Subconscious Week [Party Post]

[beyondriftmods]

[OOC: For all your threading needs during subconscious week. Anything and everything that has to do with this plot no matter what day that it occurs on. :> Even little mini ficlets. Works like a party post, tag around as much as you like. Sorry for the slightly cracky post.]For one whole week, the city of Chicago has been afflicted with a new Rift-

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[enjoythe_ride]

Suddenly he is just there.

Every day, every second. He follows her to work, talking at her, whispering to her. She wants to scream back at him, but it's obvious that she's the only one who can see it, so she ignores him. The more she ignores him, the harder it is to make him go away. He sits there, on the edges of her mind and by the end of the week, she's tried to repress him for so long that he's stronger than he is.

Her room isn't her room anymore. Actually, that's not quite true. It's still her room, just her room from a different place. It's a little girl's room, with all the signs of innocence and childhood, and it's the place Bela hates most in the entire world. Bela also isn't herself anymore, either. She's Abby, a little girl with a face full of tears who can't even generate the urge to scream anymore.

It doesn't matter. No one is coming.

She's curled up in the corner on the floor, knees pressed to her chest as she watches him move about the room. He's rambling on at her about how this is the way things were supposed to be, and she knows it's true. This had been her personal hell on earth, it only makes sense that this is what Hell would be. And Hell is where she belongs.

It's seems to be the one place she can't escape.

[lefttogive]

John's had a very difficult week. He's been dealing with--and is still dealing with--the aftermath of what happened between Sonny and Lena, and he hasn't had much room for anything else. He should probably get a day's worth of sleep, but that won't be happening anytime soon. People have been acting odd all week, and at first he'd been too worried and heartsick over his brother to notice.

He's been noticing now.

He's made his way over to the Tower, presumably to talk to Martha, see if she's noticed anything that's out of the ordinary. He's walking past Bela's room and then he--he can't unsee it. He can't ignore it. The sight of her rams into him and he can't do anything but step forward.

Without knowing what the hell's going on.

"Bela?" he asks, his voice cautiously low, chest hurting a little at the sight of her like that. "Bela, it's John."

[enjoythe_ride]

It takes her a moment to recognize him, so lost in the little world that her room has created, that when her eyes finally come to focus on the man in front of her, her friend, her vision is hazy and unfocused. Almost as though she's on some kind of drug.

"What are you doing here?" she frowns. "You don't belong here."

"What have I told you about visitors, Abigail?" he snipes from across the room. "I need to approve all guests. You can't just invite someone over."

Bela's eyes drop to her lap, and she plays with her fingers for a moment before she looks back at him. "You need to go."

[lefttogive]

"I was just checking up on you," he says cautiously, and his eyes scan the room as if that will give him some indication to what she's dealing with, but there's nothing. It's like any other room in the Tower. "You're my friend and I was worried."

Which is putting it mildly. People are dropping like flies and the supernatural hospital hasn't been able to find why people are getting sick or what they're seeing.

"If you really want me to go, Bela, I will," he says, and he takes another tenteative step forward, kneeling down across from her. "But I want to stay. I can't leave you here like this. Not when I want to help. Something's... happening, and people are seeing things that aren't there."

He's been unable to help his brother or fix anything. He wants to be able to help her.

[enjoythe_ride]

Something in that registers with her, and her hand lashes out to grab his. If what she's seeing isn't real, maybe he can help her stop this. It will probably involve admitting to things he shouldn't know, but she's desperate at this point. She wants him to go away.

"He shouldn't be here." She leans forward, her voice dropping to a whisper, as though she was trying to keep whatever it was in the room from hearing her. "I killed him."

[lefttogive]

John tugs her to him by the hand, and makes it so that they're face to face.

The revelation that she killed someone comes as a shock to him, but that is placed aside in favor of helping her. It's not like John hasn't had blood on his hands. It's not like that'd make him not want her as his friend.

"He's not real," John assures her, and while his voice it's steady and firm, it isn't unkind. "You're seeing him for a reason, and if you admit to that reason, he won't be here anymore."

[enjoythe_ride]

Bela doesn't like the sound of that. There's too much shame in that, too many things she doesn't want to say -- that she doesn't want him to know. She knows how people look at damaged people, the pity and the fake attempts to help, and she wants none of it -- especially not from people she considers friends.

"No," she shakes her head. "I can't." And more to the point, she isn't sure which issue the Rift is trying to force her to deal with. Is it what the man did to her, or what she did to him?

[lefttogive]

John doesn't want to alarm her. He doesn't, but the situation is as grave as he's making it sound. He doesn't want her to die. He doesn't want her to be gone from this world because of something that happened in the past. No one can live in the past.

As hard as it is to face it.

"Bela," he says carefully, and his grip on her arm tightens. Not painfully so, but enough to try and get her attention. "If you don't, you could die."

[enjoythe_ride]

She looks up at him, meets his eyes, and she knows that he isn't lying. In a place like this, he doesn't have to. But she still isn't sure if she can. She's buried it down for so long, that she isn't sure if it makes a difference.

"It doesn't matter. I die here, I die at home -- either way it ends the same."

And it's all her father's fault. She doesn't notice the flicker over her head, or the way that the image of her father falters at that admission. At the moment, all her focus is on John, and she doesn't want to pull away.

[lefttogive]

It's difficult to hear. John isn't lying to her, no, and if he was, it'd be obvious. There are perks to being an angel, and there are also setbacks, and their inability to lie without causing them great pain is one of them.

Not that he'd want to lie to her anyway. He cares about her, and she deserves his respect and his honesty.

"It doesn't have to end at all," he says, taking a step toward her. Just the one. "We all make mistakes, Bela. We all do things we wish we could take back. The moment you fell through here, it--it sucks for most people but it can also be a second chance. You deserve that."

[enjoythe_ride]

"How do you know?"

It's a valid question. He barely knows her at all, and he's trying to tell her that she deserves a second chance. It's not that she's stalling to avoid dredging up those secrets, because that's part of it, but all she is to him is this Wanderer who fell through the rift a few months ago, and now he is trying to convince her that she doesn't deserve to die for her secrets.

It's admirable, but it's not enough. Not yet.

[idontgethurt]

Damon has been plagued with hallucinations this week that have showed him the image of the person he thinks Elena wants to be. It's been equal parts painful and infuriating for him, but he's not in his normal emotional space, which is why he can stop in front of Bela's open door.

It's why there's that look on his face that is not entirely closed off, not refusing completely to show that he cares though it is clear that he does not have any idea what he's doing.

"...Bela?"

Confusion and that barest hint of concern that he feels. Because he does... care. He doesn't know if he cares because it's her or because he's had these images of a him that can care.

And some sound in his head still ringing back there. Elena laughing with him, free and carefree, and he's laughing too, and no one is a vampire.

[enjoythe_ride]

Bela wouldn't understand why Damon thinks being human is preferable over not. There are still monsters in humans, and they don't need to lose their souls for that. At least if you are the monster, you won't have the soul to care.

She looks up at the sound of her name, but it's slow, almost as though she isn't sure that he's talking to her. "Damon?" There's confusion. He shouldn't be here. No one should. "What are you doing here?"

[idontgethurt]

For him, when he was human, he never experienced the constant desire to kill. Emotions weren't either too intense or something that could be shut off like a switch. Damon lived a long time with that switch nearly shut off, but even with it still on, he was able to kill because the hurt and anger at his brother and grief at the loss of Katherine outweighed all the rest.

Damon looks confused too at the question. He gestures behind him where a vision of a different him and a different Elena are standing there, staring at him.

"I live... a few doors down. So I was in the neighborhood. Thought... I'd stop by."

... yours accidentally posted twice.

[enjoythe_ride]

"You do?" She didn't know this. Not that that is anything new, she doesn't know most of her neighbors, but she should have noticed Damon. Regardless, she shakes it off, and her eyes wander up to where her father is standing, watching them with careful eyes. She needs to make Damon leave, but she doesn't know how.

"You shouldn't be here." Even if he did live a few doors down, he shouldn't be in her room. That isn't how it works.

yeah LJ ate it ;;

[idontgethurt]

Damon is good at not being seen. It's one of those talents that come with being a vampire. He can go from his door to the outside door without being seen by anyone. "Surprise," he murmurs, half sarcastically with a nod to confirm that yes, he does live there.

He looks at where she's looking, but there's nothing there.

"What are you looking at?" There's a slight pause. "God, don't tell me we're all hallucinating." This place is more fun than Mystic Falls sometimes.