𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐕𝐈
⏤ The Rift ⏤
❝Think of it as a favour for saving your life.❞
𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 meaninglessly through the forest, Olivia released several heavy and breathless exhales of air, the pattern was entirely irregular and she found it difficult to continue walking without tiring almost instantly but it was better than being held up in the Grill. after Damon left she'd resorted to drowning out her frustration at the bar with Alaric who filled her in on the current startling events.
The majority of the Other Side was now able to breach the line separating the living and dead and evidently make physical contact with everything and everyone around them. Unfortunately for the tribrid, they were all consumed with vengeance and the majority of those acts of vengeance involved her directly. It wouldn't be long until someone with a personal vendetta against her revealed themselves and with the implications of the poison running through her veins, she realised it wasn't the best idea to be out here... alone.
She probably should've just waited it out in the Grill with the comforting thought that Bonnie was working on a spell to fix this mess, instead, she made the rash decision to seek out some peaceful time to herself where she could be alone with her thoughts. However, those thoughts were anything but peaceful and she was unable to relinquish a single stable breath ⏤ for reasons linking to the poison or otherwise. Nevertheless, it was relatively unnerving; the whole situation was. Everyone on the Other Side who she'd killed or inflicted pain on, or even the witches and other supernatural creatures following orders from a mysterious she, would now seek to kill her.
She recalled the mysterious events from this morning regarding the strange mark on her wrist, which she could've sworn was caused by someone latching onto her arm in her sleep. It was strange that they waited. Why not kill her then and get it over with already? However, she supposed she wasn't weak or vulnerable enough... now, however...
Her pace slowed down moderately as she broke past the final jagged line of trees, reaching a small clearing; the area reminiscent of one near the trail from her house to the Boarding House and judging by the familiar trees, she could only suspect she was currently somewhere between the two locations. Trudging forward, the girl began heading towards the latter of the two locations. She needed help right now ⏤ that much she could admit. Besides, a small part of her wanted to find Damon to settle their dispute from earlier on.
Eventually, the girl reached a vaguely recognisable area, though she couldn't be completely sure of her precise location. Her senses were weakened ⏤ messed up if you will ⏤ so she could barely pick up a scent, or any sense of direction for that matter. Without any enhanced abilities or spells to lie back on she felt entirely useless. Hell, she even felt her wolf form suppressed inside of her, like even if she wanted to shift right here and now she wouldn't be able to.
Olivia continued walking, breaching past several more rows of trees, all the while cautious to scan the surrounding area; her enhanced hearing obviously faltering and so she had no clue whether she was being watched or trailed right now. She eventually pushed past a final line of pine, her head darting over her shoulder as she heard what she could only assume was a branch breaking. Several more curious sounds followed; the most prominent of which being the leaves crunching distastefully beneath a heavyweight, becoming more and more distinguishable with every passing second.
Averting her gaze from behind her, the tribrid picked up her paste, moving hastily throughout the sparse remaining trees before finally noticing the familiarity of the exterior of the Boarding House. Her breathing became heavy and inconsistent before she finally entered the old-fashioned residence, closing the door hastily behind her and leaning against it, out of breath.
She cursed inwardly at how easily she began to tire ⏤ this poison was really escalating to a whole new level, though it only added to her curiosity as to what the liquid running through her veins really was. She was almost certain it wasn't permanent; there couldn't possibly be a strong enough poison to have permanent after-effects like these, especially not one common enough to fall into Brady's hands. Nonetheless, it didn't make it any less discomforting that in her current state she could possibly be overpowered, killed even, by a mere human.
After a moment, however, her unfocused gaze bolted back to a specific point of the room, landing on the steadily opening door that led to the lower basement level of the house. She waited in suspicion before finally releasing a breath of relief when she noticed a familiar brunette emerge from the staircase and enter the room.
"Liv?" The doppelgänger said her name questionably. "Thank god you're here, Damon's been blowing up my phone with messages."
"What did you tell him?" She asked, wondering why the Salvatore hadn't attempted to simply message her instead ⏤ he was probably still worked up about their fight, she assumed, sighing inwardly as that thought came to her mind.
"That you were with Ric." She answered. "You know what Damon's like, I didn't want him to go crazy worrying about you..." she drifted off.
"Thank you." Liv smiled scarcely before her gaze was asserted to the basement staircase Elena had come from with a quizzical expression.
Elena looked behind her at the narrowly open door before turning back to the blonde. "Oh yeah... about that..." she spoke with hesitance in her voice as she watched Olivia approach her and walk past her in curiosity. Elena released a muted sigh before following her down the cold stone steps. Olivia's eyes involuntarily widened as she glimpsed around the compact room he winded up in.
"Well..." Olivia paused, gazing back over at the brunette who expressed blatant nervousness. "This is different." She finished, alerting the attention of both Stefan, who was currently chained down to a chair with his eyes fixed in a stony haze, and an unfamiliar blonde who wore a vaguely lost expression despite radiating clear confidence.
"I take it you're Olivia." The moderately taller blonde said with moderate certainty as her eyes moved to Elena to see if her assumption was correct and the brunette confirmed her thoughts with a nod. "I'm Lexi. You may have already heard of me."
"Right, you're Stefan's former friend," Olivia said, remembering the name vividly due to the constant appearance and reference to the girl in Stefan's journals. Those same journals which she'd been unnoticeably reading for several weeks now. Call it a pass time hobby of hers but whenever Mystic Falls grew dull or uneventful ⏤ or if she simply needed a form of escape from the town ⏤ she'd bask in the occasionally boring yet generally intriguing keepsake journals Stefan made over his years as a vampire.
"Didn't Damon kill you?" She queried, noticing the disapproving look Elena sent her seconds after. "Sorry, touchy subject?"
"It's not exactly a memory worth keeping." She returned with a strained smile.
"Understandable." Liv acknowledged. "So, what's all this about?" She proceeded to nod her head to Stefan, pulling from their brief introduction to the Savaltroe who was still enclosed by chains, a hint of annoyance breaking through his otherwise plain expression.
"That is how we get Stefan to flip his switch." Elena returned, releasing a shaky breath as she tried to deteriorate her nervousness which was clearly visible to everyone in the room.
"Torture ⏤ a classic," Olivia spoke casually.
"It's not torture... we're... helping him." Elean rushed to correct, hating associating herself with torturing the guy she was irrevocably in love with.
"If this is your idea of helping I'm severely concerned for your mental health." Olivia returned, daring a glance over at Stefan before looking back at the brunette. "Not that I disapprove." She added. "Honestly, I'm starting to miss serious brooding Stefan."
"Glad we're all on the same page then," Lexi noted, drawing the attention of both girls.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
"Can I ask you something?" Stefan's voice pulled Olivia from her drifting thoughts and caused the tribrid to peer her head upwards from her position on the floor, shifting against the stone wall she was leaning against. Her eyes landed on the Salvatore who was still bound by chains to a chair, the dim basement empty beside the two of them ⏤ Elena having previously pulled Lexi aside to talk to her privately. Much to Liv's disdain, she had difficulty listening in to what they were discussing. On the contrary, she did feel her health slowly regaining its original composure but at an extremely slow rate.
"Go ahead." Olivia returned, noticing Stefan's calculating eyes watching her curiously.
"Why did you even bother to save me?"
"You could have simply left it as a thank you." The blonde murmured her response, noticing Stefan's expression unchanged by her words; his eyes still calculating; still confused, almost.
"After everything I've done you keep trying to save me. After I just sat there when Klaus was tormenting you..." he drifted off referring to the occurrence in Chicago. "You still came back every time. You're still trying to help me." He said with furrowed brows. "It doesn't make any sense."
Olivia couldn't help but let out a subtle laugh at his words. "Believe me, I get it even less than you do." She met his eyes. "But I actually like you, Stefan. A shocker, I know but it's true. I even..." she let out an amused breath. "I even think of you as a friend. One of my only, in fact."
Stefan solely looked confused. "Why, Liv? It still doesn't make sense why."
"I guess it's because I can understand what you're going through. I've been there. Hell, In some ways I still am there and I guess I can relate to what you're feeling... or not feeling rather. " She shook her head to pull from her confusion and refocus her point. "What I'm saying is... I know what it's like to feel like a lost cause. Like you're hopeless or that you don't deserve to be saved. Like it would be easier for everyone else if it just ended already." She paused.
"But if I'm still living through every sunrise and sunset, the pain that outweighs the joy and the suffering that surrounds me, then you have to as well." She looked back over at him once more and refocused her gaze on his eyes. His unreadable brown eyes that seemed to give way to a flicker of emotion for a fraction of a second. "I'm not doing this alone and it's the least you could do for me. Think of it as a favour for saving your life... on multiple occasions." The tribrid smiled and she could've sworn, Stefan almost returned the expression.
"Look, Klaus compelled you to flip the switch but he never said anything about turning it back on again. And if you're not doing this for yourself, do it for Elena, who loves you and is going through hell right now trying to get you back or Damon who would be a complete wreck without you by his side or do it for me." She paused, seeing his stony expression waver at her words. "I've had a lot of people walk out on me and I don't think I could handle going through that again."
Yeah, it wasn't the kindest means of getting him back but making him feel guilty may be the only way to force a sense of emotion back into him. Studying the people around her and picking up on their key emotions and thoughts was a speciality of the tribrid and Olivia had been able to grasp a clear insight on Stefan Salvatore. One of the main differences between them she picked up on was his guilt ⏤ his uncontrollable and overwhelming guilt.
"Not feeling anything inside may be easier for you but it's selfish. Everyone else has to suffer through pain and torment every day, you can't just turn yours off when it gets too hard for you." She finished, sighing inwardly as she finished. She realised how honest the words were and how deep they cut her own flesh when she said them. She was annoyed; annoyed that amongst the inevitable pain, he had the chance to feel everything ⏤ love, happiness, warmth... Everything she couldn't have.
The sound of distant footsteps growing louder broke the tension and intensity of the moment and Elena and Lexi entered the room. Elena's eyes were directed towards Stefan with nervousness laced with concern. Lexi, however, was watching Olivia curiously.
Somehow a girl Lexi had never before seen on the Other Side had such a big impact of the Salvatore ⏤ her sight immunity was because of a strange mystical force which disabled everyone from the Other Side from being able to see the girl or whoever she was around; besides a sparse amount of powerful witches of course. However, Lexi couldn't move past how she'd almost been able to get through to Stefan so easily ⏤ without any means of torture or brutality. At this moment, she realised how good the tribrid was for him.
Whilst Elena showed him love, kindness and compassion, sometimes he needed someone to really break through his barriers and set him straight. That person blatantly being Liv. She cared for him and he cared for her; they were undoubtedly good friends and the tribrid could be there and relate to Stefan in a way the brunette couldn't, which is why she was such a vital person in his life. If he falls into the deep end again, she may just be the only person with the capability of pulling him out and, with that thought in mind, suddenly, leaving Stefan didn't seem so daunting to her anymore... She knew he'd be okay without her.
"So, where do we start?" Elena's voice drew Lexi's attention, purposely missing Stefan's burning gaze to evade any and all hesitance concerning what came next; what they needed to do to get him back.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
A moderate amount of time had passed in which the torture session continued seamlessly beside Elena's blatant nervous and hesitant aura. As time dragged on and Olivia's boredom grew, the tribrid eventually grew tiresome of the entire ordeal, finding herself drift from the basement up to the main level of the Boarding House.
After a while of aimlessly wandering the area, her gaze ransacking every detail of the old-fashioned house in disinterest, the tribrid found herself meandering over to a large oak bookshelf. Her hand roaming over the neatly placed books, pulling out one that caught her interest from time to time and casually flicking through the beige stained pages.
Ultimately, she found the entire situation to be a bore, the sparse positives were that hopefully at the end of the night, Stefan would return to his usual persona, the physical presence of those from the Other Side would fade ⏤ hopefully that included Liv's strange ability to see the dead on any other occasion ⏤ and finally, she felt her strength slowly returning, feeling her muddled senses somewhat clear up. That being said, she was still nowhere near at full health, barely halfway through her so-called recovery period.
Olivia's eyes moved to scan over a selection of strange objects cluttering the bookshelves and being used as weights to retain the straight posture of the books, though just as she did, her eyes instantly lurched back to the door leading to the basement in response to several strange clanking sounds.
"You guys holding up okay down there?" Olivia asked, nearing the wide-open door cautiously, only for it to slam shut abruptly when she edged closer.
The dull silence previously lingering amongst the Boarding House like persistent fog clinging to the walls, was now erased and replaced with a muted whispering. Without so much as questioning the noise, the blonde made her way hastily to the slammed door, pulling forcefully on the handle, hearing the metal jangle as she twisted it continuously.
"Elena?" She called out, glancing wearily over her shoulder as a strange feeling washed over her.
"Liv," the brunette's voice sounded from the other side of the door, making the tribrid sigh in relief. "Damon told me the door can lock on its own sometimes."
"Well, can you get it open?" She asked before audibly hearing Elean tug on the door handle murmuring something she couldn't pick up on.
"I think it's jammed." She returned, twisting the handle a few more times. "I'll ask Lexi. Maybe she can get it open." With those words, she barely made out several faint echoing footsteps that were continuous for several seconds as the brunette made her way down the stairs before the noises on the other side of the door faded completely.
However, a quiet and indistinguishable murmuring remained prominent, ringing through her ears like the person was standing right beside her. The tribrid's gaze averted from the door, scanning the room sceptically. She was really starting to lose it with all this mystical energy bullshit and psychotic persistent whispering. The tribrid turned back to the door, banging her palm against it several times. "Elena, I'd appreciate it a lot if you hurried the hell up." She called down to the brunette; no response.
"Don't bother. They can't hear you anymore."
Olivia spun around swiftly upon hearing the familiar voice. "Lucy?"
"Nice seeing you again. This time I suppose it's a little different though ⏤ considering the circumstances." She spoke with visible confidence, her persona so different from the person she previously knew.
"I would take a step back if I were you," Olivia said, covering any perplex or concern in her eyes with a stone-cold glare.
"Don't bother, Olivia. I already know about the poison running through your veins. Brady was easily manipulated into injecting it into you." Olivia tensed at her words; of course, she manipulated the entire situation. She should have appointed her as the one responsible from the beginning. "It's a mix of ancient herbs if you're wondering ⏤ my own remedy, in fact." She slowly took to roaming around the room. "I concocted it for people like yourself, tribrids. It limits your powers as well as your strength levels ⏤ making you perfectly killable."
"Let me guess, the she you were previously referring to is the one who wants me dead? She's the real one behind all of this, isn't she?"
Lucy smiled at her words. "Something along those lines... but it's not just her anymore; seeing your potential and the darkness that consumes you altered my thoughts about you. The prophecy I once thought was so great and a desire of nature and all the witches before me turned out to be fixated on imbalance, impurity and malevolent corruption."
"And this split you were talking about... What about the witches who don't want me dead?" She questioned hopelessly.
"They have their own agenda that I can't possibly begin to fathom any longer. They follow someone else, someone darker, someone I've only heard rumours about; they bask in the glory of the potential chaos you'll bring."
"Okay... so essentially, there are two psychotic ancestral witches both assumably on the Other Side, each holding different intentions for my future but overall none of which are good and either way my life is pretty much damned. Thanks for the clear up." She smiled sarcastically.
"It won't matter after today. You won't live to see the next sunrise."
Olivia parted her lips, a response forming on the tip of her tongue to potentially serve as a distraction and to prolong, in Lucy's eyes ⏤ her inevitable death. Before a single word could reach the air, however, she felt an abrupt and unbearable pain in her head. The girl moaned in pain as she fell to the ground, reminiscent of the Founder's Day Celebration when John Gilbert activated the Gilbert Device.
The irony was present in the death that could potentially be her end seconds from now, seeing as she experienced the same piercing pain in her skull during one of her first days in Mystic Falls ⏤ her presumable hometown, the only place she'd ever felt some sort of connection to.
Though it was all different now; she expected she'd be at peace when her time finally came. After walking the Earth for centuries, death is viewed as a blessing to most vampires. Now, however, she found a strange persistent feeling bubbling up in her gut and overflowing like surges of electricity throughout her body ⏤ she didn't want to die; she wanted to live.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
"She's a good friend," Lexi said calmly, looking at the vampire chained to the chair in front of her who mostly refused to meet her eyes ⏤ every now and then if his gaze did flicker over Lexi's, he'd only throw her an annoyed glare. "Olivia I mean." She specified. "I can see how much you care about her." She figured now was the best time to voice her opinion on the girl, considering the two were alone ⏤ Elena having briefly left a few moments prior. "If I was still alive, I'd be offended that you found someone to replace me with but seeing as I'm dead, I think you should keep her around."
"Maybe I'll consider it after you let me go." Stefan resorted, glaring up at her.
"Not going to happen, Stefan." She retaliated. "Want my opinion?"
"Not particularly."
"Too Bad. I think you should take her advice. Listen to what Olivia said and stop being such a selfish ass." Lexi told him bluntly making him roll his eyes. "You're hurting Elena. You're hurting all of them. Sometimes you don't even see how lucky you are to have an endless life in front of you with the person you love and people who care about you surrounding you every moment of every day to help you get through the pain." She explained, hoping to see something in his eyes; anything at all which signalled there was still hope left with him. "And that's why I'm here right now ⏤ my unfinished business."
Echoing footsteps interrupted their conversation, drawing Lexi's gaze to the brunette entering the room behind her; a puzzled expression on her face as she pointed behind her. "Hey, the door seems to be jammed upstairs. I can't get it open."
"That's not important right now." Lexi deflected the situation, looking back at Stefan. "I'm on the verge of getting through to him. I can feel it."
"Screw you, Lexi." Stefan spat back at her from his position on the chair, the chains clanking lightly as pain washed through his body from the gruesome torture he'd endured; his own friend being the perpetrator. Elena cringed before focusing her eyes back on Lexi, though upon doing so, the brunette's eyes simply widened as she saw her body fade into translucence for a fraction of a second, the stone walls of the room behind her being visible through her body.
Lexi frowned upon noticing her facial expression, gazing down at her hand to see she was fading out; the rift between this world and the Other Side was finally closing signalling Bonnie's successful attempt at a spell to diminish the physical embodiment of the dead. "Shit. Not now. I need more time." She cursed beneath her breath before turning to the girl beside her who had come to the same conclusion as to what was happening. "He's still in there, Elena. You just have to breakthrough."
"It's okay, Lexi, I know what to do now. You can be free." She told the vampire making a small smile cross her face as she turned to Stefan, his eyes being the last ones she looked into before disappearing from both their views. At the exact second she did, however, Stefan heard a piercing scream bleed throughout his head, making him groan in incredible discomfort.
Stefan! A familiar voice sounded throughout his mind, making his thoughts race in confusion and his eyes darted to the doorway in panicked perplex upon hearing the alarm in the voice of the girl he knew all too well.
"Liv?" He murmured quietly to himself making Elena turn to him with her brows drawn together as Stefan's mind continued to wander. He had just heard the girl's voice inside of his own head, well at least that's what he thought. He could've easily misinterpreted it though due to his current condition. Nonetheless, the voice was there. Her voice was there and he knew she was in trouble and by how her tone was perceived, she appeared to be in excruciating pain. "Elena, you have to let me go, right now." He rushed to tell her, turning to the brunette. Emotions or no emotions he wasn't going to let Olivia die after all she'd done for him.
"I can't do that, Stefan. Lexi told me ⏤"
"It's Olivia, Elena. She's in trouble, I have to help her." Stefan cut her off immediately, tugging on the chains which bound him to the chair, groaning in discomfort by the pain caused by doing so.
"I'm sorry but I don't believe you." Elena returned, assuming it was just a ploy to trick her. One she wasn't intending on falling for.
"She's going to die, Elena. You don't understand Brady injected her with something this morning. At first, I thought it was nothing but someone's using it to weaken her." He explained in a rushed panic, but seeing her hesitant expression he finally lost it. "They're going to kill her Elena!"
⏤⏤⏤⏤
Olivia felt herself fading out ⏤ fading out of consciousness, of life, of hope...
Her body was currently lying against the hard flooring of the Boarding House, her vision growing hazy as she squinted her eyes barely able to make out Lucy. She stood several feet away from her, eyes closed as she muttered a spell. An incredibly powerful spell; one of dark magic that slowly drained the life out of her. At this point even pain seemed to dissipate from her body; everything just went numb.
The emptiness of her soul radiated across her ⏤ inside and out. She felt herself slipping into a black pool of tranquillity; absorbed in the dark nothingness that tried consuming her completely and washing away every thought, every memory, every feeling she had. Erasing her from life completely. Before she was dragged under completely and her last breath was drowned out by the inky pool she was being pulled into, she felt her lungs gasp for air, a crashing sound present simultaneously as her eyes opened forcefully, taking in the bright light around her.
She turned her head, barely being able to notice two figures. "Stefan?" She found herself just about able to muster enough energy to speak as she felt the airiness of life fill her once more with every beat of her heart and every inhale of breath. Turning her head, she saw the Salvatore approach her, glancing over at Lucy's limp body on the floor behind him that faded from reality seconds later.
It seemed Bonnie's attempts to close the rift had worked successfully, Olivia figured.
"You good?" The Salvatore asked, giving her his hand which she took without hesitation ⏤ as soon as her body was physically capable of any movement that was.
"Yeah." She nodded, biting back her discomfort as she peered into his brown eyes, seeing a hint of concern present behind the icy exterior crystallizing over them like a layer of glass. "Thanks."
"Yeah, well, you saved my life, it's only fair if I returned the favour." He replied before his eyes moved over his shoulder to glance at where he'd last saw Lucy only to view an empty space.
"It appears our friendship is purely based off of saving each other's lives," Olivia spoke, catching his attention just as she noticed Elena emerging from the staircase leading down to the basement. He chuckled lightly in response but his expression was still a blank wall making the tribrid sigh before realising what she had to do. "And that's why I'm really sorry about this." He appeared to be confused for a second but before he could say anything, the tribrid snapped his neck, barely managing to take him by surprise as she regained her strength.
Thankfully, however, it seemed her recovery was increasingly rapid and despite her exhaustion from the draining spell Lucy had just cast on her, her abilities seemed to be somewhat returned to normal.
"Olivia are you ⏤" Elena began to ask as she gazed down at Stefan's motionless body but the tribrid cut her off swiftly.
"Fine. I'm completely fine." She breathed out, glad she'd found a somewhat peaceful state of mind to end the tremendously chaotic day.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
"Again I'm sorry about being such a dick recently." Tyler apologised yet again ⏤ this quite possibly being the third time the words: I'm sorry left his lips in the last five minutes. Olivia could easily grasp how guilty he felt, the regret practically radiating off of him in overpowering waves.
The blonde couldn't help but smile, her eyes focusing back of the hybrid stood several paces in front of her by the pool table positioned inside of the Grill. She had arrived here shortly after prior events, hoping to find something strong to drink to wash away any of the drowsiness she was currently feeling but strangely enough, distracting herself by talking to Tyler seemed to work equivalently well.
"It's just this whole Klaus thing with the sire line..." the boy continued on in clear distress, making the tribrid finally release a soft laugh, unable to hold in her vague amusement any longer.
"Hey, no apologies necessary." She said, hitting his shoulder playfully, making the wolf smile in relief moments after, glad she didn't hold anything against him. "We'll work through it, okay?" Olivia continued to stress upon noticing the boy still expressing visible discomfort.
Tyler merely nodded in return, unable to show his appreciation in the response he was about to utter due to someone approaching them, interrupting their exchange by the pool table and causing both Liv and Tyler to turn their heads to see Bonnie standing beside them. "Can I talk to Olivia for a second?" She asked Tyler, her expression portrayed as both stressed and conflicted.
"Yeah, sure." Tyler nodded. "I'll see you at school?" He added, making the tribrid nod, unable to fully fathom what she had just agreed to before he diverged to the booth Caroline was seated at, presumably on the phone with Elena, leaving Liv and Bonnie alone.
"Listen, I know we're not particularly close ⏤"
"That would be an understatement." Olivia cut in, murmuring the words quietly as she considered the irony of the situation, seeing as she'd just had a misfortunate encounter with the girl's cousin.
"But," Bonnie altered her tone of voice as she continued. "I saw my grandmother today."
"And this correlates to me because..." Olivia drifted off, not seeing a point to her statement; or at least not a viable point that drew any line connecting to her in any way.
"She said some things about the Other Side, about a rift between all witches, about Lucy..." she sighed at the uncomfortable memory before continuing. "I didn't understand much of it but she seemed to talk about a certain witch there. The one that tried to kill Elena, that used Vicki to do so. I tried asking who she was and what she wanted but all she told me was that it was Original Vampire business."
Olivia felt her body tense at Bonnie's words, thankfully, however, the young witch seemed to be relatively clueless about the situation and wasn't acquainted with the specifics or the meaning of everything her grandmother told her. "And?" Biting down on her tongue as she spoke, attempting to bring about a casual demeanour and not let on any impending dread or alarm about what Bonnie had just said. However, she also found herself vaguely curious. This supposable witch she'd heard so much about, that had so much to do with this supposable prophecy and her future seemed to also have a link to the Originals. It didn't make any sense.
"And she said it was your business, Liv." Bonnie returned, her brows furrowing as confusion spread across her face. She was clearly still utterly lost about everything her grandmother had told her, which thankfully, worked in Olivia's favour. "Grams said that you were more involved than you knew," she said, her eyes sceptically moving to study Olivia's expression which she forced to remain blank and unreadable. "Is there something you haven't told us?" She asked but the tribrid remained silent. "Olivia, if it could help us get rid of Klaus then ⏤"
"Forget about it, Bonnie. I don't know anything."
"You're lying. I know you are." She cut her off, shaking her head vehemently at Olivia's supposedly true proclamation. "Before... you told me you couldn't tell me. That you'd have to kill me if you did, that no one could know but I don't understand why it's so important that you don't tell anyone."
Olivia was about to respond ⏤ deflect as she usually did; regain some of her composure and deflate the tense atmosphere before denying she knew anything of use ⏤ essentially the usual. But both Bonnie and Olivia's gaze was immediately drawn to the doorway of the Mystic Grill before she had the chance to, hearing the door open before seeing Alaric enter the small building, closely followed by Damon as the two engaged in what appeared to be a serious conversation; perhaps an argument.
Feeling eyes lingering on him, Damon's gaze peered throughout the room, landing on Olivia and feeling a rush of emotion rise inside of him that he'd previously buried. Without so much as ending his ongoing conversation with Ric, he instantly drifted across the Grill, standing in front of Olivia and finding himself at a loss for words initially; maybe it was because Bonnie was standing right behind her and he didn't want to get into anything with someone else listening or maybe he simply couldn't rack his brain for something decent to say after he'd exploded earlier.
"Hey," Olivia said simply, that being the first and only word that came to mind as her gaze rested on his warm indulging eyes that seemed to drown her in icy waters and burn her with an ember flame all at the same time.
"Hey." He returned, the two barely noticing Bonnie's exit seconds later.
"About earlier..." he began.
"Forget about it. I've been having a really crap day and I can't handle fighting with you again on top of that." She smiled sadly back at him.
Damon simply sighed at how easily the girl was willing to forgive him after how much he'd screwed up. "I'm sorry, Liv. I was being a complete ass."
"You seem to be apologising a lot lately." Olivia mused with a playful smile.
"That's because I have so much to apologise for." He returned seriously. "I let my anger get the best of me... again." He sighed once more. "And you were right before I was jealous. I was jealous that you told Jeremy everything I wanted you to tell me."
Olivia paused whilst Damon eagerly waited for her response, waited for a smile to spread across her face, waited for her to forgive him and sure enough, after a moment's pause, a hint of a smirk crossed her lips. "I knew you were jealous."
Damon rolled his eyes in amused irritation before looking back at her. "Does this mean you forgive me?"
"Potentially." She replied playfully and with that, the Salvatore slowly wrapped his arms around her and leaned in to kiss her ⏤ not caring that they were in public or if anyone was currently watching them distastefully or if they disapproved of their relationship as he suspected they did. He just needed to hold her; right there at that exact moment.
Olivia, however, hesitated before his lips touched hers, pulling away from him before staring back up at him with perplex visible in her grey luminescent eyes. "Does it really bother you that I'm wearing the bracelet Klaus gave me?"
"Of course it bothers me." He blurted out before he could process his words.
"Hey, I can take it off if you don't want me to wear it."
"No, you don't have to I just... I hate being reminded of seeing you with him in Chicago; the way he was touching you." He spoke with gritted teeth as his words came to an end.
"I don't wear it for him, Damon. The bracelet." Momentarily she considered revealing the real reason she wore it ⏤ the connection it helped her establish with wolves, how it aided her in identifying herself as who she really was. How the animal held a strong connection to her, how she related to it. Loneliness being all she knew, full moons bringing her life and thrill, woodlands calming her, darkness washing over her like a refreshing blanket of peace of mind. Though she figured it would be easier if she left that part out. "It's just a bracelet. A simple piece of jewellery." She shrugged. " Your one, however..." she drifted off, noticing the smug look begin to spread across Damon's face.
"However..." he prompted her to continue; smirking.
"It reminds me of the first time you kissed me. The first time I knew I had feelings you ⏤ those same feelings I tried running away from because I was afraid I could never give you what you could give me."
"How wrong you were, Olivia Campbell." He said teasingly before placing a delicate feather-like kiss on the corner of her lips. "So how was your day ⏤ any other startling occurrences I'm unaware of?"
Olivia shook her head, purposely wanting to avoid telling him about her disturbing previous debacle and near-death experience. "What about you?" She deflected.
"Well, I definitely found something interesting." He returned, remembering how he and Alaric had been down in an underground cave system linked to the Lockward Cellar moments ago. He'd been unable to fully enter due to an invisible barrier ⏤ in other words, he wasn't invited inside ⏤ but Alaric had aided him in his discovery, reporting back that he'd noticed several strange symbols engraved on the wall. The most surprising part of the situation, however, had been that it was Brady who'd lead him to the tunnel.
At first, he was hell-bent on round two of torture and inflicting as much physical pain as possible on him, though eventually, Damon had managed to convince him otherwise. It was difficult getting through to him but as soon as he revealed that it was Klaus who killed Jules as a sacrifice in the ritual ⏤ the apparent love of his short-lived life ⏤ he agreed to somewhat aid him as they both had common enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. He remembered thinking at the time, though he still couldn't believe it all worked out in his benefit.
"But we can talk about that tomorrow. Right now I have other activities on my mind." He spoke quietly as he leaned in closer to her, making the tribrid hum in amusement, playing along with his flirtatious banter before the sound of the door opening for the second time caught her attention. Initially, she was prepared to glance casually in the direction of the glass doorway as the figure entered before averting her attention back to Damon but the tribrid seemed to freeze upon seeing who walked through the door.
Of all the people it could have possibly been. Rebekah, Elijah, Klaus ⏤ hell, another one of their siblings she'd forgotten about that was currently daggered and immobilised. It could have been Lucy back to torment her. Maybe even one of the witches she'd previously met and killed had discovered a way to physically reacquaint themselves with a new body... but no, it was someone entirely different. Someone she wasn't expecting to see back in Mystic Falls until another lifetime passed. Someone she wasn't expecting to see ever again.
"Mason?"