started and if you want, call your friend for help." With that he slandered out of the room.
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"Bonnie!" Maddie's voice bounced off old boards as she cautiously wandered into the old witch house. "Bonnie!" She called again, clutching her bag with one hand while keeping herself alert. Witch house or not, this place made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
She spoke with the witch spirits all the time, that wasn't the creepy part. It was the feeling of death that she experienced upon entering the property. It was unnatural, but more importantly it just felt wrong. Whatever was here was supposed to be alive. It had been about half an hour since she had gotten a call from Bonnie. At the time she had been listening to her Ipod while she worked on some homework and of course hadn't heard the ringing. It wasn't until she had finished that she had checked the thing. Seeing that she had gotten not one, but two phone calls from Bon-Bon had instantly made her a little worried. If it ha been Caroline, she wouldn't give I much thought, because she knew her bestie was practically connected to her cell, but Bonnie was a different story. In Maddie's mind, rapid calling or lots of messages had different meanings depending on who it was from. For instance, if it was Matt then there was probably a problem with work, maybe he needed her to cover a shift for him, or grab something from school. If it was Elena, then it was either something to do with Caroline, something supernatural, or some urgent 'I'll owe you one' type of thing. Caroline wasn't anything she tended to worry about until it got over seven because the blonde normally just wanted to hang out or take Maddie shopping, but Bonnie... With Bonnie it needed to be pretty important for her to go and drag Maddie into whatever was going on. Out of all of the girls, Bon was always the one who felt the most need to shelter Maddie from the big bad world, but had always done it in small ways like Elena.
Goes to show you how much things had changed in the past year.
When Maddie had left, Caroline had always been the one to stand up to bullies, boys, teachers, whatever it was that was bugging herself proclaimed 'little sis'. Elena would step in if and only if things started to get out of hand, and before that would have just stood beside Maddie in a comforting sort of way, and give words of encouragement before and after. Bonnie was the one who throughout the whole thing would just position herself just slightly in front of the younger girl, a silent reminder that she was safe and protected. Bonnie was the one who wouldn't speak out at the one to blame, but instead be the rock that Maddie could hide behind if she so pleased, and only if she wanted.
Now though, that was different. Caroline was still Caroline, bubbly, fun and protective... But at the same time she was different and so were the others. Elena no longer waited until things got bad to step in, and instead was insistently trying to keep Maddie away from everything even if she knew the girl would be able to help. She had become so much bolder, and wasn't afraid of what Maddie would think of her actions. All in all though, Bonnie was the one shad seen the most change in. Even as years past Maddie had always seen a shimmer of naivety in the other witch. Bonnie had been sweet and gentle despite the sass that flared up in her personality. Now there was no naivety, and though she was still sweet and kind, she wasn't gentle, she was fierce. She had grown into a witch, and gotten the persona to match, while that wasn't at all a bad thing, it would take some getting used to. Maddie was learning that now she had to force her opinions into her friends to get them heard, that they wouldn't take into account what she really wanted when she could get hurt... Not even Bonnie.
"Bon!" She called as she walked around the house, wanting to figure out what was urgent enough for her to have been summoned here. "Where are you?" she let out a frustrated sigh when no one answered and decided to try something else. Setting her bag down against the wall Maddie took a deep, calming breath. Her elegantly shaded blue orbs shut and she tried to sense something, anything over the some hum of magic the witch spirits were giving off. It took her a minute but when she finally broke through, she realized that their was other magic at work here. "I guess I'm going to the basement then."
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Elena sighed as she walked out of her house. A million thoughts ran through her head, but two of them made the most effect. The first was how could she get Klaus' coffins back, and the next was about Jeremy. Had he really meant that? She shook her head a bit as if to clear it and decided it would be best if she tried to fix the Klaus problem first, that way she knew she would be able to worry about her brother later instead of his funeral.
So she paused and thought about what he needed. The answer came pretty quickly, she needed to find Stefan. The hard part was figuring out how exactly she would do that. How did I do it before? She asked herself. The answer eluded her for a moment before she realized that last time they had tried to find someone, Damon had gone to Bonnie. So naturally, the next thing she did was get out her cell phone. She waited nervously as the phone rang until Bonnie's voice came through.
"Elena? Hey." She answered, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice. She had gone home to grab some supplies, and left Maddie alone over there. She's not really alone. She reminded herself silently she has the witch spirits to look out for her. They wouldn't let one of their own get hurt.
Elena, unknowing to her friend's thoughts, decided to start talking about what she needed. "Klaus is looking for four coffins." She explained, "Just like in your dream." She couldn't see the growing worried frown Bonnie was wearing. "I think it's not just stress- and maybe Maddie's might not be either."
"Elena, don't get involved." Bonnie warned, her voice firm. "Whatever Klaus wants, stay as far away from it as you can." She didn't bother trying to lie about the whole vision thing, truth be told she hadn't really thought about Maddie's dreams since after she talked to Stefan... But Elena had a point.
"Klaus won't let me." Elena declared in response. "Bonne..." She paused for a minute, swallowing the lump in her throat but the words still came out in a whisper. "He tried to kill Jeremy."
Bonnie felt her heat swell. Things might not have worked out with her and Jeremy, but she still loved him. The thought of him dying was just... She didn't want to think about it. She slowly slid down until she was sitting on her bed before asking. "What do you want me to do?"
"We need to find Stefan." The brunette explained, knowing Bonnie probably knew this. "Look, I know that you don't think you locator spell still works, but..." She shook her head a bit before admitting "We have to at least try."
Bonnie fought to keep herself from spoiling the secret, but then she thought about Jeremy again and caved. With a sigh she admitted. "We don't need a locator spell."
Elena frowned curiously as confusion made it's way into her warm brown eyes. "What?" She asked slowly before getting a quick and very guilty sounding explanation from her witchy friend.
"... Maddie's still there working with Stefan."
"Bonnie you left her alone with him?!" She asked, alarmed. No one knew what this new version of Stefan would do to get what he wanted and now that he wasn't allied with Klaus anymore he had no reason to keep the girl from harm.
Immediately Bonnie answered with a sincere, "The witch spirits are there, Elena." She pointed out, "Besides, Maddie's a powerful witch, she'll- she'll be fine."
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Twenty minutes later, Elena and Damon were walking through the weedy, overgrown lawn in front of the witch house. After hearing that Stefan and Maddie were both here, the doppelganger had hurried to tell the blue eyed vampire. The trek was silent with only the sound of fallen leaves to fill the space, but it didn't feel awkward in the least. Elena was nothing but tense while Damon... Damon was a mixture of fine and furious.
"Bonnie said this place lost all its mojo." He stated, wanting Elena to explain to him why exactly this place was a hub of witchy activity now.
Not slowing her pace, Elena clarified the situation for him. She had actually thinking about why the witches would have come back on the drive here. "The dead witches were angry with her for bringing Jeremy back to life." She reminded him, "I guess now they have something they want her to know."
Damon turned his head back to look at the large white mansion and sighed under his breath. "That's why I hate witches." He declared more to himself than anyone else. "So fickle..." Then as an afterthought he added, "Passive-aggressive."
"And here I thought we were getting along." Both of them immediately turned their heads to look at the source of the voice, none other than Maddie Donovan. She was leaning against one of the massive pale colored pillars in front of the white house. Her arms were crossed in front of her while a small frown was placed on her lips. Both Damon and Elena stopped walking and looked up at her for a moment before Damon rolled his eyes and stalked forward towards the house. When he got close to the porch though, Maddie was quick to get in his way.
He frowned down at her. "Out of the way, Baby Original." He more or less demanded, but to his utmost irritation she didn't budge. He opened his mouth to say something but Elena was already standing beside them.
"Maddie- just move." She suggested, reaching out towards her friend, but the blonde just shrugged her hand off.
"He's not welcome here, Elena." She warned, not taking her eyes off his. "The witches don't want him here."
Damon wasn't the least bit intimidated, however he was just a tad impressed. She had guts to stand up to him, especially if the witches had shared the reason behind not liking him. "Come on, Maddie." He chided before dawning a charming smirk, "Help a guy out." He watched her strangely beautiful blue eyes for any sign of what she was thinking. They both knew that she could put in a good word for him if she wanted to, and seeing as how close knit of a group those annoying spell-casters were, a little would probably go a long way.
To his dismay though, he saw no change. "Why should I?" She asked skeptically, ignoring Elena's efforts to get her attention. "I'm not really a fan of Salvatores." She pointed out. She wrinkled her nose ever so slightly when she spat out his name as if it tasted bad in her mouth.
Damon's smirk disappeared, another frown taking it's place. "You'll do it because, right now, I'm the only buffer between you and Klaus." He growled, taking a step closer to her in a threatening way.
Maddie had to look up at him when he came closer, but forced herself to stay still and not take a step back. "Rebekah." She quickly brushed off his comment, "She wouldn't let him hurt me."
For some odd reason this made anger flare inside the vampire. "She's an Original!" He exclaimed. "Newsflash Maddie- She doesn't care about anyone but herself," He watched as a furious fire started in the blonde's eyes. "and she's gone!" This time when he watched her he saw something he hadn't seen in this fiery witch before, pain, and wasn't the only one either.
As soon as Elena saw her friend's form stiffen she knew this wouldn't end well. Acting quickly, she moved forward to push Damon way from Maddie, but then she just as quickly changed course. While going to shut Damon up, she hadn't gotten there in time to stop him from revealing Rebekah's fate. She saw her younger friend's features shift to one of sadness and surprise, her mouth opened ever so slightly in a shocked 'o' and her eye brows raised out of their 'glaring' pose as she muttered. "What?"
Instead of going for Damon, Elena turned around and placed a hand on each of Maddie's shoulders. She had been hoping she wouldn't be the one to tell Maddie- or that she would have to tell her at all. After all they had been friends, like it or not, and Elena had killed her. Not forever, but she was already feeling pretty bad about it. "Mads..." She started slowly, trying to gauge her reactions as she struggled to find the right way to tell her what happened. What if she hates me? The thought snuck into the brunette's mind, scaring her ever so slightly. Maddie's one to hold a grudge, and if she knew I didn't tell her... "After Mikael arrived, Rebekah... She..." Say it, Elena! Just get it over with, like ripping off a Band-Aid, the faster the easier. But as brown met blue, Elena realized she couldn't stand it if the hate she had seen in these worried blue orbs earlier was directed at her and the words slipped from her mouth. "She left town." Maddie had to use every strength in her being to hold back the small sob that welled up in her throat at that moment as Elena continued slowly. "When the plan didn't work she thought Klaus would come after her for lying... and she left."
The blonde held in angry tears, both at herself and Rebekah, "No. No she wouldn't leave without telling me." She stated stubbornly, looking at her best friend's deep brown eyes, searching for some sort of hint.
"Maddie..." Elena said softly, feeling guilt and heartbreak well up inside her at the wounded look on the blonde's face. "Think about it... Rebekah was his sister, and you only knew her a week or two..." She got no response other then the small tear that slowly slid down the side of the witch's face. Without thinking she pulled the other girl close to her in a hug and after a moment or two she felt the other's arms wrap around her in response.
"She- she just-" Maddie started the question before she felt Elena's arms tighten around her trembling body and her friend quiet her with some response she didn't care to listen to. She didn't understand why really, but it felt like someone had shoved a knife right through her chest. She and Rebekah had been close, yeah but even she hadn't been expecting this much hurt. It's your own fault! She suddenly thought, You knew Rebekah for what? Two weeks maybe? It's your own bloody fault for believing her! Why the bloody hell would an Original vampire ever spend time with the likes of you other than so Klaus could turn you into his blood bag? Just like that all the pain, heartbreak and hurt jumped into one emotion. Anger.
She was angry at Rebekah for leaving her, at Klaus for setting this up, at Stefan for dragging her into this, but most of all she was mad at herself for falling for it all. Clinging to the sudden shock of rage, she pulled away from Elena and wiped her eyes, glad she had worn waterproof mascara. Then she wordlessly turned to Damon and nodded before walking towards the house. "Lets go." She muttered.
Elena was shocked at the sudden change in her friend, from sad to angry in a matter of seconds, but Damon looked at her with understanding. He had felt the sting of betrayal before and he knew exactly why she was acting like she was. Anger was just easier to deal with then pain.
"Stefan's downstairs in the basement. I'll go with Elena to get him, but theres not much I can do for you, Damon." Maddie reported and any other time with any other person, Damon would have objected and demanded more but this time he just nodded. After a second though he spoke up with a last minute request. "Wait." He called just as the girls were reaching the door. Maddie and Elena both turned around at the same time and Damon walked up the steps, past Elena and stood toe to toe woth Maddie again. "Witchy, go home." He suggested in a firm but not demanding tone.
Her reply was almost instantaneous. "No." The word was just as firm as Damon's had been, but laced with determination.
Damon though went on as if she hadn't said a word. "Go to the Grill," Maddie scoffed and rolled her eyes, looking away. "Get some homework done, play on your computer- Go see a movie for all I care." He paused and lowered his voice ever so slightly as he placed a hand on her chin and forced her to look at him to get his point across. "Just take the day off." He locked gazes with her, keeping his icy frown on her for a second or two before releasing her.
Maddie turned away angrily, but admittedly she was not as angry as before. She was about to reply when she felt her phone vibrate and felt the need to slide it out of her pocket and check. "Fine." She muttered as she shoved the cell back into it's denim home.
"Thank you." She heard Elena say as she passed. Maddie's only answer was a nod. She walked quickly through the slightly woody area on her way to her car. She felt little bits of brush snag her shirt and pants but she didn't care, her mind was to wrapped up over the text she had just gotten for it to matter much.
Hey, Elena's waiting at the house- says u were suppose to work on a heiritage project 4 history today. - Matt
Maddie was quick to put the pieces together. Elena was here with her and Damon so that only left one person. The blonde let out a sigh as she glanced over the text for a second time. "That sneaky little bitch..."
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So there you are!
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AnissaCartagena