Written Dreams 5/?
Title: Written Dreams 5/?
Author:
ninj AKA hisui_ryoshi
Pairings: Damon/Elena
Rating: R
Spoilers: Through 3.21 to be safe
Word Count: 1,339
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Not at all. No profit is being made from this work.
Summary Prompt fill for Elena Gilbert Comment!Ficathon prompted by upupa_epops I’m just a writer. I write things down. I walk through your dreams and invent the future.
Normal is exactly what her future is. There are two hybrids in her Wisconsin college town put there by Klaus. They kill every supernatural thing that sets foot within the town with extreme violence. Elena gives blood quarterly to the same hybrids. She never sees Klaus and she never sees Stefan.
Stefan does leave her with one last parting gift-he signs her up for a major in creative writing. A small note he leaves her states she has plenty of personal experience to draw on ad that Klaus can’t risk her deciding to be a war correspondent or something.
Elena spends the first few years of college living as a normal girl. She goes to class and study group. She even tries to date a few times, but it never makes it past the first date as she’s not willing to get into it. She’s not willing to answer even basic questions about her family and her past and she realizes early on that she doesn’t want to continue her bloodline.
In all her fiction classes she writes stories about Mystic Falls which she re-names Fells Church. The stories aren’t about her. She writes about a town council who fears monsters in the dark. Her story ends with the monsters moving to town. She writes about Caroline and Bonnie, but it turns out there are holes in those stories, a gap where another girl should be. Elena tried to leave Stefan and Damon out as well. And the truth is she has to write about it all. So she starts again, the stories are still not about her, but she’s there. So are Stefan and Damon.
It’s not until the first summer when Elena tries to write her story and finds she can’t. Well, what would be more accurate is that she can’t write the end. By the start of her junior year she’s tried nine times. Nine different endings to her story in every permutation she can think of and none of them work. Elena is frustrated to tears over the whole issue and decides at long last to put Mystic Falls behind her.
It’s the start of her junior year when things fall apart. It actually starts on her 20th birthday. It’s not anything big-Elena is going to the back to school party her dorm is throwing , which in retrospect was a bad idea. Anyway, Elena is dancing away when some guy grabs her arm and starts dragging her off the floor.
“Katherine we have to go. There are hybrids here, and they’re loaded for vamp,” The guy in question is human, but his words make Elena’s blood run cold.
Elena grabs the guy and pulls his head down closer to her level so she doesn’t have to shout, while grabbing his hand and putting it on her pulse.
“I’m not Katherine,” Elena tells up. He looks shocked. She guessed Katherine’s human Doppelganger had never come up.
“Elena?”
Or maybe she had. Now Elena looks shocked and she can see the hybrids searching for her. One has located her and is heading right for her.
“Do you love Katherine?” Elena tries not to roll her eyes at the way his eyes light up when he says yes. “Get her out of here and whatever you do, do not mention me. Don’t even think about me.”
Elena heads the hybrids off and pretends to be sick. While she’s letting them carry her back to her room she determines they don’t know Katherine was in town. They were just looking for a vampire they had picked up on. Why Elena cares that she saved Katherine she’ll never know.
That night Elena starts dreaming about Mystic Falls. At first all Elena remembers when she wakes up is that she was back in Mystic Falls. This makes Elena uncomfortable because she’s spent three years of her life now trying to recover from her time in Mystic Falls. Elena never really wakes up afraid though, just frustrated because she can’t remember what else she’s dreaming about. She starts a journal for the first time since she’s left Mystic Falls.
A month later she’s coming out of one of her classes when she sees the guy who thought she was Katherine. It’s clear he’s waiting for her. Elena wants nothing to do with Katherine, and so she keeps walking. He follows.
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” The guy is good looking. He would have to be to get Katherine’s attention. Elena is not at all surprised to see he has green eyes. Katherine lied about a lot, but she had loved Stefan or at least the color of his eyes.
“You shouldn’t be here. You’ll get her killed. You’ll get killed.”
“Just one cup of coffee?”
Elena relents. Because really what did this guy want with her? Another boy who thought she was Katherine with a pulse? She’d be happy to prove him wrong.
“So you are Elena right? From Mystic Falls?” The guy asks once they are seated with coffee. They’re outside and the wind blowing off the lake is cool and sitting outside in late October is probably not wise. “I’m Jake.”
“Katherine told you about me?” Elena asks as she blows into her coffee cup.
“Jeremy talks about you a lot. Sometimes Caroline. But never around the vampires,” Jake replies. Elena drops her coffee cup.
“Jeremy? Katherine is in Mystic Falls?” Elena wants to scream. Jeremy is supposed to be safe.
“Yeah, with Stefan. And the rest of them. Klaus promised to never come back to Mystic Falls if Stefan would come hang out sometimes,” Jake doesn’t seem to realize he’s destroying her world. She forgets about the coffee that she had just absently picked up again and concentrates on breathing. “They all think you’re dead.”
Stefan and Klaus lied to them. Stefan knew she was alive. It explained why no one tried to rescue her, or even contact her. It wasn’t that she made them all loose too much, it was that they thought she was another person they’d lost.
“Is Jeremy ok?” Elena asks softly. She would never ask Klaus.
“He wouldn’t dare not to be,” Jeremy answers. “Everyone protects Jeremy. It’s like they can’t get over that they failed with you.”
Elena can’t speak. Elena doesn’t understand. She’s known years of peace and five minutes with someone from Mystic Falls and she feels like she’d been bleeding out yesterday. She finds herself rubbing her arms with Jake watching her.
“Why are you here?” Elena finally asks.
“Because you look like Katherine, but mostly because you’re the Mystic Falls legend. Everyone talks about Elena Gilbert behind her family and friends backs. Jeremy talks about his sister like you’re the best thing ever. The rest of them don’t talk at all unless they’re drunk. Katherine hates you.”
“I’m not Katherine.”
“No, you’re the girl who destroyed Mystic Falls and hearts of everyone in it.”
She’s worse than Katherine.
“I’m not Katherine. And Klaus will destroy Mystic Falls and kill anyone who finds out I’m still alive. They are the only family I have left. Jake you can’t tell them you know I’m alive.”
“You’re exactly like he says,” Jake seems surprised. “Thinking about everyone else but not you.”
“I am thinking about me,” Elena answers. “I don’t want to see them die. Goodbye Jake.”
Elena stands and walks away. She leaves her coffee on the table. She goes right back to her dorm room, but she can’t really remember how she got there. She sits at her desk and just feels. Instead of the normal numb feeling her body feels hot and flushed. Elena remembers this feeling. Remembers it, and hates it. This is what it feels like to want to fight. In three years Elena has never wanted to run as much as she does right now.
Elena knows now why she’s never been able to finish her story. Elena also knows what her ending will be now. Elena will be free. She starts writing, she starts plotting, she keeps dreaming.
Author:
ninj AKA hisui_ryoshi
Pairings: Damon/Elena
Rating: R
Spoilers: Through 3.21 to be safe
Word Count: 1,339
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Not at all. No profit is being made from this work.
Summary Prompt fill for Elena Gilbert Comment!Ficathon prompted by upupa_epops I’m just a writer. I write things down. I walk through your dreams and invent the future.
Normal is exactly what her future is. There are two hybrids in her Wisconsin college town put there by Klaus. They kill every supernatural thing that sets foot within the town with extreme violence. Elena gives blood quarterly to the same hybrids. She never sees Klaus and she never sees Stefan.
Stefan does leave her with one last parting gift-he signs her up for a major in creative writing. A small note he leaves her states she has plenty of personal experience to draw on ad that Klaus can’t risk her deciding to be a war correspondent or something.
Elena spends the first few years of college living as a normal girl. She goes to class and study group. She even tries to date a few times, but it never makes it past the first date as she’s not willing to get into it. She’s not willing to answer even basic questions about her family and her past and she realizes early on that she doesn’t want to continue her bloodline.
In all her fiction classes she writes stories about Mystic Falls which she re-names Fells Church. The stories aren’t about her. She writes about a town council who fears monsters in the dark. Her story ends with the monsters moving to town. She writes about Caroline and Bonnie, but it turns out there are holes in those stories, a gap where another girl should be. Elena tried to leave Stefan and Damon out as well. And the truth is she has to write about it all. So she starts again, the stories are still not about her, but she’s there. So are Stefan and Damon.
It’s not until the first summer when Elena tries to write her story and finds she can’t. Well, what would be more accurate is that she can’t write the end. By the start of her junior year she’s tried nine times. Nine different endings to her story in every permutation she can think of and none of them work. Elena is frustrated to tears over the whole issue and decides at long last to put Mystic Falls behind her.
It’s the start of her junior year when things fall apart. It actually starts on her 20th birthday. It’s not anything big-Elena is going to the back to school party her dorm is throwing , which in retrospect was a bad idea. Anyway, Elena is dancing away when some guy grabs her arm and starts dragging her off the floor.
“Katherine we have to go. There are hybrids here, and they’re loaded for vamp,” The guy in question is human, but his words make Elena’s blood run cold.
Elena grabs the guy and pulls his head down closer to her level so she doesn’t have to shout, while grabbing his hand and putting it on her pulse.
“I’m not Katherine,” Elena tells up. He looks shocked. She guessed Katherine’s human Doppelganger had never come up.
“Elena?”
Or maybe she had. Now Elena looks shocked and she can see the hybrids searching for her. One has located her and is heading right for her.
“Do you love Katherine?” Elena tries not to roll her eyes at the way his eyes light up when he says yes. “Get her out of here and whatever you do, do not mention me. Don’t even think about me.”
Elena heads the hybrids off and pretends to be sick. While she’s letting them carry her back to her room she determines they don’t know Katherine was in town. They were just looking for a vampire they had picked up on. Why Elena cares that she saved Katherine she’ll never know.
That night Elena starts dreaming about Mystic Falls. At first all Elena remembers when she wakes up is that she was back in Mystic Falls. This makes Elena uncomfortable because she’s spent three years of her life now trying to recover from her time in Mystic Falls. Elena never really wakes up afraid though, just frustrated because she can’t remember what else she’s dreaming about. She starts a journal for the first time since she’s left Mystic Falls.
A month later she’s coming out of one of her classes when she sees the guy who thought she was Katherine. It’s clear he’s waiting for her. Elena wants nothing to do with Katherine, and so she keeps walking. He follows.
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” The guy is good looking. He would have to be to get Katherine’s attention. Elena is not at all surprised to see he has green eyes. Katherine lied about a lot, but she had loved Stefan or at least the color of his eyes.
“You shouldn’t be here. You’ll get her killed. You’ll get killed.”
“Just one cup of coffee?”
Elena relents. Because really what did this guy want with her? Another boy who thought she was Katherine with a pulse? She’d be happy to prove him wrong.
“So you are Elena right? From Mystic Falls?” The guy asks once they are seated with coffee. They’re outside and the wind blowing off the lake is cool and sitting outside in late October is probably not wise. “I’m Jake.”
“Katherine told you about me?” Elena asks as she blows into her coffee cup.
“Jeremy talks about you a lot. Sometimes Caroline. But never around the vampires,” Jake replies. Elena drops her coffee cup.
“Jeremy? Katherine is in Mystic Falls?” Elena wants to scream. Jeremy is supposed to be safe.
“Yeah, with Stefan. And the rest of them. Klaus promised to never come back to Mystic Falls if Stefan would come hang out sometimes,” Jake doesn’t seem to realize he’s destroying her world. She forgets about the coffee that she had just absently picked up again and concentrates on breathing. “They all think you’re dead.”
Stefan and Klaus lied to them. Stefan knew she was alive. It explained why no one tried to rescue her, or even contact her. It wasn’t that she made them all loose too much, it was that they thought she was another person they’d lost.
“Is Jeremy ok?” Elena asks softly. She would never ask Klaus.
“He wouldn’t dare not to be,” Jeremy answers. “Everyone protects Jeremy. It’s like they can’t get over that they failed with you.”
Elena can’t speak. Elena doesn’t understand. She’s known years of peace and five minutes with someone from Mystic Falls and she feels like she’d been bleeding out yesterday. She finds herself rubbing her arms with Jake watching her.
“Why are you here?” Elena finally asks.
“Because you look like Katherine, but mostly because you’re the Mystic Falls legend. Everyone talks about Elena Gilbert behind her family and friends backs. Jeremy talks about his sister like you’re the best thing ever. The rest of them don’t talk at all unless they’re drunk. Katherine hates you.”
“I’m not Katherine.”
“No, you’re the girl who destroyed Mystic Falls and hearts of everyone in it.”
She’s worse than Katherine.
“I’m not Katherine. And Klaus will destroy Mystic Falls and kill anyone who finds out I’m still alive. They are the only family I have left. Jake you can’t tell them you know I’m alive.”
“You’re exactly like he says,” Jake seems surprised. “Thinking about everyone else but not you.”
“I am thinking about me,” Elena answers. “I don’t want to see them die. Goodbye Jake.”
Elena stands and walks away. She leaves her coffee on the table. She goes right back to her dorm room, but she can’t really remember how she got there. She sits at her desk and just feels. Instead of the normal numb feeling her body feels hot and flushed. Elena remembers this feeling. Remembers it, and hates it. This is what it feels like to want to fight. In three years Elena has never wanted to run as much as she does right now.
Elena knows now why she’s never been able to finish her story. Elena also knows what her ending will be now. Elena will be free. She starts writing, she starts plotting, she keeps dreaming.