𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧—"𝙨𝙞𝙭𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙨"
———
𝙎𝙊, 𝙒𝙃𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝘿𝘼𝙈𝙊𝙉 𝙒𝘼𝙎 𝘽𝙐𝙎𝙔 on the phone with Stefan and Elena, Clara took the time to call her twin. She still felt the wetness of her tears escape her eyes every so often, and her heart ached that she couldn't do this in person. But in reality, Damon and Clara were both too far away to make it to Mystic Falls in time.
"Hey, Ty," Clara smiled sadly into the phone that was close to her ear, holding back the urge to just let the flood gate loose.
"Hey, Lara," Tyler responds, his mind wondering as to what could make his twin sound so upset. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
"Damon and I... we couldn't stop Alaric. Ty, he killed Klaus."
Tyler's end went silent as the boy took the time to process what the blonde had just explained, and after a few moments, he finally works up enough of a voice.
"Clara, listen closely, okay?" Tyler starts, his voice sounding a bit cracked. "Just tell mom I left, like I was supposed to—"
"—Ty, please don't say it," Clara let's another tear drip down her cheek. If Tyler was going to say his goodbyes, then that meant he was really going to die. "Please."
"She's going to need you more than anyone, okay? Take care of her, and take of yourself, Lara. I know this whole bit of being a vampire is going to be rough for you, but you have to try your best at controlling it," Tyler continues on, ignoring his twins whimpers for him to stop. "Your big heart is what makes you the very best, Clara Lockwood. Now please don't waste it."
Similar to her twin a few minutes prior, she let the silence eat up at her while she started crying. She didn't care if Damon saw or heard her sobbing, because the girl didn't know what she was going to do without her twin, her brother, her best friend.
"I'm so sorry, Tyler," Clara finally speaks up, raising her arm to wipe her runny nose with her long-sleeve. She was still pacing back and forth, she feared if she stopped she'd have another breakdown.
"This isn't your fault, Clara, don't blame yourself," Tyler replies, and she could hear him sniffle as well. "We can just hope that Klaus was lying about being apart of your bloodline, because I don't want my lil sister dying because of that jackass."
"Ty, you were born sixteen seconds before me," Clara sniffles while chuckling to herself. "You can't call me your little sister."
"Uh, yeah, I can. Hello, sixteen seconds make or break it," Tyler softly laughs along with the girl, and after a moment of sharing one last laugh together, Clara sucked in a deep breath.
"Goodbye, Ty," the girl blinks away her tears, she knew holding out this call would only mean less time for everyone else to say goodbye to her big brother.
"Goodbye, Lara."
•••
"Do you feel anything?"
Clara glanced from staring at the cold grey cement to Damon, who was sitting across from her. Currently, she was leaning against wheel of the black SUV while Damon was using the coffin for support, his knees up while Clara was laying her arms and head on top of her knees.
She was deep in thought, she wouldn't tell her mother about Tyler's death because they both knew the fragile woman probably couldn't take it — not after her fathers death.
Clara shook her head slowly, barely raising her eyes to meet eye contact with her best friend. By now the tears had dried up and stained her cheeks, and she felt so extremely tired from letting out of those different feelings and emotions that she wanted to sleep for a year. Her breathing was a bit off, and she was trying her best to keep everything all together.
"Maybe Klaus was lying, about being our sire," Damon suggests, and now the girl nods her head rather than shakes it. The boy wished he could say something right now to make things right, but none of the words were forming properly, so they stayed quiet.
After a few moments, they heard something crash down the hallway to their right. Cautiously, Damon rose from his spot on the ground — closely followed by Clara on his heels — as he peaked his head to see what had made the noise.
Suddenly, Damon was flown backwards, landing roughly on his back. Clara quickly shifted from being sad to immediately on edge, and when she glanced from the groaning Damon on his back wincing to the figure who had thrown him, she found the one and only Alaric Saltzman.
"Ric, stop!" Clara threw up her hands, but she knew there was no hope. Alaric was gone, and only this twisted, dark shell of him remained.
Alaric takes several steps forward, a menacing look on his face as he picked up his chalky hand, and grabbed Clara by her throat — wrapping his thick fingers around her neck with such might. With his strength, he easily rose the girl from the ground, her feet dangling helplessly as she pounded on Alaric's arms, begging him to stop.
Suddenly, his grip on her loosened as he was slammed to the ground, thanks to Damon shoving his shoulder right into him. Clara fell to the ground and landed harshly on her knee's, placing her hands on her throat as she gulped in air.
Alaric didn't hesitate to get back up, and then started throwing punch after punch towards the poor raven-haired boy. It was almost like he forgot about Clara, and was too focused on Damon. Soon, Damon had blood dripping down all over his face, and he was trying to choke out any words he could muster up to try to stop Alaric.
Clara spotted the white oak stake that Alaric had dropped once the black spots in her vision disappeared, and she raced towards it. Once gripped in her hands, she jumped towards Alaric and shoved the dagger into his right shoulder. He tilted his head while his lip curled up in anger, and pulled out the white oak stake with ease as Clara backed up a few steps.
She was happy she was able to distract him enough from Damon, but now it seemed like he was hellbent on him digging that stake in Clara's heart. Damon used his vamp speed to put himself in between the killer teacher and the vampire blonde, his chest rising and falling quickly as he was trying to catch his breath.
Alaric throws Damon to the floor again, and an annoyed look appears on his face. "You're not going to fight back?"
"You're kind of invincible, Ric," Damon sarcastically responds, making eye contact with Clara as she tried to think of a way to make sure Alaric didn't kill either her or Damon.
"Don't call me that," Alaric harshly comments, his tone meaning only pain. "We're not friends."
"But we were friends, Ric," Clara interrupts, making Alaric spin to face her rather than Damon on the cement ground.
"Well, our friendship was part of the problem. It's what kept me weak. That's why it took so long for the real me to break through."
"But this isn't you," Clara looked at Alaric with as much emotion she could have, almost to the point of tears. She lost Tyler, she was losing Alaric, who else is she going to lose?
"But now I'm going to break you."
Alaric smiles wickedly at the girl, and rose the hand he was carrying the white oak stake in and threw it at the girl. She let out a loud whimper as it dug itself deep into the girls left thigh. She fell to the ground, reaching forward to try to peel the stake from her thigh with tears threatening to fall, but Alaric landed a punch on her cheek — making her whole body collapse on the floor rather than just her butt. She punched her again, and again, and soon the pain just felt numb as she lost count.
Her mind fluttered to what Tyler was suffering through right now, or maybe he was already dead. And then she thought about what Kol would be doing in the current moment, what they would be doing if they were together. She thought about how scared Rebekah must be now that her older brother was dead.
Alaric stepped on the white oak stake in Clara's thigh, making the wound deeper and bigger. She let out a cry as the pain doubled, and it brought her mind back from wondering.
"Is that all you got?" Clara chokes out, flashing a smirk at Alaric as she felt her eyelids get heavy.
"Not quite," Alaric responds, raising the white oak stake in his hand. Clara accepted the fact that within eight seconds, that stake was going to be in her heart. She was going to die, again, but this time she was going to stay dead.
"You get the hell away from her!"
Clara blinks a few times as she doesn't feel the stake in her heart, and she turns a bit to the side to see Damon fighting Alaric, with more power and motivation than ever before.
He had hold of the stake still in Alaric's hand while with his spare hand, he landed a punch on Alaric's cheek. And then another, and another. Clara didn't know where this newfound strength came from, but she was grateful, surely the boy just saved her life — once again.
Damon slammed the white oak stake from Alaric's hand, it dropping with a thud on the ground, and wrapped his other hand around the man's neck. Then suddenly, Alaric started choking, and he looked just as confused as the rest of us.
"What... what's happening?" He croaks out, falling onto both of his knees.
And just as soon as it clicked in Clara's head, it did for Damon as well. If Alaric was falling to the ground while being unknowingly weak, it was because Elena was in danger or possibly even dying.
"No! No!" Damon shouts repeatedly as Alaric collapses even further, but Damon wrapped a solid arm around his neck for support and then on his arm as he fell to the ground.
Grey lines started to appear starting from his neck and growing further, Clara felt she was near tears again. She knew Matt and Elena were together in his truck on their way back to Mystic Falls, and if Elena was dead then that meant Matt could be too. She couldn't lose Elena, or Alaric, or Matt, not anyone else.
"No! Please!" Clara called out, rushing by Damon's side as Alaric becomes still. The final grey lines covered his face, and Clara let the tears slip down her face.
"You're not dead," Damon repeats over and over, because neither of them wanted to accept the fact.
Elena and Alaric were gone.
a/n: sorry if this ended awkwardly! the amount of times i've rewatched this episode by now to finish these chapters have been TOO MANY TIMES! so i'm just excited to jump into season four :-)